Friday, December 7, 2012

What Weight Loss Can Teach You about Property Investment

Even though they seem to be worlds apart on first glance, the connection between dieting and investing in the world of real estate is not that distant or forced. As a matter of fact, there are plenty of parallels to be drawn between the two, whether they pertain to ambition, drive, working toward a given goal and so on. In a nutshell, however, there is no magic solution for capitalizing a.s.a.p., neither when it comes to losing weight, nor with respect to shedding off the extra pounds that stand between you and your healthiest possible self. So just how are property investments and dieting plans similar? Read on to find out – you’ll be surprised to learn that, if you have lost weight, you, too, can apply that knowledge to your capital investments into real estate. 

There is No Miracle Solution


In business, as in dieting, (I think it should be: “In dieting, as in business,…” ) every once in while a self-proclaimed enlightened guru will crop up, with the promise that he or she holds the very secret that will help you reach your desired goal, be that goal a perfectly toned, ideal weight figure, or the fortune that you’ve decided to put your money to work toward. However, miracle solutions are always bogus, bar none. In terms of diets, there is plenty of information available out there on medically tested, safe, healthful and balanced plans that can help you obtain just what you want – an all-new and improved body image. There are many up for grabs, and since no two individuals are alike, finding a tailored solution, as well as a sustainable strategy that’s likely to work out for you is the only way to go.

The same applies to investing money into property (or much of anything, for that matter). There is no foul-proof ‘get rich overnight’ magic solution. Just like any dietitian and nutritionist will remind you that it took time to put on all that weight, a good investment strategist and broker will tell you that getting rich within a short span of time only works in lotteries and raffles. When it comes to investing in homes and/or commercial property, the only way to go is to have patience, to think things through and to figure out your investment style, so as to implement the best strategy that will work for you. 

You Reap What You Sow


Reduced to the essential principle, weight loss is all about creating a calorie deficit. In order to put on a pound of fat, you will need to eat 3,500 more calories than you consume through your basal metabolic rate (the sum total of your vital processes) and your daily physical activities. To lose weight, you will need to create a difference of 3,500 calories between what goes in (i.e., the food you eat) and what comes out (i.e., the calories you burn by working out, staying active, etc.). It’s no wonder that one of the most efficient and sustainable dieting plans out there is calorie counting. By keeping track of what you invest and what you expend, you will be able to maintain full control over the progress of your diet.

The same goes for property investment. There is no end to the amount of stress that must go toward highlighting the importance of thorough asset management, investments and returns. To over-simplify, if you’re spending more than you’re making, you’ll be losing money. Conversely, good investments are those that capitalize on your current resources and build toward increasing their value over time, but this can only happen when you, the investor, are keeping close track of your own money. 


Stick to Your Guns 


Some people will complain that famous diets, such as BistroMD, about which you can learn more here (noticed I changed the anchor text) here, yielded absolutely no results for them. Meanwhile, others will extoll the virtues of the same plan and herald it as the next best thing since bread came sliced. While it’s true that different types of metabolisms will react differently to the various factors that determine weight loss or weigh gain (amount of cortisol released, low carb/high fat diets versus high carb/low fat diets, cardio work outs versus milder aerobics and calisthenics, etc.), it all boils down to patience, determination and habit formation.

The same applies to investment plans. It takes twenty-one days to change a habit, according to recent cognitive-behavioral research. This assertion is equally applicable to dieting habits, as well as to investment habits. You can’t objectively expect to see results, if you haven’t stuck through with one plan for at least that long a time.


Mortgage Loans Rates: What You Need to Know

mortgage document
mortgage document (Photo credit: TheTruthAbout)
Nowadays, the US home owner market is recovering from its depression 3-4 years ago when home buying was at record lows and people’s mortgages were getting foreclosed because of the terrible shape the economy was in. To help give the economy a boost, the Federal Reserve has been buying mortgage bonds and offering attractive mortgage rates to people in the market for buying a home. Throughout last year, the mortgage rates stayed below 4% and were as low as 2.6% in some cases. Of course, every state and location in the country has different mortgage rates, so you should look to see what the rates are like in your intended location. However, although the economy is on the mend, the home market is still in a good situation for buyers because mortgage rates continue to be low. 

However, before you rush out to buy that dream home you think you can afford now, there are a few more things you should know about mortgage rates. Your mortgage rate never comes without strings, so knowing about the fine print is important before you make any commitment. All across the country, several home owners suffered from foreclosures due to being unable to pay off their mortgages, so you need to make sure that you get a mortgage rate that your income and financial position can sufficiently pay. 

In general, the longer your lease, the higher your mortgage rates. The average 30 year loan has a mortgage rate of 3.32% right now. The 15 year loan has significantly lower mortgage rates. However, shorter loan terms mean higher recurring loan payments, so you have to see whether your wallet can afford that. You may get a better mortgage rate, but making a larger payment may not be possible for you. The other important thing to consider with a mortgage rate is the down payment involved. The best mortgage rates usually come with the highest down payment, so the amount of hard cash you have in the bank right now could be an issue. You could get a great mortgage rate if you can make a large down payment, but that is not possible for every person in the market for a house. 

If your down payment falls below a certain percentage of the total loan amount (usually 20%), you can also get slapped with a private mortgage insurance, which is basically an addition to the interest rate you are already getting. This will jack up your overall mortgage rate because you are viewed as a risky borrower by the bank if you cannot make the minimum down payment. 

Compared to 1984, when mortgage rates were on the order of 14%, today’s rates of 3 to 4% may seem incredibly tempting to many people looking to buy a home. This may well be the time for you to purchase your dream house, but make sure that your down payment and mortgage rates are friendly to your wallet over the years. Make sure to take in account any unexpected expenses that you may be faced with over the years and leave yourself with enough savings for a rainy day. 

About the Author:
The guest post was brought to you by 411ForCash.com

How to Balance Between Your Income and Expenditures?

For many people balancing money between their incomes and expenses is not exhilarating task. Because they may not know where their money is going, as there are different ways one can spend money such as: spending money for a holiday trip, purchasing latest gadget, home appliances or a new home. 

Most people when they run short of money to meet their expenses opt for various credit options. But the sad reality comes into existence if they are unable to balance their expenses with income. The only solution to avoid such bad situation can be creating an effective budget and sticking to it.

Plan a budget: Planning a budget is one of the important financial tasks. Whether you prepare budgets for business or for your family, it helps in managing your money and aid in saving money for future expenditures.

Balance your budget: It is very simple to create a budget but balancing it turns to be complicated task. If you could successfully balance your budget you will be able to understand your spending activities and can ensure financial stability. Here are a few ways to balance your budget.

  • Firstly determine your income and know by how much amount you are short off to manage your expenses. Collect the details of your income and evaluate how much money you need to meet your financial obligations. 
  • After determining your income, the next step to do is– gather all your financial documents to calculate fixed monthly expenses. This should include documents of utility bills, credit cards, insurances, home or a mortgage and so on. 
  • Now classify these expenses into various categories for easy understanding. Make a few categories relating to the necessities, fixed needs and wants. 
  • Allocate some funds to each of the category, be honest while allocating. You can even subtract a few of the expenses if you feel that you can manage to stay without them. 
  • If you are not able to manage your budget to pay off any urgent expenses or need some fiscal until your next payday try considering Payday Loans and resolve your financial need. 

Make use of budget tools: There are many budget tools available which can make your work easier. For example, to calculate your expenses you can try using mobile applications that aid in providing where you are spending much of your income help in extracting recent bank transactions, credit card details and so on.

Manage your debt: Managing your debts through budgeting could become frustrating if your budget is not realistic. So prepare your budget analyzing financial situation and set some financial goals.

Remove unnecessary expense: To get rid of your debts, make sure you maximize your savings and cut down your expenses. Eliminating expenses are not just meant to reduce grocery bills, but it should be executed for each of your expenses. For example, if you wish to buy an insurance policy, make sure to get the best deal on it by researching various insurance policies and extracting the best deal or by negotiating with the insurance company to reduce its premiums.

Does Your House Need a Professional Stager to Sell?

 You love your home and your decor is just perfect. So, why is your real estate agent telling you that you need to hire a professional stager? Do not be insulted. See this as an opportunity to launch your home into the welcoming arms of a buyer. Who needs a stager? Some people need these professionals more than others.


It's Been Sitting and Sitting

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As you follow the real estate news and information available online, you know something is wrong when your home is not moving. If your home has sat on the market without selling for six months or longer, now is the time to consider staging. It can help to paint the picture for potential buyers of what the home could be and how it would suit their needs. If you need a new tactic to get people back into the home to see what it has to offer, staging can help. It may help you to avoid a price reduction initially, too.


The Guy Next Door Is New

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Another common problem home sellers have is selling their older home, which is sitting in a newer neighborhood. If your neighbors have newer homes, potential buyers may see your property as the least desirable in the neighborhood. Even if you know that is not the case, you may have to show potential buyers what this property can really do for their bottom line. Staging can help to convince them that buying your home means they are getting a well-loved, cared for and excellent investment. Even better, it will be clear that your property can rank just as high as the other guy's.

It's an Empty, Blank Slate

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Perhaps you have already moved on, but you cannot truly move on until you sell this property. The problem is, your home's vacant, empty, and without so much as a kitchen table in it. This could be a reason why it is not selling as fast as you like. People cannot see how the home will look much less work for their needs. With some well-placed furniture on the other hand, you will have a stellar looking property that people can see themselves living in for years to come. Empty rooms may not be as welcoming.


It is a Cluttered Mess

clip_image004Let's face it. Sometimes we have too many dust collectors to keep a home organized. Perhaps you have a picture of each of your children from each school year and activity covering every inch of wall space. On the other hand, you may have so much stuffed in closets that if anyone dares open the door, they risk things falling on them. When you realize that you have too much, call a stager. The stager can help you to pack up what is not needed so buyers can see the real bonuses of the house.

Do you need a professional stager? If you are unsure, ask your real estate agent for some guidance. Do not be afraid to commit to the hiring of one. After all, they could end up helping you to make your move easier, not to mention sooner.

Images Via Flickr by fragileheart, Via Flickr by livinginacity, Via Flickr by dorsia, Via Flickr by puuikibeach


Telephone Etiquette Tips

English: WI: Milwaukee Sept 4th National Day o...
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Whether your at work, in your home, or on your cellular phone, here are 8 telephone etiquette tips everybody should be using.

1. Always say who you are at the beginning of every call. When in the office, always answer a telephone by saying: “Hello/Good Morning, Service Department, Jane Doe speaking.” From a cell phone, either simply say Hello, or state your name, Hello, Jane Doe here. Do not answer by using words such as “yeah” or “yes.” When placing a call, always state your name along with the name of the person you are calling. Example: “Hello, my name is Jane Doe from XYZ Corporation. May I please speak with Ms. Jane Smith?”

2. Be aware of the tone of your voice. Don't sound overly eager, aggressive or pushy. It's crucial your tone expresses confidence and authority. Don't recline in your chair when speaking on the telephone, you project more when sitting upright. Sit up in your chair or stand during the conversation. When at home, use a personal tape recorder to privately record your own conversations. You will then hear how your sound to others.

3. Think through precisely what you want to say and discuss it BEFORE you make a call.
Write down the points you want to talk about and questions you want answered. In other words, anticipate and expect you will be directed into a voicemail system; plan your message to be as direct and specific as possible, asking the person to respond to specific alternatives or questions. Do not say, “Hello, it’s Jane Doe, call me back.” At least state the subject about which you want the person to call you back about.

4. Don't permit disruptions to happen during conversations. Don't carry on side conversations with other people around you. The person on the telephone takes precedence over someone who happens to walk in your office or passes by while you are on the phone. If you must interrupt the conversation, say to the person, “Please excuse me for a moment I’ll be right back.” And when you return, say, “Thank you for holding.”

5. Particularly when leaving messages, speak clearly and slowly. Don't use broken phrases, slang or idioms. Always leave your return telephone number as part of your message, including the area code . . . and S-L-O-W-L-Y, including REPEATING your telephone number at the end of your message. Practice leaving your telephone number, by saying it out loud to yourself as slow as you have heard an informational operator say it.

6. Build the habit of always turning off your cell phone ringer when entering a meeting, restaurant, theater, training class, or other place where the purpose of your visit would be interrupted or others would be disturbed by hearing your cell phone ring. If you are expecting an important call, inform the caller you will be in a meeting during certain times and state you will monitor your message indicator for when it illuminates you will excuse yourself to leave the meeting and return the call.

7. Always speak into the telephone receiver with an even and low tone of voice. Particularly when speaking on a cell phone out in public, be sure to monitor how loud you may be. Move the phone ear piece just slightly away from your ear and listen to yourself speaking. Discover whether you are speaking too loudly or too quietly for the other person to hear you.

8. Do not allow yourself to be distracted by other activities while speaking on the telephone, such as rustling papers, chewing and eating, working on the computer, or speaking with someone else. Most importantly, do not use a hand held cell phone while driving. Get a headset or speaker phone for the car. Always treat every caller with the utmost courtesy and respect by giving him/her your undivided attention.

Proper phone etiquette is very important to the growth and survival of your business. It's the way your customers communicate with you. A poorly operated customer service phone system will just anger your customers and cause a loss of business.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Childcare – An Expertise Work at Home Moms Can Use To Earn Online

Family Child Care
Family Child Care (Photo credit: heraldpost)
One of the most favorite topics for parents of newly born babies is … anything related to parenting or child care, and knowing that every second, three to four babies are born, we can be sure that there will be no shortage of people looking for all sorts of advice and information online. Not to forget the child care industry that employees millions of workers. Looking at all these statistics and people who will be seeking information related to childcare, all mothers have an expertise or experience by default that can help them earn some part time income without leaving their homes, simply by researching and writing on the topics related to childcare. 

And the best part is, you will keep learning new things and getting useful information while writing on these topics. Following are five practical ways to earn while writing on these topics … 


Write for sites like eHow or About.com:


If you have good writing skills, then you can apply as a freelance writer at the sites like eHow or About.com. You will have to hone your writing skills a bit, but if you can get selected for a site like about.com, then the pay is well worth your time and efforts. Even if you can’t find a job at these high paying websites, you can turn towards any of those revenue sharing websites. All you need is to choose your topics cleverly and every now and then, some of your article will go on to become a continuous source of passive income for a long time to come. 

Write for childcare or babysitting websites:


There are many websites that cater childcare or babysitting industries like sittercity.com or care.com. Knowing that the content is becoming of paramount importance for any website, you can get in touch with these websites and offer your services as a content writer. You might need to have some writing samples, preferably some published ones, but you can arrange some by writing a couple of articles for article directories, or even better, at a blog as a guest blogger.Then you can proceed to use these posts as samples while getting in touch with established blogs or websites discussing the topics like family, childcare, parenthood, babysitting, and offer your writing services. 

Start your own blog:


As earlier suggested, there is no shortage of people who are expecting a baby, or they've just had a baby, and they are all ears for any kind of advice or information related to feeding, clothing, caring, educating, or looking after their kids in general. And these parents will always listen to some help coming directly from a parent who has “been there and done that”. The best part about blogging is, you don’t need to do extensive research, and all you need is to simply share your own experiences, or recommend some good products or solutions, which have helped you in one way or another. Once you have established a community of parents or moms, you can start earn by placing ads, or affiliate links on your blog. 

Publish an E-book:


Writing and earning from an e-book is a route that very few writers take, yet it is one of the most profitable ones. The idea is to choose a niche, which is in demand, and caters a specific problem instead of being too broad, and then write an e-book with the possible solutions. You can search for many different platforms where you can promote your e-book. An e-book can create a stream of passive income, and who knows your e-book can turn out to be a big success and you might be able to land yourself a real book writing deal with a publisher. 

Try Freelance Writing Jobs:


You can search at freelance jobs portals like elance.com or odesk.com with keywords like childcare, baby care, parenting, babysitting, and the likes. You will find many start-ups that will be looking for writers. Once you've formed good relationship with some of your clients, you might be able to get better work from home jobs like social media manager and the likes.

Bio:
Misheal Rome shares promotion code for care.com and sittercity code for babysitters looking to sign up with the childcare sites like sittercity or care.com. And that’s not all, at her website you will also find a lot of tips and reviews for products and services which are useful for work at home moms.


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