Three Problems of Supplements Today
1.Most of the supplements available on the market today are found to have poor bioavailability. To ensure that the body benefits from the supplement, the active ingredients of the supplements need to be absorbed into the blood stream and reach the organs so that they can do their job.
There are few
ways nutrients can get into the blood stream: injection, via the lining of the walls of upper
intestine and colon. When you consume a supplement, it reaches the stomach and active ingredients are
released. The environment of the stomach is very acidic (ph1.0-3.5). At this stage, majority of the
active ingredients are destroyed by the stomach acids. Some may not be damaged but most are almost
severely affected. As a result, only about 10% of active ingredients manage the absorption process and
enter the blood stream. Some poor quality supplements may even pass through the body with no
absorption at all!
Poor bioavailability of supplements is very common issue in supplements industry today. Unfortunately
very few companies have the know-how knowledge and technology to incorporate the delivery technology
into the supplements.
2.Many supplements are contaminated with metals, unlabeled prescription drugs, microorganisms,
or other substances. In U.S., dietary supplements are regulated by FDA (Food and Drugs Administration)
as foods. The government is not responsible for the safety and effectiveness of the supplements. It’s
the supplements manufacturers’ responsibility to ensure the effectiveness, safety, potency and
efficacy of the products. Many manufacturers took for granted. Most supplements today are produced in
less than optimal environment. As a result, the products are contaminated with leads, metals,
chemicals, bugs, and other substances.
Following are just few reported cases:
- FDA warns consumers that Actra-Rx(dietary supplements for sexual enhancement) undeclared
prescription drug ingredient. - 2 out of 21 magnesium products are found to have lead in a study conducted by independent body,
Consumerlab.com. - Several popular nutritional supplements are found to be contaminated with steroid.
3.Many supplements have false claims and inaccurate labels. Because dietary supplements are loosely regulated, there is no pressure to ensure the accuracy of the labels of the products. This means that you may be taking less, or more of the ingredients stated on the labels. In addition, there are products that promise to cure diseases and wide spectrum of health problems. Most of these claims are rather questionable, for example:
- A product called “Sea Silver” said their product have 98% bioavailability because liquid can
bypass the digestive system. As mentioned earlier, the only way for liquid to bypass the digestive
system is through injection, not drinking - Barefoot coral calcium supplements is said to be able to ‘neutralize’ the toxic acidity of
blood. The truth is, calcium supplements can only change the acidity of body fluids
(c)http://www.health-supplements101.com - All Rights Reserved
Yi Lai is editor of http://www.health-supplements101.com: How to choose the most potent supplements for your health. Contact her at http://www.health-supplements101.com/archive.htm
[tags]Supplements,Supplements caution,dietary supplements,nutritional supplements, health supplements[/tags]
social-security-retirement-benefit
Social Security Retirement Benefit
Writen by Milos Pesic
Social security retirement benefits are social security programs implemented to assure the retirement payments of the workers and employees in the United States of America.
Social security retirement benefits are established on three important features: the member’s current age, the age when the member will commence receiving reimbursements and the past income of the member. A member has the luxury whether or not to discontinue working and start receiving social security retirement benefits or not once the member has reached the age of sixty-two. The age factor is a major influence on the amount the member will receive. In earlier times, a member would look forward in receiving full social security retirement benefits once the member reach the age of sixty-five, however, recently the law regarding the social security retirement benefit was changed.
If you are thinking about using your social security retirement benefits, you must first know when your first pay check will turn up to help you transition your financial plan. If you are going to retire soon and starting your social security retirement reimbursements, the earliest you can start getting your pay check is age sixty-two. If you plan to apply at the age of sixty-two, the earliest you can apply for the reimbursements is three months before your sixty second birth date. If you want to know if your social security retirement benefit can adequately cover all the expenses you will need once you retire, you can find lots of information with regards to that on the internet.
As for the great part of the working population in the United States, their social security retirement benefits does not provide enough income to shelter the their daily expenses or make their retirement at ease. Most retirees have the tendency of thinking that once they have settled down their everyday expenditures will be reduced.
Finding out the amount of your social security reimbursement may be complicated; however, there are lots of tools on the internet that you can use on how to calculate your social security retirement benefits. You can use these calculating tools get all the data you will need in order to plan for a more relaxed and comfy retirement.
You can find additional information regarding your social security retirement benefits just by logging in on the internet and visiting the webpage of the Social Security Administration. You can access them on www.ssa.gov. This website has all the useful information that you will need regarding your social security retirement reimbursements.
It is never too late to begin making preparations for your retirement. Most people tend to make arrangements when their retirement is near. It is not too late to start planning for your retirement today. It is better to be prepared than to end up being sorry.
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Milos Pesic is a successful webmaster and owner of popular and comprehensive Retirement information site. For more articles and resources on Retirement related topics, Retirement Plans, Retirement Communities, Individual Retirement Accounts and more visit his site at: |
the-art-of-writing-a-check
The Art of Writing a Check
Writen by Jakob Jelling
Although it may seem very obvious, many people do not know how to write checks. With the birth of a generation that regularly uses ATM check cards, online bill payment systems, and credit cards more often than checks, check writing may risk extinction due to ignorance.
Luckily for you, this article will take you through the process of properly writing a check step-by-step - so that there may be hope for future generations of check writers. The first thing you should do is write in the date using any format with which you feel most comfortable. Just make sure that you write it legibly, so that there is no confusion as to when you wrote the check. If you want the recipient to have the money right away, put in the current date. If you want the recipient to withdraw the funds at a later date, however, write in a future date. This is called a post-dated check. Rent checks are often collected in this manner.
Secondly, write the name of the person or organization that will receive your check on the line that is preceded by the words “Pay to the Order of” or “Payable to.” Then write the dollar amount that you want to send to the recipient in the small space that starts with a dollar sign ($) so that it is written in the following manner: “50.89.” (Of course, you must write in the amount you want to pay). At this point you must write the same amount using words for whole dollar amounts, a fractional number for amounts less than a dollar, and a straight line in the remaining space before the word “Dollars.” Do it in this manner exactly: “Fifty and 89/100————- Dollars.”
On the lower right side of the check, make sure you write your signature. Also, take note of the check number, date, payee, and amount in the check stub or the check ledger at the front of your checkbook. Now subtract the amount of your check so you can calculate how much money you have left in your account after the check clears.
Here are some extra tips for writing checks: know how much money you have in your bank account at any given time, as you will be charged a fee for any checks that bounce due to insufficient funds. Also, if you aren’t very good at keeping records, use a checkbook that makes an automatic carbon copy of the checks you write. This will come in handy when you’re busy or rushing to make payments.
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About The Author Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.cashbazar.com. Visit his website for the latest on personal finance, debt elimination, budgeting, credit cards and real estate. |
the-dollar-bill
The Dollar Bill
Writen by Roger Sorensen
The dollar bill in use today was designed in 1957. This “paper money” is made from a blend of cotton and linen. Look closely and you’ll see that it also contains red and blue fibers made of silk as an anti-counterfeit measure.
The Seal of the United States Treasury is on the front. The top features scales representing justice and the center shows a chevron with 13 stars representing the 13 colonies. The key acts as a symbol of authority.
The Great Seal of the United States is shown with both the obverse and the reverse on the back of the dollar bill. The back of the seal sits on the left side and contains a Pyramid. The front of the pyramid is lit but the western side is dark, which some have suggested demonstrates that we had not yet begun to explore the West.
The Pyramid is uncapped, again possibly signifying that we were not yet finished with our task of exploring the continenant. Charles Thompson, Secretary of Congress in 1782, told Congress that the pyramid represented “Strength and Duration.”
An eye sits inside the capstone, as an ancient symbol for divinity and long used by Masons. Franklin was a Mason, but Adams and Jefferson weren’t. Above that is the Latin phrase ANNUIT COEPTIS, which means, “God has favored our undertaking.” Below is the phrase NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM, which means “a new order for the ages.” At the base of the pyramid is the year 1776 in Roman numerals.
The obverse (front) of the Seal can be found at national cemeteries. It also serves as the basis for Seal of the President of the United States. Over Franklin’s objections (he wanted the turkey), the Bald Eagle was chosen as our nation’s symbol for victory. The eagle fears no storm, being strong and smart enough to soar above it, and he has no crown - important symbolism considering we had just won our war against King George.
The shield on the eagle’s chest represents Congress consisting of red and white stripes with a blue bar above. The colors are from the American flag; the red represents hardiness and valor, the white represents purity and innocence, and the blue, vigilance, perseverance, and justice. The eagle’s beak holds a ribbon proclaiming E PLURIBUS UNUM, meaning “one nation from many people.”
The Eagle’s talons holds an olive branch, long considered a peace offering, and arrows, an instrument of war. This illustrates our sentiment: we want peace but we are prepared to fight for it. Originally, the Eagle’s beak was turned towards the arrows, but President Truman ordered it turned toward the olive branch.
There were 13 original colonies in America. Thus thirteen stripes on our flag - and also 13 steps on the Pyramid, 13 letters in the Latin above it, 13 letters in “E Pluribus Unum,” 13 stars above the Eagle, 13 plumes of feathers on each span of the Eagle’s wing, 13 bars on its shield, 13 leaves on the olive branch, 13 fruits, and 13 arrows.
Placed prominently in the center of the dollar bill, are the words IN GOD WE TRUST. Not in Latin, the language of our forebears, but in English, the language of America and its future.
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Roger Sorensen America’s Financial Guide can be found at ==>http://www.Slave2Work.com Subscribe to Money Basics via http://www.slave2work.com/ezine.html Slave2Work.com - Are you ready for financial freedom? |
behavioural-finance-focus-on-intrinsic-value
Behavioural Finance: Focus on Intrinsic Value
Writen by Amarendra Bhushan Dhiraj
INTRODUCTION
The volume of research in the field of Behavioural Finance has grown over the recent years. The field merges the concepts of finance, economics and psychology to understand the human behaviour in the financial markets, to form winning investment strategies.
THE CONCEPT OF BEHAVIOURAL FINANCE
Behavioural finance is the study of the influence of psychology on the behaviour of financial practitioners and the subsequent effect on markets. Principal objective of an investment is to make money. We usually assume that investors always act in a manner that maximizes their return rationally. The Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH), the central proposition of finance for the last thirty five years rests on assumption of rationality. But it has been proved that people are ruled as much by emotion as by cold logic and selfishness. While the emotions such as fear and greed often play an important role in poor decisions, there are other causes like cognitive biases, heuristics (shortcuts) that take investors to incorrectly analyse new information about a stock or currency and thus overreact or under react. Behavioural Finance is the study of how these mental errors and emotions can cause stocks or currency to be overvalued or undervalued, and to create investment strategies that gives a winning edge over the others investors.
I would like to bring out the behaviour pattern of a rational investor. This rational investor is assumed to act rationally in following ways:
o Makes decisions to maximize the expected utility.
o Fully informed with unbiased information.
o Absence of any distortion of judgement based on emotions.
It is to be kept in mind that risk resides not only in the price movements of dollars, gold, oil, commodities, companies and bonds. It also lurks inside us - in the way we misinterpret information, fool ourselves into thinking we know more than we do, and overreact to market swings. Information is useless if we misinterpret it or let emotions sway our judgement. Human beings are irrational about investing. Correct behaviour patterns are absolutely essential to successful investing - so to be financially successful one has to overcome these tendencies. if we can recognise these destructive urges, we can avoid them. Behavioural Finance combines the disciplines of economics and psychology specifically to study this phenomenon.
THE CONCEPT OF BUBBLES IN STOCK MARKET
A speculative bubble occurs when actions by market participants’ results in stock prices to deviate from their fundamental valuation over a prolonged period of time. Speculative bubbles are difficult to explain by rational trading behaviour, and theories have been put forward to explain market psychology through behavioural finance1. They propose that when significant proportion of trading activity in the market is characterized by positive feedback behaviour, it may result in asset prices to shift away from their fundamental valuation. This price deviation encourages rational investors to trade in the same direction.
Speculative trades are based upon investors’ private information held today, and are designed to provide investors with higher returns in the next period when that private information is fully revealed to the market. This implies a positive correlation in returns as market incorporate the information into prices. Trades due to portfolio rebalancing, or hedging, is not information based, and occurs when a trader may increase (or decrease) his stock holding by buying (or selling) a portion of his stock holding. This will be accomplished by increasing (or decreasing) the stock price to induce the opposite side of the trade.
FOCUS ON INTRINSIC VALUE
What are the implications for corporate managers? It is believed that such market deviations make it even more important for the executives of a company to understand the intrinsic value of its shares. This knowledge allows it to exploit any deviations, if and when they occur, to time the implementation of strategic decisions more successfully. Here are some examples of how corporate managers can take advantage of market deviations:
o Issuing additional share capital when the stock market attaches too high a value to the company’s shares relative to their intrinsic value.
o Repurchasing shares when the market under-prices them relative to their intrinsic value.
o Paying for acquisitions with shares instead of cash when the market overprices them relative to their intrinsic value.
Two things must be kept in mind as regards this aspect of market deviations.
Firstly, these decisions must be grounded in a strong business strategy driven by the goal of creating shareholder value.
Secondly, managers should be cautious of analyses claiming to highlight market deviations. Furthermore, the deviations should be significant in both size and duration. Provided that a company’s share price eventually returns to its intrinsic value in the long run, managers would benefit from using a discounted-cash-flow approach for strategic decisions.
It can thus be summarized that for strategic business decisions, the evidence strongly suggests that the market reflects intrinsic value.
INVESTING IRRATIONALITIES
Often turbulence in the market isn’t linked to any perceivable event but to investor psychology. A fair amount of portfolio losses can be traced back to investor choices and reasons for making them. I would like to point out some of the ways by which investors unthinkingly inflict problems on themselves :
Herding
This is a cardinal sin in investing and this tendency to follow the crowd and depend on the direction of others is exactly how problems in the stock market arise. There are two actions that are caused by herd mentality:
o Panic buying
o Panic selling
Holding Out for a rare treat
Some investors, praying for a reversal for their stocks, hold onto them, other investors, settling for limited profit, sell stock that has great long-term potential. One of the big ironies of the investing world is that most investors are risk averse when chasing gains but become risk lovers when trying to avoid a loss.
If we are shifting our non-risk capital into high-risk investments, we are contradicting every rule of prudence to which the stock market ascribes and asking for further problems.
ISSUES
One of the most important issues in Behavioural Finance is whether the assumptions of investor rationality are realistic or not.
The concept can be explained with the help of an example. Let’s assume that Mr. X invests and manages his portfolio in an efficient market. Here only seconds are available for a response to the news. There are a great number of factors that affect the decision of Mr. X. Further, these factors can affect each other. How can Mr. X draw the right judgements when the information is updated very frequently? Probably Mr. X works on a computer, through out the day, on which a utility function program is installed for his work. Every decision Mr. X is based on the calculation given by his computer. As soon as the portfolio is rebalanced, the computers utility function program analyses new alternatives. This process goes on and on over the course of the day. Obviously, Mr X does not show any joy, when he wins and no panic when he looses. Can a human brain behave like this? We know that a human brain can master only seven pieces of information at any one time.
So, how could one possibly absorb all the relevant information and process it correctly? People use simplifying heuristics (shortcuts) in order to control the complexity of information received. Psychological research has shown that the human brain often uses shortcuts to solve complex problems. These heuristics are rules or strategies for information processing, which help to find a quick, but not necessary optimal, solution. Once the information is simplified to manageable level, people use judgement heuristics. These shortcuts are needed to resolve the decision making as quickly as possible. Heuristics are also used to arrive at a quick judgement, they can, however, also systematically distort judgement in certain situations.
SIMPLIFICATION BIAS
The first step in reducing complexity is to simplify the decision. However it also adds the risk of arriving at a non-rational conclusion, unless one is careful.
MENTAL ACCOUNTING
People focus on one account (say purchase of share x) in particular when weighing things, relationship with other commitments or accounts (say purchase of share y) are usually ignored. I would like to explain this with the help of an illustration. For instance, Company A produces bathing costumes, and company B produces raincoats. Both companies are new, extremely efficient and innovating, so that purchasing shares in these companies would be a profitable proposition. A financial gain, however depends to a large extent on the whether in both cases, Company A will produce huge profits if the weather is fine, while Company B will make a loss, even though this is kept to a minimum, thanks to its efficient management. The situation is reversed in the case of bad weather. With mental accounting, either investment is risky when seen in isolation. But if we take into account the mutual effect of the uncertainty factor, i.e. the weather, then a combination of both shares become a lucrative, and at the same time secure investment.
AVAILABILITY CONSTRAINT
Not everybody has same degree of information. Some people prefer to see business news on CNBC TV 18, NDTV PROFIT. But others may like to see the serials on STAR PLUS. Obviously the first one may have more information, as compared to second.
REPRESENTATIVENESS
This is one of the mental shortcuts that make it hard for investors to correctly analyse new information. It helps the brain organise and quickly process large stock of data, but can cause investors to overreact to old information. For example, if a company is repeatedly giving losses, investors will become disillusioned with this past data, and thus may overreact to past information by ignoring valid signs of recovery. Thus, the stock of the company is undervalued because of this bias.
CHLALLENGES
Under the paradigm of traditional financial economics, decision makers are considered to be rational and utility maximizing. The assumption of rational expectations is simply an assumption - an assumption that could turn out not to be true.
Behavioural Finance has the potential to be a valuable supplement to the traditional financial theories in making investment decisions. The following fundamentals of behavioural finance give us a glimpse of the pitfalls to be avoided. These are the challenges which need to be overcome and addressed.
1. Hubris hypothesis: it is the tendency to be over optimistic. It results from psychological biases. The investor gets swayed by the momentum generated in the markets in recent past.
2. Sheep theory: it is a phenomenon where all the investors are running in the same direction. They follow the herd - not voluntarily, but to avoid being trampled.
3. Loss aversion: it says that investors take more risk when threatened with a loss. Thus mental penalty associated with a given loss is greater than the mental reward from a gain of the same size.
4. Anchoring: this causes investors to under react to new information. This can lead to investors to expect a company’s earning to be in line with historical trends, leading to possible under reaction to trend changes.
5. Framing: this states that the way people behave depends on their way decision problems are framed. Even the same problem framed in different ways can cause people to make different choices.
6. Overconfidence: this is what leads people to think that they know more than they do. It leads investors to overestimate their predictive skills and believe they can time the market.
RELEVANCE TO INDIAN STOCK MARKETS
Behavioural finance holds definite clues and appears apt in the current IPO craze as regards Indian markets are concerned. The herd mentality is evident in the scramble for shares. As the positive information of excess subscriptions comes, more investors enter the bandwagon. When Prices of the stocks start soaring, everyone one is thinking of the same thing: I am going to sell on listing and book the profits. Can money making be so simple? Is life and the financial markets so predictable? One will see investors selling the stocks as soon as they get the allotments. Herd mentality will be at work with people trying to sell faster than the neighbour, thus eroding stock values at a faster rate. Greed thus becomes the graveyard. One needs to understand that there are no shortcuts to earning money. One has to work hard and have patience.
It is believed that perfect application of Behavioural finance can make an Indian investor successful, making fewer mistakes. Even if we learn to identify some common psychological and cognitive errors that plague even the wisest investment professional, it may be enough. To put it in Simple words, economic theory starts with a flawed basic premise that the investor is a rational being who will always act to maximise his financial gain. Yet, we are not rational beings, we are human beings.
In stock markets, behavioural finance can help explain situations such as why we hold on to stocks that are crashing, foolishly sell stocks that are rising, ridiculously overvalue stocks, jump in late and never find our right price to buy and sell stocks.
Let’s take the example of the recent discovery of gas by Reliance industries. The stock starts spurting as everyone starts buying on this news. Newspapers start flashing stories as to the size of such a discovery.
But let us analyse the situation without becoming a prey to mental heuristics. Gas has been discovered but the same needs to be drilled which takes a lot of time and money. What is the quality of the gas? How many wells would be needed for drilling? How much time will it take? How much money would be required and what are the plans to finance the same? How easy it is going to be to extract the same? These are all important and pertinent questions. In this time lag there are so many uncertainties the company will have to go through, before the profits are reaped. However, analysts have started predicting the future profitability of Reliance and on such hopes investors start buying the stock at rising prices.
This is how mental heuristics work when the brain takes a shortcut in processing information and does not process the full information and its implications. Thus behavioural finance has a pivotal role to play in Indian Capital market.
CONCLUSION
Knowing the heuristics shall help the investors to which they are susceptible and this will help them in neutralizing to some extent the distortions in the perception and assimilation of information. This will in turn, help the investor to take a rational decision and get a cutting edge over the other not-so-rational investors.
More research on behavioural finance should take place not only in asset pricing but also in areas like project appraisal & investment decisions and other areas of corporate finance, so that managers can avoid the decision traps. Psychology and irrational behaviour matter on financial markets. Behavioural finance is relevant in many ways. It educates investors about how to avoid biases, designing long and short term strategies to exploit biases; and being aware that decision-makers in financial markets are human beings with biases. We also need to realize that an implicit assumption of behavioural finance is that their findings at individual level are scaleable to market level.
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About the Author Mr. Amarendra B. Dhiraj is a frequent speaker at internationally renowned global events, CEO/CTO/CIO Roundtables, Technology Conferences and Symposiums. He hosted and organized the Executive Technology Leadership Forum. He specializes in strategy, innovation, and leadership for change. His strategic and practical insights have guided leaders of large and small organizations worldwide. Amarendra Bhushan has been named to lists of the European Management Guru and is named as “Europe’s youngest management Guru” and one of the “Top most influential business thinkers in the world”. http://www.theerce.com, http://www.indogreek.org The Economic Times, CNBC, moneycontrol |
does-your-business-need-an-onsite-atm-machine
Does Your Business Need an On-Site ATM Machine?
Writen by Jeremy Maddock
So you’re wondering whether or not its worth buying an on-site ATM machine for your retail store or other business? The best way to find an answer to this all important question is to measure foot traffic in your vicinity, and determine the number of customers that will see and use the machine on an average day.
To justify your multi-thousand dollar investment in an on-site ATM, you will need to place the machine in a prime location where it will be seen by hundreds of people on a daily basis.
Another point that might factor in to your decision is your business’s reliance on cash. If your retail locations do not accept alternate payment methods such as checks, credit, and debit cards, an ATM could be an especially valuable way to increase revenue.
If you do accept alternate payment methods, you should remember the fact that installing an ATM will likely reduce usage of your credit card processing systems, potentially cutting down on processing costs and ultimately saving you money.
On-site ATM machines aren’t for everybody, and if there are one or more other ATM machines within close proximity to your store, installing another one probably won’t do your business much good. If your customers often find themselves short of cash, however, and need a quick and convenient way to refill their wallets, the benefits of installing an ATM could be incalculable.
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About the Author: Jeremy Maddock is a successful web-based freelancer, who writes articles about ATM Machines and other financial products for businesses. |
a-guide-to-banking-services
A Guide to Banking Services
Writen by John Mussi
Many of the important choices that you make in life concern financial matters from choosing investments to shopping for groceries, money is an important part of everything that you do. When it comes time to make a decision concerning how you want to handle your money, it’s generally best to know all of the options that are available to you before you choose a single option.
Here are a few of the different choices that you should consider when looking for financial services from a bank.
Savings
One of the more basic banking services available is the savings account. As the name of the account might indicate, savings accounts are designed to help individuals save their money while increasing it with interest.
These accounts are usually limited to a certain number of withdrawals each month before a penalty is imposed, but are usually otherwise free of fees and penalties.
The interest rates of these accounts tend to be decent, but are influenced by national and local rates.
Cheques
Along with savings accounts, chequeing accounts are some of the most common account types that banks offer. These accounts work along similar lines to savings accounts, with money being paid into the account over time unlike savings accounts, though, chequeing accounts allow the account holder to access the funds held in the account by writing cheques or using cheque cards which are like credit cards that draw upon the balance of the account to pay for purchases.
Some chequeing accounts offer interest, while others do not. Account fees and the fees that cover buying new cheques may apply depending upon the bank and the average daily balance in the account.
Certificates of Deposit
For individuals who are looking to put aside some money for later but who want a better deal on their interest, there are certificates of deposit. These special accounts are designed specifically for investment, and tend to offer a higher interest rate than most other types of account.
Since they are intended for longer-term investments, certificates of deposit only allow money to be withdrawn from the account at certain times usually once per year, or any time after the certificate has reached it’s time limit.
While some certificates of deposit allow withdrawals to be made at other times during the year, there is often a fine added for early withdrawal.
Money Market and Investment
When discussing investments for the future, an important type of account that is often overlooked is the money market account. These accounts offer variable rates of interest much like savings accounts, but the interest accrued by a money market account is based more off of rates in the stock exchange instead of the interest rates set by governmental authorities.
Often a money market account will also allow the money held within it to be invested in various stocks and bonds as a part of the money market service this feature makes money market accounts a great option for individuals trying to plan for the future.
Loans
In addition to the various forms of bank accounts that most banking institutions offer, a variety of loans may be available depending upon your financial needs and the purpose of the loan money.
Mortgage loans, home improvement loans, automotive financing, and debt consolidation are all common loan types that are offered by most banks other more specialized loans as well as loans for individuals with poor or bad credit may also be available depending upon the lender.
You may freely reprint this article provided the following author’s biography (including the live URL link) remains intact:
About The Author
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John Mussi is the founder of Direct Online Loans who help homeowners find the best available loans via the http://www.directonlineloans.co.uk website. |
the-rope-is-too-short
The Rope is Too Short!
Writen by Jeff Lakie
There is a story of a man sold loops of rope in the marketplace. He would tie two ends of rope together and sell them. Unfortunately he wanted to increase profits so he cut all of his ropes in half. So he had twice as many ropes! But instead of making he lost money because he couldn’t make ends meet.
That’s a funny story, but it’s surprising to hear how many people can’t make ends meet anymore. Inflation is on the rise, so the cost of living is going up. Wages seem to be frozen in time and the available money to put away for the future is quickly disappearing since expenses are on the rise.
Since our income is no longer keeping up with our expenses, what options do we have? It’s a difficult choice to make, and many people are avoiding a credit card to help them budget, but it’s becoming harder and harder to avoid! We live in a world that expects us to use credit cards and as the Internet gives us many purchasing opportunities, we often only have the credit card as an option!
But when credit card bills begin to mount, what choices do you have to help you take care of those bills? After all, credit card interest rate is one of the highest around! People find that they can pay half again as much as their original purchase simply in interest if they do not pay it off right away.
When considered as part of your overall financial portfolio, a UK credit card consolidation loan is an excellent option. This is because it pulls together your payments and lowers your interest rate to a rate that is easier to swallow! And, instead of getting a half dozen credit card bills through the month, you’ll be able to get one bill with a fixed amount owing, and that will really help you budget accurately.
So now the next step is: what kind of loan to get? There are two kinds of loans: Secured and unsecured loans. Secured loans let you use assets you have as a guarantee against the loan while unsecured loans simply use your credit rating to help you.
Secured loans may be the better choice because they allow you to get more money at a better interest rate and for a longer period of time because you are providing a guarantee to the lending institution that if you are unable to make the payments, there is another form of payment they can get through the seizure of your assets.
So if you find that credit card bills have gotten out of hand, you should consider getting a UK credit card consolidation loan. Your payments will be lower, your interest will be lower, and the fixed amount each month will help you budget accordingly.
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Jeff Lakie is the owner of http://rv-loan.co.uk providing Uk homeowners with a free loan quote service. Visit us today for a free no obligation quote. |
money-mattersfor-those-major-life-purchasesget-your-financing-together-first
Money Matters-For Those Major Life Purchases-Get Your Financing Together First!
Writen by Jim Hart
Moneybased on my observations over the years I have learned that it pays dividends when considering large purchases like cars, homes, education and the like, to get your facts and financing together first. Nothing can be worse than purchasing large ticket items while you are carried away on an overwhelming whirlwind of emotion, which often accompanies these big-ticket purchases. The best way to minimize purchasing mistakes and errors in judgement is to get your financing together first. Let’s take a quick look at a few of these purchases and how they can be best approached.
Buying a home-if you are planning on buying or refinancing a home take the time to learn about the details about various loan programs on the market by talking to several lenders including both banks and mortgage brokers. There are a wide variety of conventional and governmental home loan programs (including FHA and VA loans) that may be more tailored to your short, medium and long range needs.
One of the best things you can do is ask a bank for a free HUD booklet, which explains the fundamentals of home loans and how they impact you. Learn the “financial speak” and don’t sign ANYTHING unless you (really) know what you are doing. Always be sure to talk to at least three loan officers and take notes, read loan literature, get pre-qualified for financing and understand exactly what you are doing BEFORE you look at homes. Doing so makes you a smarter buyer and less likely to make mistakes.
Buying a car-it doesn’t make any sense to me to buy a new car and lose thousands of dollars within minutes by driving it off the car lot. It makes more financial sense to buy a nice pre-owned car at a far less price of course, you want to have it professionally inspected by a third party (licensed mechanic) before you buy it. And the key is the time of year you buy the car. In my opinion the best time of the year to buy a car is January or February of each New Year. Here’s why: A used car may be selling for $10,0000.00 on December 31 of a given year but on January 1 (the next day/the new year) it will not be worth as much as the day before because of the calendar change (.) Used cars tend to sell slower during this period of the year and your negotiating strength is highest. I like to think of this strategy as being “prudent” not “cheap”.
Buying education-colleges are in the business of selling education. They have classes to fill and representatives to help steer students into those classes. Many people who go to school seem to “follow the follower” by chasing trends. Remember the “rush” to get a computer programming degree during the 80’s? Everybody ran off to be a programmer only to find out (after they graduated) that much of the employment demand had been filled by the glut of computer graduates. Trends are like that by the time you hear about a “hot job market” and run off to get educated for it, the market is filled. So here’s the key to selecting an education: What do you love to do? What would you do for free everyday? That’s probably a good starting point for selecting an education. America is a giant monopoly board and areas like business; law and medicine are good choices for education too. No matter what education you pursue you should (once again) get your financing together first. Request information from the schools of interest to you. Meet with their financial aid departments; find out about student loans and state and federal grants. Many communities have work incentive programs that offer education and training for unemployed or displaced workers, call your local Bureau of Employment and ask if they have sources for assistance.
If you have a disability, you may want to contact your local Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation Services (BVR) they have many programs that may be able to assist you or fund your education. Whether you are a parent of a child who is planning on college or an adult planning on going to school, dig in and research all your financial options (Don’t forget the Internet!) And remember: Financing first!
Copyright © 2005 James W. Hart, IV All Rights reserved
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James W. Hart, IV, a consumer advocate and CEO of Smart Books Publishing http://www.smart67.com has been involved in the field of residential and commercial real estate mortgage financing since 1987. Hart, previously licensed to engage in the sale of real estate in the state of Ohio, has been directly involved in the origination of residential and commercial mortgage financing and has worked with residential and commercial mortgage lenders, large commercial mortgage banking firms and life insurance companies for financing. Hart is an honorably discharged veteran of the U.S. Army, graduate of the University of Toledo and graduate of the Cleveland Institute of electronics. He is a member of the National Panel of Consumer Arbitrators and the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. During 1992/93 Mr. Hart appeared on a number of radio and TV stations throughout the U.S. including WJR-AM, WWWE-AM, WHUR-FM, WRC-AM, WLW-AM, WTVN-AM, WSPD-AM, KDKA-AM, KBGS-AM and CNBC-TV and many others |
the-new-internet-pirates-who-they-are-and-how-to-protect-your-self-from-them
The New Internet Pirates, Who They Are, And How To Protect Your Self From Them
Writen by Andrew Carver
No longer are we in the era of credit card theft. Yep I said it! Very few scammers actually want your credit card number any more. Why? You may ask, well because the credit card companies were realizing that they were losing billions of dollars, to these heartless con artists. You see credit card companies have a lot of money and every ones knows money can not bye happiness but it sure can bye unhappiness; for these con artists mind you. You see credit card companies over the years have spent millions if not billions of dollars targeting credit card thieves. As soon as the credit card companies see a little irregularity in your spending habits, you better believe they freeze your account momentarily, and call you; even if you are on the other side of the earth. The most these credit card thieves can do is make a quick couple of purchases, which won’t really affect you to much, and even those, are usually taken care of by the credit card companies.
Unfortunately this article does not have a happy ending. Every one knows that the lure of money is very strong, and if there is a will there is a way. The credit card scammers have hung up there hats, and put on a new disguise, that maybe more damaging then the first. You see now these scammers what to target your BANK ACCOUNT directly. WOW! The benefits of your bank account far out way any amount of credit card numbers for these pirates. This is because if you wire it to them, via internet, through companies like pay pal, they are virtually untraceable, and furthermore they may take all your money that is in that bank account at that moment. Companies like Pay Pal have a policy to keep all their customer records private, which is bad news if it is a scam.
But please do not think that buying on the internet is unsafe, I am here to tell you how to spot these pirates, and allow you continue to spend online, efficiently and safely. You see I am sure if this continues pay pal being the upstanding company that they are, will probably change their rules. They need to look out for your well being, because, if they don’t, you won’t use their service any more. Also prevention is better then cure, so here are some ways to recognize if the website is a scam. There are three types of websites to be weary of.
1. BEWARE OF WEBSITES THAT LIMITS YOUR PAYMENT OPTIONS TO DIRECT BANK ACCOUNT WITHDRAWAL.
2. BEWARE OF WEBSITE THT LIMITS YOUR PAYMENT OPTIONS TO WIRE TRANSFER.
3. BEWARE OF WEBSITES THAT LIMITS YOUR PAYMENT OPTIONS TO PAYPAY.
I will be looking out for news and updates on these kinds of scammers, so if you would like up dates, please continue reading my articles. However I do not focus only on internet scammers, I also write articles on a variety of issues. Also if you have any info on these types of scammers, please send me an email. Together we can stop these people and make the internet much safer.
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Andrew Carver is an experienced Internet marketer, and has accomplished some amazing things in the Internet world, and would like to help anybody that needs any. If you or a friend could benefit from anything Internet market related, please visit him at www.turnitintogold.com or come see his amazing success daily at www.turnitintogold.blogspot.com |
