Either learning or dying

We have always adhered to the concept that if you are not learning, then you must be dying.Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller say it better than we can in their book Great Leaders Grow: Becoming a Leader for Life : "Growth is what separates living things from dying things,Growth brings energy, vitality, life, and challenge. Without growth, we're just going through the motions" There is of course plenty to learn, some of which we may not want to learn.
 
Recently we spent time reading about the way in which residential house loans were made to people with no income, no prospect of paying the loan back, and often for more than the houses were worth. And then how these shonky loans were miraculously transformed into parcels of AAA rated debt which major banks world wide snapped up. It's a process similar to the turning of water into wine. Or the yield that a real estate agent tells you about on a vacant property. Unbelieveable yet true!
 
But more interesting, and closer to home, was when we recently discovered that the title on one of our properties is "limited as to parcels". Now, we are still not totally sure what this phrase really means. It's something like "no one knows where the real boundary is.In fact there isn't a real boundary but the boundary is somewhere vaguely there"
 
So we invested in the talents of a surveyor to try and pin down where the boundary line actually is, as it impacts on our plans for building expansion.It transpires that there is no exact boundary. The surveyors can work out where it possibly should be by mathmatical calculations from known points, plus "existing use rights"; but ultimately it comes down to negotiation between the adjoining property owners.
 
So whereas we learned a substantial amount about why the world's banking system came close to collapse from a $30 book, learning about "limited as to parcels" on a title looks like eventually running to a 6 figure lesson. Caveat Emptor.
 
For a more detailed explanation of "limited as to parcels" go to : http://webbross.co.nz/blog/entry/is-your-land-title-limited-as-to-parcels-where-is-your-boundary