By: John Di Lemme
Many of you know my feelings about television...*I believe TV is a complete waste of time*. Statistics show that 98% of people will watch 3-5 hours of TV a day either early in the morning, sometimes during the day while on break at their job or when they come home in the evenings.
Some people even have to fall asleep while watching TV, which is *Deadly* to your spirit especially if it's the news or something like that.There is one show that I do watch called...*The Deadliest Catch*I do recommend this show for one reason and one reason only...
To see the price people are willing to pay, because there is a financial reward at the end of the incredible deadly journey.
Deadliest Catch is about crab fishermen in the Bering Sea of Alaska.They battle...
- Tremendous Ocean Waves
- Below Freezing Temperatures
- 18-24 Hour Work Shifts
- Sleep Deprivation- Life or Death Work Conditions
The physical price that these men will pay is incredible, because they know there is potential to earn significant monetary rewards at the end of the crab fishing season.We are in a challenging success race on a daily basis.
I say race because you start working towards your success goal, initiate it everyday and focus on the "finish line". But the sad statistic is that 97% of people die on the way to the achievement of the dream.The challenge is your mental stress that drags you down in which most of you won't pay this physical and emotional price.
In the Deadliest Catch, they do pay the physical and mental price for just one reward at the end of a long hard season.The reason that it is called Deadliest Catch is because every season men die. (Yes - lives are lost) That's right, every year men lose their lives in the crab fishing season either due to the cold weather, ice storms or slipping and falling overboard.
Yet in the success game, many people will not pay the price because of fear and indecision. (age 65 - 97% dead broke) Guess what? You will not physically die from these things! May I ask you a question?
Why are men willing to pay the price physically over the short period of time during crab fishing season, but many people in the success arena are not willing to pay the price because of mental challenges?
I challenge you to watch the Deadliest Catch and see for yourself the life threatening price that these men pay every single year. Then ask yourself...Am I willing to pay the price mentally/physically and visualize my future into existence today? I believe you will.Go for it!
Commit to it! Live your dream!Realize you are never going to die because of the mental challenges you may face, but I know I wouldn't make it through 24 hours on the crab fishing boat. (I do not believe I would make it 2 hours) :) I would probably die within the first 24 hours yet for the last 16 years I have been stretching and growing in success process.
Go for it!Live your dream!Remember...You will live not physically die on your success journey but your *Why will die* if you Quit!
------------------------------
John shocks millions globally by exposing the truth about how to achieve monumental life success despite the labels that society has placed on you. Through his award winning live seminars, power-packed training programs, live tele-classes, weekly ezine and website (http://www.FindYourWhy.com), John Di Lemme has made success a reality for thousands worldwide.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
How to Replace Your Favorite Discontinued Gadgets
By Kelli B. Grant
LOSING YOUR BRAND-NEW Apple iPhone would be devastating, no doubt. But aside from the pain of having to dole out another 500 bucks for the hot device, you'd have no problem finding another one — Apple and AT&T stores have plenty in supply.
But replacing your Sega Dreamcast videogame console? Not so simple. Sega stopped making the gaming device in 2001. For a Sega fanatic whose Dreamcast finally dies on them, it can be a particularly hard hit.
"People are wed to their tech products," says David Carnoy, executive editor of electronics-review site CNET. Even consumers who love the latest and greatest may find themselves mourning a discontinued product.
Cutting-edge products can also get the ax, he says. Sometimes the technology doesn't catch on, for example, or the manufacturer repackages it in a slightly different design each year.
So what's a forlorn consumer to do? Sure, there's always eBay — especially if you're looking for something esoteric, like a '70s-era Toshiba Betamax video recorder. But before you spark a bidding war, try these seven tips to resurrect the discontinued appliances, electronics and other products you love:
Watch for close-outs
When Apple discontinued the iPod Mini in 2005, fans of the device mourned — and immediately began snapping remaining music players off the shelves. Stocking up during close-out sales saves you the time and money you'd spend hunting down a beloved item in the future, says Edgar Dworsky, editor of Consumer World, a consumer resource web site.
"When you start seeing advertisements for the newest product, that's when you can get great deals on the closed-out originals," he says.
Get specific
Know the exact model and part number(s) of the item you're searching for. If you still have the box, a UPC code can't hurt, either. Having the specifics increases the odds that you'll find what you're looking for in store and web searches.
This is especially helpful when you're seeking out a particular product in a whole line of products like the PalmPilot, which is just one of Palm's 40 discontinued personal digital assistants.
Follow the trail
No matter what the discontinued item is, your first step should be to work backward through the purchasing chain, suggests Carnoy:
Retailer: Just because a product isn't front and center on the shelves doesn't mean it's not languishing in a sale bin or dusty back-stock somewhere. Ask a clerk to search through the store's inventory listings to see if your item pops up.
It's also worth inquiring at big chains, which can search sister stores' inventories and have the product sent to you.
Manufacturer: Buying an extended warranty for electronics and appliances rarely works out for the purchaser. But thanks to the existence of such warranties, if your item was in production within the past five years, it's a safe bet that the manufacturer still has all its parts in stock for repairs, says Carnoy.
Supplier: Manufacturers turn to a variety of suppliers to provide components for their products. So if you want to replace the battery in IBM's discontinued R51e ThinkPad notebook computer, for example, you could talk to the part supplier, Sony. If the part isn't labeled, the gadget manufacturer should be able to point you to its supplier.
Head for the outlet mall
The great deals at outlet malls aren't limited to deeply-discounted Prada from seasons past. Plenty of home-goods retailers and electronics manufacturers also use outlet malls as a way to clear their discontinued inventory, says Dworsky.
The massive Woodbury Commons Premium Outlets complex in Central Valley, N.Y., has shops for Sony, Bose, Sharper Image and Williams-Sonoma, among other gadget purveyors. The online alternative, Overstock.com, has an extensive selection of electronics and appliances.
Consider knockoffs
Good news: When the battery dies in your discontinued Samsung SCH-A850 cellphone or 1980 BMW 3-Series sedan, there's no need to search high and low for an exact replica to replace it. Some mechanical parts in electronics, appliances, cars and other gadgets aren't model-specific.
"They have become almost interchangeable," says Phil Reed, consumer advice editor for Edmunds.com.
"It's more about the physical dimensions of the part than the model number." To figure out if a knockoff part will work with your device, check online owners' groups and message boards. Cellphone owners frequent the Cellphone Forums, for example, while those looking for replacement inkjet printers post on the Printer Techs Forum.
Repair and replace
Because repair shops and refurbished-electronics stores spend their time making old products work like new, they can be great resources for finding discontinued products, or their parts. Snagging a "like new" discontinued item is your best bet — you'll have parts to spare for future repairs, says Carnoy.
Canon's discontinued EOS 20D digital camera is just $654 at The Refurb Depot, $241 less than the sale price at Amazon.com. "For [refurbishers] to have a business, it has to be cheaper than buying a new item," he says.
Know when to give up
Just how badly do you want that Commodore 64? The longer your product has been off the assembly lines, the harder a replacement will be to find — and the more expensive to procure. "When you don't have many sellers, the price escalates," says Dworsky. "You may find yourself falling out of love with that discontinued product."
LOSING YOUR BRAND-NEW Apple iPhone would be devastating, no doubt. But aside from the pain of having to dole out another 500 bucks for the hot device, you'd have no problem finding another one — Apple and AT&T stores have plenty in supply.
But replacing your Sega Dreamcast videogame console? Not so simple. Sega stopped making the gaming device in 2001. For a Sega fanatic whose Dreamcast finally dies on them, it can be a particularly hard hit.
"People are wed to their tech products," says David Carnoy, executive editor of electronics-review site CNET. Even consumers who love the latest and greatest may find themselves mourning a discontinued product.
Cutting-edge products can also get the ax, he says. Sometimes the technology doesn't catch on, for example, or the manufacturer repackages it in a slightly different design each year.
So what's a forlorn consumer to do? Sure, there's always eBay — especially if you're looking for something esoteric, like a '70s-era Toshiba Betamax video recorder. But before you spark a bidding war, try these seven tips to resurrect the discontinued appliances, electronics and other products you love:
Watch for close-outs
When Apple discontinued the iPod Mini in 2005, fans of the device mourned — and immediately began snapping remaining music players off the shelves. Stocking up during close-out sales saves you the time and money you'd spend hunting down a beloved item in the future, says Edgar Dworsky, editor of Consumer World, a consumer resource web site.
"When you start seeing advertisements for the newest product, that's when you can get great deals on the closed-out originals," he says.
Get specific
Know the exact model and part number(s) of the item you're searching for. If you still have the box, a UPC code can't hurt, either. Having the specifics increases the odds that you'll find what you're looking for in store and web searches.
This is especially helpful when you're seeking out a particular product in a whole line of products like the PalmPilot, which is just one of Palm's 40 discontinued personal digital assistants.
Follow the trail
No matter what the discontinued item is, your first step should be to work backward through the purchasing chain, suggests Carnoy:
Retailer: Just because a product isn't front and center on the shelves doesn't mean it's not languishing in a sale bin or dusty back-stock somewhere. Ask a clerk to search through the store's inventory listings to see if your item pops up.
It's also worth inquiring at big chains, which can search sister stores' inventories and have the product sent to you.
Manufacturer: Buying an extended warranty for electronics and appliances rarely works out for the purchaser. But thanks to the existence of such warranties, if your item was in production within the past five years, it's a safe bet that the manufacturer still has all its parts in stock for repairs, says Carnoy.
Supplier: Manufacturers turn to a variety of suppliers to provide components for their products. So if you want to replace the battery in IBM's discontinued R51e ThinkPad notebook computer, for example, you could talk to the part supplier, Sony. If the part isn't labeled, the gadget manufacturer should be able to point you to its supplier.
Head for the outlet mall
The great deals at outlet malls aren't limited to deeply-discounted Prada from seasons past. Plenty of home-goods retailers and electronics manufacturers also use outlet malls as a way to clear their discontinued inventory, says Dworsky.
The massive Woodbury Commons Premium Outlets complex in Central Valley, N.Y., has shops for Sony, Bose, Sharper Image and Williams-Sonoma, among other gadget purveyors. The online alternative, Overstock.com, has an extensive selection of electronics and appliances.
Consider knockoffs
Good news: When the battery dies in your discontinued Samsung SCH-A850 cellphone or 1980 BMW 3-Series sedan, there's no need to search high and low for an exact replica to replace it. Some mechanical parts in electronics, appliances, cars and other gadgets aren't model-specific.
"They have become almost interchangeable," says Phil Reed, consumer advice editor for Edmunds.com.
"It's more about the physical dimensions of the part than the model number." To figure out if a knockoff part will work with your device, check online owners' groups and message boards. Cellphone owners frequent the Cellphone Forums, for example, while those looking for replacement inkjet printers post on the Printer Techs Forum.
Repair and replace
Because repair shops and refurbished-electronics stores spend their time making old products work like new, they can be great resources for finding discontinued products, or their parts. Snagging a "like new" discontinued item is your best bet — you'll have parts to spare for future repairs, says Carnoy.
Canon's discontinued EOS 20D digital camera is just $654 at The Refurb Depot, $241 less than the sale price at Amazon.com. "For [refurbishers] to have a business, it has to be cheaper than buying a new item," he says.
Know when to give up
Just how badly do you want that Commodore 64? The longer your product has been off the assembly lines, the harder a replacement will be to find — and the more expensive to procure. "When you don't have many sellers, the price escalates," says Dworsky. "You may find yourself falling out of love with that discontinued product."
Creating Superstar Servers: 5 Practical Tips To Improve Waitstaff
From Nightclub & Bar
What owner or operator of any of the million-plus restaurants, bars, lounges and nightclubs doing business in the United States today does not want to improve on his or her waitstaff?
In the hands-on field of hospitality, doing so is the surest method there is to improve service, create a positive environment that customers will appreciate and cut into the labor costs and the redundancy of having to constantly recruit and retrain new employees going out of the revolving door of the food and beverage trade.
Can you say, “vacation,” “promotion” and “big fat raise?” It’s a no-brainer for any service-oriented business in which first impressions either can bring patrons back again and again or else send them permanently through the doors of the competitor down the street. And this is particularly true today.
As National Restaurant Association Chairman Ed Tinsley told attendees at “The Show” this year in Las Vegas, one of the biggest obstacles facing the industry in the 21st century is reconciling a jobs growth rate of 150 percent against a prime labor force of 16- to 24-year-olds –– the group making up half of the industry’s labor force –– that is not expected to grow at all.
Hard Day’s Night
There is a hard way and an easy way to improve on waitstaff who, day in and day out, come into contact with customers much more often than even the most outgoing owner or manager does. One way to go about it is to hire your brother-in-law or other individuals who make a favorable impression on you during an interview.
It’s the hiring strategy endorsed by an overwhelming percentage of owners and operators today and one of the main reasons that employee turnover in the field consistently runs higher than a 1,000 percent and managers end up doing everyone’s job but their own. I would much rather do it the easy way — by empowering other people to do most of the work for you.
The bottom line is that every job has a personality and has requirements for the one who fills it. If you can identify those things and identify those same characteristics in applicants, you end up with a person in a job who fits it very well.
Here are some practical tips to improve your waitstaff:
Hire Attitude, Not Knowledge.
Lots of people hire on knowledge and experience. In the back of their mind, they think, ‘I am not going to have to spend a lot of time training them.’ In reality, knowledge is something that you have control over.
You can teach them that. You cannot control their person or their past instability. Approach it that way, and you end up with much better quality employees. The quality of your venue –– the service, atmosphere and how well they get along –– all of these will improve dramatically.
Empower Your Employees.
If there is a problem in your establishment, it is not okay. Give employees the authority to solve it. If that means your employees need to make a decision, or do something not normally part of their job, then let them know that that is what you want them to do.
They may make a mistake, but as an employer you need to get to the point where that is okay. As an owner and manager, you make mistakes, too. Who is to say their mistake is worse than yours? If you have hired the right people, they will have the right attitude and they will get better.
Pay Higher Wages.
In whatever hospitality setting I’ve worked, my average salary for employees was always higher, but labor costs overall were always lower. As manager of a Carrows restaurant, I consistently had the lowest labor cost percentage in the chain. At Carrows, we had 76 employees, and my newest employee had been with me five months.
Make The Work Experience Fun.
Bars do this. If you can make it fun, you will retain more people. My brother, who is also in the restaurant and hospitality industry, has a natural, fun aura that is obvious and easy. When I walk into my venue, everyone is quiet. I envy him that ability to form that instant bond. Yet my turnover rate was lower than his.
You don’t have to be a fun person yourself. Just let them know it is okay for them to have fun. Walk outside the door of your business and come back inside as if you were an employee. Do they have a place to put their purses? Do you have a bulletin board where the employee of the week can get recognition? You need to evaluate how you rank on those.
Invest in Training and Understand That Each Employee Is Different.
Ninety-two percent of personnel failures are due to systems, not people. There are some employees that you can throw into a new job situation, and they thrive on challenge. Yet most employees are a little insecure.
They wonder why you hired them and they may question whether should they have taken the job in the first place. If you don’t train them, they will feel negative. Your most important tool in keeping and improving your waitstaff is your training system.
Terry Morey is senior vice president of marketing with AIMHire and has more than 32 years of combined human resource and foodservice experience. He has taught food cost control and has authored books in the fields of hiring, training and foodservice. Contact him at (888) 776-3484 or tmorey@hiresuperstars.com.
What owner or operator of any of the million-plus restaurants, bars, lounges and nightclubs doing business in the United States today does not want to improve on his or her waitstaff?
In the hands-on field of hospitality, doing so is the surest method there is to improve service, create a positive environment that customers will appreciate and cut into the labor costs and the redundancy of having to constantly recruit and retrain new employees going out of the revolving door of the food and beverage trade.
Can you say, “vacation,” “promotion” and “big fat raise?” It’s a no-brainer for any service-oriented business in which first impressions either can bring patrons back again and again or else send them permanently through the doors of the competitor down the street. And this is particularly true today.
As National Restaurant Association Chairman Ed Tinsley told attendees at “The Show” this year in Las Vegas, one of the biggest obstacles facing the industry in the 21st century is reconciling a jobs growth rate of 150 percent against a prime labor force of 16- to 24-year-olds –– the group making up half of the industry’s labor force –– that is not expected to grow at all.
Hard Day’s Night
There is a hard way and an easy way to improve on waitstaff who, day in and day out, come into contact with customers much more often than even the most outgoing owner or manager does. One way to go about it is to hire your brother-in-law or other individuals who make a favorable impression on you during an interview.
It’s the hiring strategy endorsed by an overwhelming percentage of owners and operators today and one of the main reasons that employee turnover in the field consistently runs higher than a 1,000 percent and managers end up doing everyone’s job but their own. I would much rather do it the easy way — by empowering other people to do most of the work for you.
The bottom line is that every job has a personality and has requirements for the one who fills it. If you can identify those things and identify those same characteristics in applicants, you end up with a person in a job who fits it very well.
Here are some practical tips to improve your waitstaff:
Hire Attitude, Not Knowledge.
Lots of people hire on knowledge and experience. In the back of their mind, they think, ‘I am not going to have to spend a lot of time training them.’ In reality, knowledge is something that you have control over.
You can teach them that. You cannot control their person or their past instability. Approach it that way, and you end up with much better quality employees. The quality of your venue –– the service, atmosphere and how well they get along –– all of these will improve dramatically.
Empower Your Employees.
If there is a problem in your establishment, it is not okay. Give employees the authority to solve it. If that means your employees need to make a decision, or do something not normally part of their job, then let them know that that is what you want them to do.
They may make a mistake, but as an employer you need to get to the point where that is okay. As an owner and manager, you make mistakes, too. Who is to say their mistake is worse than yours? If you have hired the right people, they will have the right attitude and they will get better.
Pay Higher Wages.
In whatever hospitality setting I’ve worked, my average salary for employees was always higher, but labor costs overall were always lower. As manager of a Carrows restaurant, I consistently had the lowest labor cost percentage in the chain. At Carrows, we had 76 employees, and my newest employee had been with me five months.
Make The Work Experience Fun.
Bars do this. If you can make it fun, you will retain more people. My brother, who is also in the restaurant and hospitality industry, has a natural, fun aura that is obvious and easy. When I walk into my venue, everyone is quiet. I envy him that ability to form that instant bond. Yet my turnover rate was lower than his.
You don’t have to be a fun person yourself. Just let them know it is okay for them to have fun. Walk outside the door of your business and come back inside as if you were an employee. Do they have a place to put their purses? Do you have a bulletin board where the employee of the week can get recognition? You need to evaluate how you rank on those.
Invest in Training and Understand That Each Employee Is Different.
Ninety-two percent of personnel failures are due to systems, not people. There are some employees that you can throw into a new job situation, and they thrive on challenge. Yet most employees are a little insecure.
They wonder why you hired them and they may question whether should they have taken the job in the first place. If you don’t train them, they will feel negative. Your most important tool in keeping and improving your waitstaff is your training system.
Terry Morey is senior vice president of marketing with AIMHire and has more than 32 years of combined human resource and foodservice experience. He has taught food cost control and has authored books in the fields of hiring, training and foodservice. Contact him at (888) 776-3484 or tmorey@hiresuperstars.com.
Monday, July 23, 2007
The Problems of Middle-Class Asset Management Strategies
By Loral Langemeier
If you're someone who identifies yourself as middle class, then you probably have a traditional viewpoint about asset management strategies.
This traditional approach to investing usually involves saving as much money as you can into your 401(k), buying a house, and watching the value of that house increase over time.
While traditional, these investment methods won't make you rich very quickly. Moreover, this type of strategy isn't as safe, and certainly isn't as lucrative, as the typical middle class person is led to believe.
While it’s true that the housing boom of the past 10 - 15 years has dramatically increased the value of many homes, many homeowners are only rich on paper.
They have what I call "lazy assets." That is, the assets they own aren't doing anything in particular for them. Their IRA or 401(k) rises or falls with the whims of the market, although over the long haul the funds might have a net gain of 8% to10%.
They may have several hundred thousand dollars of equity in their homes but wouldn't know what to do with the cash if they had it in their hands. And, mutual funds are ... well, mutual funds. You're lucky to get an increase of a few percentage points on any mutual fund these days.
In short, middle-class investment strategies won't create a multi-million dollar portfolio. They're simply not designed to create wealth. Instead, they’re designed to create security — or what I would call a false sense of security.
As we've seen with the crash of certain tech stocks, or even companies like Enron, you can't rely on “tried and true” stocks to pull you through. As I see it, the tragedy is that this type of investing can keep people from living the kinds of lives they want until "retirement." What a shame.
Why not live the kind of life you want today, instead of saving it all for a time when you're less able to use the money in a more satisfying way? These cash-poor millionaires live month-to-month in the same endless cycle of make-spend, make-spend as someone working at a fast food restaurant (although they may have nicer toys).
When they do cash out some of the equity in their homes, they generally use the money to upgrade their house, buy a new car, send the kids to college or go on a long, expensive vacation. They end up in the same make-spend, make-spend cycle.
Does this cycle sound familiar to you?
Your thinking will have to change if you want to increase the amount you're worth (a.k.a. your net worth) in the short term. Creating a multi-million dollar portfolio in the short term (typically 3-5 years for people I work with) involves working with mentors, having clear money rules, and great field partners.
It also involves changing your psychology (i.e. the way you think about money). Increasing your cash flow involves more than simply making more money. You need to stop investing in under-performing, lazy assets and start creating more millionaire-making assets. Millionaire-making assets are those that:
1. Provide investors with higher-than-market returns
2. Allow investors to hedge their risk
3. Optimize investors' energy, efforts, and money
These kinds of assets allow you to generate cash and grow your net worth simultaneously, instead of one or the other, as with traditional middle class investment strategies.
For example, by investing in assets that provide a higher-than-market return, you'll increase your net worth while infusing your account with more cash to purchase additional assets.
This cycle of creating cash to buy assets, which creates more cash to buy more assets, is part of the Cycle of the Wealthy that I describe in my first book, The Millionaire Maker. You can't do this by putting your money into pensions, IRAs, mutual funds or your primary residence.
What keeps many people from investing in millionaire-making assets is what they claim are the high risk of such investments. They wonder, "What if I lose everything?" What I tell my clients, and what I emphasize in my books, is that risk is only your failure to educate yourself about an investment.
In other words, by taking the time to educate yourself about an investment, even if you're told it's a high-risk investment (such as oil and gas), you are actually reducing your risk to less than that of typical, passive stock market investing.
With education and the right information, you'll know how to invest in millionaire-making assets and make your money work for you. These are your real asset management strategies.
If you're someone who identifies yourself as middle class, then you probably have a traditional viewpoint about asset management strategies.
This traditional approach to investing usually involves saving as much money as you can into your 401(k), buying a house, and watching the value of that house increase over time.
While traditional, these investment methods won't make you rich very quickly. Moreover, this type of strategy isn't as safe, and certainly isn't as lucrative, as the typical middle class person is led to believe.
While it’s true that the housing boom of the past 10 - 15 years has dramatically increased the value of many homes, many homeowners are only rich on paper.
They have what I call "lazy assets." That is, the assets they own aren't doing anything in particular for them. Their IRA or 401(k) rises or falls with the whims of the market, although over the long haul the funds might have a net gain of 8% to10%.
They may have several hundred thousand dollars of equity in their homes but wouldn't know what to do with the cash if they had it in their hands. And, mutual funds are ... well, mutual funds. You're lucky to get an increase of a few percentage points on any mutual fund these days.
In short, middle-class investment strategies won't create a multi-million dollar portfolio. They're simply not designed to create wealth. Instead, they’re designed to create security — or what I would call a false sense of security.
As we've seen with the crash of certain tech stocks, or even companies like Enron, you can't rely on “tried and true” stocks to pull you through. As I see it, the tragedy is that this type of investing can keep people from living the kinds of lives they want until "retirement." What a shame.
Why not live the kind of life you want today, instead of saving it all for a time when you're less able to use the money in a more satisfying way? These cash-poor millionaires live month-to-month in the same endless cycle of make-spend, make-spend as someone working at a fast food restaurant (although they may have nicer toys).
When they do cash out some of the equity in their homes, they generally use the money to upgrade their house, buy a new car, send the kids to college or go on a long, expensive vacation. They end up in the same make-spend, make-spend cycle.
Does this cycle sound familiar to you?
Your thinking will have to change if you want to increase the amount you're worth (a.k.a. your net worth) in the short term. Creating a multi-million dollar portfolio in the short term (typically 3-5 years for people I work with) involves working with mentors, having clear money rules, and great field partners.
It also involves changing your psychology (i.e. the way you think about money). Increasing your cash flow involves more than simply making more money. You need to stop investing in under-performing, lazy assets and start creating more millionaire-making assets. Millionaire-making assets are those that:
1. Provide investors with higher-than-market returns
2. Allow investors to hedge their risk
3. Optimize investors' energy, efforts, and money
These kinds of assets allow you to generate cash and grow your net worth simultaneously, instead of one or the other, as with traditional middle class investment strategies.
For example, by investing in assets that provide a higher-than-market return, you'll increase your net worth while infusing your account with more cash to purchase additional assets.
This cycle of creating cash to buy assets, which creates more cash to buy more assets, is part of the Cycle of the Wealthy that I describe in my first book, The Millionaire Maker. You can't do this by putting your money into pensions, IRAs, mutual funds or your primary residence.
What keeps many people from investing in millionaire-making assets is what they claim are the high risk of such investments. They wonder, "What if I lose everything?" What I tell my clients, and what I emphasize in my books, is that risk is only your failure to educate yourself about an investment.
In other words, by taking the time to educate yourself about an investment, even if you're told it's a high-risk investment (such as oil and gas), you are actually reducing your risk to less than that of typical, passive stock market investing.
With education and the right information, you'll know how to invest in millionaire-making assets and make your money work for you. These are your real asset management strategies.
Three Steps To Increase Your Creativity
From LifeSkill Institute, Inc
2. Develop the habit of using your mind for new ideas.
3. Think in new, expanded dimensions beyond what you have been accustomed to thinking.
4. Participate in activities and exercises which expand you as a person.
5. Develop your emotions and instincts of wonder into a vivid imagination.
Four Ways To Develop Your Creativity
1. Realize that the creative genius does not come through your five senses, but rather through your “sixth sense,” your subconscious mind.
2. Realize that your sixth sense can inspire, through your imagination, your five senses to dwell on (experience) an imagined reality (an inspired thought).
3. Realize that all your creativity comes from your subconscious mind.
4. Stand your ground and be positive. Your creative imagination can serve you as long as you are positive.
1. Believe it can be done.
Before anything can be accomplished, you must first believe it can be done. This belief sets the mind in motion to find a way to do it. Whatever the mind believes is true. Believing something can be done paves the way for your creative imagination to find a way to do it.
2. Eliminate the word impossible from your vocabulary and from your thinking.
When you say or believe something is impossible, your mind sets out to prove why it cannot be done.
3. Always be receptive to new ideas.
Do not just hear new ideas, but listen to them intently. Analyze new ideas fully and completely, focusing on how and why they work, and how they may be a benefit to you.
How To Practice Your Creative Imagination Skills
1. Establish a specific time and place each day to practice creative imagination. This place should be conducive to thought and reflection.
Before anything can be accomplished, you must first believe it can be done. This belief sets the mind in motion to find a way to do it. Whatever the mind believes is true. Believing something can be done paves the way for your creative imagination to find a way to do it.
2. Eliminate the word impossible from your vocabulary and from your thinking.
When you say or believe something is impossible, your mind sets out to prove why it cannot be done.
3. Always be receptive to new ideas.
Do not just hear new ideas, but listen to them intently. Analyze new ideas fully and completely, focusing on how and why they work, and how they may be a benefit to you.
How To Practice Your Creative Imagination Skills
1. Establish a specific time and place each day to practice creative imagination. This place should be conducive to thought and reflection.
2. Develop the habit of using your mind for new ideas.
3. Think in new, expanded dimensions beyond what you have been accustomed to thinking.
4. Participate in activities and exercises which expand you as a person.
5. Develop your emotions and instincts of wonder into a vivid imagination.
Four Ways To Develop Your Creativity
1. Realize that the creative genius does not come through your five senses, but rather through your “sixth sense,” your subconscious mind.
2. Realize that your sixth sense can inspire, through your imagination, your five senses to dwell on (experience) an imagined reality (an inspired thought).
3. Realize that all your creativity comes from your subconscious mind.
4. Stand your ground and be positive. Your creative imagination can serve you as long as you are positive.
How to Execute a Killer Promotion With Far-Reaching Effects
From Nightclub & Bar
If you are looking for a way to connect with your female customer base you may have considered a night of pampering for your ladies. But putting together a successful event like this can be a time-consuming and daunting task.
In this article you will find some formatting suggestions as well as ideas on how to entice vendors to get involved and make this a premier event that your female customers will talk about for weeks before and after the event. The reasons to do a Girls’ Night Out promotion are numerous.
This event creates a very prominent way for you to position yourself in the market place as a female-friendly destination, this event will give you an opportunity to showcase new products and services to your customers that will reinforce your image as the place to be, and you also can leverage this event as a vehicle for your liquor sponsors to introduce the latest flavored concoction they have bottled to a captive audience.
In addition, you can schedule this party so that it jump-starts an already well-established night and adds sales.
Getting Started
This is a very complex promotion to host. To keep it special or exclusive, holding this event once per month or once each quarter or only on special occasions will keep interest in the event high, and you won’t burn out your customers, employees or partners.
To get started, engage your key employees and regulars in a good old-fashioned brainstorming session to compile a list of possible partners to be exhibitors at your Girls’ Night Out.’ Categorize your list under these four headings: Services, shopping, samples and experiences. Now let’s take each one and get a small list of examples.
First, services can include, neck, hand, foot and shoulder massages, up-do’s, nail polishing, make-up demonstrations and henna tattoos. Under the heading of shopping, consider vendors for sunglasses, purses, lingerie, bedroom toys and jewelry.
Next is to find vendors that will be interested in providing the girls with samples or introductory offers, such as tanning salons, gyms, personal trainers, hair products, makeup, liquor, in-home parties, wine and champagne, restaurants, specialty chocolates, teeth whitening, plastic surgeons, dermatologists and laser treatment centers.
The last group will consist of experiences, such as ballroom or swing dancing classes, art classes, fortune tellers of all types (tarot, palm readers, handwriting analysis, tea leaves and psychics). In your brainstorming session you undoubtedly will come up with the name of many potential vendors.
Seek out anyone in your immediate group that already has personal contacts with these vendors and deputize them to act as your emissaries in soliciting their participation.
The Sit-Down
To guarantee quality vendors will be participants in your event, assemble a great looking package that describes the event to your vendors and clearly explains to them the potential benefits to their businesses.
In other words, give them a list of great reasons to participate in your event, and suggest that if they don’t sign up, their competition just might. Then send your staff to work on getting commitments from the vendors to attend a meeting where you will have an opportunity to host them at your place and give them a personal and dynamic presentation of your vision of the event.
It is really important that your vendors are excited about participating and will give it their best. At this meeting, review the benefits the vendors will receive by exhibiting at your event, such as promoting their businesses with products and services to target customers that live and work in the neighborhood.
Be Special
Your job as the host venue will be to provide a great atmosphere, entertainment, drink offer, food and outstanding service. Consider using a special entrance to establish this truly as a special event from the very beginning for the customers.
If you normally collect cover charge at the front door, make a pathway of pink balloons that leads the girls to an area inside the club and find a florist that is willing to promote his company by providing flowers for each girl.
Decorate with lots of balloons. You can schedule this event on a night that you are normally closed or you can add it to the front end of an established night. For example, if your Ladies’ Night is on Thursdays, add the Girls’ Night Out promotion from 7-10 p.m. to get your party started early.
Marketing and Staffing
Marketing this event primarily should use flyers to current customers, e-mail blasts, in-house posters, an info line, Web site presence with a RSVP offer and flyers at each of your vendors’ stores. Be sure that your vendors know that they are responsible for helping to promote the event to their current customer base.
Other effective measures can be call-outs to your female customers, mass texting and even fax-outs. Also, provide your bartenders with a guest list and plenty of 2-for-1 passes to reward their target regulars.
Staff the event with attractive males at the bars, but consider using female staff in areas where the girls are receiving personal services such as hair and makeup work and massages.
Scheduling
If you decide to use Girls’ Night Out as a jump-start event, schedule a clear end-time marker. Consider stopping at the conclusion of the event to gather all of the girls on your dance floor and give away gift certificates from vendors, bar tabs, T-shirts and anything else you can get donated.
Finally, make sure that all the girls leave with bounce-backs to the next Girls’ Night Out so they can mark it on their calendars!
Garry P. Smyth owns and operates two Chicago-area locations of The Bamboo Room, a high-energy mainstream dance concept with annual gross sales of more than $7 million. Visit him online for more detail on executing a successful Girls’ Night Out promotion by visiting www.bamboochicago.com or dropping him a line at gpsmyth@earthlink.net.
If you are looking for a way to connect with your female customer base you may have considered a night of pampering for your ladies. But putting together a successful event like this can be a time-consuming and daunting task.
In this article you will find some formatting suggestions as well as ideas on how to entice vendors to get involved and make this a premier event that your female customers will talk about for weeks before and after the event. The reasons to do a Girls’ Night Out promotion are numerous.
This event creates a very prominent way for you to position yourself in the market place as a female-friendly destination, this event will give you an opportunity to showcase new products and services to your customers that will reinforce your image as the place to be, and you also can leverage this event as a vehicle for your liquor sponsors to introduce the latest flavored concoction they have bottled to a captive audience.
In addition, you can schedule this party so that it jump-starts an already well-established night and adds sales.
Getting Started
This is a very complex promotion to host. To keep it special or exclusive, holding this event once per month or once each quarter or only on special occasions will keep interest in the event high, and you won’t burn out your customers, employees or partners.
To get started, engage your key employees and regulars in a good old-fashioned brainstorming session to compile a list of possible partners to be exhibitors at your Girls’ Night Out.’ Categorize your list under these four headings: Services, shopping, samples and experiences. Now let’s take each one and get a small list of examples.
First, services can include, neck, hand, foot and shoulder massages, up-do’s, nail polishing, make-up demonstrations and henna tattoos. Under the heading of shopping, consider vendors for sunglasses, purses, lingerie, bedroom toys and jewelry.
Next is to find vendors that will be interested in providing the girls with samples or introductory offers, such as tanning salons, gyms, personal trainers, hair products, makeup, liquor, in-home parties, wine and champagne, restaurants, specialty chocolates, teeth whitening, plastic surgeons, dermatologists and laser treatment centers.
The last group will consist of experiences, such as ballroom or swing dancing classes, art classes, fortune tellers of all types (tarot, palm readers, handwriting analysis, tea leaves and psychics). In your brainstorming session you undoubtedly will come up with the name of many potential vendors.
Seek out anyone in your immediate group that already has personal contacts with these vendors and deputize them to act as your emissaries in soliciting their participation.
The Sit-Down
To guarantee quality vendors will be participants in your event, assemble a great looking package that describes the event to your vendors and clearly explains to them the potential benefits to their businesses.
In other words, give them a list of great reasons to participate in your event, and suggest that if they don’t sign up, their competition just might. Then send your staff to work on getting commitments from the vendors to attend a meeting where you will have an opportunity to host them at your place and give them a personal and dynamic presentation of your vision of the event.
It is really important that your vendors are excited about participating and will give it their best. At this meeting, review the benefits the vendors will receive by exhibiting at your event, such as promoting their businesses with products and services to target customers that live and work in the neighborhood.
Be Special
Your job as the host venue will be to provide a great atmosphere, entertainment, drink offer, food and outstanding service. Consider using a special entrance to establish this truly as a special event from the very beginning for the customers.
If you normally collect cover charge at the front door, make a pathway of pink balloons that leads the girls to an area inside the club and find a florist that is willing to promote his company by providing flowers for each girl.
Decorate with lots of balloons. You can schedule this event on a night that you are normally closed or you can add it to the front end of an established night. For example, if your Ladies’ Night is on Thursdays, add the Girls’ Night Out promotion from 7-10 p.m. to get your party started early.
Marketing and Staffing
Marketing this event primarily should use flyers to current customers, e-mail blasts, in-house posters, an info line, Web site presence with a RSVP offer and flyers at each of your vendors’ stores. Be sure that your vendors know that they are responsible for helping to promote the event to their current customer base.
Other effective measures can be call-outs to your female customers, mass texting and even fax-outs. Also, provide your bartenders with a guest list and plenty of 2-for-1 passes to reward their target regulars.
Staff the event with attractive males at the bars, but consider using female staff in areas where the girls are receiving personal services such as hair and makeup work and massages.
Scheduling
If you decide to use Girls’ Night Out as a jump-start event, schedule a clear end-time marker. Consider stopping at the conclusion of the event to gather all of the girls on your dance floor and give away gift certificates from vendors, bar tabs, T-shirts and anything else you can get donated.
Finally, make sure that all the girls leave with bounce-backs to the next Girls’ Night Out so they can mark it on their calendars!
Garry P. Smyth owns and operates two Chicago-area locations of The Bamboo Room, a high-energy mainstream dance concept with annual gross sales of more than $7 million. Visit him online for more detail on executing a successful Girls’ Night Out promotion by visiting www.bamboochicago.com or dropping him a line at gpsmyth@earthlink.net.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Millionaire Making Assets
By Loral Langemeier
People who identify themselves as middle class have what they believe are viable asset strategies.
Their traditional approach to investing involves all the investing approaches we've come to know and love over the years: buy a house; invest in the stock market; buy a few mutual funds; and shove a bunch of money into a Roth IRA "for retirement."
Unfortunately, this type of strategy isn't as safe, and certainly isn't as lucrative as the typical middle class person is led to believe. With the housing boom of the past 10-15 years, many of these people have become poor millionaires, and most of these don't even know that they're millionaires.
They have what I call "lazy assets." That is, the assets they own aren't doing anything in particular for them. The IRA or 401(k) rises or falls with the whims of the market, although over the long haul the funds might have a net gain of 8-10%.
They have several hundred thousand dollars net value in their homes, but wouldn't know what to do with the cash if they had it in hand. And, mutual funds are... well, mutual funds. You're lucky to get a few percentage point increase on any mutual fund these days.
Middle-class investment strategies won't build you a multi-million dollar portfolio. They're simply not designed to create wealth, but are instead designed to create security, or what I would call a false sense of security.
As we've seen with the crash of certain tech stocks, or even companies like Enron, you can't rely on your tried and true stocks to pull you through. The concern as I see it is that this type of investing can keep people from living the kinds of lives they want until "retirement."
What a shame. Why not live the kind of life you want today, instead of saving it all for a time when you're less able to use the money in a more satisfying way?
These cash-poor millionaires live month-to-month in the same endless cycle of make-spend-make-spend as someone working at a fast food restaurant (although they may have nicer toys).
When they do cash out some of the equity in their homes, they generally use the money to upgrade the house, buy a new car, send the kids to college, or go on a long, expensive vacation. They end up in the same make-spend-make-spend cycle.
Does this cycle sound familiar to you?
Your thinking will have to change if you want to increase your overall worth in the short term. Creating a multi-million dollar portfolio in the short term (typically 3-5 years for people I work with) involves working with coaches, having clear wealth-building rules, and great partners in the field.
It also involves changing your psychology (thinking). Increasing your flow of money involves more than simply making more money. You need to stop investing in under performing, non-producing assets and start creating more millionaire-making assets. Millionaire-making assets are those that:
- Provide investors with higher-than-market returns
- Allow investors to hedge their risk
- Optimize investors' energy, efforts, and money
These kinds of assets allow you to generate cash and grow your overall worth simultaneously, instead of one or the other, as with traditional middle class investment strategies.
For example, by pursuing assets that provide a higher-than-market return, you'll increase your net worth while infusing your account with more cash to purchase additional assets.
This cycle of creating cash to buy assets to create more cash to buy more assets is part of the Cycle of the Wealthy I describe in my first book, The Millionaire Maker. You can't do this by putting your money into pensions, IRA's, mutual funds, or your primary residence.
What keeps many people from investing in millionaire-making assets is what they claim as the high risk of such investments. They wonder, "What if I lose everything?" What I tell my clients and what I emphasize in my books is that risk is only your failure to educate yourself about an opportunity.
In other words, by taking the time to educate yourself about an opportunity, even if you're told it's a high-risk chance, such as oil and gas, you are actually reducing your risk to less than that of typical passive stock market investing.
With a little education and the right information, you'll know how to invest in millionaire-making assets and make your money work for you. These are your real asset strategies.
People who identify themselves as middle class have what they believe are viable asset strategies.
Their traditional approach to investing involves all the investing approaches we've come to know and love over the years: buy a house; invest in the stock market; buy a few mutual funds; and shove a bunch of money into a Roth IRA "for retirement."
Unfortunately, this type of strategy isn't as safe, and certainly isn't as lucrative as the typical middle class person is led to believe. With the housing boom of the past 10-15 years, many of these people have become poor millionaires, and most of these don't even know that they're millionaires.
They have what I call "lazy assets." That is, the assets they own aren't doing anything in particular for them. The IRA or 401(k) rises or falls with the whims of the market, although over the long haul the funds might have a net gain of 8-10%.
They have several hundred thousand dollars net value in their homes, but wouldn't know what to do with the cash if they had it in hand. And, mutual funds are... well, mutual funds. You're lucky to get a few percentage point increase on any mutual fund these days.
Middle-class investment strategies won't build you a multi-million dollar portfolio. They're simply not designed to create wealth, but are instead designed to create security, or what I would call a false sense of security.
As we've seen with the crash of certain tech stocks, or even companies like Enron, you can't rely on your tried and true stocks to pull you through. The concern as I see it is that this type of investing can keep people from living the kinds of lives they want until "retirement."
What a shame. Why not live the kind of life you want today, instead of saving it all for a time when you're less able to use the money in a more satisfying way?
These cash-poor millionaires live month-to-month in the same endless cycle of make-spend-make-spend as someone working at a fast food restaurant (although they may have nicer toys).
When they do cash out some of the equity in their homes, they generally use the money to upgrade the house, buy a new car, send the kids to college, or go on a long, expensive vacation. They end up in the same make-spend-make-spend cycle.
Does this cycle sound familiar to you?
Your thinking will have to change if you want to increase your overall worth in the short term. Creating a multi-million dollar portfolio in the short term (typically 3-5 years for people I work with) involves working with coaches, having clear wealth-building rules, and great partners in the field.
It also involves changing your psychology (thinking). Increasing your flow of money involves more than simply making more money. You need to stop investing in under performing, non-producing assets and start creating more millionaire-making assets. Millionaire-making assets are those that:
- Provide investors with higher-than-market returns
- Allow investors to hedge their risk
- Optimize investors' energy, efforts, and money
These kinds of assets allow you to generate cash and grow your overall worth simultaneously, instead of one or the other, as with traditional middle class investment strategies.
For example, by pursuing assets that provide a higher-than-market return, you'll increase your net worth while infusing your account with more cash to purchase additional assets.
This cycle of creating cash to buy assets to create more cash to buy more assets is part of the Cycle of the Wealthy I describe in my first book, The Millionaire Maker. You can't do this by putting your money into pensions, IRA's, mutual funds, or your primary residence.
What keeps many people from investing in millionaire-making assets is what they claim as the high risk of such investments. They wonder, "What if I lose everything?" What I tell my clients and what I emphasize in my books is that risk is only your failure to educate yourself about an opportunity.
In other words, by taking the time to educate yourself about an opportunity, even if you're told it's a high-risk chance, such as oil and gas, you are actually reducing your risk to less than that of typical passive stock market investing.
With a little education and the right information, you'll know how to invest in millionaire-making assets and make your money work for you. These are your real asset strategies.
How to Stop Micromanaging
By Beth Kalet
THE SAME TRAITS THAT help a small-business owner build a company from scratch can become a hindrance when it comes to managing employees. Entrepreneurs who are driven and passionate about their companies often find it difficult to let employees do their jobs.
And that's when business owners become the least effective of bosses: micromanagers. Watching over a staffer's shoulder wastes time, kills morale and can easily drag the business down, management experts say.
While it's tough to give up control, showing employees that you trust and respect their abilities can lead to top performance, says Batia Wiesenfeld, a management professor at New York University's Stern School of Business.
When employees feel like they are independently making a contribution to the company's mission or bottom line, "they work harder and work better," Wiesenfeld says. "They make the right choices in how to allocate their time." Most importantly, when it comes to their jobs, "they get a feeling of satisfaction," she says.
So how to back off and let your worker bees do their business? Here are five tips:-
1. Hire the best. Once you do that, set them to their tasks. That's the principle Varda Amdur, founder of marketing and communications firm, Varda Amdur Promotions in Tarrytown, N.Y., has followed successfully for 28 years.
Her staff is small — two full-timers and one part-timer — so to maximize the return on her payroll dollar she strives to find the most capable, productive talent she can hire. "And, if you feel you can't afford the best full-time [workers], hire them part time," Amdur says.
There's a vast pool of professionals making transitions in life — perhaps they're staying at home with new children or considering a career change — who make excellent, conscientious staffers and need little guidance to tackle most tasks, she says.
2. Set goals and hold people accountable. That's the golden rule, according to Michael Rosenberg, co-owner of Impact Marketing Group, a Des Plains, Ill., manufacturer's representative agency and sourcing firm that employs six full-time workers.
Rosenberg says he sits down with his employees on a regular basis to review and establish goals. And they figure out time frames for accomplishing those goals, which ensures that he and his staff are on the same course.
3. Provide the resources for achieving goals. That's a key partner to goal-setting, management experts and business owners agree. Unless you provide the tools, you're setting up your staff for frustration and failure.
So figure out what you want employees to accomplish, and then determine what's needed — be it software, professional assistance, time or education — to get the job done.
4. Focus on the outcomes. "You want the job done right, but that doesn't necessarily mean your way." That's the wisdom of Martha Huizenga, co-owner of D.C. Access, a four-year-old Internet service provider in Washington, D.C.
Her approach is right on, says Wiesenfeld, the NYU management professor. In fact, she says, keeping in mind that there's more than one way to get the job done is the most important step micromanagers can take to begin changing their habits.
"Focus on: Are people getting the outcomes you want, are they making the sales you want, are they as accurate as you want them to be?" Wiesenfeld says.
Huizenga came upon this realization in part because she doesn't want to be the type of hovering boss she always despised. "I hate micromanagers," she says.
At the same time, "I think I might have a tendency to be a controlling person. I am very detail-oriented and I may be a little picky." Now, she lets employees take their own approach and acknowledges "if there is a better way, then that's fine."
5. Be available. Just because you've permitted your employees to go their own way doesn't mean you abdicate your role as an advisor. "I support my staff when they need support," says Michael Freund, president of Buist, a mechanical contracting firm in Somerset, N.J., that employs 60 people in jobs that range from administrative to construction.
"When they ask me a question, I drop what I'm doing and try to support them right away."
THE SAME TRAITS THAT help a small-business owner build a company from scratch can become a hindrance when it comes to managing employees. Entrepreneurs who are driven and passionate about their companies often find it difficult to let employees do their jobs.
And that's when business owners become the least effective of bosses: micromanagers. Watching over a staffer's shoulder wastes time, kills morale and can easily drag the business down, management experts say.
While it's tough to give up control, showing employees that you trust and respect their abilities can lead to top performance, says Batia Wiesenfeld, a management professor at New York University's Stern School of Business.
When employees feel like they are independently making a contribution to the company's mission or bottom line, "they work harder and work better," Wiesenfeld says. "They make the right choices in how to allocate their time." Most importantly, when it comes to their jobs, "they get a feeling of satisfaction," she says.
So how to back off and let your worker bees do their business? Here are five tips:-
1. Hire the best. Once you do that, set them to their tasks. That's the principle Varda Amdur, founder of marketing and communications firm, Varda Amdur Promotions in Tarrytown, N.Y., has followed successfully for 28 years.
Her staff is small — two full-timers and one part-timer — so to maximize the return on her payroll dollar she strives to find the most capable, productive talent she can hire. "And, if you feel you can't afford the best full-time [workers], hire them part time," Amdur says.
There's a vast pool of professionals making transitions in life — perhaps they're staying at home with new children or considering a career change — who make excellent, conscientious staffers and need little guidance to tackle most tasks, she says.
2. Set goals and hold people accountable. That's the golden rule, according to Michael Rosenberg, co-owner of Impact Marketing Group, a Des Plains, Ill., manufacturer's representative agency and sourcing firm that employs six full-time workers.
Rosenberg says he sits down with his employees on a regular basis to review and establish goals. And they figure out time frames for accomplishing those goals, which ensures that he and his staff are on the same course.
3. Provide the resources for achieving goals. That's a key partner to goal-setting, management experts and business owners agree. Unless you provide the tools, you're setting up your staff for frustration and failure.
So figure out what you want employees to accomplish, and then determine what's needed — be it software, professional assistance, time or education — to get the job done.
4. Focus on the outcomes. "You want the job done right, but that doesn't necessarily mean your way." That's the wisdom of Martha Huizenga, co-owner of D.C. Access, a four-year-old Internet service provider in Washington, D.C.
Her approach is right on, says Wiesenfeld, the NYU management professor. In fact, she says, keeping in mind that there's more than one way to get the job done is the most important step micromanagers can take to begin changing their habits.
"Focus on: Are people getting the outcomes you want, are they making the sales you want, are they as accurate as you want them to be?" Wiesenfeld says.
Huizenga came upon this realization in part because she doesn't want to be the type of hovering boss she always despised. "I hate micromanagers," she says.
At the same time, "I think I might have a tendency to be a controlling person. I am very detail-oriented and I may be a little picky." Now, she lets employees take their own approach and acknowledges "if there is a better way, then that's fine."
5. Be available. Just because you've permitted your employees to go their own way doesn't mean you abdicate your role as an advisor. "I support my staff when they need support," says Michael Freund, president of Buist, a mechanical contracting firm in Somerset, N.J., that employs 60 people in jobs that range from administrative to construction.
"When they ask me a question, I drop what I'm doing and try to support them right away."
Light Beers Get a Heavy Sell On-Premise
From Nightclub & Bar
Today, the extent to which beer drinkers have seen the light, so to speak, in their embrace of the light beer category is evident in overall consumption data placing sales of domestic light beer at 49 percent of the market.
In fact, based on figures compiled by the Beer Institute in Washington, D.C., light beer now actually accounts for more than half, or approximately 53 percent, of the total U.S. volume share when premium imports such as Amstel Light, Corona Light and others are added to domestic receipts.
Guiding Lights
“The light category in general is very very hot,” says Nick Lake, vice president of business development for The Nielsen Company. “That is where the consumer shift is going. As little as 10 years ago, the light segment was only about a third of the category. It was probably about 2005 that it hit 50 percent.”
According to Nielsen scanner data, premium sales of light beer reached nearly $7.3 billion in the off-premise channel of the U.S. market for the year ending in March 2007 –– a figure that was up 3.1 percent from the previous year.
Beer Marketer’s Insight (BMI) Editor Benj Steinman says that while volume growth in the light segment has slowed somewhat, posting only a 2.4 percent increase in 2006 that mirrored the 2 percent overall growth of the beer category itself, there is still good reason to be bullish about light beer.
“There has been a lot of excitement and a lot of growth in the high-end side,” Steinman says, “with the rollout of Heineken Light, the continued success of Corona Light, and the planned launch of other light beer brands by industry icons such as Tecate.”
One of the exciting entries of the last year has been Heineken Premium Light, which Heineken USA touts as having broken new ground in 2006 by introducing consumers to the luxurious side of the beer category. Even the booming craft end of the beer category, which has witnessed incredible growth in the past few years, in stark contrast to the mother brewing industry as a whole, has taken notice of the success and popularity of light beer.
Brew America
One well-known Western watering hole where beer sales attest to consumers move toward light brews is Falling Rock in Denver, a beer palace and full-service restaurant located near Coors Field. With 75 beers on tap and 130 others available by the bottle, General Manager Chris Black has no doubt about where his customers come down in their preference for beer.
“Four out of the 130 are light beers, and they make up over 60 percent of the bottle sales,” Black says, noting that it depends on the night and the crowd as to whether Coors Light or Bud Light rules the revenue. Black, who offers no lights beers on tap, says Miller Lite and Amstel Light are his other best sellers.
And given his limited cold storage space and the drinking habits of his customers, he says that the only new light beer he is likely to add in the near future is Heineken Light.
Although Budweiser is still king of beers in the domestic category at Manuel’s Tavern, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in business in Atlanta last year, veteran bartender Pat Glass says light beers continue to hold their own with customers.
“Bud Light is our top seller, and right behind it is Miller Light and Amstel Light,” he says. Among the newer light imports, “I sell a little bit of Heineken and Corona Light.”
Today, the extent to which beer drinkers have seen the light, so to speak, in their embrace of the light beer category is evident in overall consumption data placing sales of domestic light beer at 49 percent of the market.
In fact, based on figures compiled by the Beer Institute in Washington, D.C., light beer now actually accounts for more than half, or approximately 53 percent, of the total U.S. volume share when premium imports such as Amstel Light, Corona Light and others are added to domestic receipts.
Guiding Lights
“The light category in general is very very hot,” says Nick Lake, vice president of business development for The Nielsen Company. “That is where the consumer shift is going. As little as 10 years ago, the light segment was only about a third of the category. It was probably about 2005 that it hit 50 percent.”
According to Nielsen scanner data, premium sales of light beer reached nearly $7.3 billion in the off-premise channel of the U.S. market for the year ending in March 2007 –– a figure that was up 3.1 percent from the previous year.
Beer Marketer’s Insight (BMI) Editor Benj Steinman says that while volume growth in the light segment has slowed somewhat, posting only a 2.4 percent increase in 2006 that mirrored the 2 percent overall growth of the beer category itself, there is still good reason to be bullish about light beer.
“There has been a lot of excitement and a lot of growth in the high-end side,” Steinman says, “with the rollout of Heineken Light, the continued success of Corona Light, and the planned launch of other light beer brands by industry icons such as Tecate.”
One of the exciting entries of the last year has been Heineken Premium Light, which Heineken USA touts as having broken new ground in 2006 by introducing consumers to the luxurious side of the beer category. Even the booming craft end of the beer category, which has witnessed incredible growth in the past few years, in stark contrast to the mother brewing industry as a whole, has taken notice of the success and popularity of light beer.
Brew America
One well-known Western watering hole where beer sales attest to consumers move toward light brews is Falling Rock in Denver, a beer palace and full-service restaurant located near Coors Field. With 75 beers on tap and 130 others available by the bottle, General Manager Chris Black has no doubt about where his customers come down in their preference for beer.
“Four out of the 130 are light beers, and they make up over 60 percent of the bottle sales,” Black says, noting that it depends on the night and the crowd as to whether Coors Light or Bud Light rules the revenue. Black, who offers no lights beers on tap, says Miller Lite and Amstel Light are his other best sellers.
And given his limited cold storage space and the drinking habits of his customers, he says that the only new light beer he is likely to add in the near future is Heineken Light.
Although Budweiser is still king of beers in the domestic category at Manuel’s Tavern, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in business in Atlanta last year, veteran bartender Pat Glass says light beers continue to hold their own with customers.
“Bud Light is our top seller, and right behind it is Miller Light and Amstel Light,” he says. Among the newer light imports, “I sell a little bit of Heineken and Corona Light.”
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Understanding Retirement Planning Options
From http://www.millionaireinside.com/
Once you start talking about retirement planning, you will hear many opinions. There are so many options to consider that you may get stalled. Remember that just because a particular strategy works for someone else, does not mean it will work for you.
Retirement planning scenarios are dependent on your age, your current financial situation, the plans available to you through work, and what you want to get out of retirement after you stop working full-time.
Let’s look at the options and explore them a bit further:
Annuities and Company Defined Benefits -
The basic concept of an annuity is that it will provide a guaranteed income for as long as you live. If you work for a company that offers a ‘company-defined benefit pension’, or annuity, program, you might see a calculation that averages your final 3-5 years of salary and provides 75% of the resulting number as an annual retirement payment (presuming you retire at a certain age with a certain number of years of service).
Most employers no longer offer these programs because they are expensive to administer.
However, in many cases you can purchase an annuity through a financial services company. You make payments into the program and in exchange you get a guaranteed monthly payment beginning when you retire.
These programs can be ‘fixed’ or ‘variable’.
In the case of ‘fixed’ payments, you get a certain amount of money every month and in some cases, you can arrange to have a cost of living increase included in case you need more money to accommodate a higher cost of living.
‘Variable’ programs calculate payments based on the current price of stocks and bonds.
Your payments may be more attractive, but the cost of variable programs has also risen, so you should consider the tradeoffs carefully before you decide on a program.
You can purchase annuities that include a death benefit for a beneficiary so that they will continue to receive monthly payments after your death.
Defined Contribution Plans - These plans are more popular today because it does not cost your employer as much to administer the plan. The plan allows you or your employer to contribute up to a certain amount into a retirement account until you retire from the company.
In some plans, your employer will make the contribution; in others both the employer and the employee will contribute to the account and in some cases, only the employee will contribute.
When you retire, you have the option to take a lump sum payout or to buy an annuity that allows you to receive payments over a period of time.
If your company allows you to move funds around in your account to protect yourself from the stock market ups and downs, that is great. If the company manages the funds and you have no choice, you may find that your retirement funds are not well managed or protected.
Let’s go into a bit more detail on some of the company offered and/or company managed programs your employer may provide:
401(k) – With a flexible 401(k) that depends on your contribution to grow, your employer will provide a list of funds in which you can invest, and you choose from that list. Your contribution is deducted from your pay check before taxes.
If your employer matches your contribution, they will split the contribution they make so that they are putting the same percentages in the same accounts as the accounts to which you contribute your pre-tax monies.
If you are only just beginning to contribute to your plan and you want to make up for lost time, you can consider getting more aggressive with your investments in hopes that they will grow faster. If you are in your twenties you may be able to take a bit more risk.
Here is what “Money” magazine suggests for the various levels of risk (based on the number of years you have before your planned retirement):
Aggressive (High Risk Investment) 35 or more years until retirement
50%–large cap stocks
15%–mid cap stocks
15%–bonds1
0%–small cap stocks
10%–international stocks
Moderate (Medium Risk Investment) 20 years until retirement
35%–large cap stocks
35%–bonds
10%–mid cap stocks
10%–small cap stocks
10%–international stocks
Conservative (Low Risk Investment) within 10 years of retirement
40%–bonds
30%–large cap stocks
10%–mid cap stocks
10%–international stocks
10%–cash
Roth IRA - A ‘Roth’ IRA is basically a savings program. You can make non-deductible contributions up to a certain limit.
If you need to borrow against or withdraw money from a Roth IRA, you can do so without taxation under certain circumstances. Unlike the standard IRA, you can contribute to a Roth IRA after age 70 and a half.
Maximum contributions are limited to either a) the numbers in below or, b) 100% of your earned income, less than contributions to standard IRA accounts.
The annual dollar limits are as follows:
Under age 50 Age 50 or Over Taxable Year
$4,000 $5,000
2006
$4,000 $5,000
2007
$5,000 $6,000
2008
After 2008, the annual allowable contribution will be adjusted to accommodate cost-of-living increases.
Standard (Traditional) IRA - A Traditional IRA is basically a savings plan. You can make tax deductible contributions up to an annual limit. Taxes are paid when you withdraw money from the fund. Any withdrawals you make before age fifty nine and a half are penalized. After that, you can make withdrawals without penalty. You MUST begin making withdrawals by age seventy and a half.
Simple IRA – These are employer plans that are tax-deferred with higher limits than a traditional or Roth IRA.
These plans are usually available in small companies with 100 employees or less.
These IRAs are portable so if you leave the company, you can take it with you, and you are 100% vested from the time you begin to make contributions.
You can contribute up to $10,000 in these accounts, annually.
Roth Designations in 401(k) – Beginning in 2006, you can designate a sum of money to be deposited by your employer into a Roth IRA. This money will be taxed before deposit.
However, Congress has only provided for this opportunity from 2006 through 2010. Unless this legislation is made permanent or extended, you will only be able to leverage this method of savings through 2010.
Section 457 Plans – Section 457 of the Tax Code provides guidelines for government employees and all tax-exempt organizations, except churches.
Eligible organizations include:
Charities
Religious orders and organizationsEducational entities Labor unions and trade associations
Foundations
Private hospitalsFarmers’ coops Fraternal orders
If you are employed by one of these agencies or organizations, you can make pre-tax depositions in an eligible 457 plan. Taxes are paid when you withdraw the money from the account.
You can defer the lesser of a) 100% of your salary or, b) $15,000 (in 2006).
After 2006, the eligible amounts will accommodate cost-of-living increases with a $500.00 per year bump in the eligible amount, applied each year.
You can withdraw funds from your account at age fifty nine and a half, or when you leave the company (in which case you can rollover your account to another account with your new employer), or if you have an emergency situation.
Otherwise, you can leave the funds in your account until you are seventy and a half, but you must begin withdrawals at seventy and a half.
Once you start talking about retirement planning, you will hear many opinions. There are so many options to consider that you may get stalled. Remember that just because a particular strategy works for someone else, does not mean it will work for you.
Retirement planning scenarios are dependent on your age, your current financial situation, the plans available to you through work, and what you want to get out of retirement after you stop working full-time.
Let’s look at the options and explore them a bit further:
Annuities and Company Defined Benefits -
The basic concept of an annuity is that it will provide a guaranteed income for as long as you live. If you work for a company that offers a ‘company-defined benefit pension’, or annuity, program, you might see a calculation that averages your final 3-5 years of salary and provides 75% of the resulting number as an annual retirement payment (presuming you retire at a certain age with a certain number of years of service).
Most employers no longer offer these programs because they are expensive to administer.
However, in many cases you can purchase an annuity through a financial services company. You make payments into the program and in exchange you get a guaranteed monthly payment beginning when you retire.
These programs can be ‘fixed’ or ‘variable’.
In the case of ‘fixed’ payments, you get a certain amount of money every month and in some cases, you can arrange to have a cost of living increase included in case you need more money to accommodate a higher cost of living.
‘Variable’ programs calculate payments based on the current price of stocks and bonds.
Your payments may be more attractive, but the cost of variable programs has also risen, so you should consider the tradeoffs carefully before you decide on a program.
You can purchase annuities that include a death benefit for a beneficiary so that they will continue to receive monthly payments after your death.
Defined Contribution Plans - These plans are more popular today because it does not cost your employer as much to administer the plan. The plan allows you or your employer to contribute up to a certain amount into a retirement account until you retire from the company.
In some plans, your employer will make the contribution; in others both the employer and the employee will contribute to the account and in some cases, only the employee will contribute.
When you retire, you have the option to take a lump sum payout or to buy an annuity that allows you to receive payments over a period of time.
If your company allows you to move funds around in your account to protect yourself from the stock market ups and downs, that is great. If the company manages the funds and you have no choice, you may find that your retirement funds are not well managed or protected.
Let’s go into a bit more detail on some of the company offered and/or company managed programs your employer may provide:
401(k) – With a flexible 401(k) that depends on your contribution to grow, your employer will provide a list of funds in which you can invest, and you choose from that list. Your contribution is deducted from your pay check before taxes.
If your employer matches your contribution, they will split the contribution they make so that they are putting the same percentages in the same accounts as the accounts to which you contribute your pre-tax monies.
If you are only just beginning to contribute to your plan and you want to make up for lost time, you can consider getting more aggressive with your investments in hopes that they will grow faster. If you are in your twenties you may be able to take a bit more risk.
Here is what “Money” magazine suggests for the various levels of risk (based on the number of years you have before your planned retirement):
Aggressive (High Risk Investment) 35 or more years until retirement
50%–large cap stocks
15%–mid cap stocks
15%–bonds1
0%–small cap stocks
10%–international stocks
Moderate (Medium Risk Investment) 20 years until retirement
35%–large cap stocks
35%–bonds
10%–mid cap stocks
10%–small cap stocks
10%–international stocks
Conservative (Low Risk Investment) within 10 years of retirement
40%–bonds
30%–large cap stocks
10%–mid cap stocks
10%–international stocks
10%–cash
Roth IRA - A ‘Roth’ IRA is basically a savings program. You can make non-deductible contributions up to a certain limit.
If you need to borrow against or withdraw money from a Roth IRA, you can do so without taxation under certain circumstances. Unlike the standard IRA, you can contribute to a Roth IRA after age 70 and a half.
Maximum contributions are limited to either a) the numbers in below or, b) 100% of your earned income, less than contributions to standard IRA accounts.
The annual dollar limits are as follows:
Under age 50 Age 50 or Over Taxable Year
$4,000 $5,000
2006
$4,000 $5,000
2007
$5,000 $6,000
2008
After 2008, the annual allowable contribution will be adjusted to accommodate cost-of-living increases.
Standard (Traditional) IRA - A Traditional IRA is basically a savings plan. You can make tax deductible contributions up to an annual limit. Taxes are paid when you withdraw money from the fund. Any withdrawals you make before age fifty nine and a half are penalized. After that, you can make withdrawals without penalty. You MUST begin making withdrawals by age seventy and a half.
Simple IRA – These are employer plans that are tax-deferred with higher limits than a traditional or Roth IRA.
These plans are usually available in small companies with 100 employees or less.
These IRAs are portable so if you leave the company, you can take it with you, and you are 100% vested from the time you begin to make contributions.
You can contribute up to $10,000 in these accounts, annually.
Roth Designations in 401(k) – Beginning in 2006, you can designate a sum of money to be deposited by your employer into a Roth IRA. This money will be taxed before deposit.
However, Congress has only provided for this opportunity from 2006 through 2010. Unless this legislation is made permanent or extended, you will only be able to leverage this method of savings through 2010.
Section 457 Plans – Section 457 of the Tax Code provides guidelines for government employees and all tax-exempt organizations, except churches.
Eligible organizations include:
Charities
Religious orders and organizationsEducational entities Labor unions and trade associations
Foundations
Private hospitalsFarmers’ coops Fraternal orders
If you are employed by one of these agencies or organizations, you can make pre-tax depositions in an eligible 457 plan. Taxes are paid when you withdraw the money from the account.
You can defer the lesser of a) 100% of your salary or, b) $15,000 (in 2006).
After 2006, the eligible amounts will accommodate cost-of-living increases with a $500.00 per year bump in the eligible amount, applied each year.
You can withdraw funds from your account at age fifty nine and a half, or when you leave the company (in which case you can rollover your account to another account with your new employer), or if you have an emergency situation.
Otherwise, you can leave the funds in your account until you are seventy and a half, but you must begin withdrawals at seventy and a half.
Discounts Abound for Small-Business Owners
By Colleen DeBaise
LOOKING FOR A bargain? For small-business owners keen on saving money (and who isn't?), there's a number of deals and discounts designed especially for entrepreneurs. The trick is just knowing where to look.
We've compiled a short list below on the best places to secure savings on everything from janitorial supplies to workplace-safety CDs. Considering the high costs of starting a business, it's smart to take discounts where you can, whether that's on a stack of Post-its from the office-supplies store or a pile of golf balls emblazoned with your company's logo.
Entrepreneurs spend an average of $10,000 (mostly in personal savings) getting their start-up off the ground, according to a 2006 survey by Wells Fargo. And in the early years, money is scarce: Rent, taxes, inventory, supplies, advertising and employees' wages can eat up any profit your company turns.
Lack of capital is often cited as the reason small businesses fail, according to the Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy. And in 2005 alone, about 544,800 firms with employees, or 10% of the small businesses in the U.S., were forced to shutter operations, according to the agency's most recent data.
So with your tight budget in mind, here are the top five places for small-business owners to look for deals. Keep in mind, some of these programs change fees — you'll need to crunch the numbers to make sure you come out ahead by participating.
Credit Cards
If you're quick at paying off debts, then credit cards with rich reward programs (and no annual fee) are worth a look. American Express's OPEN division routinely lures small-business owners with any number of cards that provide travel, retail or entertainment savings for entrepreneurial customers.
AmEx's SimplyCash Business Card, for instance, offers 5% cash back on gas, office supplies and wireless services, while its TrueEarnings Business Card offers discounts on purchases at Costco, plus 3% cash back for dining and 2% cash back for traveling.
Other issuers are going after the little guy, too. Advanta claims to offer the best cards for small-business owners, teaming with VistaPrint to offer 20% savings on custom printing; Web.com to cut 15% off the cost of a web site built to order; and PaloAltoSoftware to slash 50% off the cost of business-planning software.
Confused by all the offers? Read more here. And click here for CardWeb.com July 2007 survey of business credit cards.
Small-Business Associations
Banding together for group rates is a great way to save, and one organization that does that well is the National Federation for Independent Business, founded in 1943 as a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy group for small-business owners.
"The benefits program that we have developed is focused on saving entrepreneurs time and money, and providing them with expertise," says Jeff Koch, vice president of NFIB's member-benefits division in Nashville. Members get discounts on Dell products and FedEx services, and savings on business-insurance coverage through carriers such as the Hartford and AIG.
NFIB partners with health-care providers, such as eHealth Insurance, to provide health savings accounts (HSAs) to members at reduced rates. NFIB also offers legal compliance guides, low-cost workplace-safety CDs and risk-management tools to keep its members out of trouble.
The price of NFIB membership varies based on a business owner's ability to pay but the average annual fee is $260 a year, Koch says. A number of other national business organizations provide discounts to members, including the National Association of Women Business Owners, the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the National Association for the Self-Employed.
Trade Groups
Entrepreneurs in specific industries can turn to trade groups for special deals, not to mention
networking and continuing-education opportunities. Got your own construction firm? Check out Associated Builders and Contractors, a leading organization representing the U.S. construction industry, which provides its members with cut-rate deals on specialty-trailer leases, customized fleet-management programs and trucking-delivery services.
Or, if flower shops are more your cup of tea, check with the American Nursery & Landscape Association, which offers discounts on everything from seasonal-worker health insurance to colorful garden-center banners that says "Fall is for Planting."
Retailers
A number of big stores do their best to court small-business owners. Computer maker Dell, for instance, has products and services designed for home-based entrepreneurs and small-business proprietors and routinely offers special deals and technical phone support from experts trained in the needs of small firms.
Need office supplies? Staples spokesman Mike Black says small-business owners benefit the most from the company's rewards program because of several ongoing offers, such as 10% back on purchases of ink, toner, paper and print-center services.
For business owners who love to buy in bulk, BJ's Wholesale Club offers a special membership. For $45 a year, business owners can get special rates on janitorial supplies, vending-machine stock and brand-name office equipment. Owners must present two proofs of business status to qualify for membership, according to BJ's.
Online vendors
Several web merchants specialize in selling promotional items at low enough rates for small businesses. Branders.com allows businesses to add their logos to hats, T-shirts, coffee mugs and other products suitable for trade shows or corporate gifts.
The company claims that its prices are 20% below competitors', and offers a $50 credit for a first-time buyer purchase of more than $500 in merchandise. CustomInk.com allows business owners to splash their logos on everything from golf balls to umbrellas, and provides an easy-to-use online lab, free shipping, and a money-back guarantee on all orders.
CaféPress.com not only offers customized merchandise but also another revenue stream for the right entrepreneur: Customers can set up their own online shop and sell custom designs through CaféPress's web site.
LOOKING FOR A bargain? For small-business owners keen on saving money (and who isn't?), there's a number of deals and discounts designed especially for entrepreneurs. The trick is just knowing where to look.
We've compiled a short list below on the best places to secure savings on everything from janitorial supplies to workplace-safety CDs. Considering the high costs of starting a business, it's smart to take discounts where you can, whether that's on a stack of Post-its from the office-supplies store or a pile of golf balls emblazoned with your company's logo.
Entrepreneurs spend an average of $10,000 (mostly in personal savings) getting their start-up off the ground, according to a 2006 survey by Wells Fargo. And in the early years, money is scarce: Rent, taxes, inventory, supplies, advertising and employees' wages can eat up any profit your company turns.
Lack of capital is often cited as the reason small businesses fail, according to the Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy. And in 2005 alone, about 544,800 firms with employees, or 10% of the small businesses in the U.S., were forced to shutter operations, according to the agency's most recent data.
So with your tight budget in mind, here are the top five places for small-business owners to look for deals. Keep in mind, some of these programs change fees — you'll need to crunch the numbers to make sure you come out ahead by participating.
Credit Cards
If you're quick at paying off debts, then credit cards with rich reward programs (and no annual fee) are worth a look. American Express's OPEN division routinely lures small-business owners with any number of cards that provide travel, retail or entertainment savings for entrepreneurial customers.
AmEx's SimplyCash Business Card, for instance, offers 5% cash back on gas, office supplies and wireless services, while its TrueEarnings Business Card offers discounts on purchases at Costco, plus 3% cash back for dining and 2% cash back for traveling.
Other issuers are going after the little guy, too. Advanta claims to offer the best cards for small-business owners, teaming with VistaPrint to offer 20% savings on custom printing; Web.com to cut 15% off the cost of a web site built to order; and PaloAltoSoftware to slash 50% off the cost of business-planning software.
Confused by all the offers? Read more here. And click here for CardWeb.com July 2007 survey of business credit cards.
Small-Business Associations
Banding together for group rates is a great way to save, and one organization that does that well is the National Federation for Independent Business, founded in 1943 as a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy group for small-business owners.
"The benefits program that we have developed is focused on saving entrepreneurs time and money, and providing them with expertise," says Jeff Koch, vice president of NFIB's member-benefits division in Nashville. Members get discounts on Dell products and FedEx services, and savings on business-insurance coverage through carriers such as the Hartford and AIG.
NFIB partners with health-care providers, such as eHealth Insurance, to provide health savings accounts (HSAs) to members at reduced rates. NFIB also offers legal compliance guides, low-cost workplace-safety CDs and risk-management tools to keep its members out of trouble.
The price of NFIB membership varies based on a business owner's ability to pay but the average annual fee is $260 a year, Koch says. A number of other national business organizations provide discounts to members, including the National Association of Women Business Owners, the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the National Association for the Self-Employed.
Trade Groups
Entrepreneurs in specific industries can turn to trade groups for special deals, not to mention
networking and continuing-education opportunities. Got your own construction firm? Check out Associated Builders and Contractors, a leading organization representing the U.S. construction industry, which provides its members with cut-rate deals on specialty-trailer leases, customized fleet-management programs and trucking-delivery services.
Or, if flower shops are more your cup of tea, check with the American Nursery & Landscape Association, which offers discounts on everything from seasonal-worker health insurance to colorful garden-center banners that says "Fall is for Planting."
Retailers
A number of big stores do their best to court small-business owners. Computer maker Dell, for instance, has products and services designed for home-based entrepreneurs and small-business proprietors and routinely offers special deals and technical phone support from experts trained in the needs of small firms.
Need office supplies? Staples spokesman Mike Black says small-business owners benefit the most from the company's rewards program because of several ongoing offers, such as 10% back on purchases of ink, toner, paper and print-center services.
For business owners who love to buy in bulk, BJ's Wholesale Club offers a special membership. For $45 a year, business owners can get special rates on janitorial supplies, vending-machine stock and brand-name office equipment. Owners must present two proofs of business status to qualify for membership, according to BJ's.
Online vendors
Several web merchants specialize in selling promotional items at low enough rates for small businesses. Branders.com allows businesses to add their logos to hats, T-shirts, coffee mugs and other products suitable for trade shows or corporate gifts.
The company claims that its prices are 20% below competitors', and offers a $50 credit for a first-time buyer purchase of more than $500 in merchandise. CustomInk.com allows business owners to splash their logos on everything from golf balls to umbrellas, and provides an easy-to-use online lab, free shipping, and a money-back guarantee on all orders.
CaféPress.com not only offers customized merchandise but also another revenue stream for the right entrepreneur: Customers can set up their own online shop and sell custom designs through CaféPress's web site.
Make The Shooter Most Wanted in Your Venue
From Nightclub & Bar
Despite their teensy bar-glass footprint, shooters are a big cocktail category that can be adapted to suit almost any venue theme or clientele, from the casual college bar or club to the sophisticated lounge. Pour for pour, the liqueur component that is a common ingredient in most shooters represents the most profitable of all spirits behind the bar.
Fun In A Shot Glass
As Tim Borden has observed in his 15 years of promoting them for Chicago’s Ala Carte Entertainment group of bars, nightclubs and casual dining establishments, Shooters are the fastest draw when it comes to boosting check averages and bar tips. “Shooters do not detract much from regular drink sales,” Borden says.
“So they are almost 100 percent incremental sales.” At Ala Carte venues such as the Apartment, an upscale lounge located in downtown Chicago, as well as its popular Excalibur nightclub and its Lion Head Pub in Lincoln Park, Borden says management and staff adhere to a shooter sales strategy that has withstood the test of time.
“Shooters are not pushed at the bar itself,” Borden says. “We make them available by having waitstaff circulate throughout the crowd with a variety of colorful products.
”Other important prerequisites for maximizing revenue include making them with relatively low-proof liqueurs, so as not to over-serve customers, Borden says, as well as taking a low-key approach with patrons.
“You have to be careful not to be so aggressive with the shot tray. Customers can get irritated by repeated solicitations. It’s a fine line.”
Towering Shooter Sales
The Tavern at Phipps Plaza in Atlanta attracts an older, mainstream clientele. Yet as Bartender Dave Beck will attest, shooters have become a significant part of the success of the venue.
Big draws are Red Snappers (Crown Royal, Amaretto and cranberry juice) and the Kamikazes and the Jäger Bombs served up by Beck and other bartenders who are as well known for their trick bartending skills as for their ability to make a wide range of classic and trendy shooter cocktails.
Whether the glassware is juggled, bounced off someone’s head, towered or stacked to dizzying heights, other local shooter favorites include the Key Lime Pie (Liquor 43, half and half, and lime juice), Red-Headed Sluts (Jägermeister, peach schnapps and cranberry juice) and the Hollywood, an extremely popular libation made with raspberry vodka, Chambord and cranberry juice.
When tough guys come into his bar with their girlfriends in tow and ask him to make them “whatever,” Beck knows just what to put in front of them. “That is time for the Prairie Fire,” —tequila with Tabasco dropped into it. “It is funny, because they are being tough in front of the ladies, and you see them go, ‘I will never order one of those again in my life.’”
Quaffing and Bombing
Many products on the market can make traditional shooters more exciting for customers. The Quaffer (www.quaffer.com) is a patented shot glass with a built-in chaser. It measures 2.25 ounces on the bottom, where the chaser goes, and 1.25 ounces on top for the liquor.
Another product, SepraShot (www.seprashot.com), is the newest shot glass on the market with a built-in chaser and is touted as perfect for Jäger Bombs. The Bomber from Hurricane Shooters (www.hurricaneshooters.com) is an innovative vessel offering a safe, sanitary way to serve bomber-style drinks. It’s set up as a combined shot glass/rocks glass tumbler to deliver bomb shots as a 2-part house specialty drink.
Despite their teensy bar-glass footprint, shooters are a big cocktail category that can be adapted to suit almost any venue theme or clientele, from the casual college bar or club to the sophisticated lounge. Pour for pour, the liqueur component that is a common ingredient in most shooters represents the most profitable of all spirits behind the bar.
Fun In A Shot Glass
As Tim Borden has observed in his 15 years of promoting them for Chicago’s Ala Carte Entertainment group of bars, nightclubs and casual dining establishments, Shooters are the fastest draw when it comes to boosting check averages and bar tips. “Shooters do not detract much from regular drink sales,” Borden says.
“So they are almost 100 percent incremental sales.” At Ala Carte venues such as the Apartment, an upscale lounge located in downtown Chicago, as well as its popular Excalibur nightclub and its Lion Head Pub in Lincoln Park, Borden says management and staff adhere to a shooter sales strategy that has withstood the test of time.
“Shooters are not pushed at the bar itself,” Borden says. “We make them available by having waitstaff circulate throughout the crowd with a variety of colorful products.
”Other important prerequisites for maximizing revenue include making them with relatively low-proof liqueurs, so as not to over-serve customers, Borden says, as well as taking a low-key approach with patrons.
“You have to be careful not to be so aggressive with the shot tray. Customers can get irritated by repeated solicitations. It’s a fine line.”
Towering Shooter Sales
The Tavern at Phipps Plaza in Atlanta attracts an older, mainstream clientele. Yet as Bartender Dave Beck will attest, shooters have become a significant part of the success of the venue.
Big draws are Red Snappers (Crown Royal, Amaretto and cranberry juice) and the Kamikazes and the Jäger Bombs served up by Beck and other bartenders who are as well known for their trick bartending skills as for their ability to make a wide range of classic and trendy shooter cocktails.
Whether the glassware is juggled, bounced off someone’s head, towered or stacked to dizzying heights, other local shooter favorites include the Key Lime Pie (Liquor 43, half and half, and lime juice), Red-Headed Sluts (Jägermeister, peach schnapps and cranberry juice) and the Hollywood, an extremely popular libation made with raspberry vodka, Chambord and cranberry juice.
When tough guys come into his bar with their girlfriends in tow and ask him to make them “whatever,” Beck knows just what to put in front of them. “That is time for the Prairie Fire,” —tequila with Tabasco dropped into it. “It is funny, because they are being tough in front of the ladies, and you see them go, ‘I will never order one of those again in my life.’”
Quaffing and Bombing
Many products on the market can make traditional shooters more exciting for customers. The Quaffer (www.quaffer.com) is a patented shot glass with a built-in chaser. It measures 2.25 ounces on the bottom, where the chaser goes, and 1.25 ounces on top for the liquor.
Another product, SepraShot (www.seprashot.com), is the newest shot glass on the market with a built-in chaser and is touted as perfect for Jäger Bombs. The Bomber from Hurricane Shooters (www.hurricaneshooters.com) is an innovative vessel offering a safe, sanitary way to serve bomber-style drinks. It’s set up as a combined shot glass/rocks glass tumbler to deliver bomb shots as a 2-part house specialty drink.
Friday, July 20, 2007
A Story about Planning
From http://www.millionaireinside.com/
Imagine being told about a winning lottery ticket inside a box in a supermarket, all you have to do is find the product which contains it, open the box and it is yours. You don’t know the name of the product, you don’t even know the color of the box. How much effort would you put into finding it?
You may agree that you would be facing an impossible task, but if the reward is worth the effort you would do it, right? But, let’s assume you have a twin, they have been assigned the same task - except they know what the product is called and exactly where to find it. Ready… set… GO.
You tear through the supermarket like a bull in a china shop, ripping open boxes and spilling the contents on the floor. Your twin strolls casually to the correct section, picks up the box and claims their prize. Sorry, there was only one on the shelf. Better luck next time.
Isn’t it great to have an advantage?
In this article we will discover the relevance of the example above, and how you can make life easier for yourself. Do you wander around aimlessly, putting every ounce of effort into what seems like an impossible task? Are you tired of watching others speed effortlessly towards their goals while you seem to be getting nowhere?
Many people approach their goals with great enthusiasm but fail to achieve them regardless of how much effort they put in. They start off by taking the first step; setting the goal, but failing to realise the most important part of achieving their goals; planning.
A good plan acts like a road map, whenever you are lost on the way to your goal, you can return to your plan and refocus your efforts. A plan can help to keep you motivated when you reach an obstacle, whether it is a personal problem, another project or a distraction.
If something enters your life and blows you off course, you can review your plan and get right back on track again. Here are the important steps to planning your success:
1 - Start at the end: Set a goal
Once you have set your goal, you are ready to begin planning. Without a goal there can be no success. Ensure that the goal you have set is one you want to achieve because it is likely that you will be required to put in hard work in order to succeed.
There will inevitably be distractions, however, a deep desire to achieve your goal will help keep you focused.
2 - The middle: Small steps
Now that you have set your goal, you need to work out what steps you will need to take in order to achieve it. Some people find it easiest to work backwards, while others start from the beginning. Write down each step you need to take, you will be able to refer back to your plan in order to monitor your progress.
3 - The beginning: Follow your plan
Once your plan works on paper, it is time to put it into action. With a plan you will be able to monitor your progress. Getting closer to the end goal will inspire you to keep going. Without a plan it would be impossible to monitor your progress, therefore you will not be able to see where your efforts have led you.
4 - Editing: Revise your plan if it is not working
The best route is not always from A to B, a slight detour via C could make life easier. If you were driving through an unfamiliar town from point A to point B and there was a fallen tree in the road, you would use a map to find another route. The same works with the plan.
How does this relate to the story above?
If you have no plan you may start off enthusiastic and full of energy, but in time you will find that your efforts are not paying off - ultimately you will lose heart and may even stop trying. With a plan, you will have a map which leads you directly to your goal… you will be able to follow it until your goal is achieved.
Imagine being told about a winning lottery ticket inside a box in a supermarket, all you have to do is find the product which contains it, open the box and it is yours. You don’t know the name of the product, you don’t even know the color of the box. How much effort would you put into finding it?
You may agree that you would be facing an impossible task, but if the reward is worth the effort you would do it, right? But, let’s assume you have a twin, they have been assigned the same task - except they know what the product is called and exactly where to find it. Ready… set… GO.
You tear through the supermarket like a bull in a china shop, ripping open boxes and spilling the contents on the floor. Your twin strolls casually to the correct section, picks up the box and claims their prize. Sorry, there was only one on the shelf. Better luck next time.
Isn’t it great to have an advantage?
In this article we will discover the relevance of the example above, and how you can make life easier for yourself. Do you wander around aimlessly, putting every ounce of effort into what seems like an impossible task? Are you tired of watching others speed effortlessly towards their goals while you seem to be getting nowhere?
Many people approach their goals with great enthusiasm but fail to achieve them regardless of how much effort they put in. They start off by taking the first step; setting the goal, but failing to realise the most important part of achieving their goals; planning.
A good plan acts like a road map, whenever you are lost on the way to your goal, you can return to your plan and refocus your efforts. A plan can help to keep you motivated when you reach an obstacle, whether it is a personal problem, another project or a distraction.
If something enters your life and blows you off course, you can review your plan and get right back on track again. Here are the important steps to planning your success:
1 - Start at the end: Set a goal
Once you have set your goal, you are ready to begin planning. Without a goal there can be no success. Ensure that the goal you have set is one you want to achieve because it is likely that you will be required to put in hard work in order to succeed.
There will inevitably be distractions, however, a deep desire to achieve your goal will help keep you focused.
2 - The middle: Small steps
Now that you have set your goal, you need to work out what steps you will need to take in order to achieve it. Some people find it easiest to work backwards, while others start from the beginning. Write down each step you need to take, you will be able to refer back to your plan in order to monitor your progress.
3 - The beginning: Follow your plan
Once your plan works on paper, it is time to put it into action. With a plan you will be able to monitor your progress. Getting closer to the end goal will inspire you to keep going. Without a plan it would be impossible to monitor your progress, therefore you will not be able to see where your efforts have led you.
4 - Editing: Revise your plan if it is not working
The best route is not always from A to B, a slight detour via C could make life easier. If you were driving through an unfamiliar town from point A to point B and there was a fallen tree in the road, you would use a map to find another route. The same works with the plan.
How does this relate to the story above?
If you have no plan you may start off enthusiastic and full of energy, but in time you will find that your efforts are not paying off - ultimately you will lose heart and may even stop trying. With a plan, you will have a map which leads you directly to your goal… you will be able to follow it until your goal is achieved.
How to Move from Debt to Wealth
By Loral Langemeier
If you’ve read my books, then you’ll know that I use case studies to illustrate how I help individuals escape a variety of financial problems and begin their path to financial freedom. Jed Stone was one such case study.
Jed was in a tough situation. He wanted to escape his day-to-day existence of earn-pay, earn-pay but Jed didn’t want to move up the corporate ladder. Instead, he wanted more money, more freedom, and to eliminate his debt without infringing on his lifestyle.
Sound familiar?
Jed is like many people who come to my Team Made Millionaire™ workshops or start working with a coach through Live Out Loud. In fact, when I first learned about Wealth Cycle Investing, I wasn’t far from where Jed was.
Jed earned a decent income and kept his expenses at just below his income. He rented an apartment, and owned little but his bike and some furniture. In other words, Jed had a negative net worth but a positive cash flow each month.
The first step
The first step for Jed to move from debt to wealth was a Gap Analysis. Here’s where Jed had to get brutally honest about his current situation and his goals. First, he had to honestly state his current financial situation: his pretax income, monthly expenses, his assets (few) and liabilities (more than his assets).
Jed’s Gap Analysis also included an assessment of the skills he could use to make money. I didn’t ask Jed about jobs he might apply for. I asked him about the skills he had with which he could make money running his own business.
You see, in order to become wealthy, Jed needed to increase his cash flow. This additional cash would be used — not to repay his debt — but to purchase income-producing assets. The money from these assets would be used to repay his debt and give him more money to purchase more assets.
The second step
Jed completed the first part of the Gap Analysis and began preparing the next step: his Financial Freedom Day Goals. This is where Jed got to dream about the future and I encouraged him to dream very big.
Here’s a guy earning less than $4,000 a month from his job with virtually no assets and he wanted to have $1 million invested in assets generating $10,000 a month in passive income. He wanted to achieve these goals within one year. He also wanted to own several gyms and live this wonderful life without a full time job.
Was Jed dreaming? Sure, he was dreaming. But if you don’t dream, you can’t ever create that dream. What I taught Jed was a system by which he could actually achieve his dream. It’s the same system the wealthy have used for years, and I call it Wealth Cycle Investing.
The third step and beyond
For Jed (and for you), Wealth Cycle Investing isn’t a solo affair. Working on his own, Jed was able to create a small side business and make an extra $1,000 a month within four months. But, he was a long way from his ultimate goals. To accomplish his dreams, Jed needed a team and a mentor.
At Live Out Loud, we emphasize team building because it’s your team that will help you accelerate well beyond your individual capacity. For Jed, this meant finding and introducing himself to experts in stock analysis, an area in which he was keenly interested.
As with any such effort, Jed was rewarded with more than he’d asked for, meeting several wealthy individuals who had the capacity to fund deals in which Jed was interested. Moving from debt to wealth takes some risk and a lot of action. Jed didn’t have a lot of money but this never stopped him.
He educated himself about various deals in play, and was able to use OPM (Other People’s Money) to invest in these deals. Using OPM is a smart way to quickly accelerate your asset allocation, but you still have to do your homework.
Once you get into the deal flow by aligning yourself with the right people, the payoff will come. It may take a year, two years, or three years. But, come it will. You’ll move from debt to wealth by using Wealth Cycle Investing. Remember what Jed did and know that you can do it too. Just get into action, start today.
If you’ve read my books, then you’ll know that I use case studies to illustrate how I help individuals escape a variety of financial problems and begin their path to financial freedom. Jed Stone was one such case study.
Jed was in a tough situation. He wanted to escape his day-to-day existence of earn-pay, earn-pay but Jed didn’t want to move up the corporate ladder. Instead, he wanted more money, more freedom, and to eliminate his debt without infringing on his lifestyle.
Sound familiar?
Jed is like many people who come to my Team Made Millionaire™ workshops or start working with a coach through Live Out Loud. In fact, when I first learned about Wealth Cycle Investing, I wasn’t far from where Jed was.
Jed earned a decent income and kept his expenses at just below his income. He rented an apartment, and owned little but his bike and some furniture. In other words, Jed had a negative net worth but a positive cash flow each month.
The first step
The first step for Jed to move from debt to wealth was a Gap Analysis. Here’s where Jed had to get brutally honest about his current situation and his goals. First, he had to honestly state his current financial situation: his pretax income, monthly expenses, his assets (few) and liabilities (more than his assets).
Jed’s Gap Analysis also included an assessment of the skills he could use to make money. I didn’t ask Jed about jobs he might apply for. I asked him about the skills he had with which he could make money running his own business.
You see, in order to become wealthy, Jed needed to increase his cash flow. This additional cash would be used — not to repay his debt — but to purchase income-producing assets. The money from these assets would be used to repay his debt and give him more money to purchase more assets.
The second step
Jed completed the first part of the Gap Analysis and began preparing the next step: his Financial Freedom Day Goals. This is where Jed got to dream about the future and I encouraged him to dream very big.
Here’s a guy earning less than $4,000 a month from his job with virtually no assets and he wanted to have $1 million invested in assets generating $10,000 a month in passive income. He wanted to achieve these goals within one year. He also wanted to own several gyms and live this wonderful life without a full time job.
Was Jed dreaming? Sure, he was dreaming. But if you don’t dream, you can’t ever create that dream. What I taught Jed was a system by which he could actually achieve his dream. It’s the same system the wealthy have used for years, and I call it Wealth Cycle Investing.
The third step and beyond
For Jed (and for you), Wealth Cycle Investing isn’t a solo affair. Working on his own, Jed was able to create a small side business and make an extra $1,000 a month within four months. But, he was a long way from his ultimate goals. To accomplish his dreams, Jed needed a team and a mentor.
At Live Out Loud, we emphasize team building because it’s your team that will help you accelerate well beyond your individual capacity. For Jed, this meant finding and introducing himself to experts in stock analysis, an area in which he was keenly interested.
As with any such effort, Jed was rewarded with more than he’d asked for, meeting several wealthy individuals who had the capacity to fund deals in which Jed was interested. Moving from debt to wealth takes some risk and a lot of action. Jed didn’t have a lot of money but this never stopped him.
He educated himself about various deals in play, and was able to use OPM (Other People’s Money) to invest in these deals. Using OPM is a smart way to quickly accelerate your asset allocation, but you still have to do your homework.
Once you get into the deal flow by aligning yourself with the right people, the payoff will come. It may take a year, two years, or three years. But, come it will. You’ll move from debt to wealth by using Wealth Cycle Investing. Remember what Jed did and know that you can do it too. Just get into action, start today.
Back to Sancerre: The land that sauvignon blanc made famous offers summer enjoyment
By Bill Daley
Of all the sauvignon blancs made around the world, why should you choose a French Sancerre? Why search out a sauvignon blanc not even labeled as such and probably pay extra for it thanks to a lousy exchange rate?"This is the best place in the world for the sauvignon blanc grape.
You can grow it in a lot of different climates but what makes it different is the soil," said Howard Silverman of Howard's Wine Cellar in Chicago. That chalky soil delivers a "very dry, aromatic, grassy, sometimes a little citrusy, lemony wine with a clean, crisp finish," he said.
Continue reading "Back to Sancerre"
And
Click on the following to buy the wines in the above article:-
Internet Wines and Spirits, Wine Globe & Wine.com
Of all the sauvignon blancs made around the world, why should you choose a French Sancerre? Why search out a sauvignon blanc not even labeled as such and probably pay extra for it thanks to a lousy exchange rate?"This is the best place in the world for the sauvignon blanc grape.
You can grow it in a lot of different climates but what makes it different is the soil," said Howard Silverman of Howard's Wine Cellar in Chicago. That chalky soil delivers a "very dry, aromatic, grassy, sometimes a little citrusy, lemony wine with a clean, crisp finish," he said.
Continue reading "Back to Sancerre"
And
Click on the following to buy the wines in the above article:-
Internet Wines and Spirits, Wine Globe & Wine.com
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Do You Really Need to Save for Retirement?
From http://www.millionaireinside.com/
YES, you do need to save for retirement and YES you should start now.
Even if you are only 25, and your friends think you are nuts to be talking retirement planning, you should feel secure in the knowledge that you will be like the little pig who built his house of bricks and withstood the gale force winds and the wolf at the door.
There is nothing wrong with being prepared.
If you still need to be convinced, consider this:
You will need 60 to 80% of the income you are earning before you retire, in order to live comfortably.
While you will not have the same expenses you might have when you go to work, you WILL have expenses and these will include higher health care expenses as you age. And what if you take up a new hobby or want to travel or buy gifts for grandchildren?
All things considered, if you were spending $7,000 a month while you were working, you will probably spend just about the same amount after you retire.
What does that mean?
It means that if you live 25-30 years after you retire (and that is probable with longer life expectancies), you will need one to two million dollars during that time to maintain your lifestyle and spending habits.
Perhaps you think you don’t have to worry about saving for retirement because your company will take care of your retirement needs.
Consider that many companies have already reduced or cut pension plans and that some companies have gone bankrupt and no longer pay the pensions they promised employees 30 years ago.
You will probably find that your company is offering a 401(k) but that translates to your having to decide how much you can afford to save and MUST save to get you to where you want to be.
How much can you afford to put in and where do you put your money to reduce risk and leverage growth? Welcome to the world!
Of course your decisions will be based on your age, your income and the number of years you have with a company. If you are in the forty-something category, you have less time to save than your younger co-workers.
If your traditional pension plan was cut in favor of a 401(k) and you lost a large percent of what you had counted on for retirement, you have to make up for that now in your forties.
That means you have to be aggressive in investing in your 401(k) – probably to the tune of 12%-13% of your income, so you can ‘buy back’ the amount you lost.
To make matters worse, the decrease in salaries since 2001, means that many families can no longer afford to save anything because they pre-tax income is lower.
And many employers are no longer offering retirement plans, so families are left to fend for themselves.
When this happens, most people find the process too complex and they simply do nothing.
In 2003, a study by the Federal government revealed that people in the work force (between the ages of 55 and 64) had an AVERAGE of $60,000 in their retirement account at the time of the survey.
How long do you think that will last when those people retire?
As employers shift the burden of retirement saving and planning to employees, each individual is left to sort out the options and plan for his/her own future and most are overwhelmed by the responsibility and the choices.
While the government squabbles over provisions for the Baby Boomer generation, you and your co-workers must plan your own future.
You cannot wait for someone else to take care of you!
Though every statistic seems to suggest that planning for your retirement should be a top priority, surveys reveal that only 42% of U.S. employees have even STARTED to plan.
Furthermore, these surveys reveal that most of us are clueless about how much we will need when we retire and about whether our pension, 401(k) and/or Social Security are dependable and robust enough to support us.
The fact is that your generation is going to have to be more responsible for your own retirement planning and savings than the generation before you ever were.
YES, you do need to save for retirement and YES you should start now.
Even if you are only 25, and your friends think you are nuts to be talking retirement planning, you should feel secure in the knowledge that you will be like the little pig who built his house of bricks and withstood the gale force winds and the wolf at the door.
There is nothing wrong with being prepared.
If you still need to be convinced, consider this:
You will need 60 to 80% of the income you are earning before you retire, in order to live comfortably.
While you will not have the same expenses you might have when you go to work, you WILL have expenses and these will include higher health care expenses as you age. And what if you take up a new hobby or want to travel or buy gifts for grandchildren?
All things considered, if you were spending $7,000 a month while you were working, you will probably spend just about the same amount after you retire.
What does that mean?
It means that if you live 25-30 years after you retire (and that is probable with longer life expectancies), you will need one to two million dollars during that time to maintain your lifestyle and spending habits.
Perhaps you think you don’t have to worry about saving for retirement because your company will take care of your retirement needs.
Consider that many companies have already reduced or cut pension plans and that some companies have gone bankrupt and no longer pay the pensions they promised employees 30 years ago.
You will probably find that your company is offering a 401(k) but that translates to your having to decide how much you can afford to save and MUST save to get you to where you want to be.
How much can you afford to put in and where do you put your money to reduce risk and leverage growth? Welcome to the world!
Of course your decisions will be based on your age, your income and the number of years you have with a company. If you are in the forty-something category, you have less time to save than your younger co-workers.
If your traditional pension plan was cut in favor of a 401(k) and you lost a large percent of what you had counted on for retirement, you have to make up for that now in your forties.
That means you have to be aggressive in investing in your 401(k) – probably to the tune of 12%-13% of your income, so you can ‘buy back’ the amount you lost.
To make matters worse, the decrease in salaries since 2001, means that many families can no longer afford to save anything because they pre-tax income is lower.
And many employers are no longer offering retirement plans, so families are left to fend for themselves.
When this happens, most people find the process too complex and they simply do nothing.
In 2003, a study by the Federal government revealed that people in the work force (between the ages of 55 and 64) had an AVERAGE of $60,000 in their retirement account at the time of the survey.
How long do you think that will last when those people retire?
As employers shift the burden of retirement saving and planning to employees, each individual is left to sort out the options and plan for his/her own future and most are overwhelmed by the responsibility and the choices.
While the government squabbles over provisions for the Baby Boomer generation, you and your co-workers must plan your own future.
You cannot wait for someone else to take care of you!
Though every statistic seems to suggest that planning for your retirement should be a top priority, surveys reveal that only 42% of U.S. employees have even STARTED to plan.
Furthermore, these surveys reveal that most of us are clueless about how much we will need when we retire and about whether our pension, 401(k) and/or Social Security are dependable and robust enough to support us.
The fact is that your generation is going to have to be more responsible for your own retirement planning and savings than the generation before you ever were.
Are You Ready for Aggressive Income Generation?
By Loral Langemeier
We conducted an informal poll at a meeting of Loral’s Big Table Alumni in Puerto Vallarta in the spring of ’06. I asked for a show of hands to determine the minimum return on investment people wanted or needed to consider any investment opportunity.
The results were fascinating. I imagine that a conference filled with stock brokers would have been blown away by the numbers desired by the LBT Alumni participants. (See www.liveoutloud.com for more information about Loral’s Big Table.) I wasn’t. In fact, I was surprised to see any hands at all go up when I asked who’d settle for less than a 10% return on their investment.
When I asked for a show of hands of those who’d consider an investment returning between 10 and 15 percent, about 1/3 of the hands were raised. I bumped that number to the 15 to 20 percent range, and the next third responded. At least one third of those present said that they wouldn’t even consider an investment unless it penciled out to a return on investment of 20 percent or more.
Does this seem remarkable to you? It isn’t to the members of this community. In fact, I’ve played in some circles where a 30 percent return seems hardly worth the effort it takes to evaluate the deal. These investors are ready for — and actively seeking — aggressive income generation assets.
However, don’t make the mistake that these savvy investors are only evaluating aggressive income generation opportunities. They are diversified across many asset classes, some of which produce a monthly cash flow, some appreciating in value with no cash flow, and some producing a monthly cash flow and appreciation.
What might these aggressive income generation assets look like?
As we saw, the Dot.Com boom had a major bust. There were certainly aggressive strategies — investments in businesses with huge potential for growth. Unfortunately, that “potential” was funded mostly on emotionally-based speculation, and very few hard facts. I had a similar deal come across my desk recently.
I could have gotten caught up in the emotional fervor of a new high-tech product and the potential for very aggressive returns. When I spent the time to thoroughly evaluate the deal, the management team, the company, and the industry as a whole, it became clear that this would not be a good investment — far too much risk to substantiate the potential gain.
However, you might see an up-and-coming business that is ripe for improvements, and in an industry that has steady growth. This might be a business with a solid customer base, good products, and much potential because the owners are tired of running the business.
Such a business provides a good opportunity for both cash flow and appreciation. If you see within the business a good management team, an existing customer base that can be easily expanded, and room for growth in products, production, and marketing, then it may be worth the risk associated with purchasing the business.
By infusing the company with cash that will enable it to streamline production and/or extend marketing efforts into different arenas, you can produce an immediate impact that results in higher dividends (cash flow) and an appreciation of the value of the company. Many older businesses, for example, have excellent products, but no Internet presence.
When you can bring in the right team to help manage the growth, you are more ensured of success in your investment. This is one of the key differences between direct asset allocation and active participation in the investment and passive investing, where you simply plug your money into the system and hope for the best.
Certainly, you can (and should) do this same kind of research on a company before purchasing stock, but a direct and active investment gives you more say in what the company does with your investment money. Either way, these types of investments will have much greater risk that goes along with the higher return on investment.
You should remember this, though: create a plan, stick to it, and always educate yourself thoroughly on any investment before proceeding. A clear plan, education, and due diligence will greatly reduce the risk of any investment.
We conducted an informal poll at a meeting of Loral’s Big Table Alumni in Puerto Vallarta in the spring of ’06. I asked for a show of hands to determine the minimum return on investment people wanted or needed to consider any investment opportunity.
The results were fascinating. I imagine that a conference filled with stock brokers would have been blown away by the numbers desired by the LBT Alumni participants. (See www.liveoutloud.com for more information about Loral’s Big Table.) I wasn’t. In fact, I was surprised to see any hands at all go up when I asked who’d settle for less than a 10% return on their investment.
When I asked for a show of hands of those who’d consider an investment returning between 10 and 15 percent, about 1/3 of the hands were raised. I bumped that number to the 15 to 20 percent range, and the next third responded. At least one third of those present said that they wouldn’t even consider an investment unless it penciled out to a return on investment of 20 percent or more.
Does this seem remarkable to you? It isn’t to the members of this community. In fact, I’ve played in some circles where a 30 percent return seems hardly worth the effort it takes to evaluate the deal. These investors are ready for — and actively seeking — aggressive income generation assets.
However, don’t make the mistake that these savvy investors are only evaluating aggressive income generation opportunities. They are diversified across many asset classes, some of which produce a monthly cash flow, some appreciating in value with no cash flow, and some producing a monthly cash flow and appreciation.
What might these aggressive income generation assets look like?
As we saw, the Dot.Com boom had a major bust. There were certainly aggressive strategies — investments in businesses with huge potential for growth. Unfortunately, that “potential” was funded mostly on emotionally-based speculation, and very few hard facts. I had a similar deal come across my desk recently.
I could have gotten caught up in the emotional fervor of a new high-tech product and the potential for very aggressive returns. When I spent the time to thoroughly evaluate the deal, the management team, the company, and the industry as a whole, it became clear that this would not be a good investment — far too much risk to substantiate the potential gain.
However, you might see an up-and-coming business that is ripe for improvements, and in an industry that has steady growth. This might be a business with a solid customer base, good products, and much potential because the owners are tired of running the business.
Such a business provides a good opportunity for both cash flow and appreciation. If you see within the business a good management team, an existing customer base that can be easily expanded, and room for growth in products, production, and marketing, then it may be worth the risk associated with purchasing the business.
By infusing the company with cash that will enable it to streamline production and/or extend marketing efforts into different arenas, you can produce an immediate impact that results in higher dividends (cash flow) and an appreciation of the value of the company. Many older businesses, for example, have excellent products, but no Internet presence.
When you can bring in the right team to help manage the growth, you are more ensured of success in your investment. This is one of the key differences between direct asset allocation and active participation in the investment and passive investing, where you simply plug your money into the system and hope for the best.
Certainly, you can (and should) do this same kind of research on a company before purchasing stock, but a direct and active investment gives you more say in what the company does with your investment money. Either way, these types of investments will have much greater risk that goes along with the higher return on investment.
You should remember this, though: create a plan, stick to it, and always educate yourself thoroughly on any investment before proceeding. A clear plan, education, and due diligence will greatly reduce the risk of any investment.
Beaming With Enthusiasm -- Bobby G Creates a Stir for Beam Global
From Nightclub & Bar
In May, Future Brands LLC, the U.S. sales and distribution operation for Beam Global Spirits & Wine Inc. and the Absolut Spirits Co. Inc., hired “Bobby G” as its master mixologist and manager of on-premise training.
Gleason, now responsible for developing cocktail menus for key national accounts, exploring new uses for Future Brands’ products and facilitating sales training, now finds himself pulled every which way but loose.
Gleason has been a bartender since 1984. Prior to joining Future Brands, he was the brand ambassador for Absolut vodka and was based in Las Vegas, where he was responsible for the entire western division. Gleason’s experience tending bar spans two decades from South Florida to Las Vegas.
He established himself as a premier casino bartender at some of the top hotels in Las Vegas, including the Bellagio Hotel & Casino, Treasure Island Hotel & Casino, Mirage Hotel & Casino as well as in his tenure as the mixologist of the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. He also developed the beverage program at Nora’s Cuisine, expanding into the restaurant world.
The creation of his new position, Gleason says, was a wise move by his new employer. “They recognized the need and priority of the bartender,” he says. “I see what it is that bartenders are looking for. Bartenders are begging for education. Part of my goal is to not just educate them on our brands, but educate them on the category.
Creating Excitement
“It’s my firm belief that the person who drinks a Vodka & Tonic or a Rum & Coke or a Bourbon & Coke, they’re going to have their brand that they support,” Gleason says. “A consumer is more likely to change brands inside the vodka market than in other markets. That’s where your education comes in — what makes vodka different, what makes vodkas different from each other?
“But I also believe the person who drinks Jim Beam & Coke or Maker’s Mark on the Rocks knows exactly what they’re going to order. It’s the person who reaches for the cocktail menu that’s looking for something different and unique.” And that’s where busy Bobby G’s talents hit the pavement.
“Beam is allowing me to do cocktail and menu creations,” he says. “A lot of these things are done with national accounts. They’re monsterous accounts. If you go in there and put one cocktail on the menu, it literally can mean tens of thousands in sales of cases per year.
“In those places, they’re looking for simpler cocktails — maybe a little twist on a Margarita or Cosmopolitan. They’re looking for things they can replicate easily. But those people also are looking for new, exciting cocktails. “It’s gone from just the way of just a cocktail menu to signature cocktails, which are making a big impact on national account chains,” Gleason says.
“That’s the added value I had, having been brought onto the Beam team in the training department. I’m not only going to give you a recipe; I’m going to come in and go to your establishments and train your bartenders how to do it and demonstrate to them ‘This is how you make it, and this is why we do this and why we do that.’”
That approach, which Gleason believes should be the obvious course for suppliers, falls through the cracks, he says. “Oftentimes at seminars at a trade show, 95 percent of people are just hiring the most beautiful girls they can find and saying, ‘Here’s our brand. Pour them a sample,’ and they have no clue what it is,” he says.
“If you show a bartender something and give a cool explanation, they say ‘Cool! What else can we do?’ and it’s fun. “POS is a big thing for these companies. They spend a lot of money on POS, but a lot of it doesn’t translate into great bartender stuff,” he says. “There’s an avenue there for me to create POS for bartenders — something they will want to use.
Oftentimes you see different companies come out with these beautiful frosted shakers. They’re pretty, and then you smack one on a Boston tin, and that thing shatters in your hand. What good is that?”
The Importance of The Bartender
“In all reality, it’s still the bartender who the customer comes to, and it’s the bartender who makes the recommendation,” Gleason says. “By showing support to the bartenders and showing them the quality of our brands and the reasons behind that quality, it endears them to your brand. In turn, they become ambassadors of your brand.”
Consumer demand and knowledge of better cocktails has made it a necessity for bartenders to step up their game, Gleason says. “In the early ‘90s, we talked about the resurgence of the classic cocktail,” he says. “Now, we’re starting to talk about the resurgence of the classic bartender and barmanship.”
Gleason observes that while part-time bartenders working their way through school or making a few extra bucks here and there certainly exist, a more serious brand of bartender is on the rise. “At all of these bigger chains, bartenders are starting to become career bartenders,” he says. “It makes a difference.”
A nationwide interest in classic bartending is spreading, Gleason says. “You’re seeing that attitude much more now. You’re seeing younger people getting really into what bartending is all about, which is great.”
In May, Future Brands LLC, the U.S. sales and distribution operation for Beam Global Spirits & Wine Inc. and the Absolut Spirits Co. Inc., hired “Bobby G” as its master mixologist and manager of on-premise training.
Gleason, now responsible for developing cocktail menus for key national accounts, exploring new uses for Future Brands’ products and facilitating sales training, now finds himself pulled every which way but loose.
Gleason has been a bartender since 1984. Prior to joining Future Brands, he was the brand ambassador for Absolut vodka and was based in Las Vegas, where he was responsible for the entire western division. Gleason’s experience tending bar spans two decades from South Florida to Las Vegas.
He established himself as a premier casino bartender at some of the top hotels in Las Vegas, including the Bellagio Hotel & Casino, Treasure Island Hotel & Casino, Mirage Hotel & Casino as well as in his tenure as the mixologist of the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. He also developed the beverage program at Nora’s Cuisine, expanding into the restaurant world.
The creation of his new position, Gleason says, was a wise move by his new employer. “They recognized the need and priority of the bartender,” he says. “I see what it is that bartenders are looking for. Bartenders are begging for education. Part of my goal is to not just educate them on our brands, but educate them on the category.
Creating Excitement
“It’s my firm belief that the person who drinks a Vodka & Tonic or a Rum & Coke or a Bourbon & Coke, they’re going to have their brand that they support,” Gleason says. “A consumer is more likely to change brands inside the vodka market than in other markets. That’s where your education comes in — what makes vodka different, what makes vodkas different from each other?
“But I also believe the person who drinks Jim Beam & Coke or Maker’s Mark on the Rocks knows exactly what they’re going to order. It’s the person who reaches for the cocktail menu that’s looking for something different and unique.” And that’s where busy Bobby G’s talents hit the pavement.
“Beam is allowing me to do cocktail and menu creations,” he says. “A lot of these things are done with national accounts. They’re monsterous accounts. If you go in there and put one cocktail on the menu, it literally can mean tens of thousands in sales of cases per year.
“In those places, they’re looking for simpler cocktails — maybe a little twist on a Margarita or Cosmopolitan. They’re looking for things they can replicate easily. But those people also are looking for new, exciting cocktails. “It’s gone from just the way of just a cocktail menu to signature cocktails, which are making a big impact on national account chains,” Gleason says.
“That’s the added value I had, having been brought onto the Beam team in the training department. I’m not only going to give you a recipe; I’m going to come in and go to your establishments and train your bartenders how to do it and demonstrate to them ‘This is how you make it, and this is why we do this and why we do that.’”
That approach, which Gleason believes should be the obvious course for suppliers, falls through the cracks, he says. “Oftentimes at seminars at a trade show, 95 percent of people are just hiring the most beautiful girls they can find and saying, ‘Here’s our brand. Pour them a sample,’ and they have no clue what it is,” he says.
“If you show a bartender something and give a cool explanation, they say ‘Cool! What else can we do?’ and it’s fun. “POS is a big thing for these companies. They spend a lot of money on POS, but a lot of it doesn’t translate into great bartender stuff,” he says. “There’s an avenue there for me to create POS for bartenders — something they will want to use.
Oftentimes you see different companies come out with these beautiful frosted shakers. They’re pretty, and then you smack one on a Boston tin, and that thing shatters in your hand. What good is that?”
The Importance of The Bartender
“In all reality, it’s still the bartender who the customer comes to, and it’s the bartender who makes the recommendation,” Gleason says. “By showing support to the bartenders and showing them the quality of our brands and the reasons behind that quality, it endears them to your brand. In turn, they become ambassadors of your brand.”
Consumer demand and knowledge of better cocktails has made it a necessity for bartenders to step up their game, Gleason says. “In the early ‘90s, we talked about the resurgence of the classic cocktail,” he says. “Now, we’re starting to talk about the resurgence of the classic bartender and barmanship.”
Gleason observes that while part-time bartenders working their way through school or making a few extra bucks here and there certainly exist, a more serious brand of bartender is on the rise. “At all of these bigger chains, bartenders are starting to become career bartenders,” he says. “It makes a difference.”
A nationwide interest in classic bartending is spreading, Gleason says. “You’re seeing that attitude much more now. You’re seeing younger people getting really into what bartending is all about, which is great.”
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Coconut Promises Remarkable Health Benefits
By Laura Ng
Coconut cream / milk
Coconut cream adds a savoury taste to curries, desserts and cakes. That's because it enhances the aroma and tastes of the dishes and can be obtained easily and cheaply. It has a thick, paste-like consistency and when diluted, it is called coconut milk. However, people avoid coconut cream because of its high fat content.
Above all, people who are trying to slim down. But do you know that it is good saturated fat which can be easily metabolised or turn into energy fast? In other words, it does not transform into bad cholesterol which clogs up arteries. I'm not suggesting you to indulge in coconut cream, but rather than avoid it altogether, it is alright to eat in moderation.
The principle fatty acid in coconut milk is lauric acid, which is the same fat found in abundance in mother's milk. After it turns into monolaurin, it strengthens your immune system and shields you from many illnesses like hepatitis C, herpes and even HIV! It also protects our brain and bones.
It also has important anti-carcinogenic and anti-pathogenic properties which helps to prevent cancer. Attention ! coconut cream do not cause weight gain as easily as polyunsaturated oils. Surprise that coconut cream has so much goodness huh? Canned or packaged coconut cream is available in supermarkets.
It must be refrigerated once opened and does not last more than a week. Also, do not freeze coconut milk as this causes it to curdle when you next use it in cooking. Try different brands of canned coconut milk to find the one to your liking. Good brands which have not been artificially homogenized, will have thick cream floating on top of the can while the milk at the bottom is much more watery.
Virgin Coconut oil
Extracted from fresh coconut milk and meat, virgin coconut oil has such an aromatic and flavourful taste that it is used in many. Just like coconut cream, coconut oil reduces bad cholesterol unlike polyunsaturated vegetable oils such as canola, sunflower and safflower oils.
Though it is a monosaturated oil, it has been found to have lower calorie count relative to other oils of the same type. Hey ladies, this is great news for you ! Guess what - coconut oil actually increases metabolism and facilitate weight loss!
People of traditional cultures, such as the South Pacific Islands and the Philippines where coconut and palm oils are plentiful, suffer lower rates of obesity and health problems.
Look at our society today - we pile high on our plates food equally high in carbohydrates and polyunsaturated oils which increase our risk of heart diseases and diabetes.
Yet we complain about our weight and poor health. It's a shame ! However, coconut oil is different from other animal oil. Studies have found that it aids in lowering blood pressure and regulate thyroid dysfunction. Unlike refined oils, it does not turn rancid easily and become toxic to our bodies.
If you have damaged hair, try using coconut oil on your hair and scalp. It has been proven to be a more effective treatment for damaged hair than mineral oil and sunflower oil. That's because coconut oil is the only oil among the three which effectively reduces protein loss in hair.
Looking for a cheap but useful facial care product ? Virgin coconut oil is your choice. Here are some benefits :
1) it penetrates and moisturises the skin
2) minimise damage from sun exposure that causes sagging, wrinkling and blemishes
3)removes dead skin cells, producing an even texture and glow 4) heals damaged or diseased skin
Sometimes, wonderful remedies can be within your reach and in abundance, only if you look hard enough.
In this case, it is the Coconut.
Laura Ng is a true vegan and is 100% passionate in helping you to achieve your health in tip-top condition through http://www.ionehealth.com
Coconut cream / milk
Coconut cream adds a savoury taste to curries, desserts and cakes. That's because it enhances the aroma and tastes of the dishes and can be obtained easily and cheaply. It has a thick, paste-like consistency and when diluted, it is called coconut milk. However, people avoid coconut cream because of its high fat content.
Above all, people who are trying to slim down. But do you know that it is good saturated fat which can be easily metabolised or turn into energy fast? In other words, it does not transform into bad cholesterol which clogs up arteries. I'm not suggesting you to indulge in coconut cream, but rather than avoid it altogether, it is alright to eat in moderation.
The principle fatty acid in coconut milk is lauric acid, which is the same fat found in abundance in mother's milk. After it turns into monolaurin, it strengthens your immune system and shields you from many illnesses like hepatitis C, herpes and even HIV! It also protects our brain and bones.
It also has important anti-carcinogenic and anti-pathogenic properties which helps to prevent cancer. Attention ! coconut cream do not cause weight gain as easily as polyunsaturated oils. Surprise that coconut cream has so much goodness huh? Canned or packaged coconut cream is available in supermarkets.
It must be refrigerated once opened and does not last more than a week. Also, do not freeze coconut milk as this causes it to curdle when you next use it in cooking. Try different brands of canned coconut milk to find the one to your liking. Good brands which have not been artificially homogenized, will have thick cream floating on top of the can while the milk at the bottom is much more watery.
Virgin Coconut oil
Extracted from fresh coconut milk and meat, virgin coconut oil has such an aromatic and flavourful taste that it is used in many. Just like coconut cream, coconut oil reduces bad cholesterol unlike polyunsaturated vegetable oils such as canola, sunflower and safflower oils.
Though it is a monosaturated oil, it has been found to have lower calorie count relative to other oils of the same type. Hey ladies, this is great news for you ! Guess what - coconut oil actually increases metabolism and facilitate weight loss!
People of traditional cultures, such as the South Pacific Islands and the Philippines where coconut and palm oils are plentiful, suffer lower rates of obesity and health problems.
Look at our society today - we pile high on our plates food equally high in carbohydrates and polyunsaturated oils which increase our risk of heart diseases and diabetes.
Yet we complain about our weight and poor health. It's a shame ! However, coconut oil is different from other animal oil. Studies have found that it aids in lowering blood pressure and regulate thyroid dysfunction. Unlike refined oils, it does not turn rancid easily and become toxic to our bodies.
If you have damaged hair, try using coconut oil on your hair and scalp. It has been proven to be a more effective treatment for damaged hair than mineral oil and sunflower oil. That's because coconut oil is the only oil among the three which effectively reduces protein loss in hair.
Looking for a cheap but useful facial care product ? Virgin coconut oil is your choice. Here are some benefits :
1) it penetrates and moisturises the skin
2) minimise damage from sun exposure that causes sagging, wrinkling and blemishes
3)removes dead skin cells, producing an even texture and glow 4) heals damaged or diseased skin
Sometimes, wonderful remedies can be within your reach and in abundance, only if you look hard enough.
In this case, it is the Coconut.
Laura Ng is a true vegan and is 100% passionate in helping you to achieve your health in tip-top condition through http://www.ionehealth.com
How To Develop Your Creative Imagination
From LifeSkill Institute, Inc
1. Stimulate your mind by reading.
Reading is the process through which great minds are developed. A DAILY reading program is a powerful tool that can expand the scope of your thoughts and enhance your powers of imagination. Read material which stimulates your thinking, challenges your personal belief system, and inspires you to right action.
2. Practice your imagination skills.
Imagination is a skill to be developed and mastered. Every form and shape originated in the imagination. It is through the imagination that the formless takes form. To most effectively develop your imagination skills, use the techniques of relaxation and meditation.
On a daily basis, put yourself in a rest (alpha) state. Find a place to sit quietly. Close your eyes. Focus on your breathing and relax. Visualize familiar objects first. Progress to seeing your goals, thoughts, and ideas as visual images in your mind.
3. Have the goals you want to achieve and the purpose you want to realize clearly in your mind.
Develop mental images of the goals you wish to accomplish and a general idea of your life purpose. Write these goals in the shortest, simplest, most concise way. Your goals must be definite and specific. Describe each goal in the most sensory fashion, using as many of your senses as possible.
How does it look, feel, smell, taste, and sound? Analyze and organize your goals to help reveal your purpose. Read your goals aloud at least three times per day and contemplate your purpose.
4. Develop your powers of concentration.
Concentration is a learned skill. It is the process by which you focus your attention on a particular thought, thing, or outcome. Your powers of concentration come from your willpower and your self-discipline. Develop your powers of concentration by focusing your attention, your actions, and your feelings on your goals.
5. Always control your moods and emotions.
Moods and emotions are the vehicles used by the saboteur—the negative part of you—to create distractions, discouragement, distrust, doubt, indecision, and procrastination. This saboteur is neutralized by taking possession of your thoughts in such strength or degree that your emotions, your instincts, and your body are under your control. Remember, what you recognize, you energize. What you energize, you realize.
Creative imagination is enhanced by creative thinking. Creative thinking is finding new and better ways to do something. Success in any particular endeavor generally centers on finding ways to do things better.
1. Stimulate your mind by reading.
Reading is the process through which great minds are developed. A DAILY reading program is a powerful tool that can expand the scope of your thoughts and enhance your powers of imagination. Read material which stimulates your thinking, challenges your personal belief system, and inspires you to right action.
2. Practice your imagination skills.
Imagination is a skill to be developed and mastered. Every form and shape originated in the imagination. It is through the imagination that the formless takes form. To most effectively develop your imagination skills, use the techniques of relaxation and meditation.
On a daily basis, put yourself in a rest (alpha) state. Find a place to sit quietly. Close your eyes. Focus on your breathing and relax. Visualize familiar objects first. Progress to seeing your goals, thoughts, and ideas as visual images in your mind.
3. Have the goals you want to achieve and the purpose you want to realize clearly in your mind.
Develop mental images of the goals you wish to accomplish and a general idea of your life purpose. Write these goals in the shortest, simplest, most concise way. Your goals must be definite and specific. Describe each goal in the most sensory fashion, using as many of your senses as possible.
How does it look, feel, smell, taste, and sound? Analyze and organize your goals to help reveal your purpose. Read your goals aloud at least three times per day and contemplate your purpose.
4. Develop your powers of concentration.
Concentration is a learned skill. It is the process by which you focus your attention on a particular thought, thing, or outcome. Your powers of concentration come from your willpower and your self-discipline. Develop your powers of concentration by focusing your attention, your actions, and your feelings on your goals.
5. Always control your moods and emotions.
Moods and emotions are the vehicles used by the saboteur—the negative part of you—to create distractions, discouragement, distrust, doubt, indecision, and procrastination. This saboteur is neutralized by taking possession of your thoughts in such strength or degree that your emotions, your instincts, and your body are under your control. Remember, what you recognize, you energize. What you energize, you realize.
Creative imagination is enhanced by creative thinking. Creative thinking is finding new and better ways to do something. Success in any particular endeavor generally centers on finding ways to do things better.
Blending Killer Cappuccinos
From The American Mixologist
Maximizing the profit potential of your bar blender requires extending its creative envelope. It has the remarkable capability of transforming nearly any conventional drink into a frozen work of art. The key is to look past the Margarita, Piña Colada, and Strawberry Daiquiri, and take stock of your options.
To stir your creative juices, consider the following:
Frozen Cappuccinos - Cappuccinos are piping hot and outrageously popular. Now the craze is blending them with ice cream. It’s tall, cool and delicious.But why on Earth stop there? Blend an ice cream cappuccinos with Tia Maria and Chambord for a coffee and raspberry-flavored specialty.
Use Kahlúa, and Di Saronno Amaretto to make a frozen variation of the Toasted Almond. Or add Bailey’s Irish Cream, and Kahlúa to make a Mudslide Cappuccino.For an indulgent variation, substitute two scoops of vanilla ice cream for the frothed milk. Or try using French vanilla, or chocolate ice cream and watch what happens.
Another favorite variation involves adding chocolate syrup and Frangelico. The drink also tastes great blended with a tablespoon of peanut butter.
Classics Revisited - A frozen Long Island Iced Tea is fast becoming a popular favorite, as well as variations including the Iced Green Tea (cranberry juice and Midori) and the Raspberry Iced Tea (Chambord). The Rum Runner is also excellent served frozen, so too are tropical classics such as the Mai Tai, Zombie, and Scorpion.
Blending with ice lowers their potency, while their broad range of flavors completely fills the glass. Take your favorite Sangria recipe and try serving it blended. For an effervescent twist, add a splash of Champagne to these classics.
Frozen Lemonade - One of America’s favorite potables, lemonade is an exceptionally versatile mixer. Prove it to yourself by blending Bacardi Limón, lemonade, ice and a splash of grenadine for color. Consider blending lemonade with Midori or Amaretto. Lemonade also marries well with tequila, light rum, and dark rums, such as Myers’s and Appleton Estate.
Infusions - Frozen specialties are a superb way to market infused spirits. For example, the Roxbury Pineapple (pineapple-infused vodka) is absolutely delicious blended with cranberry juice, while pepper-infused tequila tastes great mixed with lemonade or sweet ‘n’ sour and served frozen.
Swirls - Swirling does to a frozen drink what layering Kahlúa, Baileys and Grand Mariner did for the B-52. Swirling involves preparing two different drinks simultaneously in two different blenders, and then pouring them together in the same specialty glass. The effect is dramatic and greatly enhances the resulting drink’s presentation.
Among the original swirled recipes is the Pain in the Butt, a sensational blend of a Rum Runner and a Strawberry Daiquiri. The key to a great swirl is marrying together two different colored drinks with complementary tastes.
Cool and Fresh - When in doubt, don’t overlook the obvious. One of the principal attributes of a blender is the array of products that it can accommodate. A short list includes ice cream, sorbet, and an assortment of fresh fruit.
Imagine blending lemon sorbet, fresh raspberries, a splash of cranberry juice, and either light rum of tequila. Then again few drinks can compare in taste or appearance to a Brandy Alexander made with ice cream. The creative options are limitless.
Maximizing the profit potential of your bar blender requires extending its creative envelope. It has the remarkable capability of transforming nearly any conventional drink into a frozen work of art. The key is to look past the Margarita, Piña Colada, and Strawberry Daiquiri, and take stock of your options.
To stir your creative juices, consider the following:
Frozen Cappuccinos - Cappuccinos are piping hot and outrageously popular. Now the craze is blending them with ice cream. It’s tall, cool and delicious.But why on Earth stop there? Blend an ice cream cappuccinos with Tia Maria and Chambord for a coffee and raspberry-flavored specialty.
Use Kahlúa, and Di Saronno Amaretto to make a frozen variation of the Toasted Almond. Or add Bailey’s Irish Cream, and Kahlúa to make a Mudslide Cappuccino.For an indulgent variation, substitute two scoops of vanilla ice cream for the frothed milk. Or try using French vanilla, or chocolate ice cream and watch what happens.
Another favorite variation involves adding chocolate syrup and Frangelico. The drink also tastes great blended with a tablespoon of peanut butter.
Classics Revisited - A frozen Long Island Iced Tea is fast becoming a popular favorite, as well as variations including the Iced Green Tea (cranberry juice and Midori) and the Raspberry Iced Tea (Chambord). The Rum Runner is also excellent served frozen, so too are tropical classics such as the Mai Tai, Zombie, and Scorpion.
Blending with ice lowers their potency, while their broad range of flavors completely fills the glass. Take your favorite Sangria recipe and try serving it blended. For an effervescent twist, add a splash of Champagne to these classics.
Frozen Lemonade - One of America’s favorite potables, lemonade is an exceptionally versatile mixer. Prove it to yourself by blending Bacardi Limón, lemonade, ice and a splash of grenadine for color. Consider blending lemonade with Midori or Amaretto. Lemonade also marries well with tequila, light rum, and dark rums, such as Myers’s and Appleton Estate.
Infusions - Frozen specialties are a superb way to market infused spirits. For example, the Roxbury Pineapple (pineapple-infused vodka) is absolutely delicious blended with cranberry juice, while pepper-infused tequila tastes great mixed with lemonade or sweet ‘n’ sour and served frozen.
Swirls - Swirling does to a frozen drink what layering Kahlúa, Baileys and Grand Mariner did for the B-52. Swirling involves preparing two different drinks simultaneously in two different blenders, and then pouring them together in the same specialty glass. The effect is dramatic and greatly enhances the resulting drink’s presentation.
Among the original swirled recipes is the Pain in the Butt, a sensational blend of a Rum Runner and a Strawberry Daiquiri. The key to a great swirl is marrying together two different colored drinks with complementary tastes.
Cool and Fresh - When in doubt, don’t overlook the obvious. One of the principal attributes of a blender is the array of products that it can accommodate. A short list includes ice cream, sorbet, and an assortment of fresh fruit.
Imagine blending lemon sorbet, fresh raspberries, a splash of cranberry juice, and either light rum of tequila. Then again few drinks can compare in taste or appearance to a Brandy Alexander made with ice cream. The creative options are limitless.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Boomer Bust?
By Roger Lowenstein
ONE OF THE SHADOWS looming over the stock market is the idea that when "all" the baby boomers retire, they will sell their stocks and kerplunk! — there goes the market. It's a neat story line, if only because it's the mirror image of the trend said to have propelled the market upward in the past 25 years.
Since the early 1980s, the majority of baby boomers (Americans born between 1946 and 1964) have been both working and, presumably, socking money away for their retirement — meanwhile, we have enjoyed a mostly rising stock market.
Flip forward to, say, next year, when the first boomers hit 62, the minimum age of retirement by Social Security's definition, and boomers will start to live off their savings, steadily selling shares to make their condo payments. And that will be it for good ol' Mr. Dow Jones. This is intriguing as a conversation-starter but a poor basis for rejiggering your portfolio.
For one thing, whenever someone advises you to sell (or to buy) stocks based on the supposed demand for shares, it's a good idea to ignore him. Stock prices fluctuate with earnings. As long as companies are profitable, someone will be around to own them.
Second, even though boomers will be retiring, successive waves of younger cohorts will be continually replenishing the pool of savers. And the boomers' kids (and egad, their kids) will be saving at greater rates than boomers did. Another way of saying this is that, thus far, boomers have not saved very much.
Although 401(k)s began in the early '80s, few people had access to such plans at first, and among those who did, savings rates were not very high. As of 2000, 401(k) savings amounted to $29,700 per person, and only $87,000 among people who actually had accounts. Not very much to retire on.
But there has been a steady rise in people eligible to participate in 401(k)s, and also in the ratio of those who actually save. Thus, people entering the workforce now are expected to save much more, on average, than boomers have.
According to a study by three finance professors, by 2040, 401(k) assets will be much bigger in real terms than they are today — both on a per-person basis and for society overall. Indeed, total 401(k) accounts will rise from $5 trillion today to $36 trillion in 2040. Traditional defined-benefit pension funds are moving in the other direction as sponsors freeze or fold their plans.
Nonetheless, according to the study, by James Poterba, Steven Venti and David Wise, the growth in 401(k)s will easily offset the downward trend in pensions. By 2040, total defined-benefit pension and 401(k) assets will amount to 1.8 times the U.S.'s gross domestic product, about double the ratio today.
This won't solve the retirement crisis either for people who have limited means or for companies who are overcommitted. But if you are worried, as an investor, about the water draining out of the tub, relax.
The authors focus on participation rates, i.e., the rate at which workers will invest, but the real surprise may be that retirees will dis-invest (that is, liquidate their holdings) more slowly than expected. People with a life-ingrained habit of investing aren't going to feel comfortable running down their capital.
And though retirees used to put their money in savings banks (which currently yield less than 1%), these days senior citizens own stocks. They expect to live a long time; in neither their portfolio nor their kitchen do they adhere to a "clean out the cupboard" approach.
According to another recent study, which focuses on IRAs, half of IRA-account holders don't even touch their accounts until at least two years after retirement. Of course, retirees will draw on funds to the extent they need to.
But in the not-distant future the term "retirees" will no longer be a synonym for seniors. The demographic news of this century will be that an unprecedented number of graybeards, preferring to stay active and productive, will work into their 70s and 80s. One little-understood twist is that 401(k) holders lose the benefit of collective insurance.
Thus, the trend away from group pension plans will force people to save more during their working years and to withdraw money more slowly during their retirements. Pension sponsors have to save enough to last only for "average" life spans.
Some pensioners will live longer (and cost the sponsor more), but others, mercifully, will exit the scene ahead of schedule, so the sponsor will be okay. However, a 401(k) saver dependent on himself or herself can take no such comfort in the actuarial averages. In this respect, the results of the Poterba study are understated.
For the sake of convenience, it assumes that anyone over 70 1/2 will annually withdraw a sum equal to their savings divided by their life expectancy. In other words, if your life expectancy is another, say, six years, you would draw down one-sixth of your funds.
But most folks would be pretty nervous if they aimed to exhaust their capital on the date of their predicted demise. Their portfolios will not be disappearing so fast. Proponents of doomsday scenarios focus on the baby boom as a demographic aberration; once the boomers retire, society's savings supposedly will disappear.
But our increased longevity, and our reduced security, are each trends that will endure. They have fostered a culture of saving that is here to stay.
ONE OF THE SHADOWS looming over the stock market is the idea that when "all" the baby boomers retire, they will sell their stocks and kerplunk! — there goes the market. It's a neat story line, if only because it's the mirror image of the trend said to have propelled the market upward in the past 25 years.
Since the early 1980s, the majority of baby boomers (Americans born between 1946 and 1964) have been both working and, presumably, socking money away for their retirement — meanwhile, we have enjoyed a mostly rising stock market.
Flip forward to, say, next year, when the first boomers hit 62, the minimum age of retirement by Social Security's definition, and boomers will start to live off their savings, steadily selling shares to make their condo payments. And that will be it for good ol' Mr. Dow Jones. This is intriguing as a conversation-starter but a poor basis for rejiggering your portfolio.
For one thing, whenever someone advises you to sell (or to buy) stocks based on the supposed demand for shares, it's a good idea to ignore him. Stock prices fluctuate with earnings. As long as companies are profitable, someone will be around to own them.
Second, even though boomers will be retiring, successive waves of younger cohorts will be continually replenishing the pool of savers. And the boomers' kids (and egad, their kids) will be saving at greater rates than boomers did. Another way of saying this is that, thus far, boomers have not saved very much.
Although 401(k)s began in the early '80s, few people had access to such plans at first, and among those who did, savings rates were not very high. As of 2000, 401(k) savings amounted to $29,700 per person, and only $87,000 among people who actually had accounts. Not very much to retire on.
But there has been a steady rise in people eligible to participate in 401(k)s, and also in the ratio of those who actually save. Thus, people entering the workforce now are expected to save much more, on average, than boomers have.
According to a study by three finance professors, by 2040, 401(k) assets will be much bigger in real terms than they are today — both on a per-person basis and for society overall. Indeed, total 401(k) accounts will rise from $5 trillion today to $36 trillion in 2040. Traditional defined-benefit pension funds are moving in the other direction as sponsors freeze or fold their plans.
Nonetheless, according to the study, by James Poterba, Steven Venti and David Wise, the growth in 401(k)s will easily offset the downward trend in pensions. By 2040, total defined-benefit pension and 401(k) assets will amount to 1.8 times the U.S.'s gross domestic product, about double the ratio today.
This won't solve the retirement crisis either for people who have limited means or for companies who are overcommitted. But if you are worried, as an investor, about the water draining out of the tub, relax.
The authors focus on participation rates, i.e., the rate at which workers will invest, but the real surprise may be that retirees will dis-invest (that is, liquidate their holdings) more slowly than expected. People with a life-ingrained habit of investing aren't going to feel comfortable running down their capital.
And though retirees used to put their money in savings banks (which currently yield less than 1%), these days senior citizens own stocks. They expect to live a long time; in neither their portfolio nor their kitchen do they adhere to a "clean out the cupboard" approach.
According to another recent study, which focuses on IRAs, half of IRA-account holders don't even touch their accounts until at least two years after retirement. Of course, retirees will draw on funds to the extent they need to.
But in the not-distant future the term "retirees" will no longer be a synonym for seniors. The demographic news of this century will be that an unprecedented number of graybeards, preferring to stay active and productive, will work into their 70s and 80s. One little-understood twist is that 401(k) holders lose the benefit of collective insurance.
Thus, the trend away from group pension plans will force people to save more during their working years and to withdraw money more slowly during their retirements. Pension sponsors have to save enough to last only for "average" life spans.
Some pensioners will live longer (and cost the sponsor more), but others, mercifully, will exit the scene ahead of schedule, so the sponsor will be okay. However, a 401(k) saver dependent on himself or herself can take no such comfort in the actuarial averages. In this respect, the results of the Poterba study are understated.
For the sake of convenience, it assumes that anyone over 70 1/2 will annually withdraw a sum equal to their savings divided by their life expectancy. In other words, if your life expectancy is another, say, six years, you would draw down one-sixth of your funds.
But most folks would be pretty nervous if they aimed to exhaust their capital on the date of their predicted demise. Their portfolios will not be disappearing so fast. Proponents of doomsday scenarios focus on the baby boom as a demographic aberration; once the boomers retire, society's savings supposedly will disappear.
But our increased longevity, and our reduced security, are each trends that will endure. They have fostered a culture of saving that is here to stay.
Does Flair Bartending Style Give Customer Satisfaction?
By Muna wa Wanjiru
There are many ways of giving many customers the satisfaction that they want. One such job that depends on customer satisfaction is that of bartending. Here you will need to make sure that your many customers get the service that they want and in some cases get to be entertained as well.
This type of bartender entertainment is called flair bartending. What this really means is that as a bartender you will be able to serve and provide a level on great entertainment that is rarely seen elsewhere.Now even though flair bartending has been around for quite a long time it has only become popular recently and this is due to movies like Coyote and Cocktail.
In these movies the story revolved around a person who was able to serve great drinks and entertain their customers with style and flair. For this reason many people who have seen these movies have been overcome by a desire to be such a flair bartender.
As there are quite a lot of people who would like to learn flair bartending many bar tending schools and colleges now feature classes where you can learn all about flair bartending as well as the art of mixology. Now even though both of these involve mixing drinks there is a big difference in the two jobs.
In one task you will mix the drinks that the customer wants and in the other while you are mixing the drink you are performing amazing juggling feats. These juggling feats are part of the hallmark of flair bartending.
Any bartender who can perform these acts of flair bartending can sometimes get great paying jobs in places where such entertainment is considered as being part of the various jobs in bartending. Besides getting great paying jobs flair bartending has branched out in another direction as well.
This is in competitions for flair bartending. Now just in case you feel that these competitions are not that widely known you may have to re-think your position. These competitions are not only well known but there are many bars and other entertainment establishments that want their best flair bartender to prove their superiority in the art of flair bartending.
So for the would-be bartender it is really a great idea to learn all that you can about flair bartending. This way you have a chance of gaining a great job where your skills and abilities as a bartender are recognized by many people. You will also have the added knowledge of becoming even better that Tom Cruise in the movie Cocktail.
There are many ways of giving many customers the satisfaction that they want. One such job that depends on customer satisfaction is that of bartending. Here you will need to make sure that your many customers get the service that they want and in some cases get to be entertained as well.
This type of bartender entertainment is called flair bartending. What this really means is that as a bartender you will be able to serve and provide a level on great entertainment that is rarely seen elsewhere.Now even though flair bartending has been around for quite a long time it has only become popular recently and this is due to movies like Coyote and Cocktail.
In these movies the story revolved around a person who was able to serve great drinks and entertain their customers with style and flair. For this reason many people who have seen these movies have been overcome by a desire to be such a flair bartender.
As there are quite a lot of people who would like to learn flair bartending many bar tending schools and colleges now feature classes where you can learn all about flair bartending as well as the art of mixology. Now even though both of these involve mixing drinks there is a big difference in the two jobs.
In one task you will mix the drinks that the customer wants and in the other while you are mixing the drink you are performing amazing juggling feats. These juggling feats are part of the hallmark of flair bartending.
Any bartender who can perform these acts of flair bartending can sometimes get great paying jobs in places where such entertainment is considered as being part of the various jobs in bartending. Besides getting great paying jobs flair bartending has branched out in another direction as well.
This is in competitions for flair bartending. Now just in case you feel that these competitions are not that widely known you may have to re-think your position. These competitions are not only well known but there are many bars and other entertainment establishments that want their best flair bartender to prove their superiority in the art of flair bartending.
So for the would-be bartender it is really a great idea to learn all that you can about flair bartending. This way you have a chance of gaining a great job where your skills and abilities as a bartender are recognized by many people. You will also have the added knowledge of becoming even better that Tom Cruise in the movie Cocktail.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
OPEC: Don't Blame Us for Oil Prices
By Marek Strzelecki, Spencer Swartz and Adam Smallman
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WARSAW -(Dow Jones)- OPEC oil ministers, led by Saudi Arabia's Ali Naimi, indicated Wednesday there was nothing they could do to quell oil prices running at 11 month highs because much of the blame lies at the door of a logjam in fuel production. Naimi, head of oil policy in the world's biggest oil exporter, said global oil markets had plenty of crude and the recent jump in energy prices was driven by geopolitical concerns and refining bottlenecks, not shortages.
"Let me say that (current) oil prices are not at all linked to fundamentals of the oil industry," Naimi said at a briefing in Warsaw. "There is good balance between supply and demand," Naimi said in his first comments in some months on the state of world oil markets.
"OPEC does not find any reason at the moment to increase its production of crude oil," Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries President Mohamed Al Hamli told reporters in Abu Dhabi. Qatar's Oil Minister Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah told reporters: "The world is facing a shortage of gasoline and diesel, but not crude oil.
"If the market needs more oil, OPEC will do its utmost but it needs to be convinced that there is a shortage," he said. The remarks put to rest any suggestions by some market players that Saudi Arabia might put more barrels into the markets to temper the rapid rise in oil prices, which have jumped $6 a barrel in the past month.
At 1304 GMT the Brent front-month August contract was down 31 cents at $76.37 a barrel, with U.S. light, sweet crude in New York 22 cents lower at $72.59 a barrel.
Stockpiles
In late 2006, Naimi spurred market jitters with his concern over the pace of growth in oil stockpiles held by member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Those stockpiles, which had ballooned to more than 120 million barrels above levels a year previously, indicate the numbers of days of consumption available to the OECD and Naimi warned about their potential price-depressing effect as they climbed toward 55 days of consumption.
Though oil prices did indeed fall sharply to below $50 a barrel in January, stockpiles shrunk by almost 1 million barrels a day in the first quarter, igniting concerns by the International Energy Agency that the medium-term cushion of inventories remains in a fragile state.
In the short term, and excluding global gasoline inventories that are bumping near the bottom of their five-year average, crude stocks are on the rise, climbing almost 11 million barrels at the end of April to 967 million barrels, with forward cover almost unchanged at 55 days.
"Nobody is looking for additional crude now because all you have to do is to look at the level of inventories which are in very, very comfortable positions," Naimi said. "Inventories are higher than they have been in the past five years," he said, adding the kingdom is currently pumping 8.6 million barrels a day.
Critics of OPEC say the 12-nation producer group has focused too much on inventories in the U.S., the world's biggest energy consumer, and stockpiles elsewhere in the world, such as China, aren't at record levels. Some analysts say while global oil supplies overall are little changed from a year ago, refining runs worldwide are up by 1 million barrels a day, tightening the energy complex further.
Naimi said he wasn't aware of any plans for OPEC to meet before scheduled policy talks Sept. 11 in Vienna. Saudi Arabia, by far OPEC's biggest oil producer, has kept a tight leash on supplies since OPEC began implementing two oil production cuts last November.
The targeted OPEC cuts total 1.7 million barrels a day, or about 6% of world demand.
Current OPEC production, which meets almost 40% of world demand, is around 1 million barrels a day lower compared with this time last year.
-By Marek Strzelecki, Spencer Swartz and Adam Smallman, Dow Jones Newswires; +48 22 622 2767; marek.strzelecki@dowjones.com
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WARSAW -(Dow Jones)- OPEC oil ministers, led by Saudi Arabia's Ali Naimi, indicated Wednesday there was nothing they could do to quell oil prices running at 11 month highs because much of the blame lies at the door of a logjam in fuel production. Naimi, head of oil policy in the world's biggest oil exporter, said global oil markets had plenty of crude and the recent jump in energy prices was driven by geopolitical concerns and refining bottlenecks, not shortages.
"Let me say that (current) oil prices are not at all linked to fundamentals of the oil industry," Naimi said at a briefing in Warsaw. "There is good balance between supply and demand," Naimi said in his first comments in some months on the state of world oil markets.
"OPEC does not find any reason at the moment to increase its production of crude oil," Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries President Mohamed Al Hamli told reporters in Abu Dhabi. Qatar's Oil Minister Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah told reporters: "The world is facing a shortage of gasoline and diesel, but not crude oil.
"If the market needs more oil, OPEC will do its utmost but it needs to be convinced that there is a shortage," he said. The remarks put to rest any suggestions by some market players that Saudi Arabia might put more barrels into the markets to temper the rapid rise in oil prices, which have jumped $6 a barrel in the past month.
At 1304 GMT the Brent front-month August contract was down 31 cents at $76.37 a barrel, with U.S. light, sweet crude in New York 22 cents lower at $72.59 a barrel.
Stockpiles
In late 2006, Naimi spurred market jitters with his concern over the pace of growth in oil stockpiles held by member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Those stockpiles, which had ballooned to more than 120 million barrels above levels a year previously, indicate the numbers of days of consumption available to the OECD and Naimi warned about their potential price-depressing effect as they climbed toward 55 days of consumption.
Though oil prices did indeed fall sharply to below $50 a barrel in January, stockpiles shrunk by almost 1 million barrels a day in the first quarter, igniting concerns by the International Energy Agency that the medium-term cushion of inventories remains in a fragile state.
In the short term, and excluding global gasoline inventories that are bumping near the bottom of their five-year average, crude stocks are on the rise, climbing almost 11 million barrels at the end of April to 967 million barrels, with forward cover almost unchanged at 55 days.
"Nobody is looking for additional crude now because all you have to do is to look at the level of inventories which are in very, very comfortable positions," Naimi said. "Inventories are higher than they have been in the past five years," he said, adding the kingdom is currently pumping 8.6 million barrels a day.
Critics of OPEC say the 12-nation producer group has focused too much on inventories in the U.S., the world's biggest energy consumer, and stockpiles elsewhere in the world, such as China, aren't at record levels. Some analysts say while global oil supplies overall are little changed from a year ago, refining runs worldwide are up by 1 million barrels a day, tightening the energy complex further.
Naimi said he wasn't aware of any plans for OPEC to meet before scheduled policy talks Sept. 11 in Vienna. Saudi Arabia, by far OPEC's biggest oil producer, has kept a tight leash on supplies since OPEC began implementing two oil production cuts last November.
The targeted OPEC cuts total 1.7 million barrels a day, or about 6% of world demand.
Current OPEC production, which meets almost 40% of world demand, is around 1 million barrels a day lower compared with this time last year.
-By Marek Strzelecki, Spencer Swartz and Adam Smallman, Dow Jones Newswires; +48 22 622 2767; marek.strzelecki@dowjones.com
Bartending for Hot Summer Nights
By Michael Russell
Summer nights: hot parties, romantic adventures and lonely nights under the moonlight when you are alone with your thoughts and your dreams. No matter what you choose to do, remember that there’s always a way to spice up your mood and enjoy your senses. Bartenders give you tips about how to pamper your gustatory sense.
Each of the following cocktails is a treat; each of these drinks has been carefully selected to exude a feeling of luxury and class.
The first and hottest bartending tip: enhance your margaritas with cactus pear syrup. This syrup is quite popular in Mexico and the leaves and fruits of the Nopal cactus (prickly pear cactus) are used for a variety of culinary purposes too: from salads to scrambled eggs, from pies to desserts toppings and snack food.
The syrup is used to make jelly or marmalade, it is also used as salad dressing and when mixed with ginger ale you get a Prickly Pear Cactus Shirley Temple. Yummy! A bottle of prickly pear cactus syrup (23 oz) costs about $15 USD. It’s not so cheap, but consider this a delicacy you deserve.
A very popular drink to refresh you in the hot summer nights is Mojito. The drink was born in Cuba and it is today so popular that many consider it the national drink of Cuba. The truth is that the Cubans identify themselves more with the long drink Cuba Libre, but it is safe to say that Mojito is as popular.
Mojito is a young drink and it’s hard to say who invented it. A bartending legend traces the birth of the Mojito to the famous Bodeguita del Medio (Cuban bar). The Mojito is a blend of sugar, mint leaves, lime juice, rum, ice and soda water, served in a highball glass and topped with a spring of mint.
It’s extremely fresh and this special taste made the drink extremely popular in European countries too. The drink is particularly “hot” in France, Germany and Luxemburg: every club has Mojito on its “cocktail hour” list.
Here you’ll find another extremely refreshing drink based on rum and limejuice: caipirissima. This drink is erroneously called in these European countries Caipirinha. The truth is that in actual bartending, Caipirinha is made of sliced limes, sugar, cachaça (Pitú) and crushed ice. As cachaça is not very popular in many countries, so the bartenders replace it with white rum.
What they (don’t tell you) don’t know is that the drink that uses rum instead of cachaça is called caipirissima and the drink that uses vodka to replace rum or cachaça is called caipirosca. But the customers of the bars don’t really mind. All of these drinks (caipirinha, caipirissima or caipirosca) are extremely tasty and refreshing.
Hopefully, these bartending tips for hot summer nights will bring back the breeze and give you a taste of the exotic spirit of Mexico, Cuba, Portugal (which is the country that originated caipirinha) and Brazil (where caipirinha is the most popular).
One last bartending tip from the most experienced bartenders: although sweet and tasty, these are strong drinks: not recommended on an empty stomach and because of the mixture of sugar with alcohol, if you drink too many, you are in for a heavy headache. Handle with care!
Summer nights: hot parties, romantic adventures and lonely nights under the moonlight when you are alone with your thoughts and your dreams. No matter what you choose to do, remember that there’s always a way to spice up your mood and enjoy your senses. Bartenders give you tips about how to pamper your gustatory sense.
Each of the following cocktails is a treat; each of these drinks has been carefully selected to exude a feeling of luxury and class.
The first and hottest bartending tip: enhance your margaritas with cactus pear syrup. This syrup is quite popular in Mexico and the leaves and fruits of the Nopal cactus (prickly pear cactus) are used for a variety of culinary purposes too: from salads to scrambled eggs, from pies to desserts toppings and snack food.
The syrup is used to make jelly or marmalade, it is also used as salad dressing and when mixed with ginger ale you get a Prickly Pear Cactus Shirley Temple. Yummy! A bottle of prickly pear cactus syrup (23 oz) costs about $15 USD. It’s not so cheap, but consider this a delicacy you deserve.
A very popular drink to refresh you in the hot summer nights is Mojito. The drink was born in Cuba and it is today so popular that many consider it the national drink of Cuba. The truth is that the Cubans identify themselves more with the long drink Cuba Libre, but it is safe to say that Mojito is as popular.
Mojito is a young drink and it’s hard to say who invented it. A bartending legend traces the birth of the Mojito to the famous Bodeguita del Medio (Cuban bar). The Mojito is a blend of sugar, mint leaves, lime juice, rum, ice and soda water, served in a highball glass and topped with a spring of mint.
It’s extremely fresh and this special taste made the drink extremely popular in European countries too. The drink is particularly “hot” in France, Germany and Luxemburg: every club has Mojito on its “cocktail hour” list.
Here you’ll find another extremely refreshing drink based on rum and limejuice: caipirissima. This drink is erroneously called in these European countries Caipirinha. The truth is that in actual bartending, Caipirinha is made of sliced limes, sugar, cachaça (Pitú) and crushed ice. As cachaça is not very popular in many countries, so the bartenders replace it with white rum.
What they (don’t tell you) don’t know is that the drink that uses rum instead of cachaça is called caipirissima and the drink that uses vodka to replace rum or cachaça is called caipirosca. But the customers of the bars don’t really mind. All of these drinks (caipirinha, caipirissima or caipirosca) are extremely tasty and refreshing.
Hopefully, these bartending tips for hot summer nights will bring back the breeze and give you a taste of the exotic spirit of Mexico, Cuba, Portugal (which is the country that originated caipirinha) and Brazil (where caipirinha is the most popular).
One last bartending tip from the most experienced bartenders: although sweet and tasty, these are strong drinks: not recommended on an empty stomach and because of the mixture of sugar with alcohol, if you drink too many, you are in for a heavy headache. Handle with care!
Friday, July 13, 2007
Money Making - Why So Many Intellectual Minnows Are Making So Much MORE Money Than YOU Are
By Gary Simpson
I'm sorry to tell you this but there are so many people out there who, in comparison to you, are intellectual minnows and yet they are able to accumulate vast sums of money. How does that make you feel?
Maybe you are operating under the false belief that you have to be really clever to make lots of money. It just isn't true. I guess you know of some people who cannot even string two intelligent sentences together and yet they make millions.
There are so many people who have a very limited education who are making so much money that it would make your head spin. So, how do they do it? Some of these people even hire people like you to do things for them that they know they simply cannot do for themselves. How is this possible?
These people all have one thing in common. The have this quality called determination. Determination will beat just about everything else including talent. Sure, you need a method - something that will produce the money when you apply effort. There is nothing that supersedes determination. With it you can do almost anything.
Without it you can do virtually nothing. Perhaps the best thing that you can do to set up you financial future is to admit to yourself that you could certainly do a lot better than your history shows. Yes. You can do better. You can do a LOT better.
It's NEVER too late to start afresh. Your financial fortune can turn around very quickly if you are prepared to take responsibility and seek some good unbiased advice. But... will you? Will your silly pride keep denying you? That is something for you to ponder upon.
Gary Simpson operates the Turn Debt Into Wealth website. Discover "How to Stop Wasting Your Life and Start Getting What You Want."
To learn more tips on how to save money and how to make money go here: "How to Save $1000's and Increase Your Net Wealth."
I'm sorry to tell you this but there are so many people out there who, in comparison to you, are intellectual minnows and yet they are able to accumulate vast sums of money. How does that make you feel?
Maybe you are operating under the false belief that you have to be really clever to make lots of money. It just isn't true. I guess you know of some people who cannot even string two intelligent sentences together and yet they make millions.
There are so many people who have a very limited education who are making so much money that it would make your head spin. So, how do they do it? Some of these people even hire people like you to do things for them that they know they simply cannot do for themselves. How is this possible?
These people all have one thing in common. The have this quality called determination. Determination will beat just about everything else including talent. Sure, you need a method - something that will produce the money when you apply effort. There is nothing that supersedes determination. With it you can do almost anything.
Without it you can do virtually nothing. Perhaps the best thing that you can do to set up you financial future is to admit to yourself that you could certainly do a lot better than your history shows. Yes. You can do better. You can do a LOT better.
It's NEVER too late to start afresh. Your financial fortune can turn around very quickly if you are prepared to take responsibility and seek some good unbiased advice. But... will you? Will your silly pride keep denying you? That is something for you to ponder upon.
Gary Simpson operates the Turn Debt Into Wealth website. Discover "How to Stop Wasting Your Life and Start Getting What You Want."
To learn more tips on how to save money and how to make money go here: "How to Save $1000's and Increase Your Net Wealth."
The 12 Building Blocks of Wealth Cycle Investing
By Loral Langemeier
Wealth building is a process. Anyone who has inadvertently signed up for a wealth-building seminar — only to receive a barrage of get-rich-quick schemes — may be justifiably skeptical of anyone who claims to create millionaires. The reason I can say I create millionaires with complete confidence is that I do it by teaching them a process.
Wealth Cycle investing isn’t a scheme, a plan, or even a strategy. It is a system that produces results when followed. Because it is a system and not a strategy, it encompasses and allows for a wide range of investment ideas and strategies. For example, one person can become a millionaire by investing in single-family rental properties, another person might create new cash-flow businesses while a third may opt for both real estate and business creation.
By following the 12 Building Blocks Of Wealth Cycle Investing, you are increasing your chances of success. Here is a brief summary of those building blocks:
Wealth building is a process. Anyone who has inadvertently signed up for a wealth-building seminar — only to receive a barrage of get-rich-quick schemes — may be justifiably skeptical of anyone who claims to create millionaires. The reason I can say I create millionaires with complete confidence is that I do it by teaching them a process.
Wealth Cycle investing isn’t a scheme, a plan, or even a strategy. It is a system that produces results when followed. Because it is a system and not a strategy, it encompasses and allows for a wide range of investment ideas and strategies. For example, one person can become a millionaire by investing in single-family rental properties, another person might create new cash-flow businesses while a third may opt for both real estate and business creation.
By following the 12 Building Blocks Of Wealth Cycle Investing, you are increasing your chances of success. Here is a brief summary of those building blocks:
Establish a Financial Baseline. This identifies where you are today: your income, expenditures (and net income), and your net worth (i.e. your assets minus your liabilities). It’s surprising how many people can’t tell you their net worth (or don’t want to).
Establish your Financial Freedom Day. This is your goal - the result you will obtain by following the Wealth Cycle. You identify your expected net monthly income and net worth within a particular time frame. This is the lighthouse that guides you through the investment seas.
Conduct a Gap Analysis. What’s the gap between your destination and your starting point? The Gap Analysis helps you to determine which of the remaining nine building blocks you’ll do next. The process varies from individual to individual, so your sequence may differ from what I show here.
Create a cash machine. Your cash machine is not necessarily your job. Ideally, this is a business you create (possibly in addition to your job) that will produce additional cash flow for your investments.
Entity structuring. You’ll need to protect your assets and reduce your taxes to increase your wealth. Entities (LLC’s and Corporations) protect you and your money.
Forecasting. Start living your life like a business. Forecast your revenues and expenditures so that you can make steady payments from your cash machine into your Wealth Account.
Build a Wealth Account. You purchase new assets from the money you have in your wealth account. You can manage your debt with other funds, but your wealth account money is strictly used to buy assets (which increase your monthly cash flow and your net worth).
Manage your debt. Reduce your debt – not first, but along with building your wealth account and buying assets. Often, your debt payments can be made from the money you earn on your assets, instead of from your paycheck.
Buy assets. Become an asset junkie. Invest directly in real estate, businesses, and even oil wells. By doing so, you’ll increase your monthly cash flow and/or your net worth.
Lead your wealth team. Work on your leadership skills so that you are leading your accountant, real estate agent, attorney, assistants, and others. Your wealth is up to you, so don’t leave it in the hands of others.
Work on your mental and emotional conditioning. What keeps most people from becoming wealthy isn’t a lack of opportunity – it’s how they think. Start thinking like a millionaire, and you’ll soon find yourself acting like a millionaire. Before long, you will BE a millionaire.- Work with a team. There is no such thing as a “Self-Made Millionaire.” There are only team-made millionaires – people who know they need a strong team, including field partners, mentors, and professionals.
The Wealth Cycle is designed to make anyone wealthy, regardless of your starting point. Follow the cycle, but do it with a team. You will become a millionaire.
The forgotten little brother: Juicy, approachable wines in contrast to the big boys
By Bill Daley
Red wine lovers looking for an easy, flavorful summer sipper not exactly in the spotlight should check out montepulciano d'Abruzzo from the Abruzzi region of central Italy."These are bang for your buck wines," said Adam Seger, beverage director of Osteria via Stato, the Chicago restaurant whose wine list is all-Italian (except for July, when Italian varietals from California will also be featured).
"I think it's a great wine for summer. They're so juicy."While the wines have a full flavor, they still have "a softness and approachability," he added. If you like syrah or a Rhone-style blend, a wine with black cherry flavors and a bit of muscle, Seger thinks montepulciano d'Abruzzo may be for you. Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is generally easy on the wallet too.
Who's ordering it?
"Someone who is familiar with Chianti and they've had syrah and maybe had barbera and are ready to try the next wine," Seger said.Yet the wine doesn't get the attention it quite deserves. Some of this may be due to an identity problem. Don't confuse this wine with the better known vino nobile di Montepulciano, a wine made up mostly of sangiovese.
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo gets its name from its primary grape, montepulciano. The wine may also not be familiar to many American wine drinkers because Abruzzi (known as Abruzzo in Italian) tends not to be as well-known or visited as Rome, Tuscany or other regions of Italy, as Joseph Bastianich and David Lynch write in their book, "Vino Italiano: The Regional Wines of Italy.
" In their chapter on Abruzzi, titled "Emerging from Anonymity," the authors note it's the fifth-most productive region in Italy, but the truth is the red wines weren't getting much respect until recently. In 2002, Oz Clarke could write in his "Oz Clarke's New Wine Atlas" that "unfortunately, much of Abruzzo's wine is symptomatic of poorly grown montepulciano.
" He blamed "wayward bureaucrats" of the 1960s for this, lamenting the fate of what he described as a "great grape, which can make wines with irresistible dark chocolate flavours."
"Montepulciano is like a forgotten little brother among the big boys," write Bastianich and Lynch, "taking a back seat to sangiovese and aglianico in central and southern Italy the way dolcetto and barbera take a back seat to nebbiolo in Piedmont.
"While the pair thinks montepulciano d'Abruzzo lacks the tannins (which makes it imminently drinkable while young) and aroma that distinguish such varietals as sangiovese and nebbiolo, "at their best, montepulciano wines are inky-purple in color and almost syrupy in texture, with scents of black berries and a touch of earthy funk.
But they can be one-note wonders--all ripe, juicy fruit and not a lot else."The situation is improving. Alex Scagnelli, wine director at Convito Café and Market in Wilmette, said people are beginning to recognize the wine and seek it out. She's selling a lot of it and not just because it's summer and red wine drinkers are drinking lighter styles of red.
"I think people are looking for good value and a good food wine," she said.What to buy? Tom Benezra, wine director at Sal's Beverage World stores, said that discerning the good-quality wines from the "one-note wonders" can be difficult, although price plays a part."The lighter, simple, cherry fruit style I've seen only in bottles under $15," he said.
Consumers can also look for clues on the label. There's the basic appellation, or denominazione di origine controllata, called montepulciano d'Abruzzo. Then there's a more limited classification with higher standards, a denominazione di origine controllata e garantita, called montepulciano d'Abruzzo Colline Teramane.
Look, too, at vintages. Seger said the 2005 vintage coming in now is superb. The weather was hot in Abruzzi so the montepulciano d'Abruzzo will be big, ripe but balanced, he said. Seger noted the 2004 season was cooler, so the reds will have a brighter acidity ideal for pairing with food, especially items hot off the grill.
Soft, yet well toned
Ciao, bella! The montepulciano grape turned out to be quite the looker when the Good Eating tasting panel sat down for an informal blind tasting. Among the six Abruzzi wines, the best managed to be both beguilingly soft and athletically toned.
There were no wimps among these montepulciano d'Abruzzo wines in terms of flavor, but (thankfully) missing was that tight, tannic tingle that can make drinking red wines such a chore.
2001 Masciarelli Marina Cvetic
Here's the earthiness and complexity wine pros speak of when talking about higher-quality montepulciano d'Abruzzo. Still eminently sip-able, there's just enough smoky muscle and black pepper under the plummy fruit flavors to make things interesting. Serve with grilled duck breast with berry sauce, pasta with grilled eggplant, barbecued spare ribs. 3 corks $25
2004 Cataldi Madonna
This wine finished a close second to the Masciarelli but costs almost half the price. Expect a bolder, peppery profile spiked with sweet notes of blueberries. Serve with lamb kebabs, roast pork, steak sandwiches. 3 corks $13
2001 La Valentina Spelt
Bright, slightly puckery, but with a snappy finish, this red is full of dark fruits, mushrooms and spices. Serve with pasta with meat sauce, grilled lamb flavored with garlic and rosemary, porterhouse steak. 3 corks $22
2004 Fattoria Nicodemi
An oily, petroleum-like nose gives way to a light, tart cherry flavor. Serve with barbecued Cornish hens or grilled chicken. 2 corks $15
2005 Illuminati Riparosso
Notes of black pepper and spice with some berry on the finish. This wine's high acidity keeps any sweetness in check. Serve with fried chicken, hot dogs, Korean short ribs. 2 corks $16
2003 Peperoncino Capestrano
Considered the "funky" wine of the bunch, this montepulciano had a tealike nose, followed by plenty of berry fruit and a tart finish. Serve with Italian beef sandwiches, mushroom pizza, burgers. 2 corks. $8
Ratings key: 4 corks (Excellent)3 corks (Very Good)2 corks (Good)1 cork (Fair)No corkscrews) Poor
Click on the following to buy the above wines:-
Internet Wines and Spirits, Wine Globe & Wine.com
Red wine lovers looking for an easy, flavorful summer sipper not exactly in the spotlight should check out montepulciano d'Abruzzo from the Abruzzi region of central Italy."These are bang for your buck wines," said Adam Seger, beverage director of Osteria via Stato, the Chicago restaurant whose wine list is all-Italian (except for July, when Italian varietals from California will also be featured).
"I think it's a great wine for summer. They're so juicy."While the wines have a full flavor, they still have "a softness and approachability," he added. If you like syrah or a Rhone-style blend, a wine with black cherry flavors and a bit of muscle, Seger thinks montepulciano d'Abruzzo may be for you. Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is generally easy on the wallet too.
Who's ordering it?
"Someone who is familiar with Chianti and they've had syrah and maybe had barbera and are ready to try the next wine," Seger said.Yet the wine doesn't get the attention it quite deserves. Some of this may be due to an identity problem. Don't confuse this wine with the better known vino nobile di Montepulciano, a wine made up mostly of sangiovese.
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo gets its name from its primary grape, montepulciano. The wine may also not be familiar to many American wine drinkers because Abruzzi (known as Abruzzo in Italian) tends not to be as well-known or visited as Rome, Tuscany or other regions of Italy, as Joseph Bastianich and David Lynch write in their book, "Vino Italiano: The Regional Wines of Italy.
" In their chapter on Abruzzi, titled "Emerging from Anonymity," the authors note it's the fifth-most productive region in Italy, but the truth is the red wines weren't getting much respect until recently. In 2002, Oz Clarke could write in his "Oz Clarke's New Wine Atlas" that "unfortunately, much of Abruzzo's wine is symptomatic of poorly grown montepulciano.
" He blamed "wayward bureaucrats" of the 1960s for this, lamenting the fate of what he described as a "great grape, which can make wines with irresistible dark chocolate flavours."
"Montepulciano is like a forgotten little brother among the big boys," write Bastianich and Lynch, "taking a back seat to sangiovese and aglianico in central and southern Italy the way dolcetto and barbera take a back seat to nebbiolo in Piedmont.
"While the pair thinks montepulciano d'Abruzzo lacks the tannins (which makes it imminently drinkable while young) and aroma that distinguish such varietals as sangiovese and nebbiolo, "at their best, montepulciano wines are inky-purple in color and almost syrupy in texture, with scents of black berries and a touch of earthy funk.
But they can be one-note wonders--all ripe, juicy fruit and not a lot else."The situation is improving. Alex Scagnelli, wine director at Convito Café and Market in Wilmette, said people are beginning to recognize the wine and seek it out. She's selling a lot of it and not just because it's summer and red wine drinkers are drinking lighter styles of red.
"I think people are looking for good value and a good food wine," she said.What to buy? Tom Benezra, wine director at Sal's Beverage World stores, said that discerning the good-quality wines from the "one-note wonders" can be difficult, although price plays a part."The lighter, simple, cherry fruit style I've seen only in bottles under $15," he said.
Consumers can also look for clues on the label. There's the basic appellation, or denominazione di origine controllata, called montepulciano d'Abruzzo. Then there's a more limited classification with higher standards, a denominazione di origine controllata e garantita, called montepulciano d'Abruzzo Colline Teramane.
Look, too, at vintages. Seger said the 2005 vintage coming in now is superb. The weather was hot in Abruzzi so the montepulciano d'Abruzzo will be big, ripe but balanced, he said. Seger noted the 2004 season was cooler, so the reds will have a brighter acidity ideal for pairing with food, especially items hot off the grill.
Soft, yet well toned
Ciao, bella! The montepulciano grape turned out to be quite the looker when the Good Eating tasting panel sat down for an informal blind tasting. Among the six Abruzzi wines, the best managed to be both beguilingly soft and athletically toned.
There were no wimps among these montepulciano d'Abruzzo wines in terms of flavor, but (thankfully) missing was that tight, tannic tingle that can make drinking red wines such a chore.
2001 Masciarelli Marina Cvetic
Here's the earthiness and complexity wine pros speak of when talking about higher-quality montepulciano d'Abruzzo. Still eminently sip-able, there's just enough smoky muscle and black pepper under the plummy fruit flavors to make things interesting. Serve with grilled duck breast with berry sauce, pasta with grilled eggplant, barbecued spare ribs. 3 corks $25
2004 Cataldi Madonna
This wine finished a close second to the Masciarelli but costs almost half the price. Expect a bolder, peppery profile spiked with sweet notes of blueberries. Serve with lamb kebabs, roast pork, steak sandwiches. 3 corks $13
2001 La Valentina Spelt
Bright, slightly puckery, but with a snappy finish, this red is full of dark fruits, mushrooms and spices. Serve with pasta with meat sauce, grilled lamb flavored with garlic and rosemary, porterhouse steak. 3 corks $22
2004 Fattoria Nicodemi
An oily, petroleum-like nose gives way to a light, tart cherry flavor. Serve with barbecued Cornish hens or grilled chicken. 2 corks $15
2005 Illuminati Riparosso
Notes of black pepper and spice with some berry on the finish. This wine's high acidity keeps any sweetness in check. Serve with fried chicken, hot dogs, Korean short ribs. 2 corks $16
2003 Peperoncino Capestrano
Considered the "funky" wine of the bunch, this montepulciano had a tealike nose, followed by plenty of berry fruit and a tart finish. Serve with Italian beef sandwiches, mushroom pizza, burgers. 2 corks. $8
Ratings key: 4 corks (Excellent)3 corks (Very Good)2 corks (Good)1 cork (Fair)No corkscrews) Poor
Click on the following to buy the above wines:-
Internet Wines and Spirits, Wine Globe & Wine.com
Thursday, July 12, 2007
The 8 Steps to Building a Multi-Million Dollar Individual Investment Portfolio
By Loral Langemeier
Who wants to be a millionaire? No, let me rephrase that. Who wants to be a multimillionaire? It's not all that hard these days to become a millionaire on paper, but to build a multi-million dollar individual investment portfolio is another matter.
Building a multimillion-dollar investment ownership requires something called direct buying. Before I outline the 8 steps involved in a direct asset allocation plan, I'll first describe what I mean by direct buying.
Most investment portfolios consist of a variety of stocks and bonds and, in some cases, property. Most of these investments are passive in nature, require a middleman, aren't a hard, real asset that you can see and touch, and typically only involve one or two asset classes.
Direct asset allocation, or what's also called direct participation programs, are direct (no middleman), involve the purchase of a hard, real asset, and are allocated across many different classes and types with various growth rates, yields, time frames, and even locations.
Direct asset allocation requires a plan. You can't just jump into direct asset allocation, hoping for the best. Although these types of investments typically offer much higher returns compared with indirect investments, they are also riskier. That's why I have a plan and I stick to the plan.
Here are 8 steps to create and execute a direct buying plan that will reduce your risk:
For example, I recently invested in a restaurant. Now, I didn't know the first thing about the restaurant business so I called upon my team and I pulled in a few more people that had experience with restaurants.
Rather than try to figure it all out myself, I depend on bringing in the right people who have the kind of experience I don't have. But, I don't rely entirely on them either. I learn and educate myself about the opportunity in all facets until I have enough information with which to make a solid decision.
Then, I decide and take action.
With the restaurant, all of my due diligence and information pointed towards a great investment. The numbers, both in terms of the cost of the investment and the return on investment, met my investment criteria (or what I call my Money Rules).
Finally, I did what you or I will always have to do: I trusted my gut and made a decision to become a direct investor in the restaurant. Now, I can honestly say that I "own" a restaurant (along with a bunch of other investments, of course). More importantly, I have added another asset to my investment ownership and further diversified my holdings.
Nothing is risk-free and, even with all my homework the restaurant business is tricky. But by following through with due diligence and taking action, I've added to my multi-million dollar individual investment portfolio.You can do this too, regardless of where you are today.
You may not be investing $100,000 in a restaurant but by understanding your money rules and following the steps above, you'll increase your asset base and be in a position to use those assets to purchase additional assets. Before you know it, you'll have a multimillion dollar individual investment portfolio.
Who wants to be a millionaire? No, let me rephrase that. Who wants to be a multimillionaire? It's not all that hard these days to become a millionaire on paper, but to build a multi-million dollar individual investment portfolio is another matter.
Building a multimillion-dollar investment ownership requires something called direct buying. Before I outline the 8 steps involved in a direct asset allocation plan, I'll first describe what I mean by direct buying.
Most investment portfolios consist of a variety of stocks and bonds and, in some cases, property. Most of these investments are passive in nature, require a middleman, aren't a hard, real asset that you can see and touch, and typically only involve one or two asset classes.
Direct asset allocation, or what's also called direct participation programs, are direct (no middleman), involve the purchase of a hard, real asset, and are allocated across many different classes and types with various growth rates, yields, time frames, and even locations.
Direct asset allocation requires a plan. You can't just jump into direct asset allocation, hoping for the best. Although these types of investments typically offer much higher returns compared with indirect investments, they are also riskier. That's why I have a plan and I stick to the plan.
Here are 8 steps to create and execute a direct buying plan that will reduce your risk:
Know your investment criteria (i.e. when you buy and why)
Get cash for investing by converting lazy assets (or assets that aren't earning) into cash and/or making more money
Scout out opportunities
Learn about the opportunities and educate yourself
Create a team with people who've done what you want to do
Find field partners (experienced professionals) to act as point people, provide access to the direct asset investments and to help manage the asset
Conduct due diligence (i.e. determine the opportunity and the risk)
Make decisions and take action
For example, I recently invested in a restaurant. Now, I didn't know the first thing about the restaurant business so I called upon my team and I pulled in a few more people that had experience with restaurants.
Rather than try to figure it all out myself, I depend on bringing in the right people who have the kind of experience I don't have. But, I don't rely entirely on them either. I learn and educate myself about the opportunity in all facets until I have enough information with which to make a solid decision.
Then, I decide and take action.
With the restaurant, all of my due diligence and information pointed towards a great investment. The numbers, both in terms of the cost of the investment and the return on investment, met my investment criteria (or what I call my Money Rules).
Finally, I did what you or I will always have to do: I trusted my gut and made a decision to become a direct investor in the restaurant. Now, I can honestly say that I "own" a restaurant (along with a bunch of other investments, of course). More importantly, I have added another asset to my investment ownership and further diversified my holdings.
Nothing is risk-free and, even with all my homework the restaurant business is tricky. But by following through with due diligence and taking action, I've added to my multi-million dollar individual investment portfolio.You can do this too, regardless of where you are today.
You may not be investing $100,000 in a restaurant but by understanding your money rules and following the steps above, you'll increase your asset base and be in a position to use those assets to purchase additional assets. Before you know it, you'll have a multimillion dollar individual investment portfolio.
Stop Bills While on Vacation
By Kelli B. Grant
HEADING OFF ON vacation is a chance to get away from it all, but while you're gone, the bills keep rolling in.
Or do they? You probably know to put a hold on your newspaper and mail, but temporary service suspensions, which are offered for everything from your landline and wireless phones to your high-speed Internet and cable, allow you to shut down your service (and those monthly bills) while you're away.
Setting it up is as simple as calling your providers and asking for a "vacation service," or, alternately, a "temporary suspension."
Depending on your provider, where you live and the length of time you'll be away, you may be subject to minor fees for suspension. (See chart below.) Still, the savings can be substantial even for travelers on short trips.
Although Dish Network charges $5 a month for service suspension, someone subscribing to its $90 "America's Everything" satellite TV package would still save $17.50 during a weeklong vacation.
Try these four tips to get the most out of vacation service suspensions:
Be specific. The fees and terms vary depending on where you live and why you're requesting a suspension, says Wesley Chin, a spokesman for Verizon. Head out of your wireless plan's service area or to your vacation home (where you've separately arranged for service), and the policy may be more generous than if you simply want a reprieve from your bill for a few days.
Your hometown may also dictate details. Florida, for example, has particularly lenient policies thanks to seasonal residents and substantial tourist draw. Verizon customers there can suspend their services for up to nine months, instead of the usual six. Plus, the $10 service charge is waived.
Avoid vacation notices. If you opt to suspend your phone service, be cautious about leaving a message noting that you're on vacation, or providing another number where you can be reached (a service most providers offer), says Lauren Russ, executive director of the Burglary Prevention Council, a nonprofit education group.
It's like letting newspapers or mail pile up. "That's a red alert to would-be burglars," who may test-call a home they believe unoccupied, she warns.
Mind your contract. If you have a contract with your provider to receive service for a set period of time, ask what happens to that contract, says Linda Sherry, spokeswoman for Consumer Action. Providers usually extend your contract by the period of time you're away. But exceed their maximum, and you may be extended further.
Or worse: T-Mobile may cancel accounts that aren't reinstated after its 90-day limit.
Determine a backup. Return home from vacation to find service hasn't been reinstated? No thanks. Expressing this concern to the major providers, their reps insisted that providing exact dates negates this issue. Even suspended, your wireless phone allows you to call 611 (customer service). Use that to reactivate your wireless service, and then dial your providers' toll-free numbers.
We talked to the major national providers about their temporary service suspension policies. Sprint/Nextel did not return calls by deadline. Representatives from AT&T and Comcast declined to provide policy specifics, citing wide variation based on consumer needs, location and suspension purposes.
"We're locally managed," says Comcast spokeswoman Jennifer Khoury. "It gives them the advantage to tailor policies to their local market."
Here's what to expect from your provider on your next vacation
HEADING OFF ON vacation is a chance to get away from it all, but while you're gone, the bills keep rolling in.
Or do they? You probably know to put a hold on your newspaper and mail, but temporary service suspensions, which are offered for everything from your landline and wireless phones to your high-speed Internet and cable, allow you to shut down your service (and those monthly bills) while you're away.
Setting it up is as simple as calling your providers and asking for a "vacation service," or, alternately, a "temporary suspension."
Depending on your provider, where you live and the length of time you'll be away, you may be subject to minor fees for suspension. (See chart below.) Still, the savings can be substantial even for travelers on short trips.
Although Dish Network charges $5 a month for service suspension, someone subscribing to its $90 "America's Everything" satellite TV package would still save $17.50 during a weeklong vacation.
Try these four tips to get the most out of vacation service suspensions:
Be specific. The fees and terms vary depending on where you live and why you're requesting a suspension, says Wesley Chin, a spokesman for Verizon. Head out of your wireless plan's service area or to your vacation home (where you've separately arranged for service), and the policy may be more generous than if you simply want a reprieve from your bill for a few days.
Your hometown may also dictate details. Florida, for example, has particularly lenient policies thanks to seasonal residents and substantial tourist draw. Verizon customers there can suspend their services for up to nine months, instead of the usual six. Plus, the $10 service charge is waived.
Avoid vacation notices. If you opt to suspend your phone service, be cautious about leaving a message noting that you're on vacation, or providing another number where you can be reached (a service most providers offer), says Lauren Russ, executive director of the Burglary Prevention Council, a nonprofit education group.
It's like letting newspapers or mail pile up. "That's a red alert to would-be burglars," who may test-call a home they believe unoccupied, she warns.
Mind your contract. If you have a contract with your provider to receive service for a set period of time, ask what happens to that contract, says Linda Sherry, spokeswoman for Consumer Action. Providers usually extend your contract by the period of time you're away. But exceed their maximum, and you may be extended further.
Or worse: T-Mobile may cancel accounts that aren't reinstated after its 90-day limit.
Determine a backup. Return home from vacation to find service hasn't been reinstated? No thanks. Expressing this concern to the major providers, their reps insisted that providing exact dates negates this issue. Even suspended, your wireless phone allows you to call 611 (customer service). Use that to reactivate your wireless service, and then dial your providers' toll-free numbers.
We talked to the major national providers about their temporary service suspension policies. Sprint/Nextel did not return calls by deadline. Representatives from AT&T and Comcast declined to provide policy specifics, citing wide variation based on consumer needs, location and suspension purposes.
"We're locally managed," says Comcast spokeswoman Jennifer Khoury. "It gives them the advantage to tailor policies to their local market."
Here's what to expect from your provider on your next vacation
Bartending Terms
By Mario Oreilly
Drinks requiring only shaking are covered with a plastic shaker cup and mixed within the glass; whereas shaken and strained or stirred and strained drinks are originally mixed within (a) shaker cups (glass & stainless steel) and then transferred to a glass.
Remember to always fill your shaker full of ice before mixing drinks requiring either stirring/shaking and straining. The same applies to glassware; always start with a full glass of ice.
*SAFETY PRECAUTIONS*
Please keep in mind that while directions such as "shoot drink", "drink without using hands", "ignite drink", or "while leaning head over bar pour drink into mouth" are all authentic recipe components, they are only suggestions and should not be attempted if you feel that they might pose a hazard to your health.
Make certain to never carry or transport a lit drink, as alcohol is a flammable liquid and should be respectfully treated as such. Before drinking, completely extinguish any drink suggesting ignition.
Always overstock on ice, fresh resupply is critical in the maintenance of professional standards. Whenever glassware or bottles are broken in the vicinity of the ice bin, melt the ice with hot water, clean the bin, and restock with new ice.
Ice
Ice can be one of the most important factors in determining a drink's quality. Generally speaking, the small square-shaped "slices" usually referred to as "bar" ice are best. Aside from preventing premature blender destruction, the smaller style ice cube, will by virtue of increased surface area, make for a significantly colder drink.
The resulting reduction in vapor pressure (fumes) from the alcohol makes for a more palatable mixed drink. As mentioned before in the section on Ice, whenever glassware or bottles are broken in the vicinity of the ice bin, melt the ice with hot water, clean the bin and restock with new ice.
A 2-speed commercial blender is practically a must for quality frozens. Don't destroy a 15-speed kitchen blender trying to crush ice; it's simply not made for the job. Waring® produces a good line of commercial 2-speed Blender models that start at less than $90.00.
Liquor Measurement
The use of a shot system has been adopted, whereby a shot is equal to whichever size jigger you use, keeping in mind that the recipes are based on a 1 1/2 oz. shot. When using a different size jigger, correct proportioning can be maintained by using larger glassware and more mixer if the "shot" is bigger or vice versa if smaller.
Use a 1 1/4 oz. shot and the specified sizes and measurements for a milder recipe variation. Splashes are 1 oz., scoops are 4 ozs. and dashes are from 3 to 5 drops. This system was chosen not only because it's quick and easy to use but most importantly, because it's adaptable to your bartending style.
Liquor Measuring Key:
Dash-------3 to 5 drops
Scoop------4 ounces
Shot-------1 1/2 ounces
Splash-----1 ounce
Tablespoon-'/2 ounce (3 tspn.)
Teaspoon---'/6 ounce
A.K.A.-----"Also Known As"
S.A.-------"See Also"
V/O--------"Variation or Option"
/----------"or"
R----------"Registered Trademark"
Check out more of the same content as well as the best bar equipment click on the links below:-
Barstool - We have information on the best bar stool for each and every bar style.
Bar supply - Bar supplies & bar equipment online. Your entire bar supplies, beer supplies, & wine supplies online.
Jello Shots - Make that party come to life with a jello shot!
Drinks requiring only shaking are covered with a plastic shaker cup and mixed within the glass; whereas shaken and strained or stirred and strained drinks are originally mixed within (a) shaker cups (glass & stainless steel) and then transferred to a glass.
Remember to always fill your shaker full of ice before mixing drinks requiring either stirring/shaking and straining. The same applies to glassware; always start with a full glass of ice.
*SAFETY PRECAUTIONS*
Please keep in mind that while directions such as "shoot drink", "drink without using hands", "ignite drink", or "while leaning head over bar pour drink into mouth" are all authentic recipe components, they are only suggestions and should not be attempted if you feel that they might pose a hazard to your health.
Make certain to never carry or transport a lit drink, as alcohol is a flammable liquid and should be respectfully treated as such. Before drinking, completely extinguish any drink suggesting ignition.
Always overstock on ice, fresh resupply is critical in the maintenance of professional standards. Whenever glassware or bottles are broken in the vicinity of the ice bin, melt the ice with hot water, clean the bin, and restock with new ice.
Ice
Ice can be one of the most important factors in determining a drink's quality. Generally speaking, the small square-shaped "slices" usually referred to as "bar" ice are best. Aside from preventing premature blender destruction, the smaller style ice cube, will by virtue of increased surface area, make for a significantly colder drink.
The resulting reduction in vapor pressure (fumes) from the alcohol makes for a more palatable mixed drink. As mentioned before in the section on Ice, whenever glassware or bottles are broken in the vicinity of the ice bin, melt the ice with hot water, clean the bin and restock with new ice.
A 2-speed commercial blender is practically a must for quality frozens. Don't destroy a 15-speed kitchen blender trying to crush ice; it's simply not made for the job. Waring® produces a good line of commercial 2-speed Blender models that start at less than $90.00.
Liquor Measurement
The use of a shot system has been adopted, whereby a shot is equal to whichever size jigger you use, keeping in mind that the recipes are based on a 1 1/2 oz. shot. When using a different size jigger, correct proportioning can be maintained by using larger glassware and more mixer if the "shot" is bigger or vice versa if smaller.
Use a 1 1/4 oz. shot and the specified sizes and measurements for a milder recipe variation. Splashes are 1 oz., scoops are 4 ozs. and dashes are from 3 to 5 drops. This system was chosen not only because it's quick and easy to use but most importantly, because it's adaptable to your bartending style.
Liquor Measuring Key:
Dash-------3 to 5 drops
Scoop------4 ounces
Shot-------1 1/2 ounces
Splash-----1 ounce
Tablespoon-'/2 ounce (3 tspn.)
Teaspoon---'/6 ounce
A.K.A.-----"Also Known As"
S.A.-------"See Also"
V/O--------"Variation or Option"
/----------"or"
R----------"Registered Trademark"
Check out more of the same content as well as the best bar equipment click on the links below:-
Barstool - We have information on the best bar stool for each and every bar style.
Bar supply - Bar supplies & bar equipment online. Your entire bar supplies, beer supplies, & wine supplies online.
Jello Shots - Make that party come to life with a jello shot!
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Bartending - Are You Up for the Job?
By Keith Londrie
Bartending seems like a pretty easy occupation. Even people who have never been to Bartending School or have other similar education jump into the bartending business thinking that bartending the same as any other business.
Indeed if you plan to hire people for absolutely everything including a manager who knows the secrets of bartending the whole venture can be quire simple or at least business-book simple. However this doesn’t make you the bartender but the investor.
The obvious things such finding a location of the bar, buying all the furnishing and equipment are straight forward. All you need is a good research and planning and you can be ready in less than a month.
Hiring the personnel and keeping the people who work for you is the hard part. Obviously your employees must be satisfied with the job. However keeping bar staff happy might turn into a nightmare. Bar staff should be treated differently than the staff of a regular company and the traditional boss-to-workers behavior is in most cases useless.
Your people will be pt into big pressure, working ling hours, dealing with other people who are sometimes drunk, dealing with money. Take all of these into account when creating the working practices in your bar.
Bartending includes another dark side which is often underestimated. Dealing with customers can also be a tricky thing. As in any company the customers are the most important part of your business. If you don’t have customers your business will dye.
The big difference between bartending and any other business is that bar customers usually come to the bar not because of the drinks offered but because of the bartender and the atmosphere. The list can go on an on as there are hundreds of things any bartender should know.
For example as a bartender you will have to memorize a large quantity if drinks and learn to prepare them quickly. Also you will be responsible for keeping the bar well supplied with all of the drinks that are in the menu. This requires a very good knowledge of how the drinking patterns of your customers.
Finally you should make sure your customers are having fun and enjoy spending their time in you r bar. You should think well in advance how this can be achieved. Do not e surprised if this task turns out to be harder than you have excepted – the competition between bars is huge and each is trying to beat the rest by being unique.
The theme of your bar depends on the location, your primarily type of customers and the opening hours. You can choose to have a karaoke bar, a live music bar, bar with pool, jazz bar, etc. the chose is quite large so do your homework first and pick up the best option.
Keith Londrie II is the Webmaster of http://bartendingforbeginners.coffee-info.info A website that specializes in providing information on bartending for beginners that you can research on the internet.
Please Visit http://bartendingforbeginners.coffee-info.info Today!
Bartending seems like a pretty easy occupation. Even people who have never been to Bartending School or have other similar education jump into the bartending business thinking that bartending the same as any other business.
Indeed if you plan to hire people for absolutely everything including a manager who knows the secrets of bartending the whole venture can be quire simple or at least business-book simple. However this doesn’t make you the bartender but the investor.
The obvious things such finding a location of the bar, buying all the furnishing and equipment are straight forward. All you need is a good research and planning and you can be ready in less than a month.
Hiring the personnel and keeping the people who work for you is the hard part. Obviously your employees must be satisfied with the job. However keeping bar staff happy might turn into a nightmare. Bar staff should be treated differently than the staff of a regular company and the traditional boss-to-workers behavior is in most cases useless.
Your people will be pt into big pressure, working ling hours, dealing with other people who are sometimes drunk, dealing with money. Take all of these into account when creating the working practices in your bar.
Bartending includes another dark side which is often underestimated. Dealing with customers can also be a tricky thing. As in any company the customers are the most important part of your business. If you don’t have customers your business will dye.
The big difference between bartending and any other business is that bar customers usually come to the bar not because of the drinks offered but because of the bartender and the atmosphere. The list can go on an on as there are hundreds of things any bartender should know.
For example as a bartender you will have to memorize a large quantity if drinks and learn to prepare them quickly. Also you will be responsible for keeping the bar well supplied with all of the drinks that are in the menu. This requires a very good knowledge of how the drinking patterns of your customers.
Finally you should make sure your customers are having fun and enjoy spending their time in you r bar. You should think well in advance how this can be achieved. Do not e surprised if this task turns out to be harder than you have excepted – the competition between bars is huge and each is trying to beat the rest by being unique.
The theme of your bar depends on the location, your primarily type of customers and the opening hours. You can choose to have a karaoke bar, a live music bar, bar with pool, jazz bar, etc. the chose is quite large so do your homework first and pick up the best option.
Keith Londrie II is the Webmaster of http://bartendingforbeginners.coffee-info.info A website that specializes in providing information on bartending for beginners that you can research on the internet.
Please Visit http://bartendingforbeginners.coffee-info.info Today!
How Your Junk Is Costing You Money
By Jeffrey Strain
You have too much junk and it's costing you money, time and freedom.
Martha Stewart says that 80% of the stuff we have we never use. That means that eight out every 10 purchases you make are a waste of money.
What's ironic is that most of the time when we purchase something, it's because we think that it will simplify our lives and give us more free time. The truth is that buying stuff rarely achieves this goal. Here are some of the costs of having too much stuff:
Lost savings: All of the stuff that you buy costs money. If you are only using 20% of all the things that you purchase, that means that 80% of the stuff you buy is money wasted. That adds up to a lot of money over a year and an incredible amount over a lifetime.
Had you not purchased the 80% of the things you don't use, you'd likely have savings and retirement accounts that look a lot healthier than they currently do.
Continue reading "How Your Junk Is Costing You Money”
You have too much junk and it's costing you money, time and freedom.
Martha Stewart says that 80% of the stuff we have we never use. That means that eight out every 10 purchases you make are a waste of money.
What's ironic is that most of the time when we purchase something, it's because we think that it will simplify our lives and give us more free time. The truth is that buying stuff rarely achieves this goal. Here are some of the costs of having too much stuff:
Lost savings: All of the stuff that you buy costs money. If you are only using 20% of all the things that you purchase, that means that 80% of the stuff you buy is money wasted. That adds up to a lot of money over a year and an incredible amount over a lifetime.
Had you not purchased the 80% of the things you don't use, you'd likely have savings and retirement accounts that look a lot healthier than they currently do.
Continue reading "How Your Junk Is Costing You Money”
Investors Should Heed Warren Buffett's Free Advice
By James B. Stewart
THERE ARE MANY MEASURES of Warren Buffett's success, not the least of which is his status as the world's second-richest man (after Bill Gates, according to Forbes). There's also the legendary performance of his Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A: 111800.00, 0.00, 0.0%) stock. The Class A shares now trade at a heady $112,000.
But news last week that an Irvine, Calif., money manager, Mohnish Pabrai, had bid $650,100 for the opportunity to have dinner with Buffett struck me as a good one. An auction is, after all, the free market in its purest form.
I wonder who else might fetch such a fee at auction? Queen Elizabeth II? Actress Helen Mirren turned down dinner at Buckingham Palace, and it was free. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie? Why bother, when every detail about them is chronicled breathlessly in the popular press.
The reason I believe Buffett might even top Bill Gates in the dinner sweepstakes is not his legendary down-home charm but his proven ability to make people rich. Pabrai, the winning bidder, is a self-proclaimed disciple of the Buffett method, and surely he sees his meal as more than a celebrity sit-down.
It's an investment. Whether it would meet Buffett's own value criteria is another matter. In any event, Buffett has given away more free advice than just about any billionaire I can think of. He reports his stock holdings and discusses their merits and the reasons for his choices in his popular annual letter to shareholders.
More fundamentally, he has laid out his investment philosophy repeatedly for all to see. Anyone can piggy-back his actual stock selections or apply his criteria to come up with other investments, as I've done periodically in this column.
Earlier this year Buffett was tantalizingly cryptic, revealing that he had more than $700 million invested in each of two stocks, but wouldn't reveal their names since he was still buying them. He has now done so in SEC filings, and it turns out he was buying more than two stocks, the others constituting smaller positions.
The big two were apparently Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI: 84.58, 0.00, 0.0%), which I discussed in an earlier column, and Union Pacific (UNP: 115.07, 0.00, 0.0%), another large railroad concern. He also acquired a smaller position in Norfolk Southern (NSC: 53.53, 0.00, 0.0%). All told, it's a significant sector bet on railroads.
His other theme was health care, another sector I've recommended. He added to his already substantial position in Johnson & Johnson (JNJ: 62.20, 0.00, 0.0%) and bought additional shares in Sanofi-Aventis (SNY: 41.41, 0.00, 0.0%), the large French pharmaceutical concern. He added managed-care provider WellPoint (WLP: 80.44, 0.00, 0.0%) to his portfolio.
All fit the Buffett value profile of strong brands and steady revenue growth. The health-care sector has been out of favor, with the nascent presidential campaign fueling investor worries about increased government regulation. But the sheer demographics of the aging baby boom make the sector compelling, in my view.
Buffett didn't say anything about what he was selling, but his SEC disclosures indicate he dumped shares of Ameriprise Financial (AMP: 63.30, 0.00, 0.0%) and H&R Block (HRB: 22.35, 0.00, 0.0%). Neither was mentioned in his list of holdings that accompanied his annual letter, so I assume they fell into the "others" category amounting to over $8 billion.
(Obviously, Buffett doesn't tell us everything.) Both companies have undergone significant restructurings, with H&R Block spinning off its troubled subprime loan business and Ameriprise itself a spinoff from American Express (AXP: 60.30, 0.00, 0.0%), which has long figured in Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio.
Still, Ameriprise has been doing quite well, recently trading near a 52-week high, despite Buffett's phased withdrawal. Meanwhile, my own effort to apply the Buffett philosophy has paid off handsomely so far. The two stocks I recommended as Buffett's targets, Deere (DE: 123.88, 0.00, 0.0%) and Caterpillar (CAT: 81.22, 0.00, 0.0%), have since jumped by 12% and 23%, respectively.
(Buffett's Burlington Northern is up 8% over the same period.) Not bad in little more than three months. Despite this impressive performance, I haven't been summoned to Omaha for an interview to be Berkshire Hathaway's next chief investment officer, a job opening which Buffett hasn't yet filled, so far as I know. Nor have I been invited to dinner. Like Mr. Pabrai, that's a privilege I'll evidently have to pay for.
MORE ON STOCKS FROM SMARTMONEY.COM
Investors Shed Tears Over Sears Profit Warning
Security-Software Maker Shores Up Own Defenses
Poor Portfolio Management Sacrifices Big Bucks
THERE ARE MANY MEASURES of Warren Buffett's success, not the least of which is his status as the world's second-richest man (after Bill Gates, according to Forbes). There's also the legendary performance of his Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A: 111800.00, 0.00, 0.0%) stock. The Class A shares now trade at a heady $112,000.
But news last week that an Irvine, Calif., money manager, Mohnish Pabrai, had bid $650,100 for the opportunity to have dinner with Buffett struck me as a good one. An auction is, after all, the free market in its purest form.
I wonder who else might fetch such a fee at auction? Queen Elizabeth II? Actress Helen Mirren turned down dinner at Buckingham Palace, and it was free. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie? Why bother, when every detail about them is chronicled breathlessly in the popular press.
The reason I believe Buffett might even top Bill Gates in the dinner sweepstakes is not his legendary down-home charm but his proven ability to make people rich. Pabrai, the winning bidder, is a self-proclaimed disciple of the Buffett method, and surely he sees his meal as more than a celebrity sit-down.
It's an investment. Whether it would meet Buffett's own value criteria is another matter. In any event, Buffett has given away more free advice than just about any billionaire I can think of. He reports his stock holdings and discusses their merits and the reasons for his choices in his popular annual letter to shareholders.
More fundamentally, he has laid out his investment philosophy repeatedly for all to see. Anyone can piggy-back his actual stock selections or apply his criteria to come up with other investments, as I've done periodically in this column.
Earlier this year Buffett was tantalizingly cryptic, revealing that he had more than $700 million invested in each of two stocks, but wouldn't reveal their names since he was still buying them. He has now done so in SEC filings, and it turns out he was buying more than two stocks, the others constituting smaller positions.
The big two were apparently Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI: 84.58, 0.00, 0.0%), which I discussed in an earlier column, and Union Pacific (UNP: 115.07, 0.00, 0.0%), another large railroad concern. He also acquired a smaller position in Norfolk Southern (NSC: 53.53, 0.00, 0.0%). All told, it's a significant sector bet on railroads.
His other theme was health care, another sector I've recommended. He added to his already substantial position in Johnson & Johnson (JNJ: 62.20, 0.00, 0.0%) and bought additional shares in Sanofi-Aventis (SNY: 41.41, 0.00, 0.0%), the large French pharmaceutical concern. He added managed-care provider WellPoint (WLP: 80.44, 0.00, 0.0%) to his portfolio.
All fit the Buffett value profile of strong brands and steady revenue growth. The health-care sector has been out of favor, with the nascent presidential campaign fueling investor worries about increased government regulation. But the sheer demographics of the aging baby boom make the sector compelling, in my view.
Buffett didn't say anything about what he was selling, but his SEC disclosures indicate he dumped shares of Ameriprise Financial (AMP: 63.30, 0.00, 0.0%) and H&R Block (HRB: 22.35, 0.00, 0.0%). Neither was mentioned in his list of holdings that accompanied his annual letter, so I assume they fell into the "others" category amounting to over $8 billion.
(Obviously, Buffett doesn't tell us everything.) Both companies have undergone significant restructurings, with H&R Block spinning off its troubled subprime loan business and Ameriprise itself a spinoff from American Express (AXP: 60.30, 0.00, 0.0%), which has long figured in Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio.
Still, Ameriprise has been doing quite well, recently trading near a 52-week high, despite Buffett's phased withdrawal. Meanwhile, my own effort to apply the Buffett philosophy has paid off handsomely so far. The two stocks I recommended as Buffett's targets, Deere (DE: 123.88, 0.00, 0.0%) and Caterpillar (CAT: 81.22, 0.00, 0.0%), have since jumped by 12% and 23%, respectively.
(Buffett's Burlington Northern is up 8% over the same period.) Not bad in little more than three months. Despite this impressive performance, I haven't been summoned to Omaha for an interview to be Berkshire Hathaway's next chief investment officer, a job opening which Buffett hasn't yet filled, so far as I know. Nor have I been invited to dinner. Like Mr. Pabrai, that's a privilege I'll evidently have to pay for.
MORE ON STOCKS FROM SMARTMONEY.COM
Investors Shed Tears Over Sears Profit Warning
Security-Software Maker Shores Up Own Defenses
Poor Portfolio Management Sacrifices Big Bucks
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
The Pros Secret Time Management Technique: Slowing Down
http://www.millionaireinside.com/blog/millionaire-inside-you/the-pros-secret-time-management-technique-slowing-down
In today’s busy world which is filled with running here, there and everywhere, trying to fit more hours into the day than you possibly can and trying to do too much, how could slowing down possibly help you in your time management techniques?
Actually by slowing down and taking it a little easier you can get more done, as silly as it sounds. Slowing down allows you to get a better perspective on the situation at hand and to think more clearly, it enables you to become more energized with a clearer outlook and fresher mind.
Here are some time management techniques to help you slow down and look at things with a clearer mind.
If you feel you are running out of time and haven’t got all you should have got done accomplished then the first mistake many people make it to go rushing about blindly trying to do too many things at once and not really accomplishing anything at all.
This is the time when the technique of slowing down can really benefit you. The easiest way to do this is to forget everything that your body and mind is telling you, such as you have to do this, you have to do that, and instead just flop back into your chair, let your body go loose and let out a big deep sigh.
Once you have done this, feel the tension leaving your body and imagine all the stress you are feeling leaving through the top of the head as if it was steam. As the steam gushes out through the top of the body start to breathe slowly and evenly in through the nose concentrating on how the breath feels as it enters your nostrils.
Hold your breath for just a few seconds before letting it back out again slowly though the mouth ensuring that all the breath leaves your body. Continue breathing in this way for around 5 minutes or so imagining the steam of your frustration slowing down until finally all the steam has dissipated.
This whole process is quick and easy to learn and master and is the core behind slowing down and actually getting more done. Once you have done this and allowed your whole body and mind to become relaxed and let the strain and anxiety slip away.
You will find that you are able to concentrate better on the matter at hand and in fact, you do get more accomplished when relaxed and calm than when anxious and rushing around.
In today’s busy world which is filled with running here, there and everywhere, trying to fit more hours into the day than you possibly can and trying to do too much, how could slowing down possibly help you in your time management techniques?
Actually by slowing down and taking it a little easier you can get more done, as silly as it sounds. Slowing down allows you to get a better perspective on the situation at hand and to think more clearly, it enables you to become more energized with a clearer outlook and fresher mind.
Here are some time management techniques to help you slow down and look at things with a clearer mind.
If you feel you are running out of time and haven’t got all you should have got done accomplished then the first mistake many people make it to go rushing about blindly trying to do too many things at once and not really accomplishing anything at all.
This is the time when the technique of slowing down can really benefit you. The easiest way to do this is to forget everything that your body and mind is telling you, such as you have to do this, you have to do that, and instead just flop back into your chair, let your body go loose and let out a big deep sigh.
Once you have done this, feel the tension leaving your body and imagine all the stress you are feeling leaving through the top of the head as if it was steam. As the steam gushes out through the top of the body start to breathe slowly and evenly in through the nose concentrating on how the breath feels as it enters your nostrils.
Hold your breath for just a few seconds before letting it back out again slowly though the mouth ensuring that all the breath leaves your body. Continue breathing in this way for around 5 minutes or so imagining the steam of your frustration slowing down until finally all the steam has dissipated.
This whole process is quick and easy to learn and master and is the core behind slowing down and actually getting more done. Once you have done this and allowed your whole body and mind to become relaxed and let the strain and anxiety slip away.
You will find that you are able to concentrate better on the matter at hand and in fact, you do get more accomplished when relaxed and calm than when anxious and rushing around.
Balancing Work and Life: Keeping a Home and Home Office
By Colleen DeBaise
FOR MANY ENTREPRENEURS, the decision to start a home-based business has to do with family. Sticking close to home, they reason, will keep them connected to children while providing extra income for the household.
The problem? Simultaneously keeping up with the demands of children and a small business can be taxing, often making the entrepreneur feel exhausted, stressed and even resentful.
For Michelle Knoll, who's raising three young sons while running a public-relations business out of her Minneapolis home, "naptime and bedtime are probably my most productive times of the day," she says.
In a few years, when her kids are in school, working on the business will probably "seem like the easiest thing I've ever done, because I've done it with screaming kids and 'Mom, Mom, Mom' in my ear," she says.
Indeed, "a lot of home-office parents at the end of the day are wrung out," says Jennifer Kalita, a Washington, D.C., small-business consultant and author of "The Home Office Parent." "And they feel like they haven't accomplished anything 100% — they feel like half a parent, and half a business owner."
Eventually, something's got to give and too often that ends up being the needs of the children, she says. That's especially common when the home-based business becomes a critical revenue stream for the family.
Recent research underscores that many home-based entrepreneurs are struggling to balance work and family life. Nearly three out of four home-based entrepreneurs said they found themselves making sacrifices to be an entrepreneur, according to the OPEN from American Express Small Business Monitor, which surveyed 626 small-business owners in April.
In the areas where home-based entrepreneurs found themselves making the sacrifice, "family" ranked at the top, followed by friends, personal finances and health, the survey found.
MORE ON SMALL BUSINESS FROM SMARTMONEY.COM
Balancing Work and Life: Keeping a Home and Home Office
Leasing Equipment Can Make Sense for Some Owners
The Six Best Places to Find Funding for Small Businesses
Home-based entrepreneurs who are raising children often struggle with guilt, too, says Alan Weiss, president of Summit Consulting Group, a business-consulting group in East Greenwich, R.I., and author of "Life Balance."
Mothers, in particular, feel guilty shutting the office door when their children are so close by; they also feel like "bad" business people if they need to care for children during work time, he says. "The guilt makes you worse at business, and it makes you worse at your personal life," he says.
The key to being a successful home-based entrepreneur — and a successful parent — is to carve out times during the day to devote to business and family. "It's just a lifestyle that requires a lot of planning and boundary-setting," Kalita says. She and other experts recommend the following:
Sit down and plan a schedule that works for the family, even if it's nontraditional.
Bonnie Marcus of Westport, Conn., was pregnant with her first child when she decided to launch her own stationery business, Bonnie's StylePress, in 2002. After giving birth to her son, Marcus worked out a plan with her husband, a dentist who kept daytime hours, to hole herself up in her home office as soon as he came home from work.
"It was hard as a new mom, but I went to work from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.," she says. "It was almost like having two babies at once." A year later, after the birth of a second son, Marcus relied more on babysitters and family to lend a hand while she tended to the business, which is on track this year to surpass $1 million in revenue.
Honor the time slots you devote to business and kids.
Veteran entrepreneur Wally Bock, a home-based consultant in Greensboro, N.C., says he taught his five children (now grown) to respect that when his home-office door was closed, "you don't open it unless it requires 9-1-1."
But he also respected their requests for his time, especially for ball games and recitals, which they'd mark down on his calendar in a grand ceremony. "If you get it on my calendar, it's sacred," he recalls telling them. "
My kids now tell me that turned out to be a really neat thing they remember." Now, Bock plans to use similar rules when his grandsons come for a long visit this summer.
Focus on work, but don't push children out completely. Home-based entrepreneurs often stress the need to shut the door so they can concentrate on work while a babysitter or nanny cares for the child.
But during downtime — when no client calls are scheduled, and when more menial tasks can be performed — many say they invite kids to work alongside them. Nicola Ries Taggart, who runs her life-coaching business, True Insights Coaching, out of her Alameda, Calif., home, says she keeps a box of crayons nearby so her 2-year-old can color and do her "own work" while Mom gets stuff done at her desk.
Kalita, the home-office expert, says it's important to include kids so they don't equate the business to "all your time away from them."
Learn to multitask.
That's the recommendation from Janet Galati, who is raising her three daughters, all under the age of 7, while running her direct-mail business, Money Mailer of the Chain-O-Lakes, out of her Lake Villa, Ill., home.
She uses the service of a babysitter in the mornings so she can visit clients, but spends the afternoons telemarketing, faxing and simultaneously watching the kids. "It takes a ton of organization, and the ability to focus and re-focus your attention quickly," she says.
(Indeed, during our interview, Galati displayed those talents, occasionally telling one or more of her daughters to "let Mama finish her phone call" before turning back to answer questions.) While it's challenging, the best part of working from home is "sitting on my beach, watching my children play in the sand....as I make phone calls to set appointments with clients," she says.
FOR MANY ENTREPRENEURS, the decision to start a home-based business has to do with family. Sticking close to home, they reason, will keep them connected to children while providing extra income for the household.
The problem? Simultaneously keeping up with the demands of children and a small business can be taxing, often making the entrepreneur feel exhausted, stressed and even resentful.
For Michelle Knoll, who's raising three young sons while running a public-relations business out of her Minneapolis home, "naptime and bedtime are probably my most productive times of the day," she says.
In a few years, when her kids are in school, working on the business will probably "seem like the easiest thing I've ever done, because I've done it with screaming kids and 'Mom, Mom, Mom' in my ear," she says.
Indeed, "a lot of home-office parents at the end of the day are wrung out," says Jennifer Kalita, a Washington, D.C., small-business consultant and author of "The Home Office Parent." "And they feel like they haven't accomplished anything 100% — they feel like half a parent, and half a business owner."
Eventually, something's got to give and too often that ends up being the needs of the children, she says. That's especially common when the home-based business becomes a critical revenue stream for the family.
Recent research underscores that many home-based entrepreneurs are struggling to balance work and family life. Nearly three out of four home-based entrepreneurs said they found themselves making sacrifices to be an entrepreneur, according to the OPEN from American Express Small Business Monitor, which surveyed 626 small-business owners in April.
In the areas where home-based entrepreneurs found themselves making the sacrifice, "family" ranked at the top, followed by friends, personal finances and health, the survey found.
MORE ON SMALL BUSINESS FROM SMARTMONEY.COM
Balancing Work and Life: Keeping a Home and Home Office
Leasing Equipment Can Make Sense for Some Owners
The Six Best Places to Find Funding for Small Businesses
Home-based entrepreneurs who are raising children often struggle with guilt, too, says Alan Weiss, president of Summit Consulting Group, a business-consulting group in East Greenwich, R.I., and author of "Life Balance."
Mothers, in particular, feel guilty shutting the office door when their children are so close by; they also feel like "bad" business people if they need to care for children during work time, he says. "The guilt makes you worse at business, and it makes you worse at your personal life," he says.
The key to being a successful home-based entrepreneur — and a successful parent — is to carve out times during the day to devote to business and family. "It's just a lifestyle that requires a lot of planning and boundary-setting," Kalita says. She and other experts recommend the following:
Sit down and plan a schedule that works for the family, even if it's nontraditional.
Bonnie Marcus of Westport, Conn., was pregnant with her first child when she decided to launch her own stationery business, Bonnie's StylePress, in 2002. After giving birth to her son, Marcus worked out a plan with her husband, a dentist who kept daytime hours, to hole herself up in her home office as soon as he came home from work.
"It was hard as a new mom, but I went to work from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.," she says. "It was almost like having two babies at once." A year later, after the birth of a second son, Marcus relied more on babysitters and family to lend a hand while she tended to the business, which is on track this year to surpass $1 million in revenue.
Honor the time slots you devote to business and kids.
Veteran entrepreneur Wally Bock, a home-based consultant in Greensboro, N.C., says he taught his five children (now grown) to respect that when his home-office door was closed, "you don't open it unless it requires 9-1-1."
But he also respected their requests for his time, especially for ball games and recitals, which they'd mark down on his calendar in a grand ceremony. "If you get it on my calendar, it's sacred," he recalls telling them. "
My kids now tell me that turned out to be a really neat thing they remember." Now, Bock plans to use similar rules when his grandsons come for a long visit this summer.
Focus on work, but don't push children out completely. Home-based entrepreneurs often stress the need to shut the door so they can concentrate on work while a babysitter or nanny cares for the child.
But during downtime — when no client calls are scheduled, and when more menial tasks can be performed — many say they invite kids to work alongside them. Nicola Ries Taggart, who runs her life-coaching business, True Insights Coaching, out of her Alameda, Calif., home, says she keeps a box of crayons nearby so her 2-year-old can color and do her "own work" while Mom gets stuff done at her desk.
Kalita, the home-office expert, says it's important to include kids so they don't equate the business to "all your time away from them."
Learn to multitask.
That's the recommendation from Janet Galati, who is raising her three daughters, all under the age of 7, while running her direct-mail business, Money Mailer of the Chain-O-Lakes, out of her Lake Villa, Ill., home.
She uses the service of a babysitter in the mornings so she can visit clients, but spends the afternoons telemarketing, faxing and simultaneously watching the kids. "It takes a ton of organization, and the ability to focus and re-focus your attention quickly," she says.
(Indeed, during our interview, Galati displayed those talents, occasionally telling one or more of her daughters to "let Mama finish her phone call" before turning back to answer questions.) While it's challenging, the best part of working from home is "sitting on my beach, watching my children play in the sand....as I make phone calls to set appointments with clients," she says.
Imagination
From LifeSkill Institute, Inc
The second aspect of the law of vision is imagination. This is your power to form mental images of something not present to the senses. Albert Einstein once said,
“Imagination is more important than
knowledge. For knowledge is limited,
whereas imagination embraces the
whole world, stimulating progress,
giving birth to evolution.”
Your imagination is the connecting link between your own human consciousness and the universal consciousness. Through your imagination, the formless energy of the universal mind becomes the formed universe in your own mind, and thus your life experience.
Your power of imagination is used to see beyond the appearances of your present situation, to the possibilities of who you really are and what you can become. As you do all you can to realize the vision you have of yourself, you must also appeal to your higher consciousness to raise your energy level.
This requires that you bring yourself to a rested and peaceful (alpha) state, and create visual images in your mind of each and every aspect of your vision. Know that your mind is open and receptive to all beneficial ideas. Relax and let go, commanding the universal mind to reveal each and every good idea that will help implement your vision.
After a little practice, the ideas will begin to flow freely from the superconscious mind into your conscious mind. Learn to record these ideas in a systematic fashion and to implement them in your daily practice.
Anything your mind can conceive
and believe, it can achieve.
There are two types of imagination:
1. Synthetic Imagination.
2. Creative Imagination.
Synthetic Imagination
Through synthetic imagination, existing concepts, ideas, and plans are arranged into new combinations. This type of imagination operates through education and observation. A genius uses synthetic imagination to create something totally new.
Creative Imagination
Through creative imagination, your mind has direct communication and contact with Universal Intelligence. Creative imagination is the faculty through which hunches and inspiration come. It communicates through the subconscious minds of other people, and operates as a sixth sense.
Though it operates automatically, creative intelligence is most productive when your conscious and subconscious minds are in harmony with it.
Your creative imagination can compensate for your lack of experience. It can help you out perform another person who has more experience, but a weak creative imagination.
The second aspect of the law of vision is imagination. This is your power to form mental images of something not present to the senses. Albert Einstein once said,
“Imagination is more important than
knowledge. For knowledge is limited,
whereas imagination embraces the
whole world, stimulating progress,
giving birth to evolution.”
Your imagination is the connecting link between your own human consciousness and the universal consciousness. Through your imagination, the formless energy of the universal mind becomes the formed universe in your own mind, and thus your life experience.
Your power of imagination is used to see beyond the appearances of your present situation, to the possibilities of who you really are and what you can become. As you do all you can to realize the vision you have of yourself, you must also appeal to your higher consciousness to raise your energy level.
This requires that you bring yourself to a rested and peaceful (alpha) state, and create visual images in your mind of each and every aspect of your vision. Know that your mind is open and receptive to all beneficial ideas. Relax and let go, commanding the universal mind to reveal each and every good idea that will help implement your vision.
After a little practice, the ideas will begin to flow freely from the superconscious mind into your conscious mind. Learn to record these ideas in a systematic fashion and to implement them in your daily practice.
Anything your mind can conceive
and believe, it can achieve.
There are two types of imagination:
1. Synthetic Imagination.
2. Creative Imagination.
Synthetic Imagination
Through synthetic imagination, existing concepts, ideas, and plans are arranged into new combinations. This type of imagination operates through education and observation. A genius uses synthetic imagination to create something totally new.
Creative Imagination
Through creative imagination, your mind has direct communication and contact with Universal Intelligence. Creative imagination is the faculty through which hunches and inspiration come. It communicates through the subconscious minds of other people, and operates as a sixth sense.
Though it operates automatically, creative intelligence is most productive when your conscious and subconscious minds are in harmony with it.
Your creative imagination can compensate for your lack of experience. It can help you out perform another person who has more experience, but a weak creative imagination.
Monday, July 09, 2007
What’s in Wine? (You May Not Want to Know)
Health Notes from NewsMax Health
You know the old saw about sausage — the one that says if you love it, you should never watch it being made. Well, it turns out the same thing may be true about wine, and the government may end up being as heavily in involved in policing the making of wine as it is in the grinding of sausage: Federal regulators are contemplating changing the rules for wine labels, and after you read a new label or two, you may never drink another drop.
It turns out that labels may have to tell what’s really in that fancy bottle, and common ingredients in wine are (no joke) fish, milk, chicken, and wheat products. Sometimes an agent called Mega Purple is thrown in for coloring. (It comes in purple, red, pink, and white.)
Sometimes oak chips are added, and other additives may include grape juice concentrate, tartaric acid, oak gall nuts, citric acid, dissolved oxygen, water, copper, and other items too numerous to mention.
No one doubts that such labeling would tend to take the romance and mystery out of buying wine, since current labels focus on things like special soils, ideal climate conditions, and the arcane knowledge and ancient skills of little old winemakers.
Current rules only require that labels disclose alcohol content and whether sulfites are present, and must warn against drinking when pregnant or while driving. And this is the way the Wine Institute, which is the industry’s primary lobbying arm, says it should be.
The Wine Institute says ingredient labels would bring traditional wine-making practices into public controversy for no good reason. Clark Smith, chairman of Vinovation, a California firm that uses additives to turn not-so-great vats of wine from over 1,000 winery clients into salable goods, said, “Why freak out the ignorant when we are adjusting something that is already there in the wine?”
On the other hand, industry consultants like Leo McCloskey, president of Enologix, a California company that has analyzed over 70,000 wines, disagreed and said that the best wines don’t rely on additives. “The wine industry is completely unregulated,” he said. “It would be useful to have labels that detail everything in a wine. It would tell the consumer what they are drinking.”
The squabble stems from a 2004 congressional mandate which requires labeling to disclose allergens, including — specifically — labeling for alcoholic beverages. Currently, derivatives from milk, chicken, wheat, and fish are allowed in wine, and the feds say people need to be warned.
These derivatives are used as “fining” agents during the wine-making process (e.g., albumen from egg whites may be added to remove tannins), and the Wine Institute says there is no way to prove the allergens are actually present in wine.
“Is there some slight trace of these agents left in the wine? It is very difficult to detect,” said Gordon Burns, co-founder of ETS Laboratories, another California analysis company. How many wineries practice some sort of “fining?” Burns says almost all of them to some extent.
Before the 2004 mandate, the last attempt at labeling was when Jimmy Carter tried to stick his nose in the vintner’s business. By the time his administration got the regulations ready to roll out, however, Reagan was in the White House and rescinded them with a stroke of the executive pen before they could take effect.
Who’s pushing for labeling this time around? A coalition of consumer groups led by a well-known organization that many regard as suspect in its intentions if not downright deceptive: the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Proposed rules are expected to be published later this year by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.
Editor's Note:
How to Stop Your Brain From Shrinking.
You know the old saw about sausage — the one that says if you love it, you should never watch it being made. Well, it turns out the same thing may be true about wine, and the government may end up being as heavily in involved in policing the making of wine as it is in the grinding of sausage: Federal regulators are contemplating changing the rules for wine labels, and after you read a new label or two, you may never drink another drop.
It turns out that labels may have to tell what’s really in that fancy bottle, and common ingredients in wine are (no joke) fish, milk, chicken, and wheat products. Sometimes an agent called Mega Purple is thrown in for coloring. (It comes in purple, red, pink, and white.)
Sometimes oak chips are added, and other additives may include grape juice concentrate, tartaric acid, oak gall nuts, citric acid, dissolved oxygen, water, copper, and other items too numerous to mention.
No one doubts that such labeling would tend to take the romance and mystery out of buying wine, since current labels focus on things like special soils, ideal climate conditions, and the arcane knowledge and ancient skills of little old winemakers.
Current rules only require that labels disclose alcohol content and whether sulfites are present, and must warn against drinking when pregnant or while driving. And this is the way the Wine Institute, which is the industry’s primary lobbying arm, says it should be.
The Wine Institute says ingredient labels would bring traditional wine-making practices into public controversy for no good reason. Clark Smith, chairman of Vinovation, a California firm that uses additives to turn not-so-great vats of wine from over 1,000 winery clients into salable goods, said, “Why freak out the ignorant when we are adjusting something that is already there in the wine?”
On the other hand, industry consultants like Leo McCloskey, president of Enologix, a California company that has analyzed over 70,000 wines, disagreed and said that the best wines don’t rely on additives. “The wine industry is completely unregulated,” he said. “It would be useful to have labels that detail everything in a wine. It would tell the consumer what they are drinking.”
The squabble stems from a 2004 congressional mandate which requires labeling to disclose allergens, including — specifically — labeling for alcoholic beverages. Currently, derivatives from milk, chicken, wheat, and fish are allowed in wine, and the feds say people need to be warned.
These derivatives are used as “fining” agents during the wine-making process (e.g., albumen from egg whites may be added to remove tannins), and the Wine Institute says there is no way to prove the allergens are actually present in wine.
“Is there some slight trace of these agents left in the wine? It is very difficult to detect,” said Gordon Burns, co-founder of ETS Laboratories, another California analysis company. How many wineries practice some sort of “fining?” Burns says almost all of them to some extent.
Before the 2004 mandate, the last attempt at labeling was when Jimmy Carter tried to stick his nose in the vintner’s business. By the time his administration got the regulations ready to roll out, however, Reagan was in the White House and rescinded them with a stroke of the executive pen before they could take effect.
Who’s pushing for labeling this time around? A coalition of consumer groups led by a well-known organization that many regard as suspect in its intentions if not downright deceptive: the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Proposed rules are expected to be published later this year by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.
Editor's Note:
How to Stop Your Brain From Shrinking.
Marketing Techniques To Save Your Home Business
By: Jim Mack
It is easy to become overwhelmed by the prospect of failure, and during trying times resources seem scarce and the task of turning things around can appear daunting. But there are still key points and important things to keep in mind. Knowing the customer base is essential. Customers are the life blood of any company.
Often times, marketing strategies may not be the direct cause of home business failure. There is a likelihood that a home business is failing because the good or service being offered doesnt have the sufficient customer base to become successful.
Those beginning a home business find it alluring to start up a venture that is based upon a hobby, but this is not always the key to marketing success. Research is needed to make sure a product, service, or idea will sell. If a business finds that it simply lacks an effective customer base for a specific product, it is necessary for the business to change its product completely.
No amount of marketing strategy will allow for a product to sell or for that business to do well if there is a nonessential demand for it. Switching an advertising approach can bring about great change in business. It is a good idea to diversify methods of advertising, and a business should never put all of its advertising eggs in one basket.
Advertising is expensive, but necessary. When considering an outlet for advertising, a small business must research the newspaper, website, or circulation to understand the customer potential to be had in a particular audience.
For example, a business has the potential to turn things around by switching their ad from appearing in a free weekly newspaper to a daily subscription based circulation. Allow for customer feed back. Struggling home business owners should listen closely to all of the positive and negative things customers have to say about all aspects of their particular product or service.
In doing so, the business owner should keep track of how often certain concepts, themes, or ideas are repeated, good or bad. In order to save any business, its management must focus on maintaining its strengths, repairing or eliminating problems, and breaking new ground in the road ahead. Incentives can generate greater earnings and increase customer traffic.
There are many different ways to offer incentives to new and existing customers. It is certainly difficult for any business owner to part with earning potential when things are rough. An incentive is essentially a direct investment in the customer, and is an investment that doesnt directly require the giving-up of funds or capital.
But a struggling business owner shouldnt create incentives that can further damage their business and a thorough analysis of an incentives business impact should be made before hand. Some great examples of incentives include, but are not limited to, frequent purchase rewards, special offers for first time buyers, and customer referral programs.
Saving a home business is not easy. Entrepreneurs should remain positive and focused. There are may creative ways to readjust failed or failing marketing strategies with the understanding that customers are at the core of a businesses success
Jim Mack is a home business professional that is dedicated to help his team succeed. Go to http://www.massivetravelcash.com to find out more. To find out about Jim and how he can help you, go to http://www.whoisjimmack.comFor a free report on how Jim makes multiple six figures a year, go to http://www.bigbuckswithtravel.com
It is easy to become overwhelmed by the prospect of failure, and during trying times resources seem scarce and the task of turning things around can appear daunting. But there are still key points and important things to keep in mind. Knowing the customer base is essential. Customers are the life blood of any company.
Often times, marketing strategies may not be the direct cause of home business failure. There is a likelihood that a home business is failing because the good or service being offered doesnt have the sufficient customer base to become successful.
Those beginning a home business find it alluring to start up a venture that is based upon a hobby, but this is not always the key to marketing success. Research is needed to make sure a product, service, or idea will sell. If a business finds that it simply lacks an effective customer base for a specific product, it is necessary for the business to change its product completely.
No amount of marketing strategy will allow for a product to sell or for that business to do well if there is a nonessential demand for it. Switching an advertising approach can bring about great change in business. It is a good idea to diversify methods of advertising, and a business should never put all of its advertising eggs in one basket.
Advertising is expensive, but necessary. When considering an outlet for advertising, a small business must research the newspaper, website, or circulation to understand the customer potential to be had in a particular audience.
For example, a business has the potential to turn things around by switching their ad from appearing in a free weekly newspaper to a daily subscription based circulation. Allow for customer feed back. Struggling home business owners should listen closely to all of the positive and negative things customers have to say about all aspects of their particular product or service.
In doing so, the business owner should keep track of how often certain concepts, themes, or ideas are repeated, good or bad. In order to save any business, its management must focus on maintaining its strengths, repairing or eliminating problems, and breaking new ground in the road ahead. Incentives can generate greater earnings and increase customer traffic.
There are many different ways to offer incentives to new and existing customers. It is certainly difficult for any business owner to part with earning potential when things are rough. An incentive is essentially a direct investment in the customer, and is an investment that doesnt directly require the giving-up of funds or capital.
But a struggling business owner shouldnt create incentives that can further damage their business and a thorough analysis of an incentives business impact should be made before hand. Some great examples of incentives include, but are not limited to, frequent purchase rewards, special offers for first time buyers, and customer referral programs.
Saving a home business is not easy. Entrepreneurs should remain positive and focused. There are may creative ways to readjust failed or failing marketing strategies with the understanding that customers are at the core of a businesses success
Jim Mack is a home business professional that is dedicated to help his team succeed. Go to http://www.massivetravelcash.com to find out more. To find out about Jim and how he can help you, go to http://www.whoisjimmack.comFor a free report on how Jim makes multiple six figures a year, go to http://www.bigbuckswithtravel.com
Considering A Career In Bartending?
By: Michael Russell
Bartending is not always the most glamorous job. Bartenders have a lot to deal with. First they have to take care of all the customers at the bar in addition to preparing drinks for restaurant guests. They have to keep an eye on stock levels of all beer and liquors. They have to watch out for underage drinkers and fake ids.
They also have to watch out for people who are too drunk and need to be cut off. They have to handle cash or tabs for the customers at the bar. Many times they will have to serve food orders to customers at the bar and process take out orders. When the bar is busy, there may be an endless line of people at the counter waiting for drinks.
Some of these people may get angry after waiting too long. Some of these people may be drunk already, which will make them even angrier. Some people will not tip after running you around all night. There is an endless list of drinks that a bartender needs to know how to make. New drinks are always being created and the bartender has to stay up to date on these trends.
Female bartenders may get hit on or harassed by unpleasant male patrons. The bar will probably be a very smoky room. Most bartenders will have to work late into the night and stay until the last customer is gone. Most likely, they will have to stay and clean up the place at 3AM before they can go home.
All of the above information does not make bartending seem very fun. So why do some people choose career in bartending? Despite all the negatives, there are also many great things to be said about bartending. Bartenders can make great money in tips. People may be more likely to tip more if they are intoxicated.
Many times a bartender can earn a salary higher than an entry-level college graduate. Many larger bars also offer full benefits to bartenders. Bars are a fun and lively environment to be in. People who visit bars are usually there to let loose and have a good time. Bartenders meet all different types of people and hear lots of interesting things during a shift.
There are many different environments available to bartend in. Venues range from restaurant bars or nightclubs, to weddings and corporate functions. Bartenders also have the freedom to experiment with a full bar’s worth of alcohol and come up with new and exciting drink creations.
How does one get a career in bartending? There are numerous bartending schools in existence. Classes can range from 1 week to 5 weeks. Many bars will not hire someone without the necessary skills. A lot of places do not have the time to train someone how to be a bartender. Some places will however train an existing employee how to bartend.
Many people get their foot in the door by starting out in a different position at a bar or restaurant and working their way into bartending. Regardless of whether a bartender starts out in school or in a bar, the real world experience will ultimately be the best experience he can get.
Bartending is not always the most glamorous job. Bartenders have a lot to deal with. First they have to take care of all the customers at the bar in addition to preparing drinks for restaurant guests. They have to keep an eye on stock levels of all beer and liquors. They have to watch out for underage drinkers and fake ids.
They also have to watch out for people who are too drunk and need to be cut off. They have to handle cash or tabs for the customers at the bar. Many times they will have to serve food orders to customers at the bar and process take out orders. When the bar is busy, there may be an endless line of people at the counter waiting for drinks.
Some of these people may get angry after waiting too long. Some of these people may be drunk already, which will make them even angrier. Some people will not tip after running you around all night. There is an endless list of drinks that a bartender needs to know how to make. New drinks are always being created and the bartender has to stay up to date on these trends.
Female bartenders may get hit on or harassed by unpleasant male patrons. The bar will probably be a very smoky room. Most bartenders will have to work late into the night and stay until the last customer is gone. Most likely, they will have to stay and clean up the place at 3AM before they can go home.
All of the above information does not make bartending seem very fun. So why do some people choose career in bartending? Despite all the negatives, there are also many great things to be said about bartending. Bartenders can make great money in tips. People may be more likely to tip more if they are intoxicated.
Many times a bartender can earn a salary higher than an entry-level college graduate. Many larger bars also offer full benefits to bartenders. Bars are a fun and lively environment to be in. People who visit bars are usually there to let loose and have a good time. Bartenders meet all different types of people and hear lots of interesting things during a shift.
There are many different environments available to bartend in. Venues range from restaurant bars or nightclubs, to weddings and corporate functions. Bartenders also have the freedom to experiment with a full bar’s worth of alcohol and come up with new and exciting drink creations.
How does one get a career in bartending? There are numerous bartending schools in existence. Classes can range from 1 week to 5 weeks. Many bars will not hire someone without the necessary skills. A lot of places do not have the time to train someone how to be a bartender. Some places will however train an existing employee how to bartend.
Many people get their foot in the door by starting out in a different position at a bar or restaurant and working their way into bartending. Regardless of whether a bartender starts out in school or in a bar, the real world experience will ultimately be the best experience he can get.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Good Parenting Skills Can Be Learned
By: Jon Arnold
We all want to be good parents and learn good parenting skills. Parenting is a full time job, and sometimes it may seem like MORE than a full time job, but when it gets down to it, we have to acknowledge that as parents, we are going to make mistakes.
But one of the keys to good parenting is to recognize those mistakes, accept the mistakes, and learn from the mistakes for the next time.
There are four A's that point to traits of good parenting:-
Availability
Be available for your child. Yes, these are hectic and busy times, but you should never be too busy for your child, especially when they need you. Do not only be available when they say they need you, because chances are high that they will not come right and say that.
Offer yourself to them and let them know that you are available to them. Let them know that they are important to you, as they should be. Dedicate a reasonable amount of your time each day to spending it with them. Do not just give them the "leftovers" when you are dog tired from a day at work, but give them quality time.
That might even be just watching their favorite TV program with them or reading them a book or going for a short walk with them. It does not necessarily mean to spend money on them, because one of the best things you can give them will not cost you a cent – your love for them, where you show it and they can feel it and know it.
Appreciation
The most powerful drive towards good behavior in children is in being appreciated. When a child does well at something, express your appreciation for them. When they do something nice for you, show your appreciation for that. Everyone likes to be appreciated, and children are especially sensitive to this.
Appreciation also helps them make that maturing determination of what is right and what is wrong, based on how appreciated they feel. The more you appreciate their good deeds, the more their behavior will be in line with what you want and expect.
Affection
All of us wants to be loved, especially children. They are constantly searching for ways in which they can be loved by you. You are their focal point and they want to please you by their very nature. You need to be aware that love is the basis and foundation of a lasting relationship.
Acceptance
Everyone wants to be accepted and children are no different. You should go out of your way to show they unconditional acceptance. This provides them with a level of self-worth and helps to keep their self-esteem level high. It also gives them a sense of security in the act of acceptance.
If you as their parent cannot accept them, then nobody else will either, and they realize this.Good parenting is a skill that is learned over time, and with mistakes. Learn from the mistakes and set guidelines to be the best parent you can be.
For more information about Parenting Skills And Techniques please visit our web site at http://www.parenting-skills-explained.com
We all want to be good parents and learn good parenting skills. Parenting is a full time job, and sometimes it may seem like MORE than a full time job, but when it gets down to it, we have to acknowledge that as parents, we are going to make mistakes.
But one of the keys to good parenting is to recognize those mistakes, accept the mistakes, and learn from the mistakes for the next time.
There are four A's that point to traits of good parenting:-
Availability
Be available for your child. Yes, these are hectic and busy times, but you should never be too busy for your child, especially when they need you. Do not only be available when they say they need you, because chances are high that they will not come right and say that.
Offer yourself to them and let them know that you are available to them. Let them know that they are important to you, as they should be. Dedicate a reasonable amount of your time each day to spending it with them. Do not just give them the "leftovers" when you are dog tired from a day at work, but give them quality time.
That might even be just watching their favorite TV program with them or reading them a book or going for a short walk with them. It does not necessarily mean to spend money on them, because one of the best things you can give them will not cost you a cent – your love for them, where you show it and they can feel it and know it.
Appreciation
The most powerful drive towards good behavior in children is in being appreciated. When a child does well at something, express your appreciation for them. When they do something nice for you, show your appreciation for that. Everyone likes to be appreciated, and children are especially sensitive to this.
Appreciation also helps them make that maturing determination of what is right and what is wrong, based on how appreciated they feel. The more you appreciate their good deeds, the more their behavior will be in line with what you want and expect.
Affection
All of us wants to be loved, especially children. They are constantly searching for ways in which they can be loved by you. You are their focal point and they want to please you by their very nature. You need to be aware that love is the basis and foundation of a lasting relationship.
Acceptance
Everyone wants to be accepted and children are no different. You should go out of your way to show they unconditional acceptance. This provides them with a level of self-worth and helps to keep their self-esteem level high. It also gives them a sense of security in the act of acceptance.
If you as their parent cannot accept them, then nobody else will either, and they realize this.Good parenting is a skill that is learned over time, and with mistakes. Learn from the mistakes and set guidelines to be the best parent you can be.
For more information about Parenting Skills And Techniques please visit our web site at http://www.parenting-skills-explained.com
The Rhythms of Life
From LifeSkill Institute, Inc
The basic rhythms of life are the rhythms of peace, health, beauty, happiness, creative action, and abundance. When you superimpose your life-pattern onto these universal rhythms, you extend your essence and influence beyond the boundaries of your lifetime.
You become one of those bigger-than-life figures that change the course of history, improve the condition of all mankind, and bring peace, truth, wisdom, and deeper understanding to the world. Your life becomes a contribution to all humanity.
Establishing Your Purpose
A clearly defined purpose projects your life into eternity. Once you have identified your purpose, you can set a direction for your life. As you strive to realize your purpose, you harmonize with the rhythms of life which form your destiny.
Seven Guidelines for Establishing Your Purpose
1. It must be idealistic.
Always strive for the highest and best in all things. See things as they can or should be, rather than as they are. Use your imagination as a guide in establishing your purpose.
2. It must be visionary.
See beyond the horizon. Learn to perceive, remember, accept, and rely on your dreams. Do not be discouraged if your purpose appears to be impossible, impractical, or unrealistic to others. Visions are perceptions of higher states of consciousness.
Visionary thought representations become the blueprints for your future reality. Your special mandate is to create reality from thoughts through vision.
3. It must be lifelong.
Your purpose in life rarely, if ever, changes. However, your perception of it may change, depending on your level of consciousness. Your purpose is your life’s work, as you perceive it from moment to moment.
It may extend well beyond the boundaries of your lifetime. In fact, the realization of your purpose may not occur until long after you have ceased to exist in physical form.
4. It must benefit everyone.
The continuous realization of your purpose goes far beyond the personal desires of your ego. A purpose centered on self, for the sole benefit of self, is no purpose at all. It is a personal goal. However, once your purpose goes beyond yourself and your ego, it will necessarily involve other people. This involvement must be positive and beneficial to all concerned.
5. It must be challenging.
Your purpose should make you stretch to reach your highest potential. It should be a continuous challenge to your faith and to your abilities. Your faith grows stronger as your efforts yield positive results. As your faith grows, so does your ability to face and prevail over even greater challenges.
6. It must set you on fire.
When your purpose sets you on fire, you become obsessed with its immediate and continuous realization. Every moment of your life, you constantly think about it, talk about it, and act on it. The source of this fire from your purpose is your deep desire.
Deep desire causes you to exert every element of the power and energy you possess for the realization of your purpose. Deep desire and faith together create dynamic enthusiasm.
Dynamic enthusiasm is the burning fire which stimulates your mental, physical, and psychic powers to the point where they become infectious, contagious, and invincible.
7. It must be worthwhile.
Your purpose must fulfill a legitimate positive need in the world. A worthwhile purpose attracts the forces of the universe to aid and assist you in its continuous realization. Once you identify and articulate your purpose, write it down. This is your statement to yourself and to the world of where you are going with your life.
With this clear and concise statement of your purpose, you can determine what must be done for its realization. Then you can establish the goals which will guide you to your purpose, and make plans for attaining these goals
The basic rhythms of life are the rhythms of peace, health, beauty, happiness, creative action, and abundance. When you superimpose your life-pattern onto these universal rhythms, you extend your essence and influence beyond the boundaries of your lifetime.
You become one of those bigger-than-life figures that change the course of history, improve the condition of all mankind, and bring peace, truth, wisdom, and deeper understanding to the world. Your life becomes a contribution to all humanity.
Establishing Your Purpose
A clearly defined purpose projects your life into eternity. Once you have identified your purpose, you can set a direction for your life. As you strive to realize your purpose, you harmonize with the rhythms of life which form your destiny.
Seven Guidelines for Establishing Your Purpose
1. It must be idealistic.
Always strive for the highest and best in all things. See things as they can or should be, rather than as they are. Use your imagination as a guide in establishing your purpose.
2. It must be visionary.
See beyond the horizon. Learn to perceive, remember, accept, and rely on your dreams. Do not be discouraged if your purpose appears to be impossible, impractical, or unrealistic to others. Visions are perceptions of higher states of consciousness.
Visionary thought representations become the blueprints for your future reality. Your special mandate is to create reality from thoughts through vision.
3. It must be lifelong.
Your purpose in life rarely, if ever, changes. However, your perception of it may change, depending on your level of consciousness. Your purpose is your life’s work, as you perceive it from moment to moment.
It may extend well beyond the boundaries of your lifetime. In fact, the realization of your purpose may not occur until long after you have ceased to exist in physical form.
4. It must benefit everyone.
The continuous realization of your purpose goes far beyond the personal desires of your ego. A purpose centered on self, for the sole benefit of self, is no purpose at all. It is a personal goal. However, once your purpose goes beyond yourself and your ego, it will necessarily involve other people. This involvement must be positive and beneficial to all concerned.
5. It must be challenging.
Your purpose should make you stretch to reach your highest potential. It should be a continuous challenge to your faith and to your abilities. Your faith grows stronger as your efforts yield positive results. As your faith grows, so does your ability to face and prevail over even greater challenges.
6. It must set you on fire.
When your purpose sets you on fire, you become obsessed with its immediate and continuous realization. Every moment of your life, you constantly think about it, talk about it, and act on it. The source of this fire from your purpose is your deep desire.
Deep desire causes you to exert every element of the power and energy you possess for the realization of your purpose. Deep desire and faith together create dynamic enthusiasm.
Dynamic enthusiasm is the burning fire which stimulates your mental, physical, and psychic powers to the point where they become infectious, contagious, and invincible.
7. It must be worthwhile.
Your purpose must fulfill a legitimate positive need in the world. A worthwhile purpose attracts the forces of the universe to aid and assist you in its continuous realization. Once you identify and articulate your purpose, write it down. This is your statement to yourself and to the world of where you are going with your life.
With this clear and concise statement of your purpose, you can determine what must be done for its realization. Then you can establish the goals which will guide you to your purpose, and make plans for attaining these goals
Producers relying on sweetness to please palates contribute to dearth of truly dry wines
By Mary Ewing-Mulligan and Ed McCarthy
Lately, we’ve been thinking a lot about the issue of sweetness in what are supposedly dry wines. For decades, wine professionals have acknowledged that many consumers like to “talk dry” but “drink sweet.” But now wine producers themselves are “talking dry” and yet “producing sweet.”
And it is not just mass-market wines for the less sophisticated wine drinker. It is also mid-priced wines and even elite wines. The whole frame of reference for sweetness in wines has shifted. Approximately 2 grams of sugar per liter in wines are considered “unfermentable.”
In the past, most dry wines had just about that amount of residual sugar after fermentation. Then, about 15 years ago, a winemaker from California said the threshold at which sugar is detectable is 5 grams per liter for the typical wine drinker. Therefore any wine with fewer than 5 grams of residual sugar is technically dry.
Recently, we read that any wine with fewer than 10 grams of residual sugar is dry. What complicates the whole discussion of sweetness is that a wine can give an impression of sweetness or dryness that does not directly correspond to the amount of residual sugar in the wine.
High acidity, for example, can counterbalance sweetness and make a wine taste dryer than it is. That’s why Germany’s rules about what can be labeled trocken or halbtrocken—dry or nearly dry—dictate not only the amount of residual sugar in the wine but also the relationship of the residual sugar to the wine’s acidity.
Tannin can also diminish the impression of sweetness in a wine. And high alcohol can exacerbate the impression of sweetness, up to a point, beyond which it creates harshness. It is the wine’s balance of these components that governs how sweet the wine tastes, and then of course it ultimately depends on who is tasting.
Today’s wines definitely deliver more impression of sweetness than the same type of wine did even five years ago. We particularly notice the sweetness in inexpensive Pinot Noirs. Most in that category do not offer the soft tannins and fresh, vibrant, berry fruitiness that define Pinot Noir.
Inexpensive Chardonnays also can be sweet. Sometimes that’s good because their alcohol levels are so high that the wines would taste harsh and burning if not for the distracting sweetness.
One of the reasons that finer wines are sweeter today is probably that the grapes themselves are given the opportunity to get sweeter on the vine before being harvested.
Even if the wine is fermented dry, the high alcohol levels arising from the sugar-rich grapes contribute an impression of sweetness in the wine. This sweetness is not necessarily unpleasant in any particular wine.
It is the prevalence of sweetness in so many wines, hand in hand with extreme alcohol levels, that bothers us. As more wines rely on sweetness for their appeal, the more normal and accepted sweetness will be, and the fewer truly dry wines will remain.
It is important for wine professionals to recognize the sweetness in wines that they sample, and to taste carefully to determine whether the wine strikes an acceptable balance. Wines that are overly sweet can be appealing on first sip, but the pleasure they give may not sustain itself long enough to last the course of a meal.
Sweetness in a wine can also affect the wine’s affinity for food, which can be a concern, particularly in restaurants that serve simple or very light food.
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WINE OF THE WEEK
Terredora Dipaolo 2006 Falanghina, Irpinia, Italy
This well-made white varietal wine is bone dry, but it gives an impression of richness bordering on sweetness because of its rich texture from lees aging. Crisp acidity balances that impression, and concentrated floral and pineapple flavors are medium intense.
Wholesale case price, $120
Click on the following to buy the above wine:-
Internet Wines and Spirits, Wine Globe & Wine.com
Lately, we’ve been thinking a lot about the issue of sweetness in what are supposedly dry wines. For decades, wine professionals have acknowledged that many consumers like to “talk dry” but “drink sweet.” But now wine producers themselves are “talking dry” and yet “producing sweet.”
And it is not just mass-market wines for the less sophisticated wine drinker. It is also mid-priced wines and even elite wines. The whole frame of reference for sweetness in wines has shifted. Approximately 2 grams of sugar per liter in wines are considered “unfermentable.”
In the past, most dry wines had just about that amount of residual sugar after fermentation. Then, about 15 years ago, a winemaker from California said the threshold at which sugar is detectable is 5 grams per liter for the typical wine drinker. Therefore any wine with fewer than 5 grams of residual sugar is technically dry.
Recently, we read that any wine with fewer than 10 grams of residual sugar is dry. What complicates the whole discussion of sweetness is that a wine can give an impression of sweetness or dryness that does not directly correspond to the amount of residual sugar in the wine.
High acidity, for example, can counterbalance sweetness and make a wine taste dryer than it is. That’s why Germany’s rules about what can be labeled trocken or halbtrocken—dry or nearly dry—dictate not only the amount of residual sugar in the wine but also the relationship of the residual sugar to the wine’s acidity.
Tannin can also diminish the impression of sweetness in a wine. And high alcohol can exacerbate the impression of sweetness, up to a point, beyond which it creates harshness. It is the wine’s balance of these components that governs how sweet the wine tastes, and then of course it ultimately depends on who is tasting.
Today’s wines definitely deliver more impression of sweetness than the same type of wine did even five years ago. We particularly notice the sweetness in inexpensive Pinot Noirs. Most in that category do not offer the soft tannins and fresh, vibrant, berry fruitiness that define Pinot Noir.
Inexpensive Chardonnays also can be sweet. Sometimes that’s good because their alcohol levels are so high that the wines would taste harsh and burning if not for the distracting sweetness.
One of the reasons that finer wines are sweeter today is probably that the grapes themselves are given the opportunity to get sweeter on the vine before being harvested.
Even if the wine is fermented dry, the high alcohol levels arising from the sugar-rich grapes contribute an impression of sweetness in the wine. This sweetness is not necessarily unpleasant in any particular wine.
It is the prevalence of sweetness in so many wines, hand in hand with extreme alcohol levels, that bothers us. As more wines rely on sweetness for their appeal, the more normal and accepted sweetness will be, and the fewer truly dry wines will remain.
It is important for wine professionals to recognize the sweetness in wines that they sample, and to taste carefully to determine whether the wine strikes an acceptable balance. Wines that are overly sweet can be appealing on first sip, but the pleasure they give may not sustain itself long enough to last the course of a meal.
Sweetness in a wine can also affect the wine’s affinity for food, which can be a concern, particularly in restaurants that serve simple or very light food.
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WINE OF THE WEEK
Terredora Dipaolo 2006 Falanghina, Irpinia, Italy
This well-made white varietal wine is bone dry, but it gives an impression of richness bordering on sweetness because of its rich texture from lees aging. Crisp acidity balances that impression, and concentrated floral and pineapple flavors are medium intense.
Wholesale case price, $120
Click on the following to buy the above wine:-
Internet Wines and Spirits, Wine Globe & Wine.com
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