Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Is Grey's Anatomy the same as a Hustler's Anatomy?

Ok, I know this site is about wealth, and I know the first thought in your mind when you see Grey's Anatomy is that it appears to be out of place. If you are an avid reader of my blog then you know this sight is also about the pursuit of wealth, which in layman's terms means the "hustle".

If you are not a fan of Grey's Anatomy then you might want to skip this post, but if you are you will be able to relate in a big way.

Before I get into the meat and potatoes of the post, I would like to say that in an age of reality TV, cheesy sitcoms, Law and Orders, and Csi's, "Grey's" has done a brilliant job in developing deep colorful characters and making old stale themes original. The trials tribulations, problems, quirks, inhibitions, desires, and disappointments are scripted so that everyone can relate. It is superbly written and brilliantly casted. It does a great job in demonstrating that sexy comes in all shapes sizes, races, genders and economic class. Just when you thought House was the only twist that can be given to a Hospital show and ER has grown into an old grouchy series of traumas, you get smacked in the puss with Grey's.


The season finale just aired where one of the many sub-plots included the interns taking their board exams. Granted doctors get paid well, but they also hustle more then many other professions. What I respect most about them is that they go through the same trials and tribulations that we do, but they work almost three times as much as the average U.S. worker and as interns often make less. In the midst of a grueling work schedule they are often treated like the pimpled face kid working fries. Just imagine going through Medschool just to get ordered around, work 36 hours shifts and in the wake of all that, study for this seemingly impossible board exam. The penalty for not passing boards is repeating residency which is tantamount to death.

"Aww, that's just TV" , you say? Well here are some real facts:

  • Resident physicians work up to 120 hours a week, including 36 hour shifts for several weeks at a time.

  • After 24 hours of wakefulness, cognitive function deteriorates to a level equivalent to having a 0.1% blood alcohol level. These doctors would be considered too unsafe to drive; yet they could still treat patients for 12 more hours.

Now that's pressure for that a$$. If you think you are working hard and starting to feel sorry for yourself, just think of the physician. Now you say, "They make $300,000.00 per year, they should work hard". Well not all of them. Here are some interesting facts on salary:

Median net income in US dollars of M.D.s after expenses in 1998, according to the American Medical Association:


All physicians $160,000

Surgery $240,000


Radiology $230,000

Anesthesiology $210,000

Obstetrics/gynecology $200,000

Emergency medicine $184,000

Pathology $184,000

General internal medicine $140,000

General/Family practice $130,000

Psychiatry $130,000

Pediatrics $126,000

In some cases it's a ton of money and in others not so much. You can be an electrician with his own business and still clock more then a pediatrician. I think you have to love what you do and not just the dough to practice medicine or you won't make it out of Med School.

There are many doctors living check to check, especially when they have to pay off their school loans. The average med-school student graduates with $100,000 of med school loans. That's like graduating school with a small home mortgage, not to mention the 1st year residency average salary of $36,000.00

Raise your glass to the MD also down as the DOC. He or she gets an honorary hustler of the week award.


-MJL


Click the pic for more good info on the Grey's Season Finale





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Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Penta-Millionaires

I know you are wondering how come I'm not writing about the recent purchase of Chrysler and it's affect on the Metro-Detroit economy. That's because it's all speculation at this point, so I will provide a play by play as it unfolds.


For now I find something much more interesting. Recently there have been dozens of articles that I have been reading in regards to "Penta Millionaires". They say the number of U.S. "pentamillionaires" has quadrupled in the past 10 years, to more than 930,000. $1,000,000.00 is nice but $5,000.000.00 is really nice.

What would you do with 5 million? I would still drive a conservative car, but I would have something "hot" tucked in the garage. My house wouldn't be obnoxious but it would be spacious.

What does it take to be a penta-millionaire?

According to SmartMoney.com:

On average, folks who recently hit the $5 million mark report that only 10% of
their money came through passive investments. And only 10% of pentamillionaires
inherited their wealth. One might think that good fortune would play a role, but
even luck is largely a matter of one's own making. Psychologist Richard Wiseman
has found that people who describe themselves as lucky share common habits that
account for their success: They're friendly and fond of new experiences, traits
that put them on a collision course with new opportunities. In addition, "lucky"
folks simply have higher expectations of success — they're too pigheadedly
optimistic to heed the long odds and call it quits.
After struggling for years with my small business and still maintaining a great attitude I think that puts me in this category. I'm like Hulkeberry Fin, I'm always up for new opportunities and adventures.

Let's read more:

Not to say that getting rich is simply a matter of having a swell attitude. The
path to riches usually involves the kind of risk that would make most people
feel a little queasy. Harrison Group head Jim Taylor recently persuaded more
than 3,000 pentamillionaires to discuss their path to success. Perhaps not
surprisingly, none of them had a cushy union job down at the DMV. The vast
majority — 80% — either started their own business or worked for a small company
that saw explosive growth. And almost all of them made their fortune in a big
lump sum after many years of effort.

Now we are talking, I feel queasy everyday. My loans had loans to pay my minimum payemnts, and now I'm do for my lump sum. Give it to me Baby, I'm right here. Hello...Mr. Sum, Mr. Lump Sum......I'm here in this little cube. Come and save me…….

I like reading things that further reinforce decisions that I've made or have been making. But you can still get in trouble even when you are making millions.


For instance, Run from Run's house. I'm not sure how much he's making but he drives a Phantom, a Lambo, and his girls live in the city. A phantom is $350,000 worth of car. I know MTV isn't coughing up that much loot.



Look at the Mike Tyson's and the MC Hammers of the world. Just one of Mike Tyson's many monthly bills totaled over $300,000.00 per month. What did he buy? See for yourself below.



CLICK TO ENLARGE

How do you go broke with 21 million dollars? Spend $21,040,000.00 and you will be $40,000 in the hole like most Americans.

Almost as important as making it, is keeping it.

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Holla Back
-MJL

Monday, May 14, 2007

TO CHINA & BACK

Well, I just came back from another trip to China. Each time I go, I learn more and more about this interesting country on the come up.

We can not ignore their growth, underestimate their technological aptitude or scoff at their manufacturing capabilities any longer. It's been slightly under a year sense I last visited our friends in the far East, and there has been an incredible amount of building and development since. China is growing at a phenomenal rate.



They are communist and have restricted their population to 1 kid per family. This will go on until 2010. There are steep fines of 3 to 6 year one's annual salary for having a second child. This law has elliminated approx. 300 million people in it's first 20 years of implementation. People sleep on the size of China, but 20% of the entire world's population live in China, with India a close second. If you can pay, you can have more kids.

ON THE COME UP

In a 1994 survey, only 40 percent of Chinese households had a color television set, just one in four owned a refrigerator, one in 10 had a landline telephone and only three percent owned a mobile phone. The latest poll indicated that 82 percent of China's roughly 400 million households owned color television sets, 63 percent had landline phones and nearly half owned at least one mobile phone. Even more remarkable is that at least half of all Chinese households now own a video compact disc (VCD) player -- double the percentage that owned a refrigerator in 1994.


In the business world, it is the manufacturing sectors in developed economies that are decidedly nervous; and for good reason. Local and (particularly) foreign owned manufacturers are installing world best practice equipment and technologies in China to produce goods at both the mass-market and up-market levels for domestic consumption and exports. The economies of scale in China are unlike anything the world has ever seen.

When times were good in Detroit, small tool and die shops should have been re-investing in technology, improved processes and ways to cut costs. Instead they are being driven out of business by work being resourced to China, Mexico, and India. The same has gone for tele-marketing, customer assistance, and help desks. In order to keep pace with these companies the US needs to develop new job positions that involve dealing with overseas goods, and become creative and find away to harness the cheap labor, while not overlooking our blue collar labor unions that are our the economic backbone of this country.

Pictures are coming tommorrow!

-MJL

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