Pony Of Prey Blog

Store cards and credit cards have their advantages and disadvantages, but which is best for you. In this article we point out some basics to help you take control of your spending.

Store Cards

Do you have a store card? How many do you have? Do you know how much you are spending on each?

Store cards are a great idea if you use them properly, but they can cause huge amounts of personal financial damage if you don’t take control.

When you are offered a store card here a few things to bear in mind:

1. Get very clear on what the offer is exactly. Most stores will offer a card with a promotional deal - say 10% off any purchases that day and for the next week. So what exactly is the offer and how long does it last?

2. Sometimes store cards are heavily pushed during a sale. Again, what’s the offer - for example, do you get 10% off sale items too?

3. What are the privileges you get as a store card holder? Do you get a discount every time you shop? Do you get reward points of some kind? Do you get special preview events for new ranges? And what are the details - how many points, how many previews a year?

4. How much credit are they offering you? And can you handle it - or will it make you feel like a kid in a candy store?

5. What are the repayment terms exactly? What’s the minimum repayment? What’s the APR - during the offer period and after the offer period?

6. Are you bothered? It’s easy to take up what seems like a great offer with no effort on your part. But remember you would probably have bought the things you are buying even if there was no store card being waved in your face. Do you really want another piece of plastic, another debt?

7. Can you get the things you want cheaper elsewhere anyway? Most things you usually can do.

8. Can you pay for the things you want using your credit card? Credit cards usually have a much lower APR than store cards - so unless you can afford to make repayments in full, you could well lose in interest payments what you gain in special offers.

Credit Cards

The same kind of questions can be asked about credit cards:

How many do you have?
Do you know what you’re spending?
Are you in control?
What are the special offers - low interest, 0% balance transfers, etc?
What’s the credit limit and can you handle it?
What are the repayment terms, including APR?

The major differences from a store card are that you can use a credit card almost anywhere, and that the APR is usually a lot lower. It’s also a lot easier to control your spending if it’s all on one card.

So when you’ve weighed up both kinds of card, what should you do? Here’s a couple of ideas:

1. For general use, have just one credit card. Keep the credit limits low and in control.

2. If you are offered a store card and there’s an unbeatable opening offer on your purchase, take it. Then, if you can’t pay off the debt in one go, use your credit card to pay it off so that you at least get lower interest charges. Next, when your shiny new plastic card arrives, cut it up! Seriously. If you don’t destroy it you (or someone in your family) will spend on it and the debt spiral will continue.

Craig Brown
The American Credit Cards Guide: http://www.americancreditcardsguide.com

Why so many campaigners are out there fighting for the rights of cruelty to animals?

Animals can not speak for themselves, so we as caring considerate human beings with feelings act as their proxy to get a message across and that being is that animals feel pain.
Many animals are subjected to barbaric torture just for the amusement of blood thirsty callous sadists. How on earth someone in their right mind can find pleasure in watching the suffering of an innocent animal is beyond me?

Take the fur/skins trade who cash in by ordering the death of baby seals in the hundreds. Baby cubs are smashed over the head with heavy instruments till the blood flow turns to a trickle.

The fear and pain in the doe eyed baby seals eyes is not enough to stop the fatal blow from being cast. What must mummy seal be feeling as she lay helpless watching her newborn merciless slain.

Heartless sadistic actions of cruelty inflictors needs to stop, where is the fun I ask you? In chopping off a kitten’s tail or severing the neck of the swan by embedding an arrow through it.

Then we have the so called pet lovers who starve the family pet dog till his skeletal bone structure protrudes through its limp flesh.
I hasten to add at this point this is not directed towards the genuine animal lovers out there.

Perpetrators behind the killing and the maiming of innocent animals for no reason has to be brought to justice just like that of a murderer taking human life. This is about pain and suffering so an eye for an eye whether it be man or beast.

People who encourage and enforce inhumane acts to take place on defenceless animals in their absence are just as guilty as the person who takes life from any animal. This also goes for audiences of onlookers who may just as well be holding the murder weapon.

How can we help put a stop to this?

Eventful nights like Bonfire night where fireworks are used make sure to keep your pet indoors.
Be more vigilant where crowds are, gangs mobs yobs get there kicks out of kicking cats. Once again this does not apply to all.

If a friend/relative of yours has a sadistic streak where they force you against your will to watch or join in on an evil deed to cause unnecessary pain towards an animal, then call the Police or RSPCA. This person has to be warned that this sort of behaviour will not be tolerated.

He/she’s next victim may not be of our four legged friends but that of a human.
If inflicting pain is in their blood, ask yourself do you need to hang out with this so called friend.
Friends feel pain too and the next on their list to endure pain and suffering may well be you.

Remember back to how mums and dads told us at a young age that when we die we go to heaven and come back down to earth as an animal. Now I don’t know how much truth there is that, but what I do know is that God works in mysterious ways and if it is comeuppance time for the sinner. Then I rest my case

This has got to stop, have you been subjected to abuse by the hands of a sadist. Are you in the need of talking to someone, Go to Kacys Content page at www.benidormbeaches.com, you may find some useful information.

Like many cars in the 30K dollar mark, the Maxima is partially a luxury and sport sedan. One thing that Nissan offers that many others don’t is a pretty sweet 6 speed manual transmission for the true sports car fans that want a little more when grabbing the groceries.

The exterior of the car starts out with a re-vamped grill with the huge Nissan logo right in the middle. Near the grill are the sleek head lights, inside are high intensity discharge Xenon lights that turn night into day. The car had a distinct rear end that has a sporty look with 4 chrome tips poking out highlighting the power that lies under the hood. In all the car has very strong lines that give it a tough look that I really like. The interior is a blend of cutting edge technology and comfort. Then the spacious Nissan car redesigned interior and exterior just adds to the confusion of sport or luxury.
One of Nissans most unusual pieces is the center sky view, which is a piece of glass that spans the whole length of the auto. The sky view can be replaced with a standard sun roof if desired. The sky view gives the Maxima a really open feeling and of course has automatic shades if need be. As for the power-train the Nissan has a wonderful 3.5 liter 265 hp DOHC that gets up and goes. It produces 255 foot pounds and had a pretty impressive power band when it’s matched up with the optional 6 speed.

About The Author:
Taylor Bamber is a proud owner of a 300zx turbo and belongs to many 300zx clubs in Northern Colorado. Being waist deep in the import world, he knows where to find all the best online JDM engines deals. He has scoured the web and has found the best sites for your import car needs. Check out his site at JDM-4U.com

Hiring good employees is not only important to business, it’s essential. Employees are the heart and soul of a business; they are the mechanism that makes a business run; they are the breath of life that enables a business to be something more than an idea. A business cannot run unless someone (employees, in this case) is doing the work. Any intelligent business owner should want good employees.

EMPLOYERS NOT THE ONLY ONES TO FEEL THE EFFECT

Bad employees not only affect an employer by driving down sales, costing the company unwanted expenses due to negligence or simple lack of motivation, etc, but they affect the customer as well. Of course, once a customer has experienced a bad employee, it automatically affects the employer in obvious ways. Although this seems like common sense to most people, it is uncanny how most employers will overlook this fact, whether it’s because of time constraints to effectively deal with the problem or lack of better judgment. Whatever the case, it is a fact that sales get driven down and production slowed for a reason. That reason could very well be because of the customer’s lack of satisfaction with whatever service he or she had received and that lack of satisfaction stems from bad employees.

FIND THE RIGHT PEOPLE TO START WITH

This is one of the most important things you, as an employer, can do. Getting the right people into your company to start with gets things moving in the right direction at the very beginning.

According to Chairman and CEO, Hal F. Rosenbluth, and Consultant, Diane McFerrin Peters, of Rosenbluth International, the third-largest travel management company in the world, “Most of us choose our spouse with care and rear our children with nurturing and compassionate attention. Yet, we tend to select the people who will join our company on the basis of an interview or two, and once they have joined, they often find that they must fend for themselves.

This contrast illustrates the disparity between the environments of family and work. But, given the amount of time we must spend at work, wouldn’t we all be happier if we took as much care at the office as at home to create a supportive environment? Wouldn’t we also be far more successful?” (28).

The answer is yes.

THE CUSTOMER DOES NOT COME FIRST

It’s important to remember that if you want quality employees, your company must be of the same caliber. If you expect to attract an employee who thrives to be as dedicated to the business as possible, doing more than what is expected, and putting forth 110% without any consideration being given to the employee’s personal needs, thoughts, and desires, you are truly fooling yourself. And, eventually, your business will suffer for it.

It’s obvious to most, by now, that benefits and perks play a large part in attracting employees. I need not explain the many benefits that a company should make available to attract a good employee because it should be common sense to most, by now. I will say, however, that attaining a good employee must go much farther than just having a great set of benefits. After all, does a wonderful benefits package actually attract only good employees? Of course not. There must be more to it than that.

For the customer to be served with the best results humanly possible, a more modern approach to the theory of customer satisfaction must be realized which is that the customer should not come first; the employee should. Therein in itself is one of the most successful ways to attract a good employee.

When a business puts its employees first, many things can happen. To begin with, the employee is happy. If the employee is happy, the service that the employee provides to the customer will be far more outstanding than if he or she were not happy. If the service is outstanding, the customer will be happy and that only spells successful results for the business.

This does not mean that an employer must wait hand and foot on the employee. No, it simply means that careful consideration to what an employee thinks, wants, and suggests should be considered. Do not treat an employee as if he or she is a factory robot working on a clock. Treat them as people. Treat them with respect by talking to them as people and not “talking down to them” as “employees”. In fact, a good idea would be to remove the term “employee” all together. One successful company I know of refers to its employees as “associates”, thereby empowering their “associates” with a feeling of more respect and purpose.

EMPLOYEE LEADERSHIP AND FLEXIBILITY A MUST

An open, friendly atmosphere is a must in a workplace. Micro managing, as most already are aware of, is frowned upon. This is for a reason. When a work environment is open enough for all employees to contribute and offer ideas and suggestions, without ridicule or negative response, this sparks creativity in an employee and, again, empowers them to contribute more to the business. If everyone feels as though they are a part of the leadership process and not just a worker bee, they will have a satisfying feeling that can go a long way. Micro managing completely kills this system.

An employer must be flexible. Does there really need to be a rigid schedule? Does lunchtime really need to take place at a specific time? Who actually needs a clock to tell them when they are hungry? This line of thinking is what is needed in every faucet of business, as simple as it seems. It makes an employee feel more like a human; it makes them feel as though the business respects them as a person and will put them first. Once that consideration is instilled in an employee’s mind, there isn’t anything that he or she wouldn’t do for a business. And, when a person looks forward to waking up in the morning to begin working in a place where they feel management gives them respect and thinks highly of them, they will put forth the effort to show appreciation.

HIRE NICE PEOPLE

Experience and degrees are great ways of measuring employees’ qualifications and potential…but ask yourself, are they nice people? A person can be the most qualified, educated, and experienced possible employee on the planet but if they have the personality of a wet paper bag or of a caged wolverine, it’s guaranteed they’re not going to do much for your business. Those that have to work with them will be disgruntled on a daily bases and begin putting out a poor performance. The customers that receive service from them will be unhappy and I need not say what happens after that.

Hire nice people. Nice people can do wonders for a business. Sound picky? It is. But, when it comes to your business, can you afford not to be picky?

A nice person can learn anything. Nice people are pleasant to be around and are easy to teach. They are notoriously quick to learn. So, even if your nice person does not have the skill set that you are looking for, one might consider the possibility of training. Think about the potential, especially if nice people seem to be rare in your neck of the woods.

HOW DO YOU FIND NICE PEOPLE

This should be obvious. During the interview process, were they down-to-earth or were they focused solely on success, success, and more success? As crazy as it may seem, the total, success driven fanatic may not be the best option. Again, the person who seems more like a “person” would be the best candidate for hiring. In the long run, they will make your business more successful because they would make the customer, as well as those that have to work with them, happier.

Conduct tests and unconventional interview methods. Why should an interview consist of one or two meetings in a stuffy room? How can we really find out about a person that way? The answer is that we can’t. Instead, how about combining the stuffy office interview one day with another day of playing a game of softball with other, current employees, as Hal F. Rosenbluth and Diane McFerrin tend to do within their company? This would be great for company moral and, at the same time, provide a chance to see how the potential employee reacts in a team environment. If the person is bent on nothing but winning and becomes angry when other teammates drop the ball or do not hit as far as they should, perhaps this person is not the best employee to have around. Chances are that their performance on the softball field will reflect their performance in the office. (31-32).

Go for a drive. As again explained by Hal F. Rosenbluth and Diane McFerrin Peters, the way a person drives an automobile says a lot about a person’s personality. Are they overly aggressive and speed through traffic, weaving in an out of other cars, determined to get to the point of destination no matter what the cost? Or, are they assertive drivers who consider the safety of their passengers and think of alternate routes when confronted with a traffic jam, focusing more on the drive than the destination? (31). Which person would you rather have working for you? Which person would you rather have serving your customers? If you were a customer, which person would you rather have serving you?

Invite your new, potential employee to a company social event. Are they the type of person that talks only of themselves and continuously brags about all of the wonderful things that he or she has done? Do they even talk to anyone at all? These are the folks that either want to gain far more than they are willing to contribute or aren’t willing to gain or contribute. These are the type of people that will bring your company down.

So, some key points to consider thus far:

Consider your employees before your customers. Not only will the employee put out a far better performance due to feeling respected, but your company will also build a reputation as being “the company to work for”, which will attract other, good employees.

Be flexible. Constraints in the office constrain creativity and work performance. Go for casual clothing, if possible. Let your employee decide when it’s time to eat and take a break. Be flexible on your employee’s schedule, catering to his or her personal needs. The employee will show appreciation in return, by supplying a good output of production.

Hire nice people. Not one customer in the world, no matter what business you are in, enjoys service from someone with less-than-appreciative attitude. And, your other employees will not enjoy working with them either, bringing down moral and production drastically. This kind of person will not be willing to strive at contributing to your company; they will strive to contribute only to themselves.

Consider the unconventional when interviewing an employee. The more often you can set a scenario that a potential employee will not expect or could find to be an unusual method of interviewing, the better. It will give you a chance to see what that person is really capable of, as a person.

RETAINING GOOD EMPLOYEES

As important as attracting good employees is, it is just as important to retain them. As always, benefit packages help to retain employees. But, again, this is something that most people are already aware of. Sure, there will be those that will want to stay for the great benefits. But, is that all you, as an employer, can offer? No.

After spending as much time as you should have in attracting good employees, it only makes sense that you would go to certain lengths to keep them. Chances are, if you really attracted a good employee, it wasn’t just because of the benefits. And, chances are that your good employee will not stay just because of the benefits. Benefits, although a positive force, are not the end all and can, at times, be a false sense of security to an employer. Not everyone develops his or her retention decision on a benefits package, at least not the smart employee.

LET THEM CHANGE IT UP NOW AND AGAIN

Let your people explore your company. Don’t lock them into one, specific type of work, especially if they express desire to try other things. In today’s job market, job-hoping, as it is known, is a regular occurrence. If you provide your employees with the chance to job-hop “within” your company, this is one way of keeping them there. Give them the opportunity to gain new experience, knowledge, and skills. This will only enhance your company anyway, by having an employee that can do and handle more. It also increases confidence in the employee and makes their work more satisfying. The United States military and civil services such as police and fire departments have already figured that one out. They call it cross-training and fleeting-up and it’s a great idea.

COMMUNICATION

Communicating is very important, not only in day to day business, but in retention as well. People need to feel as though they have a grasp on what is going on within the company. They want to know where the company is going and how they will be part of that process. They need to feel they are involved in the company. Being part of any planning processes, being able to contribute ideas for the company, and essentially being heard is all part of communication. Again, this is emphasized in most of the U.S.’s military forces as well, even though they conduct themselves in more of a dictatorship.

Know why your people wanted to join your company in the first place and hone in on that. Keep that priority of the employee in consideration, always acting on it and developing it, and the employee will want to continue that purpose with a strong sense.

Talk to your people. Not only should you get to know them, you should get to know what they continue to want and think. And, don’t think for a minute that a person’s desires and thoughts on particular matters will be the same later down the road as they were when they first joined the organization. Things change, including your employee’s thoughts and desires. Keep up with those changes.

Get feedback from your employee’s. Find out what they think is right and wrong with the company. Provide a feedback forum. And, most importantly, act on the information you receive from this feedback.

In summery:

Let your employee job hop and provide an opportunity to let them do it within your company, instead of having to go outside the company. More than likely, if they can’t do it in the company, they will venture outside to a place that they can. Take advantage of the multiple skills your people can learn within the company. This not only helps your company out, it gives the employee a feeling of more purpose and he or she will enjoy not having to go far to expand their skills.

Keep your people in mind when it comes to information on where the company is headed and what it is doing. If the employee does not feel informed on what is happening, they will not feel as though they are part of the company and, therefore, will not want to stay, in the long run.

Get to know what your people want, when they first enter the organization and periodically throughout their tenure. People’s motives and desires change. The good employer is the one that can keep up with those changes. Offer feedback methods and make sure you act on the results.

Above all, remember what it was that got you that good employee in the first place. The concepts mentioned in this article that enable an employer to attain a good employee to begin with are basically the same principals of retaining them as well. It’s that simple. Anyone who works for a company that considers their needs, is just, and can remain flexible, as well as provides other good employees to work alongside, will want to continue working in that company. Hiring and retaining good employees goes hand in hand.

About The Author

Myron Curry is President and CEO of BusinessTrainingMedia.com a leading provider of workforce and business development training programs designed exclusively for corporate deployment. Myron has over 20 years of successful management experience with leading fortune 500 companies and has written numerous articles about workforce management issues. You can contact Myron at: myron@business-marketing.com or visit his company’s website http://www.businesstrainingmedia.com

Mention the word “metaphysical” around a Christian fundamentalist and you will be met with a suspicious glare. That kind of talk is not found in the bible. It is modern, it is science, it is secular, it is witchcraft, it is New Age and it is a threat. I ask you however, what part of the bible is not metaphysical?

The term “metaphysical” simply refers to something that is outside the presumed limitations of physical reality. I never know how much of the bible to take literally but I do know that walking on water, rising from the dead, feeding thousands with one fish, virgin birthing, escaping bodily destruction from fire, making the blind man see, plopping down instant human beings and turning water into wine definitely pushes the boundaries of our perceived reality. I would call these activities metaphysical.

Notice that I said “perceived” reality. It is what we decide based on what appears to be. Research has recently shown us that particles and energy can be interchangeable because they are really forms of the same essence. In other words, thought energy is transmitted by actual little electric ions. The higher we are tuned to spirit vibrations, the quicker our intention gets across and in so doing it bypasses heavier, slower methods of moving these ions around. So there really is a scientific explanation for many of the miracles we find in the bible.

Do you see what this discovery means? It reconciles science and religion which have vehemently opposed each other since the beginning of time. It explains material things in spirit terms and spiritual things in material terms. I guess I call it metaphysical Christianity.

Within this understanding we are recognizing an energetic force and we are attributing good things to it such as kindness and love and healing and beauty. This force can be broken down into a comprehension of tiny electric ions which are moving in a life enhancing direction. We are at liberty to hop on at any point of the belief spectrum, but no matter where we choose to identify ourselves, there is still a reality-based explanation for our conviction.

Fundamentalists hook up to their viewpoint by way of intense, non-intellectual emotion. That’s fine, ideas can be feelings and don’t have to have words. Metaphysicists hook up to theirs by way of scientific explanation. That’s fine too, because actually ideas and feelings are two vehicles which lead to the same understanding. Both lead to the experience of faith.

Energy and particles. Interchangeable substances. In fact, we could even do away with the word metaphysical because the phenomenon we are referring to is actually all physical. Or is it that that everything begins and ends in the spirit, so the manifestation is really just a byproduct of that great mystical power? Mystical? That word is not in the bible either, but so what? We have merged the two populations of science and religion and so we have made the world into a more integrated and harmonious place.

Olga Moe lives on an island in the Puget Sound. She is known mostly for her fiction contributions to literary e-zines which can be found at zelda2530.tripod.com

A router is a computer device that receives or forwards data packets to and from the Internet towards a destination in the process called routing. A router is the essential component of the computer networking that enables any sent data to arrive at the right destination.

As an illustration, imagine that the Internet is the world and one computer is one household. Other computers connected through the Internet are households around the world. Say one household will send a letter to another household in any part of the world. The letter has an address right? And that address would determine the destination of the letter. But without one reading the address, the letter would not arrive to the right receiver. The letter also would not be able to reach the intended receiver if there is not medium. This medium would be the courier. And the courier of the computer data is the router.

A router (broadband router) is also a device that enables two or more computer to receive data packets from the Internet under one IP address at the same time.

Remember that to be able to connect to the Internet, a computer must have an IP address unique from the rest of the computers. Therefore, every computer connected to the Internet has it own IP address. It is like having a fingerprint or ID as an access pass to be able to enter the web. With the presence of the router, this “fingerprint” or “ID” could be shared by two or more computer at the same time.

In simplest form, a router makes two or more computer use the Internet at the same with one access pass.

One more thing: a computer with cable modem could also be considered as a router. In this, the computer would do the process of routing like normal routers do. Other computers are then connected to the computer with Internet connection that would give it with the Internet connection. The computer with cable modem has the direct contact with the Internet and the ones connected to it are sharing the connection.

Why would anyone need a router?

For households with two or more computers who would want to have Internet connection to every computers they have, taking subscription for each would be too much. The solution is to buy a router that would enable every computer in the house to have an Internet connection. In the definition above, the broadband router would act as a hub to the existing Internet connection.

If the router is comparable to a hub, would it affect the Internet speed?

It should be taken into consideration that once a single Internet connection is divided, the connection speed is affected. But there are some broadband routers that would bring minimal slowdown to the Internet speed and the effect might not even be big.

Internet speed would also depend on the type of application used in a router. While some would inflict little effect on the speed like online games, others would terribly slowdown your connection and even hinder you to use the Internet at all.

Usually, offices use a more sophisticated router to redirect Internet connections to the large number of computers. These routers would give better data packeting compared to a typical router used at home that results to faster Internet speed.

Robert Thatcher is a freelance publisher based in Cupertino, California. He publishes articles and reports in various ezines and provides router resources on http://www.about-routers.info

IT consulting is more than just knowing all about laptops and servers. To be successful, you need to have business skills, too. This article will give you some examples of skills you need for your IT consulting business.

Good Data Management Will Keep You Organized

You should have strong spreadsheet skills and hopefully know Excel pretty well. There will be all kinds of data you will need to put together for internal use and for client’s use. For time management, you need to know how to draw the line. You will need to keep on schedule and keep priorities in check.

The Phone Will Be Your Friend

For IT consulting, you will need good verbal skills, and feel comfortable on the phone. Because you are going to need that for following up on leads and setting up appointments. You’ll also need good phone skills for providing tech support and for keeping clients and vendors in check.

Speaking Effectively in Public Might Close the Deal

In IT consulting, you’ll be doing small group presentations. You’ll be doing these with an internal training or on a sales call. You are going to be talking to 3, 4, 5 as much as 10 people at once sometimes. You may get a company where they will bring in literally all of their middle management to grill you on the solution to make sure you have it.

Proper Grammar and Spelling Will Let Your Professionalism Shine Through

You should have decent word processing and email communications skills to get with your clients, prospects and partners. Those are some of the important business skills.

The Bottom Line about IT Consulting

Much of what determines someone’s success in IT consulting is his business skills rather than technical proficiency. If you have deficiencies in these skills, now is the time to work on them so you can stay in the IT consulting field for the long haul.

Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consulting 101 Blog. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}

Joshua Feinberg, co-founder of Computer Consulting 101, helps computer consulting businesses get more steady, high-paying clients. Learn how you can too. Sign-up now for your free access to these field-tested, proven business strategies on the Computer Consulting 101 Blog.

If you own a home you have probably asked yourself, “How do I find the right mortgage company?” Whether it is a mortgage refinancing, second mortgage or home purchase loan you are seeking, the choices are numerous. Do you go to a bank, mortgage broker or mortgage banker? Do you ask a friend, look in the phone book, or shop online? Regardless of your answers to these questions, here are a few important tips you need to know when shopping for a mortgage refinancing, second mortgage or home purchase loan:

1. Understand Financial Markets - You do not need a degree in Economics or Finance to shop for a mortgage, but before you start shopping find out the yield on the 10 Year Treasury Bond. (One source for this is Yahoo Finance) You do not need to understand what the number means, just use it as a benchmark for whether rates are moving up or down. Here is an example of why this is important. You have talked to 3 or 4 companies and determined that you are going with Company B. On Monday, Company B quotes your mortgage refinancing rate at 6.00%. On Tuesday you meet with Company B to sign the initial disclosures and the loan officer tells you that rates went up and your rate is now 6.125%. However, you checked the 10 year bond yield and on Tuesday it 4.45%, the same as Monday. The loan officer is probably trying to make extra money on your loan. Ask him to show you the difference in rates from one day to the next or take your business to a credible company.

2. Be Careful What You Ask For - Simply calling a mortgage company and stating, “I do not want to pay points” does not guarantee you are getting the best deal on your second mortgage, mortgage refinancing or home purchase loan. A better statement would be, “Please disclose all closing costs and prepaids with your quote.” Points are only one of many potential costs on a loan. Advising that you will not pay points still leaves the door open for numerous costs. You need to know all the fees ranging from appraisal, lender, broker and title / attorney fees. The prepaids will always be the same regardless of the company you choose, but you still need to know what each company is allowing for prepaids. By gathering all of the information, you can now do a fair comparison of your mortgage quotes.

3. Not For Profit - Regardless of any claims for a “No Closing Cost” mortgage refinancing, remember that all mortgage companies are in business to make a profit. There is definitely a difference in what two companies can charge for the same loan, but no company is doing it for free. There truly are “No Closing Cost” second mortgages and mortgage refinancings, but your rate has been increased to subsidize the costs. This can be a good loan in certain situations but not others. If you are working with a mortgage professional they will be able to tell you financially which option is best.

As you work to integrate these guides into your shopping process, remember that the lowest cost mortgage company is not always the best. You want a mortgage professional that is knowledgeable, committed to your situation and that will be there to answer questions long after your closing. Ultimately using these guides will help you become a smarter shopper.

Chris France is a professional mortgage planner with over 10 years lending and banking experience. His programs assist clients with increasing cash flow, reducing liabilities and building equity by integrating a client’s mortgage decision with their overall financial plan. He is a manager with CFIC Home Mortgage providing both purchase and refinance transactions. Chris holds a B.S. in Finance and is Fair Credit Reporting Act certified. Click here for more information on Mortgage Refinancing and second Mortgage Solutions. For questions or comments, please contact Chris France at christopher.france@branch.cfic.comm or http://www.americanmortgagefundingcorp.com or 1-800-943-9472.

The difficulties of driving to a betting hall should be reason enough to give up on it unless you absolutely must go. If you take a hard look at it all those miles of driving, the difficulties, and tasks at hand won’t really warrant the incommodity only for the chance to wager at betting hall, though allowing for this, should you happen to be the kind who yearns for games of luck then opting for online casinos and gambling is likely the obvious solution. You do not have to leave your house to have a bash at online betting simply because you can access it easily from home if you possess a pc and a working internet connection. In spite of this, before getting all excited, there’s a lot of things that you’ll definitely want to train yourself in in regards to online betting, specifically if you’re a tenderfoot in this field.

The very first thing that I as a discriminating online gambler positively must check is an online betting webpage of the kind that promotes the best winning odds. Determine the online betting webpage is evaluated by a reputable, secure accounting company to assess their documented games pay-outs at fixed intervals. Always make sure beyond doubt the virtual casino fun webpage is legally licensed, e. g. by investigating the approbation on site. If you are unable to track down any approbation on that particular virtual casino fun webpage, don’t even remotely think of spending at this place. Wow your friends: Learn to play internet gambling like the pros!

Furthermore, another important bit of advice would obviously be to try your hand first with trifling amounts in place of forfeiting big amounts of money immediately. Check, first of all, the functionality of this specific virtual casino fun setup prior to daring to risk any undue risk- specifically money loss! Finally, mind this most crucial word of wisdom in regards to virtual poker. It is this: always to remember that online wagering is about recreation and not about making a buck. Casino betting isn’t a vocation, but, instead, a pastime that is intended to help you become happy and your entire life satisfying. Once you have followed the cues described, you are free to go ahead acquiesce to the allure of virtual casino fun…

Okay so I do a lot of research; have traveled afar and obviously I have something to say. Ah; “Rants from Lance” indeed. Yes in fact it is over do but it is time; It is Soap Box time; I Read an interesting article today about the fact that 80% of all penalties for employment withholding costs were fined to small businesses with under ten employees. Probably because when the large companies were small they were fined and learned along the way, as they got bigger to outsource employment tasks or hire attorneys to slow down the investigating agencies. I say this fact has made a market niche for employment agencies and taken another fee from the laborers.

For instance many of our franchisees have hired employees through temporary or employment agencies because of the time involved in accounting and penalties from an anti-small business group of regulators and a huge employment government agency in many states. Which attack businesses to justify their own existence. Interestingly enough these government agencies burn up half of all monies collected in administration. Those unemployment agencies need to charge more fines to stay in business, now they have more output and accusations amongst laid off workers fly and these agencies investigate even though most claims are false and lies from disgruntled, low out put employees who want something for nothing.

For instance I can call up the unemployment board of nearly any state and without any proof can make up a charge and they will go investigate it. Similar to the FTC which I know first hand does, having attacked my company based on false complaints and declarations coming from competitors. They are criminals at the FTC, well, at least the case-worker in our deal. The FTC has industry coordinators for various sectors within their once great Kennedy organization, suffer from low self-esteem, save the world, conspiracy theorist attitudes, abusive power energies and rottenness.

(CYA; but of course those case workers and prosecuting attorneys who reviewed our case are at the height and pinnacle of ethical echelon and should receive a Nobel Prize for their work in Industry and helping consumers throughout the world and making it a better and cleaner Planet for all future generations of mankind. Working diligently to make sure that the waterways of commerce which transverse the strongest nation in the world are kept pure and fair, yah sure?) I love those CYAs don’t you? Well get use to them.

Now, Let us look at the California department of Automotive Services, who claims they will investigate any auto repair case even if you are not sure there was a crime. Why? To justify the numbers of cases worked on, for the amount of overly increasing budgets every year. They have a whole fleet of several thousand cars, which we have on occasion washed. http://www.carwashguys.com . I do not mean to under mind the need for referees in the free enterprise system or endorse Smoot and his book “The Business end of Government” which everyone should read. But by attacking small business we have inadvertently put a layer of profit taking from workers salaries that is a tax on business and additional monies coming out of bonuses that real life workers may have earned to send their kids to college, donate to charity, increase standard of living and quality of life issues, help pay off mortgages and allow them to work to earn their American dream.

The same liberal attitude, which has permeated the regulatory process in America is destroying it by leveling the playing field and supporting the weakest and most inefficient of all organizations. Government. You know I am right, look for yourself. Everyday I get corporate propaganda from employment services wanting a piece of our franchisees total allocation for labor in turn for helping them with the maze of regulations of employment taxes, hiring, OSHA, workmen’s compensation claim attorneys and rules bordering on rape type penalties to small business and background checks now required for working in specialty ones like airports, DOT yards, post offices and other locations.

Am I making more out of what is really killing America? Absolutely not, no way, I am right on the money. I or any small business person for that matter will tell you, it is the reality. I have also been receiving the DOT and OSHA regulations and case laws for some time now to put into binders taking up 15% of my personal business library. The actual OSHA standards are now 56 stories high if you stacked them on top of one another. One attorney who handles government contracts told me in San Antonio yesterday that perhaps we should throw them off the top. Referring to regulators of that agency. He said the worst agency of record was clearly the EPA. We have finally beaten them and are in 100% compliance until they start changing laws again to save the unborn gay pregnant whales from nuclear fallout, terrorism, and botulism. Not that, those are not all great causes but very few have anything to do with the price of rice in China or small business or in my case car washing for that matter.

I see a direct from Dell approach to the problem. Simplify the process of payroll contributions by having one system in all 50 states, all of which runs on Microsoft Word 2002, use that as a settlement form any upcoming mean complaints filed by Steve Case, a case worker in himself hyping numbers and projections and worse than Enron, Global Crossing, UAL, AMR, Nortel, etc. If it were simplified and on Microsoft Office and that was part of Intuits quick books then anyone could figure out the payroll contributions and the remaining monies paid to the employment agencies would be redistributed to small business for expansion or given to the vary workers themselves as a productivity bonus. Anyone from Tom Peters to Friedrich Winslow Taylor would agree that this is the best stimulus package for small business.

I recently looked at the SBA loans for small business due to terrorism and found that only about 55 million dollars in loans nationwide; Pathetic really, absolutely pathetic. Although the ramp up time and Congressional delays and bureaucracy made these funds unavailable in real time, hundreds of thousands of small businesses are no longer with us. Why? Why, damn it; answer me. You pathetic losers; whose team are you on. Arguing about BS putting into the minutes; hours of discussion that any entrepreneur worth his salt could have done in seconds. Letting America disintegrate is a terrorist act.

End Part I “Soap Box Time; Rants from Lance”

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/