Moneycashfinance

Does Checking My Own Credit Report Lower My Credit Score?

 

Some probably wonder if checking your own credit report will hurt your credit score?  Well in general credit inquiries do hurt your credit score, but not when it’s you doing the checking.  There are certain inquiries that definitely do not hurt your score. When you pull or inquire about your own credit report that is considered or called a self-disclosure or a non event.  This is not considered a legitimate inquiry. 

Some other inquiries that don’t affect your credit score come from your current creditors and these are called account review inquiries.  Your creditors will check you credit periodically, normally about twice per year to make sure you are still a good credit risk.  If they see some things that stand out such as too much debt or past due credit with other creditors they may decide to lower your credit line on a credit card or even close it all together based on the situation.  This is their way of monitoring you to see how you are handling your credit file. They may or may not lend you any additional credit in the future based on what they see.

Promotional inquires can take place from companies that have basic information about you which is usually purchased because they want to extend some type of offer to you.  A lot of times it will be a zero percent promotional rate on a credit card for six months or one year.  Sometimes automobile dealerships may send out promotional material about rebates or discounts if you purchase a new auto.

These promotional inquiries will not hurt your credit score either.  However if you start applying for credit at a number of creditors, say five or ten in any given month, then these can and will affect your credit score by lowering it.

 

To Your Great Success

 

Mel Richardson

 

 

Fed Blows it! WallStreet is Pounded

From time to time I will publish posts from guest newsletters or blogs and the following post is from Mike Larson which was posted in the Money and Markets investment newsletter.

 

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Fed Blows It! Wall Street Pounded!
by Mike Larson

Dear Melvin,

Boy, did Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke blow it this week!

Investors were looking for a strong Fed statement because they believed it would support the dollar and snuff out the recent surge in commodities prices.

But instead of reassuring Wall Street and giving investors an excuse to drive stocks through the roof, Bernanke blinked. Investors expressed their disapproval by responding with a strong statement of their own.

The Dow's 358 point collapse yesterday can be directly traced back to ...

The Fed is TALKING tough about inflation, but making it clear it isn't going to DO anything about it.

Officials talked quite a bit about elevated inflation in their post-meeting statement. They said:

"The Committee expects inflation to moderate later this year and next year. However, in light of the continued increases in the prices of energy and some other commodities and the elevated state of some indicators of inflation expectations, uncertainty about the inflation outlook remains high."

But they didn't go the extra step of shifting to a "tightening bias." In short, the Fed didn't imply that a rate hike was imminent.

After upping the ante all month about the Fed's willingness to fight inflation, Ben Bernanke folded when the market called his bluff on interest rates this week.

I can understand why. Policymakers are afraid that raising interest rates will exacerbate the housing downturn and the economic slump. Plus, it's an election year.

What they don't seem to understand is the old adage, "He who hesitates is lost."

The U.S. Fed is standing pat while central banks in other countries are raising their rates, making the dollar a less attractive destination for international funds. Take a look:

• India raised rates by a half-point this week.
• Norway raised rates by a quarter-point.
• Brazil raised rates by half a percentage point to 12.25% earlier this month.
• And the European Central Bank has strongly suggested it will do so soon.

Even the Bank of England, whose country is also getting hammered by credit losses and a housing slump, has gone nowhere near as far as the Fed. It has lowered rates just 75 basis points since last fall — versus 325 basis points here in the U.S.

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There's no getting around it ...

The Fed's refusal to raise rates is accommodating the increase in commodities prices and killing the U.S. dollar.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke might as well have come out this week and yelled "Sell the dollar!"

He might as well have said, "Hey you commodities traders, listen up. I'm not going to take away the free money. Have at it!"

Lo and behold, after the Fed news came out ...

• The dollar index has dropped by more than 100 basis points. At 72.49, it's within a few ticks of its 70.69 low. The euro is once again closing in on its late April high of 1.6018. The Australian dollar is this close to blowing off to a new high. And the Brazilian real is heading steadily higher, trading at its highest level against the greenback since January 1999.
• Gold has started getting frisky again. It jumped more than $30 yesterday, and looks ready to break out to the upside. Platinum looks strong. And silver appears to be coiling up for a major move.
• What about crude oil? It dropped just below $132 a barrel before the Fed news hit. After it did, crude started rallying back. It then added another $5.09 on Thursday to close at $139.64, an all-time high.

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My colleagues Sean and Larry have given you plenty of ways to make money from the rally in commodities. And Jack Crooks is your go-to guy for currencies. So I'm not going to focus on that part of the market today.

Instead, I'm going to stick to my knitting — U.S. stocks, interest rates, real estate, and the financial sector. I have to tell you, what the Fed did — or failed to do, really — was like the kiss of death there.

It's "Look out below" time for stocks!

Bank of America's stock has been battered on Wall Street this week, hitting another 52-week low yesterday.

The financial and real estate sectors were all poised to rally on the assumption the Fed would put a knife through the heart of commodities. It didn't. That caused most financial stocks to give up their pre-Fed rally on Wednesday, and then sell off even harder on Thursday.

But that's not even the half of it. You want to hear something scary? The KBW Bank Index, or BKX, is a benchmark index that tracks all the biggest banks in the U.S. — Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and so on. It's trading right around the 60 level.

The last time it got that low was in the second half of 2002. In other words ...

The biggest U.S. financial stocks have given back EVERY CENT of their post-bear market rally.

As for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, it's hanging on by its fingernails in the 11,600-11,800 range. This area corresponds to the "double bottoms" made in late January and mid-March. If the Dow goes over Niagara Falls like the financials already have, unprepared U.S. investors are in for a world of trouble.

So make sure you own some inverse funds and ETFs for protection. Consider the hedging strategies Martin has laid out here in Money and Markets.

Looking for even more specific instructions? Then make sure you're signed up in time to get this month's Safe Money Report, set to go live next week. We already have several inverse positions that are RISING in value as key sectors fall, and we're looking to add even more.

Our strategy is simple: The only good defense against a Fed that refuses to do its job is a strong offense.

Until next time,

Mike

 

Ten Things That Will Get You In Trouble At Work

I have been in the work force for quite a while and I know some of the things that will get you in trouble.  Time and time again you find those individuals that push the system to the limit until it reaches it's breaking point. There are at least ten that I can think of that will get you in big time trouble at work . Here they are.

1. Gossip.
If you start gossiping and spreading rumors this will get you in trouble at work faster than you can blink your eye. As soon as you start gossiping whether it is true or not somehow someway the trail will lead back to you as the originator and soon you become known as the gossiper. People begin to identify you as the person that gets things started and keeps them going. Management definitely will not trust you or consider you leadership material. Eventually they will find a way move you out of the company.

2. Being Late

When you come to work late you are sending a very loud message that says I don't care. I will do as I please. Too many times late will lead to verbal warnings, then write ups and eventually, if the problem persists, it will get your fired.

3. Calling off sick - Excessively

If you are sick then by all means don't come to work. Your health is very important not to mention you don't want to get others at your place of employment sick.   However there comes a time when you have to draw the line. How many times can you call off without it affecting your performance or worse yet before you are terminated? Well check your employee handbook.  That will probably give you a good indication of what is acceptable and what is not?

4. Lack of production

Organizations have goals and objectives they have to meet. These are primarily dependent upon you and your team members hitting their goals. There is nothing worse than a slacker. This is someone that is just not performing well. We all have our own situations that we are faced with, but if you have an individual that is not producing because they don't care or they don't want to be there then this is a bad situation. If nothing is done about  it  then those that are going above and beyond the call of duty will soon become demoralized with the situation. It's up to management to remedy the problem as soon as possible. You don't want your good or great workers in an unhappy state.

5. Speaking bad of the organization or management

If you cannot commit to the vision of an organization then you should not be there. If there is something that causes you to speak in a less than complimentary way about your job, management, or the organization then it's time to move on. If you don't move on management will move you on. Negative words can become a cancer within an organization. 

6. Disobeying company policy

Rules were made to be followed and obeyed. Things like dress policy and

the amount of time established for lunch and breaks are in place for a reason. Following these things to the letter will keep you in good standing with the organization.  It's not a good idea to tack on an extra fifteen minutes because you think no one is looking.  Someone is always looking.

7. The Internet.

We all like having access to the internet but if you must surf you may want to wait until you get home. More and more companies are monitoring what their employees are doing on their computers during company time. . Too much surfing will get you surfed out the door. More times than not this can be a violation of company policy.

8. Emails

Most companies only want you to send emails that pertain to company business. It is best to avoid those that emails that are of the chain link sort. You've all seen them. Someone sends it to you and you think it's cute so you send it to someone else next thing you the CEO receives it. Oh boy! I'll bet he or she won't think it's cute.

9. Your attitude

If you have a bad attitude it can spread to other employees especially if you are consistently bringing down the morale of the group. Management will move quickly to remedy the problem.

10. Not participating.- Not being a team player

If you are not a team player whenever there if a layoff or downsizing your name will be mentioned frequently as the person to go. Organizations realize it takes a team to make things happen and to make things work and you have all heard this, but a team is only as strong as it's weakest link.

 To Your Great Success,

Mel Richardson

Are The Movies Giving Us Subtle Clues About The Economy?

I am a big time movie fan.  That is one of my favorite past times going to the movies and especially now with all of the movies about the super heroes.  I used to collect the comic books so this is really a great time for me.  As I sit there watching these movies I can’t help but wonder ,  are these movies trying to tell us something about the economy?  Are they sending out subtle messages that we should be listening to?

I am convinced this is indeed the case.  Let’s consider the facts. 

1.        Are we in a recession or not?  Some say we are some say we are not. Others say it’s too close to call. Which is it?  Will somebody step forward and let us know for sure?  We want the truth!!!!

      Movie response:   You can’t handle the truth.  Courtesy of A few Good men with Demi Moore, Jack Nickleson,  and Tom Cruise.  Therefore it appears we will not get to the bottom of this because we simply cannot handle the truth about a recession and we will unfortunately have to keep guessing.

Well let’s take a look at subtle hint number two.

2.          With the economy being in the shape it’s in, it would appear that more and more people are losing their jobs because of lack of economic activity, high prices, low consumer confidence and so on and so forth.  The unemployment rate is at a record high is some parts of the country.

 Movie Response:   “Your services are no longer needed”  Courtesy of Jeff Bridges (Obadiah Stane), to Pepper Potts, (Gwyneth Paltrow), in Iron Man as he is puts on the replica of Iron Man’s first suit of iron in of course, “Iron Man” and prepares to eliminate her.

3.        Some people are forced to drive into a gas station and ask for $5.00 of gas because their money is being stretched in every direction you can imagine.  Energy prices, price of food and every other consumer good you can imagine has gone up.  Can you imagine asking for $5.00 of gas?  See how far that get’s you.

Movie Response:  Five Dollars indeed.   “Is that it?  Is that all you’ve got”?  Courtesy of Emil Blonsky, (Tim Roth) to Bruce Banner, ( Ed Norton),  in the Incredible Hulk as the Hulk kicks the living day lights out of him, before he becomes the Abomination.

Keep going let’s look at another clue, number 4.  

4.        Everyone is feeling the sting of rising fuel costs.  It’s causing a chain reaction through out the economy.  One of the major airlines is laying off 950 pilots to cut costs and more airlines are expected to follow suit. (I think that’s the number).

Movie Response:   Keep the Skys Clear.  That will certainly do it.  Courtesy of Jim Rhodes, (Terrance Howard), asking Tony Stark, (Robert Downey Jr.), is there anything I can do to help as Iron Man prepares to take off he responds, Keep the Skys Clear.  Yesiree.  That will certainly keep the skys clear.

 

5.       We are really getting beat up at the pump, in the grocery stores, when we buy lunch,  when we watch the value of homes decline consistently and steadily, when we watch the unemployment rate soar.  What are we up against?

Movie Response:   It’s Clobberin Time.  Courtesy of Ben Grimm the Thing in the Fantastic Four.  Yes everything that’s going on is definitely clobberin  our wallets.

 

6.       Remember when homes we appreciating at rates of 5% to 7% per year.  Remember when the price of gas was $2.29 per gallon.  (I barely remember).  Do you remember when there was an abundance of jobs?  Or do you remember when people could actually make their mortgage payments on time?  Do you remember when every penny was not scrutinized? (even though it’s a good idea). Remember when people were travelling and taking vacations?  Remember when foreclosures were something you heard about every during every blue moon?

Movie Response:  “All That You Know is About to End”  Courtesy of the Silver Surfer in the Fantastic Four.  Well ladies and gentlemen the good and prosperous times have ended and we were warned.

 

7.       How did it all start? I mean the subprime lending mess?  Who’s fault is it? Why were those loans made to people who could not afford the payments at least when the interest rates increased because they had adjustable rate mortgages.  What does this mean as far as the price of oil is concerned?  How are stocks and bonds affected?  They keep saying that the dollar is being devalued relative to other currencies such as the Yen and the Euro.  Goods over here in the United states are cheaper to foreigners.  Why ?  Who can explain that?  When the ARM rates increased a lot of people could not afford their payments so they went into foreclosure?  Since so many homes were in foreclosure the values when down and demand for housing starts decreased?  How come? When will things stabilize and get better?

Movie Response:   “Oh What a tangled Web We Weave”.  Courtesy of Spider – Man.  Actually I don’t remember seeing it in the movies but I remember it was the title of one of the comic book stories a while back.

 

8.        Whenever there is a recession it eventually goes away only to resurface again in the future and of course no one can really say for sure when it will hit exactly.  But rest assured it will be back.

Movie Response:   “I’ll be back”.  Courtesy of Arnold Schwarzenegger, in “The Terminator”.

9.        Who’s responsible for the Subprime lending mess?  Somebody has to be accountable for this.  But who?

Movie Response:  I’ve become part of a system that has zero accountability”.  Courtesy of Tony Stark, (Robert Downey Jr.),  In Iron Man when he gives his press conference.

 

10.   What about the the gas prices and the price of oil.  Why does it keep going up?  Will somebody explain why it’s going up?  Please!!! I don’t understand.

And finally…………

Movie Response:  This City deserves a better class of criminal…. And I’m going to give it to em.  Courtesy of Batman, “The Dark Knight”, which by the way has not been released yet. 

 

Yes sir.  I have definitely been paying attention to all the messages that we are receiving from the movies about the economy.   I’ll bet if you pay attention you might just hear a few of them yourself.  If you happen to hear some please email me and let me know. 

Who knows one of the warnings you pick up on just might help me to save some money or maybe I can cash in on a great investment. 

Well until next time.  Nuff said.

To Your Great Success.

 

Mel Richardson

 

 

How To Get Lower Rates Of Interest On Your Credit Card Accounts

If you ever find yourself with an interest rate on your account that is less than desirable then by all means call up the company you are dealing with and request a lower interest rate.

It is a very competitive world and a company knows that if they don't satisfy your request you have the option of going with another company. Now they will have to spend more money on advertising and marketing in an attempt to attract more customers to replace those that have left. Everyone knows it is much cheaper to keep your current customers than it is to spend money for new customers.

Whenever you ask for a lower rate you want to make sure you have some type of leverage or bargaining power.

First of all call the company and have a very pleasant tone of voice. "Good morning this is Mr. Brown". How are you today? Do you have my account in front of you? Great! The reason I am calling is to see if I can possibly get a lower rate.

Now you can throw in some small talk to establish rapport (that's the same thing representatives from companies do when they call you with a new product or service they want you to purchase), and break the ice.

Next you want to let the representative know that you have been a customer in good standing for X amount of years, not to mention you always pay your account on time. If you have other accounts with their establishment you may want to mention those as well especially if they are substantial amounts of amount. A company would hate to see you pull your entire portfolio. It is better to earn some interest on your accounts than no interest.

Also bring up the fact that XYZ company is offeing you an interest rate of X% right now. They sure don't want to see you go to the competition.

It is very important to stay calm and professional because if you become irate and agitate a representative they may decide that they don't want to lower your rate just because. Now you in turn will respond, "let me speak to your supervisor". They will put you on hold and relay the story to the supervisor and gain the supervisors support,(not always) because you are irate and unreasonable.

The supervisor will come back on the phone and back up what the representative has said. I am sorry Mr. Brown but we are unable to lower your rate at this time.

Now that representative will document your account and let's say you call back two weeks later with the same request you have now been labeled a bad customer and the representative will think well there must be a reason why they did not lower the rate so I am not going to lower it.

So always stay positive and upbeat it is much easier to get your rate lowered. If they still say no, (which is unlikely), ask well what do I need to do to get my rate lowered? They may tell you to establish an excellent payment record for 6 months to one year, or they may tell you that you have not been a customer long enough.

Just remember always, always negotiate. Interest rates can be lowered

To Your Great Success

Mel Richardson

How Does The Social Security Benefits Work?

What is Social Security all about? A lot of people don't know the ins and outs, and some are not quite sure if it will be around when they retire. For the most part, Social Security was meant to be the building block for your retirement income, primarily due to the fact that one cannot live longer than their Social Security benefit. It will be there as long as you live. Every so often, it can increase in value to help you keep up with inflation.

There is a process that goes on as it pertains to Social Security. That's means there is a method to Social Security as it pertains to each working individual. The system is set up so that while you are working taxes are deducted from you income which basically allows you to pay into Social Security. This continues on throughout your working career, however once you retire or even become unable to work due to disability you are now in position to apply for the benefits you have accumulated or rather you have earned.

  I used to wonder how the amount you receive was determined. Several factors are looked at or go into the computation to determine the amount you receive once you are eligible. The first factor you want to look at is how long did you work? Or rather how many years did you work?

Next on the list for consideration is how much income did you make during the time you were in the workforce. Finally when do you decide to collect your benefits. How old are you going to be? There are some qualifications that enable you to collect Social Security benefits such as earning 40 Social Security credits with your job. However your job must be covered by Social Security. You can actually control to an extent your Social Security payments. It works this way the longer you work which in effect allows you the opportunity to make more money the higher your Social Security payout will be.

The earliest age at which you can collect Social Security is 62. If, however you would like to increase your Social Security payouts you can wait until later to retire which puts more money in your bank account on a monthly basis. Another thing to consider in your retirement planning is if you qualify for retirement or disability then this puts you in a position where your spouse as well as your dependent children can also receive a pay out from Social Security on a monthly basis.

To get your benefits coming to you, you must apply using some specific forms. This can also be done online by phone or you can visit your Social Security office.

The Man Who Owns The Internet -- Establishing Real Wealth

My blog is about building wealth, making your money grow, and increasing your networth.  Every so often I like to make a post to this blog that demonstrates this well beyond what we would normally expect.  Well this post clearly covers that.

I was at the airport some time ago in Baltimore Maryland waiting for my flight to depart for Cleveland, Ohio so I decided to browse through the bookstore to pass some time. There was a magazine entitled, “ Business 2.0” that caught my attention. It was right there in living color and the caption on the cover read as follows:“The man Who owns the internet”. Kevin Ham is the most powerful dotcom Mogul you’ve never heard of. The story was by Paul Sloan.Here’s how the master of web domains built his $300 million dollar empire.

That really got my attention so I purchased the magazine. It outlined the strategy he used to accomplish that feat which basically consisted of purchasing expired domain names which were still hanging out there after the dotcom bust.Fascinating I thought. I read further. One particular day he purchased $650,000 in expired domains by way of bidding at an auction in Las Vegas.

The article goes on to say this was a cheap day. Turns out Kevin put his medical career on hold after he starting receiving income in the neighborhood of $40,000 per month from expired domain names. It was not too long afterwards that Kevin and his wife were moving out of his one-bedroom apartment. I am going to go out on a limb and say this, I don’t think he will ever treat a patient.Since 2000 he has gobbled up over 300,000 domains that generate an estimated $70 million a year in revenue, which Kevin would neither confirm nor deny.

 Kevin’s last sentence in this article was, “If you control all the domains, ‘then you control the internet."This article gave a lot of detail but here is the part I found amazing. Whenever you go to a browser to type in a web address and lets say by mistake you key in .cm at the end instead of .com. Well you are automatically routed to a website called Agoga.com owned by Kevin, and this site is filled with ads supplied by yahoo.

 If you click on the ads Kevin makes money as does his partner.Who is his partner? You’re going to love this. It’s Cameroon which is a West African country. Why Cameroon ? It’s because .cm is the country code for Cameroon so Kevin made the trip to West Africa to work out a deal with the Cameroon government for permission to use the .cm. In return the city of Cameroon will receive an undisclosed amount of compensation.It gets even better, but I won’t go into all the details.

Looks like he came up with creative ways to attain Wealth Beyond Measure. Of course there is the usual legal issues with some major corporations claiming there is an abuse of trademark, or he thinks this could happen in the future. Those things, however are for the attorneys to decide.What was also good to hear was Christianity had long been a mainstay with his family.

Ham it says will frequently steer conversations about business back to the bible. Even as an undergrad, the article says, “he made the bible a focal point of his life.

 A friend from church introduced him to the web in 1992 or 1993 and told him that there was a powerful new medium to spread the gospel.He has other ambitious goals on the horizon but you can get those from the magazine. Well until the next time……

To your Great Success
Mel Richardson - Speaker - Coach - Visionary
VisionStar Enterprises

The Advantages Of Having A Mentor

Do you want to catapult your career to the next level faster than you can imagine? If you answered yes it would be in your best interest to get a mentor. This act alone will significantly shorten your journey in the pursuit of greatness. A mentor is someone who has a sincere interest in seeing you grow and develop in all areas of life. He knows the various obstacles and road blocks which can hinder and delay your progress. A mentor is someone who has already traveled the road you are just starting out on. She knows the various pitfalls and challenges you are likely to encounter.

If you ask some of the countries experts in the field of self development they will enforce or reiterate the importance of having a mentor. And most will emphasize the fact that the success they have achieved was largely the result of having a mentor. Mentors can help you achieve your goals and objectives in all six areas of life which include the following: mental/intellectual, physical/health, social/relationships, spiritual/ethical, career/financial, and family. Having a mentor enables you to become all that you can become in each of these areas of life. You are able to establish a balanced strategy in your own circle of life. Once you establish what it is you want to accomplish you can, along with a mentor put together a strategic game plan on how you can achieve your desired results.

A mentor serves as a guide, a coach, a trusted friend who intervenes at certain points in your life to share knowledge and pearls of wisdom. As a result of the mentoring experience you reap the benefits of having more opportunities presented to you. When you opportunity arrives you are thoroughly prepared Mentors also give you valuable advice and save you time with a particular endeavor. The relationship you establish will also help you save money, reduce frustration, increase your rate of success as well as productivity. When you have a mentor you have greater job satisfaction because mentors will help alleviate those stumbling blocks that have caused high turnover within certain industries. Someone guiding you along and showing you the ropes will enhance your professional experience.

As with anything mentoring is not a panacea. You should also seek other sources for growth and development such as outside courses and classes. Attend workshops and
seminars, read information in different areas or subjects in which you are striving

To Your Great Success

Mel Richardson

Build Your Net Worth With Tax Lien Certificates

I want to talk about another strategy designed to help you build wealth and this one deals with Tax lien certificates.

Well you are probably wondering what are tax lien certificates. Let me explain how this process works. Whenever a property owner is late paying real property taxes the county will issue a tax lien against the owner’s property. Now this tax lien is sold at an auction in the form of a tax lien certificate.

So if you were bidding on these lien certificates and you won the bid several things could transpire at this point.

1. There is now a lien ordered by the state and is the responsibility of the delinquent taxpayer to pay to get the lien released.

2. Or the winner of the bid would receive title to the property after so much time has passed and the tax payer has not paid.

Tax liens can pay a return as high as 50% on your money.

There are some risks involved however. The first risk is that some tax lien purchasers do not complete the necessary research to see if they are purchasing a vacant lot or a 16 suite apartment building.

When you have to actually go out and inspect the property, which is a good idea, it takes time money and other resources. Even though tax liens are available in other states the aforementioned facts limit the tax lien purchaser’s ability to purchase within a very limited area.

If you can legally own property in America then you can take part in the auctions for the tax liens.

Tax lien sales require that you have cash on hand. Certain counties require you have the cash then and there and some will give you approximately 48 hours to come up with the money.

If the original homeowner files for bankruptcy then other creditors as well as the IRS can have first position over tax lien certificates and the holders. So this also poses a risk.

However if you have the time and money and resources you can purchase tax lien certificates and make a nice profit such as 24%, 30% 36% and even as high as 50% return on your investment.

You see banks and credit unions have been able to overcome the risks because they have multiple resources available to them.

Tax lien certificates cannot by purchased so easily in some states. When I was living in Ohio I called the county tax office to find out about the procedure for purchasing tax lien certificates.  The clerk informed me that in order for me to purchase the tax lien certificates it would cost me t millions of dollars, I cannot remember the exact figure but it was millions.  Now this sounded strange so I inquired further. Why is this?  She said all the tax lien certificates are sold to one company and If I wanted to buy tax certificates I would have to outbid that company next year when the bidding process came about.  I see. 

Other states you can buy the certificates on an individual basis and not have to worry about the bundling procedure.

Before you embark upon this journey consult with a real estate attorney. You could end up losing out if you don’t do your homework.

To Your Great Success

Mel Richardson

Network Your Way To A New Job And Other Opportunities

Do you want to take your business to the next level? Are you looking for new opportunities and business associates? Is it your desire to keep in touch and know what's going on? Is a new job in your future?

If you answered yes to any of those questions then networking is for you. There are so many advantages of networking that it is unbelievable. Networking places you in front of people who know people who know people. It's all about establishing connections and building rapport.

Just to start did you know that 80% of jobs are found by networking. When you get out into the community it puts you in touch with a vast array of people who may have the information you need about a new job. At the very least they may know a company that is hiring or the person doing the hiring. They may even know how to help you go about the process of getting that particular job.

Through the networking process you want to talk to the following: mailman, security guard, banker, store clerk, barber shop, hair dresser, policeman, garbage man, postal clerk, tax person, accountant, attorney, auto mechanic, church members, This list can go on and on.  You want to basically talk to any and everyone.  The more people you talk to the better your chances for finding a job.

If you are looking for a job all of these different avenues can help you hit your goal.

If you are a small business owner you may want to network with the chamber of commerce, join toastmasters, (they have website you may be able to advertise on), BNI, your banker, networking events, start a mastermind team.  Some of the places I have joined or visitied include the Chamber of commerce, Toastmasters, and the Rotary Club. Not only do you want to join but you want to become an active participant.

There have been so many individuals that have gone on start businesses, establish multi -millionaire deals, partnerships, joint ventures, books, all through the networking process. They went out and met people and made themselves accessible to other people.

It basically starts a chain reaction when you start talking to your family, friends, neighbors, associates, and other comrades and business acquaintances about a specific venture you have going on. It happens like magic the way the word spreads.