Paper

Paper assets are anything you invest in that gives you a digital title of ownership (stocks, bonds, etc). This has been the number one way that most investors around the world have built generational wealth.

Business

From female founders to startup entrepreneurs, business is the most sought after asset known to humankind. Primarily due to its labor-intensive methods, more people feel inclined to start one.

Businesses give you the advantage to pass something down to future generations and a great source of income if you can handle the ups and downs while becoming profitable.

Precious Metals

For over 5,000 years, gold and silver have been used as money and wealth insurance policies throughout different periods of civilization.

Only the savviest investors and major banks continue to hold onto precious metals to help manage their investment portfolio. During times of economic uncertainty, metals typically outperform other assets.

Real Estate

Property is said to be the number one way to pass down a legacy. Real estate is a different type of asset class. Depending on how you own it, it can be an investment (which might cost you money at first) or an asset (an income producing advantage).

Depending on where we are in the Boom/Bust cycle we allocate more of our energy too. the value of assets can go from undervalued to overvalued overtime or over night.

As Financial coaches and Wealth Advisors, we know the power of a good financial plan. We help our clients achieve wealth and accumulate smart percentages of assets listed above.

The post Wealth Wednesday: The 4 Main Asset Classes appeared first on Black Couple Travels.

For millennials, living our dreams is the centerpiece of our canvas called life.

But of course, society doesn’t run off our thoughts. It takes money to move things forward.

The power of reflection can create wonders by pulling the ideas out of your mind and bringing them to the forefront.

Below are the 6 lessons we learned while creating Black Couple Travels. These lessons learned will help you accelerate your goals, too!

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Lesson 1: Realize your passion

Let’s start with three questions:

• What do you think about frequently that you just can’t seem to shake or get out of your mind?
• What do you know or do better than anyone else around you?
• What are your family, friends, and peers consistently asking you to do for them?

Reflection time spent on realizing your talents is worth it!

Lesson 2: Formulate an idea

An idea is a thought that’s planned out. Keep in mind something called the “marketplace”. It’s where people come to buy your offerings. Your marketplace is your friends, family, and neighborhood.

When you understand the needs of the market around you, it will guide you in crafting the answers to the void of people’s desires.

For example, our marketplace consisted of individuals who wanted to know good places to travel and they wanted to invest beyond their 401k-pension plans. Bam! Black Couple Travels was born.

Let’s do an exercise.

Write down every idea you can think of in 10 minutes. Do not judge yourself. There is no right, wrong, or bad idea. Just let your mind flow freely. After you have written these ideas down, select your top 3 ideas. Start thinking about how to formulate the idea with 3 things in mind:

1. Does it make sense?
2. What do I need to get started?
3. Are there people already doing this?

This should help you get going in the right direction!

Lesson 3: Define your goals

© Black Couple Travels

Create a vision board. Look at goals as something to admire. Char and I have a vision wall that consists of multiple short-term and long-term vision boards. When we wake up, we look at them every day and it keeps us on track to complete our daily task of conquering success.

Also, understand that goals are the marker or milestones to keep you on the path of success. You have to be so passionately engulfed in your vision that you see it in your dreams. And that is when you can manifest it into your reality.

Lesson 4: State your identity

There is power in picking a good name for your brand that stands the test of time. Never neglect the advantage of SEO. We receive requests from media outlets, brand managers and others on partnering with Black Couple Travels because we show up first in Google automatically. You have to choose a name that’s easy to remember and easy to say. Ask yourself, what’s unique about your name? Your uniqueness can be found in its simplicity.

Lesson 5: Define your presence

Today we are playing in an everchanging technological space. The major social media platforms change their rules quite often. One day you can have many views and be bringing in a steady income, then the next they change how you make money.

What you need to do is be self-reliant while leveraging technology to build your platform.

Start by:

• getting a domain name
• choosing the right host to build your website
• picking the right theme
• Setting up accounts on social media platforms

Also, it is very important to own your identity. Building a website is the number one way of establishing an audience. We often fall for the trap of convenience while not even realizing that social media owns us. It’s time to gain your power back and own it.

Lesson 6: Test the market

We believe that the best school is experience. You have to have skin in the game in order to learn what you need to know. Test out your product, platform or service by boosting posts, and running online campaigns as well. See what works, doesn’t work, and needs to be improved to ensure that your product or service is market ready.

Final Thoughts

The biggest problem for millennial entrepreneurs is that we sit in our minds all day.

Stop delaying, doubting, and second-guessing your abilities. We are the fearless generation that has been blessed with easier techniques to build brands and work from anywhere in the world. There are no limits for us. Start taking advantage.

These lessons are how we created Black Couple Travels. If you want more insights or have additional questions, email us at blackcoupletravels@gmail.com.

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The post Idea to Income: 6 Lessons to Get You Started Pt.1 appeared first on Black Couple Travels.

Everyone is anxious to know, “how can we afford to travel without having a full-time job?”.

We are a millennial couple who were willing to do whatever it took to leverage our gifts so that we could be intentional about making a bigger impact in this world.

Char is a published writer and travel journalist with a background in Accounting and Finance.

After receiving over $100,000 in scholarships & internships while in college, she started her career in the financial analyst leadership development program and became a Certified Public Accountant at one of the biggest financial institutions in the world.

By the age of 26, she was a Certified Fraud Examiner, Project Management Professional, Certified Zumba Instructor, and one of the youngest leaders in Chicago to earn the Distinguished Toastmaster speaking and leadership designation in less than 2 years.

In 2015, she won the title of Ms. Corporate America pageant and in 2016 she was selected to dance around the world on a six-month tour.

Now Charlene helps others live their dreams as Founder of the Career Goddess Academy and Editor-in-Chief of Wealthy Women Daily. She has written over 200 articles for publications all over the web, including The Huffington Post, Black Enterprise, Women on Business, The Path Mag, Ms. Career Girl, Your Coffee Break, and Addicted 2 Success. 

I have over 15 years of experience as an economic analyst, entrepreneur, and B&B (Business and Branding) strategist.

I have helped investors and business professionals create grassroots marketing campaigns, patent various products, and execute business models worldwide.

I have also developed various research services based off of my ability to spot Macro trends that helps investors produce profit deliverables. I also mentor young men on how to become effective leaders and productive members of society.

When Char & I came together, we created a new level of possibilities. And it all started with a blog. Now we travel the world and blog about our adventures on various platforms all over the web. Blogging has helped us to share our message, teach wealth concepts that go beyond financial literacy, generate extra income, and build a platform that gives everyone access to information that will help them fund their dreams.

We decided to answer everyone’s questions and let you all in on how we do it! We just launched our “Fund Your Dreams” initiative. Anyone can live their dreams. It’s all about having access to the right information and being willing to do what it takes to manifest the greatest possibilities for your life.

You can sign up for our starter, pro, and plus plans to get access to our exclusive content. You can also join our courses.

In the “3 Simple Steps to Build Your Website” course, we will walk you through the following:

• Starting a website in under 5 minutes
• The main components of a website
• Developing a content strategy
• Crafting content that draws your target audience in
• Attracting sponsors
• Expanding your audience & partnerships
• Energizing your social media presence
• Monetizing your message

To get started click here. 

Got questions? Talk to us. Just send an email at blackcoupletravels@gmail.com and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Tell us what you do and how we can help you fund your dreams.

The post 3 Simple Steps to Create Your First Website appeared first on Black Couple Travels.

The post 10 Real Estate Investments For Under $50 appeared first on Black Couple Travels.

You don’t need $10,000 on hand to start your real estate investing journey.

You don’t even need $1000 on hand right now.

Investing in real estate can be as cost-effective as booking a trip to Vegas. And it might be cheaper!

The post 10 Real Estate Investments for Less Than $100 appeared first on Black Couple Travels.

It’s simple – just start here!

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You can become a real estate investor without actually having to go out and buy commercial real estate. Another bonus: you can receive money monthly or quarterly just for being an investor.

REITs make it all possible. Thanks to legislation signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1960, the average American has access to the real estate markets by investing in REITs (real estate investment trusts). These are real estate investment trusts that own or finance portfolios of income-producing real estate. A REIT can own shopping malls, office space, hotels, and other commercial properties. The real estate assets are pooled together like mutual funds and sold as stocks to investors.

REITs (real estate investment trusts) are companies that have met specific requirements to own, operate, or finance a portfolio of income-producing real estate or real estate-related assets. It’s a feasible way for all investors to invest in sizable, income-producing, professionally managed companies that own commercial real estate.

Where Do You Start?

You can check out a listing of over 200 REITs on reit.com. Want to gain insights into the latest REIT updates? The 2018 Annual Conference takes place from November 7th-9th, 2018 at the Marriott Marquis San Francisco, CA.

How do I buy a REIT?

Buying a REIT is just like buying a stock. You can purchase a REIT through a brokerage account like TD Ameritrade or Robinhood.

Most U.S. REITs are registered with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and are traded on major stock exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or the NASDAQ. Anyone can invest in a publicly traded REIT by purchasing shares through a broker or by investing in a mutual fund that specializes in public real estate.

Once you know which REITs you want to purchase, you can complete a transaction and add real estate to your portfolio in less than 5 minutes!

How do I find the current price of a REIT?

You can go to Yahoo Finance, search for the company name using the Ticker Symbol, and find the current market price of the stock.

Can I buy a REIT for less than $100?

Yes! Here is a list of REITs we found for less than $100.

What are the benefits of investing in REITs?

• Create a diverse portfolio of real estate investments
• Instantly buy and sell shares
• Gain access to a liquid investment
• Avoid maintenance fees
• No ongoing responsibility
• Receive profits monthly/quarterly
• Start with less than $100
• Invest in less than 5 minutes!

How profitable are REITs?

When a publicly-traded company realizes a profit from their operations, management can choose to keep the earnings or give the money to shareholders as a dividend. Retaining the earnings allows the company to invest in growing the business and keeping more cash reserves on hand. This means shareholders will either receive no dividend at all or they will receive a dividend yield that matches the board of directors analysis of how much should be given to investors.

There is no certainty that companies will pay dividends unless you invest in a REIT. All REITs are required to pay dividends as part of its structural agreement. REITs can not retain earnings. That’s why REITs are known to pay some of the highest dividend yields in the markets. REITs are required to pass down profits to investors. Companies under the REIT structure have to pay out 90% of their taxable income to shareholders in order to maintain their preferential tax treatment. When you invest in a REIT, you can count on monthly or quarterly dividends to provide you with income.

What do I have to do to sell my REIT?

You can sell your REIT anytime you want. If two years pass and you don’t like the direction your REIT is going in, all you have to do is sell your asset through your brokerage account. You’ll have the funds in your account as soon as the transaction has been processed. You’ll receive the current market value for your REIT asset less any commission fees. Commission fees typically range from $0-$10. Robinhood has gained popularity due to its commission-free services. Click here to sign up for Robinhood and you’ll get a free stock!

This isn’t how the process for selling physical property works. When you’re ready to sell a property, you have to think about home repairs, closing costs, and realtor’s commission. The process doesn’t happen overnight and can cost thousands of dollars to get the property to selling point. It can take months or even years to sell a property and collect proceeds.

REITs are attractive because they are liquid assets. Liquid means that the asset can be easily converted to cash. By pressing the sell button, your REIT asset gives you cash on demand.

Do you have more questions? Send us an email at blackcoupletravels.com and we will add your question to the list!

Comment below to let us know your thoughts.

Disclaimer:

Black Couple Travels is solely educational and informational and is not intended to give investment or trading advice of any kind. Not all asset classes are suitable for all investors. All investments, including real estate, is speculative in nature and involves substantial risk of loss. We encourage our investors to invest carefully. We also encourage investors to get personal advice from your professional investment advisor and to make independent investigations before acting on information that we publish. Much of our information is derived directly from information published by companies or submitted to governmental agencies on which we believe are reliable, but are without our independent verification. Therefore, we cannot assure you that the information is accurate or complete. We do not in any way warrant or guarantee the success of any action you take in reliance on our statements or recommendations.
 
Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. All investments carry risk and all investment decisions of an individual remain the responsibility of that individual. There is no guarantee that systems, indicators, or signals will result in profits or that they will not result in losses. All investors are advised to fully understand all risks associated with any kind of investing they choose to do.

Don’t enter any investment without fully understanding the worst-case scenarios of that investment.

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