Financial FAQ Materials

What is Foursquare and How Can Your Business Use It?

Posted on Tuesday, 9th November 2010 by Vanessa Miller

For about a year now, the blogosphere has been abuzz about the virtues and possibilities of Foursquare. For those of you who are still unacquainted with the social networking app and how it can be used in your business, here is a brief primer.

Foursquare is a neat social networking application that allows you to broadcast your location to your friends. It uses your phone’s GPS to identify your physical location, which it sends to Foursquare, Facebook, and Twitter friends. It is also a game of sorts which awards points and prizes to frequent users. Tech-savvy business owners have been increasingly implementing Foursquare to promote their businesses.

Like Twitter and Facebook, Foursquare offers free exposure to an unlimited number of potential customers. Every time users visit a particular business, they can “check in” to Foursquare, advertising their location and the business. As of October 2010, Foursquare has more than 4 million users throughout the world.

Unlike Facebook, Foursquare encourages users to repeatedly mention businesses. Some b

Tags: Use
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Non-medical Life Insurance: The Basics

Posted on Monday, 8th November 2010 by Emily Smith

When looking at a traditional life insurance policy, one of the main things that you will find is that you will have to write a medical form. This can be troublesome due to many people not being able to tell about their medical history but want to make sure that their partner and family are fully covered. I’ve seen this over and over as a life insurance broker. When it comes to these pitfalls then then look no further than the types of policies that require no medical interegation. These are pictured as ‘Simplified Issue Policies’ and ‘Guaranteed Issue Policies’ but you must be careful because there are many differences between the two.

Simplified Issue Life Insurance Policies

Other than the medical questions serialed to your health, a medical outlay is not required. One should take a mental note that such policies do not exceed $150,000 as companies need to protect themselves from possible outcomes of a large amount of claims. The risks involved for an insurance company that doesn’t require a full medical examination than to one that requires one exam is much more raised. With the po

Great Rates on Home Loans Can’t Last Forever

Posted on Sunday, 7th November 2010 by Emily Smith

This may be something that you’ve heard over and over again: If you are not saddled with an underwater mortgage, have decent credit, and are secure in your job, NOW is the time to look at home loans for a new home purchase. With interest rates remaining as low as they’ve been since the 1950’s, and housing prices coming back down to realistic levels, it’s a great time to get into a new home and potentially avoid the pitfalls of the last few years where homes were obviously far over-valued.

The facts are that even a half a percentage point in interest rates can mean a difference in thousands and thousands of dollars when it comes to taking out a large loan that is paid back over 30 years. Home loans that are taken out now could possibly save you that large sum, as experts are predicting that rates will go up next year, and again in 2012. It’s on

Tags: Home Loans, Loans
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Buying Versus Renting

Posted on Friday, 5th November 2010 by Emily Smith

Real estate prices are at an all time low and mortgage rates are even lower. For these reasons many folks are considering leaving their rental places to pursue home ownership. Sadly, there are many people that are unsure about what tomorrow will bring. These people do not know if they should purchase a house since they feel that it may end up losing some of its value shortly after.

If your buying a home for yourself and you plan on living there for many years, this should not be a factor. You can purchase the home now and even if it goes down in value for another year, it will most certainly go up again. Just make sure you really are planning on staying in the area. If you plan on moving to Virginia in another year, you don’t want to be looking at homes for sale in Minnesota.

Choose an area that has enough employment for you to work multiple jobs. Moving into a home and quickly finding yourself without a job and without any options for finding a new one is very stressful. I

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Social Media for SA Entrepreneurs

Posted on Wednesday, 3rd November 2010 by Vanessa Miller

As an indicator of just how popular social media has become amongst South African entrepreneurs we recently created a Facebook group for South African entrepreneurs and investors and within the first three weeks, membership grew to well over 1000, showing not only the popularity of entrepreneurship in the country but also how social media is increasingly becoming an option for entrepreneurs to source the resources need to drive their businesses forward.

South African entrepreneurs are flocking to social networks such as Facebook and twitter as new avenues to finding the business finance needed for starting or growing their businesses.

With the growth of social media and its uses in the last few years, innovative entrepreneurs are going online in the hordes to attract the business finance they require. Following the recent economic slowdown banks may have tightened their lending policies and entrepreneurs around the country has seen this simply as an invite to find alternative sources of financing and support.

Tags: Media, Social Media
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How to Determine When to Retire in 5 Easy Steps

Posted on Tuesday, 2nd November 2010 by Emily Smith

Your determination of when to retire is important; the age you select will form the foundation of your life (and possibly career) plans, your retirement savings goals, and even the sorts of investments you should choose. However, few people understand how to determine when to retire. Luckily, figuring out when to retire is as easy as following these simple steps:

1. START WITH A GOAL: Start by determining when you would like to retire, specifically. Stating that you would like to retire in your 50s (or next year) is not specific enough to allow you to make the necessary plans to meet that objective. Instead, either choose a specific age at which you would like to retire (e.g. 55) or an event (e.g. two years as VP, two years after your youngest child graduates college).

2. CALCULATE HOW MUCH YOU NEED TO MAKE THAT HAPPEN: Next, you will need to calculate how much money you need to make that happen. Remember, you will need to include your yearly cost of living for the lifestyle you want (probably at least $20,000, assuming everything is paid off and you carry no debt), the new expenses you will likely encounter during retirement (e.g.

Tags: Retire, Retire Easy
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