(Small business directory) Things That Your Bank Do Not Tell You About Mortgage Quotes

June 22nd, 2010 admin Posted in business No Comments »

By Dane Pearson

  Shopping for a house is probably the most significant financial decision that you will make in your life. When you shop for your home by first attaining a home mortgage quote, your decision becomes even more momentous-you need to perform a balancing act between the house of your dreams and factors such as the down payment and interest rate payable.

Your first stop in this process will probably be your bank. This is the most obvious option, but may not always be the right one; there are things your banker will not tell you about a home mortgage quote. In other words, the home mortgage quote that is good for your banker may not be the best one for you.

Prevailing interest rates

Take the issue of interest rates. Rates fluctuate according to market exigencies. When you start your negotiations for a home mortgage quote, the interest rate might be higher than at the time you actually avail the loan. You must keep a track of such fluctuations, and induce the bank to provide you with the advantage of the prevailing rate. Your lender may not tell you this, but the difference could mean several hundred extra dollars. Therefore, it is always a good practice to consider alternative information sources before finalizing the home mortgage quote, and then compare rates on offer. With easy access to the Internet, you can even generate online quotes from web sites. This exercise will help you prepare well for negotiating with your banker regarding the interest rate.

Mortgage tenure

The mortgage tenure is another important question that you need to query. From the point of view of the bank, a 30-year fixed rate is most suitable because it can bring in returns of up to 4-5 percent for the bank. However, is it good for you? If you are looking to refinance in a period of about seven years, a 30-year rate is a disadvantage because you would be keeping the loan for only seven years.

Hidden fees and levies

Once you have finalized the purchase of the house and the interest rate with the bank, you would think that getting the right home mortgage quote is guaranteed. However, you need to watch out for those hidden fees or “add-ons”, which your banker might not have explained at the outset: loan processing fees, warranties, insurance, and the like. It always pays to put these issues on the table before finalizing the home mortgage quote.

Disproportionate service charges

In your market research for the right home mortgage quote, your focus is obviously the lowest interest rate. However, this should not be your only guide because some banks attract customers with the offer of a low rate, but may levy charges for services that are non-existent. A real-world experience is of a Fairfield, Conn., graphic designer who discovered that his bank charges fees for services such as lender inspection and notary at a rate much higher than normally acceptable. It is a prudent step to compare the complete fee package before committing to a quote. It is important to remember that lenders often offer to waive a particular fee levied by your bank in an effort to close the deal. So, it is important to recognize such opportunities and press home the advantage.

Besides raising these factors, you must also consider issues that are more closely related to your personal decision-making capacity, and for which no banker can tender advice:

Be sure of the reasons for buying a house.

Ensure that the size of the house is right for you.

Choose the right time in the year to buy a house (there could be a particular time in the year when home prices drop, depending upon your location).

If you decide to involve a real estate agent in procuring your home mortgage quote, find the right estate agent and be aware of his/her commissions.

Select the location of the house carefully keeping in mind resale value.

Inspect the house thoroughly, identifying problem areas and factoring them into the price.

Getting a home mortgage rate that suits your requirement is one aspect, living with it is another. However, once you have understood the operating market forces in this arena, you will go a long way toward successful management of both these aspects.

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(Find a business) The Best Legitimate Home Business Idea

June 22nd, 2010 admin Posted in business No Comments »

By IFA Complete

  In search of an exciting legitimate home business opportunity? In case you actually want to operate a professional work at home enterprise, the best way to do that is to create your own.

So how do you discover a legitimate home business among all of the scams and schemes? Becoming a Freight Agent is without doubt one of the fastest growing occupations in the nation.

Notice that I said Freight Agent, not Freight Broker. The aim of trucking firms is to deliver freight and you can be the contact wanted to connect the truck to its next delivery. A Freight Agent is someone who coordinates shipments of freight.

A motivated and disciplined Freight Agent, who has acquired the correct training, can build his or her enterprise right into a six figure income potential. One of the reasons to think about a career as a truck freight agent is the forecasted employment development in the field. It is estimated that freight brokers accounted for over 10% of the transport industry, or roughly $forty billion out of $400 billion, in revenues. As a full-time agent, you can also make from $40,000 to well over $200,000 per year or more.

What You Will Need

Number 1 Freight Agents are required to be properly educated to deal with their business. Making an attempt to start out this business with out proper training will guarantee your failure and frustration. IFA Complete at http://www.ifacompletecourse.com is essentially the most comprehensive Freight Agent training course we’ve seen to date.

Number 2 Freight Agents must have good communication skills. Freight Agents want to be able to speak to clients efficiently and to negotiate the very best terms from freight carriers.

Number 3 Because Freight Agents aren’t Brokers and since they are often home-based, their start-up requirements are minimal and typically include a computer with high speed internet, a phone and a fax machine.

So, Where Do I Start

First visit http://www.legitimatehomefreightbusiness.info and learn more concerning the business. Absolutely you may have many questions that need answering prior to starting your new Freight Agent career like: How long does the training take? Does my state require a license? What kinds of hours will I work? Visit http://www.legitimatehomefreightbusiness.info for all of the answers.

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(Business phone directory) Credit Card Debts Shouldn’t Consume You! Think First About Possible Consequences

June 22nd, 2010 admin Posted in business No Comments »

By Josh Mcclure

  It’s been said that an average American has about 9 to 10 credit cards. Having that much credit cards simply means that you have high purchasing powers. You can actually just splurge on anything that catches your fancy; you don’t actually give out cash at that instant.

Credit cards are so popular these days. Everyone seems to be using one everyday. It’s also very easy to apply for a credit card. In fact, credit card companies are aggressively advertising their services so they could attract more people to sign up. Online and offline stores even encourage the use of credit cards by giving cardholders special discounts and promotions.

It’s really very easy to get caught up in a huge credit card debt nowadays. In fact, a lot of people are already suffering from great financial losses just because of some credit card debts they were unable to pay. Most people forget that when they use their cards to purchase, they would eventually have to shell out cash to pay for that.

Paying for credit card purchases are usually even more expensive. That’s because you would have to pay for the interests. And credit card interest rates do not come cheap. In fact, they’re high enough that you might feel you’re paying more on interest than the actual amount you borrowed.

Using your credit cards can really be addictive, but before you swipe your card, you would have to ensure that you would have enough funds to pay for your purchase. If not, you will soon find yourself caught in a huge debt cycle. Credit card debts are the most difficult to get out of, probably because of the high interest rates and the surcharges.

Just imagine the effect of a huge credit card debt on your finances. What if you’ll need money for emergency situations? If you have high credit card debts, chances are you won’t be able to use your credit cards anymore. That also means that it won’t be easy for you to apply for a loan since these kinds of debts reflect on your credit reports.

Irresponsible use of credit cards is usually to blame for your financial problems. So before you get another credit card, make sure that you’re responsible enough to handle it. Also check that the credit card company offers competitive interest rates. If they have low rates, you might consider consolidating your credit card debts and opt for a balance transfer.

Though it will really be very difficult to lower down a credit card debt, there are still ways which can help you, like debt consolidation. Also, you might want to minimize the use of your credit cards until you could pay off a large portion of the debt. Limit your credit card purchases to important ones.

If somehow you feel that you credit card debt has increased without you knowing it, you could give your credit card company a call so they can check for any fraudulent activities. Credit card companies will be happy to help you with any fraudulent charges so you can lower your credit card debt.

Experts sat that the wisest way to use your credit card is that your credit card debt should not exceed half of your credit limit. In this way, when emergency situations happen, you have some option to turn to. Low credit card debts also translate to better credit score, which means that you can avail of better loan and financing schemes.

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Having The Bigger Google And AdSense Profits With Articles

By Daron Soto

  How to get content using articles grow targeted traffic and get more money with Google AdSense program.

Today everybody is talking about good content and how important it is to have one on any site. Good, relevant content is so loved by search engines. Quality content is a powerful advantage in the Internet.

The demand for quality content gave second birth to article. I am sure you already tried to submit or write and submit article(s). Everyone does it now. My experience shows that nice content and good submission work give you a huge publicity online. With time article pages get bigger and bigger PR and keep sending you extra targeted traffic.

Even if Google, Yahoo, MSN change their rules, will this affect good content? Never. Internet is nothing without good, relevant content and good article is a nice content indeed.

This is when it comes really easy to understand that running your own article directory is a very smart thing to do in terms of Internet marketing, SEO.

The benefits of having article directory on your site are great:

- every day your site grows with new relevant content - articles;

- each new page is indexed by search engines, these are the pages with super relevant content, on your keywords, this means with every new article in your directory you score more on your keywords with search engines;

- each article page is a page with quality content, the Page Rank of article page grows with time - just think how many pages with nice PR you will have automatically;

- article directory gives you traffic from search engines, very targeted traffic, people who come to read and find, your site gives them super relevant content (tests on real sites prove that people click 10+ more pages in sites with article directory in comparison to 2-3+ clicks before article directory was created on this site);

- you have no problems with content, it grows itself, fresh articles, on the keywords you need;

- you can easily monetize the traffic with Google AdSense, if you have your own products/services in the niche - direct traffic from article pages to your subscription email or order page - you have the right to do that, it is your site.

So, having article directory on your sites is much better than not having article directory.

What can stop you from creating article directory for your site now?

#1. You do not have the skills. - Now everything is easy as programs do all the job. All you need is a professional tool for creating and running your article directory. You just install it on your sites, do setup and the rest is managed by the tool.

#2. Articles can be dangerous. - Yes, they can. If you plan to create directory with 200-1,000 articles in 2 days, search engines may think that you are a spammer. But who says to do so? Grow your directory gradually. 5-10 new articles a day are better than hundreds in a bulk.

Search engines like to see gradual growth of articles in the directory, so give them this gradual growth! All you do is picking up or declining articles. Accept about 10 top relevant and interesting articles and the tool generates pages, puts them in the category you choose, creates RSS feed for the pages - everything to get bigger attention from search engines.

Now you see, that the only problem with article directory on the site is the question of balance. When you try to squeeze everything at once, your directory will have the content, but search engines will notice your growth only once.

On the other had, if you are not trying to catch up with wind and care for quality of each article, the gradual growth will show much better results. Still, getting extra 10-20 new quality content pages every day is not a bad thing. Even if Google bosses visit your site every week, they will not say anything: you are not spamming, you are managing your directory, taking care of the quality for your clients and visitors.

Article Directory + Smart Efforts = Content, Traffic & Money

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Choosing An Adjustable Rate Mortgage

By Dane Pearson

  Adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) are appealing to many homebuyers, but what are the risks?

An adjustable rate mortgage is one in which the rate changes based on the market interest rates. The rate will adjust on a specific schedule, say once a year, after an initial fixed period. Fixed periods range from six months to five years. Some may have even longer fixed periods.

The risk in an ARM comes from having a payment that can change significantly. When you have a fixed rate mortgage, you know that your payment will be the same now, ten years and twenty years later. The payment doesn’t change because the interest rate is fixed.

When you choose an adjustable rate mortgage, you accept the risk of a rising payment in return for a lower initial interest rate. This rate is usually much lower than the market rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage. The more risk you accept, the lower your initial interest rate. The more adjustments the loan will go through, the more risk. The traditional thinking is that even after a loan adjustment, the rates will be lower than those offered to new borrowers for 30-year fixed mortgages. However, it does happen where this gap closes, especially in periods of rising interest rates.

The best time to get an ARM is when interest rates are on the decline. Despite the risk, an ARM can be beneficial to certain borrowers. While most advisors will tell you that a fixed-mortgage is the way to go in every situation, there are times when you should consider an adjustable rate.

1. The borrower needs extra cash for a while.

A lower initial fixed rate gives you more money in your pocket early in your loan term. For example, a one-year ARM with a 30-year term and a rate which adjusts once a year on the anniversary of the loan date comes with zero points and an initial rate of 5.625%. Let’s compare that to a 30-year fixed rate mortgage with no points and a fixed rate of 7.625%.

If you take out a $240,000 mortgage, the 30-year fixed rate payment would be $1,698.70 each month. The one-year ARM would have a monthly payment of $1,381.58. That’s a difference of $317 a month.

You could use that extra $317 to pay off your credit cards, make improvements to the home or save for retirement. But you want to make sure that you will maintain a lifestyle that can afford for your payment to increase. You don’t want to find that you cannot afford a higher mortgage payment when the rate adjusts upwards.

2. Buy more home.

Because of the lower initial interest rate, you can qualify for a larger mortgage amount and a more expensive home. Many homebuyers secure a one-year ARM with the purpose of refinancing them later. The low rate allows a more costly home, but a low mortgage payment. But remember that refinancing comes with closing costs. Do the math to see if you are really saving any money.

3. It all depends on the future.

If you plan to move or upgrade in the next few years, an ARM is a wise decision. You can benefit from a lower rate mortgage and simply sell the home and buy another before the rate adjusts. For example, if you plan to move in three years, why not go in for a five-year adjustable mortgage. You get a lower rate that won’t adjust while you own the home, as long as you sell during the initial rate period.

Make sure that the loan comes with no prepayment penalties. Make sure that you do some math. If interest rates go up drastically in those three years, when you buy a new home, you will be facing the higher interest rates. This could mean that you are unable to really upgrade to a larger or more expensive home.

Adjustable-rate mortgages are basically all about weighing the risk. You are getting a lower interest rate and payment for taking the risk of having to pay a lot more in the future. Some homeowners are experiencing this right now as foreclosures are on the rise. Many homeowners failed to calculate how much their mortgages could adjust to. Some have seen large increases that they are unable to afford. Do all of the math and always prepare for the worst case scenario when considering an adjustable rate mortgage.

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Great Short Term Profits With (business opportunity) Forex May Surprise You!

June 21st, 2010 admin Posted in business No Comments »

By Quintin Whitfield

  Forex can be amazingly profitable in the short term and if profits are reinvested over The long term as well.

Shares can be a great long term investment there is the case of the Long Beach, California, couple, who received $1,000 each as a gift at their wedding in 1896. Some of it was invested in 10 shares of William Seward Burroughs’ American Arithmometer Company, starting point of the Burroughs Corporation, now one of the leading manufacturers of business machines. Over the years, the couple diversified their holdings, but the essential element of their portfolio was Burroughs. At the death of the wife, the surviving partner, in 1958, the estate was valued at between $1 and $1.5 million.

Likewise, $10,000 invested in General Motors fifty years ago would now be worth about $6 million.

There is the doctor who never looked at the stock tables from one end of the year to the other, but who faithfully invested $1,000 in duPont every December 1. He bought high, he bought low, always following the dictates of the calendar alone. A more haphazard system of investment except for its regularity-would be hard to find. But because the stock was duPont, he made a fortune.

Something like this seems to be in the minds of many investors today. The New York Stock Exchange’s periodic tabulations of the “Favorite Fifty” stocks of Monthly Investment Plan buyers must delight the hearts of even the most conservative investment advisors. All by themselves, people are choosing the finest grade of security to rest their future hopes on. No wildcatting here.

A glance at current trading values does not seem to bear this out. Action is at a high peak. Three-million-share days are not at all unusual. It would seem that short-term trading is the rule. Part of this, however, is due to the fact that there is a vastly increased number of shares outstanding, and part due to the fact that most trading is being done with about 12 per cent of the lot. Some 88 per cent, in effect, have been withdrawn from circulation and sit in someone’s safe-deposit box, as an anchor to windward.

Backstopping this trend are the institutional investors-the insurance companies, mutual funds, personal trust and pension funds, mutual savings banks, college endowments, and non-profit foundations, all the great agglomerations of money which control about 16 per cent of all listed common-stock values. Such funds are never static. They switch their portfolios constantly. But since, as professionals, their scale of values is much like that of other professionals, they have all invested heavily in Blue Chips and do not trade capriciously in the hopes of finding something better. They are not rocking the boat, either.

What would happen if today’s sunny optimism were blighted by black fears is hard to say. The vision of several dozen institutions dumping stock in a panic-and of any significant number of the individual investors following suit-is quite dismaying. The market’s plunge on the news of President Eisenhower’s heart attack was one indication of what can happen. Other events obviously could trigger off a similar response, or a worse one.

On the other hand, the market has also shown tremendous resilience. It has come back strongly after each upset. As long as investors retain a fundamental faith in America’s economic prospects, disaster can very likely be averted.

This article is a guide to common-stock investment for newcomers to the market. It will go fairly deeply into theory and practice, and into the technical workings of the market, primarily because a grounding in fundamentals is essential to any degree of success. It cannot be stressed strongly enough that the operation of the capitalistic system, as reflected in the stock market, is a subtle and sophisticated thing.

Economists are still puzzled by the invisible forces to which it is subject.. For investors the problem is compounded by the necessity, not to explain the past or evaluate the present, but to probe the future in an effort to determine the possibility of profit. The interaction of the system and the human beings seeking to understand its pattern and dimension takes place in a market which acts and reacts with bewildering swiftness and paralyzing confusion. Only the investor who learns to take his bearings, and to reduce the array of alternatives confronting him by knowing beforehand what he is trying to achieve, will come out ahead.

For it is historically true that new investors appear after a trend has been established. Yet 48 per cent of our 12,500,000 investors have entered the market only since 1952. The vast majority have never known anything but a bull market and the happy accumulation of profit. The savage, dollar-destroying reversal, the bitter despair of a prolonged slump, the cruel retribution of overstaying a market-all these, for these people, are no more than theoretical.

Yet they are normal occurrences of the stock market, and will be again. When the break comes, it will be the inexperienced investor who will react too slowly, react in confusion, and thereby lose-and suffer-most.

This is not Old Testament prophecy. It is simply an emphatic statement of the necessity of learning the ground rules. For these apply every minute of every trading day, whether the market is behaving well or poorly.

This is a fascinating and fabulous period in which to be entering the market and acquiring your share of American business. The projections of America’s growth in the years ahead are staggering. Our needs and requirements will, in all probability, be enormously in excess of anything we have been used to in the past. If business and industry respond appropriately, the holder of soundly selected common stocks should do extremely well.

When we think of Forex, the main advantage is that considerable sums can be made in a much shorter period of time and reinvested to make more money. We do not need to have money invested over a long period as we do for best results with the stock market.

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Turning Your Dreams Into Reality With Secured Loans In The UK

By Keri Carrillo

  Secured Loans UK facilitate borrowers to avail of capital against the value of the asset placed as security with the creditor. The creditor now has the ownership rights to the asset, which acts as guarantee against the loan. Although the asset is normally in the form of a home, security can also be offered by placing any concrete property, a vehicle or a valuable asset as collateral. This is why; secured loans UK are often referred to as “UK Homeowner Loans”, “Secured Personal Loans UK” or “Second Charge Loans UK”. For secured loans UK, depending on the value of collateral, lenders are willing to offer large sums ranging from 5,000 to 75,000 or more and the repayment period extends from 5 to 25 years.

In the UK, Secured Loans have a very diverse and competitive market. Although they were primarily taken in a financial crisis, nowadays, they are used for almost anything: for taking that long awaited vacation, home improvement, education, to pay off pending bills, debt consolidation, to buy the car you’ve always wanted and to fulfil unlimited dreams and aspirations.

The interest charged on loans is known as APR (Annual Percentage Rate). For secured loans, it varies, depending on personal details of the borrower (like credit history), the loan amount, the loan term, etc. In the UK, interest rates are the lowest on secured personal loans. Typical APR ranges from 6% to 25%. Sufficient collateral with good financial conditions will get you the best interest rates and a more relaxing repayment option. Home and real estate property commands the lowest APR. Automobiles and title to motor vehicles too command a good interest rate, but higher than that in homes.

Lenders prefer secured loans uk because they come with a lower degree of risk. . Lenders are in no way interested in repossessing people’s homes or any other asset kept as collateral. Since, repossession, maintenance and liquidation puts a huge cost on the lender, he prefers repayment by the borrower. Only in extreme cases, when the loan appears to become a bad debt, lenders undertake repossession of collateral. Since the fate of an asset of theirs is on stake, not many borrowers in the UK would take the step to be irregular in repayments. Consequently, the risk involved in secured loans UK, is lower. Apart from the convenience in securing UK secured loans, cost is the most influential factor in the decision regarding UK secured loans. Secured loans are low priced, thanks to the low rate of interest.

As secured loans are backed by collateral, most lenders approve loans even in cases of C.C.J’s, defaults, county court judgements and arrears. This makes secured loans very attractive to people all over UK, who would otherwise not qualify for a loan from their local bank. If a borrower has exceptional credit history and good financial standing he can expect amounts ranging up to 125% of his property value. All this depends on how comfortable a lender feels with the borrower’s collateral and credit history.

Repayment options offered all over UK are very flexible although the options presented are no more different from Unsecured Loans UK. Borrowers find the process of getting a secured loan very dissuading. The solution to these impending problems is to look for a lender who offers online applications or completes the process with minimum documentation and a minimum encroachment on time and privacy. Once a secured loan application has been processed and accepted, a no obligation offer is made. It usually takes around 14 days for a UK secured loan to be completed and you can cancel any time within this period, with no penalties.

Every year there are borrowings worth billions of pounds by the UK nationals for Secured Loans UK. These are becoming more of a necessity to live and also to meet the high standard of living in the UK. Taking a loan is no longer a bad option; in fact, it is a more practical outlet. Shopping around and playing an active role in choosing the loan and its repayment options, gets you the best deals. An all purpose loans for any person has not found a better name than Secured Loans UK.

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Don’t Cancel Your Endowment Policy Without Being Carefully Informed

By Quintin Whitfield

  Back in the 1980s word went around that there was a wonderful new way to pay your mortgage. In those days the process of getting and running a mortgage was almost sacrosanct, and little variation was available. A fairly common route to take was to open an account at the Building Society of your choice, and to put in as much money as you could, the intention being to prove to said Building Society that you were prudent and could be trusted with their money.

When the time for a mortgage arrived, it was best suit on for an appointment with the branch manager to convince him of your dependability, and if you were successful you were given a (typically) 25 year repayment mortgage. Inflation was your friend because you usually started off committed to a monthly repayment which made yours eyes water, but as time went by the real value of this dwindled in significance.

When you had completed your 300 monthly repayments the property was yours. It was all very straightforward until the endowment mortgage arrived. With this you paid only the interest due, with a promise of lower monthly commitment. At the end of the term a sum would be handed to you which would be sufficient to pay off the capital sum of the mortgage and leave you with enough to enjoy a brief excursion into the wild life of regular meals and even exotic holidays, which in extreme cases may even have been outside the UK!

That was the dream which was eagerly taken up by many hardworking mortgage owners and unfortunately, also by some over eager salesmen. The sum necessary to pay off your mortgage was not guaranteed, and in the majority of cases it didn’t. Therein lies the formation of the mis-selling scandal; many building societies took great care to explain to their mortgage customers the modus operandi of the endowment system and the many pitfalls which could trap the unwary. Tragically many individual salesmen and some building societies omitted to adequately cover some of the less palatable facts.

This created great distress in some cases; figures produced for 2004 show that almost 7 million endowment mortgages were unlikely to provide sufficient funds to pay off the mortgage debts, leaving less than 2 million which should achieve their objective. Thus the flood tide of the 1980s which saw home owners clamouring for endowment mortgages suddenly became an ebb tide, with endowment holders looking for a way of getting back to the old system, or to one of the newer but more reliable alternatives. Great caution is necessary in this situation.

First of all you need to look carefully at your endowment mortgage to determine its value. If you are still in the early years of its operation, you will find that despite your monthly payments you have a document with very little value. This is because you have been paying the premium for the endowment agreement itself, the interest due on your mortgage loan and life insurance to cover repayment of the loan if you should die before completion.

A very important factor in an endowment is the terminal bonus. You will have received the benefit of annual bonuses along the way, but the terminal bonus is normally the very high value one; it could well provide more than half the final value of the payment which you will receive, but will be lost if you cancel. To make matters more difficult, the value of the terminal bonus is not guaranteed and will not be known until the endowment is fully paid up. It may be that you are in the situation where you will lose money whichever route you take.

If you do decide to proceed with the sale of the endowment, either because you need the money or because you are in the fortunate position where sale would be advantageous, you need to shop around. Certainly you should obtain a sale figure from the company who provided the endowment in the first place, but you are also free to go into the market place for these mortgages and see what offers you can get. It is very likely that the price which you will be offered in this way will be better than that which the original issuer is prepared to allow you.

You will find that different companies have different criteria relating to which endowments they would be interested in buying. For instance, some will not be interested if the sale value is below a certain figure, or may require the endowment to have been operational for a specific minimum period. Realistically you should seek professional help in reaching a decision; a company which has contacts within the Association of Policy Market Makers (which represents companies who deal in endowment trading) will be better placed to find you the best deal. There will be a charge for their expertise, but you should benefit from a better price and save yourself a lot of time, work and worry.

Remember that if you sell your endowment mortgage, you will fairly certainly also be cancelling your accompanying life cover and should ensure that you obtain a replacement policy, preferably before the cancellation takes effect. There is little harm in duplicating your cover for a short time, but there could be very unfortunate results from even the shortest period without cover.

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The (business phone directory) One Question to Consider Regarding Financial Freedom!

June 21st, 2010 admin Posted in business No Comments »

By Quintin Whitfield

  PREAMBLE: The only way to take control of your life, raise your standard of living and move beyond merely surviving is to create your own unique product or service that you offer to increasing numbers of people in exchange for the things of value that you desire. This simple formula applies to countries as well as people. A self-sufficient economy has its own products or services of value to export to the world. Similarly, a self-sufficient individual has something of value to exchange in the global marketplace. That thing of value is based on your natural talent, skill, or interest-in other words, your passion.

NOTE: The following article was originally written for the citizens of the island nation of Saipan. It therefore includes references of a nature unique to that nation’s economic situation.

When you think of what can help the you elevate yourself from your current economic situation, it’s important not to lose sight of a few important ideas and truths about money, value, and economics.

I. MONEY IS A MEANS OF EXCHANGE

No one ever gives you money except in exchange for something of value.

II. EXCHANGE IS THE REAL ISSUE

Don’t let anyone mislead you. The only reason we focus on money is simply because the world has agreed that money is the basis of exchange that we’re going to use. I have eggs. You have a cow. If you want what I have, and I want what you have, then we can exchange my eggs for your cow. But you may not want eggs. You may want something that I do not have. And I may not want a cow. I may want something you do not have, like a car. So we all agree that eggs are worth a certain amount of money, and that a car is worth a certain amount of money. I can now sell my eggs for money, and get the money to buy a car. But all I really did was trade eggs for a car, using money as the means of exchange. So it’s not the money that’s driving the economic engine, it’s the exchange.

Now, then, there are four ways that one can engage in the process of exchange:

1. You can accept money but give nothing in return (rip-off)

2. you can accept money and give a partial or corrupted version of what was expected. (short-changing)

3. you can accept money and give exactly what was ordered. (fair exchange)

4. you can accept money and give more than was expected. (exchange in abundance)

By the way, Exchange Method four, (accepting money and giving more than expected) is the only way to ensure one’s long-term survival and prosperity. But more on that in a future column.

III. PRODUCTS ARE THE BASIS OF EXCHANGE

“When a whole society demands a high

standard of living and yet doesn’t concentrate

on the personal production of exchangeable

products, it is finished.”-The Dynamics of Money

So how does one engage in exchange with the world? Simple. You need a product. A PRODUCT can be defined as “a high quality service or article in the hands of the consumer in exchange for a valuable. It is something that can be exchanged with other activities in return for support.”

IV. THE QUESTION IS…

So the single, most important question to be asked of those who steer the course of nations, its citizens, investors, business owners, and potential Saipanpreneurs is: WHAT ARE WE PRODUCING?

When someone suggests a solution to the economic situation, ask him, “Great idea, but what are we producing?”

When someone suggests an idea for how to get loans and federal assistance, ask her, “Great, but what are we producing?”

When someone suggests an idea for a business you can start, ask yourself, “What am I producing?”

If there is no production, there is no money-no real, long term money.

A FLAWED PLAN

I always tell my clients that any plan that relies too much on another person’s whim, good will or largess for its success is inherently a flawed plan. It may provide a short-term stop-gap measure, but there is no dependable future or control built in.

Selling someone the hope or possibility of doubling their money based on the internal programming of a slot machine is not exchanging something of value. It’s essentially giving nothing in return. It’s a rip-off.

Sure, you can call it entertainment if you wish, but at the end of the day, you’ve not improved your lot in life, because you’re not exchanging anything of real value that can grow, improve your reputation, bolster your self-esteem or raise your standard of living. Furthermore, since it is not based on anything over which you have any creative input or control, you cannot use it dependably to improve the welfare of the masses.

It’s not an industry into which any average person of entrepreneurial aspirations but meager means can venture. It’s a limited industry with power concentrated in the hands of the few.

Having people running around throwing their money into slot machines doesn’t automatically improve the lot of the general population. Sure, there may be some collateral spending in stores, new jobs in the hospitality/service sectors, but by far the biggest winners are the casino owners. From my own limited travel experience, I’ve been to Atlantic City, in New Jersey, and witnessed stark poverty just beyond the fences of prosperous casinos. There’s no guaranteed “trickle down.”

The danger in basing economic growth on simply providing a place for people to throw their money into slot machines is that the world doesn’t need another place to do that–least of all a place way out in the Pacific Ocean. Any place with better entertainment, a more convenient location or nicer hotels, will win the competition for tourist dollars.

And, it would be sad to think that the only thing this beautiful land and its people have to offer is a place for people to gamble money in search of an easy payoff. It’s a slap in the face of the traditional creativity, natural beauty, the spirit of self-sufficiency that have existed here for centuries.

A NEW DIALOGUE

If you continue to perpetuate the idea that we can be saved only by someone else’s money, then those presently without money are rendered powerless in the discussion. If, on the other hand, you change the dialogue to discussions of finding our “value” in the marketplace, then everyone can participate.

Without such a new dialogue, and the real, long-term solutions that come with it, we’ll perpetuate lowered expectations, and witness the downward spiral of self-esteem and hope that comes with the exclusive dependency on others for salvation. When a people subjugate themselves and their inherent value to the value of a dollar, there are things you cannot see that will be visible only in their absence. For a nation’s humanity, once lost can never be replaced.

IV. SUMMARY

Money is a means of exchange.

Exchange is the challenge to be solved.

Products and Services form the basis of Exchange

No production=No Money

The only real question, therefore, is: What Are YOU Producing?

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Don’t Cancel Your Endowment Policy Without Being Carefully Informed

By Quintin Whitfield

  Back in the 1980s word went around that there was a wonderful new way to pay your mortgage. In those days the process of getting and running a mortgage was almost sacrosanct, and little variation was available. A fairly common route to take was to open an account at the Building Society of your choice, and to put in as much money as you could, the intention being to prove to said Building Society that you were prudent and could be trusted with their money.

When the time for a mortgage arrived, it was best suit on for an appointment with the branch manager to convince him of your dependability, and if you were successful you were given a (typically) 25 year repayment mortgage. Inflation was your friend because you usually started off committed to a monthly repayment which made yours eyes water, but as time went by the real value of this dwindled in significance.

When you had completed your 300 monthly repayments the property was yours. It was all very straightforward until the endowment mortgage arrived. With this you paid only the interest due, with a promise of lower monthly commitment. At the end of the term a sum would be handed to you which would be sufficient to pay off the capital sum of the mortgage and leave you with enough to enjoy a brief excursion into the wild life of regular meals and even exotic holidays, which in extreme cases may even have been outside the UK!

That was the dream which was eagerly taken up by many hardworking mortgage owners and unfortunately, also by some over eager salesmen. The sum necessary to pay off your mortgage was not guaranteed, and in the majority of cases it didn’t. Therein lies the formation of the mis-selling scandal; many building societies took great care to explain to their mortgage customers the modus operandi of the endowment system and the many pitfalls which could trap the unwary. Tragically many individual salesmen and some building societies omitted to adequately cover some of the less palatable facts.

This created great distress in some cases; figures produced for 2004 show that almost 7 million endowment mortgages were unlikely to provide sufficient funds to pay off the mortgage debts, leaving less than 2 million which should achieve their objective. Thus the flood tide of the 1980s which saw home owners clamouring for endowment mortgages suddenly became an ebb tide, with endowment holders looking for a way of getting back to the old system, or to one of the newer but more reliable alternatives. Great caution is necessary in this situation.

First of all you need to look carefully at your endowment mortgage to determine its value. If you are still in the early years of its operation, you will find that despite your monthly payments you have a document with very little value. This is because you have been paying the premium for the endowment agreement itself, the interest due on your mortgage loan and life insurance to cover repayment of the loan if you should die before completion.

A very important factor in an endowment is the terminal bonus. You will have received the benefit of annual bonuses along the way, but the terminal bonus is normally the very high value one; it could well provide more than half the final value of the payment which you will receive, but will be lost if you cancel. To make matters more difficult, the value of the terminal bonus is not guaranteed and will not be known until the endowment is fully paid up. It may be that you are in the situation where you will lose money whichever route you take.

If you do decide to proceed with the sale of the endowment, either because you need the money or because you are in the fortunate position where sale would be advantageous, you need to shop around. Certainly you should obtain a sale figure from the company who provided the endowment in the first place, but you are also free to go into the market place for these mortgages and see what offers you can get. It is very likely that the price which you will be offered in this way will be better than that which the original issuer is prepared to allow you.

You will find that different companies have different criteria relating to which endowments they would be interested in buying. For instance, some will not be interested if the sale value is below a certain figure, or may require the endowment to have been operational for a specific minimum period. Realistically you should seek professional help in reaching a decision; a company which has contacts within the Association of Policy Market Makers (which represents companies who deal in endowment trading) will be better placed to find you the best deal. There will be a charge for their expertise, but you should benefit from a better price and save yourself a lot of time, work and worry.

Remember that if you sell your endowment mortgage, you will fairly certainly also be cancelling your accompanying life cover and should ensure that you obtain a replacement policy, preferably before the cancellation takes effect. There is little harm in duplicating your cover for a short time, but there could be very unfortunate results from even the shortest period without cover.

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