Brands can easily and quickly find themselves in a crisis situation, owing to either the products going out of style or not meeting the market expectations. One other reason of this could be industrial slack as well. Research shows that people have a habit of talking about their bad experiences with others. Digital media is now playing a very important role in creating and breaking brand perceptions. The increased usage of the internet on the mobile phone has enabled the consumers to be more vocal about their choices on social platforms. They are even talking to the brands directly, about...
The market is filled with “un-sprouted” small-cap stocks; these are companies that have a market cap of less than $500M. These investments are risky, but they can also offer returns of up to 1000 percent if you invest in them smartly. Many big time investors will overlook these small-cap investments because of their potential risk, but because of the huge return potential I really feel that they should be part of every investor’s portfolio. Small-cap stocks are from businesses with small market capitalization and if you invest wisely you can beat the big institution investors to the punch. When looking...
As your parents advance in age, there may come a time when your help is needed in assisting one or both of them in managing their finances. Poor health, difficulty getting around, and the death of a spouse are just some of the life-altering challenges that would make it difficult to keep finances in order. If your parents could use your help, it’s time to take all of the financial advice they passed on to you once upon a time and put it to good use. Not sure where to start? Gathered for you here are some tips and suggestions...
To stay successful in the business world you need to have an edge over your competition. And, you need to keep that edge, always. This means that you need to have a clear idea of the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors. Only when you have this information can you make better informed decisions on which directions to take your own business. Identify Other’s Mistakes A smart person learns from their mistakes, but a wise person learns from other’s mistakes. When you have a competitive edge in business it means that you have learned from other’s mistakes. Hopefully some of...
Well today I had my first experience with Malware. I was not able to post a regularly scheduled post as usual. I woke up this morning to check out the website to find a bunch of popups on the site once I logged in. Talk about shell shock and not having a clue what to do. Thankfully my fellow Yakeziers were there to the rescue with some valuable posts to help me though this debacle. I quickly got on the phone to my hosting company to see if they had any products that they offered for free to help me...
The best money to invest is money that you didn’t have to work very hard to earn. That’s why using money you created through passive income for investing is like investing free money. Types of Income There are two types of ways to make money, passive income and earned income. Earned income is the money that you work for. Earned income is the money that you get for going to your job every day. This is the money that pays your bills, puts a roof over your head, and keeps food on the table. Most people have their earned income...
If you are part of Generation Y, you still have over thirty years until you are close to retirement age and if you have been paying attention, even a little bit, you will have heard that it is going to be harder for your generation than any other of the modern age. The sad truth is that Generation Y’ers are going to get less help from the government and their employers than the generations of the past. This puts more of the retirement pressure on your shoulders. You have to invest smartly now in order to see the returns that...
Wow a whole 2 weeks into personal finance blogging and I have to say I love doing it. It has been a great journey thus far. I am building some great friendships with the personal finance blogging community. I have found the Yakezie Network great and everyone is very willing to help out. I learned that with blogging or your spouse you have to give love to receive love. I am out there sharing the love as much as I can with my fellow bloggers. Here is it close to midnight preparing the post after a long day of blogging and...
Well I am not new to the rental property thing but I will tell you how it all started. It all started a few years ago about rental properties when we were looking to move out of our furnished apartment for rental because our landlord was driving us crazy. We were aggressively scouring Craigslist to find an apartment. Well we found an apartment, ground level which means no stairs! We decided to grab it as soon as we saw it; we definitely thought the rent was well below market value. Come to find out the gentleman was getting ready to put...
As I slowly reveal more about myself you will see that I have my hand in a lot of things. I am currently on the board of directors for a local non profit organization that works to promote awareness for endangered structures in the community. In particularly buildings that have historic significance, we are the voice for them so that they are not destroyed to make way for a new house or store or whatever. I was elected in November 2011 as a board member. Since then I have embarked on organizing their membership directory into a usable format in...
Do you know the difference between a bear and bull market? Before investing in a new stock it is imperative that you understand the differences between these two market trends, but that is just the beginning. Knowing how to read stock charts is crucial because they will show you when profits reach their peak and ultimately, when you should sell. Determining where the market is, and where a specific stock is, isn’t always easy, which is why people make their living attempting to predict something that is rather unpredictable, like the stock market. Luckily there are some tricks to helping...
What would you suggest as the best course of action in this situation? If you have been following my blog for the great length of time that it has been around, ok since last week, you would know we recently became a two income household. Here is where the story starts: One income, two kids and a wife all on a salary of 100k minus 50k. I was earning close to 50k when we had our second child. We have 2 cars and a mortgage payment but to help offset some of this we have a rental unit in the...
It doesn’t matter what kind of business you own, if you are not using social media as a way to market your business, you are missing out. Social media is a way to get noticed, get attention, and get the word out that your business is a force to be reckoned with. Of course, just like with any other marketing program or business strategy there are certain dos and don’ts that you want to take into consideration. Don’t Post Something You Will Regret Later – Keep in mind that anything you post online is out there forever. Just because you...
Yesterday I was sitting there pondering the meaning of Valentine’s Day you know very well about me i am MBA student which always focus on MBA study, when it struck me that it must have been made up by retailers to make it through the slow winter months. Well at least here in the Northern part of the United States, it is bitterly cold and we tend to hibernate. I saw earlier today on the National Retail Foundation website that the average person celebrating Valentine’s Day is going to shell out a whopping $126.03. Men will spend about $168.74 compared...
If you have been investing in an IRA, a 401k, retirement annuities, or a college savings plan than you most likely already know about the tax breaks that you can get for these investments. But are you aware of the tax breaks that are possible for other investments? When it comes to tax time it is important that you are taking advantage of all the itemized deductions that you can. Remember, we all have a silent partner when it comes to our taxable investments. That partner is Uncle Sam and no matter what you do he is going to take...
So what does the payroll tax mean for you ? Well for one thing it means a bigger paycheck on payroll, money that you can actually see when you open look on your stub. It came about in December 2010, when President Barack Obama worked along side his Republican colleagues to implement it to the dismay of some Democrats about payroll. The tax cut reduced its tax and the Social Security withholding tax from 6.2% down to 4.2%. This money is withheld from your pay check to pay for the Social Security programs. If you would like to find out...
Everyone is looking to make a little extra money and if you can create some multiple incomes coming your way you are doing yourself a favor. Thanks to the internet there are literally hundreds of crazy ways to earn a little dough. Many of these require little to no effort on your part. Granted some of these ideas are a onetime only shot, but maybe you can use that brilliantly wacky idea to come up with your own weird way to earn some big time cash! • MillionDollarHomePage – Heard of it? Basically this one guy came up with the...
Wow, what a first week, this is really exciting and I love waking up in the morning now to blog again!! A lot of great comments and plenty of feedback received via email. Thank you keep those suggestions coming. I really appreciate it. So, what did I do this week read many, many blogs because once you start reading you can’t stop. Here are a few that I found particularly interesting this week in no particular order: Check out Shaun over at Money Cactus and check out this well written article…it really gets you thinking about what really motivates you???...
I was reading CNN a few weeks back and stumbled across this article. I have to say that the first car I ever owned was my first car a 1990 Chevrolet Cavalier in gunmetal grey, probably my best car as well. My parents came off a lease that we had been driving and my parents bought me my first car. I was 17, it was a used car and had a little over 100,000 miles on it. Being used and having that many miles it had some wear, but that didn’t stop me from falling in love with her. I loved her...
Creating a winning brand for your business isn’t going to happen overnight. Brand recognition takes time and dedication to develop. You have to be willing to do the work and stay impeccable with your business practices. Obviously, the first, and most important, step is to come up with a unique brand name and a creative logo. Take your time through this process. Find something easy to remember, unique, and something that will cause curiosity. That is just the first step and what you do from there is really going to determine how successful your brand can be. When creating buzz...
What better way to spend Superbowl Sunday than doing my taxes? Well that is what I did on Superbowl with fantasy football Sunday. I am not much of a fan of fantasy football and I am not much of a gamer interested. It seems as those 2 go hand in hand on Superbowl Sunday. My wife and I usually get a big tax return due to my withholding philosophy. I personally like the psychology of receiving a big pay back from Uncle Sam. This year we are receiving close to $3,000 back from the IRS and the state. That is a...
When I was younger I had a father who took pride in fixing things around the house. This was not only the economical for him, but it also provided him a sense of accomplishment of handyman services. He used to fix things for a local fitness club too and was very good at it. I used to apprentice with him and he would take me out for ice cream after the job well done. Fast forward about 20 years and I have my own house and have a wife and kids. I have learned to take on the same pride...
In today’s shaky economic climate you might be looking for extra ways to make money. Scratch that, I bet that you are looking for ways to make money. Everyone can always benefit from more money coming into their bank accounts. And that’s great, but no doubt you have heard the saying: work smart not hard. It’s actually not a bad idea to do both. The best ways to make money are by doing things that will also help you to become more financially or business savvy. Having a garage sale can help you to make some quick cash, and get...
Much of the conversation around our current economic mess has been around leveraging. This might sound like the buzz word of the week, but leveraging is a system of investing that is used by banks, financial firms, and independent investors. In the most basic sense it works by borrowing money to invest with. Businesses are ‘leveraging’ their debt against future investments and potential returns. When done right it can pay off – big time, but as the current economic situation shows, rarely is it done right. Leverage is false equity. Here is a way to break it down as simply...
Wow did you see those employment numbers on this weekly economy? That is fantastic hopefully for the economy we can start seeing the economy on the rebound. It seems like it has been depressed way too long. Well if any of you out there are reading this and you were one of the ones in this statistic and got a job, Congratulations. If you do not have one these are good strong signs that you may have a job out there on the horizon. So keep up the due diligence and your head up and good things will happen and...
