International investments can stabilize our wealth, especially when the US dollar falls. The nature of our universe is expansion through blending. This expansion in economics is expressed by the growth of the global community. This is a part of the existence of nature and as such is good. However nature’s growth is uneven so wise investors continually look for distortions and trends caused by this evolution.

There is though one critical way many investors and financial planners err. They focus too much on numbers and ignore the most important component of investing success, desire.

We human beings are powerful dream manifesting machines. When we learn to turn on our creative switch, we are unstoppable. We should be really thankful for this fact. We can literally create universes! Here is the crunch. The key that unlocks the success machine within is desire!

This powerful tool of desire, that we all possess, does not work in abstract. Numbers are a very evolved form of abstract and the essential part of our creative process does not fixate on gaining something as mushy as getting 12% or 14% or 100% per annum. Numbers are drab artificial figments of our mind that our hearts (wisely) choose to ignore. Our creative juices are blended from the vibrant vibrations of our sense. The lively sights, sounds, tastes, smells and feels are the fuels for manifestation of our goals. These five senses are like powerful horses that pull us to success. Their driver is desire.

Our creative process works on things and emotions! So when Merri and I invest it is not to make an extra 5% or to beat some bell wether stock or currency index or whatever. We invest for a manifestation. We invest to buy a new car or build a new house or lease a jet or take our family on a vacation….something exciting. In short we picture what we want the money to do. We measure our portfolio’s success in terms of what our profits do….not on the numbers

Typical investor thinking is to buy investments very low and sell them at their very highest price. They want to make the highest possible percentage return. This leaves the investor wanting. When the market goes, they want to have invested sooner. If an investment drops, they want to have sold sooner. If they sell an investment that keeps going up, they want to have held longer.

Rubbish! This process is devoid of fun, satisfaction, gratification and all the things that really make us tick.

Vestments are defined in the dictionary as garments, especially robes worn to show rank or office. So what is an investment, a fashionable robe that we can talk about? “Hey I made 12% last year. How about you?” For most investors this is just what their investments are, until their portfolios tank. Then they stop talking. Investments need to be something more than ideas to talk about, to worry over and to be sorry for when they rise or fall. Your investments need to do something for you that to you is real. Your investments need to perk up your desires! Our financial energies should be cemented in concrete, tangible worthwhile goals!

Merri and I are happy exiting an investment when it has achieved our goal. Years ago we had a mortgage and we made some investments we thought would help pay it off. Every day as it rose we ticked off the reduction in what we owed. The day we had enough for the pay off there was no question what to do. We did not ask, “Should we hold or sell?” Nor did we think “Wow this is really rising should we invest more or just sell part? The answer was a slam dunk. Sell and pay that darn loan off! We felt really good taking that check into the mortgage co.

If we want a new car and have an investment that has risen enough, we are delighted. For example, I am thankful for Jyske Bank. An investment in Jyske shares rose so much I was able to sell just a tiny portion to buy a new Honda. We were not upset when the shares we still held rose even more! We just thank the bank’s management each day (for doing such a good job) when we get in the car. By the way we never look at the price of new cars once we have bought either.

Two motivators in our manifestation process are our desires for freedom and time. We invest to have years of time when we can work at exactly what we want, when we choose. We know what it costs to live for a year so we invest to make enough for a year of that freedom. When we make a year of living, we take the profit and try to lock it away. This is the harder part because of inflation. Inflation robs purchasing power so what we can live on today may not be enough next year.

One way to overcome this is to always have a backup business. Inflation robs fixed income and salaries. Businesses by their nature must profit so are somewhat impervious to inflation. This brings us to an idea that’s also a health tip.