Your Guide On Choosing a Credit Card To Suit You
by: Wes Atkins
Reach into your wallet or purse, pull out a card, swipe, and you’re done. It is very easy to use a credit card. The problem lies in choosing a card – and it has nothing to do with the picture on the front! Choosing a credit card that works best for you is vital to your credit rating. If you choose incorrectly, you may find yourself in deep debt trouble. Here is some basic, yet extremely important, information that will help you make the right choice.
Your Money Handling Habits
Choosing a credit card that is perfect for one person may be a dismal failure for you because your habits are different. When it comes to choosing your credit card, you need to look very closely and honestly at your habits.
For instance, do you typically carry a balance or do you pay off the card at the end of each month? If you answered “yes†then you will need to shop for:
A low Annual Percentage Rate (APR). The APR the interest rate you will pay on any outstanding balances each month. The higher the rate, the more you will pay in interest charges.
A fixed-low rate. This means that they will guarantee that your rate will stay low. Oftentimes, a company will offer a low introductory rate to get you signed up and then increase the rates drastically in 3, 6, or 9 months. The problem with a guaranteed rate is that an annual fee often accompanies it. You will need to decide if the lower interest rate guarantee is worth the cost of the annual fee.
If you will be paying off your card at the end of each month, you will not have to worry as much about a low APR since you will not be using it. And with no need for a guarantee, you may be able to avoid yearly fees. However, you will want to be sure to get a card with a grace period.
Grace Period: Be careful to get a card that allows you to pay off your bill at the end of the month with no finance charges. Those that don’t offer the standard grace period begin charging you interest the moment you make a purchase.
Cash Advance Fees: Be aware that most cards charge interest, and sometimes at a higher rate, for cash advances and this charge begins with no grace period even if your card offers a grace period for purchases.
You also need to decide how reliable you will be when it comes to paying on time and keeping yourself under the card limit. If you are often late paying your bills or often do not know how much credit you have left, you will want to watch out for transaction fees and other charges. Many card companies charge a late fee and an over-the-limit fee. These can be substantial. Your best bet is to pay on time and keep under the limit, however, finding a card with lower charges is a good idea.
Here is another important question to consider when looking at your money handling habits: Do you use the card rarely, occasionally, regularly, or frequently? Those that use their cards for just about everything instead of using cash or checks will want to look for credit card protection. This way, if you lose your card or it is stolen, you will not be responsible for any purchases made.
Finally, consider the different benefit programs that cards are offering.
Do you travel? Then consider a card with frequent travel miles as a reward. Or perhaps one that offers traveler’s insurance.
Do you use your card for large purchases like electronics? You may want to consider credit card insurance that will replace your equipment for a specified period of time if it breaks down or gets stolen.
Are you saving to buy a new car? There are cards that offer new car rebates.
Do you have a favorite charity? Many cards now support specific charities, universities, and organizations by paying the entity a specific amount with each purchase you make.
What matters most is to find the features that fit your pattern of spending and paying. Don’t get fooled by the gimmicks or the advertisements. Know your spending habits, look at the small print, and choose the card that is best for you. With all the different cards available, you will be able to find the right fit for you.
About The Author
Wesley Atkins is the owner of http://www.credit-cards-advisor.com- which aims to get you fitted with the best credit cards to suit your situation. With numerous credit card articles and easy online credit card applications you will never choose the wrong credit card again.
Categories: Saving Money Tags:
Turbo charge your profits with Options
I know many people who trade stocks. Most of the US house holds have stocks in various companies. Have you tried options?
Many people think Options are only for professional traders and the big boys. It is not so. Let me explain in simple terms what are the pros and cons of options.
Here is how the option works. Assume that you see a house in your street and the owner is planning to sell it retiring and moving to Florida within one year. The current market price for the house is $215,000. You go and talk to the owner Brad and tell him “Hi Brad; I would like to lock in this house for the price of $220,000; I will have the right to buy this house for this price for one year (i.e. till December 2006). For this I will pay you $2000.â€. Now you and Brad come to an agreement; Brad gives you the right but not an obligation to buy the house till December 2006 at a price of 220,000. You have the right and not the obligation that is important which means if the house price goes down you don’t need to buy it at 220K.
Now in end of 2006, the house prices came up and now Brad’s house is now worth $235,000. Now you call a real estate agent sell it for 235,000 and give 220,000 to Brad and pocket a profit of 15,000 (minus your option premium of $1000). So your net profit is $14,000 on an investment of $1000. That is like 1400% return on your money.
If you had bought the house at 215,000 and sell it for 235,000 you might have made 20,000 or about 10% return on your money.
Let us consider the story of Bob Stock and Jim Option. Bob always invests in stocks and Jim invests in stocks and options. In January 2005 both Bob and Jim wanted to invest in Apple. At that time let us assume the price was about $40. Bob bought 100 shares of apple at $4000. Jim the wise guy bought 1 option of Apple at a strike price of $50 expiring in Jan 2006 at a price of $200.
Now let us see the technical definition of this option
· Number of contracts – 1 contract gives you the right for 100 stock
· Strike price – The price at which the option becomes “in money†meaning you start making profit from when the stock achieve this price
· Expiration date: Options are not for every; they have expiration date. The option bought by Jim expires in Jan 2006; that is if the apple stock does not go above $50 Jim loses every thing (in this case $200).
Now in December of 2005, Apple price doubled and is around $90 (including splits). Bob made $5000 and Jim made $4000. Bob’s return is 125% whereas Jims return is 2000% or Jim made 20 times of the money he invested.
Story of Bob Stock and Jim Option:-
Date Comments
Jan 2005 Apple stock is $40. Bob and Jim Likes Apple stock. Apple stock is $40. Bob buys 100 stock for $4000 Jim buys 1 option of Apple for a strike price of $50 ; he paid $200 for the option
Dec 2005 Apple stock is $90 (Adjusted for Split) Bob sells Apple for $9000 and gets a profit of $5000 from an investment of $4000. Jim sells his option for $4000 from an investment of $200. Return on investment for Jim is 2000% and for Bob it is 125%.
So what are the negative things of Options; one thing for sure is unless your bet is right you lose the premium and that is all. So your portfolio should contain both Stock and Options.
Categories: Financial Investing Tags:
Investing in the Stock Market by Charles M. O’Melia
”
Investing in the Stock Market
by: Charles M. O’Melia
From the book ‘The Stockopoly Plan’ by the author Charles M. O’Melia
There are several factors an investor in the stock market should consider:
1. All stock purchases should be commission-free.
2. All stocks purchased should be from a company that has a history of raising their dividends every year.
3. The company should not only have a history of raising their dividend every year, but should also show price appreciation in the market place, on a year to year basis.
4. All dividends from the companies should be rolled-over into more shares of the company, until retirement. This should be done by the company, for the shareholder, commission- free.
5. The companies purchased should have staggered dividend pay-out dates so the income from 12 companies will provide the shareholder cash dividend income every week of the year. No more than 12 companies should be owned, otherwise, you’re probably spreading your money too thin.
6. A systematic approach of dollar-cost averaging should be done on a quarterly basis. A savings plan should be adopted to add to your holdings every quarter, along with the dividend reinvestment.
7. Stocks purchased should pay a dividend yield of at least 2.0% or better. A low 2.0% dividend yield isn’t necessarily bad because it means the company in question is using most of their profits too expand. In other words, it’s a growth stock with business, profits and earnings growing. A growth stock makes up for the lower dividend yield because their stock prices will more than likely rise faster.
8. The company should have been in business at least eight years, showing dividend increases each year. This will eliminate the risk involved in putting money into a risky new start up company (the kind that is going to change the world – they are just too hard to find).
9. The company must have a stock dividend reinvestment plan (DRIP). If the dividend paid by the company is $2.63 for the quarter, all of that $2.63 will purchase a further percentage of shares (partial shares) and this should be done automatically for you by the company or their Transfer Agent.
10. The companies you purchase should be purchased with the intent of realizing ever-increasing cash dividends for you and your family for the rest of your lives.
Everything you would need to know to start an investment program which emphasizes the considerations above is explained to you in my book ‘The Stockopoly Plan’, soon to be published by American-Book Publishing.
Below is an excerpt from the book I would like to share with you!
Have you ever noticed how some words in the English language are so perfectly named for what they describe? And how some words seem to be, I guess you could say backwards? For instance, the word sunflower! How wonderfully aptly named is the sunflower, that beautiful yellow flower that follows the sun from sunrise to sunset. And then there are those words in the English language where there meaning appears to be backward, so to speak – like parkway and driveway. When my car is parked at home, I would think it would be parked on, well, a parkway – and when I’m on the road driving somewhere, I would think I’d be driving on a – a driveway.
In the stock market world, I think the word analyst is a perfect word in the English language and stockbroker sounds right to me, too. And this leads me to what I call the ‘brainwashing mantras’ of Wall Street.
The brainwashing mantras of Wall Street may take the form of a number, such as a stock rating of 1, 2, 3 etc. Or the mantras may be a star, 1 star, 2 stars etc. The mantras may be a word or a group of words- attractive, unattractive, neutral, market perform, market out-perform, market under-perform, market under-weight, market equal weight, market over-weight, sector perform, strong buy, buy, sell, strong sell.
These mantras are so ingrained in Wall Street and investor’s minds that they have created multi-billion dollar industries. There are other types of mantras, such as RSI (relative strength index – a trading volume indicator), Bollinger Bands (named after its creator John Bollinger (he use to be a regular on CNBC) and the bands deal with the channels a stock trades in, in relation to its ‘moving average’- another mantra), Stochastics (used to tell if a stock is 75 % overbought – too many people have been buying) or 25% oversold (too many people have been selling), Momentum, MACD (Moving Average Convergence/Divergence – price of the stock, up or down, in relation to its moving average), 50 day, 200 day moving averages, triple bottoms and tops, pendants, flags, bear and bull markets, head and shoulders formations, double bottoms, P/E ratios etc, etc, etc. All these mantras serve a purpose (and if you’re inclined to trade in the market they are, I admit, useful tools) – they create commissions. And in my opinion, have no meaning what-so-ever for the long-term, dollar-cost averaging, buying investor of company’s shares, free of commission charges, whose companies raise their dividend every year, with the investor’s idea or purpose being to provide an 85% tax-free income, through ever-increasing dividends for the rest of their lives, no matter what the price of the stock at any given time in the market place may be. (Whew! What a sentence!)
For more excerpts from the book ‘The Stockopoly Plan’ visit http://www.thestockopolyplan.com
About The Author
Charles M. O’Melia – an individual investor with almost 40 years of experience and passion for the stock market. Author of the book ‘The Stockopoly Plan’, soon to be released by American-Book Publishing.
charles@thestockopolyplan.com
“
Categories: Financial Investing Tags:
Mutual Funds: What Investors Need to Know About Morningstar Mutual Fund Fiduciary Grades by Sam Subramanian
Mutual Funds: What Investors Need to Know About Morningstar Mutual Fund Fiduciary Grades
by: Sam Subramanian
Morningstar now provides Fiduciary Grades on mutual funds. How does Morningstar determine these grades? How can mutual fund investors use these grades to better manage their portfolios?
Mutual fund investors use Morningstar Ratingâ„¢ as a sign post of mutual fund performance. These ratings have proved to be a valuable tool for objectively comparing the performances of different mutual funds.
In 2003, New York Attorney General, Elliott Spitzer launched actions against some mutual fund companies for allowing their privileged clients to profit from improper activities such as late trading.
In the aftermath of these developments, investors realize that they need more than the historical performance based Morningstar Ratings to evaluate mutual funds. The Morningstar Ratings do not get at critical intangibles. How seriously does the mutual fund company take its fiduciary responsibility to mutual fund investors? How aligned are the interests of the mutual fund manager and the mutual fund company with those of the mutual fund investor?
To address this need, Morningstar has embarked on a system called the Fiduciary Grade. Morningstar has so far graded about 635 mutual funds, including 500 of the largest ones. Morningstar plans to provide Fiduciary Grades for a total of 2000 mutual funds over time.
The Morningstar Fiduciary Grade System Basics
The Morningstar Fiduciary Grade is based on the evaluation of five areas critical for mutual fund governance and mutual fund operations. Morningstar generally assigns to mutual funds points ranging from 0 (Very Poor) to 2 (Excellent) in increments of 0.5 for each of these five areas.
1. Regulatory Issues: Morningstar examines if the mutual fund company has had any regulatory issues within the past three years. If so, what corrective action has the mutual fund company implemented? Unlike the other four areas, the minimum score here can be a minus 2.
2. Board Quality: Morningstar looks for a demonstrated track record of the mutual fund board protecting the interests of mutual fund investors. Mutual funds get kudos if their independent directors invest in the mutual funds.
3. Manager Incentives: This score is based on Morningstar’s evaluation of mutual fund ownership and compensation structure. Mutual funds where the fund’s manager owns a meaningful stake in the fund score high on the fund ownership dimension. A compensation structure that rewards the mutual fund manager for long-term mutual fund performance is favored.
4. Fees: Mutual funds are rewarded for having expense ratios lower than that of their peers and for effectively reducing their expense ratios with growth in their assets.
5. Corporate Culture: Morningstar looks for tangible evidence that the mutual fund company takes its fiduciary responsibility seriously. Among the factors Morningstar considers are softer issues like whether the company closes mutual funds when they get too large and whether the company starts trendy mutual funds to garner assets.
The points scored on each of the above areas are aggregated and the Fiduciary Grade is assigned based on the total: A=9-10, B=7-8.5, C=5-6.5, D=3-4.5, F=2.5 or less.
How Investors Can Use the Morningstar Fiduciary Grade
Here are some ways investors can use the Morningstar Fiduciary Grade.
1. Buy and Hold Investors: Buy and hold mutual fund investors first need to examine how mutual funds held in their portfolios stack up on the two dimensions, Morningstar Rating and Fiduciary Grade.
Mutual funds that rank favorably on both dimensions may be retained and mutual funds that rank unfavorably on both dimensions may be replaced by ones that rank favorably.
For mutual funds that rank favorably in one dimension but not in the other, the answer is not clear-cut. Retaining a fund with strong Morningstar Rating but lower Fiduciary Grade is a matter of personal choice. Conversely, a mutual fund’s Fiduciary Grade may be satisfactory but the Morningstar Rating may be unfavorable. This may just be a case of the mutual fund manager going through a temporary bad patch. Investors have to weigh these factors along with tax consequences before deciding to sell a mutual fund.
Given the number of mutual funds available, investors seeking new mutual funds to add to their portfolio should in general have no trouble in finding mutual funds with favorable Morningstar Rating as well as Fiduciary Grade.
2. Tactical Asset Allocators: A tactical asset allocator uses an active investment strategy and typically invests in mutual funds such as sector funds. For example, AlphaProfit, http://www.alphaprofit.com uses its ValuM investment process, http://www.alphaprofit.com/mutual-fund-selection.html to periodically alter the mix of its mutual fund model portfolios to take advantage of specific trends (e.g. rising natural gas prices, introduction of new wireless technologies).
Since tactical asset allocators seek superior performance during their mutual fund holding period, factors such as superior long-term performance which determine Morningstar Ratings are less important to them. However, these investors typically seek to own mutual funds within a single family such as Fidelity Investments for purposes of administrative ease. As such, tactical asset allocators will find the Fiduciary Grade useful in evaluating and choosing mutual fund families to implement their strategies.
Our Take on the Morningstar Fiduciary Grade System
The Fiduciary Grade system is a blend of several metrics. The grading of mutual funds on regulatory issues is backward looking rather than a prognosticator of potential future trouble. The grading system includes a quantitative dimension in mutual fund fees. Also included are qualitative dimensions such as mutual fund corporate culture, manager incentives, and board quality.
The Mutual Fund Fiduciary Grade ranking provides mutual fund investors with much needed insight on the governance and operations of mutual funds. The Morningstar Fiduciary Grade System is a good first step. We believe Morningstar will refine the Mutual Fund Fiduciary Grade system over time, just as they refined the Morningstar Ratings system.
While Morningstar Ratings do an excellent job of objectively evaluating past performance, financial markets by their very nature do not allow the investor to predict future performance based on these ratings alone. Many times, funds with Morningstar Ratings of 4- or 5-star do not live up to their expectations.
The utility of the Morningstar Fiduciary Grade will be significantly enhanced if superior Fiduciary Grade either by itself or in combination with the Morningstar Rating becomes a better indicator of superior future performance. We believe the Morningstar Fiduciary Grade has the potential to become a worthy metric of mutual fund stewardship over time.
Notes: This report is for information purposes only. Nothing herein should be construed as an offer to buy or sell securities or to give individual investment advice. This report does not have regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation, and particular needs of any specific person who may receive this report. The information contained in this report is obtained from various sources believed to be accurate and is provided without warranties of any kind. AlphaProfit Investments, LLC does not represent that this information, including any third party information, is accurate or complete and it should not be relied upon as such. AlphaProfit Investments, LLC is not responsible for any errors or omissions herein. Opinions expressed herein reflect the opinion of AlphaProfit Investments, LLC and are subject to change without notice. AlphaProfit Investments, LLC disclaims any liability for any direct or incidental loss incurred by a pplying any of the information in this report. Morningstar Rating™ is a trademark of Morningstar, Inc. The third-party trademarks or service marks appearing within this report are the property of their respective owners. All other trademarks appearing herein are the property of AlphaProfit Investments, LLC. Owners and employees of AlphaProfit Investments, LLC for their own accounts invest in the Fidelity Mutual Funds. AlphaProfit Investments, LLC neither is associated with nor receives any compensation from Fidelity Investments. Past performance is neither an indication of nor a guarantee for future results. No part of this document may be reproduced in any manner without written permission of AlphaProfit Investments, LLC. Copyright © 2004 AlphaProfit Investments, LLC. All rights reserved.
About The Author
Sam Subramanian, PhD, MBA is Managing Principal of AlphaProfit Investments, LLC. Sam developed the ValuMâ„¢ Investment Process for managing investments. He edits the AlphaProfit Sector Investors’ Newsletterâ„¢, a publication that discusses investments using Fidelity mutual funds. For the 5 year period ending December 31, 2003, AlphaProfit model portfolios increased by up to 252%, a compound annual return of 28.6%. To learn more about AlphaProfit and to subscribe to the FREE newsletter, visit http://www.alphaprofit.com
Categories: Financial Investing Tags:
Only the Weak Ones Quit! by Graham and Julie
Only the Weak Ones Quit!
by: Graham and Julie
Only the weak ones quit. Is that true? There is a story of a CEO of a multi-national company who decided to withdraw a product from the market when it had consistently failed for nine months and eaten up millions of pounds in advertising, promotions etc. Was he weak? He could have maintained the myth of success and stayed in the market and gradually withdrawn, costing him and his company many more millions. Instead, he chose to face the fact that they had made a bad decision backing the product in the first place. He admitted his mistake publicly and withdrew the product before it cost him and his shareholders more money. Is he weak?
We believe the opposite is true. He is a winner and winners quit in order that they can go on to achieve greater success. Perhaps, therefore, the phrase should be, ‘only the weak ones stick’. The strong appear to recognise when they have exhausted all the options and get out before the situation becomes a liability.
The successful appear to know when to quit whereas the weak ones, the unsuccessful, stay with a project hoping and praying that it will turn itself around.
Just stop for a moment and ask yourself:
Am I maintaining a project, thoughts, attitudes or beliefs that I should have ditched a long time ago?
What is it that I know I should have quitted but keep hold of?
What am I holding on to because I am afraid to let go?
What is it that stops me from quitting?
David was made redundant in 2001 and decided, because he had been relatively successful in corporate life, to become a management consultant, working from home. He had read all the books and information on the web telling him how much these guys earned and because he had 20 plus years in management they would be eager to call on his assistance and knowledge.
He realised he had little, in fact no, selling skills so he enrolled on a number of sales training courses. In fact David enrolled on and attended many courses in the first six months to learn the ropes. How to cold call. How to put a proposal together. How to find out the real problem in the organisation. How to close the sale. Etc. etc. etc.
The problem was, six months later, no work. He had visited a couple of owners of small and medium sized businesses to talk over their problems, sorry issues, but he was never retained. He felt that they were either seeing him out of politeness, because they couldn’t say no over the telephone or because they were trying to pick his brains at the meeting rather than pay for his ‘expertise’. David actually met one owner on a number of occasions, including buying him lunch, but to no avail.
Lyn, his wife, was getting worried because the redundancy cheque had long since disappeared and their savings was going the same way. He refused to apply for jobs saying that he knew he was doing the right thing. He just hadn’t found the right company yet.
David’s sole marketing was cold calling and calling his old network in case they had anything. As the months ticked away so did his money, his temper, his relationship and his health.
His cold calling got less and less because ‘that didn’t work’. He found himself reading more, buying more and more management books and magazines and becoming better organised. He had a great filing system but no work.
He decided he needed a web site. So spent hours and hours designing and developing his web presence. Many, many hours not contacting a potential customer because they would now come from the web. The months went by, the savings got less and less. His wife worked more and more hours to keep the ship afloat.
You see, David couldn’t quit. He couldn’t accept that being a management consultant wasn’t working for him. Because only the weak ones quit.
The difference between success and failure is that successful entrepreneurs know when to quit a project and start again. They are not attached to their loss making thoughts, attitudes and beliefs. It is the strong, focussed and determined that quit failing ventures before it costs them a lot of money. It is an ego driven myth that only the weak ones quit.
Graham and Julie
www.desktop-meditation.com
About The Author
To see more of our work please go to:
www.desktop-meditation.com
graham@desktop-meditation.com
Categories: Business Knowledge Tags:
Your Top Goal for 2006
The new year is almost upon us. We need to start thinking about what we want to accomplish financially in 2006.
Take a snapshot of where you are with your personal finances. Did you manage to eliminate all of your debt this past year? or Did you at least, get rid of some of your debt? If you were unable to do so, how come?
The reason I ask you about your debt elimination is because it is the most important, the most critical component, of your financial picture. If you’re not out of debt then you’re sending money to a lender rather than to your investment accounts. If you want to build wealth, and you still have debt, than make it your top goal to get out of debt in 2006.
Here is what you will need to do:
1. Accumulate an emergency fund. As quickly as you can, save $1000 and put it in a money market account. Promise to use this money only in a real emergency. ” Starbucks is not an emergency.”
2. Cut up all your credit cards and DO NOT GET INTO ANY NEW DEBT. This separates the men from the boys. If you have the guts to do this step then you have assured yourself success in eliminating debt and accumulating long term wealth. It’s hard, but it can be done. I did and have never looked back.
3. Get a sheet of paper and at the top in bold capital letters write ” The Borrower is a Slave to the Lender”. Below that list all of your debt from lowest to highest. At this point everything other than your mortgage goes on this list. Plaster it on your refigerator door. You want to see it everyday and be reminded that you are bound by the shackles of your master (Lender).
4. Take control of your spending and eliminate the BS stuff. Those are the things you can do without until you are debt free. If you can’t find anything to get rid of, than you’re not looking hard enough. If you still can’t find something than get another job. Eliminating debt should be so important to you that you will do whatever it takes to get rid of it.
5. Start putting any extra money you have towards the smallest debt and pay the minimum on all the others. When the small one is paid up apply what you were paying on that one up to the next highest debt. Dave Ramsey calls it the “snowball effect”. In this scenario you are chasing the snowball, rather than the snowball chasing you (debt is the snowball chasing you).
6. Don’t give up. You will screw up a few times. You’ll spend money and then realize maybe you shouldn’t have. That’s OK, we all will make mistakes. Just don’t stray and don’t give up. Get right back on your plan and before you know it debt will be a thing of the past.
Here’s to a Healthy, Happy, and Most Prosperous New Year.
Regards
Categories: Saving Money Tags:
Why now is the time to start an online business?
Many of us long for the day we no longer have to work for the “man”. We want to be able to walk in someday and tell the boss ” Take this job and shove it, I’ve got my own business”. For most of us it will be a difficult task. We have to work, take care of the kids, and the house. This leaves very little time to start a business that can someday replace our income. Don’t despair, there is a way to start a business with little money and with the potential to replace or at the worst case augment your income. I’m talking about starting an online or ecommerce business.
Why an online? Here are 4 big reasons:
1. It can be cheap to start.
2. Requires some effort but nothing at the beginning that will interfere with your present job.
3. You can reach a large customer base, without leaving the comfort of your home.
4. You may not need inventory in the early stages (think dropship).
There may be other reasons to start but these should do for now.
There are several types of online business you can start, most revolve around selling something to someone. An eBay business is probably the easiest to start and also comes with a very large customer base already in the place. The best way to start is to gather stuff around your house that you want to get rid of. Open yourself an eBay account, it’s free, then open a PayPal account. PayPal will allow you to accept credit card payments, as a well as electronic checks.
One you have that in place, take digital photos of your stuff, and list them on eBay. There is a ton of free information available to help you through the eBay process right on the eBay web site. Selling a few things on eBay allows you to learn the process. You’ll also get a feel for whether or not this is for you. Once you have determined that selling on eBay is for you then you’ll need to think about what you are going to sell. One excellent angle is to become a Trader Assistant. This allows you to sell things for other people on a commission basis. This is a great way to ensure an almost endless supply of stuff to sell.
You can also buy wholesale and sell retail. You can actually find wholesale merchandise on eBay to sell to others at a markup. Just make sure the person you are buying from has good eBay feedback.
Personally I chose the non eBay e-commerce route. I contacted several distributors of the products I wanted to sell on my e-commerce store and arranged for dropshipping for a limited time. This allowed me to test the products and the market. Once I know a product is going to be a good seller than I will order inventory and negotiate a good wholesale price.
You can also create your own products to sell. Information products such as DVD’s sell really well. You’ll need to do your research and know you market well. Find something that you know something about and create a DVD or instructional CD around that knowledge. You will be surprised what sells. I really like this niche as it allows to create you product once and sell it many times.
There is a lot more information on online businesses, do a quick search on Google for more insight.
Best of luck.
Here are some information links to get you started.
www.ebay.com
http://sell.ebay.com/sell
http://www.startupnation.com/
http://www.startupnation.com/pages/articles/AT_Online-Startups-Easier-Than-Ever.asp
Categories: Business Knowledge, My Personal Entries Tags:
My interview at Blueprint for Prosperity, and this blog’s new direction.
I recently was given the opportunity to be interviewed by Jim over at Blueprint for Prosperity blog site. Jim wanted to interview other personal finance bloggers to see what makes them tick. I had recently stated that I would be taking this blog in a slightly new direction. In the interview I reveal what I intend to inject into my posts and this blog. I ‘d like to thank Jim for the interview, he asked some very good questions that help me quite a bit.
To read the entire interview click here.
Categories: My Personal Entries Tags:
Carnival of Debt Reduction
The Carnival of Debt Reduction is being hosted by Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. One of my post ” Debt is not a way of life” is featured on the the site. Go over and take a look at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity, it’s a really good site.
Regards
Categories: Eliminating Debt, My Personal Entries Tags:
Debt is NOT a way of life.
Today I had an interesting discussion with one of my relatives. I won’t mention their name but suffice to say it’s one of my older relatives. The topic of discussion was debt. During the course of our conversation I stated that I wanted to become more aggressive in getting out of debt. I wanted to buckle down even more and make some additional sacrifices so that we could be debt free sooner.
His response to me was “Why do you want to make sacrifices to get out of debt when debt is a normal part of life”. Well, that almost caused me to get on my soapbox and start pontificating, but I held back.
It is this mindset that is causing millions of people to continue to live with debt. They believe that having a car payment, or a credit card payment is just a normal part of life.
It is a normal part of life if you want to be like everybody else, living paycheck to paycheck and broke as heck.
He also said “What good is getting out of debt and making sacrifices to do so if you die the day after your are debt free”. I replied ” What about if I don’t die, then I will be alive and debt free.” I said. Here again is this mindset that we shouldn’t even attempt to be debt-free because the work needed to achieve such a goal may be wasted if we die.
I think it’s nuts that people view debt this way. Debt is not and should not be something “normal”. We need to change the way we view debt if we are ever going to be debt free and achieve financial peace.
Regards
Categories: Eliminating Debt, My Personal Entries Tags:
Defining The Millionaire Blog
It has been about 6 months since I started this blog. It has gone through several transformation over the last 6 months. Besides 3 or 4 WordPress theme changes, what I wanted to accomplish has also changed. At first this blog was to have been my journal as I embarked on a quest to make $1,000,000.00. Then it became more of an investing information site, as I wrote posts and referred readers to articles about investing, real estate, savings and other personal finance stuff. As we near the end of the year I have begun to put on paper what I want this blog to accomplish for me and for my readers, as well as to focus the the content and topics.
From a monetary standpoint this blog generates very little revenue, it pays for hosting, as it was never intended to be a big source of income. I am re-evaluating this position and may consider doing more to the blog to increase revenues. If I do, I will post monthly goals and show others what I am doing so it can become a learning experience.
As for the content and topics, I am thinking hard about a change in which I may lose some readers, but will provide me a more gratifying topic and thus better content.
I will make an announcement soon.
Regards
Categories: My Personal Entries Tags:
Wal-Mart Is Bad for America, How?
I generally don’t like surveys and polls. I think most of them get skewed by whomever is running the poll so that results support their argument. Case in point is this poll regarding Walmart. Respondents were asked two questions. Is Walmart good for America? or is Walmart bad for America? 56% responded Walmart is bad for America. But to me the questions are just too vague and general to have any real meaning. For example, in what manner is Walmart bad for America. They are one of the biggest employers in the nation, how can that be bad? They drive prices down, that’s good for the consumer. If you work for them they start you off at about $8-$10 dollars and hour. That much better than minimum wage.
One negative that I do seem to read often is that Walmart drives the mom and pop stores out of business. But I also have seen many stories of those that responded to Walmart’s competition by increasing their value, offering better products, or expanding their market online.
Their overseas labor practices have been questioned. If that is the case then those government should investigate any wrongdoing.
Wal-Mart questioned the timing of the poll, which was conducted from Nov. 15 to 18 — a week when many of the retailer’s critics organized events to highlight their concerns about the company, and screened a widely publicized documentary that cast Wal-Mart in a negative light.
Can you blame them?
In my opinion this is just another ” let’s get them cause they make too much money” nonsense formulated by someone who want media attention so they can sell a movie.
People who shop at Walmart do so by choice, if you don’t like them then shop somewhere else. That’s the great thing abou this country, w do have choices.
You can read the complete CNN article here.
Categories: My Personal Entries Tags: