Thinking about retirement is natural for all employees. It seems like today there is a new investment strategy on the market almost every day, and many would-be retirees are jumping on whatever bandwagon they can to ensure they are protected financially when it comes to the retirement years. There are TV shows, investment seminars, stocks, bonds, mutual funds and what have you. All promising to take care of you in your golden years. What many people do not realize is that there exists an investment strategy right under their nose that can be very successful in securing financial freedom at retirement. This investment strategy is land investment and is one of the smartest things anyone can do to increase their net worth and financial freedom.To generate abnormal returns in the context of the amount of risk borne is what we all seek. Good old fashion savings will not give you high returns, and stock market games are not often associated with low risks. Investing in land is one that that comes with both low risks and high returns if you play your cards right and you do not need to be independently wealthy to get into this industry. All categories of investors have had some success in land investment.The advantages of investing in property that is not developed are great. Land property is an investment that offers consistent returns that are safer than other investments, and always appreciate in value. Thus, if you invest in land, when and if you decide to sell it, your will always get a higher return on your investment. Stock market and bond investments are currently averaging rates of returns in the 4 to 8 percent range. Land investments on the other hand can offer returns on your cash investment as high as 200 percent. The largest advantage to land investments is the significant return on your investment as land always and only appreciates in value.It is best to buy fast moving land. For example, land investments in Florida and the Carolinas are extremely wise location points to begin land investment. This is considered a hot market because this is the area of the country that retirees are moving to. It is estimated that 50 million people will move to the South within the next two decades. The warm climate and easier lifestyle is appealing to the retired generation and they are buying real estate there at alarming rates. Forecasting such moves makes for great real estate investment.Knowing how and when to act with land investments can be done with the aid of a realtor in the area you are interested in. Great reputation and track record is what you should be seeking. Realtors know land the way a banker knows money, and they will always work with you to ensure your dollar is maximized. Now is the time to start thinking about it. Land is land, i.e., and increasingly scare commodity that will never really be created again.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Why Most People Are Afraid To Use An Outside Source
Let’s face it, it’s arguably a better choice to outsource any and all of your work that can be supplied by other means. There are a great number of businesses in the world that simply distribute other people’s work. You’ve heard about OPM, right? You know, Other People’s Money! Well how about OPW? Other People’s Work!
One of the smartest things I did in my business was to hire people smarter than me. (Okay, those that know me well are thinking, gee that wasn’t hard to do)! Seriously, one of the best ways to grow your business is to find others who possess the skills and/or talent that fill our weak spot (or void).
Most of us are good about hiring people to doing the things we don’t want to do. You know, maintenance, cleaning, trash, menial labor type jobs. We even look to certified public accountants (CPA) to handle our books at certain times of the year. However, many times when it comes to our main source of revenue (our business) we tend to keep matters close to the vest.
Don’t get me wrong, we need to protect our lively hood and should police our endeavors well. Many times I’ve found it necessary to have certain potential “work for hire” individuals, sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Believe me, this is simply a good business practice! It protects you and your prospect from possible trade secret leaks. In many cases signing an NDA prevents private information from getting out in the first place.
It’s been my experience that most people have the false impression (a hallucination process) in which they believe it will “cost too much” to outsource it or “I’ll save money” by doing it myself (showing they may not value their time). When in fact it would “cost less” and “save money”, plus give more time to place towards other needs. In twenty years of creating and reproducing logos for the trade, there have been countless times I hear excuses for not outsourcing. Invariably it seems to always center on time and money!
It’s interesting to know some people would rather spend three, four or five hours scanning, digitizing and cleaning up their artwork as opposed to instantly emailing or faxing their need to an outside source. Blow’s me away! Why spend an entire afternoon or evening doing something you could spend three minutes of your time and $35 of your budget to get completed? Surely three to five hours of your time is worth more than $35!! I know some people just enjoy the process of creating whatever they’re creating. However, did you start a business to make money? You’ve heard it before “Treat it like a hobby, get paid like a hobby. Treat it like a business, get paid like a business!”
I encourage you to consider using third party suppliers to fulfill your needs. You may be surprised at how easy matters can be facilitated for you. Freeing you from always having to do everything yourself. It’s been reported that 70% of the senior citizen’s that have retired have agreed upon one thing. That one thing is this, if they had it all over to do again, the one thing would they do different is … take more risks!
Monday, November 5, 2007
Attractive Benefits of Owning a Multi-Level Marketing Home-Based Business
Deciding to begin a multi-level marketing home-based business is a big decision. Most of us are very familiar with the drawbacks of both home-based businesses and multi-level marketing. What you may not be familiar with are the advantages of starting a multi-level marketing home-based business.Today's easy access to the Internet and the ease of obtaining a laptop or PC makes starting and maintaining an online home-based business easier than ever. Working from home allows you to make money in your pajamas without ever leaving your house. The added lure of setting your own hours and working for yourself attracts many to home-based businesses.A multi-level marketing home-based business that is past the initial development phase could take as little as five hours a week to maintain your current earnings. Of course, investing more time and effort into your business means a greater return profit for you and your multi-level marketing team, but the assurance that your profits will continue with little effort on your part is very attractive for many entrepreneurs. Networking can be successfully performed by persons of nearly every age and education level. Multi-level marketing businesses provide equal opportunities for all who are interested in creating multiple streams of income.Most well established forms of multi-level marketing businesses offer a simple to use, prepackaged plan of action to help make your business successful. Long gone are the days of investing countless hours to develop and perfect a simple networking strategy while pushing direct product sales to maintain a small profit to make the entire effort worthwhile.In theory, a multi-level marketing business has unlimited earning potential. Business owners that stick with the program and continue to grow, learn and invest in their business reap the rewards of increasing profits and residual income as new recruits far below them continue to build the business for them.Most multi-level marketing business opportunities offer a proven training system and upline advice and guidance from those who have succeeded in the same business. This support system is geared to return optimal performance since the success of the little guy benefits the major players as well. This unique system of common dependence ensures mutual involvement and support for young upstarts and those who are struggling to achieve success.Individual business owners determine the level of commitment that they invest in their own businesses. If you can only commit to 10 hours a week, you set the pace and the business goals for your company accordingly. Ultimately, you are your own boss when you begin a multi-level marketing business.The success and failure of others in the business benefits those who are just beginning. Most multi-level marketing businesses abound with stories and testimonials from fellow business owners who are eager to share the secrets to their success as well as the experiences of failure and disappointment that they have had along the way. This provides a learning environment and system of encouragement that is unique to multi-level marketing businesses.These eight advantages of beginning a multi-level marketing home-based business are only a few of the general positive aspects that business owners experience. Many more benefits can be reaped by individual business owners as they strive for success with a multi-level marketing home-based business.
What is Two Cycle Billing?
The term “two cycle billing” may not be common knowledge to all credit card users, but it is a concept that everyone should be aware of. Some issuers have been moving away from the average daily billing cycle and changing over to the two cycle way of calculating the interest earned on balances. Two cycle billing does not greatly affect users that tend the carry a balance, but it does however affect cardholders that pay there balance off monthly.
In order to understand two cycle billing you must first understand the average daily billing method, which will now be explained. Let’s say that you own a credit card with a 15% interest rate and your billing cycle for the month of April runs from the 1st through the 30th of the month. At the beginning of the month you have a balance of textarea on the card. Now, on the 10th of April you make a purchase of 00, which means you are going to carry that balance for 20 days until the current billing cycle ends. You must now calculate the average daily balance for the month of April. To do so you must first multiply the balance of the card by the number of days the balance was carried (00 × 20 days = 20,000), then you will divide that number by the total days in the billing cycle (20,000 ÷ 30 = 666.67). You have now figured out that your average daily balance for April would be 6.67. If this card uses the average daily billing cycle and you started the month with a textarea balance, there will be no interest charged as long as the April balance is paid off in full. This billing cycle essentially gives you a grace period on purchases as long as the balance is paid off in full each month. But, if this credit card uses the two cycle billing method, you would be charged interest for the month of April when you receive your bill in May because your average daily balance is based on the last 2 billing cycles. So, when you receive your bill for May, you will have a finance charge that is due, even though your balance was paid off in full for April and you didn’t make any purchases with the card in May. In order to figure out how much your interest would be, you will take the average daily balance × number of days in the billing cycle × periodic interest rate. Below are the calculations to figure out your interest due in May.
Average daily balance 1000 × 20 ÷ 61 = 327.87
Number of days in billing cycle 30 + 31 = 61
Periodic interest rate 15 ÷ 365 = .0411
Finance charge for May 327.87 × 61 × .000411 = 8.22
Based on the interest rate of 15% stated above, you will receive a bill in May that shows a finance charge of .22 even though the balance was paid in full in April. As you can now see, the two cycle billing method of calculating interest is not ideal for users that choose to pay there balance of in full each month. Essentially, a two cycle billing card will start charging interest from the day the purchases is made, which will eliminate the grace period that is provided by a card that uses the average daily billing method.
As you can now see, the two cycle billing method of calculating interest would mainly effect users that always pay their balance off in full because they will still be paying interest on purchases even when there is no balance being carried over on the card. So, next time you are looking for a new credit card make sure you look at the fine print to check for what type of billing method they use for that card.