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December 29, 2008
ONLINE TEMPORARY MEDICAL INSURANCE TO HELP A FRIEND
I do most things online. I find that you can get a lot of good information online and it is all pretty easy to access. Many people don't use their internet connection for everything as I do, and I find that limits their ability to find out a lot about what is going on in the world and what is truly available to them. I do my banking online, pay all my bills online and even bought online car insurance. Car insurance is a great thing to get online, because it is the quickest way to compare rates and find the company and policy that best suits your needs. Honestly, I don't know what I would do without my internet connection.
The last time I was online I was researching COBRA for a friend who had become unemployed. He was panicking because he really didn't know how he was going to pay his premiums for his family, but didn't want them to be without insurance. I didn't know what information was out there, but I did know that with my trusty internet connection, I could access all kinds of information so I told him that I would look into it for him. Now when I first went online I came across something called temporary medical insurance and so I began to research what it was, and it was an option offered by certain insurance companies for the purpose of covering lapses of insurance due to loss of employment or other issues. I knew that this would be helpful information to my friend, but I also didn't know how much they wanted to continue him on COBRA, I just know that he said it was going to be too expensive, so I gave him a call and told him that I had found a great company called UniCare Texas and that they offered what seemed to be very good rates on all of their insurance policies, especially on those plans for temporary medical insurance, but that he would have to check it out with his information and see if it was a good deal for his family. I suggested that he go online and look at it, but I think that he was unsure about doing it, so I told him I could stop by and show him after work.
I did just that, and to his surprise the cost of this policy was about 1/2 of what his company was going to charge for COBRA. He was able to sign up online and get his insurance taken care of. Now he has an affordable insurance plan for his family and has one less worry during this difficult time.
Posted by juliusp at 08:09 AM | Comments (0)
December 16, 2008
TOM AND THE SILK SCREEN PRINTING BUSINESS
A friend of mine from back home just opened his own silk screen printing business. He almost didn't do it because the economy was so bad, but he had been looking into doing this for the past several years, and had finally saved up enough money to open his own place. He not only sells t-shirts, but screen printers can actually print on almost anything, and so he has a lot of cheap novelty items which I just know are going to sell really well in this economy. He is in our home town, so he will get a lot of the townies who want to support his business coming in and buying gifts for Christmas. He gets a lot of his products wholesale online, and they come to him plain and then he uses this incredible silk screening machine to print them up. He can do just about anything with this machine and also got a really good deal on it on the internet. He says if business goes well in his store, then he might just open up an e-business, you know a store front on the web. I told him I thought it was pretty easy to open a web business, but he said that after looking into it, there is a lot that he doesn't know about the marketing end of the whole thing. He said that he will have to get up enough money to pay someone to do his marketing for him. I think that he really has what it takes to run a business. He is very charismatic and is very focused on the customer service end of his business, as well as keeping the prices reasonable. In the past month, he was able to pay all his expenses out of the business. He said there wasn't much left after that, but worries about how well his business will do after the Christmas rush. Fortunately for him, he planned the whole thing out really well, and has been working at night to make sure that he can afford to keep his business open into the new year, even if the sales do slow down a little bit.
As soon as I get home, I am going to pick up some of the stuff that I ordered for family and friends from him. He says that the t-shirts are waiting for me when I get back into town, and I can't wait to see how they came out. It is a great way to get all my shopping done quickly and inexpensively while helping to support a friend in his new business.
Posted by juliusp at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)
RARE GOLD COINS WORTH A MINT
Everyone is tightening their belts now, and I too have found a real need to not only pick up items cheaply, but also to start selling online to supplement my income. One great way that I have found to accomplish both these things at once is to go to yard sales and consignment shops. They both offer some great deals, depending on the seller. It is quite an adventure, as you never really know what you will find, or how much it will be worth on the internet. The one thing that I think is a lot of fun is to put stuff on Ebay for a penny and see how much people will pay for it. For instance, a few weeks ago, when the weather was still good, I went to a few different yard sales and picked up some rare gold coins. Now, I am not a person who is into coin collecting, so I really didn't know how much if anything these things were worth, and I guess that the woman who was selling them was also clueless, because between the two of us we thought that a reasonable asking price was a dollar a coin. I decided to put the lot up on Ebay and I put them in their vintage antique collectible category and put them up for a penny. The fun thing about doing this is some things actually sell for a penny and somethings sell for a lot of money, so you just can't tell how much stuff is going to sell for which makes it very exciting. Anyway, I bought the lot of rare coins for $5 and so I figured I really didn't have much to lose. Well, to my amazement I sold the lot of coins for $150.00. It was a great surprise, to get that much for something I paid only $5 for. Don't get me wrong, I do lose money on items also. Doing it this way can be risky, but sooooo much fun, that I just can't resist it.
Anyway, if you know a little something about anything, then you can figure out the value and try and sell it on Ebay. Being an Ebay seller can be a lot of work, but it is also a lot of fun.
Posted by juliusp at 09:22 AM | Comments (0)
December 10, 2008
Forex Trading
Das Forex Trading bietet die Chance auf enorme Gewinne mit einem relativ geringem Einsatz. Diesen Chancen stehen naturgemäß auch entsprechend hohe Risiken gegenüber – das eine kann man nicht ohne das andere bekommen.
Bevor man sich also mit echtem Geld ins Forex Trading stürzt, sollte man sich genau über die Risiken informieren und Verlusten durch bedachtes Handeln vorbeugen.
Es kann beim Forex Trading eine Menge schief gehen, jedoch gibt es ein paar Klassiker, die man auf jeden Fall kennen muss, damit man nicht die Fehler vieler anderer Anfänger wiederholt und dabei teures Lehrgeld bezahlt.
Fehler Nummer eins ist, sich ohne ausreichende Informationen dem Devisenhandel zuzuwenden. Auch wenn das Forex Trading auf den ersten Blick einfach erscheint, ist es auf den zweiten ein durchaus anspruchsvolles Geschäft, für das man fachliche und persönliche Voraussetzungen mitbringen muss, die nicht jedem gegeben sind. Auch wenn die Werbung vieler Forex Broker das Gegenteil behauptet, kann durchaus nicht jeder erwarten, erfolgreiches Forex Trading zu betreiben. So fehlt den Anfängern in diesem Geschäft naturgemäß jede Erfahrung – ein schweres Handikap, dass sich nur durch langes Üben, am besten auf dem „Trockenen" beheben lässt. Es geht bei der Erfahrung nicht nur um die Funktionalität einer Software, die man für das Forex Trading benutzt, sondern auch darum, ein Gefühl für den Markt zu entwickeln. Bevor sich jedoch dieser „Siebte Sinn" einstellt, falls man es überhaupt soweit bringt, wird einige Zeit vergehen.
Das führt direkt zur nächsten Voraussetzung, die für einen langfristigen Erfolg erforderlich ist, nämlich Geduld. Wer auf schnelles Geld aus ist, wird mit größter Wahrscheinlichkeit scheitern und bald seinen gesamten Einsatz verloren haben. Nur wer langfristig denkt und handelt, kann auf dem Devisenmarkt Gewinne machen – ein Grundsatz, der im übrigen für jedes Geschäft gilt.
Der Forex Markt hat sich in den letzten Jahren auch verändert, zum Nachteil für Neueinsteiger. Die Popularität des Forex Trading zieht immer mehr Marktteilnehmer an, was zu größeren Kursschwankungen führt als früher. Das eröffnet zwar neue Gewinnchancen, macht den Handel für den Unerfahrenen aber umso gefährlicher.
Posted by juliusp at 10:09 AM | Comments (0)
December 09, 2008
DEBT CONSOLIDATION, HELPING MANY PEOPLE OUT
These days many people are considering debt consolidation to help them through these tough economic times. With too much debt, may people are left with few options as to how to pay it off, especially with prices rising. People are losing their homes and are losing their jobs and so there is an even greater need for services like debt consolidation and credit counseling. It seems that for many years now the credit card companies have been extending way too much credit to the average citizens, well above their ability to pay it off. Now people are starting to realize that they are in way over their heads and are seeking help to clear their debt. Many people have considered filing bankruptcy, but the new bankruptcy laws are limiting people's ability to clear debt in this manner.
For me, I just really don't understand why it is that credit card companies have been allowed to extend unreasonable amounts of credit to people. They knew when they lent them these monies that chances of repayment weren't good, so in essence it was just a trap. After all, even someone who is not a financial genius can figure that someone who makes $10,000 per year, can not afford to have $30,000 in credit card debt. That person won't even be able to afford the minimum monthly payments on that size debt.
Personally, I think that what should be done is all credit debt should be wiped clean and then banned. This whole credit scam has allowed people for way too many years to live above their means, and without it we all can only afford what we can afford. Without credit, we wouldn't be able to buy a car or a house unless we had the cash, and then maybe the prices on some of these items would come down to more reasonable amounts. After all, is it really reasonable to think that someone should spend a years salary on a car? Or five years salary on a home? It just isn't realistic and perhaps this is one of the reasons that the economy is so off balance.
Posted by juliusp at 09:49 AM | Comments (0)
December 03, 2008
CORK FLOORING CUTS DOWN ON ECHOING
Where I live, the houses are really old and they echo a lot. I got a great deal on this house I am living in and am gradually fixing it up, so that after I graduate I can sell it. Hopefully, the market for selling a home will be better by then, but if it isn't I am thinking that I will see if I can rent it out to someone for a while until the market bounces back.
Recently, as part of my remodeling, I pulled up all the carpeting in the house, and found that once I did, the house echoed so badly that I felt like every noise that I made was heard for three blocks up. One day I was even outside, and could hear the whole conversation that was going on inside. It was then that I knew I had to do something that would not only improve the look of my home, but also provide a solution to this problem.
A friend of mine suggested Cork Tiles. I had no clue that people even used cork for flooring, but I figured, what the heck, I would take a look into it. What I found was that cork flooring was actually more durable than hardwood flooring. The cork is durable and flexible and bounces back. No it doesn't compress and then stay there, all though that is what I thought too. It is naturally hypo-allergenic and anti fungal. It is easy to clean with just a broom and a mop and best yet, it is quiet. It helps reduce echoes especially in old homes like mine.
It seemed like the perfect solution for my home, but I was concerned because I didn't think that there would be any choices about how it would look. I just figured that cork was cork and therefore, every floor would look the same. Actually, it came in many colors and since they are tiles, they could pretty much make it look any way I wanted it too. I came up with a great unique design and had it installed within the week. Now not only does my home look great, but the echoing has stopped. It is great to have a home that not only looks great but sounds good too.
Posted by juliusp at 11:32 AM | Comments (0)
December 01, 2008
Shopping for health insurance
I told my mom she needed to start looking into insurance. She's in her 50s and though that isn't too old, it doesn't hurt to start working on life insurance and other such things. Plus, her medical insurance had just run out and her car insurance was set to expire in just a few months. She's a woman on the go, so it can be difficult for her to keep track of all of her different insurance companies and keeping her payments timely and remembering what payments go where. It seemed like additional stress that she shouldn't have to deal with.
But getting her to actually start looking for a consolidated insurance plan was like pulling teeth. First came the excuses. She was too busy to go insurance shopping. So we set aside a little time during the week when she was free and decided I'd go to her house and help her out. Once that excuse was removed, she decided that she needed to first figure out exactly what types of insurance she was looking for. So a different afternoon, we sat down together and made a list of her concerns and what she was looking for in an insurance company, and more specifically what types of insurance she needed. Our goal was to find a company that would kill as many birds with one stone as possible (a medical insurance company that also gives life insurance; a car insurance company that insures the house and other possessions). We knew we probably would not find an “insurance superstore�?, but it didn't hurt to at least streamline the options as much as possible and eliminate extras.
Once that was done, she didn't know when we'd find time to actually locate the insurance companies and sign her up for them. So we scheduled two days. I brought her to my house where I have internet, and together we went from website to website, researching different companies, obtaining as many free >insurance quotes as we could, and writing down notes for later. I told her to take the notes home, and review them (and I kept a copy with myself). When she found an insurance quote that was reasonable for all the services she wanted, I would bring her back to my house and we would apply for it online.
The process probably took us much longer than it should have, but in the end I'm glad we dedicated the time we did to it. She ended up finding plans that exactly matched what she was looking for, and I got the peace of mind that she was being taken care of. We both won.
Posted by juliusp at 09:58 AM | Comments (0)