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Real Estate decisions require knowledge. Better knowledge produces better investment decisions. Investments provide maximum Return on Investment with two essential factors:
Asset Appreciation: the asset grows in value over time.
Capital Preservation: reduce your cash costs of holding the asset.
Whereas a home used to be a place to raise a family in a nice neighborhood, Real Estate today is this PLUS a:
significant investment;
long-term financial commitment;
income tax shelter;
asset with risk (value decline) and reward (value growth);
high cost to maintain;
environmental (CO2) footprint impact.
We are all crazy about money. We spend too much of it and save too little. We hoard it and we sink into debt over it. We lavish it and are stingy with it. We lie about it and fight over it. We think about it all the time and we avoid thinking about it at all.
What makes most of us so crazy when it comes to money? We like to believe that our choices and actions are guided by rationality. But in fact, reason often has little to do with our money behavior. Rather, our decisions are governed by our emotions and money beliefs.
If our money emotions and beliefs are balanced and clear, we will act wisely with it. If our feelings/beliefs are confused, we will make poor decisions, creating financial havoc and deep unhappiness. Crazy About Money helps readers identify the unconscious emotions and beliefs that usually come from childhood and drive money decisions as adults. It also shows readers how to change misguided attitudes that lead so many into money trouble.
Crazy About Money, by Maggie Baker, PhD., uses real and composite cases drawn from the author’s 30 years of psychology practice. Readers learn about Mary, who has a basement full of Internet purchases she made to get even with her seemingly indifferent husband. And about Harry, an 89-year-old multimillionaire bachelor who nearly decided to move into a state assisted living facility for fear he would run out of money. Readers also meet others who, like themselves, over-spend, under-save and make poor investment decisions.
In-depth discussions detail how many people, once they understand their motivations, are able to break short-sighted or destructive money attitudes and patterns of behavior. Exercises at the end of each chapter will help readers examine their own feelings and actions and point the way toward smarter choices with money, whether in saving, investing, spending, giving or sharing.
Fighting cancer is difficult enough, but living with it is even tougher – and that’s where the Cleaning for A Reason Foundation steps in. This nonprofit offers free professional housecleaning, and maid services to improve the lives of women undergoing treatment for cancer – any type of cancer.
The applications can be filled in online by women with any type of cancer as long as they are currently under cancer treatment. In 2011, the American Cancer Society estimates there will be 750,000 first time diagnosis of cancer in women over the age of 18. They have over 800 maid services participating in our program nationwide, however, resources are limited and they are experiencing huge demand. The professional residential cleaning companies that participate in their program do not receive payment for their services. These small business owners agree to take a minimum two patients at a time, pay their employees to perform the work, and absorb the cost of materials and supplies. They have a heart for assisting women in cancer treatment and provide this service as a way to give back to their local communities.
To begin the application process for you or a loved one:
Check to see if they have a participating maid service in your geographical area by clicking the locations tab on their main website. Click the state in which you reside on the pink U.S. map or if you reside in Canada, click the Canadian map. This will take you to a list of the cities where they currently have partner maid services affiliated with their foundation. Not all cities are served even though they do add approximately 25 – 35 new partners each month.
If you are a qualified cancer patient fill out the online application under the cancer patient tab on their main website. Fill in the required information. When you submit, the online process will inform you if a maid service covers your area. In large metropolitan areas, some maid services limit the distance they will travel to the area they normally serve.
A good credit score can save you thousands of dollars in interest on everything from a home loan to a car loan, and from school loans to credit cards. But, how much do you really know about the factors that go into determining your credit score? A FICO (Fair Isaac Company) score, otherwise known as a credit score, is used by potential creditors to determine the financial trustworthiness of a consumer. Anyone who has a credit account has a FICO score.
Your FICO score is determined based on the following data:
Tell us about your business:
Kidzola is an online marketplace where people can buy and sell everything for kids. People can buy and sell new, handmade and resale children’s items. We have everything from clothing to toys, video games, furniture, books and just about everything else parents need for their kids.
Why did you start this business?
My partner, Lisa, and I decided to start Kidzola because we just weren’t happy with any of the other kids resale options. We wanted to create a site just for kids’ things that was simple to use and let parents buy and sell locally or nationally.
Tell us about your business:
YourNovel.com can put any couple into their very own personalized novel. We currently have 30+ novels and eBooks set at exotic location around the globe available for personalization. Our service lets customers input 26 details like their names, eye and hair color, best friends’ names, home town, place of work, type of car they drive, perfumes, places of work and more. The information is sent through a customized computer program that generates a book – either a paperback or hardback with or without a photo added on the cover, and here’s a fun part: each books comes in a “Wild” or “Mild” version, so the customer gets to choose how spicy the romantic interludes are. (The books are titillating yet tasteful, and not graphic, and 90% of the readers choose “Wild.”)
Why did you start this business?
Back in 1992, Kathy was attending a public relations conference and Fletcher tagged along to keep her company. She was on a panel and the icebreaker question was: “What would people be surprised to find out about you?” She answered that she had written a yet-to-be published romance novel, which got an appropriate response. One of the women, a friend, at the lunch table said, “Wouldn’t it be great to read about yourself in one of those romance novels?”. Well, everyone at the table laughed and kidded around about it. Then, on the four-hour drive home, we looked at each other, and the proverbial light bulb went off. We said, “You know, we could do that!” and actually started outlining our first book, “Another Day in Paradise”, on the back of a manila folder on the drive. We started writing it the next day.
If you live in one of the large, expensive metropolitan areas, you’ve probably fantasized about how much farther your dollar would go if you chose a different place to live. I remember distinctly when my husband and I purchased our second home in Santa Barbara, and my mother (Alice) sent me a clipping from the Indianapolis Star that showed the Governor’s Mansion had recently sold for the same price. But how would you go about choosing another place to live?
To answer that question, I did a little research and found two articles on the subject that give good advice on some great cities to live in using different criteria. The first source, Forbes online, used violent crime rate, unemployment rate, average salary for college graduates and cultural opportunity as criteria. Redbook magazine also had some suggestions, using “reasonably priced home(s) in good locales” as their criteria. Here’s the list they came up with:
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Last week, our Co-founder, Julie, was interviewed by Lisa Kanarek, author and founder of workingnaked.com about how to market your home-based business on a shoestring. Here is an excerpt from Lisa’s insightful blog:
Marketing your home-based business can be challenging and frustrating, but it doesn’t have to be expensive. In (this) Working Naked post, a few entrepreneurs shared their low-cost, highly effective ways to market their businesses on a budget. A few more entrepreneurs share their marketing secrets.
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it, about it, and subscribe to the blog RSS feed.“Unpaid public speaking is a fantastic way to drum up new business. Associations and Chambers of Commerce are always looking for free speakers educate and entertain at meetings. You’ll make your money from the “back of the room” after the event selling products/services, getting referrals and booking more gigs.”
—Leslie Guria, SpeakingBonanza.com
We understand. As frugal as you may be trying to be, it IS possible that you absolutely need a new car. Some people (you know who you are and you might even be contributors to our website), drive their old “beaters” as a badge of honor. My girlfriend Karen has a Ford Expedition that is so old that the auto mirrors and seat don’t work and she routinely gets “gas hog” written in the dirt on her back window because she lives in green-loving Palo Alto. I would say that she is a candidate for a new car.
If you are in the same boat with Karen, it is a great time to bite the bullet because there are so many good financing deals and some of the most generally reliable car companies (Toyota and Ford) are in trouble financially. We are definitely not car experts at rubbingnickels.com but we’ve searched the web for some advice from reliable sources like Forbes.com on what you can do to make sure that you make a smart car purchase. And we’ve filed this article under “Investing and Saving” because buying a care is certainly an investment. 
Here’s some advice that we found on buying a new car:
To save money on gas, buy the SMALLEST car that will meet your daily needs. If you only drive a large soccer carpool once a month, don’t get an 8 passenger SUV!
ALWAYS use Kelley Blue Book to know what the invoice price is on the car you want. This will help you immensely in your negotiations with dealers.
Don’t EVER buy a car at the beginning of the year when the newest model is in the lot (unless you are the heir to Saudi Oil money). You will pay a premium for the car.
Put down as much of a down payment as you can possibly afford and if you can avoid it, and finance for the shortest period possible to save money on finance charges.
We this helps you and we’re truly sorry about your old car!
Darcy Ratner
Rubbingnickels.com
Today we’re talking to Karen Gallagher, who started a Children’s Book of the Month Club with a sweet twist as a business out of her home. She has a lot of insightful information about starting a home-based business. Enjoy our interview!
Tell us about your business: The Lollipop Book Club delivers books to children in a fun manner that gets them really excited about reading. A bright package arrives in the child’s name (kids love mail!) with a book, a whimsical lollipop, and a gift note. The gift note is printed on a sticker for inside the book, so the child always remembers who shared the gift of reading. A variety of packages are available, ranging from a single book to a year-long subscription. You can pick your group of books based on a theme (i.e. Just for Girls/Boys, Caldecott Medal Winners, Holidays) or build a package by selecting from all of the books on the website. The Lollipop Book Club is a popular gift for relatives who want to connect with a child. It is also especially good for birthday party gifts, or even moms & dads who want to inspire their own children to love books.
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