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A cash out re-finance basically enables the homeowner to re-finance their home for an amount greater than the balance of the exiting mortgage. The homeowners than repay the existing balance plus the additional amount over the course of the loan period and are given a check for the amount above and beyond the balance of the exiting mortgage. The homeowners can use this check for any purpose they choose now and repay the debt along with the rest of re-financed amount.

When is a Cash Out Re-Finance possible?

A cash out option is available when there is existing equity in the home. This is important because the lender is able to justify the practice of offering increased funds to the homeowner due to the value of the property. This is because the lender feels as though the security of having the home for collateral does not put them at a high risk for the homeowner defaulting on the loan.

Homeowners who wish to take advantage of a cash out re-finance offered by a lender should inquire as to whether or not the lender offers this type of re-financing. This is important because not all lenders offer this option. It should actually be one of the first questions the homeowner asks when inquiring about re-financing programs. Doing so will save homeowners, who are seeking a cash out re-finance, a great deal of time.

How Can the Cash be Used?

For many homeowners the most appealing aspect of cash out re-financing is that the additional funds can be used for any purpose desired by the homeowner. The homeowner does not even have to offer the lender an explanation of how the additional funds will be used. This is important because once the lender writes the check for the additional funds, he has no concern for how the money is used. This is because the amount of the additional funds is rolled into the re-financed mortgage. The lender simply focuses on the homeowners ability to repay the mortgage and is not concerned with how the homeowner uses the funds which are released in the cash out.

While the purpose of a cash out re-finance does not have to be disclosed to the lender, the homeowner would be wise to use these funds in a judicious manner. This is because the homeowner will be responsible for repaying these funds to the lender. Some of the popular uses for funds collected from cash out re-financing include:

* Undertaking home improvement projects
* Purchasing items for the home
* Taking a dream vacation
* Putting money in a childs tuition fund or
* Purchasing a vehicle
* Starting a small business

All of the reasons listed above are excellent uses of a cash out re-finance option. Homeowners who are considering this type of a re-financing option should also consider whether or not the deductions are tax deductible. Using the cash out option to make home improvements is jus one example of a situation where the funds can be tax deductible. Homeowners should consult their tax attorney on the matter to determine whether or not they are able to deduct the interest from the repayment of their re-financing loan.

Cash Out Re-Financing Example

The process of a cash out refinancing option is fairly easy to illustrate with a simple example. Consider a homeowner who purchases a $150,000 with a 7% interest. Now consider the homeowner has already repaid $50000 of the loan and would like to borrow an additional $20,000 to make a rather large purchase or invest in a small business. With this additional funding available the homeowners have the opportunity to use the equity in their home to make their dreams come true. In the example above the homeowner may refinance for a total of $120,000 at a lower interest rate such as 6.25%. This process allow the homeowner to take advantage of the existing equity in their home and also allows the homeowner to qualify for a substantial loan at a rate typically reserved for re-financing or home loans.

Many successful people have mentors to guide them in learning the skills that lead to achievement, and Ill do my best to offer you some critical personal finance perspectives. They say that life is a school where you learn the lesson after the test. The same thing applies to money, but you cant go back in time to fix catastrophic financial mistakes that you have made over time. As long as you are alive, you are a player on the field of the money-game, and you need to know the basic rules before you get tagged by the experienced players.

Rule #1: To earn money from money. The only way to escape becoming a wage slave for the rest of your life is to set aside savings. The profit on your savings can be used to increase your lifestyle spending, reduce the number of years until you retire, or allow you to actually have any retirement at all. How are you doing so far toward saving and getting it to earn money for you?

Every pound that you spend eliminates its ability to earn money for you in the future. I am not recommending that you stop eating at restaurants and going to movies, I am recommending that you use some common sense, like looking at your four biggest expenses over the last few months and aggressively finding a way to reduce them.

The biggest obstacle for the first rule is personal debt of any kind (other than a mortgage for your home) or a lease of any kind. Every personal debt that you incur reduces your net worth which could have been working for you over your life time. Acquiring personal debt is exactly like putting a large hole in your wallet. In the money-game, a huge transfer of wealth occurs between the Haves and the Have-Nots over the words, I can afford that monthly payment. Here is a hint: the Have-Nots are the ones who make that statement. So please dont ever look at whether you can afford a monthly payment to make a purchase; pay in cash after youve saved for the item. [Everything that you buy with a 0%-interest payment plan must be over-priced. Behind the scenes, your payment contract is sold to a lender with an interest rate, and retailers dont do this without building-in an acceptable profit for themselves. Ask retailers how much the item will cost if you pay in full, and you could get a lower price.]

Rule #2 Always keep your finances under control. The first step in losing financial control and spiraling into debt and money problems is simply not dealing with personal finances. Prepare for catastrophic financial accidents with health, life, disability, and auto insurance. Plan and save before you buy something. Create a balance sheet for yourself at least once a year to see how you are progressing. Pay every bill on time, or contact the creditor to tell them what is going on and make a partial payment. If you are temporarily unable to handle any of this, ask for some help immediately and find someone trustworthy who will do this for you.

The most common source of financial trouble is a trauma in your life. This can be a health problem (large expenses or unable to work), an emotional problem (divorce or loss of loved one), or a financial problem (losing a job, cut in pay, relocation, unexpected expenses). Whichever the source may be, it leads to three emotional problems: the first is denial, the second is being overwhelmed, and the third is hopelessness. Denial causes people to not open their mail and continue spending as usual, and being overwhelmed paralyzes people from getting assistance and dealing with the situation. For example, if you just lost a loved one, balancing your checkbook and paying bills is not high in your priorities. Unfortunately, tiny amounts of debt grow with interest and penalties into seemingly insurmountable mountains of debt; leaving you with loathsome options such as bankruptcy, poor credit, declining lifestyle spending, and added stress that you bring to relationships and work.

Rule #3 Pay attention to the finances of the people with whom you spend the most time. Whether they are relatives, friends, or co-workers, these people have the most impact on your financial life. Do they consistently follow the first two rules of the money game? Do they earn about the same money as you? If the answer to either of those is no, then I recommend that you start spending a little less time with them; and this is why. If they dont consistently follow the first two rules, it is unlikely that you will either. You unconsciously model the people around you, and the more people you are exposed to that dont follow the first two rules, the more likely that you will unwittingly follow them. No one thinks they are trying to keep up with the Joneses, but we all do it to some extent, and this is the mechanism. On the other hand, if they earn a lot more money than you, you may rack up a lot of debt trying to keep up with them (meeting them at their favorite expensive restaurant, joining them for another expensive vacation, buying a new car because yours is the junker among all of your friends, etc.) On the other hand, if most of your friends earn a lot less than you, you will turn into the groups banker. For example, youll find yourself in the pattern of putting your credit card down to pay for dinner and theyll all say theyll pay you back later, but 50% of them never do; and they dont mind taking advantage of you because, after all, you earn a lot more than they do. Or, you and your friends need to pay a deposit for renting a house and they expect you to write the checks because you have the money available and they do not.

The neighborhood that you live in also creates financial pressure to violate the first two financial goals. Your neighbors are likely to become friends (and Ive already gone over this), but they also influence the size of your home, extent of your landscaping, price of furniture, and the size of your TV. So pay very close attention to the finances of your neighbors if you dont like how they are measuring up for first two rules, move somewhere more in alignment with your financial goals. If your family and friends, dont measure up financially, find some additional people to spend time with that have financial habits that youd like to emulate and learn from. I have friends with a wide range of income, but it is much more difficult to follow the first two money rules when I am with the extremes from my own income. Youll just find it easier to reach the next rule when the peer group that you hang out with aligns closer to your economic level.

Rule #4 Accelerate the other three rules:
Add to your savings by increasing your income through advancing your career. It doesnt matter whether you enjoy it; it is a means to an end with the end being progress toward the fulfillment of rule #1. Increase the amount that you save by aggressively lowering four of your highest expenses. Start spending time with people that talk about investing money and are systematically building their wealth the fastest. The combination of all four of these rules will hopefully offer a next-step for you to take today to start getting more wins in the money-game.

You have piled up debts that are threatening to even ruin your lifeyou are left with little money for daily expenses after paying for the interests and also the sword of repossession of the property dangles over your head. What do you do to come out of this mess? Well, the remedy lies in debt management. You start taking control of the finances once you have decided to go for debt management,

Debt management is all about bringing back your debts under your control. Any technique that helps in doing so comes under debt management. One popular technique for debt management is consolidation of all debts into one debt. For the consolidation, the borrower takes a loan at lower interest rate and pays off previous debts immediately. As a result the borrower saves lot of money that was going towards paying higher interest rates. This is very effective in managing debts.

In case you are not in a position to take the consolidation loan, then you should opt for negotiating with your lenders. You take a plan of repayment to your debtors and show them how you are going to clear debts. No lender wants to take expensive and time consuming route of repossession of the property. Therefore, debtors may even lower the interest rate, reduce outgo in monthly installments and may increase repayment duration for your comfort. This will give much needed respite from the debts.

But if you do not want to negotiate on your own, to manage debts you need to have a debt management company. Job of a debt management company is to negotiate your debt related concerns with creditors on your behalf. The negotiations include extracting lower monthly payments to the lenders. The company even posts your monthly payments on your behalf. This is very useful in case you tend to forget making timely payments to various creditors. All you do is make a combined payment of your different monthly installments to the debt management company.

A debt management company will also do all the calculations for you to make out how much of payments you have to make towards creditors. So debt management is only a service and should not be mistaken for elimination of debts. You still hold those debts intact despite the debt management service availed.

There are number of debt management companies available online. When choosing a debt management company; make sure it offers credit counseling service as well. Credit counseling is crucial in strengthening you financially. A credit counselor offers you vital tips in making a budget such a way that you not only get rid of the debts but more than that it shows how to stay away from debts in future.

Whatever plan of action you adopt under debt management, stick to it. Never be casual in paying the installments as per the new schedule. Debt management is aimed at reducing the financial burden and that can be done also by cutting your unnecessary expenses.

Every corporate entity must hold board meetings and keep corporate minutes. This doesnt mean you have to be sucked in by the corporate minute preparation solicitations.

Corporate Minutes

Corporate minutes simply are documents detailing the events of a corporate board meeting. Typically, a corporation should have a board meeting every quarter if for no other reason than to force a review of where the business has been and where it is going. In most states, however, a corporation is only required to have only one annual meeting and keep the minutes of that meeting in the corporate book.

Corporate minutes are never filed with any government entity. The corporate minutes are an internal corporate matter and only come to light if there is a shareholder dispute or a claim by a third party that the corporation is a sham. Corporate minutes are typically taken during the board meeting by the Secretary, who subsequently files them in the corporate book.

Solicitations

America is a country of entrepreneurs and more than a few companies have found a business opportunity involving corporate minutes. Typically, these companies will offer to prepare your corporate minutes for a nominal fee. The solicitation tends to be in the form of a mailing with an envelope that looks similar to one you would receive from a government, but not so much as to get the solicitor in trouble with the state.

In large and impressive type, the solicitation will remind you that corporate minutes need to be prepared and the company is willing to do it for 100 or so. In much smaller type located on the bottom or back of the page, there will be a disclaimer noting the company is not a government entity and so on.

I dont have anything against such companies, but recommend you dont use them. The internal workings of a corporation and board of directors should be kept absolutely confidential. Board meeting inherently involve discussions of sensitive matters such as business strategies, new products, how to deal with competitors and financial issues. In my opinion, this information should never be given to any third party.

There is nothing wrong or illegal about companies offering to prepare your corporate minutes. It is just not a good choice.

Much of business involves inducing people to do what we want them to do. Whether it is to sign a proposal, return a call, set up an appointment, provide information or pay a bill, we are constantly nudging.

In business, to exist you must persist. But what happens if your nudgee is flat-out unresponsive? Can you still advance your agenda?

In many cases you can. Execute a classical Poingo inversion, top it off with a half-gainer and a solid plant at the end, and you’ve got your deal.

In English that means to look for opportunities to invert the situation wherein the inaction, rather than the action of your nugdee prompts the furtherance of your cause.

Your answer may be a self-serving letter or email. Example:

Your customer ordered a load of snipe bracelets, but now that you have them and are ready to deliver, you can’t get a returned phone call. After a few attempts, move into self-serving mode.

Leave a phone message, followed by a letter and an email which essentially says this:

Self Serving Message (paraphrased)

“Hello my esteemed customer, bringer of light and feeder of my children. I have spent a few seconds of my unworthy life calling to bring you excellent news about the arrival of your magnificent snipe bracelets.”

“Alas, all which has occurred to date is that I have has the distinct pleasure of hearing the music of your voice on your voicemail machine.”

“But now I must plan on your behalf, to ensure that your valuable merchandise arrives in time for the upcoming “Accoutrement’ de Snipe” convention. I will take it upon myself to defend your interests, my friend, and deliver your valuables this Friday at 3PM.”

“If for any reason you need to modify this plan, please call me before end of day Thursday so I can best meet your expectations.”

Sucking Up
You may have noticed a certain Alladin-like obsequiousness to this message. Good catch! You are basically ramrodding your customer. At least be nice about it. Remember what Mary Poppins said about the spoonful of sugar helping the medicine go down. Frame your actions within a context of the customer’s best interest.

Multi Media Approach
Remember, I suggested a call, a letter and an email. Each additional medium of communication reduces the ability of your customer to ignore you. Where appropriate, you may also use smoke signals and carrier pidgeons. Tatoos on prominent body parts can also be effective.

Don’t Hurt Yourself
Use self-serving communications sparingly. Even more important, don’t overreach:

“Hello my most wonderful customer whose radiance shares the skies with the great deities while his feet bless the Earth with their touch. I surmise that in your greatness you may have overlooked signing the contract I have humbly offered”.(so far, so good)

“Knowing that you will soon be wanting the 7 shipping containers filled with the finest New Zealand Kiwi fruits we discussed, I am ordering their placement on the next barge coming your way. They will be nicely ripe when they arrive. I am confident that when you inhale the fragrance of these delicacies, you will immediately sign the contract and accept delivery.”

We all know that we should save money. But something so easy to say can be quite difficult to actually do.

Saving money is the basis of building your financial future. However, many consumers are putting it off one more day. Those days turn quickly into years of lost money. Without savings, the chances of meeting long-term financial goals and achieving financial security are quite miniscule.

In order to save money, you have to control your finances. Saving has nothing to do with how much you make. It has everything to do with how you control your money. If you have lots of credit card debt and live paycheck to paycheck, you are not in control of your money. And you aren’t saving for the future either.

You have to spend less and save more. The two are tied together. In order to save, you have to start spending less.

And it all really isn’t that difficult if you just start doing it.

First, sit down and write down your financial goals. Just ask yourself what you want from your money. Perhaps you would like to have a downpayment for your first home. Maybe you need a new car. Make long-term goals, such as retirement, and short-term goals, such as new living room furniture.

Give each goal a pound amount and a time frame. In order to save, you have to know what you are saving for. You have to have a reason to put your money aside.

You will need to set up a seperate savings account. You probably know that leaving the money in your checking simply won’t work — you will spend it. Have a savings account that you can easily deposit or transfer money into. Many banks will set up an automatic withdrawal to your savings each month. This is a easy way to set it and forget it. It is paid just like any other bill.

Over time, you will see your money start to grow. This is rewarding and exciting. Most people become motivated to save even more. Saving and investing can become addicting in a good way.

You will find that a written budget is almost essential for saving money. You need to know where your money is going in order to make changes to the way you spend. A budget not only tells you where you are spending, but it can help you plan how you spend. Include into your budget a debt reduction plan, and your budget will make the most of your pounds. Budgeting is simple and doesn’t require you to sacrifice your entire lifestyle. It is just a plan to get where you are going.

If you do have a lot of credit card debt, you should focus spending your saving money on eliminating that debt. It would be wise to put a small amount aside for emergencies, but the vast majority of the money you are saving right now needs to be going to your debt. The reason why is simple. Why pay 20% interest on a credit card debt when your savings are earning 2% to 10% in interest. You are spending more than necessary. Wipe out that credit card debt first. It will save you more in the long run.

A lot of people really boost their savings by putting their unexpected money into their savings accounts. Your bonuses, raises, tax refunds and overtime can really pump up your savings. You aren’t having to spend even less or cut back more, but you are seeing your account balance rise.

There is no real secret to saving money. You simply have to start doing it. That is often the hardest thing — the first step. But once you see your finances begin to change and the interest start working for you, you will be hooked on saving for your future.

Credit Cards: Having a credit card is often a necessity for most senior citizens from paying for medicine and emergencies to booking a vacation. But for seniors living on a fixed income, there are concerns about carrying a large balance from month to month and running up significant interest charges. In the worst cases, the debt becomes unmanageable and a major source of stress for the account holder and the family.

Another problem for seniors is having too many credit cards. That’s because the more cards you have, the more opportunities you have to get into debt. And that possibility could make it tougher for you to get the best deal the next time you apply for a loan, insurance, a mortgage or an apartment. Having a lot of cards also can make it harder to keep track of when your monthly payments are due or to even realize that a thief may have stolen one of your cards.

Home Equity Loans and Lines of Credit: These are loans that use the equity in your house as collateral and often are tax deductible (check with your tax advisor). The equity refers to the difference between what you owe on a house and its current market value.

A home equity loan is a one-time loan for a lump sum, typically at a fixed interest rate. A home equity line of credit works like a credit card in that you can borrow as much as you want up to a pre-set credit limit. The interest rate for a line of credit usually is variable, meaning it could increase or decrease in the future.

“For elderly people on a fixed income who have paid their mortgage in full or whose mortgage is almost paid in full, home equity loans are tempting to use to pay for expenses, but they can also be dangerous,” warned Janet Kincaid, FDIC Senior Consumer Affairs Officer. “In the worst-case scenario, if you are unable to make the required loan payments, you could lose your home.”

In general, the best uses for home equity-type loans are to purchase goods or services with long-term benefits, such as home improvements that add to the value of your property. The riskiest uses of home equity loans include a vacation or a car because you could end up paying a lot in interest charges for a purchase that’s only of short-term value or has gone down in value. Also beware that some unscrupulous people or companies (including home repair contractors) push high-cost, high-risk home equity loans to elderly people and other consumers.

Reverse Mortgages: These are home equity loans available to homeowners age 62 or older. In general, a reverse mortgage is a loan that provides money that can be used for any purpose, and the principal and interest payments typically become due when you move, sell your house or die. A reverse mortgage also differs from other home loans in that you don’t need an income to qualify and you don’t have to make monthly repayments.

While reverse mortgages can be a valuable source of funds, they also have serious potential drawbacks. In particular, you will be reducing your equity, perhaps substantially, after you add in the interest costs.

“Reverse mortgages can help in some situations, such as when you have large medical bills that are not covered, to make major home repairs or to help people on low fixed-incomes make ends meet,” said Cynthia Angell, a Senior Financial Economist at the FDIC. “However, you are reducing your ownership share of the home. That means the inheritance you are leaving to your heirs could be greatly diminished or you could have far less money available for other purposes, such as buying into a retirement community later on. That’s why a reverse mortgage should usually be used as a last resort, not as an integral part of a retirement strategy.”

Also, Angell said, the fees can be high, and that could make a reverse mortgage a poor choice to cover relatively small expenses.

Life Insurance: People mostly think about life insurance as a source of income when someone dies, but they forget that many insurance policies also can be a source of cash at other times.

If you have a life insurance policy with built-up cash value, you can borrow against that money and either repay the loan with interest or reduce the death benefit accordingly. Example: If you have a 100,000 life insurance policy but you owe 20,000 on a loan from that policy, your heirs would receive 80,000 as the insurance payout.

There are other options reserved for people who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness and have run out of other ways to pay their expenses. One example is a life insurance policy that can pay “accelerated death benefits” to an eligible policy holder generally up to about 50 percent of the face value of the policy in either a lump-sum payment or monthly payments that are deducted from the policy’s face value. When the policy holder dies, the rest of the death benefit is paid out.

Another possibility is to “sell” your life insurance policy to obtain a lump-sum of about 40 to 80 percent of the face value in exchange for the right to receive the full insurance payout when you die. This is known in the insurance business as a “viatical settlement.”

These and other options for tapping life insurance policies can be complicated (including tax and other implications), and they are not right for everyone. Consider getting guidance from your state government’s insurance regulator.

I was out Christmas shopping with my wife last week. We were at Best Buy looking for video games for our teenage sons. My wife asked the clerk for his opinion on the best game for teenage boys. He ran through several. He did a good job, but none of the descriptions were compelling enough to make me want to pick one up. As he and my wife went on talking, a fellow shopper came up beside me and said, “Hey, if you want a good game for teenagers, get this one.” I was immediately sold. I had never seen him before and probably will never see him again, but he had instant credibility because I knew he had no reason to give me his opinion other than that he really liked that game.

Referrals are powerful even if they come from a person you have never met before. Need more evidence? Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends has just released the results of her recent survey about selling to the small business market.

“The survey established that a whopping 83% of vendors attract small business customers through referrals more than twice the number that report getting customers through cold calling, direct mail and other traditional techniques.”

You can see the full results of the survey here (http:www.smallbiztrends.com200512valuable-new-survey-data-on-selling-to-small-businesses.html).

Business-to-consumer or business-to-business, there is no more powerful way to attract business than referrals. Don’t leave it to chance. Give them some good reasons to talk about you and then put a megaphone in their hand. A system like PromoterZ(tm) (http:promoterz.com) helps you with both by getting feedback from your customers, asking them for referrals, and giving a way for them to refer their friends and colleagues.

In the US we should be pretty aware that the outcome of our elections are largely influenced by how much money each candidate can raise. Whoever can raise the most money has the most chance of swaying the uninformed ’swing’ voter, or hiring the best advisor that can dice the polls to figure out which issues will give them the slight majority. Politics becomes about raising money.

Every time I heard desperate pleas for money from politicians I wonder, what do you need my money for? To buy back public airwaves from the people we licensed them to? To pay even higher priced consultants to slice and dice the polls? I thought I voted with my vote, not my dollars. What about those that don’t have dollars? Seems to me they have much less of a vote in this democracy. Hell, if you have enough money you can just fund your own campaign, al. la. Ross Perot. Not exactly equal opportunity.

== It’s morally wrong for politicians to accept money from people. Period. ==

I feel it is morally wrong for elected officials to accept money that isn’t their salary. When an elected official accepts money from someone, any human is going to feel obliged to treat this person differently than the person that has contributed nothing. It’s common courtesy. But this is in conflict with their responsibility to represent all of their electorate equally, not based on how much money they have. In fact, since everyone else does it, all elected officials are effectively required to to accept gifts to compete.

I know the current reality of our election campaign system is mired in a much different arrangement, but still my “naive, absent of reality” opinion is that _money_ should not be a factor in our elections, and it’s the responsibility of the government we’ve created to ensure that happens. Elections are the one thing we can all agree is the responsibility of our self-government, the one thing that makes the rest of our democracy work. But the reality in the US today is that even though we all have a ‘vote’, those with money can use that money to make their ‘vote’ much more valuable that those without any money. The McCain/Feingold reforms[1] may make this even worse, as now campaigns need these extra “vote with your dollars” votes even more. We need to fix that.

== How do we fix it? ==

I would start by making it illegal for elected officials or those running for elected office to accept gifts or money from any private, corporate, religious or non-profit entity. All election campaigns should be 100% publicly funded. Arguments about the cost of that are silly. If we can all agree that elections are a primary responsibility of government, then we can agree that this responsibility can require commensurate funds.

Second, instead of charging station owners for a license to broadcast on our airwaves, then them charging us back to them for the right to conduct the people’s business on those airwaves, lets just not give it to them in the first place. The license comes with the burden of broadcasting election commercials. Decrease the license fee if you need to. I’m fine with our government bearing the financial brunt of that burden, whatever it may be. The 2004 Presidential and Senatorial campaigns spent about $4 billion dollars[2]. Considering we pay about $300 billion[3] per year to service our nation debt (incurred almost solely by Regan/Bush I/Bush II[4]), I wouldn’t have any issues if the cost to do this ran into the $10-20 billion/year range. It should be one of our government’s main roles to equalize the situation, to remove money from the equation as much as possible.

Third, I would pay these elected officials a lot more. If senators made $5 million a year, they would have a harder time being swayed by the $250,000 yatch some lobbyist could give their nephew. If we’re going to do this we should make their salaries on the same level as corporate leaders of similar stature. Perhaps we should even tie their salaries to the average of corporate leader’s salaries; it could serve as incentive to make sure businesses prosper. But we should pay them enough that other people’s money won’t sway them. Again, paying our elected officials is one of the few things we can all agree our government should be responsible for, the comparatively miniscule about of money required to pay them well shouldn’t be a factor.

== But if you don’t give money …? ==

A question I’m not sure about, how to you qualify to have your campaign funded? I think it should be as open and available to anyone that wants to run as possible. But it shouldn’t be _too_ easy either. Being a public official requires _work_, so _work_ should be required to become one. I just would like that _work_ to be something other than raising money. Being good at getting people to part with their money doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be a good elected representative.

Currently we show support by giving money. If you can’t give _money_ to candidates to express support, how do we ensure that the people running, and spending public money on those campaigns, aren’t running a boondoggle and actually have or could get some support among the electorate? (Even if a big chunk the money we spent on publicly funded election campaigns was wasted on boondoggles, we’d still have a better system that we have today, imo. The machinery of democracy is a better place than most to throw some cash around.)

Perhaps a solution would be to provide the option of altering the distribution of campaign contributions derived your own taxes? If you didn’t alter it, as most people would do, your tax contributions allotted for campaigns would be split evenly among all the campaigns. If you really cared about a campaign, you could direct some of your already allocated tax dollars specifically to that campaign.

Also, what about the rich using their own money to outspend competitors? Do we ban people from spending their own money on their campaigns as well?

Purcahse Order Financing – A Tool to Finance Your Growing Orders

Do you have more purchase orders than what you can handle? Is lack of financing preventing you from fulfilling those orders? One of the most frustrating things that can happen to a business owner is to turn orders away good orders because you dont have the financial capacity to fulfill them.

Of course, you can try to get a business loan. However, business loans have their limitations as business financing tools. They are hard to get and have arbitrary limits, so they dont grow with your business.

Wouldnt it be great to have a business financing tool that could handle all your supplier payments provided you had purchase orders from good customers? How many orders could you close then?

That tool exists and is called purchase order financing. Purchase order financing is a financing product that is offered by factoring companies. The tools premise is very simple. Once you have a confirmed purchase order, the factoring company finances all supplier payments, usually by letter of credit. Once the order is delivered and paid for, the transaction is settled.

And how much does purchase order financing cost? Well, it depends on the size of the order, the complexity of the transaction and the commercial credit worthiness of the company paying for the products (your customer). On average, the financing cost will be between 2.5% and 4.5% of the order.

Although purchase order financing is a great tool, it is not for everyone. It works best if your profit margins are between 15% and 30% and if your customers are medium sized (or large) companies or government agencies. If you meet these criteria, purchase order financing can almost eliminate your out of pocket expenses.

If you own a reseller or distributor and have more purchase orders than financial capacity, consider purchase order financing as the tool that can help you close those orders and grow.