Fat Cats

If I had my life to live over, and I have said this many times, I would go into the field of real estate dealings or security brokers. In real estate and stock securities, you have the opportunity to make more money than any other professions I know. If money is important to you, and for most of us it is, because having been born in absolute poverty, and living a life of being poor and seeing poor people all around me, I realize the challenges and rewards of money making. More important than anything else, I know the importance of having money to give away (Christian stewardship).


I believe it was my second trip to Europe, probably around 1965, I remember it like it was yesterday- walking in Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark. One of the most solid (gravitas) men I have ever met, a banker from Little Rock, Arkansas, was walking with me and talking with me about the loss of my sight. The reason I remember it so well is because it was my first experience smoking a cigar. He was a smoker of fine cigars and asked me to smoke one with him. So, I opportuned by the acquaintance of this wealthy, influential man. I was pretending to smoke the cigar; one of the many bad experiences of my life! This banking executive asked me if I was interested in the Stock Market and I expressed to him that the Securities Market had payed for my trip, but that I still had much to learn. I will never forget him saying, “Just be careful and study hard. These financial advisors and stock brokers do not know any more about the stock market than you do. It is all a matter of timing and, to a great extent, luck. It is the unexpecteds that make the difference.”


From that day until this, that had been the soundest financial advise I have ever heard about the Stock Market, even though I have listened to the experts on radio and television over and over. It is all a matter of buying low and selling high, and knowing when to do it. (And these experts learned by the experience of failure and each one was a beginner before an expert.)


The same advice can be given about real estate. With real estate, it a matter of geography. Even a blind man can make money with real estate, if the timing is right.


We have just lived through the burst of the two bubbles involving these two money making opportunities: the Stock Market bubble of the 1990's and the real estate bubble of the 2000's. Now, Mr. Obama is blowing as hard as he can into the bubble of financial bail outs, fiscal departures from every sane value of the past, and increased national and world debt, which can never be repaid; only the insane, in a situation where you are in a hole (money, moral, spiritual interferences) will stop digging and getting deeper. In the first seven months of his presidency, he has increased the debt to around $11 trillion so that the national debt now, including all the future payments of Medicare and Social Security, probably amounts to $50 trillion. The total cost of World War II was only $3.5 trillion. Every man, woman, and child in this country, has a government debt of $250,000.

A doctor, lawyer, or any professional can spend the long years of risk and discipline getting the necessary education for being licensed to practice his profession. Only those who have been through it know the discipline and costs involved. YOU CAN MAKE A GOOD LIVING WITH YOUR HANDS. But, search the books, only those who sell something (securities, real estate, electronics, etc.) accumulate money for investment, which leads to wealth.

I want to share with you a summation of the book, The Millionaire Next Door. In The Millionaire Next Door, Stanley and Danko summarize findings from their research into the key characteristics that explain how the elite club of millionaires have become "wealthy". (There are as many billionaires now, as there were millionaires when I was young.) Focusing on those with a net worth of at least $1 million, their surprising results reveal fundamental qualities of this group that are diametrically opposed to today's earn-and-consume culture, including living below their means, allocating funds efficiently in ways that build wealth, ignoring conspicuous consumption, being proficient in targeting marketing opportunities, and choosing the "right" occupation. It's evident that anyone can accumulate wealth, if they are disciplined enough, determined to persevere, and have the merest of luck.


In The Millionaire Mind, an excellent follow-up to the highly successful first analysis of how ordinary folks can accumulate wealth, Stanley interviews many more participants in a much more comprehensive study of the characteristics of those in this economic situation. The author structures these deeper details into categories that include the key success factors that define this group, the relationship of education to their success, their approach to balancing risk, how they located themselves in their work, their choice of spouse, how they live their daily lives, and the significant differences in the truth about this group vs. the misplaced image of high spenders. This says it all. I am convinced that in this land of opportunity, anyone, anywhere, at any time, can become a millionaire if he has the courage to make a plan and work his plan, honestly and professionally. You must be willing to take the risk of time, discipline, and frugal living, which is a challenge. If a person born in absolute poverty on a tobacco farm in eastern North Carolina, starting out from the earliest years struggling with the desire plus hard work and discipline, can work his way though eight years of university preparation, go to a war and come back blind, and then, through the grace of God, continue to study and work, save and invest, exercise frugality in everything you do, you can be a multi-millionaire by the age of forty, even if blind.


Bill Gates, one of the world's wealthiest men- the founder of Microsoft, in his ten rules for success in business, states the first rule is LIFE IS NOT FAIR. You must do the best with what you have. In my case, I believe with every fiber of my body that one man plus God is a majority. HE IS BOSS, if in His divine plan for your life, He wants you to make money so that you can give money for His causes, “The battle is the Lord's” (1 Samuel 17:47).

Here are the Morris rules for success in the Securities Market:


1. Knowledge: Study every book, everything you can get your hands on pertaining to the buying and selling of securities. In every discipline of study, there are always those who have the experience and expertise who have written extensively on the subject. The judgment of forecasters and friends are important.

2. Advisors: Evaluate and examine every piece of advice you can obtain about financial conditions in the world and in your community.

3. Believe in yourself: If others have been successful in this field, so can you. Don't sell yourself short.

4. Counsel: Don't be afraid to ask advice. Don't be afraid of being called pushy or aggressive. Many times the best place to learn about the future of any security is at the source.

5. Study Success: Study every biography of successful people; study every commercial company which has been successful. There is no need of being a failure; you need to keep a positive attitude at all times.

6. Get aboard: This train only goes around one time. Get aboard before it is too late. You will be amazed how short life is. If you have not decided you are going to be successful by the time you reach the age of thirty, you need a mental tune-up. By the time you reach fifty, it seems like everyday is Friday.

7. Always prepare for the worst, hope for the best: It is the unexpected in investing for which you must prepare. Only God knows the end as well as the beginning of the parade. That is why you need God on your side. Those who jumped out of the windows in the Great Depression, as well as these minor depressions since, had not prepared for the worst. Even President Regan, in 1987, put billions of dollars in the Treasury Department as a “plunge protector” in case there was another great plunge in the Stock Market. We are all witnesses to the fact that this “plunge protector” did not work.

8. Mind set: Investing is a mind set. You either have it or you don't. It is like conservatism. You are conservative in everything if you are a true conservative. Many of these politicians who call themselves conservatism know nothing about true conservation. Try living with my Scottish ancestor father for one week and you will know about true conservatism. (He would jump over the gate anytime to keep from wearing out the hinge.) From my youth, I saved every penny. Pennies make dollars and dollars take care of themselves. You must be frugal and it is a mind set.

9. Lord's work: My investment philosophy is a life dedicated to God. Every dollar I invest and every dollar I make from the investment is dedicated to God. I have been successful in investing but not a celebrity. Erma Bombeck said, “Do not confuse celebrity and success; think of Madonna and Helen Keller.”

10. Vertical & Horizontal: The true investor is a vertical as well as a horizontal man. By horizontal, I mean you deal everyday in every investment way, with people around you. The vertical dimension is a way of life; your relationship with God through Christ. (Sir John Templeton, the investor I admire most, because of his success and his Christian walk with God, said, “Prayer is the greatest investment tool I know anything about.”)


Pain is not transferable. The “fat cats” on Wall Street and the “fat cats” in the nation's capital will not feel your pain when you have losses. They are too busy protecting one another. The “fat cats” on both Wall Street and in Washington, D.C. , will continue to do well. They have no fear of controls or inspectors. When there are so many skeletons in so many closets, they all have equal opportunity protection. List an item on E-bay, along with the picture, and in a few seconds, people all over the world are aware of your item and just as rapidly, a purchase can be made. If you list something which does not meet the rules, instantly you are warned. Is it not strange that such hardware and computer programming is not available to the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and the many oversight committees, which control securities trading?