The old adage that says, "It's not what you know, it's who you know" is far from idle prattle.  In fact, it is just as true today as it was fifty years ago.  I would take it a step further and say it's not who you know, it's who knows you.  People make serious money based off their connections.  Since a lot of you are in the Nation's Capital, we'll start right here.  Congressman and senators alike have highly privileged access to meetings you will never get invited to.  For example, there are elected officials who net hundreds of thousands of dollars a month from their real estate holdings.  How, you might ask?  Let's say I own an office building and I want to raise my rents.  One way to do it is by adding a metro stop but for obvious reasons that's very expensive and darn near impossible for virtually every real estate investor.   What's not so obvious is an elected official can take earmarks (i.e. your tax money) and have a metro put in next to their investment property under the pretense of the common good of the people as long as its two to four blocks away.  That will in turn allow their property value to soar and make them tons of money through a liquidity event such as selling the property or allow it to be their cash cow for many years to come.

They can also take insider information and can go right to their brokerage accounts and trade stocks either through buying shares directly or trading options,  such as puts or calls which is highly risky and most people lose their rears attempting this but not when you have highly sensitive information that you pass the laws on.   Let's just say insider knowledge substantially raises their profitability ratios.  If you even think about doing insider trading, just ask yourself if you're more privy than say, Martha Stewart.  I was certain she would never see the inside of a jail cell but quickly understood that if they would take her the rest of us don't stand a chance.

So what are we to do to gain a little extra money?  For one thing, you can start by avoiding all these hair-brained schemes that continue to pop up.  It amazes me how many competent, intelligent people perpetually fall for nonsense and then somehow rationalize that maybe I of all people would want to be a part of it.  One person I knew raved about an "opportunity" that they wanted me to see.   I knew what was up from the jump but just played along.  They wanted me to meet the "district, double platinum, triple diamond, executive manager" who was the boss dog that was making thousands of dollars a month in residual income.  As I watched his dog and pony show, I apparently was the only one who noticed that his shoes kept buckling.  Upon closer review, there was about ¼ inch of space between his heel and the back of the shoe.  Executing a slow body scan from there my eyes stopped at his waist line where I noticed a nearly 1 ½ inch droop between his belt loops on his left side and his right.   But wait there's more.  His shirt had three buttons...missing.  I immediately said to myself this isn't this man's suit before I noticed his nails were caked with oil.  It was probably snake oil. 

I was convinced I wanted nothing to do with his opportunity and was going to politely dismiss myself afterwards but he immediately chased me down.  I tried to keep a straight face but I couldn't help noticing his striking resemblance to the late comedian Bernie Mac.  Every time he talked, I just kept hearing from the movie Friday, "What we call drugs at 74^th Street Baptist church, we call a sinny sin sin."  I so wanted to say, Well around the highly educated Investment Forum, we call this here a little twenty- twen- twen, wellll!"  Not that everyone is in to houses, but I feel like if my house is bigger than yours, why am I listening to you?  I wouldn't use that on everybody but it was an easy defense for me on him.  I didn't mean to get too wrapped up in a side show so let's get back to you.

Another thing you might want to do is understand what a good return on investment is which a lot of people don't.  A good measure is inflation (3%) plus 3-4 % believe it or not.  That means if you invest $1000 and get back $1070 a year later, you're doing good.  Many hedge and mutual funds can't consistently beat that.  Too many people think they should be able to double their money in less six months but it's not realistic even with top political ties.  An even more immediate application is elimination of that Christmas credit card debt.  If your account balance is currently four figures, bringing it to three is a huge ROI.  I don't want to bombard you with too much at once so we'll keep a few tips coming throughout the year.  If you find yourself in one of those high pressure sales tactics that's promising residual income and life on the beach in two years or less, you can give them a copy of this newsletter and if they tell you to leave, you can give them Dave Chappelle's words by saying, "I've been kicked out of better homes than this!"  My personal favorite is better said in slow motion which is "They shoulda never gave you people money."  If you want a half hour of my intellect to examine your investment, I can do that but be sure to make out a check for a hundred dollars...I'm Von Mick...holla!  

p.s. - If you're going to name your baby something that rhymes with True I-D, remember that less than 1% of billionaires remain on the Forbes 400 list for five years so it's possible the child may need a job one day.