Commercial Surety Bonds: Getting The Best Rate (Part 1 of 2)
October 31, 2008
Commercial Surety Bonds: Getting The Best Rate (Part 1 of 2)
by: Michael Weisbrot
There is a great range in rates for commercial surety bonds these days. Principals can see premiums range from 1-15% of the amount of the bond. Even a small bond at 15% can be extremely costly. In part 1 of 2 of this article, we will review what bonding companies look at when deciding a rate. Part 2 of this article will discuss what you can do to better your situation to make sure you are at the bonding companies lowest tier rating.
Commercial bond underwriting takes more than just personal credit into consideration. In general, a commercial bond submission must include: a bond application with general information on the principal, business financial statements and or a resume on the owner(s), personal financial statements of the owner(s), personal credit of the owner(s) and possibly their spouse(s), and the bond form that must be used to create the original bond. There are specialty programs available for some classes of business that will require less information. However, these programs are far and few in between.
Office Design Tips
October 31, 2008
Office Design Tips
by: Danny DeMichele
Office Design Tips
Wherever you work, at a home office or at a work office, your office working experience depends entirely on its design and productivity. If you ask any experts, they will tell you that your office environment and ambience can tell a lot about your efficiency and productivity. A bad office design and an insipid office environment may dampen your spirit and seriously curtain your overall productivity. You may not have the required budget and necessary time to carry out a detailed office renovation work. Nevertheless, you can also make minor adjustments in your present setting to improve your working efficiency.
Here are some of the practical tips to boost your efficiency and overall productivity:
1. Make public your products and create an office brand. Create a niche brand for your company. Preferably your office must match your brand. A successful branding exercise requires that you make your office look and feel like your brand. Create banners, posters, cut outs and print out excellent business card to achieve this target.
2. Excessive noise makes you emotionally disturbed, leading to increased anxiety and stress levels. Pinpoint and recognize all those sources of disturbing noise and shut them out one by one.
Structured Settlement as an Investment Vehicle
October 30, 2008
You always hear people talking about the latest investment vehicle they’re using. It’s water cooler talk, dinner table talk, phone talk, it’s everywhere talk. People are always looking for a way to invest their money that might be a little ‘different’ from what others are doing. Buying a structured settlement is one of those options.
A structured settlement is where one party is awarded an amount of money that is to be paid out over a certain period of time. It is commonly the result of an insurance settlement or a life settlement where the insurance company is required by a judge to pay the victims an amount of money over time. The person who is awarded the settlement then knows they can count on $X.XX per month over the next Y years.
However, often people who are awarded structured settlements don’t want to receive the money over Y period of time. They want the money NOW. And why not? Often they can make better use of the money now than they could over 30 years, or sometimes they could better their personal finances right now and forever if they had a lump sum of cash right now for their structured settlement payments.
Credit Cards: Non reward Type vs Reward Type
October 29, 2008
Credit Cards: Non reward Type vs Reward Type
by: Michael Colucci
You’ve finally come to that stage in life when you can afford to own a credit card, not as a supplementary cardholder but as the principal cardholder. Finally, you’ve earned the right to have a credit card in your own name and to be able to purchase whatever you want without having to ask anybody else’s permission. But now that that time has come, you find yourself in a quandary - what type of credit card should you apply for?
There are just two basic choices for you - do you want a credit card that offers rewards and one that doesn’t?
The Non Reward Type of Credit Card
These credit cards do not offer you any reward points or bonuses no matter how many times you use their credit cards or how prompt you are when it comes to credit card payments. Instead, this type of credit cards allow you to waive interest charges for a certain period of time or avail of lower interest rates than those offered by reward types of credit cards.
Short Selling for Investors
October 28, 2008
Shorts. Let’s see. If there are shorts there must be longs. Which is best? Longs or shorts?
If you are trading in the stock the stock market experts like longs better than shorts. If you are "long" that means you own stock and that is "good". If you are short you have sold stock and that is "bad". At least that is what Wall Street preaches. And why do they want to make you believe this and is it true? Let’s examine the facts.
Today I hear stories on the financial news and there are articles in the paper that people who are "short" driving the market down. They have sold more stock than they own and this is causing the market to collapse. I even hear that Congress is trying to pass a law that will not allow people to sell short. They are blaming hedge funds who are allowed to sell short. The basic flaw in this concept is when a short sale is initiated it must be done on an up tick. That means the stock must be going up in order to make a "short" sale. No short sale may be made to pressure the market down. That is a fatal pin in the balloon of that lie.
Leadership In The “Gaps”
October 27, 2008
Leadership In The “Gaps”
by: Kreg Enderson
We often talk about the big debate about whether leaders or born or made. Are we just born with the all the skills and traits necessary to inspire others to want to follow us, or is it more of a process of learning these skills? While that debate will go on and on, there’s one thing I do know, you define yourself as a leader in the “gaps”. Those seconds between something happening and your response.
In this small amount of time, you show your people just what you value and who you really are. It’s in those situations when you have little if any time to think, you just react. In the “gap”, you rely solely on your character and values to drive your actions. No faking, no rehearsal, no second chance to get it right.
Credit Card Extras
October 26, 2008
Credit Card Extras
by: Peter Kenny
Depending on which company supplies your credit card and which credit card you have, you are likely to have access to a whole range of additional services that come along with your credit card. These will be different for all credit card providers who each offer their own benefits and advantages to their customers.
Some credit cards will offer you special discounts or benefits from specific stores or companies. So you may for example get a discount for all purchases you make from a specific company. This will especially be the case if the credit card provider is in some way affiliated with a store or major retailer.
Another benefit you may get from your credit card is when you rent a car. Many credit card companies will offer you car rental insurance when you use the card to pay for the car rental. The same may be true of booking flights or other travel purchases. A benefit of the credit card may that it provides you with free travel insurance. These are especially popular with American credit cards.
A New Way to Buy Prescriptions
October 26, 2008
A New Way to Buy Prescriptions
by: Scott Bianchi
Everyone is well aware of the problematic health care industry. It seems the more and more you pay for your health care benefits the less and less they cover. There are many factors that go into the reasons for this failing health care system and I won’t go into all of them. One of the easiest and most obvious reasons we can point to is the cost of prescription medication.
I am personally on a bunch of medications so I compared some of the prices on my medications. Let’s begin with Nexium (taken for acid reflux disease). My pharmacy, CVS, charges $151.99 for a 30 day supply. Walgreens doesn’t even offer this medication to get a price comparison. Costco sells that same medication for $130.67. I also checked Lisinopril (blood pressure). CVS charges $13.39 for a 30 days supply, Walgreens is $13.90 and Costco is $6.79. We are not talking breaking the bank numbers here if you break it down per customer. If you imagine the amount of customers just Walgreens and CVS service times the amount of the inflated prices you can easily see how much more the insurance companies are shelling out than they do not have to.
How to Find Value in No Load Mutual Fund Investing
October 25, 2008
What are you thinking when it comes to your no load mutual fund selections? Are you saving pennies and sacrificing dollars?
Are you spending your time looking at expense ratios, analyzing Morningstar ratings and searching for funds with low fees and no 12b1 charges? If you are like most people, you know these things in and out. You’ve spent hours evaluating them, and your chosen mutual funds cost little to purchase and maintain. But they still don’t perform to your hopes and expectations.
So, why is this happening? Because this kind of investing focuses on cost as opposed to value.
Investors with this philosophy have usually interviewed numerous advisors. But instead of trying to find someone suitable with a sensible approach, they only want to know who has the lowest fees. That’s like going to the cheapest auto repair shop and getting the best price, but your car still doesn’t run well.
Then there are the investors who call or email me wanting a recommendation on a no load mutual fund. They want one with no 12b1 charge, but they completely ignore the issue of how the fund might perform.
Why Do You Need a Payment Processor?
October 24, 2008
Why Do You Need a Payment Processor?
by: Hanif Khaki
Researching a topic can be frustrating sometimes. You search the web for information only to find much of it not exactly related to the topic you are searching for. This has prompted our experts to help provide better information for people like you. This article will try to help you by providing information that you can actually use.
Let’s be honest. Profit is what Business is all about. And profit can be derived from the payments we secure from our customers. How then do we boost the receipt of payments? An efficient payment processing system should provide the answer. Payment processing is what converts sales into realized profits. Without payment processing, your business could not collect payments, and thus will most likely fail. Without efficient payment processing, your business would needlessly suffer.
The importance of an efficient payment processing system cannot be underestimated. Payment processing, as many business owners will attest to, is the heart of your enterprise. It goes with saying then, that payment processing is an essential requirement for any kind of venture, online or offline.
