An endless, frustrating, self-defeating, or pointless pursuit that conjures images of lab rats racing through a maze to get the cheese, much like society racing to get ahead financially. Commonly associated with an exhausting, repetitive and overscheduled work that leaves little time or energy for relaxation or enjoyment. Burdened with financial obligations and responsibility to pay mortgages/rent, cars, credit cards, children and a never-ending cycle of consumption, digging deeper into financial holes, stress, worry, fear and lack of choices. Doomed to put up with dead-end jobs, careers, and relationships, living paycheck to paycheck with no end in sight. This lifestyle happens independently of income level, with many high-income earners unable to quit the treadmill. The key to winning this race is: don’t be a rat.
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1. Governed by, or showing evidence of, clear and sensible thinking and judgment, based on reason rather than emotion or prejudice. 2. Able to think clearly and sensibly, because the mind is not impaired by physical or mental condition, violent emotion, or prejudice. 3. Presented or understandable in terms that accord with reason and logic or with scientific knowledge and are not based on appeals to emotion or, prejudice. 4. Endowed with the ability to reason, as opposed to being
governed solely by instinct and appetite.
A property comprised of land, buildings and any natural resources including flora and fauna, farmed crops, livestock, water, and minerals. Real Estate can be grouped into three categories: residential, commercial and industrial. Examples include undeveloped land, houses, condominiums, townhomes; office buildings, warehouses, and retail store buildings; factories, mines, and farms.
The actual financial benefit of an investment after accounting for inflation and taxes. The after-tax real rate of return is an accurate measure of investment earnings and usually differs significantly from an investment’s nominal rate of return. Calculated as the nominal return – inflation rate x tax rate = Real Rate of Return.
Assume your bank pays you interest of 5% per year on the funds in your deposit account. If the rate of inflation is 3.5% per year, and your tax rate is 33% the real return on your savings is 1%.
You may think 5% sounds great, however, when taking into account inflation and taxes, it is a very low return. If the nominal interest rate goes down, inflation goes up (global inflation was 5.05% in 2011), and taxes go up you can have a negative return on your savings.
1. The quality or state of being actual or true. 2. One, such as a person, an entity, or an event, that is actual. 3. That which exists, independent of human awareness. 4. The totality of facts as they are, independent of human awareness of them. 5. In human relationships, reality is measured by the amount of agreement between two or more people; a high reality means a high level of agreement. 6. Solid objects; the real things of life.
1. Where communication is received. 2. The receiver of an idea, concept or object.
Something that intentionally misleads or distracts from the real problem, matter at hand, or important issue. It may be an emotional issue, logical fallacy or a literary device that leads readers, audiences or participants towards a false conclusion. When two people are disagreeing over who is to blame for a problem, one party will often accuse the other or divert attention from themselves using one or several red herrings.
1. The 2nd out of 7 zones on the Optima Zones scale. 2. The person in this zone has succumbed to loss, death, and failure. Nothing works for them and one failure leads to another. They are in the wrong place at the wrong time, with the wrong people, taking the wrong actions. Obsessed with security, this person is driven by fixed ideas and wrong data. 3. As a leader, the Redzone person is reactive, abdicate, and avoid responsibility.