“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.”

No Free Lunch

There aren’t any. The late Adrian Rogers is one of several iconic former pastors of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis (Full disclosure: my wife and I are members). He had a wonderful ability to state complex principles in clear, concise, vivid language. I got this quote via email earlier today; it’s a pretty clear statement of the principle that there is no free lunch (HT: Adrienne Brumley).

You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

I assume this came from one of his radio messages. Here’s a different (but very similar) quote from one of his books:

Let me say a word here that may sound political. I hope not, because I believe it’s moral and biblical. You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the industrious out of it. You don’t multiply wealth by dividing it. Government cannot give anything to anybody that it doesn’t first take from somebody else.

Whenever somebody receives something without working for it, somebody else has to work for it without receiving. The worst thing that can happen to a nation is for half of the people to get the idea they don’t have to work because somebody else will work for them, and the other half to get the idea that it does no good to work because they don’t get to enjoy the fruit of their labor. (Adrian Rogers, Ten Secrets for a Successful Family: A Perfect 10 for Homes that Win. Crossway Books, 1998, p. 138).

Both passages could be taken out of Frederic Bastiat’s The Law (PDF here, audiobook here, courtesy of theMises Institute).

I’m just smiling thinking of the United Nations. Certain groups like to beat you over the head with the United Nations saying this isn’t sanctioned by the United Nations, or that isn’t sanctioned by the United Nations when it suits them. But man do they turn a blind eye with so much that happens with that organization.

The one I am referring to you may have heard this week, the UN World Tourism Organization, created in 1970 by a little tax free action in Madrid, is responsible for sustainable and universally accessible tourism. Well it announced last year that Zambia and Zimbabwe, in their words won the bid to host the 20th session of United Nations World Tourism General Assembly this coming year. This is unbelievable to me, but Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe was named the UN Tourism Ambassador. Now come on. Its really interesting to watch the UN try and backtrack. Is there anything to be said about this given the list of atrocities Mugabe has committed in his own country? Of all the people to represent International Tourism.

But Canada to our Credit has withdrawn from the UN World Tourism Office because of this recognition of Zimbabwe. Its astounding, this organization is so farcical at times. Much like when Muammar Gaddafi was the head of the UN Human Rights Commission.

So that’s my Goofy Award.

It Could Really Improve Your Investment Returns

I hate getting junk mail so let me start by saying that if you’re not interested in taking advantage of the most successful investment strategy I personally use then don’t read another word – and please forgive the interruption.

If you are still reading then let me help you decide if what I am about to tell you is of interest to you. I am talking about a method I use regularly to increase the rate of return in the “solid growth and income” section of my portfolio. For example – and this is NOT a recommendation – if you wanted to increase the income from owning the Bank of Montreal common shares ($57), which currently pay a 4.8% dividend to something in the order of 8% then all you would have to do is to sell call options. At today’s prices you could sell someone the right to buy the stock from you at $60 any day until December 21, 2012. If they decide to buy it from you your annualized return would be over 15%. If they don’t buy it form you your annualized rate of return is 9% – with an opportunity to raise it further by selling another call option.

Sound confusing? Well that’s why I have agreed to do a workshop Wed. May 30th on the selling of put and call options at 6:00pm at the Sheraton Wall Centre in Vancouver. I don’t want to do it. It’s going to take a lot of work putting together a program that people will not only be able to understand but will also be able to implement immediately. And let me be clear, I have no problem whatsoever if you don’t want to come. I am doing this workshop to fulfill one of my own goals of doing whatever I can to help people to improve their investment performance and secure their financial future.

It kills me to talk to people or read their emails and know that they are not taking advantage of the most effective method I know to improve their investment returns. I am not talking about a short-term homerun strategy. I am talking about pushing your return up from that 2, 3, 4% range to something above 10% and more with the use of a lower risk strategy. And one I might add that the investment industry does a very poor job of utilizing.

By the way, selling calls as I have described above is only one of the strategies I’m going to explain. The other main strategy deals with selling put options with the goal of acquiring quality stocks at 10% or more below the current market price. Let me give you another quick example. Let’s say you were interested in buying gold by using the gold ETF, GLD, but you’re worried it’s going to drop further. Yet at the same time you think that over time gold is going up and you don’t want to miss the move. One way I have solved that dilemma personally – and made a lot of money – is to sell a put, which means I have sold someone the right to sell me GLD at a specific price for a specific time.

For example, as I write this GLD is selling at $1600. Right now I can sell someone the right to sell me GLD at $1600 any day up until January 18th next year and I will receive $102 per ounce. In other words if he sells me the gold my cost will be $1498 – and if he doesn’t sell it to me (because he could sell gold for more in the open market), then I keep the $102 per ounce he paid me. And I can sell another put.

Again, confusing? Well that’s why I am doing the workshop. It is a workshop that deals with improving the yield on stocks you already own and paying less for stocks you want to own. My bet is that after you attend you will say,  “why the hell didn’t someone tell me about this sooner.” In my opinion they should have but because way too many in the investment business don’t use these strategies I thought I’d better do something about it.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a clue about this stuff. The workshop is going to be split in two. I am going to start with a pre-workshop seminar to teach the basics of “put” and “call” options for people who aren’t familiar with options. We’ll take a break and then I’ll start with the main workshop detailing the strategies I personally use.

I want everyone to leave with a clear understanding and being able to immediately implement the strategies if they so chose.

Anyways, you can decide if this is for you. What I can tell you is that using puts and calls in the way I will be outlining has been my most effective strategy in this market for a number of years. I have done shockingly well with it.

I think it is ridiculous that in this market environment of extreme volatility and low interest rates that you don’t have every strategy available to help you succeed but that’s up to you. You can take a couple of hours to learn these strategies or not. I just wanted to do my job and make the information available. And I can honestly say, I can’t see myself doing this again.

I wish you all the best,

Mike

CLICK HERE to register or for more information

PS: Originally High Performance Events were going to charge $295 – and to be honest I said that it was worth a heck of a lot more. I boasted to them that I could make that money back almost immediately but I also want to make it more affordable. So I ask them to see if they could get some sponsors to offset some of the costs. Plus we donate money to Special Olympics after every event I do.

So they went out and got Disnat, McLeod Williams, Kiska Metals and the Watermark at Sechelt on board, which enables us to offer the following ticket package.

Date: May 30 , 2012

Place: Sheraton Wall Centre Vancouver

Time: Per-Workshop Option Basics – 6:00 pm to 6:40 Options to Increase Your Investment Return Workshop  7:00 to 9:00 pm.

Price: $179 per ticket which includes :

•           3 free months free subscription to Money Talks exclusive Commentary  Service that features a weekly comment from Michael plus exclusive contributions from Martin Armstrong, Mark Leibovit,  Steve Briese, Bob Hoye, and Don Coxe.

•           Unlimited access to the video recording of the event, which enables you to review everything at your leisure. This will retail for $119 but is included with the ticket.

•           Plus we have arranged for follow-up seminars with Disnat further outlining how to use options. Complimentary for workshop attendees.

http://moneytalks.net/how-to-use-options-to-invest.html