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Showing posts from February, 2012

The Madness of Money in March

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Consortium grad Rob Wilson There's March Madness, and then there's Rob Wilson's March Money Madness .  Once again Consortium graduate Wilson will stage his contest that runs parallel to the college-basketball national tournament. This year, the prizes are bigger. In its third year, his contest helps promotes awareness in investing and stock selections. Just like the NCAA tournament, there are brackets and rounds of competition. Participants will not project basketball winners; they must predict investment performance by choosing the stocks of companies they expect will generate the highest return during the month of March.  From week to week, just as March Madness brackets are about choosing a winner between two teams in a 64-team tournament, Money Madness also embraces "bracketology." Participants decide which of two stocks will out-perform the other. As with NCAA brackets, participants try to project the winner of several pairs of stocks in several industries.

Five Tips to Choosing the Best Home Loan

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Buying a house is a major decision, and obtaining a home loan can be a complicated and stressful process. Because the housing industry has expanded so much over time, the lending services offered to home buyers have grown increasingly complex. To avoid being left in the dark or otherwise feeling like you’ve lost control of the process, check out these five tips that will help ease the stress of choosing the right home loan for you and your family. 1. Understand your finances – Before going into any lending situation, it’s extremely important to know how much you can pay for a home. Purchasing a house you cannot afford runs the risk of foreclosure so choose the house you can afford now rather than the one you think you can afford later and borrow accordingly. Know your credit score, reduce your debt – Knowing your credit score is crucial to this process because the score indicates how much you’ll be lent and the interest rate. There are plenty of free credit report offers

Steps To Take To Develop Money-Saving Habits

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People aren't born from birth to be savers. It takes time to develop money-saving habits. Follow these tips and you'll be saving hundreds of dollars a month in no time. Budgeting The first thing you need to do before you can develop your money-saving habits is to decide realistically how much you can save. To accomplish this, you must first devise a budget that lays out all the money you earn and your essential spending. This tells you how much discretionary income you have that you could be saving. Don't Pay Too Much The first money-saving habit you should develop is a paranoia about prices. Assume you are paying too much for everything from groceries to car insurance. Then test that assumption. Go to online price comparison sites to see if you can get lower prices on insurance, loan rates, rates for TV, Internet and phone service, and many other services and products. If you can get a lower rate, don't be shy about switching, as long as the new product or service meet

MBA Job-Hunting: No Need to Panic Yet

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On campus, the hiring process is not quite over. For some MBA students, including those in Consortium schools, whether in their first year or about to graduate, February's arrival could cause panic:  Do I have significant job offers on the table?  Will I spend the summer at my first choice--proving myself in a formal internship program that will lead to a full-time offer in August?  Or must I resort to the only choice I have? Must I return to an old job I wanted to leave in the first place?  If graduation looms, do I settle for the first offer available, or do I wait for my dream post? When February comes, some students beam and boast of offers from top-tier financial institutions, consulting firms, or big corporations. Some have already accepted offers. Others, without the offers or opportunities they covet, grow worried and try to figure out what to do with composure and a new strategy in mind.  There's no need to panic just yet.  Buckle down. This is the time many gripe abou

How to get a 100% home loan

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How to get a 100 % home loan? This a question that many would like to here the answer to. Is there really such a thing? Is there even just a small percentage of a possibility that the answer to this mythical question could be a positive one? To understand more on how to get a 100% home loan we must first understand the facts behind this so-called witches brew for the new families of tomorrow. Banks, this is the first word that would also play the most important role in your quest of finding the holy grail to a 100% percent home loan. Banks offer a lot of different plans to help you achieve that house that you always wanted. Most often than not if you have a stable income you will be granted a housing loan applicable to your monthly salary capability. Interest, accrued payments and monthly amortizations are all part of the formula. But is getting a 100% home loan part of the banks plan in pursuing your hard earned salary. Hate to burst your bubble but almost 90% of the world’s banks

Thinking of Starting a Business – Think Capital Allowances

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Since 2008 when the economic climate changed a lot of people have seen the entrepreneurial side to themselves rise to the surface and used this time as an opportunity to start their own business. There are many considerations you will need to look into when deciding if this is the right option for you with money usually being a fairly big consideration. A recent study showed that few people knew what capital allowances were or understood them, when starting a business it is a good idea to familiarise yourself with incentives available such as capital allowances and tax relief and how your start up could benefit. As capital allowances can offer up to £100,000.00 of tax relief in the first year. Firstly let’s look at what capital allowances are and who is eligible for them :- When a business is thinking of investing in an asset, which can vary depending on the industry, but the overall areas to look at are:- Enhanced capital allowances – environmental based tax relief. Disposal of ass

Facebook IPO: The Lucky Underwriters

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Ready for public scrutiny? Who will be the fortunate few--the lucky underwriters who take Facebook public this spring, who will earn millions in fees for arranging the most watched IPO perhaps since Google went public (Aug., 2004) or the most interesting banking deal since, say, the breakup of AT&T (1983)? Sure, the Goldmans, Morgan Stanleys, and JPMorgans will be at the top of the syndicate list--the lead underwriters, the dealmakers who negotiate the fees, arrange the syndicate group, and ensure there is an orderly process when the stock finally goes to market. Facebook is being valued in the range of $75-100 billion, an unusually wide range, but such range is not a surprise. Facebook has only just begun to share details of revenues, profits and business strategies.  Prospective investors and regulators will now pore through vast amounts of information it filed with the SEC last week and will ask questions about what the company will look like five or 10 years from now.  They

Life annuity brings Peace & Happiness Unlimited for Retirees

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After the successful completion of our working era, we head to another life dominated by security and peace. Well, it’s quite obvious for an individual to expect a hassle-free life where there will be no work responsibilities and unavoidable tensions. Despite, a certain way has to be adopted that can ensure monetary stability till your last breath. So, if you have already bid farewell to your work and therefore looking for extra income, why don’t you go for a long-term investment? People nowadays are going for life annuity policies for sustaining regular income for lifetime. So, let’s see the factors that are making retirees go for such long term investment policies. ·          A life annuity policy certainly scores higher when it comes to financial stability and monetary security. No matter what the market condition stands, you will get your deserved income according to your set time period. ·          Fixed annuity is the best life annuity policy that can let you enjoy a steady incom