Morningstar now provides Fiduciary Grades on mutual funds. How does Morningstar determine these grades? How can mutual fund investors use these grades to better manage their portfolios?Mutual fund investors use Morningstar Rating as a sign post of mutual fund performance. These ratings have proved to be a valuable tool for objectively comparing the performances of different mutual funds.In 2003, New York Attorney General, Elliott Spitzer...more
Putting a piece of paper in a file folder is easy; finding it again is the hard part. There are ways to make your files easier to use and your papers easier to find. Invest in a sturdy, four or five-drawer file cabinet. Spend the extra money it takes to get quality and durability. You'll spend more money replacing a cheaper file cabinet a few times than buying a reliable one in the beginning. You may not have enough files to fill the cabinet now,...more
One of the hardest things for most individuals working from home is to stay focused. One of the best ways to stay focused is organization. In addition, being organized will help your time management skills. The two are very much intertwined. Planning out your day is very important. What you will do in the morning, afternoon/and or evening, depending on what hours you work is paramount. Have a trigger that starts your day. For example, my trigger is I finish my morning walk. Once this is done, I make a cup of Java and to the office I go. Once in the office, the computer goes on, along with the auxiliary equipment. I check my tickle file, my calendar for the day, and pull my To-Do file. While I am looking at these items my mail program is working to check e-mail. I delete the junk and deal with the additional mail by answering it, or placing it in a folder to deal with later. At this point depending on your business you should start dealing with the items in your tickle file and To Do List. For those of you just starting to run a lease purchase business you should be doing the following: Check your goals Check your calendar and tickler file Check your e-mail and answer If you need...more
Every day we get emails and telephone calls from people who want to get started in Real Estate. We hear, I am just checking out your program. Or, I've been researching for the past six months to try and find a program. While researching and checking out programs is an important step, so many of these individuals never follow through to the next...more
An Ann Landers column "Parenthood is not a job for the weak at heart" caught my interest.Job Description for a ParentPosition: ParentJob Description: Long-term player needed for challenging, permanent work in chaotic environment. Candidates must possess excellent communication and organizational skills and be willing to work evenings and weekends...more
A big source of managerial churn is lack of clarity around the decision process. The biggest source of confusion is the Team Decision. Does this mean that the boss wants lots of input and discussion before deciding or does it mean that a decision isn*t made until everyone agrees? Either approach can be effective, the problem is that the group is usually not clear on which one it is. Every one in the room will make their own assumption and those assumptions rarely all match up. That clash of assumptions makes the process at best painful and at worst destructive to the team*s productivity and effectiveness. Almost every team that I work with struggles with decision making. This newsletter outlines a simple decision making model that is guaranteed to reduce the time spent spinning on decisions. The Meta-Decision of How to Decide I know this sounds hopelessly academic, but I promise it is quite practical and useful! The Meta-Decision is 3 simple questions that you as the team leader have to answer very clearly for your team: 1. Who owns the decision? One person has to be responsible for making the decision or facilitating the group that makes the decision. This person is responsible...more
As a sole proprietor, it*s wise to familiarize yourself with the some key deductions that may reduce your tax bill for 2004. Small-business consultants generally recommend that you hire an accountant to prepare your tax returns, payroll and financial...more
It's a dream I've heard so many people express: "I want to run a bed and breakfast. They are so cute" Or "I want to own a vacation rental property, so I can get a free vacation and make money the rest of the year.But what is really involved in...more
With currency trading becoming ever more popular, the number of brokers is growing at a rapid rate. What should one look at when deciding which broker to open an account with? These are the important points to consider.SpreadBecause currencies,...more
How? Try a blueprint like this: people act on their own perception of the facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and ...more
Actually, for a while this site was making more then $350 a week. On top of the 8 hours it took me to set up, I only spend about 10 or so minutes a week on maintenance. Ok, so here's what I did: firstly, I found a great affiliate program that I...more
Market timing systems are based on patterns of activity in the past. Every system that you are likely to hear about works well when it is applied to historical data. If it didn't work historically, you would never hear about it. But patterns change,...more