Your Credit Card - Know It Like It’s Your Best Friend
September 30, 2007
Your Credit Card - Know It Like It’s Your Best Friend
by: Rod L’Huillier
The use of credit cards in Australia is escalating possibly on the back of a good economy breeding confidence although do people know how to service this debt and how much it could be costing?
Australians owe $32 billion in credit card debt, according to Reserve Bank figures, and some experts predict this will balloon to almost $50 billion by 2009.
Thats a staggering figure and as it would it appear it’s definately on the rise with Baycorp Advantage, a credit information provider, saying that credit card applications were up 11 per cent on last year with 875,000 applications for credit cards in October, November and December.
This is the concern, only seven years ago, the fees incurred on cards was $136 million but they have now soared to a staggering $787 million. This is partly due to an increase in the charge for late payment from $20 to $29.
Analysts it would take five years of minimum repayments to pay off the $2399 shown by the Reserve Bank to be the average credit card debt in December. The average credit limit rose to $6754.
Successful Investors Have Learned to Talk Their Walk!
September 29, 2007
Successful Investors Have Learned to Talk Their Walk!
by: Dr. Scott Brown, Ph.D.
Today, English is the most widely spoken and written language on the planet. English was first spoken in Britain by Germanic tribes in the Fifth Century AD. At that time it was known as the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) period. During the Middle English period (1150-1500 AD), many Old English word endings were replaced by prepositions like by, with, and from. We are currently in the Modern English period which started in the Sixteenth Century.
The number of words in English has grown from 50,000 to 60,000 words in Old English to about a million today; the largest of all languages by far. An average educated person knows about 20,000 words and uses only about 2,000 words in a week. Despite its widespread use, there are only about 350 million people who use it as their mother tongue.
It is the official language of the Olympics. More than half of the world’s technical and scientific periodicals as well three quarters of the world’s mail, and its telexes and cables are in English. About 80% of the information stored in the world’s computers (like this text) are also in English. English is transmitted to more than 100 million people everyday by 5 of the largest broadcasting companies (CBS, NBC, ABC, BBC, CBC). It seems like English will remain the most widely used language for some time.
Size Counts!
September 28, 2007
What the heck am I talking about?
It is often said that to grow mentally, spiritually, emotionally and personally that you have to stretch and move out of your comfort zone. I definitely believe in this concept, however… When it comes to day trading, swing trading or position trading stocks, futures, options or forex, going outside your comfort zone can be dangerous!
Let me explain… Say, a trader is used to buying 100 shares of a stock at a time with the average value of $50/share. He/she is very comfortable with putting this amount at risk. They never experience any anxiety and can sleep well at night at this level. However, watch what happens when these traders decide to up their ante to 200 - 300 shares.
All of a sudden they are worried about every tick against them and start riding an emotional roller coaster based on the current price of the stock. At these levels they become much more emotional and their judgment becomes cloudy at times. Now they start making bad decisions that never occurred at the 100 share level.
Top Ten Ways to Design Each Part of your Book to Sell More
September 27, 2007
Top Ten Ways to Design Each Part of your Book to Sell More
by: Judy Cullins
Whether you are an ebook author/publisher or a print book author/publisher, you can get your unique, helpful information out to your audience. You’ll help make other people’s lives better, become a household name, gain clients, sell more books and make much more money when you design each part of your book to attract more readers.
Format and design your book’s insides, front and back matter so it will sell the minute you publish.
Book Designing Check and Correct List For your Book’s Front and Back Matter:
1. Put book cover in 4-color design as first page. Rather than do it yourself, hire a competent cover designer. For business books, check out MaxCovers.com. He designed four for me.
2. Create a title page after the cover with your publishing information, and copyright.
3. Make an extra testimonial page to insert right before your table of contents. Testimonials from the rich and famous, media, man/woman on the street, and happy readers convince others by their endorsement to make your book a top seller.
Options Education : Opinion versus Fact!
September 27, 2007
The most basic aspect of trading is learning to differentiate between what is FACTUAL and what is OPINION. If you stay interested in the financial markets long enough you will discover that there are a lot of sharks out there who have become expert at making that task very difficult.
Several subscribers of this newsletter have contacted me over the last few weeks asking for my opinion of certain promoters who also advocate Options Trading Strategies. I make it a point to not comment on other services. However, without mentioning any names I feel that it is necessary to inform you of some of the most common and deceptive practices used by some promoters.
One of the great appeals to Options trading is that there are so many possibilities and trading strategies that can be used to manage risk. However, most services when promoting options like to demonstrate the tremendous REWARDS that are achievable. Although tremendous gain is possible, options are considered speculative instruments and potentially very risky in untrained hands. Since an Option gives the owner the right to buy or sell something for a specific period of time the OPTION is considered to be a deteriorating asset. Since all options have an expiration date, if all things are considered equal, the closer you get to that expiration date the less that the option will be worth.
Secured Loans - What Are The Benefits?
September 26, 2007
Secured Loans - What Are The Benefits?
by: Joseph Kenny
There are a number of benefits to taking out secured loans as opposed to unsecured loans. First of all, if you are a home owner and have the ability to offer security to a bank or other lender, then you will have a much better chance of getting credit. Lenders are always very worried about risk, and the biggest risk from their point of view, is that you will be unable to pay back the loan. Therefore, if you have provided them with some form of security, then they will be far more willing to lend to you.
Your Credit History
This is true even if you do not have a perfect credit history. The fact of the matter is that lenders will be willing to overlook your poor credit history simply because you have the ability to provide them with security against the loan.
More Available Capital
What’s So Small About Your Business?
September 25, 2007
What’s So Small About Your Business?
by: Anne Duncan
There is nothing ‘small’ about running a small business. Usually it takes more effort than running a large business. You have to act as CEO, Accountant, Director of Sales and Marketing as well as Human Resources. What is so small about that?
When asked the predictable question “So, what do you do?” often a small business owner will reply “I own a small business” or “I run a small graphic design company”. How does it help your business when you refer to it as small?
Instead of saying, you run your own tiny PR Company, how about saying you run a communications firm.
The point is, when you use the term small; it is open to interpretation by the listener as to what the word ‘small’ means. How do they define it?
You may think small means: “I can handle work for mid-size companies, up to 200 employees”. Whilst the listener might be thinking, “Too bad they can only handle businesses with under 50 employees; my mid-size company could certainly do with their help.”
How To Avoid Getting Into Identity Theft Trouble
September 24, 2007
How To Avoid Getting Into Identity Theft Trouble
by: Robert Thatcher
The credit card industry seems to be growing at an unprecedented rate. According to some statistical reports, the average American household has at least one credit card. In fact, from the total respondents in the survey, 81% of the households have at least one credit card.
This goes to show that more and more people are enticed to get their own credit card. The reasons for doing so are based on the fact that credit cards offer extreme cashless shopping convenience. Hence, everybody seems to be motivated to get at least one credit card.
However, the travails of the credit card industry do not end here. This is because the reality that evolves on the credit cards does not just depend on the way people use credit cards but with the way on how they use it and protect themselves.
What people do not realize is that the manner on how they use their credit cards can greatly affect the way they live. For instance, frauds and fraudulent activities are very prevalent in the industry and the best targets of the culprits are those who use credit cards whenever they are into shopping.
Try Fixing This!!!
September 23, 2007
Try Fixing This!!!
by: Thaddeus Collins
Everyday, consumers are subject to circumstances that could have an adverse affects on their current living standards, these include the loss of a job, or demotion from a higher paying position that adds to the already tense situation they have been placed in. These types of situations are the ones that tend to lead to the loss of credit due to the financial setbacks, these setbacks can take months or even years to fully recover from, but the good news is that, It Can Be Done.
Eventually these consumers find a new job or move to a better paying position, and the only thing left to do is fix their bad or negative credit that was created by the previous setback. The only problem is that fixing bad credit is not as simple as it seems, evidenced by all the credit repair books available to the consumer, but it can be accomplished. Credit repair or restoration is a daunting task that requires patience and persistence, and if you are just recovering from a financial setback it may be advised that you do not enter into this task lightly.
Starbucks-China Blend: A Slam Dunk Grande
September 22, 2007
Starbucks-China Blend: A Slam Dunk Grande
by: Joseph Pratt
Admittedly, there are few genuine “can’t miss” propositions. But I’ve got one for you, Starbucks in China. Giant corporations being granted carte blanche in a totalitarian environment are reminiscent of an age when kings granted exclusive licensing for fur trapping. Starbucks has the product, the relationships, and with some nimble campaigning they’ll have the ubiquitous branding in no time. It will be game, set, match - if it isn’t already.
China is the emerging powerhouse economy in the world today, but it is not a free-for-all for foreign companies. Many companies, in America and elsewhere, would maintain it to be quite the opposite. China has garnered a reputation for being rather lax in its enforcement of intellectual property laws. Tech companies in particular, such as Microsoft, have been frustrated in seeing their handiwork pirated in China. You may add golf club manufacturers, music companies, movie studios and any number of industries to the list of the aggrieved.
