Running the numbers on this 'side investment' shows that it produces a pre-tax return of precisely 7%.

But on further discussion, it turned out there was about another 100 hours of work that produced no results.

here's an idea *evil grin* why not create credit for other countries and sell them things they don't need at high retail prices that will decline in value, then they will have to pay interest (after qualifying the customers of course). and also buy high profit investments worldwide (mainly cash producing ones that increase in value), particularly businesses with low overhead and start-up/acquisition costs. might it tip the scales more in our favour if we stopped being the ones spending and started being the ones investing, as a country?

I realize now how stupid it was for him to let it go so far without requiring them to produce a signed contract, but that's water under the bridge now.So what in the world is going on here?

It is to work collaboratively to produce a final product that reflects everyone's knowledge and that factually covers a topic.

Land is a limited item (no more being produced) there it always goes up as the population increases and there is more demand upon that limited resourse.The improvement (house) to that land can despreciate if not cared for, but the land value always increases over time.The same can not be said about stocks as they can crash and have many times. 20's, .com bubble, ect and stocks are not a limited item as more companies begin selling stocks and the existing stocks split or are recalled or go bust.

Abraham Maslow, a human development theorist, studied people with healthy personalities and believed that people have the ability to be creative in their decisions about life.

All my efforts to move things faster (Including contacting the regional loan Manager of the bank's mortgage department) did not produce any result.

Nick, you have a 14k property producing 1k in rent?

Owning an income producing property free and clear is a wonderful thing.