Business

As the year of 2007 comes to an end there are a number of significant highlights to this years business moments. Number one business moment belongs the subprime lending mess that had a domino affect on the credit markets as well as the stock markets and every other market that is connected to these. Last year a barrel of oil was priced at about $60 this year oil got as high as $90 damn talk about a price increase. I remember when I was little and barrels of oil were going for $30 a barrel! The new I -hone came out on June29, and before you know it someone cracked it making it able to be able to used by any mobile carrier a 17 yr old kid did this!

As this year ends we start to plan for the new year and start implementing remedies that held us back from achieving our goals the previous year. Well this forthcoming year I would advise one to seek out strategies to get a steady investment return in these unsteady times. a lot of Financial advisers are leaning towards municipal bonds or munis. Municipal bonds are bonds that are issued by the state and federal governments.The one major advantage that a municipal bond offers is the interest on most municipal bonds is exempt from federal taxes and also state taxes if the holder is a resident of the issuing state. As with all bond they do come with a default risk, but hey the government is pretty stable when it comes to money. You should be aware that all bonds come with a default risk that mans that the promised interest that they will pay is not guaranteed. There is grading system for bonds from AAA being the highest and most trusted to DDD being a really raw risk. There are some agencies that rate bonds to give you a more clearer picture, Standard and Poor, Fitch, and Moody's are all options that you can check through to see your bonds particular rating. The lower the grade on a bond the more they are inclined to pay out on interest you have to just gamble with the risk if you want to take the chance.

A sure investment now but a trick one is the banks stocks or even better just plain old cheap stocks. Right now is an ideal time to buy bank stocks or any thing associated with the subprime losses of thus wonderful year of 2007. I say this because at any given moment the table could turn on these stock no one knows what the future holds for stocks of a particular company but with time a company can only get better or sold or at the worst go bankrupt! Some banks you can bank on are; Bank of America, Countrywide, First Horizon, Suntrust, Wells Fargo, T. Rowe Price, Davis Financial, Fifth third Bancorp.

Here are some stocks that you can invest in that are cheap due to their company being in a bad position;Winn-Dixie Stores,Northwest- Airlines,Sky-West,Spherion, Valero energy and Mowhawk Industries. The smart thing would be to do research on these companies to see what there future prospects are and could be then go make your pitch on their stock it would be like giving that ex- convict a second chance at a better life instead of judging him and ruling him out from his previous convictions.

Quote for the year 2008- Do it ,Jeffrey Love

Business

In today's news Capital One stock is down to $49.80 down from $2.63 for the previous day. In today's posting I want to give some advice to the people who run websites and are looking to cash in on extra income besides the money your company already brings in. These are a few sites that you can go to get web advertising that will create and additional source of income. Google.com/adsense which I am currently advertising with, adbrite.com, auctionads.com, vizu.com, and valueclickmedia.com.

Alot of people quit their jobs every year and in doing so lose focus and forget the main purpose of quitting. Remember all those times you aid you would do this and that but you did not have enough free time to do it. Well when you are in between jobs and have idle time people can often lose their focus. Word to the wise some solid advice; Hit the phones, and the e-mail list build relationships before you need them as these can be of vital importance later on down the road, during down time if you have things that are in dire need of being accomplished write a list and check it off when you accomplish a task in other words JUST DO IT! No procrastination. If you have a serious problem with motivation you can always hire a career coach. But remember time spent on coaching assignment could be better spent on networking and researching companies that you want to possibly work for. A very helpful website is called wetfeet.com it sells insider guides on individual companies.


For the person that wants to be a avid stock picker there is a wonderful website that I am a member of http://www.stockpikr.com/ Members can go and set up an account for free and you can create an online portfolio of the stocks that you currently hold after that you can view and compare information from thousands of other members portfolios, this which in turn will give you a more informed idea about you stock and also which stock to choose from.Might I add that you will have the chance to view professionals portfolios. Also I might add is that Visa is has filed for an IPO and will begin trading publicly sometime in 2008 this stock will have good aspects as its rival MasterCard went public in may at $39 a share and since then has quadrupled and is now currently at $209.60!!!!!!

There comes great news that every college graduate loves to hear at least me and I hate to say it but president Bush ain't all that bad in a way. In September Bush signed into law collegecost reduction and access act. This act cuts loan rates for current and future students, forgives debt for some graduates and clears up the rules for those 529 savers.

Rates on subsidized loans will be cut from the current 6.8% to 3.4% over a 5 year period. With the 529 plans withdrawals from accounts held by grandparents will no longer be taken into account for federal aid decisions.
As of July 2009 a new income based repayment program will be implemented it will cap the amount a student has to repay a year out of their income at 15% if their income. and after 25 years any remaining debt will be discharged. Also if a grad works in a public service profession such as teaching or social work and makes 120 monthly payments the balance of their loan will be forgiven! Sweet!

Quote of the day-Think Global act Local!

Business

In today's news The thing that we know as black friday the day after thanksgiving when there are deals like everywhere that you look but you have to get up early like 5 in the morning is over. We now should be looking forward to cyber monday this is supposed to be when all good deals are done while shopping on the internet.

For all of the people who are aspiring financial advisers there is a site that I have been actually a member of for a while that is like the ebay of money lending check it out http://www.prosper.com/. You can either get a loan or give a loan and don't worry too much about your credit score there are a number of individuals who will be bidding for your loan proposal or it can be the other way around where you can pick the loans that you want to fund and bid for them in an auction for more info check out the site it can be very helpful both ways to a lender and a potential loan customer.



For those of you that are interested in looking for Free money you can go to freefederalgrants.com for a host of information regarding grants very helpful site! For all of you with kids check out UPromise.com you can register all of your debit and credit cards and in return every time you spend you will get a percentage back and it will be entered into an college fund account for your kid.



If you are a well off individual or just maybe even a person that is stable with kids, you should always think about your death plan. Do you have life insurance?, a will?, a trust? Does your life insurance if you have any cover the cost of an education for child or children and all debts that will incur thereafter? These are some very serious questions that you should ask yourself and make sure you get taken care of if not now soon.

From my own personal research and opinion the whole financial market is a bit shaky nowadays the sub prime loan mess has really stretched to all corners of the market. You have the lenders who have been highly scrutinized tightening up their lending standards and practices which in turn is making everyone else tighten up their lending standards especially credit card companies! The federal reserve wants to jump in and save everyone from panicking by reducing interest rates. I have some important news for every one it is too late! Americans have been spending way past their income for years now, due to the market being loose when it comes to credit cards, when it comes to personal loans , and also home loans The U.S. is only reaping what it has sewed. It has been a long time coming for this to actually happen and the way the market is today is the way the market should have been years ago before everyone got into this spending craze.

If you are a big spender or you want to get out of debt now is the time if not you will surely be forced to do so by the way the market is going...

Quotes- If you fail to plan then you plan to fail.- Old saying

When you've got them by their wallets then their hearts and minds will follow.-Fern Naito

Business

In the news the dollar has hit an all time low against the euro, not that it has ever gone past the euro since it has been introduced in 2002 . For the first time in almost 30 years the dollar reached parity with the Canadian dollar. I know your'e thinking what does this have to do with me well for businesses that do business outside of the U.S. are being indirectly affected. The dollar was usually always stable but now recently htta has not been the case.African American CEO of Merril Lynch stepped down from his position Stan Oneil, on Oct 30,2007 because he had lost a tremendous amount during his tenure at the company.

As the subprime crisis of all the bad loans that were made in the recent years continues there are a number of forclosures on the market. Analyst say that these numbers will only grow as there are a number of interest only or ARM mortgages that are due to reset to their default rates. As of right now there are over 2 million homes that are on sale in the housing market. There are actually more homes for sale than needed. In other words demand is less than supply. So you know what that means. That means that homes prices are going to begin to fall in which they already are. Georgia has the highest rate of foreclosures in the U.S. why I really don't know but I will soon do some research to find out!

In the stock market as of Friday Nov 9,2007 it seems as if every one os in somekind of frantic selling off their stocks. Almost all of the bluechip stocks tumbled. Google for example started off on 2006 at about $200 Now it is at a whopping $663. On fri Google stock went down $29 thats ok I would put my money on them anyday they have proven time and time again that they are maximizing shareholder wealth. This is a good stock with potential as they are about to enter the mobil phone market sometime next year.

And China has banned all exports of the date rape drug tainted toys. Damn! It seems that every other weak there is something that they are recalling. As a kid growing up everything that I had that said Made In China on it seemed to be very cheap and of less quality. Now the low quality of all products made in China are finally coming to light! buy stuff that is made in America, China is sending crap quality products here in large quantities in a rush to get that money!

A word to the wise one good investment would be to go to the CNNMoney.com page and look up the IPO's For those that don't know what an IPO is It stands fro Initial Public Offering. It is when companies start going public and start selling shares of their company. Well Visa just hit the market check it out! new IPO's always start low and eventually of they are a good company then they will surely grow like Gogle for instance. Visa to me is a strong name to stand behind Check it out!!!!

Smart Spending

When I go out and spend my moneyand I have the time to sit back and think why did I buy that? especially when I am broke and whatever I happened to buy was expensive and I need that same amount of money but can't resell the item to get the money back or even get a refund because it was bought so long ago out of impulse spending. I want to stress the importance of disciplining one's self when it comes to spending and doing it so wisely!

The number one thing in every one's budget that is essential is food. So when you go shopping a good piece of advice to avoid impulse spending is to not go on an empty stomach. From experience I have done this time and time again and every time that I do it nothing comes from it but a bunch of junk food that I rarely get a chance to eat because it always expires or spoils, cause there is so much to cover by the time I get to it this is what happens. Word to the wise before going grocery shopping and also making meals one should plan well, they say planning could actually save you half off of a grocery bill. By planning this gives you an accurate assessment of what you need and what you don't need helping you to weed out any un necessary things that will stand in the way.

One thing that kills me about college students is that they love to go to convenience stores and shop for everything needed. Well this proves to be not so wise shopping. Convenience stores mark items up on average of about 60% more than the average grocery store. That same 2 Liter bottle of coke for $2 and some change that you are getting at The BP station can be about 60 cents at your local Wal- Mart you do the math! Dollar stores are a killer when it comes to hygiene products and almost everything in between. Always when shopping remember prices and compare this is your chance to save because stores do compete when it comes to prices!

Another good way to save is instead of purchasing Soft drinks, which are unhealthy anyway, is to buy concentrated drinks such as concentrated orange juice, or you can even save more on making tea all the time. One major savings that a lot of people are slipping up on today are the coupons being offered on the Internet. You can always Google coupons and subscribe to a coupon site where they will send you coupons for free to the email of your choice. All you have to do is print them out then redeem them at your local store for shopping. A good book that I do smart shoppers or wanting to be a more smart shopper is ''The Spending Guide'' By :Faye Prosser very interesting and informative and full of good advice and tips

One good major way to keep an eye on spending is to keep track of purchases by saving your receipts and also keeping track of all expenses that you occur monthly. At the end of the month one should sit down and tally up expenses, this will in turn give you a financial picture of where your money is going and how you really spend it

Spend wisely...

Knowing when the turkey is done!

Did I say when the turkey is done? Ok I was refering to a job in place of the turkey. Everyday each one of us gets up and goes to our job and in a rat race get off pick up the kids, go to the gym, go to school, or go to your second job. Whatever the case have you ever accessed your feelings? Have you ever got up and said to yourself God damn I really don't feel like working today? Well that is the beggining of one of the signs that your job isn't what you really want or you are not what your job needs. There are many signs that will reveal that you need to quit, I'll share with you mine. When you are unchallenged and you can look up your job ladder and it you don't see not that much room to elevate in your career. When you feel unchallenged, in my opinion it is time for you to re- channel all the energy that you are putting into something that you really don't want into something that you really like and want to do. I know you are thinking well I need this money, well at the same time you need a job that inspires you. In life we have to sacrifice in order to have certain things. Well I have seen and witnessed it time and time again and I'm sure you have too, people making sacrfices in order to have a big return in the future. Now is the time to take all energy and put it towards ations that will give you positive returns. One good insight is to be able to assess your situation and know when things aren't working out and be able to quit the situation and join a positive one. Channel your energy towards things that are more aligned with what you want out of life. When your situation is not improving that is another sign that it may be time to go..When you are feeling uninspired and drained but not getting any recognition time to move on were you can get some shine!


"Sometimes you have to get knocked down to get up!" Mystikal

Motivation

When trying to attain a certain goal it is always important that you plan a course of motivation. When digging deep down within yourself it is important to be able to find an obect of motivation. An object of motivation can be for the benefit of a child's better life, your own life, for the naysayers, or simply because you want to do something for yourself extrodinary. In my case I have always liked to prove others wrong, when someone says it can't be done that is what makes me shoot even harder towards attaining a goal or completion of something. When given anykind of information I do not take it like it is a solid word and that is the end of it, I personally always do research. The people that surround you often can help or hurt your personal progress, it is up to you to sort out the individuals that contribute to your upbringing vs. the ones who are bringing you down. It is very beneficial that you have friends from all different age levels from young to old. People and friends at different ages can contribute alot toward a persons development as we all know everybody knows something that the next person doesn't know. I consult with younger generationista espeacially about technology, and with the older associates more wise things such as decisions that are crucial to life.

Be careful of toxic relationships such as friendships, girlfriends, and boyfriends. People can bring you down in various ways wether it be consciously or un-consciously watch who you let in your circle they can make you be motivated or they can un motivate and breakdown the very process that you are buliding. Be careful and choose wisely motivation is one of the keys to a succesful endeavor.

Investing

When you invest diversifying risk should be the utmost importance. Diversifying risk by investing in many areas is the obvious best way to invest. As the saying goes one should never put all the eggs in one basket. Risk is defined as ; a hazard, a peril, exposure to loss or injury, thus this means that something you might not anticipate will occur and can occur. When investing your expected rate of return on your investment should be of major concern when choosing different investment options. Some different investment options include, Stocks, 401(k), Certificates of deposit, Mutual funds, bonds, hedge funds, etf's, and municipal bonds. For definitions to all of these you should go to CNNmoney.com. One initial investment options you might have would be to Find out about the upcoming IPO'S Initial public offerings that means the company's that are newly started up and selling their stock. These type of start up offer a lot of potential for as a lot of investors are putting their money into newly started IPO's. If you have a large sum of money in sitting in the bank never leave money in an account that always leave money in a vehicle were it can make a return of some sort anything is better than a traditional banks usual interest rate which would probably be at .5% to 1%

Fidelity.com also offers a lot of investors tools free for site visitors it also provides definitions to a lot of investment things such as Cd's and mutual funds. One absolute way to be financially sound when investing is to make yourself financially aware. You can make yourself financially aware in a number of ways such as subscribing to a a business magazines such as money magazine which covers a lot of different topics and gives a lot of different advice on financials. Subscribe also to financial news letter that can be sent to your email. Remember invest never let your money sit on idle and always pay yourself!

Retirement

Retiring or even thinking about it? No matter what age you are retirement is always a subject that should stay at the forefront of any financial plan you may be executing. Working with a financial advisor is great if you can afford one is always more beneficial. Here are some websites that will give you a modest direction in which to go (napfa.org, fpanet.org, garretplanning.com). Saving for retirement is a challenge in today's market especially if you don't know what type of vehicle in which you want to invest in that gives you the most secure return for your money. The real challenge is to make the retirement money you save last for the rest of your life s that you can live at least efficiently and comfortably. When saving ,you should keep in mind the type of lifestyle you want to live, modest, just enough , or lavishly. Americans have a longer life expectancy rate now which means a longer period of time for pensions to be disbursed, which in turn means that employers have to Shell out pensions for longer periods of time. Younger Americans are being forced to take their pensions into their own hands because of the ever failing Social security system. I receive a social security and earnings statement every year and they inform me that out of every dollar that I am paying out of my check that I will only be able to receive .72 cents out of every dollar back. That's a bunch of bull. If you ask me I'd rather manage my own money but on a broader scale every one isn't as financially literate as me so I would suggest that the social security system let individuals be able to make the decisions if they want to manage their pensions from social security or not when they first begin paying into the social security system. CNN.Money.com offers a number if useful tools about and for retirement. Suggestion When you are in your twenties one should tighten up on savings And set the record straight for good money management skills, its either now or suffer later. In twenties one should live within means, that means no extravagant spending, essentials only! You should also watch out for fees on anything you decide to invest your money into. In one's thirties they should establish a career, set goals and stick to them, and it wouldn't hurt to open up an flexible health spending account the tax advantages are great. In one's forties one should constantly increase contributions to retirement plan , monitor investments, and refine your retirement plan. In one's fifties one should check on state benefits, stay with your current stocks options, and come up with a tax strategy to get the maximum from pensions. One should definitely plan a strategic place to retire such as near relatives, in a town were it is retire friendly, and good nursing homes and quality hospitals. Live long and prosper!!!!!!!!

Online Banks Vs Traditional Banks

When it comes to traditional banking Vs online banking there are alot of some major differnces especially when it comes to the APR (annual percentage rate) On the average a traditional bank wil give back an apr of say .5 % as opposed to an online bank's average which will give roughly 5% back on average. Alot of consumers don't want to leave their current bank because they don't want the hassle of having to re-doing their dirrect deposits or the allotment for certain payments. Online banks are trying to tear in the market share of the traditional banks by offering consumers these perks such as high dividend yields and no atm fees. Its probably best to open up one right now while the battle is on. In my opinion it is well worth it to open one up even if it is a hassle the return will make up for it


At HSBC, an online bank there are no checking fees and you can manage your account anywhere in the world that there is an internet connection as oppsed to the traditional bank where you have hours that they are open like from 9 to 5. Another amazing perk of the online bank HSBC provides besides the high percentage yield is it's 3 free withdrawls from any bank per stament period. There are a host of other online banks that offer similiar perks and the same services that traditional banks offer such as E Trade, and ING.

Credit

How creditworthy are you? Lots of Americans go trough life not having any idea about what a FICO score is and how it could affect your life. FICO stands for Fair Isaac Corporation, a company based in California. Your Fico score is examined by 20 different factors which are divide in to 5 main categories. A quick breakdown would be that 35% is based on your payment history things such as timely payments and late payments. 30% is based on the amount you owe and available credit. 15% is based on the length of your credit history, a 10% value is based on your overall credit histroy such as the types of loans; mortgage, personal loans, credit cards etc... FICO also gives you a 10% premium based on your shopping around of better credit rates.

Your credit score can be from 300-850 the higher the better you chances of getting a lower rate when applying for a loan as well as even being able to get the loan. Managing good credit can help you get things like good small business loans , credit card rewards, a better paying job, and better insurance premiums. Credit gives you buying and saving power when used correctly snd responsibly can be a real saviour

Manage your credit and be responsible!!!