Month: May 2022

Save $10 Per Day and Become a Millionaire

Can you pass a candy or soda machine and not purchase something? Can you go to the mall with your friends and not come home with something? If your friends invite you to the movies, can you say no? Do you spend your entire paycheck? Do you have long-term goals such as buying a car, going to college or buying a home?

The fundamental building block to personal wealth is learning to live below your means. In other words, SAVING you money! That’s it! That’s the big secret to becoming prosperous. Granted, there’s the question of what to do with the money once you have it saved; but if you cannot adjust your living expenses so that you create and maintain a regular saving plan, there’s no need discussing the rest. I am sure that you will find the appropriate investment such as a home or retirement.

What if, every day you put your spare change in a piggy bank, jar or box? How much do you think you would have at the end of a month? If you invested your money earning an average of 7%, you could reach your goal. You could earn $5,394.00 in ten (10) years saving $1.00 per day and you only invested $3, 650.00. Long term save $10 per day and by the time you retire (50 years) you earned $1,587.699.00 and only invested $182,000.00. New cars cost over $20,000 and houses/condos cost more than $300,000. But once you get in the habit of saving, you can increase your savings to meet your long-term goal.

A good rule of thumb is save ten (10) percent of your earnings. When do you want to own a home? Setting a reasonable time frame such as by the age of 30 is the first step. How much do you think you will need to buy your first home? If you put 10% as a down payment, you would need at least $30,000. If you invest as little as $20 per week for twelve (12) years and earn as little as 7% per year, you will reach your goal of $19,906.00. You only need to add $100 and you met your goal. Congratulations.

There are many saving techniques that can make it easier to achieve your goals. One of the best techniques is setting up a payroll deduction from your paycheck into your savings account. What you don’t see, you don’t spend! As your savings accumulate, you can automatically invest your money. You are now on the road to meeting your goals.…

The Basics Of Forex Trading Interventions

Central banks continue to sustain their big role in modern day’s Forex market, even after losing absolute control to trading ranges in late 1980s. Here are a few hints that every Forex trader must know. Since the dark days of the Bretton Woods Accord, a time when currencies were bound to each other at a 1% range, foreign exchange markets have gone through a big change. In the past 30 odd years, the globalization of the economies, the technological breakthroughs and the staggering growth in investment funds and commodity trading advisors have expanded the daily trading volume in Forex to trillions of dollars.

Central banks make use of Forex for a number of reasons; one of which is making payments. On the contrary, when Forex exchange is involved, the trader’s focal point goes to market interventions. People usually wonder if central banks are involved in profiteering at all, because of the way they manipulate specific currencies when foreign exchange is at the summit and lowest point. However, even if major central banks are often successful with long term because they never speculate in Forex, they typically lose in the short and medium terms. Their actions are often for keeping exchange rates from getting dangerously low, which has a negative effect on exporters, and restoring orderly conditions in the market.

Only foreign exchange is involved with unsterilized, or naked, interventions. The Fed, for example, only conducts Forex with countries with external currencies like Japan and Europe. However, in addition to the effect on foreign exchange rates, an intervention has a rather unpopular side effect to major central bankers, as seen on monetary supplies. Because of this, economical levels often require significant changes to pricing and interest rates. A naked intervention always leads to long term effects.

A sterilized intervention, however, promptly reflects onto the monetary supply, making it a tool of choice for traders. Sterilized interventions are known for short to medium term effect, but that is more than enough in foreign exchange.

If not done wisely, interventions can also affect traders negatively. Interventions can be both damaging and beneficial at the same time, so understanding the concept behind it is very important. Central banks may reverse the trends, slow it down, or intervene with the market to provide liquidity and protect specific levels from variation. Because central banks promptly answer to compromising trends, traders are restricted from expecting a mechanical approach.

In case of a crisis, a currency pair or several currency pairs may be affected, thereby throwing off the market either in terms of pure havoc or imbalance between the pairs. In case one side of the pair goes astray, central banks are there to supply it and keep the market running. However, there is no guarantee the bank will operate this way. In case it does, do not expect the bank to cover the entire market losses, as they will only be there to provide a minuscule backdoor for traders.

Actually, central …

Hybrid and Electric Cars

Honda has reached over a quarter of a million hybrid sales since 2001. Ford and Lexus are nearing 200,000 global sales each of their various hybrid cars. Clearly the market for these cars is expanding.

One of the early drivers for the shift in mentality about hybrids is the appeal that celebrities generated. Some celebrities, like Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Will Ferrell, and Leonardo DiCaprio, purchased hybrids in the early days of the vehicles to make a statement about what people can do for the environment. Back in 2006 there were fewer hybrids on the market, so the majority of celebrities helped to make the Prius the top seller as they were photographed with the sleek little car. As the number of hybrid models increased, so did the number of celebrities wanting to show they too were part of the new trend towards going green. When he turned 18, Justin Bieber was given a $100,000 sporty hybrid, the Fisker Karma, one of the most advanced, most luxurious electric cars available today. This has undoubtedly helped bring environmental consciousness to the young teen generation.

While celebrities made hybrid ownership trendy, the unpredictability of fuel prices coupled with the growing number of different types of hybrids has made the global consumer see the economic benefits of the hybrid. The Prius has perhaps the best record, getting roughly 50 mpg in town and 48 mpg on motorways. The Honda Civic gets about 40 mpg in town and 45 mpg on the motorway. The Mercury Milan and Ford Fusion average 38 mpg in town and on the motorway. As these cars have been around for longer, the statistics on them are more reliable, but new types of technology are emerging that will create all new types of vehicles. Honda has developed a zero-emission vehicle, the FCX Clarity, powered on hydrogen. Solar electrical cars, like the Solar Prius, include a solar panel roof. The two most intriguing new car companies are, Tesla, which has created an electric cars that are sleek, sporty, and completely electrical and the Fisker Karma, the first true electric luxury vehicle with extended range and the freedom to plug in or fill up. With the ability to toggle between the all-electric Stealth Mode or fuel assisted Sport Mode.

Given the higher cost of purchasing a hybrid, the typical consumer may ask how long it will take to break even. Since fuel prices remain unstable and the cost of both the vehicle and fuel vary from country to country, the results have a range that makes this a difficult question to answer. The lower cost hybrids usually take longer to break even, with the Prius taking roughly 7.5 years and the Civic Hybrid taking over a decade. However, the higher end luxury hybrids, like the Lincoln MKZ and Mercedes-Benz, take roughly 5 years to recover the difference in cost. The real difference is seen in the amount of money saved monthly as hybrid owners spend less time at …

Offering Leasing Can Boost Sales

Businesses often use leasing finance so that they can get the equipment they need to operate, be it a new car or van, some new catering equipment or the computers and other IT equipment needed by their back office staff.

Why do businesses choose to lease rather than to buy? For some it is because they cannot raise the cash any other way, the banks not being as free with their money as they used to be. For others, who could raise the cash that way, they chose to go down the leasing route as leasing does not affect their ‘bottom line’ of credit in the way that a capital loan does.

Others go for leasing as it enables them to reduce their tax bill in a more favourable way than renting or purchasing (be sure to check with your accountant here if you decide to lease).

There is still another group who prefer to lease as this often includes yearly upgrades, something that can be very useful in fast moving areas like Computers and Information Technology.

The reasons for choosing leasing are therefore plain to see, so it makes sense, if you are a seller of cars, vans, catering equipment or computers to ensure that you can offer any potential customer the ability to acquire what they need using leasing finance.

Why the above may sound simple enough, it is not the sort of thing that is easy to set up with your (friendly?) bank manager. No, you need to talk to the specialists, those finance firms who have the structure and experience to help you help your customers.

In the UK there are quite a few players in this market place, so you do have a few to choose from (always better that way). What you need to look for is a company that is sound and most importantly customer focused and efficient. It must be said that many companies in this area are ‘helpful’ but this does not make them efficient.

To be efficient in the area of leasing equates to having the right structure and processes in place, the right IT systems. Plus above all, access to funds and a sympathetic attitude to financing businesses (at least as sympathetic as can be expected these days).

So, when deciding which leasing company to offer to your customers, give them all a ring, ask them how long it takes to make a decision (the good ones will be able to get back to you within hours and some even have ‘guaranteed’ levels of funding, different levels being set for different types of equipment and borrower).

You can also check up on how well they treat their customers by checking the Internet for reviews as well as their websites for testimonials and case studies. Reviews always have to be taken with a bit of a pinch of salt, but some of them are sure to be the truth. To assist here many companies today …

Turn Up The Heat, Turn Down The Meter

The cold months of the year are normally when keeping the house comfortable can cut into your spending plan BIG time. So I will try to come in and save the day, and go over some things that can be done to aid in lowering heating cost. Hopefully I’m not too late. Some of these things are common sense, but not often thought about, and some are a little tricky so to speak. First up…

PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!

For crying out loud. On average you save 3% on your heating bill for every degree you turn your thermostat back, but that is easier said than done, and no one wants to sit in the house shivering. Hot months can change to cold without us realizing it. It’s time to switch to long pants and long sleeve shirts. Your head and your feet are two primary thermal indicators for your body, so one thing you can do to really stay warm, is to wear a knit cap and some thicker socks. With your head and feet warm you will be able to turn that thermostat down considerably.

Hold Your Breath!

Windows

Leaky windows can be a major culprit in high heating costs, so if this is a problem, you will want to take care of it right away. One way to know if you have a problem is to light a candle and hold it near the edge of your window. If it flickers then you know you have a draft problem.

You can use caulking to cover cracks in windows. You can also use plastic sheeting kits. You can use the plastic on the inside or outside of your windows to reduce costs.

Doors

One of the things you can use to seal your unused doors is clear tape. It keeps a lot of air from blowing in, and it is easy to apply and remove.

You can also use weather-stripping on your doors and windows that lead to a garage or a basement. You can weather-strip most doors for $15 or $20 but you will save much more than that over the winter.

You can also use something like a draft guard to keep cold air out.

Ventilation Fans

Whenever you use a bathroom or a kitchen fan, you are sucking the heat out of your house. While breathing is a beautiful thing, I’m sorry that I’m going to have to advise you to choke your house. Ventilation fans can greatly increase your heating costs.

You can get an anti-fog mirror in your bathroom if you don’t like your bathroom mirror steamed up after a shower. You can also turn on a hair dryer and dry your mirror streak free when it fogs up, and that will avoid heat loss.

Basements and Attics

Make sure that your basement and/or attic is insulated well. This can save you hundreds of dollars every single year in heating costs.

You can use a …

It Costs to Say Yes But it Costs Immeasurably More to Say No and Leaders Must Teach This Clearly

Despite the catchy but misleading lyrics, money is not the root of all evil.

However, the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. One powerful leader taught that to young potential leaders some two thousands years ago and it still stands true today. You will find the textual advice in Paul’s letter to Timothy, who welcomed and received and embraced the teaching.

If only the business world could see and understand this foundational truth, how much pain, suffering, embarrassment and heartache might have been avoided.

Knowing these truths is important, especially when we have had a procession of Parliamentarians trying to tell us that the Westminster system is wrong. It is not the system which is wrong, but the people.

An attractive able young leader, who had possessions, property, and substantial wealth, came to Jesus Christ.

Something was bothering him. He had a lot, but remained dissatisfied. He did not have what really matters.

“What must I do to inherit eternal life?” was his question to Jesus. He came to the right person with a vital question.

Jesus presented him with various commandments. Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honour your father and mother.

He quickly looked back over his life, and considered himself to be a good boy.

Jesus did not challenge his reply, but pointed out that there was one thing still to be done. Being that good, surely one more act was straightforward!

He listened to what Jesus had in mind. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.

His face fell. He became very sad, and off he went. Our faces reveal a lot.

It was not his reluctance to sell everything he had that was the issue, but his unwillingness to obey Jesus.

For this wealthy young man who had such potential, had he surrendered to Jesus Christ, he would have become one of the richest men in the entire world, and also a member of that select band of disciples of the Son of God.

Sandy Shaw…