Category Archives for "Family"

Want to know how important a 1st client is? Well, read on… Suppose you and your spouse are walking past a downtown eatery. The posted menu and prices look decent but there is no one in the store. Across the road, there is another restaurant almost identical in terms of look, menu and price but […]

May he #RIP. Leo got me out of all sorts of scrapes including one wintry day he had his almost brand-new tractor clearing one of our ponds so my kids could skate that Xmas. I watched as he elegantly swept back and forth rather majestically moving snow to uncover pristine ice beneath. However, I noticed […]

Any time someone offers you investments with returns of 1000% per year, you are right to be skeptical, but this is what Australian economist “Mr 1000%” Andrew Firestone has been working on for a number of years now. He reckons he will be able to present how households can add an equivalent of $60,000 to […]

Are you familiar with the BBC series From Lark Rise to Candleford? It’s about life in two neighboring places in the late 19th century—one a poor rural village called Lark Rise where life is a struggle, and tother being a more prosperous town called Candleford. They are 8-miles apart with a muddy track the only […]

Most people know about the prisoner’s dilemma even if it’s just intuitively rather than explicitly— Two people are accused of a joint crime. Police detectives put both suspects in individual interrogation rooms. They offer each of them a deal—if you’re first to talk, you’ll get jail time of just two years. If the other party […]

The smaller the house you build, the more creative you need to be. One of my daughters is moving into her own home that is just 192 sq ft. She’ll live right next door to a small workshop (about 350 sq ft) where she will design and produce high fashion custom clothing for glamorous women […]

We helped one of my daughters (I have five children) buy a home four years ago for $345,000. We added a basement apartment for $80k so her total cost is about $425,000. We had it appraised last month—after insane pandemic-induced appreciation, it’s now worth $760,000 according to a local appraiser. First thing she said to […]

Over the Christmas holidays, I was rereading The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne. I read it when I was a kid and enjoyed it, so I thought I’d see what I think of it now. It’s about five Union soldiers who escape Confederate captivity during the US Civil War in a balloon that is swept […]

[By the way, I have a few paperback copies I am giving away for Xmas. If you’re in Ottawa Canada and would like to drop by and get a copy, let me know, bruce.firestone@century21.ca. These proof copies have a few spelling errors in them (an absolute no-no in any book but especially one written for […]

Main Street Makeovers He must have received his law degree in the snail-mail. The guy didn’t know the difference between foreclosure and power-of-sale. Why is this even important? Foreclosure versus Power of Sale Because I advise a number of funds (REITs, MICs, Private Equity Funds, Mortgage Trusts, Mutual Fund Trusts, individual private lenders such as […]

[Excerpt from Gadgets and Gizmos—how to tell if you own a real business or just an expensive hobby  available from, https://brucemfirestone.com/product/gadgets-and-gizmos/] I realize this is a somewhat self-serving headline since I am a real estate investment and business coach and my spouse is a California-based CTI[1]-trained life coach, but don’t take my word for it—listen […]

Traveling without moving, a new approach to downsizing Most realtors tell a person who is thinking of, say, downsizing, to list and sell their larger home and buy something smaller and presumably cheaper. This kind of talk is a bit self-serving because, if the client follows this piece of advice, the realtor gets another listing […]