The Secret Investment Club: Managed Forex Strategies for Financial Independence
IntroductionManaged Forex Investment is an investment class that is normally only available to High Net Worth individuals as the regulatory authorities feel that they are too risky for the average investor to invest in. Welcome to the world of managed forex.With the financial markets in turmoil and people looking for ways to increase their income and returns on their capital, you may have noticed the increase in the number of adverts promoting becoming a Private Forex Trader. The advert normally goes something like this Earn 100k from home working a few hours a day and become financially free.Well there is certainly truth that with trading you can escape the rat race and become independent, but what the fine print fails to mention is that fewer than 10% become successful traders. These courses are trying to sell the pickaxes for the next Gold rush.If like me the thought of spending hours hunched over a computer fills you with dread, or that you don’t have the time because you have a full time job and can’t give up the next 12 months to see if you can become successful, this option would not be for you.There is however another way! Private Members Managed Forex funds, where your capital is invested in a fund and professional forex traders trade the account on your behalf.These funds come in two different forms, regulated and unregulated. The main reason I believe that a fund is unregulated is that it is run from an offshore location and the funds are co-mingled, in that individual investor’s funds are not separated from all other investor’s funds.The regulated funds though are only available to high net worth individuals who are introduced through Financial Advisers who only act for High Net Worth Individuals, normally those with an income of over 100k or a net worth of at least a million.Having undertaken research into Managed Forex Funds I have found a couple of funds that are promoted as Regulated with the appropriate financial authority.Regulated Funds Fund 1: This fund requires a minimum investment of 25,000 and is only available to high net worth individuals or certified sophisticated investors. To add to that there is an 8% introduction fee to the financial adviser and they also receive 50% of the return once you have achieved 12% in the year. Does that seem expensive to you? Well on the face of it yes, but if I told you the target return was 5% per month then it doesn’t look so bad.The problem with fund though was that the performance history of this fund showed a significant number of losses and only in the last 3 months had the risk management been sorted out to minimize the potential losses of investor’s capital.To me this fund was expensive on the fees, leaving the investor to take all the risk whilst the advisors make a great commission on your funds. Sounds like the banking and hedge fund industry to me. I would not invest.Fund 2: This is another fund which requires a minimum investment of 25,000 to get involved. There is also an introduction fee which is payable to the financial adviser that recommends this fund. Again this is a regulated fund with the appropriate financial authority. The target return of this fund is again 5% which is achieved using contracts for difference or CFD’s for short.When I asked the Financial adviser about this fund he was not able to provide me with a trading history and so I decided this fund was not for me.What I have noticed at this point is that these regulated funds seem to want to keep the average man in the street out of them and also appear to provide very good returns to the financial advisers who recommend them whilst leaving all the risk with the investors.Unregulated Funds Unregulated funds mean that they are not registered with a Financial Authority and normally operate out of an offshore location. I also believe they are unregulated as all investors funds are co mingled into one trading account. This normally is frowned upon by the financial authorities.Fund 3: This was an invitation only private investment fund, which was only available by invitation from existing members. It was unregulated and required you to pay a joiners fee of 10.Once you had paid your membership fee you could choose the amount you wanted to invest. The amount you earned on your funds was between 6% & 10% per month depending upon your level of investment.I had to say I was very skeptical about this fund and decided to watch a couple of friends invest in this. After about 6 months and them earning their 10% per month I thought it was time to try for myself. I invested some money and earned the 10% per month for the 4 months I was involved. Why only 4 months when you were earning such a good return? I hear you ask. Well the company went for FSA authorisation and the FSA told the fund to close down.My friends were in the fund for about 12 months and easily doubled their money and were fully paid out.My view is that I am still unsure about whether this was a legitimate investment or a Ponzi scheme. Myself and my two close friends got back all the funds they invested, but it did take a bit of time in my two friends cases. I am aware that some people who invested are still waiting for the return of their funds. For me the Jury is still out on this one, even though I made 40% in 4 months.Fund 4: This is another Private Investment fund which is by invitation only. This fund proposes a 6% a month payout and the contract term is 3 months, which can be rolled over at the end of the period. I am currently watching this fund as I have close friends who are invested in this fund.Fund 5: This is another Private Investment Fund which is by invitation only. This is another unregulated fund and requires an introduction from an existing member.The difference between this fund and fund 3 is that it is much more transparent and has three different trading strategies with monthly performance figures to back it up.Trading strategy 1 was started in January 2005 and has achieved an average monthly return of 3.58%. Put it another way it has achieved a compounded return of 1515% since then. The minimum investment is only 2,000 euros which makes it much more accessible to the average person.Trading strategy 2 was started in January 2007 and has achieved an average monthly return of 4.57%. Since January 2007 it has achieved a compound return of 1003%. The minimum investment in this fund is also 2,000 euros.Trading strategy 3 is a much higher risk strategy that has suffered more volatility in terms of monthly returns than the other two, and I don’t invest in it.To be a member of this Private members Investment club requires a payment of 249 euros and the club takes 2% of the initial sum invested and 3% of the sum withdrawn. Compared to the regulated options above this I feel is a fair deal.I have been invested in this fund for about 18 months and have achieved a return of about 40% over that period.Summary Many savvy investors are placing their investment funds in Managed Forex Investment funds for returns that are significantly higher than that achieved through traditional sources. Most of the Financial Authorities prevent the average investors from investing in these funds through setting high entrance investment amounts of 25,000 or prevent financial advisers telling you about them if you are not a High Net Worth Individual.To access these high return funds means the average investor must go to the unregulated market. In the unregulated market the minimum investment amounts are much lower but also there is a potential risk of loss, if you don’t invest with a company that has high integrity and many happy investors. Even though they are unregulated, there is a lot of social proof that some investors are making incredible returns on their funds if you know where to look.I hope this has opened your eyes to the secret world of Managed Forex Investment and how you too can gain access to returns that are 10 or 20 times those you can get at the bank. They are higher risk, but the returns are higher. At the end of the day you decide what level of risk you are comfortable in taking.
Insolvency and the Time Factor in Effective Decision Making
If there was one year know for the maximum number of corporate insolvencies, it was 2003. But that record was long past last year. The world is in recession. It is more like a nuclear mushroom cloud hanging overhead in economic terms. Recent high profile insolvencies and fears of insolvency like what happened with Dubai World, has placed insolvency law and issues at the forefront of press and media attention.All around the world, every county is seen rewriting its internal and external economic policy and standard procedures, altering it to suit the current economic climate and to tackle the expected and unexpected scenarios of the near future. And so the all corporate establishments are in various levels of restructuring and reestablishing themselves to suit a failing economic scenario. As much as liquidity is a concern so is insolvency. The impact of insolvency will be widely felt and can impinge on the interests of a society as a whole which is why we see lot of rewriting of existent rules and trials to create systems of better financial practices. It is not just the banks or the car companies and the large scale producers that are feeling the burnt of the economic downturn. The economic epidemic has spread its infectious shoots even into to ordinary and small scale sectors. And the directors of companies moving in the direction of insolvency face the risk being prosecuted for various offences if their decisions aren’t stead fast and timely.Many companies have shadow directors other than the registered director or a de facto director acting in a professional capacity of the director in which case there might be more than one person in the role of decision making which might be delay any decision making process. Hence directors or persons at risk of being deemed directors need to make sure that there are no objective grounds to suspect that the company is on the path to insolvency. In the case of a director being unaware of the company being insolvent they are at risk of being personally liable for the company debts. As there would not be many chances at correction the best possible time to seek profession help and support to tide over their insolvency fears is when they begin to see the real signs of danger like when your company is into continuing losses, inability to pay taxes in time, loss of credibility with the bank, lack of alternative source of finance or further equity, being pushed into cash on delivery terms, bouncing cheques and so on. The presence of only a few indicators is in good times is common to any company and may not indicate insolvency. But the multiplication of these factors over a long term and that too in a recessive market would indicate that you are on the route to insolvency. Appointment of either a liquidator or voluntary administrator would help prevent the director and the company suffering more debts and damages. In the event of the company becoming insolvent, the directors have the primary legal responsibility to protect the creditor’s interests.They might also face financial ruin when they are compelled to repay the debts incurred by the business – even in the case of an LLC. Though defense can be established on the grounds the director took steps to minimizing potential loss to the creditor, the whole process is not enjoyable by any yard.
The Impacts and Effects of Specified Laws and Regulations on a Given Firm
Every country has its own regulations, laws and regulatory bodies or agencies governing the manufacturing, sales, marketing and distribution of products within the country. Laws and regulations are purposely made for human beings and other institutions as a guide to bring order and sanity into the society. Because of this, it is likely that their application will impact upon the plans of firms; their effects on a given firm are also inevitable.An attempt would be made to discuss specified regulations and laws with particular reference to aviation and airline, environmental regulations, stock market regulations, banking regulations, research (and development) co-operation regulations, stock options regulations, labour regulations, intellectual property and social security regulations industry by industry and effects on the plans of firms where necessary.For example, the Airport High Density Rule (HDR) in the aviation industry was considered as controversial. This rule requires that no more than 155 flights take off and land at O’Hare Airport and at three other major airports in the country between 6.45am and 9.15p.m.That restriction was expected to keep number of airline operations at O’Hare during that timeframe and also to keep the amount of noise generated by aircraft. When this failed, a law was proposed to abolish the rule.On the tobacco industry, for example, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an agency of the US government published a rule on tobacco in the federal register to regulate the sale and distribution of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco to children and adolescents based on the health consequences of tobacco use. The rule specifies that anyone younger than 18years of age should not be sold cigarette and smokeless tobacco. The rule further requires manufacturers, distributors, and retailers to comply with certain conditions regarding the sale, distribution and promotion of tobacco products. Thus, vending machines and self-service displays were banned; billboards within 1,000feet of schools and playgrounds were also prohibited. This might have adversely affected firms who engage in such businesses.In financial terms, however, the rule is expected to produce significant health-related benefits, ranging between $28 billion to $43 billion each year based on the premise that many adolescents would not start smoking because of the rule; with the FDA estimating that the rule will impose one-time costs of around $187 million.With firms of all sizes, access to capital is of great importance especially when it comes to start-ups.Laws and regulations may affect the amount of investment available either from foreign or local investors or financial institutions. The most important regulations on capital are usually set by governments. These rules or regulations mainly affect the development of venture capital even though they are meant to guard against defaults. In the UK for example, the introduction of the business angel networks by the government to co-ordinate the flow of SME investment capital is proving successful-a positive effect. Also due to lack of access to pension fund capital in the European Union there is a limited institutional investment. In the case of the United States, most capital venture firms prefer to make investments larger than $3 million, while most entrepreneurs are unable to obtain more than $250 000 from own source and close relations.The impact of regulations on plans of firms especially those who are technology-based limits the venture capital funding for these firms and affect what they can or intend to do and eventually limiting their capabilities to employ new hands thereby affecting the socio-economic fibre of the society. For example, some government regulations even specifies the type of investors eligible to fund venture capital because of the high risks for certain classes of investors.In some countries, most firms’ source of financing is through the stock markets. In the UK for example apart from the London Stock Exchange, there is Alternative Investment market( AIM); purposely established to assist SMEs. Quite often, the rules on the registration, listing and IPO in terms of size, age ,profit and management set up are too costly and unnecessarily complicated for small and start-ups. This is known to hamper access to finance for most firms and invariably making it impossible for certain firms to pursue their plans and invariably their growth needs. Ghana Sugar Estate is an epitome of firms which are denied needed funding as a result of controversial restrictions on listing to the Ghana Stock Exchange. The effects of this is seen in the overgrown plantations of the newly formed sugarcane company in the Eastern Region of Ghana, loss of about £2,000 a day in revenue to the company and loss of jobs, and raw materials for most industries which depend on processed sugarcane for their work. The impact on the firms planning process is that funds will not be available to pay and maintain most of its qualified personnel.With technology-based firms like which need constant innovations, source of financing is key to their planning and so any regulations or laws meant to provide adequate source(s) of finance is welcomed.The NYSE has come under intense scrutiny to reform as there had been spates of irregularities in the exchange in terms of trading practices. Up till 2001, stocks traded in fractions of eighths and sixteenths i.e. 12.5 cents and 6.25cents respectively enabling a specialist buying a stock to sell to make at least 12.5cents.That has narrowed to a mere penny. This is as a result of decimalisation; a rule set up to change trading from fractions to decimals.Decimalisation reduces spread. The largest specialist firm LaBranche & Co., has been affected with a reduction of its market capitalization being halved to $474million in the past year. The effect of this regulation on LaBranche’s plans could be felt in its budget as funds might not be available. It will also have effect on its investors.Notwithstanding this, the impact of this decimalization rule is felt on NYSE which in the long term can tear the Exchange apart thereby affecting the very people the rule seeks to eliminate that is the brokers and specialists on the floor. The effect on NYSE’s plan is to start perform its 1.4b shares daily electronically. It is believed that if NYSE does not match its rivals like NASDAQ on automatic trading, investors can take their trades elsewhere and that means a lost of huge annual fees in revenue to NYSE and possibly lost of jobs.Until recently when it was announced on the TV a proposed credit regulation to improve transparency, the credit or loans market has been shrouded with secrecy that most firms were paying too much interest which affects their operations. Even though to the large firms the unavailability of the transparent credit regulation seem to benefit them i.e. their profit, on the whole it costs the SMEs to the extent that the US government has introduced new types of regulations that requires banks to report their lending to SMEs which are ranked and publicised by the government as a guide for potential lenders. In addition, in the United States, reforms to reduce paperwork, speed up loan approval and reduce costs have led a number of commercial banks to create new departments specialising in the origination and sale of small business advice and other guaranteed loans. At the moment some 60% of SMEs now rely on some form of bank credit.In Ghana, the government has put in place certain regulations which are believed to be in favour of small firms like First Allied Loans and Savings Bank. This company posted a profit before tax of about $2m, a lot of money for a new bank. The impact on the plans of this firm is the recruitment of the best human resources in the industry culminating in a position to compete favourably with old and big banks in the Ghanaian banking industry.However ,after deregulation in Britain, competition between banks and stock markets and among banks rose with loan increases to SMEs.Nationwide Building Society was one of such banks to benefit from deregulation. It can now compete favourably with other high street banks. Nationwide is creating more employment as a result of the deregulation law. The impact on the firm is that profit has increased and its members are satisfied and thus growth is imminent.In a world nowadays with improved, challenging and competitive immense technology innovation and know-how, new businesses spring up in this sector as a result of its dynamism. It is also another sector that has a strong interest in research and development in co-operation. These technology-based firms or enterprises, however, are incapable to engage themselves for in-house research activities. To this end, therefore, there are as well numerous regulations most popularly the antitrust law. Known also as the Sherman Act, this is meant to prevent monopoly. Microsoft was accused of using its position in the software market to maintain its monopoly in operating systems. It was also accused also accused of using its operating system monopoly power to dominate the browser market and that Microsoft bundled its browser into its operating system to try to force Netscape out of the browser market. By antitrust standards, a judge gave an extraordinary ruling describing Microsoft’s dominance of the PC operating system market as “applications barrier to entry” and by that Microsoft held its prices substantially above the competitive level. The effects of this law on the plans of Microsoft is that consumers will now have more choice and so Microsoft will have to come out with more innovations to attract more customers and maintain its position in the industry now that there seem to become a competitive market place where all kinds of innovation can thrive. Regulators now appear more powerful and Microsoft will have to reconsider other related laws when planning. The impact on Microsoft’s plans in the long run will in my opinion be positive bringing about more improvements in the PC operating market.Another area with regulations of concern is intellectual property laws or intellectual property rights (IPR).The reader’s digest word power dictionary defines intellectual property law or rights (IPR) as ”an intangible property that is the result of creativity, e.g. patents or copyrights.” Just as research findings are commercially traded by the owners or universities, patents and copyrights are also traded. Although, the filing of patents is generally known to be inefficient, slow and costly with the system usually in favour of larger firms, its absence could have brought about chaos in industry. For example a French court ruled against internet search powerhouse Google Inc.in an IPR case for linking a trade marked search terms and ordered Google to stop. The impact on Google is yet to become significant but it is obvious that it immediately sent a message to them to review their plans on their IPO which will in effect affect their business plans leading indirectly to a fall in profit as a result of the effect of the restriction on the search services they provide.It is widely accepted amongst academics and executives in the business world that, the main assets of most firms is their personnel in other word their human resources. There are a number of employee-related regulations and laws in terms of labour, on recruitment and hiring of workers; social security with regard to retirements, pensions and health benefits; and the newly introduced stock options to compensate employee.The costs and benefits of such regulations are enormous considering the fact that employee-related issues are somewhat at the fabric of the organisation.In many countries the regulations ranging from fee-charging recruitment services, working hours to social benefits limit the freedom of business executives and entrepreneurs to operate usually in terms of hiring and retaining qualified workers. Some regulations on labour also restrict the recruitment and dismissal of personnel, payment of overtime and use of part-time and temporary workers. Coyne (1998) writes that The European Union Directive on the Organization of Working Time which establishes a maximum 48-hour working week including overtime is considered by smaller firms to be interpreted in an inflexible way thereby restricting their ability to make best use of their labour resources. These really affect the firms because they are unable to recruit the best of personnel they might be looking for which could indirectly affect its operation(plans) as most banks choose to deal with firms with most well- qualified personnel. However, to those on the other end of the spectrum, the limitation on the maximum hour regulation is of great benefit and has had positive impact on the plans of the firm. London United Busways Ltd. for instance has recently recorded its lowest accident rates as a result of the ceiling of EU maximum driving hours a day (and week as well) thereby preventing tired but money-seeking drivers from driving. The company can now rely on the services of recruiting agencies to cover for the extra hours. The long-term benefit to LUB is that it can employ few workers, give them overtime to cover the needed hours and save some costs on pensions and sick pay to workers. The impact on the plans of LUB is that customers’ confidence in the company will increase and enhances its corporate social responsibility stance.It must be emphasized here that, the introduction of stock options, which are a new and valuable approach to compensate employees, are prohibitive, excessively regulated or heavily taxed in a number of OECD countries.However, as a result of securities rules governing it, the issuance of stock incentives and fiscal rules for their taxation makes it popular with most US small or start-up firms. It is widely used by firms like Yahoo and Google in the early stages to recruit and or keep employees in the company. Even though research into this area is ongoing, it is claimed that they have helped in the high growth of the IT and software sector at the Silicon Valley with particular reference to Google which has managed to keep its best human resources over the years, the impact on the firm is even on the brand image and attributes that it has acquired for itself giving it a competitive advantage over the likes in the IT sector and also generating employment for a lot of new ambitious graduates.Certainly health insurance market is another area which is of great concern to most governments as a result of sandals and fraud.Recent studies into health insurance regulations have concluded that state regulation of insurance issue, renewal and rating in general either reduces health insurance coverage or, on net, has no impact on coverage. Some of these regulations, however, presume that regulations may change the risk distribution of the insured population, raising coverage among high-risk groups and individuals but lowering coverage among low-risk groups and individuals, with no significant impact on overall coverage. The studies also assumed that insurance markets are competitive, and therefore, that higher price is an inevitable effect of regulation. Smaller insurers with increasing returns to scale may respond differently to regulation than larger insurers with relatively constant returns to scale.The effects and impacts of laws and regulations on the plans of businesses cannot be overemphasized as the above indicate. Recent insurance scandal in Britain’s oldest insurance company, Equitable, nearly caused its demise.Equitable’s crisis is alleged to have started as a result of loopholes in regulation governing British insurance industry when it emerged that it did not have sufficient funds to honour guaranteed annuity policies to a large group of policyholders. The immediate impact on the Equitable insurance was that a court ruled that it closes all new businesses meaning a fall in services leading to huge debts and also lost of trust and market position to the insurance community and public as a whole which will inevitably force the mutual company to change its business plans and operations.Throwing more light on this article, a brief look of recent stories and reports might be appropriate.An Oxfam report in Metro of February 9, 2004 edition, reports that some companies particularly Tesco, Taco Bell and Wal-mart were accused of exploiting workers especially women in the name of lower production costs with unpaid overtime, low wages and unhealthy conditions as a result of lack of regulations.In the UK, the recent spate of financial scandals leading to loss of pensions for retired workers has prompted the government to put forward a bill in parliament to avoid future loss of pension funds to retired workers.Another story filed by Georgina Littlejohn in Metro of February, 23, 2004, alleges that UK’s crumbling infrastructure is holding back British businesses. It is claimed that new Government measures announced in July 2004 to help boost transport efficiency in the road and rail sectors have failed to be an effective solution resulting in loss of “man-hours” with 37% saying that lost time has a significant impact on their businesses. This costs the UK firms at least 15 billion pounds each year with each firm losing an average of 27,000 pounds.This is a pointer to the fact that regulations could also be costly to businesses and firms and can negatively or otherwise affect their business plans in the long run.Nevertheless, it is important to say here that the empirical results presented here, rest on few observations of laws and regulations and it is suggested that further studies must be conducted to confirm these findings and opinions.As the interests of business do not always coincide with the broader interests of society, governments might still have to intervene with laws and regulations to achieve goals other than profits.
7 Gout Alternative Treatment & Medicine Tips
Alternative treatment and medicine for gout relief is becoming more popular as gout sufferers turn to other, more natural, remedies for their gout. Some are looking to use these instead of their mainstream drug-based treatments, while others are using them to compliment them. Either way it’s definitely worth discussing gout alternative treatment and medicine with your doctor. He or she will, perhaps, be quite open to some of these because they know that there isn’t a ‘medical’ cure for gout yet. Here are some alternative gout treatments that you might wish to try…7 GOUT ALTERNATIVE TREATMENT & MEDICINE TIPS1. Drink water to help your kidneys flush excess uric acid out of your system. A minimum of 12 eight-ounce glasses a day has been suggested.2. Keep a close eye on your diet. Since the breakdown of natural chemical compounds called ‘purines’ into excess uric acid in your bloodstream is at the heart of your gout, it makes sense to try to keep away from purine-rich food. Foods such as poultry, dried legumes, shellfish, red meat, game and offal are all high in purines, so should be avoided.3. Eat vegetables and fruits that are high in vitamin C., particularly oranges. Vitamin C. can reduce uric acid levels in your bloodstream. Make these part of your ’5 a day’.4. Some studies have shown that drinking coffee – both decaff and regular – reduces uric acid levels although, exactly how, no one knows.5. Blue-red fruits such as cherries, blueberries, strawberries, grapes etc. are also known to be beneficial, especially cherries.6. Herbal remedies have been around for thousands of years. Herbs such as; Nettle, Juniper, Hawthorn, Garlic, Devil’s Claw, etc.7. Gently exercise the affected joint. Exercise helps to strengthen the joint, reduce stiffness and increase flexibility.There are other things that, although they don’t fall into the category of ‘gout alternative treatment and medicine’, you need to be aware of. Things like your weight, family history of gout / arthritis, body pH, underlying medical condition, etc. Understanding all these contributory factors as well as available alternative treatments will ensure that you are better placed to get rid of your pain and prevent your gout returning. Prevention is particularly important since frequently recurring gout attacks can end up in permanently damaged joints.
Best Student Loans – Analyze Federal Assistance and Private Alternatives
“Best student loans” is a very frequent subject for students who desire to continue their studies and aim to a superior level – academic education. The expenses for university education should not be at all neglected, cumulated expenses usually make impressive amounts of money but this is not an impediment for students who attempt to finish their education and to enlarge their professional chances. Federal government have created particular applications with the intention to assist the students who can not manage to pay for their studies as they do not possess significant amounts of money at the time.These loans can take different types, most common and easy to get to are federal loans and private loans. A derived type of loans deals with students’ necessities, it is a different federal loan and it concerns other eligibility standards. Students are supposed to examine each category in order to obtain the best students loans. In order for them to be offered the best loans, students are required to verify every category.a) Federal loans can take various forms, according to students needs. Many students and parents insist to catalog federal loans as the best student loans.
Stafford loans have an extremely large accessibility. A major part of the students meet the conditions to submit an application for this type of loan. Stafford loans can fall too under two other categories. They may be provided by the government or by any private lender (most of the time private banks). One more criterion to differentiate Stafford loans is the interest cost. There are two other categories of student loans – Subsidized loans, and the interest is paid by the government, and unsubsidized loans – when the student pays the costs. These are definitely some of the most suitable student loans, you are given such loans if you fulfill certain eligibility standards.Perkins loans are configured to encourage students with financial problems and they are the most useful from the best student loans. Even if you may identify them as “best student loans”, compared to Stafford loans, their applicability criteria are correlated to the financial situation of the applicants.b) Private loans are satisfactory alternatives to the monetary restrictions settled by federal loans, as long as federal assistance could not ensure the total cost for education expenditures. You should first take a careful look at the conditions ought to be met by these loans, as the interest rate is much higher and you can not obtain a grace period that federal loans may provide.c) Parental loans are referred to the help parents provide to their children in the final step of their academic life. If they possess the necessary funds to co-finance the costs academic education requires they should also meet some conditions. The most common one is credit check. Not so frequently categorized as “best student loans”, parental loans may represent an alternative for parents to help their children.Every student meets certain demands at some stage in their studies or after finishing their studies and best student loans are a advantageous solution for the financial section. One thing to keep in mind, they make part of a tax system that is exclusively created to offer the same opportunities to all students who are willing to get to the academic stage in education. Inform on private or federal options and decide on a few best student loans and decide whether or not you fulfill eligibility criteria.
The Pro’s and Con’s of Self Managing Your Florida Vacation Rental
Whether you own a beach home on 30A, a villa in Destin, or a condo in Panama City Beach, there are a lot of things to take into consideration before putting your vacation rental on a rental market. Does your unit need to be updated with newer furniture? Do the electronics need to be updated? Fresh paint? The list goes on. You will also need to determine if you will hire a professional management company or manage your vacation rental yourself. Self-management has its pros and cons and is not for everyone. Vacation rental listing websites like Flipkey provide a lot of self management tools for your vacation rental, but they don’t mention the daily tasks that come with the management of a property. To help you determine if you want to manage your property yourself or hire a professional management company, consider this list of Pro’s and Con’s of Self Management.Pros of Self-ManagementManaging the property yourself can save you commission fees. Some management companies charge as much as 40% commission to manage your vacation rental.You have complete control of who enters your property.Cons of Self-ManagementYou must find and manage your own housekeeping team. – A professional management company will inspect after a unit has been cleaned to make sure the housekeepers are cleaning the property to your guests expectations. Nothing turns a rental sour quicker that an uncleaned unit.You have to have a good list of contacts for maintenance and repairs. When the A/C goes out, or the garbage disposal gets jammed, who will you call? Most management companies have on staff maintenance and a list of preferred service providers to take care of issues quickly to minimize disruption to your guests vacation.You must make yourself available after hours for air conditioning issues or guests locked out of condo (etc). The phone rings at 2:00 AM to discover the guest left the key in the condo before they left for a night out on the town. How will you get them into the property? A management company will have after hours attendants that can issue new codes or retrieve existing codes to help guests get back into the property.You will spend a great deal of time doing marketing. Do you have a website for your property? Where will you market your property? Who is answering your rental inquiry emails while you are at work or spending time with your family? Do you want to answer calls concerning your property and the proximity of restaurants or shopping? A professional management company does all of that for you with professional marketing, websites, and knowledgeable, professional customer service.Execution of rental contracts via fax or email. Your rental contract must be written to ensure the safety of your guests as well as the safety of others and to protect your investment. Will you hire an attorney to write your rental agreement? Will you collect these via mail or email? How will you enforce the terms if a guest violates them? A management company will execute all rental agreements electronically at time of booking and have already done the leg work of crafting a rental agreement that allows you to rest knowing these things have already been taken care of.You will have to collect rent payments. Accepting rental deposits by check gets dicey sometimes especially when a guest books a stay 5 days prior to arrival. Will you mail a key before you receive a check and have given it time to clear? You could set up a merchant account to accept credit card payments over the phone but you will also have to pay monthly fees and a percentage of each transaction to do so. Also, if you collect damage deposits, you will have to refund those after you verify there was no damage to your property. A professional management company already has a merchant account and can receive timely payment prior to allowing access to your investment.You will have to do your own evictions if a guest becomes unruly. There are many factors involved in doing a legal eviction if a guest becomes unruly or violates occupancy or age restrictions. A professional management company knows the ins and outs of this process and will take care of these issues for you.You will have to pay your monthly taxes. It’s a time consuming process and one that must be done monthly to ensure you are legally renting your property. Depending on where your property is, there could also be local tourism taxes that must be accounted for. Failure to know all of the required taxes could cost you money in the long run.You will have to obtain your own license to rent out your property. This one is also very important. The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulations requires all transient rentals to be licensed under Section 509. A professional management company will take care of licensing your property for legal transient vacation rentals.Managing your own property is very time consuming. Managing a vacation rental is not a hobby, it is a part time job at its least demanding time, and a full time job during peak seasons. Take a look at your existing schedule and ask yourself if you can take on additional responsibility right now.A vacation rental management company makes owning a vacation rental property fairly painless by taking care of all of the non-glamorous tasks of owning a beach property. If you do decide to self-manage, I wish you nothing but success and that all of your guests are great people.
Healing Aspects Of Water In Spas, and Pools
The health benefits of water are vast. We have water aerobics to help reduce strain on muscles. We have birth pools where babies born into the water are lifted in mother’s arms into the world. They say that woman with water births and babies alike are calmer, and more relaxed. In some cases it reduces the use of pain relievers. That says something right there about the power of warm water. Do you have to be exercising or birthing babies to enjoy the relaxing aspects of water? It is no wonder we created spas.Imagine coming home from a long day at work, one of those days where everything went wrong. Imagine that you have a hot tub in your backyard. You enjoy dinner, you get the kids to bed and you slip into your swim suite. You grab a glass of wine, your husband and for about fifteen minutes you soak in warm water. As you soak you’re not realizing that there are actually health benefits to this. You will sleep better, your muscle aches will lessen and you may even have less instance of back pain. Just the experience is relaxing, but the water is healing.You use warm water for therapy pools. The health benefits include, improved flexibility, strengthen muscles, reduce swelling, reduce pain, and alleviating symptoms of most medical conditions. This option is particularly alluring because when joint stress and pain are reduced exercising is easier. In fact, like home spas therapy pools can be installed in one’s home. No crowded gym, no locker room, and no traveling to get there.There are a few things you should know about safely using warm water. The water chemistry must be carefully maintained. As with a swimming pool you must monitor the PH levels and add the proper chemicals per package instructions. It is important to note that a safe temperate for pregnant woman is very different from that of a safe temperate for someone not pregnant. Another consideration is that although children are safe to enjoy water activities they need supervision. Further it is recommended that you reduce the temperate or give them shorter intervals in the heated water. Another safety concern is that all users should have their hair up or be careful to not sit near any suction. You could get your hair sucked into a drain and have your head trapped under water.Water is healing and vital to our lives, its no wonder it is healing as well. Finding the time to relax can be a challenge sometimes, but it too is important to your well- being. Therapy pools, spas, water aerobics and even a swimming pool can start you on a healing path.
Mind-Body Wellness – What Does Spirit Have to Do With It?
For some of us, attaining mind-body wellness appears to be a daunting task. Some of us are so accustomed to seeking and finding our favorite ways to avoid feeling uncomfortable. Depending upon our prior experiences and personal preferences, we may turn to a specific familiar and comfortable activity to avoid self-reflecting and facing our own internal, and sometimes painful, emotions. We may choose an obvious addictive-type activity, such as abusing chemical substances, pharmaceuticals and recreational drugs, compulsive sexual behaviors, workaholism, or gambling or we may chooses a less obvious avoidance activity such as excessive exercise, uncontrollable shopping, or even emotional outbursts and excessive talking.Our internal and external energy fields are affected by the people and environments we gravitate toward. Our physical vibration actually synchronizes with others. It is common knowledge that two young ladies who spend a lot of time together tend to develop synchronous menstrual cycles. However, most of us do not realize that all of our organ systems and brain patterns also synchronize with those around us.Studies are finding that overweight people who spend time with overweight people or happy people who spend time with other happy people, tend to sustain their current weight, current attitudes, and current demeanor. However, if an overweight person is surrounded by thin, health conscious friends and colleagues, that person may begin to synchronize and more easilyn make choices that help him or her to lose weight. A happy person surrounded by depressed and negative people may gradually lose his or her positive outlook and happy smile.How can a person begin to alter a lifestyle that is not leading to mind-body wellness?First step is always AWARENESSPay attention and tell yourself the truth about where you are currently on the mind-body wellness continuum.Second step is to OBSERVE your thoughts and actions.Acknowledge how these affect your choices and behaviors that alter your mind-body wellness.Third step is to FEEL your energy level.Consciously notice whether you have a high, medium, low or hyperactive level of energy and determine what factors may be related to your current energy level.Fourth step is to TUNE INTO your emotions.Determine whether your emotions are balanced and within your conscious control or if they are either excessively controlled or unpredictable and out of your conscious control.Fifth step is to REALIZE AND DEFINE your passion.If your passion and joy is elicited by negative, self-defeating, harmful or even illegal activities, you need to dig deep inside your mind, body and spirit to discover the core truth about your passion that has somehow been repressed.Sixth step is to RECREATE your passion.Seek and find that high level of focus, intensity, animation and pleasure that you have either completely suppressed or have placed into an unproductive pursuit.Seventh step is to ACCESS your own inner being.Find a way to access your inner spirit, your soul, the wise one within you,Through some form of focused internal activity that leads to personal relaxation, contemplation, meditation, and spiritual connection.Eighth step is to find a systematic way to RE-TRAIN your own mind.Scientists have discovered the brain’s neuroplasticity, it’s ability to adapt and change and create new pathways, brain patterns and brain maps throughout life.Finally, as you begin to regain your own mind-body wellness, you are able to grasp the concept that everyone and everything is energetically connected. You begin to understand that we are all spiritual beings claiming our own birthright to the enjoyment of the wonders of creation.When your own mind and body are finally in balance, you naturally connect to a place of depth within your own self, a place of spiritual alignment. Life becomes easier, less of a struggle, less of sense of fighting upstream. Life becomes less of an effort to “do” something and more and more of a willingness to “allow” life to unfold gracefully.What does it take to create such a high level of mind-body wellness? All it takes is a sincere desire and taking daily small steps, one day at a time, one situation at a time, one moment at a time, even one thought at a time. The road to mind-body wellness is a very simple, straight and narrow path. It is available to all who seek it.Are you ready and willing to create your own mind-body wellness now?
Corporate Technological Insecurity – Document Software Management
The dynamism of the technological sector within today’s society is unstoppable. For this reason, many employees use their own mobile devices to access their company’s network. This tendency, called BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), is being adopted fundamentally by younger workers that use their own devices for professional purposes to avoid having to carry different smartphones or tablets with them.The risk of this radical initiative lies in the lack of security since these personal devices are completely out of the corporate administrator’s control. This is demonstrated in an international survey conducted among young workers by Fortinet. The company chose young employees for this analysis as they are considered to be the ones who will spread BYOD to the rest of the workforce.The report published by Fortinet indicates that three out of four workers use a personal mobile device to connect to their company’s network. The main reasons lie in the advantages of BYOD highlighted by the respondents, which are immediate and nonstop access to corporate data and more efficiency. On the other hand, half of the respondents are conscious that this way of working increases the risk of malware. Thus, companies are now exposed to two new dangers: the insecurity of their corporate data, and the risk of their network being infected with a virus.To solve the problem of data insecurity that a company may face because of BYOD, organizations should secure their networks, not the personal mobile devices used by their employees. The danger does not lie in these mobile devices, as more and more tasks are being performed remotely, but it lies in the workers’ corporate network access.Misappropriation of corporate dataThe lack of corporate security is also reflected in the conclusion of a study commissioned by the company Iron Mountain, which interviewed 2,000 employees of all ages and sectors in Germany, Spain, France and Britain. The report states that one in three employees (32%) has been taking or forwarding confidential information out of the office on more than one occasion. In addition, the survey reveals that half of European workers (51%) takes corporate information with them when they change jobs considering that it will be useful in their new position.Meanwhile, companies are extremely concerned about the control and confidentiality of their corporate documentation, and are rushing to adjust their data protection policies before the new European Union legislation comes into force. After all, their employees are taking highly confidential information that is essential to its reputation, competitiveness and customer satisfaction, outside the company.In fact, companies that are concerned about information security tend to focus on protecting their digital data, which highlights the need for document management software to adapt to each individual case.The study further suggests that a lack of specific information regarding data management policies or an inadequate application of these policies can be a decisive factor in cases where information has been lost. Only about half of the respondents (57%) stated that they clearly knew when documentation is confidential and a third (34.4%) confirmed that they were unaware of the existence of company guidelines as to whether or not the data could be used for non-corporate purposes.Document technology software manufacturers also play an important role in aspects such as safety, preservation and confidentiality of information, as they can and should make companies understand the IT risks that they might face. For example, they can help them discern the right time to transform their corporate architecture to safeguard an asset of great importance as is the privacy of corporate data.In fact, much of the success of implementing security policies lies in the awareness of employees and in its daily course of business. This means that ignoring a company’s security policies would jeopardize the safety of the organization.For further reading see: Fortinet and Iron Mountain
Avoid Online Business Loan and Business Cash Advance Applications
Commercial borrowers should avoid submittals of application forms for commercial loans until after specific lender interactions. Business owners should especially avoid online applications for business cash advances and business loans, and this commercial funding article will describe how and why to avoid the online application trap involving commercial loans.Business owners and commercial borrowers will consistently find an almost limitless supply of internet sites for commercial loans. Most business cash advance websites will include some version of an online application. Here is a four-step process for avoiding the unwise use of applications for business loans.The first step is to avoid the initial temptation to submit a commercial loan application online. It does appear to be convenient for a borrower to apply for business financing online. Perhaps some borrowers are attracted to the anonymous nature of the online business finance application because they have been previously annoyed by sales tactics and evasive answers in loan discussions.Many commercial lenders have contributed to the pervasiveness of online applications in large part because they are fearful of losing some competitive advantage by not having this capability. However in attempting to match their competition, business lenders and brokers are sacrificing the best interests of their commercial borrower clients by facilitating the online application approach for commercial loans.The second step is to understand why it is essential to avoid an online application. Applying for commercial loans via a website is similar to submitting a resume without previous research or discussions when seeking employment. What makes an online business loan application even more risky and inadvisable than the anonymous resume example is the usual inclusion of tax identification numbers and other sensitive financial data on a commercial funding application document.Online applications have several critical problems. First, there are always potential security breaches during transmission (as well as before and after transmission). Second, there is a significant loss of control by the commercial borrower in the use of their social security number or tax identification number for checking credit (since many online application processes will result in checking credit before any personal conversations occur). Third, most commercial loans are simply too complex to initiate by an oversimplified automated process. Beginning the business cash advance or commercial mortgage process with automated applications is similar to skipping pre-game warmups and coaching pep talks prior to kickoff in a football game. The easiest approach overlooks too many essential preliminary steps.A suggested third step is using an alternative and improved approach to the online business loan process. The simple and pragmatic solution to the online application dilemma is to insist on preliminary personal discussions with an experienced advisor before submitting any form of commercial finance application. A suitable and ethical commercial lender will not ask a commercial borrower to submit any application until the borrower has completed a thorough discussion with the lender confirming that financing is appropriate for a specific financial situation.Of course it should be anticipated that some commercial lenders and brokers will attempt to minimize the potential problems associated with an online financing application. In such situations, borrowers should search for a commercial loan advisor who routinely emphasizes an individualized and conversational approach to commercial funding.The fourth step is to explore additional resources that will facilitate a better understanding of complex finance issues. The Commercial Real Estate Loans Guide and The Working Capital Management Guide are two examples of financing resources that will provide strategies for many problematic circumstances dealing with small business cash management.