Be Aware of the Commercial Mortgage Loan Terms

Term Predatory Lending
Home mortgage defaults and increasing real estate forclosures have caused economy down fall since the beginning of the summer this year. Now, many businesses are laying off workers. Report shows that many other companies are planning to lay off more people. There is no doubt that we are entering into depression.

I recently figured out the reason why there are many foreclosures and default in real estate. Because banks and mortgage companies think diffrently, not for the better. Their lending practices seems backward. If the banks and mortgage companies worked with home owners before their loan default started, they could have saved a lot of home owners and we wouldn't have had as many as foreclosures.

Now, I have seen the same in the commercial mortage industry.

The other day I received a following letter from a bloger who owns a mobile home park. The recent eonomic condition has catched up on her business and she has been looking into refinancing her commercial mortgage. However, she ran into an unexpected term penalties that had not disclosed to her in written form before signing the mortgage. Before seeking the refinancing option, she contacted her bank and ask for readjustment or loan modification. However, the bank's response is astonishing.

Here is the letter:

We have a commercial loan from M&T Bank. It's originated by Silver Hill under its subsidiary Bayview Loan Company on Sept. 2007 and Bayview sold to M&T Bank after 7 or 8 months later. The loan is for a small MHP.

Recently, our tenants are having problems with their jobs. Consequently, a few can not make their rent payments on time. Therefore, we are having a tough time making a mortgage however, we tried to make the payment on time because we are hoping to keep our credit in tack for refinancing the mortgage with low interests and low monthly payment in order to self sufficient.

We called M&T Bank to consider the readjustment or loan modification possibility but M&T told us that we have to be on default status in order to be considered. So, we looked for another bank to refinance the mortgage.

However, we found out that our payoff information from M&T Bank for refinancing our mortgage was very disturbing. Terms and early payment penalties were so severe that we do not have the chance. It turned out to be our early payment penalties were over $160,000 (57%) on the loan amount of about $279,000 and terms were 7 years early payment penalty plus 10 years payment penalty thereafter, which it was not disclosed before the contract.

I discussed with many business people and loan brokers but they never heard such terms. So, I hired a predatory lending mortgage lawyer and he tried to resolve the problem with M&T Bank directly; however, M&T Bank told him that commercial loan is norm in that terms. Basically, M&T Bank wants $160,000 penalty if we want to refinance it or rather see the default or foreclosure on the loan.

The lawyer told me that he is not expert in commercial loan and he told me that we should consult with other commercial mortgage lawyer.

Please investigate the term predatory lending practice. Are these terms are norm in commercial loans? There should be some kind of restriction for commercial loans.

I don't believe our forclosure would help M&T nor our situtation. The city our MHP is in, currently the highest unemployment in the state. We are doing everything to work with tenants financial situation. We're asking M&T Bank to give us the opportunity to refinance in order to lower our interest rate and monthly payment.

I'm trying to find an answer to send my letter to anyone who listens. This will help others to be aware on getting the commercial loan in the future.
Thank you for reading.

Examine Your Loan Terms
AS the letter indicated, be aware of terms and any hidden clause on your business mortgage before you sign.

As usual however, some successful business people look at the current condition as an opportunity and use their creativity to figure out how to make money while many people are complaining and waiting on the side walk for things get better. However, it is difficult to jump on new businesses if you lost money in real estate, stock, 401K, and other form of investments in recent months.

There are many opportunities whether we are in a prosper time or in depression. If you're thinking of going into a business and seeking a loan, this will be a great lesson.

Millionaire Secret

How Do I Become a Real Millionaire?
By: Daegan Smith
You all have your dream of one day waking up and finding a genie in a bottle who will grant your wish to become rich in an instant.

Becoming a millionaire is a possibility.

You just need to have a clear mindset about your financial goals and not expect to earn thousands of dollars in the flick of a finger.

Here are some steps on how you can become a REAL millionaire:

1. Face up to the facts.
   Even in America where a lot of opportunities and possibilities arise, there are still citizens who are buried in debt and who have less than an ample amount in dollar savings.
   
   Although a lot of people are becoming millionaires, there are still more who live beyond their means and take on debts which are more than they can handle. Be literally one in a million and stay away from this attitude.
   
2. Have the correct mind set.
   Always think that if you only set your mind to do something, you can do it. If you want to become a millionaire, you can be one. Being a real millionaire is a state if being. Know how to make your money, how to spend it wisely and how to use it to your advantage.
   
3. Be aware of exactly what "money" means to you.
   Most people consider a lack of money as a problem. You must turn around and consider this situation as an opportunity. It is all in your attitude and the way you look at things. Start thinking of money as a resource, like time, to be used and managed wisely. Loving it too much or spending it inefficiently will not get you anywhere.
   
   Having more money might get you to places and earn you a lot of things, but it also increases your responsibility towards yourself and to society.
   
4. Go back to basics.
   While you are in the process of earning your first million - which is always the hardest to earn - you should go back to your basic foundation which is your attitude towards your work, other people, your family, your deep-set values and integrity. If you can handle all that wealth and still be "human" enough, then you are halfway to becoming a millionaire.
   
5. Earn more, spend less.
   Now that you have your attitude and all the basic elements out of the way, you can concentrate on your finances. You will not get to be a millionaire if you go on spending more than what you can make. Sit down and calculate. Make an in-and-out list of your budget to track your cash flow.
   
   If you are living on credit and are using one or more credit cards to live off until your next salary, get professional help to handle your finances.
   
   If you are expecting to live off from one payday to another, you can cut your spending by 25% and this is entirely possible. Remove the regular self-indulgent activities and items from your list and you would see a significant decrease in your monthly expenses.
   
6. Save, save, save!
   A good rule of thumb is to save about 5 to 20 percent of your income.Another option is for you to increase your savings per month. If, for one month, you allotted 1%, increase it to 2% the next month, then 3% the succeeding month. It is not the amount, it is the principle that you are saving something from your monthly earnings. This would also build your self-discipline, as nobody has become a millionaire by slacking off.
   
7. Take it slow.
   Except for lottery winners, nobody has become a millionaire overnight.
   The key to earning a great wealth is to minimize your income while maximizing your assets. You can invest on hard-to-spend assets and create a non-taxable wealth. Invest wisely and you will develop a habit of not buying or investing on anything through sheer impulse.
   
8. Pay your taxes.
   So you are already halfway to becoming a millionaire. The rule is to not pay more than what you owe in taxes. Follow the percentages that the law requires.It is better to have a financial consultant if you are already earning a lot, since there is such a thing as paying too much tax.You should learn to invest on non-taxable items and use the law of taxes to your advantage by managing your finances well.
   
9. Learn the in's and out's of investment.
   It is anybody's ball game out there. The one who makes wise investments earn the most.Try not to fall for those get-rich-quick schemes. They are never reliable. Do your research, because there are courses that you can take about investing stocks, real estate and properties. Make your money grow, do not let the money grow on you.
   
10. Share what you have.
    Money attracts more power than you would know what to do with. Once you have earned your first million, the second and the third is easier to come.Just make sure that you have the right attitude. It would not hurt to share some to charity and an organization that you feel strongly about.
    
    Finally, you cannot take your riches with you to the grave, so earn more and enjoy the process of making millions for your family.

How to Create Wealth?

Act, Think, and Create Wealth the Way the Wealthy People Do
I wanted to create a blog that can inspire others to act, think, and create wealth the way the wealthy do. However, I don't make millionaires. I just want to others to be motivated to do what wealthy do, so they can get rich, stay rich, and enjoy being rich as well.

Being said that though, no one can make people motivated. It comes from within and people have to commit themselves to stimulate to action.

As Loral Langemeier once said, ''Getting started just takes getting started..." Being rich is not an accident. Rich people got there because they created their wealth. You can create your wealth too by generating cash through your income and assets. Even if you have a great deal of debt, once you know how to set your mind in motion, you can be on your way to having everything you ever wanted. By understanding the mind set of the wealty people how they make money, you can too.

Unfortunately, many people think they can't have a lot of money unless they win the lottery. The fact is that you can start from where you are now and create your own wealth by:

• Using every tool you possess to make a lot of money.
• Taking control of your money that makes stress and risk out of your life.
• Eliminating debt while you create a stream of cash.
• Using your earnings to cash-producing investments.
• Accessing the information and opportunities that are known to small number of wealthy people.
• Joining a network of wealth creators.

Are you ready to start a new life of financial freedom?

Truth About Tax Cuts on Rich

Do rich people pay less taxes than poor people?
Financial freedom comes from hard work and persistence. Getting rich is possible here in America because we have free competition and many opportunites. Anyone can make one's dream come true if he or she has the right idea or product unlike other countries.

Recently, being rich has been demonized by many people particularly by democrates. We hear over and over the misconception about tax cuts that are only for riches. Even though, it's far from the truth but it works for democrates in stirring up the class warfare.

Government welfare program doesn't do any good to anyone.
Barack Obama has been running based on his entitlement programs. He advocates a variety of welfare programs which are not realistic and will bring about socialistic society. The United States of America is not found on that philosophy. We have seen most governement controled programs have failed one after another over the years.

His entitlement philosophy will dominate on his policy and income redistribution will hurt small businesses and entraprenuers who work hard to build their wealth and financial freedom by taxing tham arms and legs for his welfare programs.

Truth about tax cuts
Pass the Advil on taxes
by Larry Elder

The Associated Press ran a rare article explaining exactly who pays the federal income taxes. They state that the top 5 percent of income earners pay more than 55 percent of the total federal income taxes. (To be eligible for the top 5 percent, one must have an annual income above $120,846.) For people who believe the "rich" hire fancy accountants and lawyers to avoid paying taxes, this news comes as quite a shock.

Three years ago, Investor's Business Daily ran a similar article about the top 10 percent of taxpayers - those earning above $74,981 - who received 41.6 percent of the nation's income and paid 62.4 percent of the taxes, thus paying a tax share 50 percent greater than their income share.

Do people know the top 10 percent pay more than 62 percent of the federal income taxes? Three years ago, I put this question to my radio listeners.

Here's what they said: "The top wage earners, what they pay in taxes … is only about 3 percent." "I'm gonna say the top 10 percent pay between 2 and 4 percent." "I would say 2 to 3 percent." "I would say 1 percent."

The Associated Press also noted that the top 1 percent of wage earners pay over one-third of the federal income taxes, while taking in 19 percent of the nation's income. To qualify for the 1 percent, one must make a minimum of $293,415. What do people generally think qualifies one for admission into the top 1 percent? Again, three years ago, I posed the question to my radio listeners:

How much must one make in order to qualify for "the rich," the top 1 percent?

Here's what they said: "Probably $1-$2 million." "At a minimum, I would say $800,000." "$100 million, around there." "Let's just give it $25 million." "Somewhere in the neighborhood of $400-500 million a year."

Wrong. Really wrong.

Why the ignorance?

In his book, Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News, Bernard Goldberg explains that mainstream media find certain issues of interest while ignoring others. When, for example, negative studies on day care appeared, Goldberg wrote that these studies made uncomfortable the male and female journalists who placed their kids in day care centers.

"On network TV," wrote Goldberg, "given the prevailing sensibilities that reign there, voices that argue for policies that would make it easier for moms to drop their kids off at day care are considered thoughtful, compassionate and reasonable. But voices that argue for less day care, because day care is bad for kids - frankly, I don't think the media elites even know such voices exist."

Similarly, many members of the mainstream media seem indifferent to or actually approve of the disproportionate percentage of federal income taxes paid by "the rich." Many go into journalism to right the wrongs, believing the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and that the rich "fail to pay their fair share of taxes."

Perhaps this explains why print and television newspeople rarely refer to taxpayer or taxpayer dollars and instead use terms like "federal expenditures," "federal dollars," "federal outlays," "government aid," "government investments" or "federal grant." It is, of course, our money, but the lexicon used by mainstream media suggests otherwise.

Congressman Brad Sherman, D-Calif., in a recent mailer to his constituents, asks the following question:

I strongly believe that the federal government should spend more money on which of these? (Check those that you feel strongly about):

a. Federal aid to public schools
b. Provide a pharmaceutical benefit under Medicare
c. Environmental protection
d. National defense
e. Tax cuts for middle-class families
f. Homeland security
g. Transportation
h. Consumer protection
i. Don't spend - pay off the national debt

Note e: "Tax cuts for middle-class families"! How does a middle-class tax cut become something "government should spend more money on"? Only on the Potomac does a return of taxpayers' money become a federal spending program.
This brings us to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. The National Taxpayers Union said that Clinton voted for more spending bills than did any of her 99 other colleagues. In fact, according to the NTU, Clinton set a record for the lowest score (voting for more spending measures) than any other freshman senator in the some 25 years they've tracked this. The Los Angeles Times once described House Majority Leader Dick Armey, based on his voting record, as a "hardline conservative." Will the media, based on Clinton's voting record, call her a "hardline liberal," or an "extremist" or "leftist"? Don't hold your breath.

Quite simply, we are overtaxed Americans. According to the Tax Foundation, Tax Freedom Day is now April 27, 2002. But don't expect much relief soon. The American Enterprise Institute's Kevin Hassett chastises both parties for their spending addictions. "It is really obvious," said Hassett, "that when there is money around, they will spend it, even if they are Republicans."

JWR contributor Larry Elder is the author of the newly released, The Ten Things You Can't Say in America. (Proceeds from sales help fund JWR) Let him know what you think of his column by clicking here.

How to Get Rich with Day Trading?

We often hear that rich gets richer and poor gets poorer. It's very true particularly now. Warren Buffett, the richest man in the world said that the financial crisis were "far from over." We hear more pessimistic outlook for the future from media and financial advisors. However, Warren Buffett doesn't need any more money no matter what happens with our economy, he still stays rich and enjoys being rich.

How to get rich with day trading?
The question is, how an average joe with a little bit of money can invest profitably when uncertainty continues to overwhelm the market? According to Forbes, the Dow, the Nasdaq and the S&P are all down more than 14% so far. Even foreign market doesn't look great. The EAFE stock market index is down 16%, the SPDR S&P World Index is down 13% and even Japanese market is down over the U.S. credit crisis.

However, there is a better way to approach the market.

Exchange Traded Funds or ETFs
According to Carl Delfeld, the managing director of the global asset management firm, ETFs are cheaper, more liquid and more tax efficient than mutual funds. There are hundreds of them and trading them is a snap with any discount broker.

Carl believes in taking a global perspective and using ETFs as a core investment tool. He has recently been investing in beaten down overseas markets that he says are just beginning to turn around. Markets such as Hong Kong, Brazil, Japan and even Ireland, which is currently one of the most inexpensive markets in the world.

There are many opportunities in other countries of the world. Carl likes France (EWQ) which is starting to go through its own "Reagan Revolution" under President Sarkozy. In addition, he says the Netherlands (EWN) is dirt cheap and is trading at just six times earnings due to its heavy exposure to the financial sector. Here in the U.S., there are sectors where Carl says ETFs have huge opportunities, such as in Healthcare and Financials.

7 ways you can profit from ETFs
1. ETFs are a tax-advantaged investment: you are not tagged with the big capital gains distributions when your fellow investors sell shares, because the underlying stocks in the ETF are traded, not sold. You don’t pay taxes until you sell your shares.

2. Annual management fees and expenses are extremely modest compared to most mutual funds. There are no 12-b-1 fees, sales loads, or exit charges. And no minimum investment required.

3. You can trade ETFs with stop-loss orders, sharply limiting your downside risk. To make sure you don’t pay more than you want for shares, you can use limit orders, just as you would for a stock.

4. You can purchase ETFs on margin, enabling you to leverage your investment for huge gains.

5. There are almost 800 ETFs trading on U.S. exchanges and 1,200 globally, enabling you to trade virtually any index in the world, from the NASDAQ and the Malaysian stock market, to microcap and Chinese stocks.

6. ETFs can be sold short, even during a market rout, to profit from falling stocks. Unlike individual stocks, ETFs are exempt from the uptick rule.

7. Unlike mutual funds, which trade at end-of-day prices, ETFs can be bought and sold instantaneously on major stock exchanges all day long, giving you tighter control of your entry and exit prices.

Here is S&P/Citigroup Data, 7/1/2008.

• Brazil: Price/cash flow 6.2%, Price/earnings 16.3%, ROE 14.4%
• India: Price/cash flow 11.94%, Price/earnings 16.2%, ROE 21.1%
• China: Price/cash flow 10.4%, Price/earnings 17.0%, ROE 16.1%
• Russia: Price/cash flow 13.0%, Price/earnings 14.0%, ROE 17.3%
• World: Price/cash flow 8.1%, Price/earnings 13.6%, ROE 14.7%

Among Carl's 2007 winning picks:
iShares MSCI Brazil (EWZ), up 75%
Indonesia Fund (IF), up 51%
iShares MSCI Hong Kong (EWH), up 37%
iShares MSCI Germany (EWG), up 33%

Here is Carl's advice.

It's to be careful! You can't just invest blinldly-even in thriving markets. You have to do a rigorous valuation of these countries, know ehich are best positioned, understand where the momentum is and make sure you buy at the best entry point.

It's also important to know the politics of the countries you invest in and where the big global fund managers are placingtheir bets. What will be the catalyst to drive an ETF and what are the prospects for a country's currency?

Don't make the mistake of turning to actively managed mutual funds either. They charge high fees because they spend an enormous amount of money on stock research.

By comparison, ETFs, like index mutual funds, can keep costs low because they typically track market benchmarks.

Here are his books on global ETF investing:

From Homeless Drug User to Millionaire

As a teen, Bob Williamson 'got all hung up in drugs and all that nonsense.' Decades of hard work later, his company has 173 employees and sales of $26 million a year.

When Bob Williamson left home at 17, he lived on the streets and did time for heroin possession. But he pulled himself together, got a job and eventually began his own business as a manufacturer of art supplies.

In 1993, Williamson started a company to develop software for cafeterias. Horizon Software International today supplies more than 15,000 schools, colleges and universities, and has annual sales of $26 million. Meal payments are made online, and parents can monitor what their kids eat at school.

Horizon, based in Atlanta, also sells to hospitals, retirement communities, big corporations and, soon, U.S. military bases around the globe -- "wherever," Williamson says, "large numbers of people need to be fed."

Williamson, 61, recently told his story to Inc.com's Andrew Park:

My childhood was tough. My father was in the Air Force. We moved around a lot. When I graduated from high school, I got all hung up in drugs and all that nonsense. I slept on the side of the road; I stayed in missions; I didn't have anything to eat. I fought a lot. I was in jail lots and lots of times.

I had been told all my life that I was worthless and would never amount to anything. I hitchhiked from New Orleans to Atlanta. I had only one change of clothes, and I didn't know anybody. My first job was cleaning mortar off bricks with a hatchet for $15 a day. Not long after that, I had a head-on collision and very nearly was killed. While I was in the hospital I read the Bible and became a Christian. After that I met my wife. We've been married 37 years.

I went to work for a paint company called Glidden. I had the worst job in the company: I was in charge of the label room, a caged-in area in the basement. But I was promoted eight times in two years to the point where I was managing special projects. I knew a lot of the chemists and taught myself about the chemistry of paint. In my spare time, I was a wildlife artist. There wasn't a good airbrush paint on the market. Everybody was using automotive lacquers. I spent about two years developing one for myself. I'd go to an art show and take my entire inventory. People lined up out of the door. Within about six months, I had distributors and customers all over the country.

I started Wildlife Artist Supply in 1977. I went from my basement to my garage to a little building. Then I went to a 50,000-square-foot warehouse. And I didn't just sell paint. We had a thick catalog, 6,000 or 7,000 items for artists, primarily mail order. It was everything you could imagine: brushes, compressors, clay. I started a magazine to teach people how to do wildlife art. We also founded the World Taxidermy Championships.

In 1988, I made a deal to take the company public. We were going to develop my business into a company like L.L. Bean. My customers were hard-core sportsmen. We were selling wildlife art supplies, so we could have just as easily sold them hunting and fishing stuff.

The next day, my controller turned in his notice. And then a whole bunch of other people quit. I discovered that all of our financial records had been destroyed, and we were $1 million in debt and $278,000 overdrawn at the bank, and my inventory was decimated. It was like a nightmare. I spent two years trying to make him pay. To this day, there's never been anybody but a Williamson reconciling our bank accounts.

There are only so many artists in the world. I wanted to get into something that didn't have any limits. My sons were very gifted in computer technology, and they wanted to start a software company. I had a couple of programmers who worked for me. We had written all this software. The best was our warehouse and distribution package. I had been using it for years in my own stuff. We decided to try selling it. I thought it would be like the paint: I'd just go out there and introduce myself, distributors would pick it up, and I'd be home free. Well, I had a rude awakening. When those big boys are in there, they just stomp you. I realized I had to have a niche.

A rep who worked for me also sold systems to school lunchrooms. I went with him on one of his calls and found out that in the schools there wasn't a system like ours, and there was a tremendous need for it. So I modified my warehouse and distribution system so it would work in cafeterias. The market was too small to attract those big guys, but it was big enough for me. There are 14,000 districts, 97,000 schools. It was a really big opportunity. It seemed unlimited. Everybody's got to eat.

I hired salespeople, but they couldn't sell anything. I told my wife, "I might just do it myself." I had always detested sales and salespeople. But I found out that's what I'm really good at. I went in and told food-service directors how they could save money. They were doing everything manually, and I showed them all the things that our software could do. Within two weeks I had my first order. Then I went to another one, and I went to another one, and pretty soon I had all of Georgia. So I became our chief salesperson. You wouldn't believe how I could sell. I could sell firewood in hell.

It wasn't like I was real flush with cash. Pretty much all my career I was undercapitalized. I borrowed on my home equity and loaded up my credit cards. We started with three or four people, in 1993, and each year we would either double or triple in size. Now we have 173 employees and sales of $26 million.

We ended up developing an A-to-Z software system for managing school food services: warehousing and tracking inventory and sales. For a long time I didn't have any competition. I started looking at other markets. We developed software for colleges and universities and then hospitals and senior living communities. Whoever feeds a lot of people, that's who we go to. We have more than 15,000 installations.

In 2005, we got a $10 million deal with the U.S. military. I worked five years on that deal. Our technology will be in every dining facility worldwide for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Every land base, ship, submarine and remote battlefield.

It's my goal to get junk food out of the schools. Oranges instead of Snickers bars. We've developed technology so kids can buy healthful items from vending machines on their prepaid accounts. And we have software so parents can go online and view what their kids ate that day. I want to help kids make the right nutritional choices. We've got all this technology and all these schools, and we ought to be able to have an impact.

Article By Inc.com

How to Become a Millionaire?

12 Steps to become a millionaire without owning the company or be a CEO.
By Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine

A number of the people profiled in "Millionaires tell how they did it" made their millions as entrepreneurs. But working for the Man doesn't mean you have to be a wage slave or resort to buying lottery tickets to strike it rich. The trick is to maximize your income on the job (and know when to move on), make the most of your employee benefits and tax breaks and use that extra money to start investing.

1. Keep your eyes peeled for better ways to do your job. Streamline a procedure, shave costs, create a new profit center, become an expert on a specific topic, volunteer for a company committee -- anything that will make you stand out as a prime candidate for a promotion or a pay boost.

2. Don't be afraid to negotiate. In a study of master's degree graduates from her university, Carnegie Mellon economics professor Linda Babcock found that those who negotiated their first salary boosted their pay by 7.4% compared with those who didn't bargain.

3. Get your ducks in a row and your numbers on paper. If possible, quantify how much your efforts add to the company's bottom line. If that's not feasible, spotlight your value with comparable salaries for workers in your position from a Web site, such as Salary.com, or from a professional association.

4. Plot your strategy when it's time to move on. Create a professional-looking page on MySpace that tells prospective employers why you're an exceptional candidate, recommends John Challenger of the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. And don't neglect more conventional networking: Join a professional association or show up at school reunions toting business cards.

Milk your benefits
5. Contribute as much as you can to your 401(k) and other tax-deferred retirement plans. You'll not only build a bigger nest egg, but you'll also cut your tax bill. In the 25% federal tax bracket, every $1,000 you contribute to a 401(k) trims your taxes by $250. And you'll save on state income taxes, too.

6. Flex your tax-saving muscle. Contribute pretax dollars to a flexible spending account to pay for dependent care or out-of-pocket medical expenses. If you set aside $1,500 per year and you're in the 25% bracket, avoiding federal income and Social Security taxes means Uncle Sam will subsidize almost $500 of your expenses.

7. Review your tax withholding. If you're expecting a refund this spring, you're having too much tax withheld from your paycheck -- and making an interest-free loan to Uncle Sam. That's no way to become a millionaire. Put more money in your pocket by using Kiplinger's withholding calculator and then filling out a new Form W-4.

8. Stash savings in a Roth IRA if you're eligible. Withdrawals in retirement, including decades of compounded earnings, will be tax-free. This year, income-eligibility limits for a Roth increase to $114,000 for individuals and $166,000 for married couples.

Invest like crazy
9. Don't delay. The quicker you get a jump on putting money aside, the easier it will be to stuff a seven-figure cushion. If you start at age 25, for example, investing $286 per month will get you $1 million by age 65, assuming you earn 8% annually.

10. Invest automatically, either through your employer's retirement plan or by setting up a regular deposit to a mutual fund or broker. You'll never miss the money, and you'll avoid two big mistakes: buying too much when stock prices are high and not buying at all when prices fall.

11. Watch for fund fees. The more you pay, the tougher it is to earn an above-average return. The typical hedge fund, for example, takes 20% of any gains, a huge hurdle to overcome. A better bet: no-load mutual funds with expense ratios of 1% or less. If you trade individual stocks, watch those commissions.

12. Keep it simple. Be wary of get-rich-quick schemes or sales pitches for complex investments, such as oil-and-gas partnerships, that trade on the millionaire cachet to lure investors into buying high-fee products they don't understand. Most millionaire households accumulate their wealth over the long term by sticking to a regular investing plan in a balanced portfolio.

Published Feb. 27, 2007

Recommanded Reading:

The New Color of Success:
The twenty Young Black Millionaires Tell You How They're Making it.

22 Millionaires Tell "How I Made A Million"

Enjoy Being Rich with Good Health

Good Health and Financial Freedom

Getting rich can be achieved by one's thriving, dedication, and persistence. Staying rich can be achieved by smart money management. Enjoy being rich can be achieved by healthy life style. We often see people who are financially wealthy but their health is not as good as their bank accounts. Consequently they don't live long enough to enjoy their wealth.

However, there is good news. According to Joy Bauer, MS, RD, CDN, you can start improve your mental health with common fruits and vegetables.

Memory-boosting foods

Every cell in your body needs a steady supply of oxygen and nutrients in order to stay alive and work properly, including brain cells. Because oxygen and nutrients are carried in the blood stream, anything that impedes blood flow will starve those all-important brain cells. The plain truth is that a healthy heart makes for a healthy brain. So keep your blood pressure and cholesterol in check, exercise regularly, don’t smoke and get at least seven hours of sleep each night.

Compelling research also indicates that certain foods and nutrients can help enhance your memory. Read the facts on fish, berries, leafy greens and coffee — and be sure you remember to incorporate them into your diet.

Fish (3 servings per week)
Research suggests that when it comes to food and memory, fish plays a starring role. Specifically fatty fish like salmon and sardines, thanks to the ample amounts of omega 3 fats they provide. In fact, a study published in the Archives of Neurology in November 2006 found people with the highest levels of omega 3 fats were significantly less likely to be diagnosed with dementia, compared to people with the lowest levels.

Another earlier study conducted by researchers at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago followed more than 3,000 men and women for six years to see how diet affected memory. People who ate fish at least once a week had a 10 percent slower decline compared with those who did not eat fish, a difference that gave them the memory and thinking ability of a person three years younger.

Fatty fish is concentrated in the most potent form of omega 3 fats (EPA and DHA), so go out of your way to incorporate three to five ounces portions at least three times each week.

Best fish to eat (low in contaminants AND high in omega 3 fats): Wild salmon, sardines, lake trout, pacific oysters, and Atlantic mackerel. If that’s not feasible, you can buy fish oil supplements or at the very least incorporate plant based sources of omega 3 fats (significantly less potent than fish): ground flaxseeds, omega-3 fortified eggs and walnuts.

Berries (one cup a day)
Studies that focus on food and memory suggest that the more overall produce you eat, the better. But when it comes to fruit and your memory, berries rate number one! Berries have some of the highest antioxidant concentrations among fruit, and ALL berries are rich in healthy compounds called anthocyanins and flavanols… which may help protect against the breakdown of brain cells.

Plus these days, it seems you can’t say enough about the health benefits of blue-berries. What makes them so powerful? Their deep blue hue — caused by flavonoids — those natural compounds that protect the brain’s memory-carrying cells (neurons) from the negative effects of oxidation and inflammation. Blueberries are one of the best sources of flavonoids around, and encouraging animal studies suggest that diets rich in flavonoids may help reverse memory loss in humans. In fact, a new British study, published just last month, reveals eating plenty of blueberries can enhance spatial memory and learning.

Buy firm-fleshed berries from a farmer’s market, local supermarket, or health food store. For off season months, take advantage of frozen, unsweetened varieties. Berries taste great mixed into plain yogurt, as a topping for hot or cold cereal or right out of the bowl.

Leafy greens (one cup a day)
Leafy greens like spinach, kale, collard greens, mustard greens, and turnip greens, are loaded with folate, also known as folic acid — a nutrient which seems to have a direct effect on memory. A study conducted at Tufts University in Boston followed about 320 men for three years. Those who had high blood levels of homocysteine showed memory decline, but if the men ate foods rich in folic acid (folic acid directly lowers homocysteine levels), their memories were protected.

An Australian study also found that eating plenty of foods rich in folic acid was associated with faster information processing and memory recall. After just five weeks of introducing adequate folic acid into their diets, women in the study showed overall improvements in memory.

Aim for one cup each day!

Coffee (adjust to your personal tolerance)
Good news for coffee lovers. About two years ago, researchers from the University Innsbruck in Austria found caffeinated coffee can temporarily sharpen your focus and memory. After giving volunteers the caffeine equivalent of about two cups of coffee, they observed that their brain activity was increased in two locations—one being the part responsible for memory. Results were observed using MRI technology. Without caffeine, there was no increase in brain activity.

Then, earlier this year, another study published in a leading Neurology journal, found the effects of coffee may be longer lasting — specifically in women. This four-year long study involving about 7000 participants... all participants went through thorough baseline evaluations – cognitive function was tested, along with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and other vascular issues. Participants were re-evaluated at the two-year mark, and again at the four year mark.

At the end of the four year period, researchers found that women age 65 and older who drank more than three cups of coffee per day (or the caffeine equivalent in tea) had 33 percent less decline in memory over time than women who drank one cup or less of coffee or tea per day. The results held up even after researchers adjusted for other factors that could affect memory abilities, such as age, education, baseline cognitive function, depression, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, medications, and other chronic illnesses. This caffeine-memory association was not observed in men — the authors hypothesize that perhaps that’s because men and women metabolize caffeine differently.

So if memory problems are a major concern for you, and if you don’t have a medical condition that precludes caffeine, feel free to indulge in a cup or two in the morning to jump-start your brain.

Note: If you have elevated low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, you should limit your caffeine fix to plain brewed coffee or tea. There is some evidence that unfiltered coffee (the kind used to make espresso, cappuccino, and latte) may raise cholesterol levels, especially in people who are already battling high cholesterol. To be safe, skip the fancy brews and stick with a regular cup of joe. Of course, be cautious and moderate with added sugar!

For more information on sharpening your memory, along with meals plans, grocery lists and recipes, check out Joy’s Web site at www.joybauernutrition.com

7 Ways to Get Rich Faster

If you want to make big money, you'll probably have to take big risks, but there are ways to make sure your payoff is worth the danger. Here's how to be smart about it.
By Annie Logue, MSN Money

Wanna get rich quick?
If you want a high return, you'll have to accept a high degree of risk.

Maybe you're in the lucky position of making a little more money than you need to live on. Or maybe you've just received some cash you're not planning to spend for a long time, allowing you to stomach the ups and downs of, say, a tech investment.

In either case, putting a portion of your resources into a high-risk investment may make sense. Just make sure you're ready for the downside as well as the upside.

If you want to take on risk, we have seven strategies for you to consider:

1) Concentrate.
Diversification is great because it reduces risk. But at some point, you might want to build on your nicely diversified core with a big chunk of risk concentrated in one sector.

"If you're looking to do better than the average return, the only way is to reduce your diversification," says Jordan Kimmel, author of Magnet Investing and president of Magnet Investment Group in Randolph, N.J.

Concentration will increase your risk, and Kimmel says that's good, in the right circumstances.

Who should be "non-diversified"?
According to Jordan Kimmel, average investors may not be in a postion to diversified, a fact is the harzards of being concentrated in wrong existed. So, he suggested that in the beginning, inexperience investors should invest in small bats of diversification as you go off to gain experience. That will help less and less concentrated in wrong.

"You have to be willing to accept short-term volatility as the prerequisite for making money," he says. "The investments that have the smallest volatility also have the smallest end returns."

2) Leverage up.
One quick way to increase your risk and your potential return (as well as your downside) is to borrow money for your investment, usually through a margin account at a brokerage firm.

Tim Phillips of Phillips & Co., a wealth-management firm in Portland, Ore., suggests that moderate leverage is a way for clients to enhance their returns. But they need to be careful.

It's true that leverage can generate a return on money you don't have, but it generates an outsized risk as well. Pay attention now, get-rich-quick fans: Users of margin loans need to be keenly aware that a drop in the value of an investment can result in a margin call, requiring additional capital. Investors who can't pay can be wiped out.

3) Hunt for bargains.
As Chicago Cubs fans know, loving the underdog can be painful, but sometimes it pays off big. (Maybe this year? Nah.) That's why Phillips recommends that investors consider distressed securities, such as bonds issued by companies near bankruptcy or, right now, stocks in banks that have heavy real-estate exposure.

"We try to find counterintuitive opportunities that take advantage of extreme emotional responses," he says.

This is risky because sometimes an investment is cheap for a reason. But if the low price is a function of feelings instead of fundamentals, the payoff can be huge.

4) Be above brands.
Many investors feel safest with something they know. But just because you have never heard of something doesn't make it a bad investment. Kimmel recommends that investors screen for companies that are growing revenues by 20% or more each year while increasing profit margins by 5% or more.

Only a handful of companies will fit these criteria at any one time, he says, and they probably won't come up in cocktail party chatter.

"You've got to be willing to own companies that are less known," Kimmel says. The underlying profitability gives you more cushion than any brand name ever could. Are you looking to make conversation or money?

5) Explore emerging markets.
It's a big world out there, and much of it is growing faster than the United States.

"All the demographics point to opportunities in six countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China, Mexico and South Korea," says Pran Tiku, the president of Peak Financial Management in Waltham, Mass.

There will be risk in all these markets as their citizens feel their way into modern economies, but Tiku says it's worth it.

"If investors are focused on long-term growth for their portfolios, they must invest in developing markets," he says.

He recommends that investors use exchange-traded funds or buy stock in the largest companies in each market, usually available as American Depositary Receipts traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

2 critical things to know about ADR prices
According Anthony Moro, Bank of New York Mellon, Vice President;
1) underline currency rate vs. US dollar and 2) ratio of ADR vs. ordinary shares.

6) Consider commodities.
In a world economy that is growing rapidly, demand for commodities -- such as oil, cotton and corn -- is bound to grow. As demand grows, prices of commodities are likely to rise.

Individual investors can get exposure to growing global demand for commodities through commodity-based exchange-traded funds.

"India and China are going to be consuming nations," Tiku says. He speaks of massive infrastructure projects in developing countries and the spread of affluence among peoples long mired in poverty.

"It all points to huge growth," he says.

All of this relates to long-term trends. Commodities prices can be volatile in the short term because of unpredictable weather patterns, swings in growth projections and emotional trading on futures exchanges. Investors in long-term trends need to be patient enough to ride out the bumps along the way.

7) Do your research.
The more risk you want to take, the more work you'll have to do. When you do good research, you'll find more opportunities to add risk -- and return -- to your portfolio. The advice of steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie was that it's OK to put all your eggs in one basket, as long as you watch the basket pretty carefully.

Key to watching your portfolio
Take your ego out of your investment and understand the investments take time to grow.

Watching the basket can be great fun, if you're into it. And if you're not? Phillips suggests those folks find money managers who can do the research and choose the investments for them.

One other point: If your portfolio doesn't already have such risky assets as distressed securities, emerging markets or commodities, adding these to your portfolio in a balanced way can actually reduce your risk while increasing your return, thanks to the magic of diversification.

Here's an example. Say most of your money is in U.S. Treasury bonds, a very conservative investment. The only real risk there is the possibility that inflation or a drop in the value of the dollar (events that might occur in tandem) will undermine the value of the cash stream from the bonds.

Now say you take 15% of that money and buy stock in a handful of high-growth companies in Europe and Asia. Has your total risk gone up or down?

Most investment professionals would say it has gone down, while your likely return has gone up.

Published June 23, 2008
Article from MSN Money

Cheap Gas Price Finder

Check Local Gas Price Before You Fill Up!

Gas prices have risen to over $4 per gallon. It keeps rising and it won't stop anytime soon. It forces overall living expenses to increase and people are cutting back other costs to accommodate gas expenses.

No matter how rich you are, high gas prices are effecting everyone's life; rich and poor alike. Conservation is encouraged yet many people still need to go to work and businesses have to reveive and deliver. These days, working at home seems luxuarious choice.

However, the good new is that you can find the best gas price in your area before you fill up the car.

Here are websites that help you find the nearest gas station that has lowest gas price in your area.

• PennySaverusa.com just added Gas Price finder in its homepage to help visitors to find the best gas price under My Gas Price.
  
• mapquest.com also offer visitors National Gas Prices information under Find Gas Prices.

The World Billionaires

Is the race for the World’s richest men in the world anyone’s game now?

There are no boundaries in the world’s economy. It’s changing rapidly and so is the number one billionaire spot. The list of the world’s richest men from the United States is shrinking. The race for the top spot is an anyone’s game.

Bill Gates has been at the top as the richest man in the world for 13 years. Warren Buffett and Carlos Slim Helu, the Mexican telecom mogul, have been closely watched for the number one spot since 2001.

In 2008, Bill Gates is no longer the richest man in the world. Warren Buffett is now at the top with worth $4 billion more than Gates and $2 billion more than Carlos Slim Helu.

According to the Forbes Magazine, Warren Buffett’s fortune exploded when the price of Berkshire Hathaway stock rose up $10 billion from a year ago. His fortune now estimated $62 billion, Gates is worth $58 billion, and Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helu ranks as the world’s second richest person with a net worth of $60 billion.

Here is the Forbes Magazine’s top 25 the World’s richest men with their worth and citizenship:
1. Warren Buffett - $62 billion - United States
2. Carlos Slim Helu - $60 billion - Mexico
3. William Gates III - $58 billion - United States
4. Lakshmi Mittal - $45 billion - India
5. Mukesh Ambani - $43 billion - India
6. Anil Ambani - $42 billion - India
7. Ingvar Kamprad & family - $31 billion - Sweden
8. KP Singh - $30 billion - India
9. Oleg Deripaska - $28 billion - Russia
10. Karl Albrecht - $27 billion - Germany
11. Li Ka-shing - $26.5 billion - Hong Kong
12. Sheldon Adelson - $26 billion - United States
13. Bernard Arnault - $25.5 billion - France
14. Lawrence Ellison - $25 billion - United States
15. Roman Abramovich - $23.5 billion - Russia
16. Theo Albrecht - $23 billion - Germany
17. Liliane Bettencourt - $22.9 billion - France
18. Alexei Mordashov - $21.2 billion - Russia
19. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud - $21 billion - Saudi Arabia
20. Mikhail Fridman - $20.8 billion - Russia
21. Vladimir Lisin - $20.3 billion - Russia
22. Amancio Ortega - $20.2 billion - Spain
23. Raymond, Thomas & Walter Kwok - $19.9 billion - Hong Kong
24. Mikhail Prokhorov - $19.5 billion - Russia
25. Vladimir Potanin - $19.3 billion - Russia

It’s interesting however, the Forbes Magazine’s the Top 10 the World’s powerful Celebrities are not necessarily ranked by how much they are worth.

The Top 10 the World’s Richest Celebrities’ Power Rank and Worth:

1. Oprah Winfrey - $275 million
2. Tiger Woods - $115 million
3. Angelina Jolie - $14 million
4. Beyonce knowles - $80 million
5. David Beckham - $50 million
6. Johnny Depp - $72 million
7. Jay-Z - $82 million
8. The Police - $115 million
9. J.K. Rowling - $300 million
10. Brad Pitt - $20 million

The Billionaire Factory

Which school is producing the most billionaire alumni?

Every parent hopes for their children to go to a top Ivy League College when they graduate high school. Despite a needle in the haystack to be accepted but they see the worthy of possibilities for their children’s financial future. Here is why.

According to Andrew Farrell, Harvard is consistently ranked as one of the top schools in the country. Its $35 billion endowment makes it the best-funded college in the United States. In addition, Harvard students are more likely to become billionaires than graduates of any other colleges. (Forbe.com)

The following is the top colleges and number of billionaire alumni.

No. 1, Harvard University
Forbes’ most recent list of the world’s billionaires among 469 Americans, 50 out of the list hold at least one degree from Harvard. The school has produced 20 more billionaires than No.2 College Stanford University, on their list. Including Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and media tycoon Sumner Redstone are among the Harvard alumni billionaires.

No. 2, Stanford University
It is listed No. 2 but impressively the school produced 30 billionaire alumni including Nike co-founder Philip Knight and discount brokerage mogul Charles Schwab.

No. 3, The University of Pennsylvania
It is listed No. 3 produced 27 billionaire alumni including real estate king Donald Trump and SAC Capital founder Steven Cohen.

No. 4, Yale
Among the top five are Yale, with 19 billionaire graduates.

No. 5, Columbia University
The school produced 15 billionaire alumni.

No. 6, the University of Chicago
The top school from the Midwest produced 10 billionaire alumni.

No. 7, Duke University
The top school from the south produced 9 billionaire graduates.

One thing, here is a hope for parents who are concerned with their children dropping out of college. There are many unusual cases of dropouts who have gone on to become billionaires. For example, a billionaire Carl Icahn who received a degree in philosophy from Princeton and enrolled in NYU’s medical school but he dropped out to be a stockbroker.

What’s these schools’ secret for producing billionaire alumni?

• Excellent educations
• Old-boys networking
• Good business school program-produces high income earners
• Strong research program
• Low acceptance rate among exceptionally smart students

There are common threads in these schools; provide better education and networking opportunity with billionaire alumni. In addition, students who are accepted from these schools already have excellent resume to start with. As a result, these students have a upper-hand during school years and after the graduation.

10 Rules for Building Wealth

How to build a wealth in slow economy?
People tend to be optimistic about the future when times are good. They think they can save money and build wealth at any time they want. Unfortunately, it’s harder than everyone thinks. Many people are ended up with more material stuff as they get older but their finances are not better off in terms of wealth now than 10 years ago. A good news is it is not too late to start no matter where you are.

Unemployment rate has went up to 5.5% according to the government unemployment claim. Economic crisis seems closer to us when we see our friends are losing their jobs and your own investment money. Some of them have lost about 20%-30% from their investments particularly in the mortgage related funds since last November 2007 and their funds are continued shrinking away. Recently, we see many homes are in foreclosures and people are losing confidence in economy. Everyone seems nervous about investing money.

Many of us try to read or find information about building wealth with what we have, hoping to find ways to get our money to work for us. Fortunately, there’s always ways to build our wealth. Here are 10 rules for building wealth according to Jia Lynn Yang, Fortune reporter.

1. Start early
More than any one stock or mutual fund pick, the age you start investing will determine how much wealth you build. To illustrate: Employee A starts putting away $100 a month when she's 22. Her money grows at 8 percent a year, and after ten years she stops contributing - and lets her stake grow. Employee B waits until he's 32 to set aside $100 a month, also growing at 8 percent a year, and he keeps it up until he hits 64. When they both retire at 64, she will have $234,600, and he'll have only $177,400. Need we say more?

2. Use your 401 (k)
If you're not already enrolled in your company's plan, stop reading now and sign up. Since you're putting in pretax dollars, a 401(k) is an unrivaled savings vehicle, and passing up an employer match is - literally - giving up free money. Confused about how to manage all the choices in your 401(k) plan? New pension legislation is encouraging companies to offer third-party investment advisory services, so call HR to find out if yours offers any on-the-house guidance.

3. Keep it simple
If you have a full-time job and it's not picking stocks, acknowledge that. Choosing three or four index funds - say, an S&P 500 fund, an EAFE fund, and a small-cap stock fund - will give you broad exposure. ETFs (low-cost mutual funds that trade like stocks) are also an easy way to invest in more exotic asset classes, like commodities. If you're close to retirement, consider life-cycle funds from Vanguard or T. Rowe Price, which will automatically rebalance your account according to your goals.

4. Don’t try to beat the market
Even the best fund managers have trouble beating the S&P 500, so give up the chase. The most straightforward way to avoid this trap is to diversify your assets and then rebalance your portfolio at least once a year. Check your asset breakdown with Morningstar's free Instant X-Ray tool (www.morningstar.com). Essentially, rebalancing means selling some winners that are taking up too big a share of your portfolio and redeploying that cash to bulk up in areas that have lagged. (Buy low, sell high - get it?)

5. Don’t chase trends
You want to grow your money for the long haul, so you can't switch your strategy every time you read the headlines. If you see an asset class that's catching fire - like real estate investment trusts (REITs) in the late '90s or commodities this year - ask yourself some basic questions: Can I describe how it works in plain English? If not, start your research at Investopedia.com. Why is it so popular right now? If the answer is "Paris Hilton bought some," best to stay away.

6. Make saving automatic
No one wants to think about saving - so don't. Already more companies are making 401(k) enrollment automatic (34 percent of big companies, vs. virtually none ten years ago). If you're already maxing out your 401(k), see whether your company can transfer money directly from your paycheck into your Roth IRA or a taxable account. Or ask if your bank can transfer a set amount (even $100 a month) from your checking account into a high-interest-bearing online savings account (check out HSBC's and ING's offerings).

7. Go heavy on stocks
The more time you have, the more risk you should take. If you're just starting out, 80 percent to 100 percent of your assets ought to be in stocks. The simplest trick? Subtract your age from 120: That's the percentage you should have in stocks; the rest should be in bonds. "If you have, say, 30 or 40 years, what happens over the next three months or even three years doesn't matter. If you need the money in two years and it drops 40 percent in one year, that's a problem," says Stuart Ritter, a certified financial planner with T. Rowe Price.

8. Hold down fees
Be wary of any mutual fund charging a management fee higher than 1 percent (a few stellar managers may be worth it; most are not). A manager with a high buying and selling rate (called "turnover") should also set off warning bells. If you aren't interested in watching your fund manager like a hawk, stick with an index fund, like one from Vanguard, where expenses are typically around 0.2 percent. And if you're trading stocks, don't be fooled by low commissions: They add up.

9. Ditch credit card debt
All debt is not created equal, so rank yours by interest rate and pay off the bad stuff first. That usually means credit cards, which can carry interest rates as high as 30 percent. (Compare your card's APR with others at Bankrate.com.) On the other end of the scale are student loans. Those rates are generally between 3 and 6 percent, so consider making the minimum payment and investing in your 401(k) instead. Hey, even Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was still paying off his school loans when he joined the bench.

10. Defer taxes
Eager to lock in your gains on a hot investment? Before you click on sell, consider the tax implications. In a taxable account, you'll pay 15 percent in capital gains taxes every time you sell a winner you've owned for more than a year (the longer you can defer paying taxes, the more time you're giving your money to grow). Come tax time, however, it can be a good move to sell losers in your portfolio to take advantage of the annual $3,000 capital-loss deduction limit and offset any capital gains on your winning picks.

Article from CNNmoney.com

Arming with right attitude for prosperity.

We attract what we think about.
We are bombarded with bad economic news right now; record-breaking foreclosures, people are losing jobs, food and gas prices are going up, and food shortages in some countries. We tend to concentrate on negative things more than positive things and people don't see the prosperity midst of worries and fears of future.

However, successful people find opportunities in most inopportune times and still build a wealth. They see things in different perspective unlike many people. Their thoughts and attitude are different from average Joes, not because they are better and smarter.

I read Joel Osteen's book 'Become a Better You' and I found one section that he explains about our attitude that can change our lives.

According to Joel in his book, Roger was down and discouraged so he went to see his minister for some advice. Roger always thinks nothing is going right in his life and he thinks there is nothing to be excited about in his life.

The minister thought for a moment and then said, "All right, let's do a simple exercise." He took out a legal pad and drew a line right down the center. He asks Roger to list all of the good things in his life on the left side and to list all of his problems that are bothering him on the right side.

Roger laughed and skeptically and said, "Okay, but I'm not going to have anything to put on the asset side." The minister insists Roger to go through the exercise anyway and start saying, "I'm sorry to hear that your wife passed away." At that, Roger snapped to attention to his minister. He asked, "What are you talking about?" "My wife didn't passed away. She's alive and healthy."

"Oh, really?" The minister wrote on the asset side: "Has a wife, alive and healthy." Then he said, "I'm so sorry to hear that your house burned down."

"What?" Roger cried and replies, "My house didn't burn down. I have a beautiful house."

"Oh, really?" the minister said and wrote on the asset side of the ledger: "Has a beautiful house." Then he said, "I'm really sad to hear that you lost your job. You got laid off."

"Where are you getting all this nonsense?" Roger asked incredulously. "I've got a great job."

"Oh, really?" the minister said, as he raised his eyebrows and wrote down, "Has a great job."

About that time, Roger caught on and said, "Give me that list." The minister passed the yellow legal pad to Roger, who proceeded to list several dozen more good things in his life. By the time he was finished, he left the minister's office with a different attitude. His circumstances hadn't changed, but his perspective was completely different.

What is the lesson from all this?
We often focus on things that are wrong and don't see things that are right in our lives. Once we change the perspective with good attitude, things can turn around. We take for granted for what we have and ignore the things that are right.

The difference between rich and successful people and average Joes is their perspectives on circumstance. Successful people tend to look for opportunities midst of difficult times and they think the future ahead of them rather than current situation controls their lives.

Being rich doesn't make people happy but it makes one's life whole alot easier. Stay rich is dependent upon one's ability to use money wisely whether it's in investment or in business. Enjoy being rich is a lot to do with one's attitude and perspective.

The bottomline is arming with right attitude will get you there smoother whether it's for prosperity or building a wealth.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Abundance

Book Review: How to Have More Than Enough by Dave Ramsey

Currently, many people are going through financial tough times. Consequently, many marriages are falling a part by the financial strain and their family members suffer by it. Dave Ramsey’s book How to Have More Than Enough is timely appropriate for many people in that situation. His no non-sense approach to wealth building is far from gimmicks or quick rich.

He discusses how to build wealth and how to strengthen marriage and family by guiding readers how to create a value system by examining the relationship between finances and family. Old fashioned value system that many of us grow-up on; patience, delayed gratification, humility, peace, communication, and contentment but ignored it by materialism and instant gratification.

Dave Ramsey, the best selling author of Financial Peace: Planner, puts financial matters in perspective of common sense. This book is neither just a ‘get out of debt’ instruction book nor ‘how to make quick money’ book. He guides readers to take a step-by-step to be wealthy but explains the meaning of true success by defining the success; a happy marriage and family should mean more than money in order to build wealth.

His Financial Peace showed readers how to get out of debt. In this book, How to Have More Than Enough, guides readers a common sense approach to build wealth while keeping the marriage strong and family together. Ramsey illustrates ten different necessary methods in order to create prosperity by educating children about money, and living debt-free and achieving happy marriage. His easy to follow a step-by-step workbook to allow readers to check their progress and evaluate their situation accurately and honestly.

How to Have More Than Enough offers readers and their spouses the chance to work together toward building wealth and strengthening their families.

This book is not only for people who are going through a financial difficulty but also it is for people who are financially wealthy. It’s a must read book and his wisdom will enrich many people’s lives.

What is the best home business opportunity?

Reverse Funnel System
We have tried many other home based businesses in the Internet; affiliate for retail online businesses, MLM network marketing, and Adword marketing, etc. We found there are plenty of scams and vogues home based business opportunities on the Internet targeting people like you and me who are looking for a legitimate home based business opportunity. Many of these home business opportunities often sound too good to be true. Promotional message in the home business opportunity websites are written by the professional writers to entice work at home or home based business lookers.

However, this particular home based business attracted our attention because of the product and the system. In many times, most of home based businesses require phone calls and follow ups on prospective customers which take a lot of business operating time. It requires small investments but we found that the return on investments is far greater than what you have to invest. We also found that the income possibilities are unlimited.

What is the Reverse Funnel System?
The Reverse Funnel System is a business system that was built by Ty Coughlin and the Inner Circle to support business owners for Global Resorts Network.

It's a complete automated Internet marketing system which comes with leads information from opt-in to complete purchase, websites, several different autoresponder campaigns, back office presentations and an enormous amount of resources. The Reverse Funnel System basically runs your business for you without your own employees. Not surprisingly, 6 figure income makers in the Inner Circle ever have spoken to their customers.

Most of so call 'proven system' online can do similar work such as the Reverse Funnel System except you have to manually send autoresponder emails or follow up calls to prospects, which it takes majority of operating time. This type of system is very difficult way to run the home business and it's hard to succeed. Most of people dislike calling and persuading for prospects. They discouraged quickly if they don't close the deal each time.

The Reverse Funnel System overpasses all the manual operations and removes the elements of 'human error' that causes most people to fail. The system does all the selling, persuading, and follow-ups. However, your success is dependent upon your advertisements. More the traffics to your Reverse Funnel System, you can generate serious amounts of income. This business is particularly advantageous to network marketers or creative advertisers for home business opportunity and work at home seekers who have desire to make unlimited income.

Ty Coughlin is a genius to come up with the system that he spent the last 3 years to develop and the Inner Circle understands duplication, the core of success in business.

How to make money with the Reverse Funnel System?
We found that the Reverse Funnel System paid out about 10 million commissions to the Inner Circle, home based business owners, since January 2008. It created more millionaires than any other home based business opportunities. They are expecting commission pay out to be triple the amounts at the end of this year.

Making money with the Reverse Funnel System is really simple. It comes down to marketing. The amount of your income is dependent upon traffic you generate from your marketing efforts. However, you have to commit some budget for your advertisements. For example, you can generate your traffic from an advertisement on a weekly magazine and you bring 200 leads into your Reverse Funnel System. The average the system converses from general leads into paid survey of 5% (10 leads) based on the quality of traffic that you generate. The average closing rate is about 25% or more (2-3 closing) from the paid survey. It's higher than any other home business opportunities in the Internet that we ever experienced.

Once you find the way to bring quality traffics into the Reverse Funnel System, it runs and will close 25% from all paid surveys into your business.

The product, the global resort network membership, also pays multi-level marketing opportunity (mlm) and residual income which gives them the chance to make double their income from the downline.

However, we found that there are also a number of people didn't make the money.
some people joined the program expecting their businesses to take off without putting efforts to market them. Income level is all dependent upon individual's desire. The program often discribed by the people who did not make any money from the program as a scam.

Good news is that this home business opportunity online is really did back up their promises to provide a legitimate home based business opportunity and is producing a significant number of six-figure income members.

We will continue to keep eye on this home business opportunities.

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How to build your own successful home business and make an unlimited income?

Part 3

Does email campaign work?
My home business success is dependant upon advertisement campaigns. In order to help others to be interested in the home based business and the product, it's part of the process that the system requires 10% of work by me and 90% by the system. Even though, the product has a lot of demands, people are not able to find out about the great home business opportunity unless someone tells them or shows them about the product.

I used opt-in email campaign for specifically targeted home based business market as one of the advertisement efforts through an online advertisement company along with other types of advertisements online and on printed weekly magazines. For the email campaign I have chosen americaintmedia which was not one of the highly rated but they claim that their success is solely dependant upon the success of their direct email campaigns since 1996. They call it Bulk Email Software Superstore. However, my experience with the company tells me otherwise and their promises have never met.

I have chosen to do the campaign first 100,000 and planed to do more after I see its result. The company guaranteed me at least 10% of 100,000 opt-in email would visit my website. If not, they would run the email campaign until 10% would be met. However, my email campaign turned out less than a minimal result. First I saw the result 11 visits on my website out of 100,000 through the advertisement tracking system, I thought they only sent out emails to a partial number of people. So, I called the company and asked the question whether they have sent emails out to all 100,000. The customer service told me they did but they made a mistake sending out emails to general untargeted people not opt-in emails for specific targeted people. So, they promised me that they would send emails out again as I ordered opt-in email for home based business.

First, I asked the customer service to send me the copy of my email campaign the same way they would send out to 100,000 people. The customer service told me that he could not do that but he could send me email a copy as a text separately. I thought that was odd but I asked him to go ahead as he said. However, the second result I found after a few days of hassle with the company asking them to send email campaign out to 100,000 as I ordered as soon as possible.

The second email campaign finally sent out by the company as I originally requested for opt-in email for home based business to 100,000 people, the result was again showed 22 visits my website out of 100,000. I again called the customer service and told them the result. The company's customer service told me that they couldn't force people to open my website and it all depends on the message. I totally agree with that however, the email message has been successful by other people who ran the campaign through other advertisement companies. The americaintmedia promises 10% of visits to website from any number of opt-in email campaigns, which they never followed through with my campaign. Come on, total 23 out of 200,000 emails; 100,000 for general and 100,000 for opt-in emails? This company's email campaign for my business was disaster.

I admit that there is no way to know how many people is going to open my website through email campaign but 23 out of 200,000, the advertisement company should be shamed of taking money for it from any advertiser. According to the company's website, they would manage and excute targeted campaigns for you and they take the time necessary to assist you in designing and excuting effective online advertising that works. In addition, they can help ensure your marketing spend yields a positive return on investment; however, they never neither suggested anything with my message nor design. My guess is their employees are not knowledgeable for email marketing about what works and what doesn't. Even though, they said their experience has been in the business more than 10 years.

Well, I learned a lesson through this. I take the responsibility for picking the wrong company and move on, knowing now that I wouldn't make the same mistake again. I have other advertisement campaigns running through online advertisement companies and advertisements on weekly printed magazines. I will find out what's working and what's not. I'll inform you the result whoever following this article hoping that this will help you make a decision on your next advertisement for your home business without making the same mistake that I made.

So, does the opt-in email campaign work?
It might work for some. It all depends upon the message and the product as well as the advertisement company’s honesty and integrity to deliver what they promised. Even though, my email message that I used had worked with others and the great product I have. However, the experienced and well knowledgeable advertisement people or company can work with you throughout the process from the composing and designing for your campaign. One thing I'm sure of that I wouldn't use americaintmedia online advertisement company and I wouldn't recommend the company to anyone neither.

You might ask. Am I still confident about building a successful home business and make unlimited income with my business? Answer is YES. That's why I'm investing in advertisements and I have gotten pretty good responses from other advertisements. It's a matter of time that I'll have my harvests because the product will sell itself and the system will do the work for me. It requires persistance and more advertisements.

I'll continue to write about progress on my home business success on my blog.
Visit http://getrich-stayrich-enjoyrich.blogspot.com/ for more information.

How to build your own successful home business and make an unlimited income?

Part Two

Find something you're passionate about in relation to your financial freedom. What is your purpose?
We all have different reasons why we want to be financially successful. The purpose that makes us excel to achieve our financial goal. The reason that I got into this home based business is to make more money for my purpose; to build a green community, and to help children who are in need financially. What is yours? It can be paying off all your debt; buy a home for your mother to pay back her hard work for you; early retirement; send your child to a medical school; travel around the world; you want your wife to stay home with your children; build your own home based business; or, simply make more money, etc. Whatever the reason or purpose that makes you something to passionate about making money.

Most of people think about things what they want to do when they become rich but they never have enough passion to do something about it. They only have dream or wish to become wealthy, but not a purpose.

A man said once that the richest place in the world is a cemetary. Because there are so many unfulfilled dreams burried in it. Can you imagine what could have had these people accomplished? We never would be able to find out. So did they.

So, you should be happy when you open your eyes in the morning because it's not too late for you to start. Your day should be exciting because you know already what you want to do and why you want to do it, knowing that the end of the day you are closer to your purpose.

I don't know about you but I know what's my day is going to be when I open my eyes in the morning. It's going to be a wonderful day because I have the purpose for making money and I'm passionate about reaching them with my home based business.

Many businesses are closing down or let go of many workforces such as Motormobile and Airline Industries. People who are used to work at these places have to find other means of work or force them to make career changes. Unfortunately, employment opportunities are limited however, there are a plenty of work from home opportunities or home based business opportunities under catagory of at home work online, computer work from home, earn money at home, staying home mom job, or making money on the internet, etc.

I'll continue to give you an idea about the process of doing my home based business the next time.

How to build your own successful home business and make an unlimited income?

Step One.

Think big. Your thoughts determind who you are.
You probably heard similar phrases so many times from many motivational gurus. Once in a while you even agree with them because they seem make a sense. However, have you ever taken the time to think how it works on you?

The other day, I ran into a business opportunity that I can make unlimited income from home. I couldn't pass the opportunity so I grabbed it. Even though, I already have a real estate business which is doing great but I want more, more for other purpose.

One said that money doesn't make people happy. But money does allow people do things easier.

You might ask what my decision to get into a new business has to do with you?
This blog will follow my progress on my new business and share the story with you. In a way, it will be my own success testimony in progress. I'm using this blog as my business diary hoping that this inspires and encourages someone who desires to change his or her financial circumstance. I hope you follow each step with me.

Am I thinking big? Yes. I'm thinking of making big money. The reason is that the product related to my new business is great. There are always demands. 'In a circle' that I'm associated with advocates integrity in business which many people have a lack of. The best thing is fully automated and the system creates more millionaires in short time than any other system out there. There is no better time for this than now. The process of making big money and building a successful home business with the system requires one's desire for success and creativity as well as a small investments.

Many people want to make more money for many different reasons; get out debt, giving back to parents, be a millionaire, a better life for their children, early retirement, etc. However, there are only a handful of people actually get out of their comfort zone to do something about it. Are you one of these handful of people?

Is your thoughts positive? What's your thinking when you first open your eyes in the morning? What do you think your day is going to be?

Your day is going to be whatever you're thinking of it's going to be. For example, you're thinking your day is going to be lousy at work. That will be your day. You will attract things that make you feel that way throughout the day. Some people call it 'the law of attraction'. I don't know about you I rather have a happy day than a lousy day. Each day is special for me and I can reach a bit closer to my purpose.

So, how to build your own successful business and make an unlimited income?

Step One - Change your thoughts. Think big.

I'll post Step Two another time.