Money Making Machines

How To Keep Your Job

2009-01-01T15:17:00.000-05:00

What does 2009 have in store for workers -- and how can you position yourself to do well in this tough environment?

"Nobody seems to think the turnaround is imminent," says John Challenger, CEO of global outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas. The job market usually takes longer to deteriorate than the rest of the economy, and it can also take longer for it to improve once the economy starts gaining strength. "It seems inevitable that we're going to be mired in this for a while."

No one knows how long this recession will last. The financial services, construction, and automotive industries were hit early in the crisis and are still struggling. But other areas of the economy, including retail and the tech sectors, are also facing challenges.

Realistic, Not Resigned

State and local governments are "under tremendous budget pressures," Challenger said. The federal government, on the other hand, may end up boosting spending in an effort to stabilize the economy.

It's helpful, if you're job-hunting, to understand the outlook and the pressures individual industries face. But don't let the bad news keep you from looking.

"There are jobs in every industry," says Mary Jeanne Vincent, a career coach in Monterey, California. "It's really about knowing what you have to contribute and making sure you go the extra mile."

Job-Saving Hints

The first tip experts give for making it through this recession is to stay employed, provided you have a job and are not miserable. Even the best workers do sometimes lose their jobs. But there are ways you can make this less likely:

* Make sure your boss knows how you help the company. "If your manager doesn't understand how much you contribute, he or she cannot defend you when asked to make cost-cutting decisions," Vincent says.

* Make yourself useful. Tell your boss that you understand he or she is overloaded, and offer to help. "Make your boss look good and feel supported," Vincent says.

* Focus on core work. If your work is peripheral to the company's main goals, you're a likely layoff candidate no matter how good a job you're doing. "Try to become the expert on things that nobody else can do," Challenger said.

* Get to know your boss's boss. If your boss quits, is promoted or is laid off, your new boss won't know how essential you are. "Your boss is just as vulnerable as you are" to a layoff, Challenger says.

Landing a New Job

If you do need to look for a job during the recession -- your company is going out of business, for example -- don't despair. It is possible, with patience and hard work. Here are some expert tips:

* Cast a wide net. "You need to look online, you need to get out there and press the flesh, you need to meet people for informational interviews," Vincent says.

* Be able to explain how you would help a company. Employers who are hiring will have their pick of candidates, so you need to be able to explain clearly what you would bring to the company. "You have to do a better job of selling," Vincent says.

* Don't wait. It's tempting to take the holiday season off. But Challenger advises against it. Keep your search going until you find the job you want.

An Overview of what Credit Report is

2008-11-16T08:42:00.006-05:00

Learning the basics of the credit report process, and keeping your credit report free of errors, is essential to good financial health. The 3 major credit bureaus - TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian - collect, maintain, and provide your report to landlords, businesses, and employers who need to check your financial responsibility.

Why Do I Need To Check My Credit Report?
It's wise to check your credit report frequently for signs of fraud. If someone obtains your social security number, only a few additional pieces of information are necessary to commit fraud in your name. Common types of identity theft include fraudulent bank accounts, credit cards, utilities, and loans. Early detection is the key to avoid suffering long-term financial consequences.

What's In Your Free Credit Report?
Your credit report from TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian, the 3 major credit reporting agencies will contain 4 important sections. Each contains one piece of your total credit picture. Carefully check each report for common errors such as misspellings, name confusions, and incorrect information.

* Account report summary (current and past credit status, number of open and closed accounts, balances of accounts, historic high balances, payment history, if accounts are current or delinquent)
* Public records (bankruptcy records, government court records, liens, judgments and child support records)
* Credit Inquires (a list of everyone who has requested your report in the last 2 years)
* Detailed credit history (information about your loan payments, credit card debt and payment history)

Why Do I Need To Check My Credit Score?
A good credit score is your passport to competitive interest rates for mortgages, cars, credit card offers, job offers, insurance premuims and more. A strong score is worth money because it saves you excess costs, so don't ignore it.

For example, see how a fixed 30-year mortgage payment varies according to credit score and the interest rates it dictates. A difference of two hundred points in score can offer a savings of $448 a month for the same $200,000 house loan.

Credit Scores: ------ Monthly Payments: ------- Savings:
550 ------------------------ $1,643.00 ----------------------- $ -
650 ------------------------ $1,339.00 ----------------------- $ 304.00
750 ------------------------ $1,195.00 ----------------------- $ 448.00

If your score is below 650, your future finances may be significantly affected.

Did You Know?
* Victims of identity theft spend an average of 175 hours and $800 to clear their names.
* Only 2% of Americans know their credit score or what it measures.
* 79% of credit reports may contain errors that you are unaware of - usually an indication that you have been a victim of identity theft or fraud.

Managing Your Career: Seven Tips for Developing References

2008-11-10T07:59:00.001-05:00

Alesia Benedict

"References upon Request". While this phrase has become passé on resumes, every job seeker knows the importance of having good references. Even with the more commonly occurring instance of HR departments only confirming dates of employment and status for rehire, references are still a very important part of the job search.

So how do you "develop" your references? Most people think you just write down a few people's names and contact information that can attest to the fact that you are a great person, a good employee, and won't run off with the office supplies. Totally wrong! Developing good references actually requires some thought and work.

Tip 1 - Consider the field
When deciding upon whom to name as your references, it is important to think about who you select. Director supervisors and people who have true knowledge of your work performance make the best references. Higher-up execs, while perhaps having more important job titles or better name recognition might well say “Joe who?” when contacted for a reference because they don't know who you are or only have a passing exposure to your work performance. That would be embarrassing!

Tip 2 - Ask Permission
Always talk to those whom you plan to name as references in your job search! You don't want your reference to be caught off guard when contacted. Also, get their permission and make sure you have the correct contact information for them. Some might prefer to be contacted by email while others prefer a home phone or cell phone number. Mailing address for references is not necessary.

Tip 3 - Are They Competition?
An old recruiters' trick is to use an under-qualified candidate's resume as a “backdoor” to qualified candidates - the references. Good references should have direct knowledge of your work performance but ideally should be in a slightly different functional line of work than you. For example, a recruiter might contact a National Sales Manager from XYZ Company only because he is hoping to get access to the VP of Sales (the candidate's supervisor) in hopes of luring him/her away.

Tip 4 - Who Knows Whom?
When a recruiter or employer is checking references, they know the references that are listed by the candidate are going to have good things to say about the candidate. Let's face it - who is going to list someone that would say BAD things? That is why hiring professionals ask the following question of most references: “Who ELSE other than you has direct knowledge of Joe's work performance? Can you give me their number or email?” It's not so much who YOU name as a reference but rather who your reference names as a reference. To counter this, ask anyone you ask to be a reference the same question “If asked, who else would you recommend as a reference for me?” If your references name someone who you think would not be very glowing in their report, take the opportunity to steer them away and suggest an alternate person.

Tip 5 - Get it in Writing
Save yourself a lot of trouble and have your references write letters of recommendation for you. In fact, anytime you have a great achievement and receive accolades, ask your supervisor to give you a “pat on the back” in writing. Save these for the future! They are invaluable.

Tip 6 - Preserve Privacy
Never, ever publish your references' names or contact information in your resume or on the web. First of all, references should never appear on a resume simply because it is not the place for that information. References are provided during the interview, usually a second interview and it is always great if you have it prepared in advanced and can leave the data. Something tangible by which the interviewer can ‘remember you'. Putting your references' names, phone numbers, emails and addresses in an online database or in a resume that is published online is simply not something you should do.

Tip 7 - Keep it Professional
Your references should be professional people who have direct knowledge of your work performance. The “character reference” is pretty moot. Hence, do not include a pastor, a friend, a neighbor or a family member.

Before you start your job search, make sure you have your resume in tip top shape so you land interviews, and your references developed and ready to go so you are prepared on those interviews. Your references need to know if you are conducting a confidential job search or an open one so they do not accidentally let the cat out of the bag. Consider a thank you note to each reference after you win an interview as that is both courteous and will also keep them primed for the next time!

The Federal Reserve drop short-term interest rate from 1.5 percent to 1 percent.

2008-10-29T14:55:00.004-04:00

The Federal Reserve cut a key short-term interest rate by a half-percentage point Wednesday and expressed continued worries about the damage being done to the economy by the ongoing crisis in the financial and credit markets.

The rate cut put the central bank's federal funds rate at 1%. That matched the lowest level for this overnight bank lending rate ever -- the last time it was at 1% was from June 2003 to June 2004.

Investors had been expecting a half-point cut and some were betting that the Fed would even cut rates by three-quarters of a point to 0.75%.

The Dow Jones industrial average, which had been higher ahead of the Fed's decision, turned lower shortly after the announcement.

The fed funds rate is used to set rates for a wide variety of consumer loans, including home equity lines and credit cards, as well as for many business loans. The lower the rate, the more the Fed hopes to spur economic activity.

The Fed said in a statement that it was concerned about the drop-off in consumer and business spending due disruptions in the credit markets and warned that the economic slowdown is likely to get worse.

"The intensification of financial market turmoil is likely to exert additional restraint on spending, partly by further reducing the ability of households and businesses to obtain credit," the central bank said in its statement.

This is the ninth time that the central bank has lowered rates since September 2007 in an effort to deal with the problems in the U.S. economy and credit markets. The Fed also lowered its discount rate by a half-percentage point to 1.25%. That is the rate at which it lends directly to banks and Wall Street firms.

The Fed's last cut was an emergency half-point reduction on Oct. 8. Six other central banks around the globe also lowered rates that day in a coordinated move. The European Central Bank and the Bank of England are scheduled to meet next on Nov. 6.

While rate cuts are traditionally the key tool the Fed uses to stimulate the U.S. economy, it has had to take other steps to address the current credit crisis.

The Fed has loaned hundreds of billions of dollars to banks through a new lending facility and is starting to loan money directly to major businesses by purchasing commercial paper, which is what some banks and businesses use as their primary method to fund day to day operations.

In its statement, the Fed also appeared to concede that these actions would not lead to an immediate return of economic growth. The Fed projected improved credit markets and a return of moderate growth "over time." And it warned that "downside risks to growth remain."

www.TaxCutFacts.org Shows Obama-Biden Tax Calculator

2008-10-24T15:30:00.005-04:00

Following claims of increased Taxes under Obama fueled by such people as Joe the Plumber, the Obama Campaign has produced a website: www.TaxCutFacts.org, titled Obama-Biden Tax Calculator, where people can put in their income and choose other options that applies in order to calculate what their taxes would be.

Interestingly the site, in addition to Obama's tax savings, also calculates McCain's tax savings, and other tax credits under Obama.

On the site, www.TaxCutFacts.org it says: "Barack Obama and Joe Biden will cut taxes for 95% of working families, and provide at least three times as much tax relief for middle class families as John McCain and Sarah Palin. The Obama/Biden plan provides $1,000 of tax relief for workers and new tax benefits to help families pay for college, childcare and save for retirement."

And it also encourages visitors to tell a friend or copy the widget to their sites.

FDIC and the Treasury Department to Solve Foreclosure Crisis?

2008-10-23T10:58:00.005-04:00

Foreclosure activity in September rose 21 percent from a year earlier but fell by double-digits from the prior month as some state laws slowed the foreclosure process, according to a monthly report by research firm RealtyTrac.

Foreclosure filings -- default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions -- fell by 12 percent from August to 265,968 in September, according to RealtyTrac, which records property in various stages of foreclosure.

In view of these souring conditions, Sheila Bair, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., told the Senate Banking Committee that her agency and the Treasury Department are working closely to find ways to prevent avoidable foreclosures. The plan would use the Treasury Secretary's new authority under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act to provide guarantees to mortgage lenders.

"Loan guarantees could be used as an incentive for servicers to modify loans," Bair said. "Specifically the government could establish standards for loan modifications and provide guarantees for loans meeting those standards."

That way, she said, "unaffordable loans could be converted into loans that are sustainable over the long term."

Americans have made it clear they are not happy that the $700 billion financial rescue package is focused so heavily on financial institutions and less so on helping homeownwers directly.

"Now that the administration has taken strong measures to stabilize financial institutions, it is imperative that we apply the same sharp and urgent focus to help the individual homeowners whose plight is at the root cause of this crisis," said Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.

Bair, who worked with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in crafting the financial rescue law, has been a longtime advocate of streamlining the modification process for homeowners who realistically have a chance of affording their mortgages once modified.

After the FDIC became conservator of mortgage lender IndyMac this summer, Bair instituted a loan modification process for loans that were 60 days or more past due and which IndyMac either owned directly or serviced. About two-thirds of the 60,000 loans under IndyMac's umbrella are considered potentially eligible for the new program, she said.

"Through this week, IndyMac Federal has mailed more than 15,000 modification proposals to borrowers and has called many thousands more in continuing efforts to help avoid unnecessary foreclosures," Bair said. So far, more than 3,500 have accepted the offers and others are being "processed."

The modifications on average have cut borrowers' monthly payments by more than $380, Bair said.

Not all foreclosures are preventable since some homeowners still won't be able to afford their homes, even under modified loan terms. Bair said the loans being modified at IndyMac must provide "improved value" for the bank or for the investors who own the loans.

She added that she hoped the IndyMac modification program will serve as a "catalyst" for more loan modifications around the country.

Other witnesses at Thursday's hearing include Neel Kashkari, the Treasury's interim assistant secretary for financial stability; Brian Montgomery, the assistant secretary for housing at the Department of Housing and Urban Development; James Lockhart, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency; and Elizabeth Duke, a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

Kashkari is leading the Treasury's efforts under the $700 billion bailout to buy mortgage-backed securities and invest in banks. He said Thursday that Treasury "will look for every opportunity possible to help homeowners" as it carries out the plan.

Working Less To Achieve More, How To Do It?

2008-10-15T08:07:00.000-04:00

Leo Babauta
It's something we're all looking for -- the perfect solution that will minimize our work life while still getting the stuff done that we need to get done. Well, that one solution doesn't exist, but with a combination of strategies, you can get to where you want to be.

Now, none of these tips will turn your life around. But they can make a big difference, and when used together, your work life might just be enjoyable, productive, low-stress and high fun. And these tips won't work for everyone. They're not meant to be used as a step-by-step guide. It's a list of strategies that work -- choose your favorites and give them a try.

1. One goal. Set a single goal that you want to accomplish this year -- I know that we probably want to do 12 goals, but it's too difficult to maintain your focus on more than one goal, and it diffuses your energy. Pick one goal for the next 12 months, and then a single 3-6 month goal that will lead to your 12-month goal. Then choose something you can accomplish within the next 1-2 weeks that will lead to the 3-6 month goal. Now focus on that short-term goal, giving it all your energy, and when it's achieved, set your next short-term goal until you've accomplished your medium-term goal.

2. Find your passion. All the rest of these tips are just window dressing if you find work you're passionate about. If you're not in a job you love, start your quest to find that job now. You don't need to quit your current job right away, but start doing some research on the web, think about what you're really interested in, talk to others who are doing what you want to do. Make this your One Goal for this year, and it could turn out to be your best year ever.

3. Work from home. This is not a miracle solution, but it's something many people would love to do. And it's completely possible -- more people are doing it every day. Is it something you want to do? Give it some thought, and find a solution that works for you. You could telecommute for your current job -- plan your pitch to your boss today, making sure to focus on how it will benefit your company. Or you could find another job that allows you to work from home -- even if the pay is a little less at first, you will have reduced costs from not having to commute or eat lunch at work or buy expensive work clothes, and you will also have increased satisfaction.

4. Come in early. If telecommuting isn't your thing, try getting to work 30-60 minutes before the rest of the crowd. Or even more. This might require you to learn to wake up early, but the benefits are many: you skip the morning traffic, you can work without distractions until the rest of your coworkers come in, you can get a jump start on your day, you can be ahead of the crowd and get more done. Getting an early start is a great way to start your work day and to become more productive.

5. Work 4 days. If you can control your work schedule (or can convince your boss to change it), try working fewer days. Working four days a week not only gives you an additional day off, but it forces you to be more productive in the days you do work. Think about it: if you knew that you had to get your work done by the end of Thursday, you will focus more on what really needs to get done, and goof off less too. What would you do less? Email? Read stuff on the Internet? Chat? Play solitaire? Those unimportant things fade away when your time is limited.

6. Work 6-hour days. Same concept as above, but reconfigured. Personally, I'd choose the 4-day workweek, but that can't work for everyone. Get in early and leave even earlier -- imagine the 7 a.m.-1 p.m. work day. With focus, it can be done.

7. Work 20 hours. This might sound impossible. And if you are a full-time employee somewhere, it might be. But you could either 1) telecommute, and get your work done in fewer hours; or 2) work for yourself. Now, I'll admit that these options won't work for everyone, but they can be done. And I'll also admit that in working for yourself, you tend to work more hours, not fewer. But if you limit your hours to 20, it will force you to focus in the same what that working four days a week does. And if you focus on only those tasks that are truly important (see next item), you can get a lot done in 20 hours a week.

8. MITs. Each day, make a list with only three items: the three Most Important Tasks you want to accomplish today. Make at least one of them related to your One Goal. The others might be something you've been procrastinating on, or a big project that's due today, or something similar. Ideally, these MITs are really important tasks -- ones that will gain you longer-term recognition or income. Now focus on these, making sure to accomplish them. It's best to do your MITs first thing in the morning, before you get interrupted by a bunch of other things. If you do only three things today (you could choose more or less than three MITs, but I've found that three works for me), make it your MITs.

9. Batch process. There are usually a bunch of smaller tasks that we have to do that aren't that important. Email, paperwork, phone calls, things like that. Instead of doing those little things throughout the day, giving you busywork to interrupt and distract you from your important tasks, batch them together and do them at one set time each day. Write these tasks down on a small list, and with an hour left in your work day (or whatever works for you), start processing them as quickly as possible, ticking them off your list.

10. Telecommute 1 day a week. If you can't convince your boss to let you work completely from home, try one day a week. You could start out by calling in sick, but still getting a lot done from home. Or tell him you want to give it a try, just for one day this week, because you think it will make you more productive.

11. Freelance as a 2nd job. This is something I do, and I earn an extra $2,000 a month doing it. It's extra work, but it helps me to pay the bills (and pay off debt and save). Eventually, if you get good at the freelancing gig, you could make it your full-time work. To do this as a second job, set aside some time each day for freelance work. I've used early mornings (I get up an hour earlier and do one assignment), my lunch hour, work time (with permission), or evenings. If you could do 1-2 assignments a day, you will be making a decent extra income, and starting yourself down the road to working for yourself.

12. Brown bag it. This isn't life-changing, but I take my lunch to work every day -- leftovers or a sandwich, usually, with snacks such as fruits on the side. How does this help? Well, it saves me a lot of money (a few thousand a year) and it allows me to work through lunch, giving me time for that freelancing gig I talked about above or perhaps allowing you to leave work early.

13. Cycle to work. Again, not necessarily life-changing, but if you can commute even just a couple times a week by bike, you will save money on gas, reduce the stress of rush-hour traffic, and get your daily exercise done at the same time. A shower at work (or at a nearby gym) helps make this easier.

14. Take high-profile projects. If you just take the grunt work, your boss might or might not appreciate it, but it certainly won't make you a star and you won't go very far. Instead, volunteer for the big projects, the ones that will make a name for both you and your company. If there aren't any available, make your own. Be sure you can do them well, but if you do, these projects will have a huge impact on your life. The tasks on these projects should be your MITs every day. If you take on high-impact projects, you can be more productive working a half day than if you worked 10 hours a day on tasks that won't matter next week.

15. Automate your business. If you have your own business, or set one up on the side, find ways to make it automated as much as possible. Everything can be outsourced, from manufacturing to mailing to advertising to taking orders to customer support to credit card processing. Put your business front online, with online ordering, and give your outsourcers the ability to make decisions (with certain limits, following rules you set) without your approval, removing yourself from the bottleneck. If it's completely automated, your business will require minimal work from you once you've got it set up. Now all you have to do is check now and then to make sure things are running smoothly, and make sure your money is being deposited in your bank account. Nice.

16. Bank your raise. If you get a raise (and if you haven't in awhile, you need to make it happen by taking on high-profile projects and then asking for the raise), don't increase your spending. Take the raise and put the entire amount in the bank, making it automatically deducted from your paycheck or checking account and sent to a high-interest online savings account. Doesn't increase your productivity, but it can increase your financial stability.

17. Clear your desk. A messy desk might be the sign of a creative mind, but in my experience (I've tried both messy and now clean desks), having a desk that's clean is much more calming, much more productive, and more organized. Most importantly, it reduces visual clutter and allows you to focus on the task at hand, increasing your productivity. Clearing your desk can take a chunk of time, but it's worth it: take all your papers (everything!) and put them in your inbox, or in a pile if they don't fit. Now process through them, one at a time, from top to bottom, filing, acting upon, delegating, trashing each document or noting tasks on a to-do list for later (and filing the to-be-acted-upon documents in an action folder). Remove other knick knacks and put any office supplies or tools in a drawer (and empty out your drawers while you're at it). From here on out, everything goes in your inbox, and you process it to empty every day using the steps outlined here.

18. Granularize. If a project or task seems too intimidating, split it into smaller tasks, and just focus on the first task you need to do. For example, instead of "Research report", just find three sources on the Internet. You can read each of these sources and take notes after that.

19. Delegate. Get out of the habit of thinking you need to do everything yourself. Relinquish control and learn to trust others. If you don't think a person can handle a task, take the time to train him to do so. It will save you tons of time and headaches later. And by delegating, you empower others while shrinking your to-do list, leaving you to focus on what's really important.

20. Eliminate. Your to-do list is a mile long. You'll never be able to do all those things. Cut it in half by crossing out stuff that doesn't really need to be done, or delegating others. And from that list, just choose the three most important things that you need to do today. Get in the habit of eliminating as many of the tasks and processes you normally do as possible, and your work life will be greatly simplified.

21. Clear distractions. In addition to clearing your desk, you can allow yourself to focus more by eliminating all distractions: email or IM alerts, Twitter, other websites (in fact, turn off the Internet), phones, visual clutter around you or on your walls. Wear headphones so your coworkers interrupt you less, or let them know that you're not available right now. Focus more, and you'll get more done.

22. Kill meetings. One of the biggest time-wasters in our work lives. Most of the time, a meeting could have been accomplished with an email or a phone call. Beg out of meetings (or if you're the boss, eliminate them) by claiming you have a project due that you need to work on. Then be very productive during the time you would be at the meeting, and show your boss how much you got done.

23. Email once a day. Don't do email throughout the day. Set one time during the day to process email, then crank through it, getting your inbox to empty (use the same steps in "clear your desk" above). If you check email throughout the day, you are allowing yourself to be distracted and at the mercy of anyone who sends you a request. And by sending out emails all day, you are generating even more responses in return, compounding the problem. Batch process, and you will get a lot more done. Same applies to reading your RSS feeds and checking your blog stats and reading your forums.

FED Takes Over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae

2008-09-07T17:02:00.000-04:00

US President George Bush says mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have been taken over because they posed "an unacceptable risk" to the economy.

The two companies account for nearly half of the outstanding mortgages in the US, and have lost billions of dollars during the US housing crash.

The most recent figures show about 9% of US homeowners were behind on their payments or faced repossession.

The federal takeover is one of the largest bail-outs in US history.

It was announced on Sunday by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

"Putting these companies on sound financial footing, and reforming their business practices, is critical to the health of our financial system," President Bush said.

"The actions taken today are temporary, and will support housing finance in the near term."

'Comprehensive action'

As part of the changes, the management of the two companies will be replaced while the firms will be given access to extra funding to support their business going forward.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the government was intervening in the wider interests of the financial system and of taxpayers since the financial position of the two firms was fast deteriorating.

He added that the two firms' debt levels posed a "systemic risk" to financial stability and that, without action, the situation would get worse.

"We examined all options available and determined this comprehensive and complementary set of actions best met the objectives of market stability, mortgage availability and taxpayer protection," he said.

"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are so large and interwoven in our financial system that a failure of either of them would create great turmoil in financial markets here and around the globe."

The move is intended to keep the two companies afloat, amid fears that either could go bankrupt as borrowers default on their home loans.

The two firms will be administered by the Federal Housing Finance Agency until their long-term future is decided.

The Congressional Budget Office has said such a move could cost up to $25bn but Mr Paulson said there was no reason why taxpayers should have to directly foot the bill.

Funding guarantee

Together, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae own or guarantee about $5.3 trillion (£3 trillion) of mortgages.

But they have made a combined loss of about $14bn in the past year and officials were worried that they would no longer be able to continue functioning if such losses continued.

The Treasury's funding guarantees to the two firms - which will include it buying up high-risk mortgage backed securities used to fund the mortgage market - will last until the end of 2009.

During that period, neither Fannie Mae nor Freddie Mac will be able to make any payments to their shareholders.

But Mr Paulson warned that the move was only a short-term "stabilisation" exercise.

He said it would be up to Congress to agree proposals to reform the two firms and address their "pervasive weaknesses".

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said he "strongly endorsed" the proposals to ensure the two firms remained financially sound.

"These necessary steps will help to strengthen the US housing market and promote stability in our financial markets," he said.

Banks around the world are highly exposed to the two companies and therefore, given the febrile state of markets across the world, it had become dangerous for doubts to persist about whether they were viable and would be able to keep up the payments on their massive liabilities, says the BBC's business editor Robert Peston.

A rescue plan passed by Congress in July gave the US government the authority to offer unlimited liquidity to the two companies, and to buy their shares, in order to keep them afloat.

Financial Crisis Still Taking Its Toll on Economy Says Ben Bernanke

2008-08-23T20:50:00.003-04:00

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said today the financial crisis that has pounded the country — coupled with higher inflation — is taking a toll on the economy and poses a major challenge to Fed policymakers as they try to restore stability.

"Although we have seen improved functioning in some markets, the financial storm that reached gale force" around this time last year "has not yet subsided, and its effects on the broader economy are becoming apparent in the form of softening economic activity and rising unemployment," Mr. Bernanke said in a speech to a high-profile economics conference here.

While Mr. Bernanke welcomed the recent drops in oil and other commodities' prices, and believes inflation will moderate this year and next, the Fed chief also warned the inflation outlook remains highly uncertain.

The Fed, he said, would monitor the situation closely and will "act as necessary" to make sure that inflation doesn't get out of hand.

The current financial and economic environment is one of the most challenging to Fed policymakers "in memory," he acknowledged.

Given those dueling economic cross-currents— weak economic growth and higher inflation — many economists believe the Fed will leave rates where they are at its next meeting on Sept. 16, and probably through the rest of this year.

"They won't act until the coast is clear on financial stability and the state of the economy," the chief global economist at Decision Economics Inc., Allen Sinai, said. Many fear the economy will hit a rough patch later this year as the bracing effect of the government's tax-rebate checks fades.

Wall Street was buoyed by Mr. Bernanke's remarks, a dip in oil prices and growing speculation that Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. could be sold. In afternoon trading, the Dow rose 135.49 to 11,565.70, the Standard & Poor's 500 index added 7.45 to 1,285.17, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 19.41 to 2,399.79.

The economy is the top concern for voters and of keen interest to presidential contenders Senators Obama and McCain, who are gearing up for their parties' conventions. Financial and credit problems are expected to smolder into next year. And, the unemployment rate, which jumped to a four-year high of 5.7% in July, is expected to keep rising.

The bulk of Mr. Bernanke's speech dealt with the need to bolster oversight of the nation's financial system to make it better able in the future to withstand future shocks.

To that end, Mr. Bernanke recommended that regulators work on ways to assess the health of the entire financial system, rather than the condition of individual banks, Wall Street investment firms or other financial companies — as is currently the focus.

"Such an approach would appear well justified as our financial system has become less bank centered," he said. "Some caution is in order, however, as this more comprehensive approach would be technically demanding and possibly very costly both for the regulators and the firms they supervise." He added that "stress tests" for a range of financial firms might also be helpful.

Mr. Bernanke's remarks come amid renewed worries on Wall Street about the financial health of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The mortgage giants' stocks have gotten hammered this week as investors became increasingly convinced a government bailout is inevitable.

Although the Fed chief didn't mention the companies, he said one of the critical questions facing the country is how to strengthen the financial system and at the same time protect against "moral hazard," where financial companies might feel more inclined to gamble with risks because they believe the Fed or the government will ultimately bail them out.

"Some particularly thorny issues are raised by the existence of financial institutions that may be perceived as 'too big to fail,' and the moral hazard issues that may arise when governments intervene in a financial crisis," Mr. Bernanke said.

Mitigating that problem is another challenge facing policymakers, he said.

Mr. Bernanke repeated his call for Congress to provide new regulatory powers to insulate the economy from damage if a Wall Street firm collapses. He again urged Congress to give the central bank explicit authority to oversee systems that process payments and other financial transactions by investment firms and banks.

This year's Fed conference examines past and present financial crises, and the challenges confronting Mr. Bernanke and other central bankers as they try to help stabilize financial markets worldwide.

The Fed's handling of the credit, financial and housing debacles is likely to spur debate at the forum, which is sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and draws Fed policymakers, economists, academics and international central bank officials.

The Fed has taken unprecedented steps over the past year to battle the nation's worst credit and financial crises in decades.

To brace the wobbly economy, the Fed has slashed its key interest rate by 3.25% points, the most aggressive rate-cutting campaign in decades.

The Fed also has taken some unconventional — and controversial — actions to shore up the shaky financial system and to get credit — the economy's lifeblood — flowing more freely.

In the broadest expansion of its lending powers since the 1930s, the Fed agreed in March to let investment houses draw emergency loans directly from the central bank. As part of JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s takeover of Bear Stearns Cos., the Fed provided a $28.82 billion loan.

In July, the Fed said Fannie and Freddie also could tap the program. For years, such lending privileges were extended only to commercial banks, which are subject to stricter regulatory supervision.

Critics question whether taxpayers are being put at risk and if expanded safety nets will encourage financial companies to act more recklessly in the future.

But Mr. Bernanke today again defended the Fed's decisions saying they were needed to avert a financial catastrophe that could have plunged the economy into a deep recession.

First Priority Bank Closes Today To Reopen as Sun Trust Bank On August 3

2008-08-01T21:30:00.000-04:00

First Priority Bank of Bradenton is the eighth bank to be taken over this year by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the first bank in Florida to fail. The FDIC separately announced today the closing of First Priority Bank by the Commissioner of the Florida Office of Financial Regulation.

Under terms of an agreement with the FDIC, SunTrust will provide banking services to more than 4000 former First Priority customers, including operating First Priority Bank's six branches beginning on Monday, August 3 for a 90-day transition period.
During the transition period, First Priority customer accounts will be transitioned to SunTrust accounts with clients ultimately enjoying access to SunTrust's robust Southwest Florida branch network and its more than 1600 other branches throughout the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states.

"Today's announcement underscores that despite the challenges facing all banks today, the current environment also presents opportunities for strong institutions like SunTrust to expand our client base," said James M. Wells III, SunTrust Chairman, President and CEO. "In addition, we are pleased to be in a position to support the FDIC in its effort to resolve a problematic situation while also offering former First Priority customers the advantages of banking with SunTrust."

During the transition period, SunTrust will work with First Priority's approximately 50 employees to identify possible job opportunities within SunTrust.

"We look forward to welcoming First Priority customers, and soon offering them the channels, choices and convenience enjoyed by existing SunTrust customers," said Margaret L. Callihan, chairman, president and CEO of SunTrust Bank, Southwest Florida. She noted that pending completion of the transition period, First Priority customers should continue to conduct their banking at their usual branch location.

SunTrust Banks, Inc., headquartered in Atlanta, is one of the nation's largest banking organizations, serving a broad range of consumer, commercial, corporate and institutional clients. As of June 30, 2008, SunTrust had total assets of $177.4 billion and total deposits of $119.8 billion. The Company operates an extensive branch and ATM network throughout the high-growth Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states and a full array of technology-based, 24- hour delivery channels.

The Company also serves customers in selected markets nationally. Its primary businesses include deposit, credit, trust and investment services. Through various subsidiaries the Company provides mortgage banking, insurance, brokerage, investment management, equipment leasing and capital markets services. SunTrust's Internet address is suntrust.com.

Planning For The Perfect Retirement

2008-07-25T08:03:00.001-04:00

How are you planning to spend your retirement? Sailing in the Greek isles? Learning to cook while living in a Tuscan villa? Perfecting your golf game in Scotland? Skiing in the Swiss Alps? Or maybe just lying on the beach in Bali?

If your dreams include these or any other exotic adventures, you can't afford to wait until retirement to start exploring the world. It's time to pack your bags now--at least as far as your portfolio is concerned.

When your grandparents started saving for retirement, international investing wasn't much of an option. Their choices--if any--were limited to a handful of international mutual funds and big global companies with shares trading in New York. And back then, brokers and other financial advisers didn't have decades of academic research to draw upon or fancy Powerpoint presentations to illustrate the case for going global.

International investing has come a long way in recent years. In 1985, there were fewer than 50 global mutual funds to choose from, with combined assets of about $8 billion, according to the Investment Company Institute. Now there are more than 800 funds, representing closer to $1 trillion.

Your grandfather's plain-vanilla global mutual fund has been replaced by a dizzying array of exchange-traded funds, American depositary receipts, closed-end funds and specialized regional or single-country mutual funds. Getting exposure to global markets from Stockholm to Shanghai is as easy as buying shares of IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people ), and as time goes by even more offerings are sure to be on the way. Discount brokers such as E-Trade, for example, are already experimenting with ways to trade stocks listed on foreign exchanges directly from your laptop.

Trouble is, even though the current generation of investors is spoiled for choice when it comes to international markets, most folks still keep the vast majority of their money at home, just like Grandma and Grandpa did.

Sure, lots of Americans have dabbled in foreign stocks or funds, but how many have actually built truly global portfolios? It's hard to say, but based on some data that I've seen and tons of anecdotal evidence, my guess is very few. And during a market panic like the one we've seen this summer, I wouldn't be surprised to see more investors cutting back on international exposure, especially when it comes to "serious money" like 401(k) plans and other retirement accounts.

There are a few problems with this view. For starters, most Americans are already way too dependent on the U.S. economy. We own homes here and we work for companies that are based here. Before we invest a single dime of our savings, we are 100% exposed to the U.S. market. So if you only had 10% or 15% of your stock portfolio invested overseas before the subprime mess started to unfold and you start cutting back now, chances are you'll end up with almost negligible international exposure in a holistic sense.

So how much is enough? The answer will vary depending on your circumstances, but I think you need at least 20% in international stocks to even begin making a difference.

Consider the following example. Say your net worth is $1 million, half of which is a home (no mortgage) and the other half is an investment portfolio. And let's say the portfolio has 60% in stocks and 40% in bonds, cash and other investments.

That leaves you with $300,000 to put to work in stocks. If you're only investing 10% of that amount internationally, you're down to $30,000 to play with overseas. So you've really only diversified a mere 3% of your net worth outside the U.S.

Jeremy Siegel, a professor of finance at the Wharton School, argues that at least 40% of your stock portfolio should be allocated overseas. I think you can go as high as 50% if you're not planning to retire for another 20 years or more.

Sound too risky?

It's not as far-fetched as it may seem. The U.S. represents about half of the world's market capitalization, so by that measure, a 50% allocation overseas would be just about right. And it's hardly a new concept. European investors in Switzerland, the Netherlands and other smaller markets have long taken a global approach to investing. Try asking someone from Sweden or Belgium if they think global investing is "risky." Warning: They might look at you like you're from outer space.

Part of the problem is that somewhere along the line we learned to associate "foreign" with "risky." Sure, Nigerian small-cap stocks might not be the best place to park your 401(k). But you can also lose your shirt investing in shares of a penny stock that's located in your hometown. The real risk is keeping too much of your money at home.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not one of those gloom and doom conspiracy theorists who think America is about to go the way of the Roman Empire. But when I look overseas, I see too many opportunities to ignore.

International stocks have performed well in recent years, but they still offer one of the best combinations of value and growth that you can find in any asset class. U.S. stocks are trading at 16 times 2007 estimated earnings, with expected earnings growth in the 7% neighborhood. Compare this with emerging markets, where stocks trade for about 14 times earnings and offer 15% growth. Even stodgy old Europe is on course to deliver better earnings growth than the U.S.--and it's cheaper too, at 14 times earnings.

Planning for retirement involves making a lot of assumptions about the future. It's tough enough predicting what the economy and markets will do next quarter, let alone several decades from now.

But there's one thing I can almost guarantee. The forces of globalization will continue to boost the importance of international markets, particularly emerging economic powers like China and India. Now is the time to make sure your retirement portfolio has a meaningful stake in these markets of the future.

Wachovia's "Problems", A Warning Sign?

2008-07-25T07:53:00.003-04:00

Wachovia's new chief executive is slashing his way through that bank's problems, but some argue he's not being aggressive enough.

The Charlotte, N.C., bank's second-quarter loss of $8.9 billion far eclipsed its gloomy forecast earlier this month when it announced it had hired Treasury Undersecretary and ex-Goldman Sachs investment banker Robert Steel to take over as its chief executive.

Steel has an ugly task ahead of him, and an unexpected $6 billion goodwill impairment charge in the second quarter--related to commercial banking, corporate lending and investment banking--could be one sign he is trying to make a break with Wachovia's recent troubles.

"We're serious about getting on top of these issues quickly," he said on a conference call Tuesday.

But many were surprised that Steel has focused on preserving capital rather than on raising more. He didn't eliminate Wachovia's dividend entirely, cutting it to a nickel a share, which saves $2.8 billion a year.

Wachovia is closing down its wholesale mortgage origination business, firing more than 6,000 workers and leaving another 4,400 open jobs unfilled, as well as selling loans and other non-core assets. It is also cutting off commercial borrowers who only look to the bank for loans.

Still, the results don't assuage concerns about the company's ability to survive as an independent entity, though Wachovia says it intends to do so even with mounting pressures from its large exposure to real estate. Wachovia set aside another $4.2 billion for future loan losses--an amount more than twice that of its competitors--as it faces far worse conditions in Florida and California.

"The market was expecting an update of a direct capital raising plan rather than capital conservation," says Richard Ramsden of Goldman Sachs.

Some think Wachovia could raise a substantial amount of capital by selling its retail brokerage operation, now with 14,000 financial advisers and $1.1 trillion in customer assets. Last year, Wachovia bought St. Louis-based AG Edwards for $6.8 billion and merged it into Wachovia Securities. That division is valued around $22 billion, though Prudential Financial owns one-quarter of it.

Then there's the possibility that Wachovia itself could be taken over, something that has been speculated for several months. But Steel would have to do a lot of window dressing to attract potential buyers. Wachovia has the among the highest non-performing asset ratios in the industry (2.4%), and it is bound to go higher.

Without the impairment charge in the quarter, the loss would have been $2.6 billion, approximately what Wachovia had pre-announced.

Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's Corp. downgraded Wachovia, citing much higher-than-expected losses in its adjustable rate mortgage portfolio, which makes up 25% of Wachovia's assets. Moody's said losses are expected to be $16 billion for the $122 billion portfolio, twice as much as previously expected. There is a possibility, Moody's said, "that Wachovia could report losses into 2009."

The view is not much better for Washington Mutual, which is not expected to return to profitability until late next year as well. Analysts at Lehman Brothers project losses of $26 billion for the largest U.S. thrift, $21 billion of that tied to mortgages.

Wamu lived up to fears. It had a second-quarter loss of $3.3 billion after taking a $5.9 billion provision for loan losses, including $2.2 billion of charge-offs. "The company now expects the remaining cumulative losses in its residential mortgage portfolios to be toward the upper end of the range it disclosed in April," the bank said. The loss was $3.34 a share, much higher than the $1.05 a share expected loss.

The Wachovia numbers tossed water on hopes that the worst was behind the bank sector. Last week, big banks like JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup had better than expected results, which is to say they didn't do as terribly as feared.

But it's going to get a lot worse.

Loan losses and delinquencies are mounting and aren't expected to crest until later this year. That'll force banks to set aside billions of more dollars in extra reserves. Meanwhile, companies like Citigroup and JPMorgan are still writing down asset values, and many other banks will be forced to raise more capital by cutting or eliminating dividends, selling new shares or reducing their leverage.

Oppenheimer analyst Meredith Whitney, one of the most bearish of bank analysts, sees Wachovia as having the "greatest reckoning" of all banks in the coming quarters. "We are hard-pressed to find examples of financial companies that have successfully shrunk their businesses," Whitney said last week.

How Much Can FDIC Do For Banks And Their Depositors

2008-07-18T05:40:00.005-04:00

Shelly Banjo

The failure of IndyMac Bank has depositors worrying about what funds are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission. Here are answers to some commonly asked questions:

Question: If a bank fails, like IndyMac did last week, what protects customers' deposits?

Answer: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. covers individual accounts up to $100,000 per deposit per bank or $250,000 for most retirement accounts (and that includes any accrued interest). The agency may increase the coverage, but that can't happen by law until 2011.

The FDIC doesn't insure money invested in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, life-insurance policies, annuities or municipal securities, even if these investments were bought from an insured bank.

But sometimes deposits sneak north of $100,000 because the customer isn't paying attention. "Regardless of the health of your bank or condition of the overall economy ... returns are never high enough to justify the exposure of uninsured deposits," says Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com.

Question: What do depositors do if they have more than $100,000 they need to put in the bank?

Answer: One way to protect the money is to hold accounts under that sum at a few separate banks. For those wanting to keep money at the same institution, perhaps for convenience's sake, a sound strategy is to open different accounts.

For instance, a married couple could each open an individual account (up to $100,000 in each), a joint account (up to $200,000), two separate individual retirement accounts ($250,000 each) and two revocable trust accounts, payable on death, naming each other as beneficiaries ($100,000 each). Together that is more than $1 million of insured deposits.

Also, they could set up additional revocable trusts insured up to $100,000 for other qualified beneficiaries such as parents, siblings, children and grandchildren.

Question: Are there any pitfalls to this multiple-account, single-bank approach?

Answer: Depositors should make sure their accounts are properly titled at the bank. Bank employees may not always know the correct distinctions.

Because of misinformation from Countrywide Financial Corp., "I had $100,000 in funds uninsured for a considerable amount of time," says Scott Marberblatt of Swampscott, Mass. He held $100,000 in a certificate of deposit and put $100,000 in a savings account with two beneficiaries. But the bank did not properly title the savings account with the words "In Trust For," so the second $100,000 went uninsured.

If Countrywide had failed -- it ended up being acquired by much stronger Bank of America Corp. -- then he would have had a problem.

To verify all accounts are FDIC-insured, contact the FDIC consumer hot line at 1-877-275-3342 or use the deposit insurance calculator at www.fdic.gov.

Question: Should a bank go under, are depositors with more than $100,000 in one account out of luck?

Answer: Not entirely. Amounts over $100,000 can be partially reimbursed after some time and hassle, with the money coming from sales of the failed bank's assets. This resembles how creditors are paid in bankruptcies. The schedule varies, according to FDIC dictates.

In IndyMac's case, depositors will have access to half of their uninsured deposits Monday via an FDIC advance on asset-sale proceeds. They can withdraw that money, but the FDIC says they don't need to do so. In general, depositors eventually get 70% to 80% of their funds returned.

Question: Is it possible to get warning that a bank will go under?

Answer: No. The FDIC says it works aggressively behind the scenes with what the agency deems "problem banks." It doesn't want to set off a panic, where customers pull out their deposits. "We cannot alert customers directly before we close a bank," said Andrew Gray, FDIC spokesman. For the time being, IndyMac continues to operate, but under regulators' management.

FDIC Establishes IndyMac Federal Bank, FSB as Successor to IndyMac Bank

2008-07-12T09:15:00.001-04:00

Ari Levy and David Mildenberg
IndyMac Bancorp Inc. became the second- biggest federally insured financial company to be seized by U.S. regulators after a run by depositors left the California mortgage lender short on cash.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will run a successor institution, IndyMac Federal Bank FSB, starting next week, the Office of Thrift Supervision said in an e-mail yesterday. The regulator blamed U.S. Senator Charles Schumer for creating a ``liquidity crisis'' after a letter on June 26, in which he expressed concern that the bank may fail.

The Pasadena, California-based lender specialized in so-called Alt-A mortgages, which didn't require borrowers to provide documentation on their incomes. The demise adds to the crisis caused by the subprime collapse and may mean regulators will have to raise more money to support the federal deposit insurance program that repays customers when a bank fails.

``IndyMac is the vanguard, the precursor of more stuff coming,'' said Christopher Whalen, managing director of Institutional Risk Analytics, a market research company in Torrance, California. ``It's not surprising to see IndyMac resolved. What you have to ask is what's coming next. It's going to be a wave of medium to bigger-than-medium institutions.''

IndyMac's home state, where Countrywide Financial Corp. was also located before it was bought last week, has been among the hardest hit by foreclosures. California ranked second among U.S. states, with one foreclosure filing for every 192 households in June, 2.6 times the national average.

IndyMac's Losses

The lender racked up almost $900 million in losses as home prices tumbled and foreclosures climbed to a record. IndyMac becomes the largest OTS-regulated savings and loan to fail, according to the FDIC.

Mortgages serviced by IndyMac will be turned over to the FDIC and the regulator will be reaching out to customers immediately, Chairman Sheila Bair said on a conference call yesterday. Customers will have access to funds this weekend via automated teller machines and electronically and by phone starting next week.

The FDIC intends to sell IndyMac within 90 days, preferably as a single entity, Bair said. If that doesn't work, the lender will be sold off in pieces, she said.

After peaking at $50.11 on May 8, 2006, IndyMac shares lost 87 percent of their value in 2007 and another 95 percent this year. The stock fell 3 cents to 28 cents yesterday.

Schumer's Comments

IndyMac came under fire last month from Schumer, the Democrat from New York, who said lax lending standards and deposits purchased from third parties left it on the brink of failure. During the 11 business days after Schumer explained his concerns in a June 26 letter, depositors withdrew more than $1.3 billion, the OTS said.

``This institution failed due to a liquidity crisis,'' OTS Director John Reich said in the statement. ``Although this institution was already in distress, I am troubled by any interference in the regulatory process.''

Schumer blamed IndyMac's own actions and regulatory failures for the bank's seizure.

``If OTS had done its job as regulator and not let IndyMac's poor and loose lending practices continue, we wouldn't be where we are today,'' Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in an e-mail yesterday. ``Instead of pointing false fingers of blame, OTS should start doing its job to prevent future IndyMacs.''

The failure will cost the federal deposit insurance program about $4 billion to $8 billion, the FDIC said. Some $1 billion of uninsured deposits are held by about 10,000 customers, the FDIC said. Those depositors will get an ``advance dividend'' equal to half the uninsured amount, according to the statement.

Firing Workers

The FDIC insures $100,000 per depositor per insured bank, according to the agency's Web site. Customers may qualify for more coverage depending on the type of accounts they own, and some retirement accounts have a $250,000 limit.

IndyMac announced on July 7 that it was firing half its employees. The lender agreed to sell most of its retail mortgage branches to Prospect Mortgage, giving the Northbrook, Illinois based-company more than 60 branch offices with 750 employees. IndyMac also has a retail bank network with 33 branches and $18 billion in deposits, mostly insured by the FDIC.

The company was started in 1985 by Countrywide founders Angelo Mozilo and David Loeb under the name Countrywide Mortgage Investments. In 1999, it converted into a bank from a real estate investment trust. That year, Michael Perry replaced Mozilo as chief executive officer.

Under Perry's leadership, profit more than doubled from $118 million in 2000 to $343 million in 2006 amid the housing boom. The stock more than tripled over that stretch.

Perry will not be continuing with the new FDIC-controlled institution, while other executives will be retained, Bair said. The FDIC's John Bovenzi will assume the CEO role.

In a release by the FDIC, it states that insured depositors and borrowers will automatically become customers of IndyMac Federal, FSB and will continue to have uninterrupted customer service and access to their funds by ATM, debit cards and writing checks in the same manner as before. Depositors of IndyMac Federal Bank, FSB will have no access to on-line and phone banking services this weekend. These services will be operational again on Monday. Loan customers should continue making loan payments as usual.

Beginning on Monday, July 14, IndyMac Federal Bank, FSB's 33 branches will observe normal operating hours and will continue to offer full banking services, including on-line banking. For additional information, the FDIC has established a toll-free number for customers of IndyMac Federal Bank, FSB. The toll-free number is 1-866-806-5919 and will operate today from 3:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. (PDT), and then daily from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. thereafter, except Sunday, July 13, when the hours will be 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Customers also may visit the FDIC's Web site at http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/IndyMac.html for further information.

At the time of closing, IndyMac Bank, F.S.B. had about $1 billion of potentially uninsured deposits held by approximately 10,000 depositors. The FDIC will begin contacting customers with uninsured deposits to arrange an appointment with an FDIC claims agent by Monday. Customers can contact the FDIC for an appointment using the toll-free number above. The FDIC will pay uninsured depositors an advance dividend equal to 50 percent of the uninsured amount.

What to Say About Why You Quit Your Last Job

2008-06-03T04:19:00.000-04:00

Caroline Potter
Everyone makes a big fuss about having a gap on your resume, and most folks are fearful of getting fired because of this very reason. But what if your current state of "underemployment" is your own doing?

A bad boss, crummy coworkers, or poor working conditions may have led you to walk away -- but you don't want to reveal that in an interview. However valid your reasons may have been, such factors can be turned back on you, causing you to be perceived as someone who couldn't handle directions, work well with others, or wasn't willing to do whatever it took to get the job done.

So, how should you discuss the fact that you quit your last job without scaring off recruiters? Read on for four tips.

1. Blame It on Burnout

The best tactic for talking about why you quit -- for any reason -- is to accentuate the positive and minimize the negative. Most folks understand that people are susceptible to burnout in today's world. Explain to your interviewer that while you enjoyed your job, you wanted to take time to recharge your batteries, physically and mentally.

If you have no other gaps on your resume and have been working continually for a lengthy period of time, this is quite plausible.

2. This Time It's Personal

If you quit a job to spend quality time with a child or a sick family member, by all means say that. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) doesn't necessarily provide workers with all the protection or time they need to be present for family members if childcare or eldercare becomes necessary. Only companies of a certain size are beholden to the FMLA, which offers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave during a 12-month period.

3. You Finally Examined Your Unexamined Life

This approach is effective for industry changers in particular. Simply tell your interviewer that you took time off to re-examine your priorities and passions and realized that you wanted to work in another field. Even if you're applying for a job similar to the one you'd held, this will work if your target employer is in a different industry than your former employer. Also, if you're seeking work with a "green" company, a nonprofit, or another very worthy organization, you can mention how working for a socially and/or environmentally conscious employer became important to you during your discovery process.

4. Play the Consulting Card

Focus on the fact that while you weren't employed at a full-time job, you were consulting (if, in fact, you were). Consulting, you might say, gave you a chance to focus on a particular area of interest in your profession. This ability to concentrate on one facet led you to pursue positions such as the one for which you're interviewing. If you haven't yet started consulting, do so -- even for free at a charity or community organization. This will help keep your resume current and allow you to be truthful about your recent professional experience.

Bad Interview Behaviors To Avoid

2008-06-03T04:13:00.001-04:00

Caroline Potter
Would you ever ask an interviewer for a cigarette? Or send your sister to meet a potential employer in your place? Or arrive with a bird on your shoulder? Probably not, but job seekers have done each of these things -- and worse -- according to a new survey released by OfficeTeam, a leading staffing firm.

The folks who committed these professional faux pas probably didn't intend on doing so, but because they didn't follow the four rules below, they made themselves susceptible to bizarre behaviors. Remember these tips -- or be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

1. Be Prepared

Before any interview, you've got a considerable amount of homework ahead of you. Make sure you carefully research the company at which you're interviewing and try to learn as much as you can about the position and your interviewer as possible.

One executive revealed to OfficeTeam that a potential employee was so unprepared that he "got his companies confused and repeatedly mentioned the strengths of a competing firm, thinking that's who he was interviewing with." Another called his interviewer by the wrong name throughout the entirety of the meeting.

Always give yourself a few extra moments to prep for your interview, either on the train or subway, or while you're waiting in the lobby. Review people's names, the company's focus, and your potential responsibilities and go in with a clear head.

2. Be Mindful of Your Body Language

Even if you're nervous during an interview, you must avoid displaying any behaviors that might make you appear so. Another respondent revealed, "A job seeker gestured with his hands so much that he sat on them to stop it."

Also, make sure you're focused and alert. Interviews can go on for a long while, so go in well-rested with enough food in your system to go the distance. One unfortunate interviewee fell asleep during an interview, according to OfficeTeam.

3. Dress Appropriately

The best bet for almost any interview is a simple business suit. As long as it's appropriate for the office, you won't look like you're trying too hard -- or not hard enough. A hiring manager told OfficeTeam, "Someone showed up for an interview in pajamas and his hair not combed, like he had just rolled out of bed."

Also, whatever you're wearing, check to make sure it doesn't need darning or cleaning. Adds another interviewer, "[A] candidate had a big rip in the back of his pants."

4. Choose Your Words Carefully

You've got to think on your toes during an interview, regardless of how prepared you are. There are always a couple of questions even the most savvy professionals fail to anticipate. If you're caught off guard by a question, take a deep breath, reiterate the question, and answer slowly and thoughtfully. Shares an interviewer, "[One] applicant was doing really well in the interview until she got to the reason she left her other job. She told us everyone was out to get her."

Dave Willmer, executive director of OfficeTeam, says, "Although extreme, these examples illustrate the importance of interview basics. To be considered for a job, candidates must prepare well, dress appropriately, and provide compelling information about themselves."

10 Ways To Take A Necessary Vacation

2008-06-03T04:06:00.000-04:00

Tom Musbach

The slowdown in the U.S. economy is threatening a necessity for workers: vacations.

According to the annual Yahoo! HotJobs vacation survey, 51% of respondents said they plan to skip taking a vacation this year, opting to save money instead.
Not a Frivolous Matter

"Vacations are usually the first thing to go when people feel job or economic pressure," says Joe Robinson, a trainer in work-life balance and author of "Work to Live." He continues, "We're programmed to believe that free time is worthless, a frill to shove aside, but vacations are as important as watching your cholesterol or getting exercise."

Skipping a vacation can also be bad for your employer.

Milo and Thuy Sindell, founders of Hit the Ground Running and authors of "Job Spa," say, "You are not helpful to the company and your coworkers when you are not operating at full capacity. Vacations help you to get rejuvenated to come back to work at full capacity."
Make It Work With Less

For those tempted to skip vacation this year due to financial worries, experts recommend the following tips:

* Remind yourself: Vacation is not a luxury. "You owe it to yourself, your family, and your company to take care of yourself by stepping out of the office for at least a few days at a time," says Liz Bywater, president of the Bywater Consulting Group, which helps improve organizational performance.
* Put aside some funds each week. "Even $50 a week [or less] can add up and make your trip happen," says Robinson.
* Plan leisure activities near home. "Stay at home and read, garden, hike, jog, bike, or whatever you like to do but never have enough time for during the weekends," say the Sindells. "Or be a tourist in your own city."
* Try home-swapping. You can swap with someone you know in another city, or use an online service, such as homexchange.com or even vrbo.com (Vacation Rentals by Owner). "It can have the look and feel of a vacation at a much more affordable housing cost than paying for hotel or resort lodging," says Michael Haubrich, president of Financial Service Group and an expert in financial planning for career issues.
* Keep the itinerary simple. Travel columnist Donald D. Groff recommends selecting a destination within 200 miles (a three-hour drive) from your home. If you're traveling by plane, fly nonstop whenever possible. "The sooner you get to your destination, the sooner your relaxation begins," Groff says.

Stress-Busting Strategies

The economic downturn is also adding to workers' stress levels. Nearly a third of the respondents (31%) are worried by how the economy is affecting their workplaces, and 34% said they feel pressure to improve their performance for fear of being laid off.

With 55% of respondents admitted to being "burned out" by work, stress and fatigue add another threat to vacations. Experts say you can prevent the threat in the following ways:

* Start small. "Start with an afternoon off to do something you really enjoy, even if it's just a walk at the beach or a visit to a farmer's market," says Beth A. Levin, author of "Making a Richer, More Fulfilling Life a Reality."
* If planning is a burden, don't. "Instead of planning a vacation, just take time off to be at home and figure it out each day as you go," the Sindells suggest.
* Enlist back-up support. Ask a trusted coworker to back you up while you're away and offer to return the favor, Bywater suggests. "It's much easier to relax when you know someone's got you covered."
* Choose according to what you need. You may need a peaceful retreat from stress, or you may benefit from something more active and exciting. "Avoid the kind of vacation that will leave you even more exhausted than before," she adds.
* Give yourself a deadline. "Stop thinking about it and just do it," says Bywater. "Think of it as 'doctor's orders.'"

US Dollars Bows To Israeli Shekel

2008-05-26T17:44:00.000-04:00

Trading in foreign currency began this morning with the market awaiting the interest rate decision by Governor of the Bank of Israel Stanley Fischer today at 18:30. The shekel strengthened against the dollar and euro amid expectations that Fischer will announce an interest rate hikes this evening.

A further vote of confidence in the shekel by global markets can be found in the news that the shekel will become a convertible currency on capital and money markets worldwide, following Israel's official admission to the international currency clearing system operated by CLS Bank International.

Another factor that will have an equal effect on local foreign currency trading, is the surprising figures on economic growth in the first quarter, published yesterday by the Central Bureau of Statistics. GDP grew by an annualized 5.4 percent, far higher than the Bank of Israel's 3.2 percent forecast for 2008 as a whole. Fischer is widely expected, regardless of yesterday's figures on economic growth, to raise the interest rate by 25 or 50 basis points. The interest rate is currently 3.25 percent, the lowest it has ever been in the country's history, following two 50 basis point cuts, and then a decision to leave the rate unchanged.

The shekel-dollar rate is currently down 0.93 percent at NIS 3.302/$, and the shekel-euro rate is currently up 0.16 percent at NIS 5.2493/â?¬. The shekel-dollar representative rate was set 0.15 percent lower on Friday at NIS 3.333/$, and the shekel-euro representative rate was set 0.365 percent lower at NIS 5.2408/â?¬.

Online foreign currency broker Easy Forex says the higher-than expected GDP growth figures will give the shekel a tail wind and strengthen it against the leading currencies. The local economy has provided some impressive macroeconomic data, in contrast to earlier forecasts. These data have made the chances of an interest rate increasingly likely, although some banks, including Merrill Lynch, still believe the interest rate will remain unchanged and could be cut by a further 50-basis points by the end of 2008.

When Those Tough Interview Questions Are Behavioral In Nature

2008-04-21T18:25:00.000-04:00

Tag Goulet
Imagine you are being interviewed for a new job. Everything seems to be going well until the interviewer says: "Tell me about a time you had a conflict on the job."

What should you do?

* (A) Dish the dirt about a jerk you had trouble with on your last job. After all, honesty is the best policy.
* (B) Tell the interviewer you get along with everybody, so you haven't had any conflicts at work.
* (C) Say "if I had a conflict with someone I would sit down with that person to discuss how we could resolve it."
* (D) None of the above.

In most interview situations, the answer is D.

If you badmouth anyone during an interview (answer A), the employer may think you're a difficult person who will create conflict in their workplace. Answer B makes it sound like you are either answering dishonestly or don't have much experience working with people.?

Answer C may sound like a good way to respond. However, most employers don't want to hear what you would do in a hypothetical situation -- they want to hear how you have actually handled a real situation in the past.

The Interest in Conflict

The purpose in asking about a past conflict is not to see if you have ever had a conflict (the interviewer assumes you have). The goal is to see how well you resolve difficult situations and, if something did not work out in the past, what you learned from it.

Asking applicants about past experiences is known as behavioral interviewing. Behavioral interviewing involves asking about specific past behaviors in an attempt to determine how you would likely behave if you got the job.

Of course, people's behaviors can change over time and in different situations. However, past behavior is a much better measure of how someone is likely to behave in a similar situation in the future as opposed to what that person says they "would" do. In an ideal world, we would all handle conflict effectively. In the real world, some of us are better suited to jobs with minimal conflict.

Expect Behavioral Questions

To ensure you're a good fit for the job, many interviewers will ask behavioral questions relating to the particular position. So you may hear questions such as "Describe your most successful project so far. What did you do to make it a success?" or "Describe a project where something went wrong. How did you solve the problem?"

To prepare for behavioral questions, spend time before the interview thinking about your past experiences so you can answer questions by: (1) describing the situation, (2) explaining what you did and what the outcome was, then (3) finishing with the experience you acquired or what you learned if the situation didn't turn out the way you had planned.

Evaluate Your Answers

If you have the chance, do some role-playing with a friend to practice responding to tough interview questions. Ask your friend for feedback about how you answer. Do you get to the point or give too much information? Do you sound natural or do some of your responses sound rehearsed??

Most importantly, could any of your answers raise a red flag with the employer? For example, if you are asked to describe a conflict you experienced and respond with examples of three conflicts you were involved with, the interviewer may think you don't get along with anyone!?

Your purpose during the interview is to show that you will be an asset to the company. Being prepared can help you show that you are the ideal person for the job.

What To Do when Your Annual Report Is Bad

2008-04-21T18:24:00.000-04:00

Caroline Potter,

The annual review is the professional equivalent of the report card. And if you remember back to your school days, you'll probably recall anticipating its arrival with a mix of excitement and anxiety. Had you performed as well as you thought you did? Would tardiness or being too talkative affect your grades?

Workplace evaluations can evoke similar feelings. What if your worst fears become a reality in the way of a poor performance review? Read on for what one career coach believes you should do.

1. Remain calm.

Hallie Crawford, a certified career coach, says, "First and foremost, breathe and relax." You may feel blindsided, but stay calm and take in what your supervisor is telling you without getting defensive. Focus on what you're being told -- you can even take notes. But save your rebuttals for later.

However, if your supervisor is getting angry or being unprofessional, you can try to steer the review to facts and practical information. Crawford, the founder of HallieCrawford.com, advises workers, "Tell your boss, 'I appreciate your candor, but I'd like to get constructive feedback that will help me improve.'" She adds, "You want her to know that you understand there's a problem, but assure her that your focus is solution-oriented."

2. Act, don't react.

If you're feeling defenseless and caught off guard -- or (and especially) if you're feeling angry -- try to buy some time to react to your review and answer criticisms. Crawford, whose practice is based out of Atlanta, believes professionals should request the opportunity to mull things over. "Explain to your manager that you'd like to take a day or two to develop a plan of action to address these issues," says Crawford. "The fact that you're willing to come up with solutions will get your boss on your side, as will soliciting ideas from her as to what you should do in the immediate."

3. Remember that perspective is subjective.

You don't have to accept every criticism of your performance as fact. In fact, you can dispute some parts -- if you do it with kid gloves. Crawford, a specialist in career transition and helping workers find their ideal jobs, says, "You've got to keep things civil and polite, but you don't need to roll over. Acknowledge the valid points of your review, but you can dissent by saying, 'There are just a few things that I have a different perspective on; this is what actually happened.'" Doing so will allow you to direct the conversation back to your point of view rather than attacking the quality of your evaluation.

4. Get real.

So, you've gotten a poor review and you may or may not agree with it. You now need to decide if you want to stay at this job or move on. If you love your job, it's worth working on things, even if you disagree with your evaluation, believes Crawford. "But," she adds, "most people have a gut sense that a job isn't a fit yet they've ignored that instinct." If that's the case, she believes in moving on to another opportunity.

She reminds workers, though, "Don't decide whether to stay or go from a place of fear. You need to come from a place of power and confidence in yourself. If you're afraid, you won't be able to make the best decision for your career."

5. Learn from your mistakes.

When you land at your next job, you may feel extreme anxiety about your first evaluation. You can prevent this -- and getting another negative review -- by opening the lines of communication with your manager from day one.

Crawford, whose book "Flying Solo: Career Transition Tips for Singles" comes out in June 2008, says, "You don't ever want an evaluation to be a big surprise! But you can ensure against that by asking for feedback often and checking in with your boss and coworkers." Find out how often you'll get an official evaluation but also solicit informal reviews after big projects. She adds, "People who communicate openly from day one on a job set the stage to receive feedback naturally. So be that person in the first place."

7 Ways To Handle To Deceptive Collegues

2008-02-22T23:09:00.001-05:00

Larry Buhl
Lying is something we all must watch out for, especially in the workplace. Sometimes the fib is small, such as a boss fudging on an expense report or a coworker taking credit for your work. But a lie covering up a company's financial health can bring down a giant corporation, as ex-Enron employees can attest.

"Even though lying doesn't have the negative connotations it once did, telling lies in the workplace is not a trivial matter," according to professor Pier Forni, cofounder of the Civility Initiative at Johns Hopkins University and author of "Choosing Civility, the 25 Rules of Considerate Conduct."

The Fallout Reaches Far

Even small lies can have a dramatic effect on the quality of life in the workplace, including:

* Lower morale, especially when the boss does it
* Increased stress, due to uncertainty
* Decreased loyalty to the company, making workers feel unimportant

What's more, discovering a lie, big or small, can put you in an ethical quandary and even career jeopardy. Whether to ignore it or report it is a highly personal decision, according to etiquette expert Sue Fox, author of "Business Etiquette for Dummies."

"Unfortunately there are no blanket rules that apply to all incidents of lying and misinformation in the workplace," Fox says. "How to deal with it depends on the unique circumstances, as well as your own values."

Staying Out of Harm's Way

Fox and Forni give some general pointers, outlined below, for dealing with lies in the office.

Be a sleuth. Verify a lie before you do anything. If you don't have time to do some sleuthing, let it go.

Determine the importance of the lie. "When the lie clearly hurts the company by ignoring it, then there is a probability that it will have a snowball effect and the damage will grow," Forni said.

Consult the company's handbook. Larger companies will have policies and procedures documents for combating unethical behavior. If your company has them, follow them.

Keep records. Fox urges recording all incidents of unethical behavior with coworkers, especially when your boss demands an employee to do something unethical. "Keep your responses to those requests, and keep your records at home, where they can't be discovered or stolen."

Divest yourself. "Direct your concerns to either your boss or HR, so that correcting the problem is the supervisor's (or the company's) responsibility, not yours," Fox says. Forni recommends cultivating smart and trustworthy mentors in the organization who can deal with the issue for you.

Protect yourself. "Find an attorney if your boss' ethical breaches are very large," Forni says.

Consider the ramifications. Remember, whistle blowers could be rewarded, and they could be punished. Both Forni and Fox agree that it's a personal decision, but they come down on the side of disclosing a lie. "We sometimes have to decide between the easy thing and the right thing, but the latter is often more satisfying," Forni said.

7 Tips For Success For Job Hunting In A Recessive Economy

2008-02-22T23:03:00.000-05:00

Tom Musbach
Whether or not the U.S. economy has hit a recession, one thing is clear these days: Uncertainty is in the air, and it affects nearly every economic sector, including the job market.

The recent rise in the U.S. unemployment rate -- 4.9% in January -- indicates that fewer jobs are being created, but the shrinkage may not affect job-seekers in some fields, such as technology or health care. Nonetheless, experts say job seekers should pay attention to current economic conditions and expect that the job-search process may take longer.

Adjust Your Approach?

"The unemployment rate has risen, but it is not at a point that should cause job seekers to panic," says John Challenger, CEO of outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. "Even at 5.2% or 5.3%, there is still demand for workers. Those seeking jobs in construction or mortgage lending might have a more difficult time finding employment, but we have not seen a significant downturn in hiring in other sectors."

Alexandra Levit, author of "They Don't Teach Corporate in College," suggests job seekers may want to alter their approach due to economic uncertainties.

"Perhaps this means earning a paycheck at your current job while conducting interviews over your lunch break or doing volunteer work on the weekend that might lead to a paid gig," she says. "If you are currently unemployed, you may have to settle for a situation that's not 100% ideal in order to keep yourself afloat through the downturn."

David Bach, a workforce development specialist in San Francisco, says job seekers can "improve their competitive edge by becoming more aware of the top ongoing employers." Fields that are less affected by the evolving economy -- such as education, health care, and energy -- make an ideal focus right now, he adds.

Tips for Reaching Your Goal

Experts recommend the following actions to increase your job-search success in an uncertain economic climate.

* Tailor your presentations; don't be generic. "In developing a resume and other promotions materials, think about how your current skills and talents apply directly to the responsibilities you'll hold in the new job," says Levit.

* "Create a target list of companies," says career coach Julie Jansen, author of "You Want Me to Work with Who?" She suggests sending the list to 25 people, asking them if they can put you in touch with an employee at one of the listed companies.

* "Make yourself and your skills more visible," says Bach. He suggests posting and refreshing your resume in more places, such as online job boards, and going to job fairs.

* "Create an advisory board of smart and empathetic people and confer with them regularly about your job search," says Jansen.

* "Hone and utilize your 'elevator pitch' as often as possible," says Bach, referring to a 30-second summary of your professional assets.

* Keep your spirits high. Don't let the process overwhelm you or weigh you down. Jansen advises, "Make a list of your five favorite things to do, and do them!"

* Make an effort daily. "Do one thing each day -- like emailing a new contact or attending a networking event -- that moves your job search forward," says Levit. "Your worst enemy is inertia."

Money Market Mutual Funds Rises

2008-02-21T19:31:00.000-05:00

Total money market mutual fund assets rose by $20.86 billion to $3.408 trillion for the week, the Investment Company Institute said Thursday.

Assets of the nation's retail money market mutual funds rose by $9.75 billion in the latest week to $1.233 trillion.

Assets of taxable money market funds in the retail category rose by $10.74 billion to $941.51 billion for the week ended Wednesday, the Washington-based mutual fund trade group said. Tax-exempt fund assets fell by $988 million to $291.69 billion.

Assets of institutional money market funds rose by $11.11 billion to $2.175 trillion for the same period. Among institutional funds, taxable money market fund assets rose by $19.76 billion to $1.999 trillion; assets of tax-exempt funds fell by $8.65 billion to $176.30 billion.

The seven-day average yield on money market mutual funds fell in the week ended Tuesday to 3.05 percent from 3.07 percent the previous week, said Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet Inc. in Westboro, Mass. The 30-day average yield fell to 3.20 percent from 3.39 percent, according to Money Fund Report.

The seven-day compounded yield fell to 3.10 percent from 3.12 percent the previous week, and the 30-day compounded yield fell to 3.26 percent from 3.45 percent, Money Fund Report said.

The average maturity of the portfolios held by money funds was 41 days, unchanged from the previous week, said Money Fund.

The online service Bankrate.com said its survey of 100 leading commercial banks, savings and loan associations and savings banks in the nation's 10 largest markets showed the annual percentage yield available on money market accounts fell to 0.74 percent as of Wednesday from 0.75 percent week earlier.

The North Palm Beach, Fla.-based unit of Bankrate Inc. said the annual percentage yield available on interest-bearing checking accounts was unchanged at 0.26 percent.

Bankrate.com said the annual percentage yield was 2.48 percent on six-month certificates of deposit, down from 2.55 percent the previous week. Yields were 2.43 percent on 1-year CDs, down from 2.47 percent; 2.40 percent on 2 1/2-year CDs, down from 2.44 percent; and 2.82 percent on 5-year CDs, down from 2.86 percent.

European Central Bank, Refinances To Ease Tension In The Money Market

2008-02-21T18:17:00.000-05:00

The European Central Bank allocated 60 billion euros (88 billion dollars) during an exceptional three month refinancing operation marked by easing tensions on eurozone money markets, ECB figures showed Wednesday.

The operation, which was reserved essentially for mid-sized banks, resulted in an average lending rate of 4.26 percent and a marginal, or lowest, rate of 4.15 percent, the ECB said in a statement.

During its last three-month refinancing operation, the average rate was 4.33 percent and the marginal rate 4.21 percent, suggesting there was less pressure on banks to borrow ECB funds this time around.

In early February, ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet announced that two exceptional longer-term refinancing operations would be renewed, in addition to regular transactions, to encourage a "normalisation" of eurozone money markets.

They had been marked by rising tension at the end of 2007 as banks became wary of lending to each other amid a persistent credit crunch that followed the collapse of the US market for high-risk, or subprime, mortgages.

Banks were unable to determine how exposed borrowers might be to potentially huge subprime-related losses and were thus more reluctant to lend money among themselves.

But the ECB's most recent refinancing operations, which allow commercial banks to maintain minimum cash requirements for daily operations, suggest that the situation has begun to ease.

Market expectations that the ECB will soon lower its benchmark interest rates have also decreased tension on the money markets.

How Youths or Immigrants Can Build A Credit History

2008-02-15T18:57:00.002-05:00

Back in our grandparent's day business was conducted in cash and a handshake was all the credit you needed but today you have got to have a good credit history if you want to obtain the best interest rates or credit in the amounts you might need for an emergency. If you have no reported credit history lenders are likely to consider you "high risk". This is because there is no past record for them to look back on. It's kind of like applying for a job. If you apply for a position higher up in the company but have no previous on-the-job experience, they aren't likely to hire you but if you apply for an entry-level job and work your way up. You get the point. You need credit history.

Certain types of people have more problems in this area than others. Generally, young people just starting their careers, older people who've always paid cash, and divorced or widowed women and immigrants to the United States tend to have more problems than others. There often is no credit history for them.

The first thing to do is to find out what's in your credit file and credit history. Sometimes errors can be reported in your credit history or there can be some reports that you didn't realize would show up or that you had forgotten were there. Make sure, if you've had a different name or lived in a different location, that those past records were merged with your current record. Also, if you shared accounts with a former spouse, ask the credit bureau to list these accounts under your name as well. Many will perform these services for a small fee.

Remember that creditors are not required to report any account history information to the credit bureaus. However, if you have a joint account and the creditor does report it - it must be reported under both your names under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. The best way to make sure this is done is to contact your creditor in writing (make sure to include account numbers and keep a copy).

If you do not have a credit history (or have a sparse one), you should start to work on one immediately. First, you must have a steady income and should live in the same area for at least a year. Then you can try applying for credit with a local department store or applying for a small loan amount from your bank. Often a local department store or bank will approve credit applications when larger ones will reject them due to a lack of credit history. Most importantly, before you apply, ask if they report credit history information to credit bureaus. If at all possible, you should strive to obtain credit that will be reported, as this will build your credit history.

If you are rejected ask for the reason why. There are often other reasons for a denial than lack of a credit history. For instance, your income may not meet the minimum or you may not have worked at your current job long enough. You can usually solve these problems with time or by simply applying with another creditor. In almost all cases, it is best to wait at least 6 months before making each new application because credit bureaus record every inquiry about you and inquiries can damage your credit by making it look like you are trying to obtain too much credit too quickly.

If you still are having problems developing credit, you may want to ask a person who has an established credit history to act as your cosigner. A cosigner guarantees that you'll pay and that if you don't - they will. This makes you look like a better risk for creditors. Once you have paid off this debt, try again to get credit on your own.

Specific Ways to Build Credit

It is actually pretty easy to build credit. Try one of the following ideas:

* Ask your bank or credit union about a secured credit card. You can make a deposit to your account and have a credit limit in the amount of your deposit. The bank takes little risk and you build credit slowly.
* Use a co-signer on your first few credit accounts. Lenders will consider the co-signer’s existing credit. The co-signer essentially ‘vouches’ for you while you build credit. Note that this is a big responsibility – you can cause major headaches for the co-signer if you don’t pay as agreed (see our page on How Co-Signing Works for details).
* Use retailer programs for modestly large purchases like furniture. For example, you may buy a television on the “$40/Month Payment Plan”. Gas station cards may work as well. These programs can be easier to qualify for and they certainly help you build credit. Be sure that the retailer will report your loan to the major credit reporting companies.
* Get a credit card with any reputable institution that will give you one. Again, you have to make sure they’ll report your timely payments to the credit reporting companies. Of course, you have to always pay at least the minimum before the due date.

Saving $1000 In One Year Without Stress

2008-01-14T23:44:00.000-05:00

Margarette Burnette

Do you wish you could save an extra $1,000 this year without downgrading your lifestyle?the course of a year, they really add up.

Here are some tips to give yourself a $1,000 raise:

1. Look for discounted dinner entrees
Saving money doesn't mean you can't enjoy meals at your favorite restaurants. Discount deals can be found in the mail, newspaper or online.

"Before you head out to eat, check out your restaurant online," says Fatima Mehdikarimi, founder of the coupon Web site TheShoppingQueen.com. "Or, after you arrive, simply ask the manager if they have any special promotions. Don't forget to ask about promotions that are offered on other days or times."

She notes that one restaurant near her home has a relationship with a local movie theater, so diners can get a discount on an entrée if they present a ticket stub.

"Your restaurant might not advertise these types of specials, so definitely ask about them," she says.

If you receive a "half off your entree" special or similar promotion a couple of times a month, and each discount is worth $5, the savings will top $120 after a year.

2. Return unopened, unused items
Many times, extra money may be even closer at hand than you might think.

"If you're looking for extra money, your closets or drawers are a good place to start," says John Mruz, president of Juggling Duck Organizers in Morristown, N.J.

Nearly everyone has a recently purchased product they will never use: the too-large blouse that still has the tag on it, or an unopened set of salt and pepper shakers that didn't fit the kitchen decor.

Try to return the item to get your money back, or it will likely make its way into an overstuffed closet or drawer, Mruz says.

Even if you can't find your receipt, the retailer may accept the return for a store credit.

"I bought $90 worth of new energy-efficient light bulbs for my kitchen a few months ago -- for the purpose of saving money -- only to find that I had the wrong size," says Mruz.

He meant to return the bulbs and exchange them for the correct size, but didn't get around to it right away. Eventually, he forgot about them.

"I put the bulbs in the basement, and they soon got covered over by random junk," Mruz says.

He recently discovered them when he was clearing out his basement.

"Fortunately, my home center retailer had a generous return policy," he says.

For Mruz, clearing some clutter from his basement meant an increase of $90.

3. Look for extra grocery savings
There are several opportunities to save at the local grocery store, even if you don't like to clip coupons.

"When you enter a store, check to see if there are sales ads located near the front," says Mehdikarimi.

You might find a coupon for a purchase you were planning to make. Just make sure the sales don't entice you to buy items that were not already on your shopping list.

If you don't find any deals at the store's entrance, there's still a chance to save money at the checkout line.

"Ask the cashier if there are any coupons or specials going on that would apply to any of your purchases," says Mehdikarimi.

By getting in the habit of asking about sales each time you pay for your groceries, you could regularly discover discounts for items that you were already planning to purchase. The clerk might have extra coupons on hand, or a manager who's ringing up your groceries might let you know about a special offered on one of your brands.

Even a customer may help you if she hears your question and mentions a "buy one, get one free" deal that you missed.

Another way to save is to sign up for store coupon clubs.

"Grocery stores have many programs that allow you to get discounts for purchases," says Mehdikarimi.

If your grocer has a baby club, for example, signing up for the program could save you hundreds of dollars in diapers, infant food and other baby products over the course of a year.

If you're able to save just $4 off of your bill during each weekly shopping trip, total savings would be more than $200 a year.

4. Check out materials from the library
The next time you plan to buy or rent a favorite movie classic, head over to your local library instead and borrow the video for free. Many libraries stock DVDs -- movie classics and newer titles -- and CDs with generous borrowing periods.

If you need children's videos, visit the juvenile area for new cartoons and educational selections.

Adding up the savings

Type	How often?	Savings each time	Yearly savings
Dinner discounts	Twice monthly	$5.00	$120.00
Returning unused items	Varies	Varies	Varies ($90 in this example)
Finding grocery deals	Weekly	$4.00	$208.00
Check out library materials	Monthly	$10	$240.00
Bundling utilities	Monthly	$20.00	$240.00
Negotiating savings on services	Monthly	$10.00	$120.00
		TOTAL:	$1,018.00

While you are at the library, see if they have the latest book releases. Many libraries post best-seller lists for your convenience, and they probably have several copies of many titles. Remember to return everything on time, because libraries charge late fees just like rental stores do.

If you want reading material but you don't want to leave your home, call your local library and ask if they offer e-books that can be downloaded to your computer.

If you borrow just two books or movies a month that you would otherwise buy or rent, you could save between $120 and $240 per year.

5. Bundle cable, phone and Internet services
If you can't live without your cable, telephone and Internet access, but the monthly bills are getting uncomfortably high, consider bundling all of your services under one company.

"With the competition for cable and Internet being so high, there's a good chance that you can negotiate a promotional rate," says Mehdikarimi.

Just be aware that unexpected fees could be added to that low quoted rate.

"Because of taxes and other state-imposed fees, the overall savings for a bundle might not be as great as you may have been led to believe," says Mruz.

However, your bill could still be much less than if you paid for the services separately.

Even if you don't opt for a bundled package, ask your providers for a price break.

"If your rates are too high, call some other companies to find their rates. Then call your current provider and ask them to match the price," says Mehdikarimi. "My philosophy is that it never hurts to ask."

If you're able to reduce your total fees by $20 a month, that adds up to $240 for the year.

6. Negotiate with monthly service providers
Once you get off the phone with your cable, Internet and telephone provider, call your alarm company, lawn care person and any of your other monthly service providers to negotiate prices. Depending on where you live, you might even be able to negotiate natural gas rates.

"Obviously, you're not going to get very far with monopoly utilities, but for the companies that have competition, you can definitely negotiate your price," says Mehdikarimi.

She suggests that in each case, find what out what the competitors are charging. Then ask your provider to match the price.

Don't get discouraged if the first person you speak with can't approve a rate decrease.

"You might need to ask for a supervisor," says Mehdikarimi.

One tip is to call during normal business hours to increase the chances of reaching a supervisor who can authorize a rate change.

If the idea of negotiating for a better price sounds intimidating, remember that the conversation can be pleasant, even if you have to ask the customer service representative to put the boss on the phone.

"The call doesn't have to be confrontational," says Mehdikarimi. "Remember that you'll be in a telephone situation where you're not looking at someone face to face. Tell yourself that they're a random person, and after this call, you'll never have to see them again."

If you save a total of just $10 a month negotiating all your monthly services, you'll save an extra $120 a year.

7. Stash money for easier savings next year
By making these barely noticeable changes to your lifestyle, you could save as much as $1,000 over the next year. But how do you increase your savings in future years?

Bill Billimoria, personal finance expert and author of "On Golden Pond … Or Up the Creek?" suggests letting your cash work for you.

"Take the money you saved so far and put it into a high-interest savings account or mutual fund," he says. "Then let compounding interest do the magic."

If you place $1,000 in an account that pays a 7 percent annual return on investment, the original amount will nearly double after 10 years. That means twice the money for no extra work.

Saving money by doing "nothing" can be a very lucrative habit.

5 Signs That Shows It Is Time To Quit Your Job

2008-01-05T08:41:00.000-05:00

Michelle Goodman

We've all been there. Sunday night rolls around and suddenly we're covered with hives. Or we find ourselves frantically searching WebMD for some exotic new disease to call in sick with the next morning.

Such suffering doesn't necessarily mean you should dust off your resume and start looking for greener pastures. Some workplace woes are fixable. The trick is knowing which ones are changeable -- and how to mend them.

The Magic is Gone

So you've been at your job a couple years and now you're bored. Or frustrated. Or disgruntled. Sound familiar? It's possible you've just fallen into the age-old workplace habit of griping for griping's sake, says Cynthia Shapiro, author of "Corporate Confidential: 50 Secrets Your Company Doesn't Want You to Know -- And What to Do About Them."

Instead of complaining, Shapiro advises, try to tap into what you originally appreciated about your gig and company. If you come up empty, take a long, hard look at your job: Has it changed for the worse since you started? Has the company? Have you changed, perhaps outgrowing the work? If the answer's yes to any of these, it's indeed time fly like the wind.

"I Hate My Boss" Syndrome

Sure, a lot of bosses are crummy managers, but many are manageable. "If your boss looks like he's terrible, it's probably just that you're terrible at managing up," says Penelope Trunk, author of "Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success."

The solution, says Trunk, is to tell your boss what you need to succeed in your job -- be it more lead time on deadlines or more backup when the workload is piled sky high. But remember, it's not all about you. It's about supporting your boss and doing a bang-up job so that she impresses her superiors. Keep your boss happy, and you hold the keys to the kingdom.

"I Think My Boss Hates Me" Syndrome

But what if you are doing a heckuva job, only to be snubbed when your boss hands out the plum projects, pay raises, and promotions? Maybe you're constantly getting the difficult clients dumped in your lap. Or you just received a poor performance review, seemingly out of the blue.

If no matter how hard you shine, you're ignored or sidelined by management, it's time to wake up and smell the pink slip. "That is not just job ennui," says Shapiro. "That is danger -- you're in the exit lane." And while it may be tempting to sulk, your focus should be on looking for a new employer. Pronto.

The Titanic Is Sinking

When the company's in trouble, your job is, too. If you haven't been paid in three weeks or the CEO is starting to blog about how the company is willing to do anything to boost profitability (translation: layoffs ahead), make like the Lutz family in "The Amityville Horror" and get out now.

Your Health Is Failing

"If you tell someone you're in an abusive relationship with a guy and he's making you physically ill, they're like, 'Get out, get out,'" says Trunk. "But, if you tell them your job's making you sick, they say, 'I know, I hate my job, too.'"

As Trunk implies, we're freakishly loyal to jobs that beat us down. Either that, or we're utterly complacent. But it's a safe bet that there's no rule in your employee handbook saying you have to put up with work-related migraines, insomnia, and ulcers. If Sunday night dread is costing you a small fortune in doctor's visits and prescription drugs, it's high time you got out of Dodge.

Quick Tips for Jumping Ship

1. Look into a department transfer. Sometimes a change of scenery or job duties within a company is all you need to feel the love again.

2. Before you quit, line up a new gig. When it comes to negotiating salary, employed people have more bargaining power, says Shapiro. A candidate in search of his next paycheck is likelier to accept a lower wage, and hiring managers know this.

3. If you think your job is on the line, start interviewing ASAP. You can't lose here. Either you get a new gig, your boss wishes you well, and you part ways (proof your job was in jeopardy, says Shapiro). Or you resign, and your boss offers you a raise and promotion so that you'll stick around.

Five Career Huddles To Jump Over In 2008

2008-01-03T21:59:00.000-05:00

Caroline Levchuck

Despite the fact that no one can truly foretell the future, there are some events visible on the horizon of 2008 that will impact your professional life.

John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a global outplacement consulting organization, shared his thoughts on the five factors that will positively or negatively affect your job and/or job search during the next year.

1. The Housing Crisis

You can't pick up a newspaper these days without seeing a headline about the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the downturn in real estate -- and that's with good reason.

"The ongoing housing crisis affects not just subprime lenders, but banks, realtors, home retailers, construction and renovation contractors, building materials companies, and others," Challenger says. And, unlike problems in the automotive industry, for example, "This crisis is so geographically dispersed, so very far-reaching. Every region of the country is going to face difficulties."

Even if you don't work in one of the aforementioned fields, the housing crisis will still impact consumer spending. Challenger says, "Because of the fact that consumers can no longer use their homes as piggy banks, they're losing the ability to spend. And consumer spending constitutes two-thirds of our economic growth."

2. The High Price of Fuel

The cost of getting to and from work keeps getting higher as fuel costs skyrocket. Single car commuters aren't the only ones affected, as major metropolitan areas will see public transportation costs increase.

Challenger says, "The cost of getting to a job that's far from home has jumped considerably. People might be spending double what they did just three or four years ago."

The trend is alarming. "A lack of mobility on such a vital part of the workforce is a real drag on the economy, but no one seems to be able to resolve the issue."

3. The U.S. Presidential Election

Much will change with the outcome of the 2008 presidential election -- but not all of it depends on the winner's party affiliation.

"Stem cell research has been on hold for the last several years, but it looks like both parties have an interest in that. Biotech and genome work will also be hot areas, post-election," predicts Challenger.

"If the Democrats win and they do move the country out of Iraq more quickly, defense spending will be affected. That's been a growth area in the economy." But, he counters, "A national health-care plan might be a job creator. If you expand coverage to more people, you'll need more providers. Health care is one of the strongest areas for job creation in the economy."

He also foresees more growth in "green" jobs if a Democrat wins the election.

4. Generation Y

Born between 1977 and 1995, Generation Y is 79.8 million strong. In 2008, millions of these echo boomers, as they're also called, will be looking for work. Challenger predicts that competition for jobs for new graduates will be stiffer than in recent years.

He notes, "Generation Y workers are flooding into the job market, but they might not be flooded with job offers."

He says the class of 2008 shouldn't expect the same robust job market their counterparts enjoyed in previous years. "Since the summer of 2003, the market was very strong for graduates, but job creation has slowed in the second half of 2007. The economy is slowing down, and business owners may be more cautious about adding new staff."

5. The Global Economy

Challenger doesn't believe the nation is headed for a recession. "The housing market is slowing down the U.S. economy, but the positive affects of the global growth engine will offset what is happening domestically."

He also believes that the weak U.S. dollar isn't necessarily bad for business. In fact, the opposite may be true. "It means that U.S. businesses can compete around the world, especially vis-a-vis Europe, because our goods will be cheaper due to the weaker dollar. When businesses in other countries repatriate the dollar across the seas, they'll get even more for their money."

He admits, "The falling dollar is a mixed bag for the economy, but it's good for global business hiring and job growth."

Where Is Nigerian Stock Market Heading?

2008-01-01T16:01:00.000-05:00

Chinedu Dike
Activities in the stock market are still up beat and the indicators are consistently tending upwards. This has been a good development as profit taking investors harness huge returns through capital gains. But there seem to be serious concerns among some investors on the sustainability of the bubbling market.

The questions agitating their minds border on the sustainability of the soaring tempo, and for how long this can be sustained?

A review of movement of market indices shows that aggregate turnover at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed at N1.0 trillion on Monday July 23, 2007. This is historic, more so given the fact that this volume of trading was recorded in just seven months beginning from January 2007. This shows a leap of 99.7 percent compared to a turnover of N470 billion recorded in the full trading year of 2006.

The growth in turnover value has also rubbed off on the market capitalisation and the NSE all-shares index, which have exceeded N8.0 trillion and 51,000 mark respectively. This is as against a market capitalization of N5.12 trillion and index of 33, 189.30 basis points recorded at the beginning of the year.

Similarly, market liquidity or tradability of stocks as measured by turnover ratio, has shown appreciable growth in the seven months period standing at 15.6 percent as against 6.72 percent in 2006 and 6.59 percent in 2005.

By August 30, 2007, the market capitalisation plunged to N7.7 trillion just as the index depreciated to 49, 761.65 basis points. It however resumed an upward movement the following day and closed at N8.155 trillion for market capitalisation and 52, 452.85 points for the index on as at September 5. The market grew to a high of N8.336 trillion while the index closed at 52, 452. 49.

But some market observers believe that the growth is fictitious and simply has the character of a bubble that is waiting to bust any moment.

Their contention is that there are no tangible fundamentals that should drive the kind of growth we see in the market.

Brown Edobor, a stock broker Equity Capital Research Limited, said "Expectation, performance, and market awareness are some of the factors that have fuelled the growth in the market. These according to him are issues of market sentiments that may give a direction when related to issues of fundamental analysis."

To this he noted that the market for now is no more than "a river fed by heavy flood and will eventually find its actual level when the flood subsides."

Sunny Nwosu, of Independent Shareholders Solidarity Association of Nigeria (ISSAN) said the price movement in the Nigerian stock market is somewhat a mystery. "The price of the stocks move in a manner you cannot understand. They go up when you probably expect a downward movement and vice versa. And this increases the uncertainty you have as an investor about what happens to the market. So the best you do under the circumstance is to trade cautiously."

The consensus held by some others is that the stock market seems to have ignored major fundamentals after hitting several highs since the beginning of the year. The only moderation was witnessed about two weeks ago even as the market has continued to exhibit a measure of resilience in the past two weeks.

However, analysts are still saying that the market has not really moved in line with the fundamentals of some of the quoted companies.

They observed that fundamentally strong companies in fundamentally strong sectors should continue to do well compared to the rest of the market. These stocks would not be entirely immune to volatility. But they will hurt less in market downturns and be the first ones to bounce back.

Nelson Ine, stockbroker with Nigerian Stockbrokers Limited says the market has followed a particular trend and not ‘fundamentals’ because some of the stocks whose prices have been going up may not be able to sustain such prices in terms of performance. He noted that a lot of investors may have had their fingers burnt in the market because they used the fundamentals of the companies to make investment decisions.

Some analysts have been shocked at the rate the share price of Dangote Sugar refinery plc has been going down after an impressive performance in the half year and the company’s commitment to paying interim dividends (40kobo per share) twice this year. The stock which reached a high of N56.00 this year closed at N39.99 on Monday. First bank is also seen in this equation especially with its track record in terms of dividends and bonus issues.

According to Ine, some investors have taken to buying shares mainly on market hear-say and in the process create liquidity for such shares since other investors were bound to move in as soon as they notice the volume of transactions in that sector.

Indeed, the growth in demand for insurance stocks is said to have been prompted by expectations that the insurers would replicate what some of the banks have been able to do post-consolidation. On Tuesday, a total of 205 million shares worth N614 million were traded at the NSE.

Now let’s look at the analyst ratings and how they work. If there are 20 analysts following a stock and all 20 rate the stock as a "buy," what can they do from here? Can they upgrade it? Not really. If all 20 rate it a "buy," the odds of an upgrade are very small. On the other hand, the odds of a downgrade are much greater since the whole group ranks the stock as a "buy."

When you combine the sentiment with technical analysis, what you are looking for is an uptrending stock that has a lot of pessimism or a declining stock that has a lot of optimism. If the stock is moving higher, but the pessimists continue to doubt the stock, the trend is likely to continue as the bears shift to the bullish camp. The same goes for the downward trending stock that everyone loves. The trend is likely to continue as long as the bulls switch to the bearish camp. They will drive the price lower until there isn’t any optimism left.

Once everyone has joined the bullish camp, it is hard for the upward trend to continue. Likewise, if everyone is in the bearish camp, it is tough for the stock to keep going down.

This is how some people use sentiment to determine whether or not to enter a trade.

The other is the stock market, which until recently was being plumped up with easy credit and a wave of IPOs.

At least there’s a bit of realism to the expectation that these companies (and assets) can pull in the earnings to justify their inflated prices.

The believe among other observers is that even when the market seem to be over bloated, we are not going to experience a drastic crash situation as witnessed in the classical case of Enron or any other of such.

Okwor Emordi, a Stock broker said, "with the way the market is going, it is not unlikely that there may be a down turn, but certainly do not expect the kind of dip that happens in the more advanced markets."

He note that "what we may have is an isolated case of one or two stocks, blue chips possibly, but not a whole market. It may be in the manner of what we saw in the case of Cadbury." But even at that, the stocks in the market have shownS strong tendency for a rebound in the shortest time, he added.

But Aliyu Momoh, a senior official at the Strategy and Derivatives unit of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) said most of the companies have shown good performance that will sustain their performance in the stock market. This he added to a large extent rules out any fear of a down turn based on the results they the companies turn in.

Safiu Abubakar, an Abuja based investment analyst said "the bullish trend in the market is a function of strong buy orders generated by increased awareness towards the stock market.

"People are putting their funds in the market, and most of them do so not because of the immediate returns but because they have found that to be a better investment option than just having your money in the bank. So this increased awareness has become a peer-pressure kind of development. A situation like that comes without consideration to fundamental issues in the market."

He therefore believe that there may not be a crash as the stock market is still largely under invested and as more people push to go in, an upward trend will be triggered, based on the principle of demand and supply and not necessarily on considerations of market fundamentals.

Whatever situation that plays out at the end of the day, there is a need for the regulatory authorities to closely monitor the market to guard against any situation that will jeopardise the interest of investors and the market in general.

10 Steps To Landing A Job On The Internet

2007-12-10T14:47:00.000-05:00

Caroline Levchuck

While newspapers and networking still play an important role in looking for work, the Internet is now a vital component in any job search.

According to a Gad Levanon, economist at the Conference Board, "The Internet has become the most popular method of job searching." A recent survey by the Conference Board, the world's leading business membership and research organization, revealed that the Internet isn't only being used by more job seekers -- it's being used for a variety of job search functions.

Read on for some ideas as to how you can make the most of the Web's potential in your next job search.

1. Post your resume online at Yahoo! HotJobs so recruiters can find you -- even when you're not actively searching for work.

2. Join an online networking community, such as the new Yahoo! Kickstart or LinkedIn, and connect with fellow alumni, colleagues, and recruiters.

3. Search the names of old friends and coworkers to reach out and expand your network.

4. Research major employers, using news outlets or sites like Yahoo! Finance.

5. Tap the power of industry blogs to find folks who are doing what you'd like to do for a living and ask for advice. You'd be surprised at how many people are willing to share their wisdom with an up and comer.

6. Streamline your efforts by saving job searches and signing up for email job alerts so you'll know about new postings on Yahoo! HotJobs immediately.

7. Start an online job-search support group, perhaps using Yahoo! Groups or a social networking site. Open it up to members of your network who are looking for work and share encouragement and insights as you seek out new opportunities.

8. Visit company websites for additional job postings and to learn about each organization's corporate culture. This will help you determine if you'd be a good fit and provide you with insights for any interviews.

9. Browse trade associations and professional groups online for insights and new connections.

10. Patrol message boards and discussion groups to connect with like-minded and in-the-know professionals. Many times job openings are not posted immediately and these people may have hot inside leads on new opportunities.

Five Keys To A Productive Unemployment

2007-12-10T14:46:00.000-05:00

Katherine Tom
Hate your job? Unemployment might not seem like an attractive alternative, but it comes with one major upside: more time. With the right game plan, you can take advantage of a temporary pause between jobs to reevaluate and rejuvenate your entire career.

Dean LaTourette, co-author of "Time Off! The Upside to Downtime," observes, "While it can be a scary time, most people who allow themselves a break find that getting laid off or quitting their job ends up being one of the best career moves they ever made."

1. Work Your Network

Sure, you're browsing the job listings every day and applying to positions as they come up. But imagine if you could multiply your efforts a hundredfold. Today's online networking sites not only make it a breeze to let your friends know you're looking for work, they also give you access to your friends' networks. That's an exponential increase in potential employment connections.

Make sure all of your online info is up-to-date and typo-free, re-activate resumes that you may have hidden when you found your last job, and let your friends and colleagues know that you're actively seeking employment.

2. Get an Internship or Volunteer

If you're considering a complete career change, working for free may be your best bet for gaining experience in your desired field. Well-established volunteer and internship programs often include formal training, which is basically like a free education in your new vocation. If you have technical skills or a consulting background, doing pro bono work can be a great way to build your portfolio while contributing to a good cause.

3. Go Back to School

In addition to traditional graduate schools, there are dozens of options for getting job-relevant training year-round. Most major universities offer extension courses for a variety of professional fields including marketing, graphic design, and computer programming. Media Bistro, another valuable resource, offers writing and media courses both online and in six cities across the U.S.

4. Explore Your Hobbies

Ever spent a spare moment at work wishing you could spend more time fishing, painting, cooking, or whatever your passion is? Well consider your wish granted. Unemployment can be a perfect time to explore your personal passions. At worst, you'll get to enjoy yourself, and at best you may find a way to make money doing what you love.

Michelle Goodman, author of the "Anti 9 to 5 Guide," points out that "even if you're not going for investment money, it's helpful to write down the basics of your business plan: how much it will take to break even, the cost of supplies, analysis of your competitors. Putting it on paper makes it hard to be in denial about finances."

5. Travel

Recently the Center for Economic and Policy Research released a report entitled "No Vacation Nation" which revealed that 1 in 4 American workers receive no paid vacation or holidays. Even those lucky employees who get paid time off receive up to 30 days fewer than their European counterparts. So take advantage of your time off and take a well-deserved vacation. If you sublet your apartment or home and choose a cheap destination, you could even end up saving money while you're away.

How to Successfully Move From One Career To Another

2007-12-10T14:44:00.000-05:00

Not all career changers move fluidly from job to job. Many seasoned professionals take a respite, perhaps to travel, write a book, or just contemplate what they really want to do next.

But even though you're between jobs and treading into unfamiliar territory, you still want to make sure you're never really out of the market. Whatever you do to occupy yourself can become a selling point on your next resume if you manage your time wisely.

Vance W. LaVelle, now 49, took a number of unexpected turns on her path toward switching from a career in banking to satellite radio. She chose to leave her job as chief marketing officer at PNC Bank in Pittsburgh after five years of commuting from her New York home. "I was feeling a pull, ready to do something new and different," she says.

LaVelle tried a number of different things in her 10 months of searching for a new gig. In the end, her pursuits during the transition "made her more attractive to employers than if she had just passed her resume around," says Hope Dlugozima, author of "Six Months Off: How to Plan, Negotiate, and Take the Break You Need Without Burning Bridges or Going Broke."

Using LaVelle's experience as a model, here's a playbook for how you might structure your own professional interregnum:

1. Imagine what you'd like to do if you had no constraints.

LaVelle started her transition period with a long to-do list of what she wanted to accomplish. But first, there were practical concerns. LaVelle launched her own marketing consulting firm to provide income and help her stay connected in her field while giving her the flexibility to branch out. Then she turned her attention to new opportunities she wanted to explore: As a dog lover, she thought it would be fun to try dog training. She was also interested in pursuing some board directorships and taking some classes. "It's O.K. to have that sophomore-in-college mindset," says Dlugozima, now vice-president of community and membership at WebMD.

2. Create an elevator pitch

What is this? It's a 30-second answer to the inevitable question, "What do you do?" It's how you describe your transition time to the world, and it gives potential business associates an easy way to remember you.

LaVelle didn't know whether she wanted to build a big consulting business, become a consultant with a larger firm, or go back into a corporate position. By telling people she was a marketing consultant, she had the elevator pitch she needed to network into new business situations. It's important to be honest. "If you intend to take some time off to do some exploration, don't be shy about telling people that," Dlugozima says.

3. Hit the phone and the email list.

An old boss of LaVelle's said to her: "Build relationships before you need them, and keep them strong because they are more important to you than what you know how to do." Such relationships launched LaVelle's consulting business. "With three phone calls to my professional network, I had more consulting work than I wanted," she recalls.

LaVelle also plugged into the conference circuit. After learning of a chief marketing officer summit taking place at Harvard University, she made a cold call to the sponsor and talked her way into a key speaking slot on the program. "Such visibility is invaluable," says Janice Reals Ellig, co-CEO of Chadick Ellig, a New York executive-search firm, and co-author of "Driving the Career Highway."

4. Just do it.

In between consulting assignments, LaVelle started checking things off her list. She attended OnBoard Bootcamp in New York, a program to help director candidates master the board selection process, took cooking and home-repair classes, and hosted a business-development event with the government of New Zealand for the America's Cup trials in Spain. "I tried to do all the things I couldn't do because I worked full-time," she says. One of her biggest fears was that she would lag behind on the technical side of her business. So she enrolled in a course to become proficient in new media trends, such as RSS feeds and blogging.

What intrigued her most was the chance to become a dog breeder and trainer. "Dogs are my passion," says LaVelle, who has room for one goldendoodle in her apartment. Through a contact she landed an informal apprenticeship with the chief of the canine unit of the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey, who allowed her to shadow him for the day. "He told me I'd fall in love with the dogs, and I'd never be able to let them go," says LaVelle. Realizing she would have serious separation issues convinced her she wasn't cut out for dog training.

LaVelle also pursued opportunities she didn't anticipate. In the fall of 2005 a fund-raising event she organized for her University of Alabama sorority along the Gulf Coast of Florida had to be evacuated when Hurricane Katrina hit. While the disaster unfolded, she had an idea. She knew the inner workings of filing insurance claims from her experience on an insurance company advisory board. Why not help homeowners navigate the insurance claim process, coordinate contractors, and negotiate with the local governments to get services? Within days, she had several homeowners willing to hire her. The only problem was that she was supposed to be living in New York with her husband, so she decided not to take the business. "It's O.K. to try new things, and then move in a different direction if things don't work out," advises Dlugozima.

5. Make a decision.

At some point, professionals in transition are apt to have all the information they need to move forward. Although she enjoyed consulting, LaVelle realized in the summer of 2006 that she wanted to go back to a corporate job. "I'm an operator," she says. "I like to get my hands dirty and do the work, vs. telling others how to do it," says LaVelle, who still might return to consulting some day.

Her robust network led her to two promising marketing positions based in New York. One, with General Electric, would have required a lot of travel. The other is the one she took, as senior vice-president for customer sales, service, and marketing at Sirius Satellite Radio. "I never thought I'd end up in the entertainment industry after nearly 20 years in financial services," says LaVelle. Coincidentally, Sirius is another name for the Dog Star. So on a psychic level, she says, her new job married her divergent interests.

The Secret To Successful Non-Traditional Job Interviews

2007-12-10T14:29:00.000-05:00

Doug White

The employment interview isn't what it used to be. While the vast majority of interviews are the standard face-to-face variety, technological advancements have made it possible for employers and applicants to connect quickly in other ways.

Some hiring managers conduct phone interviews during the early phases of candidate searches; others may request you meet via videoconference if you live far away. And, yes, certain companies even hold virtual job fairs.

Following are tips for success when participating in non-traditional job interviews.

The Phone Interview

Minimize distractions. Conduct the call from a quiet, private setting. You won't impress hiring managers if they hear loud pets, honking horns, or your clicking keyboard in the background. If possible, use a landline (which is often more reliable than cellular phones), and disable the call-waiting function.

Speak up. Because the interviewer can't read your facial reactions or body language, verbalize your thoughts. After the hiring manager completes a thought, say something like, "Yes, that aspect of the job sounds appealing" to keep the discussion moving. Speak with confidence and enthusiasm.

Have supplies handy. Keep your resume and cover letter at arm's length, as well as any company research you've collected. You also might prepare a bulleted list of speaking points or questions. Make sure a pen and pad are nearby for taking notes.

The Videoconference Interview

Mock it up. It's intimidating to be interviewed on camera. Calm jittery nerves by doing a trial run with a friend or family member. Record the mock interview and study areas where you can improve. Did you look at the camera, or did your eyes dart nervously around the room? Did you exhibit good posture or slouch? Rehearsing will help ensure you're polished at showtime.

Beware of busy backgrounds. Most video interviews are conducted at a videoconference site, your recruiter's workplace or an employer's satellite office. Wherever you are, remain the focal point by clearing the table of clutter. If you do the interview from home, choose a professional-looking, well-lit setting. In addition, make sure your computer's webcam and microphone are working properly a day in advance.

Dress to impress. Dress as nicely as you would for an on-site visit. And don't assume you'll only be visible from the shoulders up. More than a few jacket-clad candidates have unexpectedly been seated at see-through glass tables or stood up to reveal fashion faux pas such as jeans or shorts.

The Virtual Interview

Wear appropriate avatar apparel. An avatar is a computer-generated icon you create to represent yourself online. If you attend a virtual job fair on Second Life, a popular online community, for instance, your avatar should look professional. You don't necessarily need to don a virtual suit for an "in-world" corporate recruiting event, but don't show up as a flashy nightclub-goer, space alien, or vampire.

Message with care. When communicating via instant message on Second Life, focus on accuracy, not speed. Hiring managers will likely forgive a typo or two, but making a series of grammatical goofs will cause them to question your writing skills and attention to detail. Take a moment to proofread your message and steer clear of emoticons and cyber slang.

No matter what the meeting format, always send a thank-you note to those with whom you interview. Even when communicating with a hiring manager using high-tech tools, a traditional handwritten letter of appreciation will be well received.

The Central Bank of Nigeria Issues New Global Depository Receipts' Guidelines

2007-12-07T00:43:00.000-05:00

Moses Obajemu

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued new guidelines to regulate the issuance of Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) by banks selling their shares to international investors.

The new regulatory framework mandates banks selling GDRs to furnish the apex bank with the details of the beneficial investors on a copy of the Certificate of Capital Importation issued in favour of such banks. This is contained in a December 3, 2007 CBN circular sent to banks entitled: "Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) and Certificate of Capital Importation (CCI) Issuance", signed by the Director of Trade and Exchange, Mrs Omolara Akanji.

A Global Depository Receipt is typically a dollar-denominated instrument issued in international financial markets through a registered depository bank. They are negotiable bank certificates, issued by the depository bank which represent ownership of certain equity securities (the underlying shares) that are issued and tradeable in the local market. The GDRs are exchanged with the underlying shares at a pre-determined ratio (for example, 50 shares to 1 GDR), and are mostly used for capital raising by companies from emerging markets to access investors in international markets.

The banking watchdog explained that the release of the guidelines became necessary in view of the resort of banks to GDRs with the principal aim of raising capital and selling shares, and the need to align the new development with the requirements of CCI issuance to foreign investors as well as build their confidence in the GDRs. "Certificate of capital importation shall continue to be issued in respect of foreign exchange inflow for loans, investment purposes and or capital, subject to existing guidelines as specified in the Foreign Exchange Manual.

"Where the foreign exchange inflow is in respect of GDR, a master CCI should be issued in favour of the Depository Bank (DB) to the tune of the foreign exchange inflow," the CBN directed. Upon issuance of the master CCI, the CBN said the receiving bank/Authorised Dealer should furnish it with a copy with the details of the beneficial investors to the GDR endorsed at the back of the master CCI. The apex bank directed that where any portion of the GDR is cancelled offshore by the investor, the depository bank shall inform the custodian/sub-custodian of the cancellation and provide the latter with the necessary documentary evidence of same.

"The depository's nominee custodian shall have valid CCI covering the number of shares withdrawn from the GDR and also effect a "markdown" of the CCI from the master CCI. "With the valid CCI covering the number of shares withdrawn from the GDR, the direct non-resident equity investor can trade with the underlying shares in the local market. The investor shall also be entitled to repatriate funds outside Nigeria," the circular said.

The CBN directed all authorised dealers to ensure compliance with the provisions of the circular, while those with subsisting approvals should also be guided accordingly. On the repatriation of funds outside Nigeria by the foreign investors, the circular on the guidelines on utilisation of CCI in the Forex Manual and/or relevant circulars on same shall apply. In addition, a duly completed form A, letter or evidence of conversion from GDRs to shares and confirmed by the depository and the nominee custodian; documentary evidence of cancellation of the GDR from the depository; letter from the direct non-resident equity investor, stating relevant details to the Authorised Dealer via his broker, requesting for repatriation of sales proceeds, shall also apply.

The CBN also directed that photocopy of the original CCI, and sale contract note or evidence of sale of shares from a Nigerian broker, be included for repatriation of funds processing.

Among Nigerian banks that have successfully raised dollar denominated capital via GDR issue ate Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc, and FCMB Plc. Those currently exploring the method include Fidelity Bank Plc, and Afribank Plc.

Gaitame.Com Co Opts For Imperva's SecureSphere® Web Application Firewall

2007-12-07T00:37:00.000-05:00

Imperva, the leader in application data security and compliance, today announced that Gaitame.Com Co., Ltd., a leading Japanese online foreign exchange (FX) trading company has deployed the SecureSphere® Web Application Firewall (WAF) to protect its web-based service delivery platform from application attacks including cross-site scripting and SQL injection. Gaitame.Com selected SecureSphere over competing products based on its 10X performance advantage, ability to be deployed with zero network changes, and Dynamic Profiling which automates policy management and enforcement.

Gaitame.Com specializes in on-line services for individual investors. Its online trading platform deals with twelve currency pairs and provides users with real-time information on the world's exchange markets as well as transaction services. Most web services offered at Gaitame.Com require data input by users and communicate directly with databases, which make them a potential target for cross-site scripting and SQL injection attacks.

Although Gaitame.Com regularly conducts third-party vulnerability assessments of its web applications, correcting problems is a time consuming process that requires code-level rewrites. SecureSphere provides continuous protection and maintains business continuity for Gaitame.Com applications, until any discovered vulnerabilities can be eliminated.

“In Foreign Exchange transactions, slow application response times translate into financial losses for users. As a result, performance was a key selection criteria for choosing a Web Application Firewall,” said Kazuyoshi Hirose, IT infrastructure manager for Gaitame.Com Co., Ltd. “SecureSphere met our performance requirements, was easy to deploy, and did not impose any changes to our existing network configuration. We are very impressed with its Dynamic Profiling capability, which operates without human intervention and eliminates management and maintenance burdens associated with competing products we evaluated.”

“Foreign Exchange trading is one of the most demanding application environments for any technology, and especially for an in-line attack protection device like a Web Application Firewall,” said Michael Lyu, vice president of Asia Pacific sales for Imperva. “Gaitame.Com’s selection of Imperva reinforces what over 350 leading global organizations have found – that SecureSphere delivers unmatched scalability, performance and ease of use required to support the most demanding business applications on the Internet.”

About SecureSphere

The award-winning Imperva SecureSphere® products deliver practical solutions to protect sensitive data in the databases, Web applications, and Web services that support business critical systems. SecureSphere assesses, monitors, and audits all access to an organization’s databases, and tracks and controls user activity through Web applications and Web services. With SecureSphere, organizations have an automated, proven means to achieve and document regulatory compliance. SecureSphere uniquely saves time and IT resources by operating transparently with no changes to existing infrastructure and dynamically, requiring no manual tuning.

About Gaitame.Com

Established in 2002, Gaitame.Com Co. LTD is the leading retail online foreign exchange marginal trading company in Japan. The Company specializes in on-line services for individual investors. Gaitame.Com deals with twelve currency pairs and provides users with real-time information on the world's exchange markets as well as transaction services. For more information, visit: http://www.gaitame.com/

About Imperva

Imperva is the leader in application data security and compliance. Leading enterprise and government organizations worldwide rely on Imperva to prevent data theft and abuse, and ensure data integrity. The company’s SecureSphere products provide data governance and protection solutions that monitor, audit and secure business applications and databases. For more information, visit www.imperva.com.

Imperva and SecureSphere are trademarks of Imperva, Inc. All other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Top 10 Tips For A Successful Online Job Search

2007-11-28T08:59:00.000-05:00

Caroline Levchuck,

While newspapers and networking still play an important role in looking for work, the Internet is now a vital component in any job search.

According to a Gad Levanon, economist at the Conference Board, "The Internet has become the most popular method of job searching." A recent survey by the Conference Board, the world's leading business membership and research organization, revealed that the Internet isn't only being used by more job seekers -- it's being used for a variety of job search functions.

Read on for some ideas as to how you can make the most of the Web's potential in your next job search.

1. Post your resume online at Yahoo! HotJobs so recruiters can find you -- even when you're not actively searching for work.

2. Join an online networking community, such as the new Yahoo! Kickstart or LinkedIn, and connect with fellow alumni, colleagues, and recruiters.

3. Search the names of old friends and coworkers to reach out and expand your network.

4. Research major employers, using news outlets or sites like Yahoo! Finance.

5. Tap the power of industry blogs to find folks who are doing what you'd like to do for a living and ask for advice. You'd be surprised at how many people are willing to share their wisdom with an up and comer.

6. Streamline your efforts by saving job searches and signing up for email job alerts so you'll know about new postings on Yahoo! HotJobs immediately.

7. Start an online job-search support group, perhaps using Yahoo! Groups or a social networking site. Open it up to members of your network who are looking for work and share encouragement and insights as you seek out new opportunities.

8. Visit company websites for additional job postings and to learn about each organization's corporate culture. This will help you determine if you'd be a good fit and provide you with insights for any interviews.

9. Browse trade associations and professional groups online for insights and new connections.

10. Patrol message boards and discussion groups to connect with like-minded and in-the-know professionals. Many times job openings are not posted immediately and these people may have hot inside leads on new opportunities.

What To Say When Negotiating A Pay Rise

2007-11-28T08:55:00.000-05:00

Margaret Steen,

Whether you're asking a potential employer for more money or your current boss for a raise, talking about money is awkward, especially when you are searching for the best way to phrase your request.

"Money is very tightly tied to our self-esteem," says Meryl Runion, author of "PowerPhrases." Asking for more money means saying you think you're worth more -- and risking hearing that someone else disagrees. "If somebody tells you, 'No, I don't think you are worth that much,' it's almost like saying you're not that valuable as a person."

A little practice can help you find the right words to make these requests -- and respond to the answer you get. Runion and other experts offer the following tips for two common scenarios.

Scenario 1: Getting a Raise

* Asking your current boss for a raise: The key is to ask in a way that shows you've done your research. Try saying, "I've been evaluating my own performance and what you've told me about my performance, and I would like to talk with you about increasing my salary," suggests Marcia Stein, a human resources consultant who recently published a book about recruiting.

This approach alerts your boss that you have analyzed your contributions and are not simply asking for a raise because you want more money. And by asking for a time to talk, rather than simply stating the raise you want, you give your boss time to prepare.

* If the boss says no: Despite your preparation, it may turn out that your boss isn't able or willing to pay you more. Try to find out the reason -- is there a companywide freeze on raises, or does your boss not agree that you deserve more? Stein suggests showing your interest in improving your performance by saying, "What would you recommend that I do so I can be one of the top performers on your team?"

Scenario 2: Negotiating a Higher Salary

* Negotiating a higher salary with a new employer: If you're offered a job but were hoping for more money, the key is to make the request in a positive way, says Lori Itani, an independent staffing consultant who focuses on high-tech companies and hears candidates' responses to offers. "If they're telling me that they really like the company, they really like the position, the manager and the team, and they'd really like to have this work, that's a good thing to say."

Itani suggests a way to phrase the request: "I'd really like to come on board, but I need some more help with relocation." If your goal is a higher starting salary, finish the sentence with, "but I need a little more in salary to justify the move from my current company to yours."

* If the employer says no: Even when you ask politely, it may turn out that the employer isn't willing to increase the offer. In that case, assuming you still want the job, your goal is to find out the possibilities for future raises -- while emphasizing that you intend to work hard. Runion suggests saying, "If I can prove my value, what are the possibilities for future raises?"

Dont Let The Holidays Daze You

2007-11-28T08:52:00.000-05:00

Roberta Chinsky Matuson,

On the third Thursday of every November, many employees unofficially begin their holiday hiatus, and it's hard for many of us to resist workday dashes to the mall. However, year-end holiday bonuses are right around the corner, and they are based on a full year of company earnings. Why risk a year's worth of performance and bonus pay for a few days of holiday mania?

Follow the five tips below for keeping your focus on the job during the holidays.

Plan for Down Time

You know it's going to happen, so why not plan for it? It's not uncommon for companies to restrict the number of employees eligible to take vacation at the same time. If you are one of those people who celebrate the holidays in a big way, then sign up for time off during the holidays as soon as the vacation schedule hits your desk.

Suggest a New Employee Benefit

Employers are constantly looking for ways to improve their benefit packages without spending a lot of money. Suggest to your employer that they offer all employees one two-hour lunch during the holiday season. If you need to, remind them most employees are taking the time anyway. This new benefit will be well received by employees and will allow the company to cut down on unexpected absences or tardiness.

Resist Taking on New Projects

By the time the end of the year rolls around, most people are giving all they have just to finish what's already on their plate. Adding a new project to an already full plate can easily send you over the edge. Hold off on starting new initiatives until after the first of the year. You will return from your hiatus refreshed and ready to go.

Don't Skip the Gym

Seasonal stress comes with the territory. Customers expect deadlines to be met, even when they are out of the office preparing for the holidays. You can kick back a bit, but this is not the time to go into slow motion. Maintaining your regular workout routine can help keep your energy level up and your weight gain down.

Shift Outside Commitments

Is your December calendar filled with social events while your January calendar remains empty? Are you spending hours in traffic trying to keep all of your social commitments? How about a new tradition? Shift a few gatherings to January and February so you can avoid constantly leaving work early during the end-of-year crunch.

Now that you know how to stay on task during the holidays you can relax knowing that you've done all you can to preserve your performance and year-end bonus!

Roberta Chinsky Matuson is the president of Human Resource Solutions (yourhrexperts.com) and has been helping companies align their people assets with their business goals. She is considered an expert in generational workforce issues. You can reach her at Roberta@yourhrexperts.com.

Wal-Mart Set To Finally Buy-Up Seiyu

2007-10-22T12:44:00.000-04:00

David Dolan and Nathan Layne

In an effort to consolidate its ownership, Wal-Mart Stores Inc will spend up to 100 billion yen ($878 million) to buy out minority shareholders in Japanese supermarket unit Seiyu Ltd in an effort to turn around the money-losing chain.

The world's largest retailer has invested more than $1 billion in Seiyu since 2002, but has yet to see anything more than temporary upswings in sales amid tough competition with rivals such as Aeon Co.

Seiyu is headed for its sixth straight annual loss in 2007, which had led to speculation that Wal-Mart would either need to invest more in the unit or that it would pull out of Japan, as it did from South Korea and Germany last year.

"We have not necessarily provided as strong a value as our customers would like," Ed Kolodzieski, Seiyu's chief executive, told a news conference.

The buyout will put an end to rumors Wal-Mart may abandon Japan, making it easier to do business with local suppliers and lenders, Kolodzieski said.

"From a business partner and supplier standpoint, they too should also see this as very positive news, for Seiyu now has the full-backing of Wal-Mart," he said.

Wal-Mart, which currently owns 50.9 percent of Seiyu, said it would offer 140 yen per Seiyu common share in a tender offer from Tuesday through December 4. The offer price marks a 61 percent premium to Friday's closing share price of 87 yen.

Trade of Seiyu's shares was suspended by the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Monday, following reports of the buyout.

"It really does give (Wal-Mart) the opportunity to do whatever they want to do with Seiyu," said Roy Larke, editor of Japan Consuming, an industry newsletter.

"They still don't have a major share of the market but they do own the number three retailer in the country. They have a much solider base than they ever had in Korea and therefore something to build on," Larke said.

SIGNS OF PROGRESS

For the year to December 31 2007, the company has forecast a net loss of 10.4 billion yen.

However, there may be signs of progress: same-store sales showed their first annual rise in 15 years in 2006, although they still fell short of the company's target.

Seiyu's Kolodzieski said there were no plans to shut down any of the supermarket's nearly 400 outlets in Japan and that it was looking to accelerate its renovation of existing stores.

Last month, Seiyu said it would offer early retirement to 450 of its employees, or about 7 percent of its work force. In 2004 the company eliminated about 1,600 jobs.

Cracking Japan's retail market, the world's second-largest, has proved a challenge for foreign companies, due to fickle shoppers and tough competition.

In recent years France's Carrefour and Britain's Alliance Boots have both pulled out of the market.

Shares of Seiyu have lost three-quarters of their value since the end of 2002, the year when Wal-Mart first bought into the supermarket.

During the same period, the Tokyo stock exchange index of retail stocks has gained about 25 percent.

War On Amazon.com's 1-Click Online Shopping Patent

2007-10-18T14:36:00.000-04:00

Stephen Hutcheon

Amazon.com, one of the world's largest online retailers, is on the brink of losing one of its most coveted patents. And it knows who to blame: a New Zealander called Peter Calveley.

The 36-year-old from Auckland has waged a solo campaign against Amazon and its army of lawyers since 2004 over the retailer's claim to its famous 1-Click patent, a process that enables online shoppers to buy goods with the single click of a mouse button.

In response to Calveley's request to re-examine the intellectual property, the US Patents and Trademarks Office (USPTO) has just handed down a decision rejecting all but five of Amazon's 26 claims to the patent.

The Patent Office agreed with Calveley's claim that processes similar to the 1-Click solution had been documented before the Amazon patent was lodged in 1997.

Eight of Amazon's 26 intellectual property claims were dismissed because of a Newsweek magazine article entitled The End of Money?. It was published in 1995 - two years before the 1-Click patent was lodged.

The article described a process where someone could click a button to pay for "an annotated bibliography of every article ever written about Sandra Bullock" and download the file.

The decision came after a 17 month-long investigation by the USPTO into US Patent number 5,960,411, described as a "method and system for placing a purchase order via a communications network". Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder and its current CEO, is listed as one of the four inventors.

Calveley has not been officially informed about the adjudication because the letter from the USPTO has yet to reach his post office box. But the decision has been posted on the USPTO site and the actor and choreographer was tipped off when he noticed a surge in traffic to his blog.

"They [Amazon] deserved to get slapped a bit around the head," Calveley said in a telephone interview after learning about the decision.

He said that challenging patent holders could become a "new and fun sport", indicating he had several other targets in the crosshairs.

Amazon has two months to lodge an appeal with the USPTO and can opt to take its fight to the civil courts.

An Amazon spokesperson told the CNET technology news website that the company expected to file a response to the USPTO decision by the deadline of December 9.

The process works for subsequent purchases after a shopper has already input their credit card details.By expediting the process, the shopper is less to bail out of a transaction.

Critics argued that Amazon used its monopoly over what some claimed was a simple process unworthy of being patented to stifle competition.

In 1999, less than a month after the patent was approved, Amazon sued one of its major competitors, barnesandnoble.com, for using a similar process on its website. The company was forced to stop using it after losing the court case. Amazon now licences the process to many websites.

Calveley, who has no formal legal training, launched his crusade against Amazon after he used the site to order a book called Presenting Digital Cash in September 2004. He paid the extra few dollars to have the delivery fast-tracked by a courier company.

When the book failed to turn up, a frustrated Calveley vented his frustration in a post on his blog. "GRRRR!!!," he wrote on October 4, 2004.

Assuming the book had been lost in transit, he ordered another copy of the book. And while he was waiting for that to arrive, the first one turned up.

Ironically, the books were ordered not directly from Amazon but through one of the retailer's affiliate booksellers. And Calveley, who says he was only "mildly annoyed" by the stuff up, accepts that the delay was probably more the fault of the courier company than of Amazon.

Nevertheless, he decided to target Amazon. "OK, time for some UTU for the annoyingly slow book delivery," he wrote in his blog in November 2004, using the Maori word for revenge.

After trawling the US records, Calveley found another patent describing an "online secure financial transaction system" which had been lodged in 1996 - a year before Amazon's.

He also found references to a so-called DigiCash payment method in which a click on a website payment link would trigger a server to send a payment request to the customer. That also pre-dated the Amazon patent.

With the help of donations from readers of his blog, Calveley was able to cobble together the $US2520 fee the Patent Office office charges to re-open patent examinations.

In May 2006, the USPTO informed Calveley that his request for a re-examination had been granted after an initial investigation raised "substantial new question of patentability of claims".

Over the course of the past year, Calveley says Amazon was obliged to send him copies of documents presented to the USPTO to support its case. He now has some 65kg of paperwork stored at his home.

This is not the first time Calveley has made headlines. In 2003 he launched a one-man campaign to get his name included on the credits of Peter Jackson's Lord of Rings movies for his work as a motion capture artist.

Jackson's digital effects operation Weta Studios filmed Calveley and about a dozen other actors, using their movements as the basis for the computer-generated orcs and elves.

How To Move Forward When Job Promotion Is Denied

2007-10-16T11:08:00.000-04:00

Caroline Levchuck

There are few things worse than pursuing a promotion only to be passed over for it. Whatever the reason, it could take you a while to get over the shock or humiliation you're feeling and to adjust to having a new supervisor, if that's the case.

Follow these three steps to help you move on after you didn't get to move up.

1. Be gracious.

New York career coach Deborah Brown-Volkman advises, "Be great! You have to be great and professional when this happens." Even if a much-loathed coworker receives a promotion you'd coveted, extend congratulations to her. Also, offer sincere assurances that you're going to be the same team player you've always been.

Doing your best to support all of your colleagues will only help your professional reputation. A stalwart attitude will deflect any passing pity people may be tempted to feel for you.

2. Get answers.

Brown-Volkman counsels her clients, "When you're trying to find out what happened, first look inward. Many times people know why they didn't get a promotion."

After your emotions have settled, set up a meeting with the powers that be to discover why you didn't win the promotion. Brown-Volkman, author of numerous books including "Coach Yourself to a New Career," says, "People don't like to tell other people the cold hard truth, so you have to give them permission to tell the truth." She suggests assuring your supervisor and colleagues that there won't be any consequences for being honest. "Tell them, 'This is just for me.'"

Bring questions to your meeting so you can learn how to overcome any professional shortcomings or lack of specific skills. Ask for suggestions as to how you can better improve your performance. Request specific situations that made your superiors doubt your ability to handle the new position. Try to get your employers to help subsidize some professional development courses that might improve your performance on the job.

And then, says Brown-Volkman, "Start making changes."

3. Make your move.

After you learn why you didn't get a promotion, you may come to understand that you're not perceived as management material and even the best in-office public relations campaign would be futile. To climb to the next notch, you may need to move on to a new employer.

"If you've given it your best shot and it's going nowhere, it may be that you're just not a fit for that organization," says Brown-Volkman. "Find a place where you do fit."

Employees who have worked for only one company often face a similar predicament. Diversifying your employment experience is a plus, and Brown-Volkman firmly believes that other companies will value your talents.

"People get stuck in failure," she states. "But you didn't fail. It was a learning experience."

How To Be Clever And Cautious During Job Interview

2007-10-16T11:04:00.000-04:00

Tom Musbach

Well-meaning job seekers sometimes get too creative when making their cases to potential employers, such as the candidate who said he was "allergic to unemployment."

The contrived allergy and other wacky pitches were revealed by hiring executives in a recent survey by Accountemps, a large staffing service for financial professionals.

Creativity Can Backfire

The group of 150 senior executives offered several other examples of candidates going too far in their attempts to stand out:

* "One candidate said that we should hire him because he would be a great addition to our softball team."
* "A candidate sang all her responses to interview questions."
* "One individual said we had nice benefits, which was good because he going to need to take a lot of leave in the next year."
* "An applicant once told me she wanted the position because she wanted to get away from dealing with people."

The statements above reflect poor approaches to an interview question that is very common: "Why should I hire you?" Career experts offer several alternatives that can help job candidates respond more successfully.

Break It Down

Richard Phillips, founder of Advantage Career Solutions in Palo Alto, California, suggests a three-step approach that flows from the job description:

1. Begin your answer by listing the top three to five requirements of the job as you understand them, based on your research and what you've learned in the interview
2. Summarize how your skills and experience will enable you to make a significant impact in those areas.
3. Finish by stating your interest in the organization. Keep it short and sweet.

Tailor Your Story

Joe Turner, who wrote "Job Secrets Unlocked!" and runs jobchangesecrets.com, suggests that you prepare your best "story" to answer the question by showing how you will go the "extra mile."

"Here is where you recant that story of exactly how you worked 60-hour weeks, acquired new skills, or whatever it took to distinguish yourself and meet the challenge head-on to successfully make the sale, save the project, rescue a client, or whatever it was," he says.

"If you can monetize (put a dollar value on) the end result, your story will only be that much more dramatic. Since no other candidate can duplicate your own personal story here, you'll make a memorable impression."

Run With Your Ideas

During the process of researching the employer and preparing for the interview, think of what you might do if you had the position, advises Carla-Krystin Andrade, author of "Kick Start Your Job Search."

"Perhaps you have an idea for a new feature for their product or a new process that is relevant to the position," she says. "This is the perfect time to tell them about this idea and show them how you would bring value to the position if they hired you."

Working For A Funny Boss

2007-10-13T10:45:00.000-04:00

Tom Musbach,

When you think of the ideal boss, actress Carol Burnett and late-night TV host David Letterman probably don't come to mind. But those two celebrities have a quality that most workers say is essential to being a good boss: a sense of humor.

When asked in a recent poll how important it is for a manager to have a sense of humor, 65% of workers answered "very important," while 32% answered "somewhat important." The survey, conducted by staffing firm Robert Half International, also revealed that most of the workers (87%) rated their managers as having good senses of humor.

Max Messmer, chairman and chief executive of RHI, said the survey underscores that humor can make a boss seem more approachable, but it's not a license to be a clown.

"To be taken seriously, supervisors must balance their desire to keep the mood light with the need to accomplish business objectives, inspire great performance, and maintain professionalism," Messmer said.

Is Your Boss Funny?

You may not know whether your boss has a good sense of humor. "In this case, it's best to let your manager set the tone for humor," says Liz Bywater, president of Bywater Consulting Group, a Philadelphia-area firm focused on organization performance.

"It's OK to 'test drive' using some humor to see how it's received," she adds. "Just do so cautiously at the beginning. Take a mental note of your manager's response and let that be your guide."

"Definitely stay away from sarcasm or any statements that might be offensive or potentially viewed as criticism," advises Debra Mandel, a psychologist and author of "Your Boss Is Not Your Mother." She continues, "Some managers take the workplace too seriously, but it's not an employee's job to loosen them up -- unless of course the employee doesn't mind the view from the unemployment line."

Humoring the Boss

What if you don't think your boss is very funny?

"Humoring a not-so-funny boss is OK," says Bywater. "Think of it as being kind and sensitive to the feelings of another human being. Don't, however, humor a boss who has gone over the line from funny to offensive."

Manage the Punch Lines

For bosses who want to flex their humor muscles more, Bywater suggests the following guidelines:

* Do not make jokes about anyone's physical appearance.
* Do not attempt humor that could be construed as sexist or racist, even if it's not intended as such.
* If you've got a direct report who is particularly sensitive or has no sense of humor, it's best to play it straight.

Having a good sense of humor at work helps everyone, Mandel concludes.

"Both bosses and employees need to stay on track and be productive, but everything doesn't have to be heavyweight," she says. "Sometimes it's good to just have a big belly laugh, especially when things go wrong, and look forward to the next day to get back on track."

How To Handle Workplace Gossips

2007-10-13T10:35:00.000-04:00

Heather Boerner

Getting ahead at work may hinge on resisting the urge to spread the latest news about your coworkers.

"You may think gossip is harmless, but you might just be shooting yourself in the foot as far as your credibility goes," said Rachel Weingarten, author of "Career and Corporate Cool: How to Look, Dress and Act the Part at Every Stage of Your Career." She continues, "Let your work speak for itself. You don't need to be the one making yourself look better by talking down someone else."

Consider the Damage

Sure, gossip can be almost too enticing to keep to ignore -- but consider these consequences:

* You lose your reputation. "My reputation is my business," said Weingarten. "If someone says something bad about me, or I become known as a gossip, that could affect my entire career."
* Coworkers avoid you. "If people view you as a gossip, they may stop sharing information with you," said April Callis, president of Gossip Stoppers, a program designed to create positive workplaces. "Then instead of being the one with all the power and information, you're out of the loop because no one trusts you."
* Your work suffers. The negativity spread by gossip makes people hate their jobs. "They miss work, they get less done while they're there, and they feel unappreciated," says Callis. Suddenly, you're not giving your best, and your boss may notice.

There's a better way to deal with water cooler talk. First, and perhaps most obvious: Keep the information to yourself.

It's one thing to learn the office scoop -- it's another to share it. Even asking someone else at work to verify what you've just heard counts as gossip, said Callis. If it's something criminal, tell your boss. If not, let it drop.

Resist the Urge

Next, teach your coworkers not to gossip with you. Use these techniques:

* Replace gossip. Sometimes gossip is the only thing you have in common with coworkers, said Weingarten. So find something to replace it. Do you both knit? Are you both sports fans? If you must gossip, do it about movie stars or soap operas, she said. Just leave the office out of it.
* Set a timer. If a coworker or employee comes to you determined to gossip, set a timer for five minutes, and let the person spew. When the time's up, so is the gossip. You don't have to respond, said Callis. You can just listen.
* Write it down. When a coworker runs to your desk with the latest juicy gossip, get out a pad and pen. Writing down the facts serves two purposes: It shows the gossip that everything she says is being documented. And it helps you focus on facts instead of feelings.

What you may find is that you and those around you feel happier as they gossip less, says Callis.

"When I walk into a positive workplace, people are engaged and they feel valued," she says. "They stay."

Allegations About Millionaire Factory's Financies On The Spotlight

2007-10-01T13:03:00.000-04:00

Nick Mathiason

In Australia, Macquarie Bank is known as the "millionaires factory" for good reason. In the past 10 years, it has come from nowhere to become one of the world's most aggressive buyers of airports, toll roads, energy firms and utilities. If an asset has a reliable cash flow, Macquarie, it seems, has pounced.

In so doing, the Sydney-based bank has left better-known institutions trailing in the dash to seize valuable prizes.

The rewards for being a "diversified financial services company", as Macquarie likes to style itself, are immense. Allan Moss, its bookish chief executive, is Australia's highest paid businessman with a $38.4 million package.

But as interest rates rose last year, and world credit markets seized up this summer, Macquarie was put in the uncomfortable position of being subject to speculation.

This boils down to fears that its ambitious growth is unsustainable.

With its hard-to-fathom structure placed under the spotlight, the talk has been that potential financial problems could rebound not just on Macquarie shareholders, but also citizens from dozens of countries which have key public services supplied by Macquarie.

In Britain, for example, this includes Thames Water, which Macquarie acquired from German firm RWE last year for £8 billion ($21 billion); the London Underground; Bristol airport; and the M6 toll road in the Midlands.

Thames Water faces fines of up £12.5 million from industry regulator Ofwat for misreporting poor processes that led to customers receiving unsatisfactory services.

Last week speculation about Macquarie turned up a notch after the publication of an eight-page report in the influential Fortune magazine. The author was Bethany McLean, the journalist who first spotted that Enron, rather than being a stock market darling, was instead a fraudulent web of off-balance sheet structures that was heading for the rocks.

Although there is no suggestion that Macquarie has behaved fraudulently, McLean's report made a number of allegations about the bank's finances. The most serious of these were that:

* Macquarie overpaid for assets to trigger performance fees.

* It is impossible to calculate independently how much debt the bank is exposed to.

* Though the practice is not illegal, the bank borrows money to pay dividends to shareholders on the assumption of future growth.

* The majority of deals on which Macquarie advises involve another Macquarie entity with a number of separate Macquarie funds holding the same asset.

To the bank the report made uncomfortable reading, but insiders say many of the claims have been aired before and can be rebutted. In a statement, Allan Moss said: "The sorts of comments to which you refer have been made, but they have been made by people who have not taken the trouble to study Macquarie Bank closely.

"They are not views that have been adopted by serious investors or serious analysts. Our view is that it is well understood that we have a very robust business model."

Macquarie believes that rather than being secretive, the fact that many of its funds are publicly quoted makes it more transparent than many of its rivals. Reacting to criticism that the aggressive financing model leads to excessive charges in some of its airports - like Sydney - and toll roads, the company says this scenario does not represent the way it runs its other airports.

Though concern is rising about Macquarie, it is nevertheless linked to many big infrastructure deals currently available.

When Royal Bank of Scotland last week signalled its intention to sell its €4 billion ($7 billion) Angel train leasing firm, Macquarie was understood to be interested.

And it has been widely rumoured that it is set to team up with US bank JP Morgan in the £4 billion bid battle for Southern Water. JP Morgan Asset Management's infrastructure investment fund has been in advanced talks to submit a joint offer with Macquarie and other smaller funds, according to well-placed sources.

The bank refuses to comment on any of these possible deals, which could consolidate its position as one of the country's most important businesses.

As a signal that the company is broadening into new areas, it recently signed a deal with troubled Wembley stadium building firm Multiplex worth £339.5 million to develop three hospitals in the UK.

The pair will build a 612-bed acute hospital, a 102-bed mental health unit and a 34-bed integrated care centre in Peterborough. The project is being worked through a special purpose entity called Progress Health, 30 per cent owned by Multiplex UK and 70 per cent by Macquarie Bank.

But the firm is in the business of selling. Two weeks ago, Australia's Victorian Funds Management and Canada's Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan bought a combined 48.25 per cent stake in Birmingham International Airport for £420 million.

The two funds bought the stake from Macquarie Airports and Ireland's Dublin Airport Authority.

As the firm ratchets up its activity throughout the world, questions about whether its finance structure is sustainable may increase as uncertainty in credit markets continue, whether the company likes it or not.

Auckland Airport Deal Collapse, DAE's Chief Exec Resigns

2007-10-01T12:52:00.001-04:00

Liam Dann

Kjeld Binger, chief executive of Dubai Aerospace (DAE) Airports, has resigned just weeks after his company pulled the plug on its $2.5 billion bid for Auckland Airport.

The charismatic Dane was the public face of the Dubai bid which ran into trouble after a public backlash about foreign ownership of the airport.

Despite the political difficulties the bid faced, Binger remained confident about the chances of success until a sudden backdown on August 31.

There has been speculation that the decision to pull the bid was made over Binger's head - by DAE's wealthy owners, the al-Maktoum family, who were upset at comments made by senior New Zealand politicians.

Trade Minister Phil Goff expressed his personal opposition to the sale and local body politicians such as Manukau mayor Barry Curtis were even more outspoken.

The bids needed support from Auckland City and Manukau City Councils, which between them hold just over 23 per cent of the airport.

Despite the withdrawal of the DAE offer, Auckland Airport is subject to a similar ownership proposal from Canada Pension Plan.

The Canadian Government-owned fund plans to buy a minority stake as opposed to DAE's offer which would have seen it take a 50.1 per cent stake.

DAE has said Binger departed amicably to pursue new endeavours but that it has no further comment.

He could not be reached yesterday for comment.

Binger - previously a highly successful executive with Copenhagen Airport - joined DAE only in January.

He brought across nine executives to DAE Airports from Copenhagen Airports and was to have led a US$4 billion spend-up on airports around the globe.

Taking A Closer Look At Foreclosure

2007-10-01T11:34:00.000-04:00

A situation where a loan is recovered, given on a defaulted property either by selling the property or by taking possession on it, is known as foreclosure.

If you are facing foreclosure, filing for bankruptcy will delay the process. However, this is only a temporary delay as until the mortgage is either refinanced reinstated, or the house is sold, the auction is bound to happen sooner or later. Filing for bankruptcy will not indefinitely delay or prevent the foreclosure of your house, but it will certainly delay the process to a very large extent.

Since your mortgage is on your home, filing for bankruptcy does not guarantee that your house will not undergo a forced sale. If you have income after filing for bankruptcy, you can arrange for your debts to be paid off in a certain fixed period of time. Under chapter 13 bankruptcy you can make up for all the times that you defaulted on your repayments, but the problem is that if you default under this program, your lender can legally facilitate the foreclosure of your home. On the other hand, chapter 7 bankruptcy is the stage where you can be forced to sell your assets to pay for your liabilities, and all the home equity will go to your lender.

Since these are huge steps, never be forced to file for bankruptcy and discuss your options with a reliable and recommended bankruptcy counselor. Also, beware of scams such as ones which tell you that you will receive a certified copy of your deed if you pay a certain amount of money. Your local deed recorder or county will give you a certified copy of your deed for about ten dollars, while scammers will ask you for much more money than is fair. You should consider a home equity line of credit when debating between the same and a fixed rate mortgage, as the line of credit is much more flexible. It is easy to get and no closing costs are involved. Unless you write a check to use the money, you are not charged for it.

Then after you have paid it off, you can decide whether you want a new first mortgage. If an elderly citizen passes away without a will, a local probate court will decide who will inherit the deceased’s assets. The surviving family members will be seen in a specific order with regard to who is considered first as entitled to the inheritance. A will can be prepared for as low as a hundred or a couple of hundred dollars and will ensure after your death that your assets and money will go to the individuals you want them to go to.

If someone remarries, their new spouse’s name is not required on the mortgage loan papers. However, the spouse who legally owns the house can sign and record a quitclaim deed, thus giving the other spouse part of the interest in the house. Joint tenancy has many advantages, two of which include equal rights to joint tenants and the avoidance of probate if one of the joint tenants dies. The title can even be put into a revocable living trust.

Bill Gates Still The Richest Man In The World

2007-09-24T08:39:00.000-04:00

Microsoft founder Bill Gates is the richest person in America for the 14th year in a row, followed by investor Warren Buffett, according to Forbes magazine's latest list of the wealthiest Americans.

The pair's fortunes each grew by $6 billion in the past year, Forbes said today, with Gates' fortune $59 billion and Buffett $52 billion.

Buffett has pledged 85 per cent of his net worth to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and family charities.

Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson ($28 billion), head of Las Vegas Sands Corp, and software tycoon Larry Ellison ($26 billion), chief executive of Oracle Corp, remain at No 3 and No 4 on the 25th annual ranking of 400 rich Americans, which now requires a minimum net worth of $1.3 billion for inclusion.

"The collective net worth of those listed on the 400 this year rose $290 billion to $1.54 trillion," Forbes said. "Despite market jitters, nearly half of the 45 new members come from hedge fund and private equity investments."

For the first time since 1989 there are no members of the Walton family, descendants of Wal-Mart Stores Inc founder Sam Walton, in the top 10. Four members - Jim, Christy, Robson and Alice - slipped to 12th and 15th place.

The Waltons were displaced by Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who came in at No 5 with fortunes of $18.5 billion, and brothers Charles and David Koch, who run Koch Industries, the world's second largest private company, and are each valued at $17 billion, earning them 9th place.

Investor Kirk Kerkorian was the biggest gainer on the list, his fortune rising by more than $9 billion in the past year to $18 billion. He debuted in the top 10 at No 7 - up from No 26 last year.

Michael Dell, chief executive of Dell Inc, the world's second-largest PC maker, was No 8 on the list with a fortune of $17.2 billion.

Of the top 400 richest Americans, Forbes said 270 were entirely self-made, 74 inherited their wealth and 39 are women. There were 82 American billionaires who did not make the list.

The youngest member, and new to the list, is 33-year-old hedge fund manager John Arnold, who came in at No 317 with a $1.5 billion wealth, while the oldest is 98-year-old John Simplot, valued at $3.6 billion and No 214 on the list.

3 Stretegies To By-The-Number-Stock-Picking

2007-09-21T18:18:00.000-04:00

Harry Domash

Stock picking is a situation in which an analyst or investor uses a systematic form of analysis to conclude that a particular stock will make a good investment and, therefore, should be added to his or her portfolio. The position can be either long or short and will depend on the analyst or investor's outlook for the particular stock's price.

Martin Zweig's no-nonsense approach made him a legend in the financial services industry. We duplicate his disciplined strategy and come up with 18 stocks. Unless you're a longtime investor, Martin Zweig is probably the most famous guru that you've never heard of. He doesn't get much attention these days. Although his name still appears on several mutual funds, he discontinued his Zweig Forecast newsletter several years ago. That's too bad, because the newsletter was ranked No. 1 for risk-adjusted returns over the 15 years that it was monitored by Hulbert Financial Digest.

But Zweig, who has a Ph.D. in finance, is well-known to market professionals for his disciplined approach to the market. He has examined the relationship betweenstock market action and just about every conceivable economic or market indicator. In fact, he's credited with inventing the put/call ratio market-sentiment indicator.

Zweig described the results of much of his research in his best-selling book, "Martin Zweig's Winning on Wall Street."

Much of the book covers Zweig's market-timing indicators, but he also details how he picks individual stocks. By all accounts, those strategies are worth your attention. According to Street Stories Market Wizards Index, Zweig's top-rated stocks returned 25%, on average, over the 19-year period from May 1976 to March 1995.

Zweig on stocks
As with the market in general, when it comes to picking individual stocks, Zweig goes strictly by the numbers. As he puts it, "I don't get involved in the product being produced. If a company can show nice consistent earnings, I don't care if it makes broomsticks or computer parts." Zweig doesn't spend much time examining financial statements or meeting with management. Instead, he focuses on three main criteria to pinpoint potential winners:

* A history of consistently strong sales and earnings growth

* A reasonable price

* Strong price action relative to the market

Zweig also pays close attention to insider trading. He eliminates candidates with significant insider selling and gives preference to stocks with insider buying. He avoids stocks that have recently disappointed the market and frowns on companies carrying high debt.

Zweig doesn't try to catch a stock at its low. Instead, he wants to see a stock prove itself by "performing well" relative to the market before he jumps in. Says Zweig, "buying on strength gives you an edge. You must pay a premium, but you increase the probability of being right."

I'll explain more as I describe my screen for finding stocks meeting Zweig's criteria. Let's start with sales and earnings growth, arguably Zweig's most important criteria.
Long-term growth
Zweig doesn't look for hot initial public offerings (IPOs) or instant wonders. He insists on a history of consistent growth in both sales and earnings going back four or five years. He considers 15% annual growth acceptable, but he seems to prefer higher. In his book, he gives numerous examples of stocks with 30% to 50% historical growth rates.

In my screen, I specified a 15% minimum for both 5-year average annual revenue (sales) and 5-year annual EPS growth. But I'm sure that Zweig wouldn't mind if you increased those minimums if you get too many hits.

* Screening Parameter: (5-year) Annual EPS Growth Rate >= 15%

* Screening Parameter: 5-Year Revenue Growth >= 15%

Recent growth
Zweig looks for consistent or accelerating growth. The most recent quarter's year-over-year EPS growth rate should be in the same ballpark as the long-term rate and, in the best case, higher. However, he's not dogmatic and is willing to cut the stock a little slack depending on conditions.

I required the most recent quarter's year-over-year EPS growth to be at least 75% of the long-term growth rate. However, I'm sure Zweig would want you to check further if the recent growth rate was near that minimum.

* Screening Parameter: EPS Growth Qtr vs. Qtr >= 0.75* (5-year) Annual EPS Growth

Revenue growth vs. EPS growth
While they won't track every quarter, Zweig wants to see stocks with revenue and EPS long-term growth rates in the same ballpark. Revenues growing faster than earnings signal declining profit margins, which often indicates that the company is cutting prices to ward off increasing competition. Conversely, earnings growth without corresponding revenue growth also spells trouble. It means that the earnings growth is coming more from cost-cutting than organic growth. If that's the case, eventually, the company will run out of places to cut costs, and earnings growth will slow.

I insured that the long-term revenue and EPS growth rates reasonably tracked each other by requiring each to be at least 75% of the other.

* Screening Parameter: (5-year) Annual EPS Growth Rate >= 0.75*5-Year Revenue Growth

* Screening Parameter: 5-Year Revenue Growth + 0.75* (5-year) Annual EPS Growth Rate

Maximum valuation
Zweig avoids overpriced stocks. He uses P/E to measure valuation, but his definition of overvalued depends on the market. In his examples, Zweig accepts fast-growing companies with P/Es as much as 50% higher than the overall market. Based on those examples, I use the S&P 500 average P/E to represent the market and reject stocks trading with P/Es more than 50% above the S&P.

* Screening Parameter: P/E Ratio: Current <= 1.5*S&P 500 Average P/E Ratio: Current Minimum valuation In Zweig's view, a stock's P/E can be too low as well as too high. He says that very low P/Es signal problems and generally means that investors are abandoning ship. But he doesn't spend much time worrying about the reasons. He says he's looking for "stable and reasonable growth," and he sees little chance of finding such stocks in the low P/E arena. In his book, Zweig advised shunning stocks with P/Es below 5. Since his maximum P/E varies with the market, I took liberties with his definition and used that same criterion for the minimum P/E. When he wrote the book, a 5 P/E equated to roughly 40% of the market average, which translates to 7 or so in the current market. If you want to be a Zweig purist, change the minimum P/E to a fixed value of 5. * Screening Parameter: P/E Ratio: Current >= 0.4*S&P 5000 Average P/E Ratio Current

Strong price action
Zweig wants to put the odds in his favor by homing in on stocks that are already showing strong price action relative to the market. He avoids stocks near their lows or in a clear downtrend. He prefers stocks that are "acting better than the market," but will accept stocks "acting at least as well as the market."

Relative strength measures a stock's performance compared to the overall market over a specified timeframe. Zweig didn't mention any particular timeframe, but, from his descriptions, I guessed that six months would work. A 50 relative strength indicates a stock performing about even with the market, so I used that as my minimum. Try increasing the minimum to 55 or 60 if you get too many hits.

* Screening Parameter: 6-month Relative Strength >= 50

Insider trading
Zweig prefers stocks with insider buying and, at the very least, minimal insider selling. For him, one insider selling is no big deal, but seven or eight insiders selling is bad. MSN Money's stock screener doesn't offer a parameter for number of insiders buying or selling.

I approximated Zweig's requirement by eliminating stocks where the number of shares sold by insiders exceeded the number bought.

* Screening Parameter: Net Insider Transactions >= 0

Debt
Zweig says it's best to avoid companies with high debt, because companies with high fixed costs will suffer more in a downturn.

Zweig doesn't define high and low debt specifically, and acceptable debt levels vary by industry. Since Zweig isn't adamant about low debt, I simply ruled out companies with debt/equity ratios higher than their industry average.

* Screening Parameter: Debt to Equity Ratio <= Industry Average Debt to Equity Ratio No bad surprises Zweig avoids stocks that have recently disappointed the market by reporting earnings below forecasts. He says that "academic studies have shown conclusively that when earnings are significantly below expectations, such stocks, on average, will underperform the market over the next one to two quarters." With that in mind, I screened out stocks with recent negative earnings surprises. * Screening Parameter: Recent Qtr Surprise % >= 0

My screen turned up 18 stocks in a wide variety of industries. It included everything from software makers and banks to oil and gas equipment suppliers to insurance brokers. You name it! There were five banks or savings & loans, but that was the only industry with multiple names.

US Federal Reserve Cuts Key Interest Rates By Half

2007-09-18T14:27:00.000-04:00

Information gradually streaming in reveals that following popular speculations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at the conclusion of its policy meeting, currently underway, the federal reserve cut the target on a key short-term interest rate by a half of a percentage point, from 5.25% to 4.75%, further acknowledgment from the central bank that the mortgage meltdown plaguing Wall Street and Main Street could have a negative impact on the economy

The cut to the federal funds rate, the first since June 2003, was widely anticipated by investors and followed a surprise cut to the Fed's discount rate on Aug. 17. The only question was whether the Fed would lower the federal funds rate by 25 basis points or 50 basis points. (There are 100 basis points in a full percentage point.)

The federal funds rate, an overnight lending rate that banks charge each other, is important since it influences the amount of interest consumers must pay for various types of debt, such as credit cards, home equity lines of credit and auto loans. The rate cut should help some beleaguered home borrowers who are set to see monthly payments on adjustable rate mortgages rise later this year.

In its statement, the Fed said that "the tightening of credit conditions has the potential to intensify the housing correction and to restrain economic growth more generally" and that the rate cut "is intended to help forestall some of the adverse effects on the broader economy that might otherwise arise from the disruptions in financial markets and to promote moderate growth over time."

The Fed also cut its largely symbolic discount rate by a half of a percentage point to 5.25 percent. The central bank lowered the discount rate for the first time in four years, which is what banks pay to borrow directly from the Federal Reserve, by 50 basis points on Aug. 17

How To Plan For A Mid-Career Change

2007-09-14T19:47:00.000-04:00

The key to making a mid-career transition is to understand that you don't have to do it in one big step. By taking a number of small steps, you'll get where you want your professional life to be without causing an income gap or wreaking havoc on your personal life.

The Starting Points
Here are some sound ways you can approach a big career transition.

Explore your network. It may be that you respect your company, and a new line of work within it would provide the change you crave. If you like the way you and your fellow employees are treated, that's a primary asset you're not guaranteed to get elsewhere.

Volunteering to improve on the way things are done -- even outside of your current position -- is often said to be the surest route to promotion. You may be unduly busy for a time, but having a goal you're working towards can provide you a lot of energy.

Go forth and conquer. If your current job is sapping your enthusiasm for life, then quitting outright may seem like the only choice. And it can be the right choice, provided that you A) are in a position to get by in the short term without a steady income, and B) can use your connections to explore your desired line of work.

Expand your own expertise. Your current job requires its own refined knowledge and core skills. One approach is to seek work in an industry where these can be put to use. Identify the strengths your experience gives you, write a resume that speaks to these traits in a broader context, and explore fields where your skills can be put to good use.

Go to school and learn. Gaining entrance to a new line of work often requires a higher degree or certificate. Whether you want to become an engineer, investor, nurse or chef, earning a degree is the premium means of gaining a foothold in your desired industry. Fortunately, in today's internet savvy world, all manner of degrees are available from reputable online colleges and universities.

The Education Advantage

One enormous advantage of studying online is that you can build your own class and study schedule, so that you don't have to worry about commuting to campus, and allowing you to keep your current job.

Many online schools offer degree programs that let you work at an accelerated rate -- many online business programs, for instance, let you earn your MBA in as little as 10 months. If you're searching for a truly fresh start in a line of work with lots of upward mobility, then take the time to explore. Discover if the degree you need is available online and look at potential schools. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Whatever challenges your path to a new career may hold, there are resources available to help you meet them. Don't hold back -- think actively about what's best for you. Get started toward your future today.

Keep Facebook Outside Office Hours???

2007-08-19T16:58:00.000-04:00

Facebook is shaping up as every boss's nightmare as the social networking website urges its members to hook up with workmates online.
That means millions of corporate dollars could be lost as workers manage their online social life via Facebook, rather than being productive in front of the screen.
Facebook is advertised as a social utility that connects people with friends and others who "work, study and live around them" - although many seem to be doing less work.
Originally a photo-sharing network, Facebook users can now invite others into their personal sites to chat and share information.
An anonymous Facebook user summed up the growing trend: "Of course everyone checks Facebook at work, duh! I don't have neither internet nor a TV at home because I like doing more useful things with my time when I'm off work," the blogger wrote.
And the Facebook explosion has good reason for bosses to stop the onslaught of online chatting at work.
In just two days this month, 7,000 people joined Facebook, as they chat with a network of mates - often daily, sometimes hourly.
Internet filtering specialist, SurfControl, estimates the Facebook craze could cost businesses more than $5 billion a year.
According to SurfControl figures, if just one employee spent an hour a day on Facebook, it could cost their business $6,200 a year.
With 800,000 businesses in Australia, these figures translate to $5 billion a year.
"On July 29 there were 195,000 members of Facebook's Australia network. Just over a week later, this number had grown to over 224,000," SurfControl spokesman Dr Richard Cullen said.
"There are Facebook groups dedicated to slacking off at work - some of them are specific to employees of a single company."
Dr Cullen said employers were now resorting to blocking internet use.
"Some employers are blocking the sites, while others have embraced the new, global networking capability and are setting down times when it's acceptable to Facebook," Dr Cullen said.
"If appropriate filters are in place, employees are able to use sites like Facebook and Myspace in their downtime without putting the network at risk."
Australian Industry Group Victorian director Tim Piper said employers had the choice to restrict internet use.
Mr Piper said the group would not endorse a push to block internet use at work.
"It's up to each employer to deal with it in a manner that's appropriate for their staff," Mr Piper said.
Mr Piper said preventing access to troublesome sites could save hours of unproductive behaviour.

Mattel Recalls Over 9 Million Toys Due To Lead, Paint......

2007-08-14T10:49:00.000-04:00

Mattel, the world’s largest toy company, today announced its second major recall in a month of defective toys that were made in China.
The company, in a statement issued from its American headquarters, said it was recalling a total of 436,000 toys marketed in the United States and elsewhere that had “impermissible levels of lead.” The toy is a die-cast vehicle featuring the Sarge character from the movie “Cars.”
In addition, the company said it was expanding a recall of toys that have small, powerful magnets that could come loose and be ingested by children.
The latest recalls are another major embarrassment for Mattel. Mattel has a reputation for being one of the most conscientious toy makers and is known for having sophisticated inspection and testing systems at many of its China facilities to guard against flawed, defective or tainted products.
But the latest recall could feed growing international worries about the quality and safety of consumer products made in China.
It would follow a series of other recalls by manufacturers this year involving a wide range of products from contaminated pet food ingredients to defective tires to tainted Chinese-made toothpaste.
Mattel began an advertising campaign today in an effort to reassure consumers about its commitment to product safety. It ran full-page ads in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today that featured a letter from Bob Eckert, the chief executive.
“Nothing is more important than the safety of our children,” the letter begins.
“Our long record of safety at Mattel is why we’re one of the most trusted names with parents,” it says. “And I am confident that the actions we are taking now will maintain that trust.”
Earlier this month, Mattel recalled over one million toys, including Sesame Street and Dora the Explorer products made by its Fisher-Price unit because they were contaminated with excessive levels of lead paint, which if ingested could pose health hazards to children.
Mattel said Lee Der Industrial, a contract manufacturer based in southern China, was responsible for producing the toys that contained excessive levels of lead paint in the initial recall.
Mattel stopped accepting goods from the contractor, and last week the Chinese government revoked Lee Der’s export license.
In a further twist, the Chinese authorities confirmed that one of the owners of the company apparently committed suicide.
The owner, Zhang Shuhong, apparently killed himself last Saturday by hanging himself in a factory warehouse in the city of Foshan, according to a report in China’s state-controlled media.
A spokesman for the Guangdong Public Security Bureau in southern China today confirmed that the police were investigating the apparent suicide.
Xiao Bindong, a spokesman for the bureau, said: “It is now confirmed that Mr. Zhang Shuhong committed suicide on the afternoon of August 11.”
China, however, insists the vast majority of its exports are safe and of high quality. Many international toy industry officials also say that while the recalls are serious, the problem with defective toys made in China is being grossly exaggerated.
“There are something like 30,000 different toy products on sale at any one time,” says Ian J. Anderson, the Asia Pacific director at SGS, a consumer testing company that works with Mattel and other toy makers in China. “How many items have been recalled lately? Anyone can have something go awry. It’s difficult to stay on top of everything.”
But United States congressmen and consumer product safety officials from the European Union have expressed growing concern in recent months over the number of defective and tainted products coming from China, which makes most of the world’s toys.
Last month, a pair of senators from the United States even proposed new legislation that sought to ban imported children’s products from China unless they were first certified as safe.
Responding to such criticism, the Chinese government says it is now stepping up its inspection of toys and other products and that it is cracking down on companies that act illegally.
In revoking the export license of Lee Der Industrial, which made the tainted Mattel toys, Chinese regulators said they found the company had used a “fake lead-free” paint pigment that came from the company’s paint supplier.
At the time of the recall, Mattel officials said the Lee Der facility had testing equipment on site that should have detected lead paint, and that the company had been a reliable supplier for at least 15 years.
Mattel has not yet explained what went wrong. But Monday, the company issued a brief statement saying the company was saddened to hear about the death of the Lee Der official.
The recalls, however, underscore the problems facing toy makers and other companies doing business in China. China has become a manufacturing powerhouse by depending on cheap labor and savvy cost cutting measures.
But sometimes, under pressure to cut costs or win contracts, Chinese manufacturers have cut corners, experts here say, and chosen to use cheap and illegal substitutes.
In June, for instance, another major toy company, the RC2 Corporation of Illinois, recalled 1.5 million popular Thomas & Friends wooden toy railway sets because for at least two years they were being coated with excessive levels of lead paint, even though the manufacturers were aware of restrictions on lead paint, RC2 officials later said.
In case after case involving Chinese made products that were recalled this year, there has been evidence that many Chinese manufacturers intentionally added cheap or illegal substances to save money.
While lead paint has long been restricted from being used in toys made for sale in the United States, Europe and even China, it remains much cheaper than lead-free paint. Companies here say lead paint is sometimes preferred because it offers richer colors, is easier to apply and easier to dry. And so some companies continued to blend it into paint supplies, according to toy consultants.
High levels of lead have also been found in Chinese made jewelry and trinkets, posing serious health hazards, according to American officials.

Rush Hour 3 Hits No. 1 in The US Box Office

2007-08-13T12:08:00.000-04:00

Rush Hour 3, the latest installment of the franchise started in 1998, has won the first place in the North American box-office charts over the weekend.

According to an estimation released on Sunday by the studio New Line Cinema the movie had three-day ticket sales of 50.3 million dollars.

Rush Hour 3 is faithful to its formula, but this time Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, respectively Chief Inspector Lee and Detective James Carter, are in France, tracing an international Chinese mob boss. The action is still breath-taking and dynamic, as usual: assassination attempts, a kidnap, car chases, shootings in a night club, a fight on the Eiffel Tower and so forth.

Rush Hour 3 bumped the espionage action sequel The Bourne Ultimatum starring Matt Damon into second place. After debuting last weekend in first place, the third instalment of screen adaptations from novelist Robert Ludlum grossed 33.7 million dollars from Friday- Sunday.

But “Rush Hour 3” did not so good compared to the previous installment “Rush Hour 2”, released six years ago. In the opening week end in 2001, “Rush Hour 2” took in $67.4 million

"The Simpsons Movie", the adventures of America’s most dysfunctional family, slipped to the third place, with revenue of 11.1 million dollars in its third week-end in cinemas.

“Stardust”, the romantic fantasy movie based on Neil Gaiman’s fantasy novel and directed Matthew Vaughn, despite its impressive cast (Michelle Pfeifer, Robert de Niro, Charlie Cox, Peter O’Toole, Claire Danes and Sienna Miller) has debuted on the fourth place, with 9 million dollars in revenue.

“Hairspray”, the film adaptation of the famous Broadway musical, with John Travolta dancing in high heels, collected $6.4 million in its sixth week. “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry” brought in $5.9 million. In the eighth place was “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” with $5.4 mill followed by Catherine Zeta-Jones’ romantic comedy ”No Reservations” at $3.9 million.

The week-end’s other new release, “Daddy Day Camp”, a sequel to “Daddy Day Care” starring Cuba Gooding Jr., ranked 10th with $3.3 million.

1. "Rush Hour 3," 50.3 million.

2. "The Bourne Ultimatum," $33.7 million.

3. "The Simpsons Movie," $11.1 million.

4. "Stardust," $9 million.

5. "Underdog," $6.5 million.

6. "Hairspray," $6.4 million.

7. "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry," $5.9 million.

8. "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," $5.4 million.

9. "No Reservations," $3.9 million.

10. "Daddy Day Camp," which opened Wednesday, $3.3 million.

DirecTV, Buying Back $1 Billion Worth Of Its Share

2007-08-09T12:57:00.000-04:00

DirecTV Group Inc. , the largest U.S. satellite television operator, said on Thursday quarterly net income fell slightly on higher costs related to its premium services.

DirecTV, which rivals EchoStar Communications Corp. and competes with cable TV providers, also said its board authorized the repurchase of up to $1 billion in shares.

DirecTV, expected to come under the control of Liberty Media Corp. this year, said net income was $448 million, down from $459 million a year earlier.

On a per-share basis, profit was 37 cents, including 1 cent from discontinued operations, against 36 cents last year.

DirecTV said income from continuing operations was $431 million, or 36 cents a share.

Analysts were looking for income of $443 million, or 36 cents a share, according to Reuters Estimates.

It said that costs for adding and upgrading subscribers were higher than the prior year as more customers added high definition and digital video recorder services.

Revenue rose to $4.14 billion from $3.52 billion a year earlier as its subscriber numbers grew, benefiting from a sharp rise in HD and DVR customers.

The increase in customer demand for advanced services also contributed to the higher gross additions of 900,000 and net U.S. subscriber additions of 128,000 in the quarter, DirecTV said.

However, some analysts were looking for additions in the range of 130,000 to 150,000.

Liberty is due to exchange a stake in Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. for a close to 40 percent controlling stake in DirecTV in a deal expected to close by the end of the year.

Shares of DirecTV fell more than 2 percent in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange after some disappointment with the net subscriber additions number. But shares recovered, last trading up 7 cents at $22 in New York Stock Exchange trading.

Rival EchoStar is due to report quarterly results on Friday.

10 Tips For Turning Affiliate Programs Into Goal Mines

2007-08-09T11:20:00.000-04:00

We’ve now looked at a number of popular affiliate programs for bloggers and today I’d like to finish off this series by giving a few tips that should help bloggers get the best results out of any affiliate program that they choose to run with.

1. Consider your Audience
It almost goes without saying - but it’s worth putting yourself in your readers shoes and consider what they might be looking for as they surf by your blog. Are they shopping for specific products? Might they be looking for related products or accessories? What would trigger them to purchase? Start with your reader in mind rather than the product. If you take this approach you could end up doing your reader a favor as well as making a few dollars on the side.

2. Genuine Recommendations and personal endorsements always work best
There are literally hundreds of thousands of products and services for you to choose from to recommend to your blog’s readers but making money from them is not as simple as randomly adding links to them from your blog. Your blog’s readers come back to your blog day after day because something about you resonates with them - they have at least some level of trust and respect for you and perhaps the quickest way to destroy this is to recommend that they buy something that you don’t fully believe will benefit them.
The best results I’ve had from affiliate programs are where I give an open and honest appraisal of the product - including both it’s strengths and weaknesses. The most successful affiliate program I’m involved with here at ProBlogger is Joel Comm’s e-book which I reviewed here. If you read the review you’ll see that I not only tell readers who I believe the book is for but I also mention those it is NOT for. In a sense I critique it. On a surface level one might think that this wasn’t a wise move and that I should have given a glowing review - however the sales that I’ve had through the program have proven otherwise. People want to know what they are buying first and even if they know a product has limitations they will buy it if it meets their particular need.

3. Link to Quality Products
We all like to make sure we’re buying the best products money can buy - your readers are no different to this and are more likely to make a purchase if you’ve found them the best product for them. Choose products and companies with good reputations and quality sales pages. There is nothing worse than giving a glowing review of a product only to send your reader to a page that looks cheap and nasty.

4. Contextual Deep Links work Best
When I started using the Amazon Associate Program I naively thought that all I had to do was put an Amazon banner ad (that linked to Amazon’s front page) at the top of my blog. I thought that my readers would see it and surf over to Amazon and buy up big - thereby making me a rich man. Nothing could have been further from reality - I was deluding myself.
I always says to bloggers that I’m consulting with that they should learn something from contextual advertising when it comes to affiliate programs. The secret of contextual ads like Adsense is that a reader is reading a post on a particular topic on your blog and when they see an advertisement for that same product they are more likely to click it than if they saw an ad for something else. The same is true for affiliate programs. A banner to a general page on every page on your site won’t be anywhere near as effective as multiple links throughout your blog that advertiser products that are relevant for readers reading particular parts of your blog.
So if you’re writing a blog about MP3 players and have a review for a particular product - the most effectively affiliate program that you could link to from within the content of that page would be one that links directly to a page selling that specific model of MP3 player. This is how I use the Amazon program today. It is more work than contextual advertising because you’re not just putting one piece of code into a template but rather need to place individual links on many pages - but I find that it’s been worth the effort.

5. Consider positioning of links
One of the things I go on and on about with Adsense optimization is the positioning of ads. I tell bloggers to position their ads in the hotspots on pages (like the top of a left hand side bar - or inside content - or at the end of posts above comments etc). The same principles are true for affiliate advertising.

6. Traffic levels are Important
While it’s not the only factor - traffic levels are obviously key when it comes to making money from almost any online activity. The more people that see your well placed, relevant and well designed affiliate links the more likely it is that one of them will make a purchase. So don’t just work on your links - work on building a readership. Not only this, consider how you might direct traffic on your blog toward pages where they are more likely to see your affiliate links.

7. Diversifywithout Clutter
Don’t put all your affiliate efforts into one basket. There are plenty of products out there to link to so there is no need to just work on one. At the same time you shouldn’t clutter your blog up with too many affiliate program links. If you do so you run the risk of diluting the effectiveness of your links and could disillusion your readership.

8. Be Transparent
Don’t try to fool your readers into clicking links that could make you money. While it may not always feasible to label all affiliate links I think some attempt should be made to let people know what type of link they are clicking on. I also think consistency is important with this so readers of your blog know what to expect. For example here at ProBlogger usually put a note beside or under affiliate links to simply let readers know that that is what they are. On my Digital Camera Blog I don’t do this because of the large number of such links make it clear by the text around the link that clicking on it will take them to some sort of shop or information where a purchase is possible (ie a link my say ‘buy the XXX product’ or ‘get the latest product on XXX’.

9. Combine with other Revenue Streams
Affiliate programs and advertising programs are not mutually exclusive things. I’ve come across a few people recently who have said they don’t want to do affiliate linking because it will take the focus off their Adsense ads. While there is potential for one to take the focus off the other - there is also real potential for both to work hand in hand as different readers will respond to different approaches. You should consider the impact that your affiliate links have on other revenue streams - but don’t let one stop the other.

10. Track results
Most affiliate programs have at least some type of tracking or statistics package which will allow you to watch which links are effective. Some of these packages are better than others but most will at least allow you to see what is selling and what isn’t. Watching your results can help you plan future affiliate efforts. Keep track of what positions for links work well, which products sell, what wording around links works well etc and use the information that you collect as you work plan future affiliate strategies.

The Basics of Affiliate Programs

2007-08-09T09:08:00.000-04:00

Affiliate programs have truly grown over the last several years to become perhaps one of the Internet's premier business models. However, new to affiliate programs, aren't familiar with all of the concepts and terms involved. Naturally, this can make it difficult to properly evaluate the hundreds of programs out there and decide which are best for you.

I would like to cover some of the basics, and define some of the common terms that are used when discussing affiliate programs. For those of you new to affiliate programs this guide should help you quickly get up to speed on how affiliate programs can make an excellent, and profitable, addition to your web site. Here are some of the more common affiliate program terms you'll likely run into, and their basic definitions:

Affiliate: An independent party that promotes the products or services of a merchant in exchange for a commission. Also an associate, partner, reseller, or referral partner.

Merchant: A company that has set up an affiliate program and has agreed to share a commission with affiliates who promote their web site, products and/or services. Also termed an advertiser, vendor, or simply referred to as an "affiliate program."

Commission: The income you receive for generating a sale, lead or click-through to a merchant's web site. Sometimes called a referral fee, a finder's fee or a bounty.

Affiliate Program: Used in a broad sense, an affiliate program is any type of revenue sharing program where an affiliate web site receives a portion of income for delivering sales, leads, or traffic to a merchant web site. In a narrow sense, affiliate programs are commonly considered those programs that use a pay- per-sale model like our own. Also termed associate, partner, referral, reseller, or sponsor programs.

Pay-Per-Sale: A program where you receive a commission for each sale of a product or service that you refer to a merchant's web site. Pay-per-sale programs usually offer the highest commissions and the lowest conversion ratio. Also referred to as Cost-per- Action (CPA for short) and generically as an Affiliate Program.

Pay-Per-Lead: A program where you receive a commission for each sales lead that you generate for a merchant web site. Examples would include completed surveys, contest or sweepstakes entries, downloaded software demos, or free trials. Pay-per-lead generally offers midrange commissions and midrange to high conversion ratios (since visitor purchases are not required for you to be able to earn a commission). Like pay-per-sale, pay-per-lead is also referred to as a Cost-per-Action or CPA for short.

Pay-Per-Click: A program where you receive a commission for each click (visitor) you refer to a merchant's web site. Pay-per-click programs generally offer some of the lowest commissions (from $0.01 to $0.25 per click), and a very high conversion ratio since visitors need only click on a link to earn you a commission.

Pay-Per-Impression: A program where you receive a commission each time that a merchant's ad or link is displayed on your site. Pay- per-impression generally offers the lowest commissions, but a nearly 100% conversion ratio since a visitor merely has to view the ad to earn you a commission -- and this often results in the highest earnings potential. Pay-per-impression programs are generally measured in CPMs (see below) and form the standard of banner advertising for larger web sites.

Conversion Ratio: The ratio of visitors from your site that are "converted" into a sale, lead or click, and go on to earn the you a commission. A conversion ratio of 5% would mean that for every 100 visitors to your site, 5 would click-through, complete an action and earn you a commission. Many factors will influence the conversion ratio, including how targeted the affiliate program's products are to your visitor's interests, the price and value of the products being promoted, the merchant's ability to track all sales, and the overall effectiveness of the merchant's web site.

Click-Through Ratio: The percentage of visitors who click-through on a link to visit the merchant's web site. Higher click-throughs are preferable although not always a great measure of success. Pay-per-click earnings are highly dependent on the click-through ratios. Click-through ratios can often be improved through a variety of means: by making links more visible to visitors, adding personal comments or testimonials about the product, or even reducing the number of links a visitor can follow.

CPM: The practice of calculating a cost per 1000 ad displays. It is used by programs that pay on an impression basis -- with the CPM rate being the amount you earn for every 1000 times an advertisement is displayed. For example, a $5 CPM means you earn $5 every time 1000 ads are displayed on your site. CPM can also be calculated for pay-per-sale, pay-per-lead and pay-per-click programs by using this formula:
Amount earned / (number of impressions/1000)
Calculating the CPM of affiliate programs can be an effective means of comparing the results over time from various programs -- allowing you to put more emphasis on the strong programs, and dropping the poorly performing programs.

Two-tier Commission: Two-tier, or multi-tier, refers to the practice of a merchant paying commissions to both the affiliate that referred a sale, lead or click, and the affiliate that referred that affiliate to the program. A descendent of network marketing, two-tier programs are generally quite legitimate and offer the merchant an effective means to promote their affiliate program quickly. However, be wary of any programs that try to charge startup or membership fees to join. These programs should be avoided, as there are hundreds of others that do not charge to become an affiliate. Some are simply pyramid schemes in disguise.

Residual Commission: Residual commissions refer to programs that provide affiliates the ability to earn an income, month after month, for referring a sale to a merchant. They are usually those that offer some type of service for which the customer is charged an ongoing subscription fee. Examples include web hosting, tele- communications, and ecommerce solutions. They offer an effective benefit to affiliates since the affiliate can earn income for an extended period, perhaps even years, from a single sale.

Tracking Method: Tracking refers to the way that a program tracks referred sales, leads or clicks. The most common are by using a unique web address (URL) for each affiliate, or by embedding an affiliate ID number into the link that is processed by the merchant's software. Some programs also use cookies for tracking.

Cookies: Cookies are small files stored on the visitor's computer which record information that is of interest to the merchant site. Despite concerns that some people have, cookies are in no way dangerous -- and can not be used to steal names, email addresses, phone or credit card numbers. With affiliate programs, cookies have two primary functions: to keep track of what a customer purchases, and to track which affiliate was responsible for generating the sale (and is due a commission).
Be especially wary of programs that only use cookies since they have many inherent limitations: the user can turn them off, they expire after a certain date or time, and they can be deleted off the visitor's computer. Most programs use either unique URLs or affiliate ID numbers in conjunction with cookies to track properly. Cookies can then be used to give the affiliate credit at a later time of purchase, even if the visitor returns to the merchant's site as opposed to the affiliate's unique URL.

Banner Networks: A whole bunch of networks have popped up to better facilitate the pay-per-click concept. Most pay-per-click programs are part of a network where the network acts as middle- man between the actual advertisers and the affiliates which run the ads. And for this service, the network takes a percentage of the overall revenues.

Third-party Administrators: The best way to get starting in Affiliate Marketing is to sign-up with one or more of the different Affiliate Networks. Similar to banner networks, an increasing number of companies have sprouted up to help merchants facilitate their affiliate programs. Most act as consultants and software providers to merchants, and thus allow them to cost-effectively outsource their affiliate program operations. For affiliates, the networks often offer simplified registration, standardized commission tracking and reporting, and even consolidated commission payments.

10 Major Reasons Why Employers Get Sued

2007-07-13T14:12:00.000-04:00

Jericho attorney Robert Lipman, speaking recently at a local human-resource gathering, presented his Top 10 reasons why employers are sued. It's information worth noting because Lipman, of Lipman & Plesur in Jericho, knows of what he speaks. He has successfully sued some of Long Island's biggest employers on behalf of employees who claimed they weren't properly paid. As a lawyer who also represents some employers, he has counseled those clients on how to avoid being sued.

Herewith his Top 10 reasons why employers are sued:

1. Employees are not paid for all hours worked.

2. Employees who complain to human resources are basically told to take a hike.

3. The company is run like a "Mom and Pop" shop and decisions are made by "emotional, arrogant" owners.

4. "We contact the executives and they do not tell us anything to suggest we are wrong."

5. Lost wages will likely be significant.

6. The company thinks supervisor training is unnecessary.

7. A few disgruntled employees come to us to discuss the same problem - and they do not even know each other.

8. Contractual promises limit the company's ability to fire an employee (but they let the person go anyway).

9. The employee complained about a problem and was punished.

10. Evaluations and warnings are not backed up with any specifics.

No Sign-Ups For 'Mr. Gays'On Facebook

2007-07-12T09:52:00.000-04:00

The immensely popular social networking website Facebook has been hit by claims that it won't let people whose name is 'Gay' join up – because it doesn't think their name is 'legitimate'.

The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reports that when they tried to sign up a person who was called Gay, they were refused permission and confronted with the message: 'Please enter a legitimate name.'

It will, however, allow users who are called Hitler.

Metro's own investigations seem to confirm this: a search of Facebook does indeed turn up lots of Gaylords, some Gayes, an occasional Gayer – but no Gays. There are, however, plenty of Dykes.

There is also an application (developed by a third party) which allows Facebook users to proclaim that they are gay, by putting a big gay flag on their profile page – but this appears to refer to sexual preference, not to actually being called Gay.

Gay is in common use both as a surname and a first name. Some well known Gays include gardening writer and broadcaster Gay Search, Irish TV host Gay Byrne, Australian politician Duncan Gay and American sprinter Tyson Gay.

When you are born with the name Gay you have to have a sense of humour

French Londoner Yannick Gay, 33, said: 'When you are born with the name Gay you have to have a sense of humour. I have never had too much problem but you do have to explain it quite a few times when giving your name. I usually say 'as in the village people' and they then get it.

'I've never tried to use Facebook but I'd like to have the option to be able to. However if I did use it I'd probably use a different surname because, not being gay, I don't want to be pestered - which can happen on the internet through people misunderstanding.'

Facebook has yet to comment on the Gay issue.

The Sc-Fi Movie 'Transformer' - A Money Making Machine?

2007-07-11T14:25:00.000-04:00

The shape-shifting robots of ''Transformers'' have taken on a new form: huge piles of cash.

The sci-fi saga ''Transformers,'' DreamWorks and Paramount's big-screen take on the Hasbro toys, debuted with $67.6 million in ticket sales in its first weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. That gave it $152.5 million since opening with preview screenings last Monday.

If the weekend figures hold when final numbers are released today, that would give ''Transformers'' the biggest first week revenues ever for a non-sequel, surpassing the $151.6 million of 2002's ''Spider-Man.''

''Transformers,'' directed by Michael Bay, features a cast led by Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox, who are among humans hurled into the action when two races of warring robots bring their feud to Earth.

Overall domestic box office plunged. The top 12 movies took in $161.5 million, down 23 percent from the same weekend last year, when ''Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest'' opened a then-record weekend of $135.6 million.

The weekend's other new wide release, the Warner Bros. comedy ''License to Wed,'' took fourth place with $10.4 million, raising its total since debuting Tuesday to $17.8 million.

Mortgage Financing - Taking A New Look

2007-07-07T12:10:00.000-04:00

Brett Richards

Mortgage companies are always looking for a way to generate additional income, and with the real estate market taking a substantial decline, some lenders are now offering mortgage loans that will spread your payments out to 40 and 50 years, making them more affordable. Prior to these extended-term mortgages, the interest-only mortgages were touted as the way to go. Is this new wave of financing your home really a good deal?

Remember that interest-only mortgage loans weren't permanently interest-only. The buyer only had a certain period of interest-only payments, after which they must resume paying on the principle, which had grown during that time. Many families found themselves unable to pay the higher payments that came at the end of the interest-only period. Right now, we are seeing those interest-only loans having a much higher rate of foreclosure than the regular fixed-rate mortgages where the payment stays the same.

Now we have the birth of the 40- and 50-year mortgage. It's true you'll be spreading your payments out, but you'll be greatly increasing the amount of interest you will pay back, and you also will reduce your buildup of equity. These mortgages will makes it easier to buy a home in a high-priced area. But when we break it down, these ultra-long-term mortgages don't reduce monthly payments all that much when compared with a traditional 30-year fixed-rate loan. What these loans will do, though, is jack up how much interest you pay over time and dramatically slow down the rate at which you build equity.

Even with all the facts, the 40-year loans are becoming more common, and the 50-year mortgage is more a novelty item than anything else. Some experts have compared them to the 99-year mortgages that were briefly offered during Japan's ill-fated real-estate boom two decades ago. Forty-year mortgages, on the other hand, first appeared in the 1980s and then finally gained recognition in the U.S. last year, after Fannie Mae began buying them. (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy the majority of mortgages in the U.S. and repackage them for sale to investors, so their stamp of approval is hugely important.) About five percent of mortgages in the U.S. now carry 40-year terms.

Some 40-year mortgages offer fixed rates for the entire term, typically charging about one-quarter percentage point -- more than a comparable 30-year mortgage. Some 40-year loans are ARM loans, with a rate that's fixed for a few years before becoming variable. This slightly lower payment could be enough to help you qualify for a somewhat bigger loan. Forty-year mortgages are typically sold to individuals who say they don't like the 30-year, because the mortgage payments are a little high, and they don't like interest-only because they will need to build some equity.

Consider this: If there's any chance you might hold onto one of these extended mortgages, making every payment until the term ends, rather than moving and refinancing -- then you'll really want to opt for the shorter-term loan. You'll pay a total of $398,334 in interest for a 30-year, $300,000 mortgage over the course of the loan. For a 40-year, the interest cost is nearly 50 percent higher: $591,725.

Many borrowers, though, have lost sight of the true costs of various mortgages as they pursue just the lowest-possible monthly payments or try to qualify for ever-more-expensive homes. If this describes you, you might want to:

# Consider your goals: for most people, homeownership is a way to build wealth.

# Match the mortgage term to your time horizon: You can help protect yourself from soaring interest rates by making sure your rate is fixed -- at least for as long as you plan to remain in the home.

# Settle for a less expensive home: Stretching yourself too thin to buy a house is a recipe for disaster. Even if no major systems break down, the routine costs of maintenance and repair can swamp anyone who's not prepared for them. Meanwhile, a high house payment might cause you to lose sight of other important goals, like saving for retirement, or to pile up credit-card debt as you try to stay afloat.

10 Reasons Why You Are Not Getting Hired

2007-07-05T16:44:00.000-04:00

Dozens of job interviews, and no offers? Are you too old, too young, over-qualified or just out of luck? Are hiring managers so incompetent and biased that they can’t see that you’re qualified as a chemist, electrical engineer, CAD designer, construction manager or network administrator?

The truth is, if you’re getting rejected time after time for jobs that you are qualified for, the problem is most likely with you. Hiring managers and recruiters don’t get paid to reject people. Their job is to find qualified people to fill vacancies.

If you’re not getting invited back, ask yourself “why?” Most of the time, the problem is with the way you are presenting yourself. That’s not surprising because job interviewing is an infrequent activity for most of us. You need to critique your interviewing presentation the same as you would your on-the-job-performance. Here are ten reasons why you may not be getting a job offer:

1. You’re not qualified. It’s true, you have nothing to lose by applying for every job that looks even remotely like it might be a match. On the other hand, if you overstate your qualifications, it will come out during the interview. Sometimes the interviewer doesn’t properly screen job candidates, and it’s not until the interview is well under way that it becomes obvious that the candidate lacks the necessary skills or experience. There’s not much you can do about interviewers who don’t do their homework. However, think twice before you set yourself up for failure by applying for jobs that are clearly outside your level of expertise.

2. You may lack enthusiasm. You don’t have to emulate Zig Ziglar or Richard Simmons, but you must express enthusiasm for a job if you don’t want to be weeded out early in the interview process. Not everyone is effervescent in his or her personality, but if you can’t manufacture enthusiasm during a job interview, a hiring manager has to wonder how good your attitude will be after you’re hired.

3. Failure to establish your worth to the prospective employer. When you give the impression that you are only interested in “what’s in it for me” without regard to what you have to offer, a job opportunity is often lost. The hiring manager wants to know what you can do for him or her. Candidates who fail to establish their worth are quickly eliminated. For example, if you have eight years of progressively responsible experience as an application engineer, you will want to make sure that the interviewer sees the value in your experience. You establish your worth by the specific things that you say in answer to his or her questions.

4. Unclear job goals eliminate many candidates from further consideration. If you10. are an electrical supervisor and you don’t know what you specifically want to do, are not sure if you want to supervise again, or can’t communicate your interest during the interview, you’re in trouble. If you’re going through some soul-searching as we all do on occasion, keep it out of the interview or you run the risk of losing a job opportunity. Employers are not interested in hiring people who don’t know what they want to do.

5. Bad mouthing previous employers. There is no faster way to be cut from further consideration than by saying something negative about your current or most recent employer. It may be that your former supervisor really was a technically weak boss. Maybe he or she was frequently late in following through on assignments that in turn impacted your work. Regardless of the situation, think twice before you talk about it. It’s better to put a positive spin on your job search, saying you’re looking for better opportunities when asked why you are making a change. Employers want to hire people who are going places, not those who are refugees. What you say tells the listener more about you than about the person/company you are talking about. As tempting as it may be to tell the interviewer how badly your previous employer treated you, keep your negative thoughts to yourself.

6. Poor personal appearance. The key here is that you must fit in with the way others in the company dress. Hiring managers don’t want to hire anyone for their team who would be a distraction to others. And keep in mind that if a manager hires you with a nose ring, his or her judgment will be called into question, regardless of how well you do your job. A poor personal appearance can eliminate you before you open your mouth.

7. Unprepared for the interview. Preparing includes practice answering interview questions as well as researching the company. Interviewers are always impressed when you know something about their company. If due to a lack of practice you stumble with your answers, it will be clear that you are unprepared. Be ready to answer the question: “What can you tell me about yourself” in two minutes or less. It’s obvious to the interviewer when a candidate hesitates to answer a question that he or she is not prepared.

8. You may lack interpersonal skills. On paper you may look great. On the phone you are impressive. Your references look fine at a glance, but face to face you fail the test. If there is any hint that you may not get along with other members of the engineering team, it’s a deal killer. Suppress your desire to say anything that would suggest that you’re weak in the area of interpersonal skills including a comment that you are shy or would rather work with machinery than people.

9. Revealing your weaknesses will usually end your chances for getting a job offer. The hiring manager’s number one job is to determine the candidate’s weaknesses. He or she will do this by asking tough interview questions that you must be prepared to answer without revealing your weaknesses. Practice answering the question: “Can you tell me about one of your weaknesses and what you are doing to improve?” Take it one step further and decide what you will say when the interviewer asks you for three weaknesses that you are working on.

10. Failure to sell yourself. Your responsibility during the interview is to sell yourself and that includes carefully tooting your own horn. You may not have had to do much of this in the past, but times have changed. And don’t forget to follow up with a telephone call three or four days after an interview. It’s a great way to reinforce your interest in the job as well as ask a question or two that you may have forgotten to ask.

In conclusion, there are many reasons why you may not be getting a job offer. These ten reasons are among the most likely. Regardless of the reason, it’s your responsibility to make sure that you avoiding anything that would prevent you from moving forward in the interview process and ultimately landing the job.

Carol Hacker is a business consultant, seminar leader and author of over 250 published articles and 13 books including the bestseller, Hiring Top Performers-350 Great Interview Questions for People Who Need People. She can be reached in Atlanta at 770-410-0517

The International Space Station - A Money Pit?

2007-06-17T10:34:00.001-04:00

Jeff Kluger

There are bad ideas, and then there are true historic stinkers. Put the International Space Station in that second category.
Today, the most underachieving machine NASA ever dreamed up got into trouble again, when computers that control the station’s oxygen, water supply and orientation failed. With the three-man station crew just joined by the seven visiting astronauts of the space shuttle Atlantis, the specter of Apollo 13 on a grand scale — with 10 astronauts in danger this time instead of merely three — immediately arose. The good news is, the shuttle and station astronauts are in nowhere near the danger the 1970 lunar crew was; in fact, they're not in much danger at all. The bad news is, the station has once again proven itself unworthy of all of the time, money and attention that has been lavished on it over the last two decades.
It's no surprise that there are a lot of things that can go wrong with a machine like the space station — and no shame when some of them do. The orbiting complex is 240 ft. long at its maximum, weighs 471,444 lbs. and encloses 15,000 ft. of habitable space. It is being built and maintained principally by NASA, the European Space Agency and the space agencies of Russia, Japan and Canada, an arrangement that spreads the costs and the burdens but also diffuses the responsibility. If your SUV occasionally needs a trip to the shop, imagine what it takes to keep a complicated leviathan like this going.
The latest breakdown occurred in computers built and supplied by Russia. The idea that the problem affects the air and water systems sounds scary, but the fact is the station carries at least a 56-day reserve supply of oxygen, and while it doesn't keep as much water on board, there's more than enough to keep anyone from going thirsty for a good while. "We have plenty of resources so we have plenty of time to sort this out," said NASA’s Mike Suffredini, a manager of the space station program.
A bigger potential problem is the loss of precise control over station orientation. Part of the reason for Atlantis's current visit is to install a new pair of solar arrays, just two of several such reflective wings that help supply the station with power. But collecting solar energy means being able to keep yourself pointed toward the sun, not so easy if you're drifting off center. The computers also help orient the station to avoid space debris and move into position for docking with the shuttle or arriving cargo ships. For now, the shuttle's thrusters and the station's own gyroscopes will keep things reasonably stable, but that is not a permanent fix.
In the unlikely event things grow even worse aloft, all 10 crew members would be able to bail out easily. The shuttle can leave at pretty much any time, and a Russian return vehicle is always kept attached to the station — not as roomy or comfortable as the shuttle perhaps, but plenty good for jumping overboard and making a quick plunge back to Earth.
The larger question, as always, is why we're bothering with this whole program in the first place. The station was originally proposed 23 years ago as an $8 billion orbiting laboratory that would perform cutting-edge biological research, manufacture new and highly marketable materials impossible to make in the gravity environment of Earth and generally pay for itself many times over. Close to two decades past deadline and now carrying a projected $100 billion price tag, it has not returned a lick of good science — nor is it likely to. Meantime, it's diverting billions from NASA's budget that could better be spent on the agency's brilliantly successful unmanned space program, as well as its promising efforts to return astronauts to the moon and eventually explore Mars.
These days, as critics rightly point out, the space shuttles exist principally to build and service the station, and the station exists merely to give the shuttles a place to go. The shuttles, meantime, which have already claimed the lives of 14 astronauts, continue to accumulate wear as they limp toward the 2010 deadline when the station is set to be completed and they'll be allowed to retire. In the next several days, Atlantis astronauts will undertake a risky spacewalk to repair a thermal blanket that pulled up from a small section of one of the shuttle's engines — possibly exposing it to damage during reentry. Their first-line tools for this important work? Staples scrounged from the shuttle's medical kit. If ever a pair of government programs cried out to be mothballed, it's these.

FTC Responds To Microsoft OutCry Over Google-DoubleClick Deal

2007-05-29T15:33:00.000-04:00

Following suit from Microsoft, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), independent consumer rights protection agencyn in the US, has been keeping a close eye on the Google/DoubleClick deal.

The FTC has opened an antitrust investigation into Google Inc.'s proposed $3.1 billion purchase of ad-management technology company DoubleClick Inc.

The review of the deal was widely expected after Mountain View-based Google announced plans last month to acquire DoubleClick, a company that helps its customers place and track online advertising.

New York-based DoubleClick helps its customers place and track online advertising, including search ads, which Google -- more than its nearest search competitors Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp has turned into an extremely lucrative business.

DoubleClick had been the target of a fierce bidding war between Microsoft and Google. Though Google commands the bulk of the online advertising search market, the addition of DoubleClick's technology and client network would further its efforts to branch out beyond its core ad offerings.

Don Harrison, the senior corporate counsel for Google, said in a statement Monday that the acquisition 'poses no risk to competition and should be approved.'
'Numerous independent analysts and academics have determined after looking at this acquisition that the online advertising industry is a dynamic and evolving space -- as evidenced by a number of recently announced acquisitions -- and that rich competition in this industry will bring more relevant ads to consumers and more choices for advertisers and Web site publishers,' Harrison said.

Google turned over basic information about the planned purchase to regulators after announcing the deal. Spokesman Adam Kovacevich said the company would soon turn over additional information sought by the FTC as part of its review.

News of the FTC investigation was first reported by The New York Times.

A phone message left with a spokesman for the FTC late Monday night was not immediately returned.

The Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center and other privacy groups had previously asked the FTC to investigate the the privacy implications of the deal.

Earlier this month, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt predicted the company would clear all the necessary regulatory hurdles to complete the acquisition by the end of this year.

Google pointed to four deals made after its bid for DoubleClick on April 13 as evidence that there is plenty of competition in the online advertising market.

On April 30, Yahoo announced its intent to acquire online advertising firm Right Media Inc., for $680 million.

Then in a three-day span in May, AOL LLC said it bought a controlling interest in online advertising company Adtech AG for an undisclosed sum; WPP Group PLC, the world's second-largest advertising and marketing conglomerate, agreed to buy 24/7 Real Media Inc. for $649 million; and Microsoft made a $6 billion bid for online advertising firm aQuantive Inc.

Getting A Home Equity Loan Tax Deduction

2007-05-26T13:21:00.001-04:00

Home equity loan become very popular among people because of its low interest rates and the rising of the values of properties. Home equity loans have lots of advantages over other loan type. One of these advantages is that the interest rates of home equity loans are very competitive. One of the most essential advantages is that home equity loans are tax deductible. On top of all that, the home equity loan tax deductions are also very hard to beat.

The amount of the home equity loan tax deductions apply on some certain circumstances. The interest rate of the home equity loans is a detailed deduction if you paid the interest and secured the home equity loan with your property. There are some conditions set by home equity lenders so that if you can not meet their conditions, you can still be able to deduct the interest that are set on another category.

The Internal Revenue Service has set three basic requirements that a borrower require, in order for the borrower to qualify for a home equity loan tax deductions. The first basic requirement is that the borrower will held legal responsibility of the home equity loan so that the borrower will not qualify additional home equity loan tax deductions even if the borrower is paying for the home equity loan of another person. The second requirement in order to be qualified for home equity loan tax deductions is that the home equity loan will be a secured debt for a qualified property. The property will be either being your main home or second property. It will not be leased or used for business uses. In an event that the borrower is using any part of the property of the house as a business office, then that room or that part of the house will be stated as a business expense. And the last rules in order to qualify for home equity loan tax deductions is that the borrower must file the form 1040 with all the details of the itemized deductions.

Finding The Fairest Prices For Student Loans

2007-05-26T13:21:00.000-04:00

Lynn O'Shaughnessy

Can you imagine someone ripping you off for a Payday candy bar? Something close to that apparently has been happening at the University of Texas, where the financial aid office maintained a list of the freebies showered on the staff by student loan companies. Payday candy bars caught my eye; however, there were other goodies, including barbecue lunches, lasagna, cakes, popcorn and ice cream.

Why would student loan companies want to give these folks sugar highs? Think about it for a second. Student loans are an $85 billion a year business and companies want to get their names on college and university preferred-lender lists.

Many colleges hand these lists to parents who need to borrow money and wonder where to turn. Families aren't obligated to obtain loans from these anointed firms, but the overwhelming majority does. After all, why wouldn't you trust a college to direct you to the best loans?

Maybe the better question, in light of the unfolding student loan scandal is this: Why should you trust your son or daughter's school?

The University of Texas student newspaper uncovered the candy bar shenanigans in May. The lenders on the university's list knew how to pamper college staffers, but some of their loans should never have been recommended to students. The resulting fallout led to the resignation of the university's director of financial aid after it was discovered that he owned stock in the parent company of a student lender he was recommending to students.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case. The scandal came to light this year when New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo started examining the relationships between schools and lenders. While the investigation isn't complete, it's clear that many schools have put financial institutions on their preferred-lending lists in exchange for perks and financial kickbacks. Students be damned.

Obviously, this behavior is despicable. And if the people responsible aren't fired, they should at least be required to share face time with the professors who teach ethics on their campuses.

While it's discouraging to discover that financial aid offices are sometimes more interested in aiding themselves, there are steps that parents and students can take to find the lowest-priced loans:

Let students borrow first.

You are going to find the best interest rates on student loans backed by the federal government. These are called Stafford loans, which require students to act as the borrowers. The other federally backed option is the PLUS loan, which is used exclusively by parents.

Even if the parents help, it's better for students to take out a Stafford loan first because it carries a lower interest rate. The maximum interest rate now for a Stafford loan is 6.8 percent versus 8.5 percent for the PLUS loans. These rates are just ceilings, so you'll want to borrow from lenders with much lower rates. If a family needs more money after a Stafford is maxed out, parents are going to have to decide whether to use a PLUS loan or perhaps dip into a home-equity line.

Be careful where you borrow.

Obviously you don't want to limit yourself to the preferred list provided by your child's school. Maybe the lenders who wormed their way onto the list do offer the best deals, but you won't know for sure until you do your homework.Unfortunately, most lenders have made it difficult to compare their loans. To confuse you, loan companies offer all sorts of hocus-pocus discounts that look impressive but often aren't. Here's one of the most common: Students are promised a 2 percent interest rate drop on their Stafford loans if they make timely payments for 48 months.

Sounds great, but hardly anybody qualifies for this. Four years provides plenty of time for kids to mess up. In fact, only 3 percent of students snag this discount, says Mark Kantrowitz, the founder of FinAid, a financial aid Web site. And because a student has to wait four years into the loan to earn the discount, its actual value will drop to 0.63 percent.

To decipher what these discounts really mean, head to FinAid and use its loan-discount calculator.

The superior loans provide significant interest rate discounts that you can immediately earn once you begin making payments. Where can you find these loans? You should check out governmental, quasi-governmental and nonprofit lenders, such as ALL Student Loan in California, www.allstudentloan.org, 877-255-0006.This nonprofit lender, based in Los Angeles, offers a 2.25 percent up front rate reduction on Stafford and PLUS loans for any student attending school in California. The rate discounts from ALL Student Loan are nearly as good for borrowers outside California.

Another resource is the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, www.mohela.com, 888-866-4352.

A private lender worth checking out is MyRichUncle, www.myrichuncle.com, 888-697-4248.

By the way, not all students will need to shop for federally backed loans. A minority of schools, including most of the University of California campuses, offer loans direct from the federal government, so there will be no preferred-lender list. The direct-loan approach is vastly cheaper for taxpayers - since it cuts out private lenders as intermediaries - and it can often be a better deal for students.

Only the direct-loan program, for instance, provides a financial safety valve that allows borrowers who choose lower-paying careers to make monthly payments based on their income, says Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. The so-called income-contingent repayment provision, he says, "is worth its weight in gold."

Avoid private loans.

Unless you've maxed out the Stafford and PLUS, stay away from private loans. If you're a graduate student, there is no reason to obtain a private loan because Grad PLUS loans impose no lending limit. Unlike federally backed loans, private loans have no caps and the interest rates are variable. Some of these variable rates can be as bad as the subprime loans that have been burning homeowners.

What's more, private-loan lenders don't treat all borrowers equally, as the federally backed program does. Families with better credit ratings will receive better deals. Beware of private loans masquerading as school loans; they are nothing more than "marketing ploys," advises Robert Shireman, the executive director of the nonprofit Project on Student Debt, which promotes student loan reform.

Students will assume that school-branded loans are more favorable, but, Shireman warns, "most of these loans are just like any other private loans and in some cases they could be worse."

Because this is the third column in a row on college, I promise to move on to other subjects next week. But for those who can't get enough of this subject, I'm working on a book about college strategies.

Get A Debt-Management Firm Manage Your Debt

2007-05-12T16:52:00.000-04:00

Debt-management firms help businesses overwhelmed with debt get back on track.

Using a process known as debt consolidation, these firms negotiate with creditors for better terms on unsecured loans such as credit cards, medical bills, utility bills, and IRS debts.

The new terms may include reduced monthly payments, reduced interest or no interest, or waivers of late and over-the-limit fees. Don't confuse debt consolidation with debt-consolidation loans, which involve taking out new, usually lower-interest loans to pay off several higher-interest loans.

Debt consolidation can save you money and get collection agencies off your back. Plus, you make only one monthly payment to the debt-management firm, which pays your creditors.

Unfortunately, you can't always escape damage to your credit record. Creditors may still report you to a credit bureau for late payments; however, this is not nearly as damaging to your credit report as bankruptcy.

When to Use a Debt-Management Firm
Debt management is typically for small businesses on the verge of bankruptcy, but this isn't always the case. Sometimes it's better to use debt consolidation sooner rather than later. Your debt ratio — the percentage of your after-tax income that goes to paying off debt — is a good indicator of potential problems. Most experts agree that a manageable debt ratio is 40 percent or less. If your debt ratio is 50 to 70 percent, you could probably benefit from debt consolidation.

If you're late on several bills and some of your debts have gone into collections, you should consider contacting a debt-management firm. In addition to debt consolidation, debt-management companies can also help clients manage money through services like credit counseling, budgeting workshops, and crisis relief.

There are many debt-management firms, both for-profit and not-for-profit. Some even operate over the Internet. To find a reputable firm, it pays to do a little homework.

* Check the company's standing with the Better Business Bureau office where the company is located.

* Find out how often the agency pays creditors. The more frequently (once a week or more) the better, since this will help keep your interest and late payments to a minimum.

* Ask if the company keeps a reserve fund. This is your insurance in case the debt-management company you've chosen goes out of business after it gets your money.

Five Facts Not to Take Out a Business Loan

2007-05-12T16:42:00.000-04:00

Every business needs extra cash from time to time, and there are plenty of good reasons to take on debt: to launch new products, expand your business, or purchase needed inventory. But there are also plenty of bad reasons to take out a loan. Here are five.

1. To launch a new business idea before you have thoroughly researched it. Fads come and go; the goal is the find one that sticks. Before you decide to buy into the latest fad concept, spend some time doing market research and deciding whether or not the concept is a good match with your experience and interests. Many people think that owning a restaurant is glamorous but find out later that it is very hard work. Do your homework before you take on a serious financial commitment. Should You Personally Guarantee a Loan to Your Business?

2. Your credit cards and lines of credit are maxed out. If you have exhausted all other available credit, maybe taking on more debt is a bad idea. When lenders see that you are overextended, you will likely be required to secure the loan with assets. If you are having difficulty paying your existing financial obligations, you are entering risky territory by gambling with your facilities, inventory, equipment, or even worse, your own house. Read more about Cleaning Up Your Company's Bad Credit Profile.

3. To make an impulse buy you can’t afford. Perhaps there is a new technology or machinery you think would benefit your business, or maybe you want to remodel or upgrade your facilities. While all of these things may prove advantageous to your business, you won’t be able to reap the rewards if you have leveraged all of your assets and the extra profits you make go toward repaying the loan. If the idea doesn’t bring in extra revenue, you are still responsible for paying back the loan. If you used assets to secure the loan, you may end up without a business at all.

4. You saw an advertisement or received an email about unbeatable interest rates. As the old adage goes, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And on the outside chance that it is true, just because you can get a great interest rate doesn't mean you should.

5. You want to consolidate your debts but haven’t learned how to budget. Maybe your company is going through a tough time, or maybe you have mismanaged your company’s finances and are now looking to consolidate all of your debts. Debt consolidation may ease the pressure temporarily, but you need to address the underlying problem if you want your business to succeed.

Laid Off: Making The Best Out Of It

2007-05-12T04:36:00.000-04:00

Chandra Fox,

The turbulent winds of a stormy job market are here, and if the winds blow in your direction, you should be prepared to handle things. Nobody likes drastic change when it comes to their careers. Americans, on average, spend 70% of their waking hours, Monday through Friday, on work-related activities. That being said, to change your job is a lifestyle change. As Americans, we make our careers a part of our lives. For some a job is a status symbol and distinguishes oneself in society. How quickly in meeting a new person ask do you hear, "What do you do?" Pretty quickly.

For others a job allows a certain lifestyle. They join golf clubs, drive luxury cars, and own expensive homes. For many people, it is a feeling of power and responsibility. Most people wear many hats, and through different reorganizations, mergers, and title changes perform several different job functions. Most people don't even take vacation without calling into the office, giving the phone number where they are, or at least checking e-mail. So be smart, be informed, and go ahead and prepare in the event that you are laid off.

Be aware: There are warning signs to lay offs and ways to protect yourself

* The company you work for has announced hiring freezes either in your department or companywide. Work harder than you have ever worked in order to show your value.
* There are new rules in regard to vacation or internal processes such as expense reports. Recognize that this is often a process to weed out dead weight.
* Your company's stock has been on the "strong sell" list for the last quarter or corporate earnings have been flat or declining.
* A merger has recently taken place resulting in two people for each position, now it is a team effort to complete one job. Show them how much they need you and that the job was made for you!
* There have been changes in your industry or geographic area that lead you to believe that change is on the way. Keep on top of trends and show that you can adapt!

Be prepared: All the signs are there, so what next?

Copy all of your phone numbers and addresses of all buddies at work as well as any contacts that you think could come in handy. This is your network. You will need it later to see where friends have gone, what positions are out there, etc. If you take the time to do this thoroughly, you will have a great base of contacts.

If you have your resume on your computer, copy it on to a disk and take it home. You must get anything off of your computer that you need now or in the future. Once the axe falls, there won't be any time for housekeeping.

The axe falls — be smart!

You are called into your boss's office and given the news that you are being "let go", "downsized", "transitioned", or "reorganized." Basically, you are fired. No matter how politically correct they word it, you are out of a job. Whether you were one of the first to be let go or you are part of the growing majority, be sure to leave gracefully. Prepare yourself: They are going to walk you out of the office like you are a madman or criminal. You may think, "I have done great things for the company. Why must I leave now with an escort?" Unfortunately, this is how companies treat everyone these days. Your coworkers may also act differently. There will be many things that will surprise you the day you get the axe. Do not react!!

Think of it as psychological warfare. The quiet one is generally respected more than the one that pitches a temper tantrum. Don't be mad. Don't sign anything that you are given. Don't negotiate severance yet. Do nothing except be pleasant. Even when they walk you out of the building keep it together. Although it's hard to bear, staying calm and collected will serve you well in the long run.

Gather intelligence. Now is the time.

They have already knocked the wind out of you, and now they want to talk about severance. Do not make any quick decisions; do not let them bully you into deciding immediately. Don't let it happen too easily. You must negotiate. By now you have spoken with others who have been laid off. You should try to get some idea from friends in the company of what offers have been made to others. Now you know how to negotiate a strong package for yourself.

Negotiate your Severance.

Now is the time to take the gloves off. This is the start of your new unemployed life. Whether or not you negotiate a strong severance will be the difference between a low stress job search and a frantic race to take the first job offered. Let's say they offer 3 months salary and benefits. You come back with "At my level and in this declining industry, it is taking professionals one month for every $10,000 that they would like to make. Since I was making X with your current company, you expect it to take X months to find a new position. I think 10 months is fair."
or
You say, "With unemployment at 5.7% and with the market so competitive I just want to have time to find a good career match rather than jump at the first position. With my tenure/contributions with/to the company I am sure that you agree. I think 10 months sounds fair."
or
Play the sympathy card a little. Not too much, but a little. Say something like this, "Well Bob, I can say with all of my years with the company and the strong signals that the company sent to everyone about the stability of the company, I am a bit surprised. I am now 61 years old and I can't help but wonder why I would be laid off after so many years of service. It is going to be difficult to get back into the job market and I really want to be treated fairly."

These suggestions and similar responses are positive, because they place responsibility back on the company and open the door for negotiation. Of course, you will probably meet in the middle somewhere; however, the more you can get the better you will feel. However, if the company has a written severance policy that clearly spells out severance benefits, negotiations may not be allowed. Normally this is the case for very large companies or for organizations that are undergoing major layoffs.

Unemployment: Why not? It is on the company anyway.

You went out to lunch with the boss many times and the company paid. Did you feel bad then? Of course not. You shouldn't feel badly about taking unemployment either. Think of it positively. They have been "nice" enough to set an account up for you the whole time that you have been with the company in the event of this disaster; they have saved it for you all of this time. Now is your time to get some payback. File for unemployment!

Some people find it embarrassing; others think it is some kind of loan or feel as if they are asking for help. It is not. It is quick, it is easy, and you can do it with very little pain. Some states even allow you to file by phone. Following is where you go to find the office in your state. The U.S. Department of Labor can help you out.

Now remember, state laws vary, but in general when you receive unemployment depends on when you got your last payment from the company; this includes severance. If you received severance in a lump sum, divide it into monthly increments of your typical salary to see when you will be able to receive unemployment. If you receive severance monthly, when it stops your unemployment can begin.

Job search: It could be tax deductible!

The IRS will allow you to write off a lot of your job search, meaning it could be tax deductible. You can deduct certain expenses incurred in looking for a new job in you present occupation, even if you do not get a new job. According to IRS tax regulations, you can deduct amounts you spend for typing, printing, and mailing your job applications.

When Your Boss Is a Benchwarmer?

2007-05-12T04:26:00.001-04:00

Liz RyanMon

My friend Ray called me recently. He travels like a maniac, so I hear from him when he's sitting in the airport or standing in a taxi line. Often he calls just to kill time. But this most recent phone call was different. "I need your help. I'm really at my wits' end." Here's the story he told me:

Ray works as a product manager for a consumer-products company, where he's responsible for one of the company's product lines. He manages the product strategy, market research, and the products' branding, packaging, and marketing efforts. But he also spends a lot of time supporting the sales team--so much time that Ray spends 80% of his time on the road, which is about 50% more than he's happy with.

The good news is that Ray's boss loves him. The boss never misses an opportunity to say, "Ray, you do a tremendous job." And Ray's boss's boss is just as complimentary. Ray's manager even told him that the big boss mentioned Ray's great work at a C-suite meeting. That's all the good stuff Ray had to report.

An Offer Could Change Things

The bad news is that Ray is about to keel over. He's always in customer offices, supporting the sales team and talking about the products, or sitting on a panel somewhere or creating a new PowerPoint deck or fighting some fire or other. He's doing three or four jobs. And he can't take it anymore.

"So what are you going to do about it," I asked. He said he had talked to his boss. "You seem to like my work," Ray pointed out to his manager. "Your boss does, too. I like it here, but I can't maintain this pace and this workload. I want to do a terrific job in the assignment I was hired for. I'm trying to do that, but it's really hard to do when I'm essentially performing a sales role at the same time--or maybe two or three of them. I have to give up one of these roles, or I'm going to crash and burn."

Ray said his boss was very sympathetic. "I hear what you're saying," the boss told him. "Here's what you should do. Call this headhunter friend of mine. You're a sharp guy. You go to an interview or two, you'll get a job offer. Bring the written job offer back here, and I'll see if I can leverage that to get your workload reduced."

The Possibility of Backfire

"You're serious?" Ray asks. "You want me to go an interview and get an offer from another company just to have a negotiating tool with your boss? What if that strategy backfires? What if the big boss is turned off by the fact that I've been job-hunting or calls my bluff? And what if one of these offers is really appealing and I end up taking it?"

"Oh Ray," laughs his boss. "You wouldn't leave me, would you? Listen, this is the way to play this. I can't get you what you want unless we have a lever, and a great job offer from another company will do the trick."

Ray called me just after this conversation with his boss. "Can you believe it?" he asked me. I told him that yes, sadly, I can believe it. "Your boss has no juice with his manager, so he needs you to go obtain the one thing that he thinks will get his boss's attention --an offer for you to leave the firm and go somewhere else," I told Ray.

Someone to Be Pitied

Ray thought it was really weird that his boss was pleading with him to go start interviewing. I told Ray he should start interviewing, but not for the reasons his boss said. "Your boss is a sad guy, someone to be pitied rather than scorned. He's so juiceless that he doesn't even know how pathetic it sounds: 'Go get a job offer so I can get my boss's attention.'"

I also told Ray that once he got an appealing offer, he should tell his boss he was taking it--not bring it to him as a negotiating tactic. "He'll be disappointed but not surprised. Most juiceless managers like your boss have lost plenty of team members over their careers, because they can't or won't do the leaderly thing and stand up for their employees."

What Ray needed to understand was that in an organization so goofed-up that managers are telling their employees to bring in offer letters for leverage, trying to tell the guy off would do no good. "Your powerless boss stays in his job at the pleasure of his boss. These kinds of people need one another," I reminded Ray. "You don't need either of them. You are too smart and capable to stay in an organization that works that way."

Doing the Boss a Favor

"Thanks," said Ray. "I thought I was going crazy there for a minute. I thought maybe it was only me that thought an assignment like that from a boss to a subordinate--to start job-hunting without really wanting a new job--was insane and unethical."

I pointed out to Ray that his boss has been in that environment for so long he can't see the craziness. It feels normal to him. "You'll move on, wish him well, and perhaps do him a favor or two for him down the road, when you're running a division somewhere," I said. "There are juiceless Harrys in lots of organizations. Deep down, they know they're letting their employees and their shareholders down. You don't have to talk about it with him. Why rub it in the poor guy's face?"

It took Ray about six weeks to land his new position. His boss said, "I figured one way or the other you would be happier--if you brought me an offer letter I could use it to get your workload reduced, and if you got a better job that would be good for you, too." Well--thanks for the good wishes. No thanks for the managerial support, but then again, we learn from our poor leaders as much as from our great ones.

Six Ways To Scale Through Mid-Career Crisis

2007-05-12T04:26:00.000-04:00

A funny thing happened on the way to your job -- you found yourself mired in a mid-career crisis. But the good news is you're not alone. Like its reliable first cousin, the midlife crisis, a major career dilemma is common and practically expected. Indeed, it's probably something you can count on.

Instead of trying to avoid a mid-career crisis, consider the benefits of being prepared for one. Many experts agree that a mid-career crisis can even be helpful. Follow these proven tips for getting through yours:

Ignore your age. Some people experience a crisis in their early thirties while others don't encounter this career quandary until their fifties. Rather than become mired in how old you are when it strikes, focus instead on the experience that you've gained along the way.
Write it down. You might have heard this advice a hundred times before, but until you try this exercise you can't know its benefits. Here is one constructive exercise: Write down what you've enjoyed about your career in one column and what you could've done without in another column. This will allow you to see very clearly what's made you happy and what's been less than satisfying. Seeing your words in print also gives them more credence and validity. Write down your short- and long-term goals. Moreover, it can be extremely advantageous to create a description of your ideal job. You may not land the perfect one, but you could come pretty close.
Go back to school. If you're like a lot of people, finishing up school might have been the highlight of your life. Yet stepping back into the classroom could be the perfect antidote to the mid-career crisis. Continuing your education doesn't necessarily involve cramming for finals and writing research papers into the night. Going back to school -- whether it's a one-time computer workshop or a semester-long course in accounting -- will expand your knowledge, tap into your interests, and foster new relationships. No one is ever finished with learning, and by opening yourself up to new concepts you're more likely to have the information you need to get through your career dilemma.
Research. Online career sites provide extensive information on career education, planning, and testing. Books and audiotapes abound as well. The challenge, of course, is to make time to conduct the research. Commit yourself to a few hours a week. Schedule the time on your calendar as you would for any appointment; that way, you'll be less likely to put it off. Be open minded, too. You may stumble upon some information that at first glance doesn't seem right for you. With a little more digging, however, you might find that you've discovered your next career or, at the very least, found an interim solution.
Know when it's time to go. Deciding that it's time to leave your employer is never easy. Those first inklings and those that flash periodically -- "Am I in the right place? Do I need to leave?" -- are tough to contend with. Still, these questions are important starting points and shouldn't be ignored. Follow this inquisitive streak and ask yourself some difficult questions: "Am I feeling unhappy about my job? Am I daydreaming more than ever about something else I'd rather be doing? Do I hate Mondays more than usual? How would I feel if I just hurled this computer out the window?" Answering these questions honestly might very well lead you to the conclusion that you are, indeed, in the midst of a mid-career crisis and must therefore do something about it.
Make necessary adjustments. You may determine that it's not a new job you need but rather a few adjustments to the one you already have. Reinvigorating your work life may seem more daunting than just starting from scratch, but if you make some concrete changes it could mean the difference between enjoying your job and dreading it. Do you feel stuck? If so, consider the available options in other parts of your organization. Broach the subject with your supervisor, but temper your dissatisfaction. Your boss will be more receptive to your requests and needs if you focus on your desire to stretch and grow and downplay any complaints. Ask about other opportunities, find out if you can swap assignments with a colleague, think of ways you might expand the roles and responsibilities of your current job, and remain open to suggestions that your boss might raise.

How to Fight for the Spotlight

2007-05-11T02:52:00.000-04:00

Everyone has dealt with a credit-stealing coworker. And while wrestling recognition for your hard work and bright ideas from a glory-grabbing colleague can be tricky, you can usually resolve the situation by tactfully confronting the individual or, if that fails, bringing the issue to the attention of your manager.

But what do you do when your boss -- the person who has significant control over your career -- is the one taking credit for your ideas? After all, being too direct or going over his or her head can get you into trouble. Following are a few strategies that might help.

* Think carefully before complaining. Let's say you spent weeks devising a cost-efficiency campaign that becomes a smashing success, but, at a meeting with higher-ups, your boss takes credit. You might feel slighted, but hold off on raising a fuss. First, make sure you're the one who truly deserves the credit. Even if you proposed the idea, consider the role your boss played in implementing the initiative -- he or she may have done the heavy lifting.

In addition, think about whether your manager's scene-stealing antics are rare or standard operating procedure. If the behavior is infrequent, it might be best to let it go and accept that all employees, at times, are expected to make the boss look good in front of the company's top brass.

* Put it on paper. If your supervisor often takes your best ideas from private conversations and passes them off as his or her own, consider changing the way you share your suggestions. For instance, you could present them in written memos or email messages. This establishes a paper or electronic trail you can reference later during your performance review -- or if your value to the organization is ever questioned.

* Get a witness. One way to ensure that others know a solution originated with you is to unveil it publicly. But whether you copy colleagues on an e-mail or make your pitch at a meeting, be aware that you're taking a risk. While it will be harder for anyone else to take full credit if your plan works, you're on the hook if it falls flat.

* Confront with kindness. If your manager's actions are hindering your advancement or limiting your visibility within the company, it might be time to speak up. But be tactful. Your boss will be more receptive to the conversation if, instead of taking an accusatory tone, you simply ask for guidance on how to receive recognition for your efforts. This enables you to get your point across without pointing fingers or putting your boss on the defensive.

Finally, in some situations, you might determine that it's wisest to say or do nothing about your supervisor's "credit problem." While it can be frustrating to watch your boss receive praise for your hard work or brilliant concept, there is a bright side: Your contributions and ideas are valuable and helping the company succeed.

Going Down: The Elevator Pitch

2007-05-11T02:35:00.002-04:00

Of all the networking advice that bugs me, nothing is worse than the insistence that every networker hit the street prepped with a 30-second, well-rehearsed "elevator speech" about your skills and professional value.

The idea is that for every new interaction, your elevator speech rolls off your tongue within the first two minutes, and now your new contact is well equipped to hire you, recommend you, or otherwise help you along your way.

Reality Check

Maybe the elevator pitch makes you uncomfortable. Maybe it feels awkward and phony and presumptuous to spit your business credentials in someone's face within a few moments of meeting them. If the elevator speech thing doesn't feel like you, there's a good reason why: Your mother raised you with better manners than that.

This elevator-speech business is atrocious. For at least 100,000 years, human beings have been carving out a system of social interaction that says, "Tell me something, ask me something, let's get to know one another, and see what develops." There's a reason why audio business cards delivered 10 inches from your face have never taken off as a marketing tool before. They're rude!

Stick to Conversation Skills

Think about the conversation you would have if you weren't networking, if you merely sat on a commuter train next to someone and she said, "I love your watch." You'd say, "Thanks, my sister gave it to me after a trip to Milan." Your seatmate might say, "I've never been to Milan but I'd love to go, I've heard the architecture there is amazing," and off the two of you would go. You'd give and take and inquire politely, and learn interesting things about one another.

And here's what else: You might reach the station without having shared your business backgrounds, because that information is often not very interesting.

Focus on What's Interesting

Unless you're Lance Armstrong, your job description is very likely the dullest part of your story. There's a lot more to know about you, including what kinds of music you like, where you grew up, or how you hiked the Appalachian Trail. You are more fascinating than your job, and there's nothing about the business-networking-event paradigm that changes that.

Inflicting your well-rehearsed elevator speech on a new acquaintance is exactly the same as saying, "I'm not sure how long I'll be talking to you. And it's vitally important that, above all, you leave this event knowing what I do for a living and how you can help me. So I'm putting it out there now, before we discuss one other thing." What kind of statement is that? It says, "All you are to me is a source for contacts." Yuck.

So if you've felt squeamish about the elevator-pitch dogma in the past, relax. It's not you, it's the elevator-speech protocol that's broken.

The Goal Is Trust

People, left to their own devices, will make conversation that works for them, and if the conversation results in enough mutual good feeling to warrant more conversation, there's plenty of time to get your business message across.

No one makes recommendations based on business-card data; they make recommendations based on trust. And how do you establish trust? It doesn't come from a well-rehearsed, 30-second pitch.

Dressing for Work: Do's and Don'ts for Spring and Summer

2007-05-11T02:35:00.001-04:00

With summer just around the corner, you might be tempted to dress down at the office and reveal more skin than you should. But Clinton Kelly, co-host of TLC's "What Not to Wear" reality series, says, "Resist the temptation!"

"When it comes to your career, the image you're projecting at work makes a difference in how far you're going to get in the company," he says. "Don't use excuses like, 'It's hot outside,' to not dress appropriately."

Kelly, who regularly advises major corporations on workplace attire, offered the following sartorial do's and don'ts for the warm weather months.

One caveat: Individual offices may skew more casually (ad agencies and other creative outlets) or more formally (law and accounting firms). But one rule fits all professions: "If you don't look like management material, you'll never get into a management position," Kelly says.

Shoulder the Burden

Women: DO wear sleeveless shirts, if your office has a relaxed dress code.

Men: DON'T try putting on a shirt without sleeves unless you work at the beach. Suffice it to say, it's a "hairy" issue for most guys, according to Kelly.

One Button or Two?

Women: DO feel comfortable in an open-necked blouse or top that shows some of your decolletage. "If you start to see a lot of soft tissue, that's not good," Kelly says.

Men: DO unbutton your top button or two and consider a layering T-shirt, which helps wick away perspiration. DON'T display a lot of chest hair.

The Long and Short of It

Women: DO wear tailored walking shorts that reach the top of your knee. "You shouldn't wear the same kind of shorts you'd wear to your kids' soccer practice," he says. DON'T put on skirts that leave your mid-thigh uncovered.

Men: DON'T convince yourself shorts are acceptable. They're not, according to Kelly, who again cites the "hair issue" as the reason.

How Low Can You Go?

Women: DON'T think about showing off your toned abs with a crop top, nor should you risk anyone making a crack about your -- well, you know -- if you prefer low-rider jeans. "It's just tacky to show your thong out of the back of your jeans," Kelly says.

Nice (Leg) Work If You Can Get It

Women: DO leave your legs bare, if you have on a skirt or shorts. "Society has gotten to the point where it's a woman's right not to wear pantyhose," Kelly says.

Show of Feet

Women/Men: DON'T slip into your flip-flops, unless you have such a relaxed office that your boss' boss wears them, too. "Flip-flops are not appropriate for 95 percent of offices out there," Kelly says.

Women: DO wear a strappy sandal, if you work in a less traditional environment. "They're not going to tell you, you can't wear your Manolos," he says. DON'T bring your Birkenstocks anywhere near work. "On the food chain of shoes, they're at the absolute bottom," he says.

Men: DON'T make the mistake of wearing "mandals" to work. Neither you, nor your feet, will be taken seriously, Kelly says.

Four Steps for Effective Follow Through on Your Interview Follow up

2007-05-11T02:35:00.000-04:00

Sometimes it's not what you do but what you don't do that can result in a missed opportunity. Just because you aced the interview doesn't mean you can sit back and wait to get the job. Here's how to take action at what can be a critical time in your job search: after the interview.

1. Establish next steps. You can ask your interviewer when they will be contacting you or you can reverse it and ask if you can contact her in a few days to see where you stand. Either way, make sure you have a course of action set before you leave the interview.

2. Always send a follow-up. Whether it's a handwritten note or carefully worded email, you should always send a follow-up to both the person with whom you interviewed and the person who set up the interview. This is your chance to reinforce your interest in the position and the reasons why you are the right one for the job.

What to include:

* Your name, the position for which you interviewed, and the date the interview took place.
* A restatement of your interest and your strengths. You can also add anything that you didn't have a chance to mention in the interview or elaborate on something that was discussed. You might want to include a related article that you feel might be of interest to the recipient or one that touches on a topic you covered in your meeting.
* A request to be contacted regardless of whether you are chosen for the position.
* A thank you for the reader's time.
* Specific action statement. Once again you need to state that you will call and also let those you met with know that you are available to come in for a second interview.

3. Make that call. It's not always easy, but it is essential that you follow through on your follow-up. Make sure you call on the day you established in your interview. If the answer is the dreaded "no decision yet," then you need to find out when you should check in and continue to do so on a weekly basis or whatever timeline you deem appropriate.

4. Be patient, not passive. While you want to make sure you are staying top of mind with your prospective employer, it is also important to understand that decision-makers do not move according to your ideal time frame.

Earn Real Money On The House You Live

2007-05-10T15:15:00.000-04:00

Can you earn some money on the house you live? Will the reverse mortgages announced by Finance Minister P.Chidambaram for senior citizens allow this to happen? What is the nitty-gritty involved in availing reverse mortgages that are so popular in advanced West European and US financial markets? Read on to understand and avail the benefits of the scheme that will be implemented by banks and housing finance companies across the country shortly under the norms put together by the nodal agency, National Housing Bank (NHB).

What is a reverse mortgage?
In simple terms, reverse mortgage is a loan against your home that you do not have to re-pay as long as you live in that place. Sounds interesting!
In para No 89 of the Union Budget Speech 2007-08, Finance Minister proposed that 'National Housing Bank' (NHB) will shortly introduce a novel financial product for senior citizens: a 'reverse mortgage' under which a senior citizen who is the owner of a house can avail of a monthly stream of income against the mortgage of his/her house, while remaining the owner and occupying the house throughout his/ her lifetime, without repayment or servicing of loan. The NHB has come up with draft operational guidelines for the same to banks in March 2007. www.economictimes.com has put together the salient features of the reverse mortgage loan (RML) that can be availed by senior citizens.

What is the difference between RML and a bank home equity loan?
With a traditional second mortgage or home equity line of credit, you must have sufficient income versus debt ratio to qualify for the loan. And, you are required to make monthly mortgage payments. The reverse mortgage is different in that it pays you, and is available regardless of your current income.
The amount you can borrow depends on your age, the current interest rate and the appraised value of your home. General principle: more valuable your home is, the older you are; the lower would be the interest rate and you can borrow more. You don't make payments, because the loan is not due as long as the house is your principal residence. Like all homeowners, you still are required to pay your real estate taxes and other conventional payments like utilities including water, electricity etc.

Why does one need this loan?
There are many senior citizens in India who do not have any liquid funds but own a good residential property. Here, one's property becomes a source of income for senior citizens. The person can invest for retirement and also enjoy benefit of capital appreciation of the secured investment i.e. housing property. They are not under pressure to repay the loan in their lifetime. On the person's death or his/her leaving the house permanently, the loan is repaid along with accumulated interest, through sale of the house.
It can also be an investment tool for youngsters who plan for a retirement solution. They can start investing in a housing property and take benefit of the same during their retired life. They have a secured investment which has benefit of capital appreciation.

What is the difference in the Indian and Western models of reverse mortgage loans?
The concept is same in both Indian and Western RMLs. However, the RML is a relatively mature product in developed markets like USA, UK, Australia, Canada etc. Reverse mortgages in these countries have more variants like insurance coverage for the lender and the borrower. In the US, RML is a federally-insured private loan that is safe and provides financial security to the older Americans. Those availing the MRL in US are counseled before the loan is actually disbursed. US Department of Housing and Urban Development provides all the information relating to RML.
"We have no doubt that our product would also evolve into a mature instrument addressing the needs of the senior citizens in India who cannot avail the home loans," says V K Badami, Deputy General Manager, National Housing Bank.

What is the eligibility criterion for availing this loan?
There are few requirements for this loan. A borrower should be a Senior Citizen of India above 60 years of age. He or she should be the owner of a residential property (house or flat) located in India, with clear title indicating the prospective borrower's ownership of the property and they should be using that residential property as permanent primary residence. A married couple will be eligible as joint borrowers for financial assistance provided both are above age of 60 years.

How much money can one get from the RML?
The amount of loan will depend on market value of residential property, as assessed by the Primary Lending Institutions (PLIs) namely scheduled banks and Housing Finance Companies (HFCs); age of borrower and prevalent interest rates.

What will be the nature of the payment? Can one get lump-sum during an emergency?
The mode of payment will be decided mutually by the PLIs and the person borrowing the money prior to dispersal of funds. The loan may be extended as regular monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or annual periodic cash advances. Alternatively, a line of credit would be available to be drawn from when required or in lump-sum payments in one or more tranches, depending on the agreement.

What are the guiding norms for PLIs to assess the value of property, fixing loan rates? Is there transparency in this process? Who keeps a check on the lender (banks/ housing finance companies)?
"PLIs will have to clearly explain to the prospective borrowers the terms and conditions of RML including the fixation & calculation of interest, the methodology of the valuation / revaluation process and the frequency/schedule of such revaluations upfront," adds Badami.
The PLI will have to re-value the property mortgaged to them at least once every five years, the quantum of loan may undergo revisions based on such re-valuation of property at the discretion of the lender.

During re-valuation, if one is not satisfied with the interest rate what can he/she do? Will one have to return the money and interest they have received till then?
The borrower will have the option to accept such revised terms and conditions for furtherance of the loan. If the borrower does not accept the revised terms, no further payments will be effected by the lender. Interest at the rate agreed before the review will continue to accrue on the outstanding amount of the loan. The loan shall become due and payable only when the last surviving borrower dies or would like to sell the home, or permanently moves out of the home for aged-care to an institution or to relatives.

What will happen if the liability (principal plus interest) exceeds the value of property during the term of the plan?
The PLIs will have to ensure that all reverse mortgage loan products carry a clear and transparent 'no negative equity' or 'non-recourse' guarantee, that is, the borrower will never owe more than the net realizable value of their property, provided the terms and conditions of the loan have been met.

Can the lender take away one's home if he or she outlives the loan?
No! One need not repay the loan as long as one of the borrowers continues to live in the house and keeps the taxes and insurance payments update. Presently, the maximum loan disbursement tenure has been limited to 15 years.

Will the legal heir have any right to the house?
The borrower and their heir can repay or prepay the loan with accumulated interest and have the mortgage released without resorting to sale of the property.

Private housing finance company, Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited(DHFL) launched the RML scheme, 'Saksham' in India in Sept 2006. It has not met with much success. Punjab National Bank has one such scheme, 'PNB Baghban'.
Badami says, "We have been informed by DHFL that they have not actually extended RML in 2006. At that time, NHB's draft operational guidelines were not issued. It is expected that after NHB's guidelines are finalized taking into account feedback received people, the Scheme will be implemented by many other banks and HFCs."

Why You Must Not Buy A Home

2007-05-10T14:31:00.000-04:00

Liz Pulliam Weston

Fear stampeded a lot of people into buying a home during the recent real estate boom. Now we're seeing the even more fearsome fallout.

People who were terrified about being priced out of the real estate market are now horrified by their ever-rising mortgage payments. People who were afraid of missing out on the "easy money" of home-price appreciation are now anxiously realizing that what goes up can also come down.

Foreclosures are spiking. Sales and prices are stalling. Lenders are finally tightening up ridiculously loose lending standards, just at the point where many people are realizing they can't afford the mortgage they have and desperately need a new one.

Despite all of this, I still hear from people who are pressuring themselves into buying a house even when it's not something they necessarily want or need.

It's a fact that homeownership is a great way for most people to build wealth over time. But that doesn't mean everyone should be a homeowner. It's a bigger commitment and more expensive than most first-time buyers ever realize. You should have a clear idea of what you're getting into before you commit to 30 years of payments -- and you shouldn't let any of the following popular legends guide your decision.
'It's a good investment'
Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Nationally, home prices rose 50% between 2000 and 2005, and in more than 30 cities -- including San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami and Washington, D.C. -- prices doubled.

But that's not the norm. In the 30 prior years, from 1969 to 1999, the average appreciation for homes exceeded the inflation rate by a little more than 1 percentage point. Compare that to stocks, which bested inflation by 7 percentage points in the same period.

And appreciation isn't a given, as homeowners in Detroit, Santa Barbara, Calif., and Kokomo, Ind., are learning.

So far, the price declines have been pretty mild. Let's hope we don't see a repeat of the real estate recessions that gripped Boston, Dallas, Houston, Anchorage and Southern California in the 1980s and 1990s.

After dropping more than 20% in the 1990s, for example, Los Angeles home prices took almost 10 years to regain their peak, says real estate expert John Karevoll, an analyst with DataQuick Information Systems. Anyone who lived here during that time knows people who were upside down -- owing a bigger mortgage than the home could be sold for. Thousands of people simply walked away from houses they couldn't sell, trashing their credit ratings in the process. Lenders slashed the prices on foreclosed homes to get rid of their burgeoning inventories, which further drove down property values. It was an ugly cycle that, once started, was hard to stop.

Even when prices are perking along normally, though, your home may benefit your bottom line less than you think. Home-price appreciation figures don't take into account the considerable amounts homeowners shell out along the way. The Wall Street Journal once estimated a typical homeowner over 30 years would pay nearly four times the house's purchase price in maintenance, repairs and improvements.

A home is primarily a place to live. Its value as an investment is secondary and certainly is no replacement for a well-diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds.
'I'm tired of throwing away money on rent'
Normally, renting is cheaper than owning. But in some cities, soaring real estate prices have made renting so much cheaper that it's getting really tough to make the case for becoming a homeowner.

For many people, the choice is between renting an affordable place in a good neighborhood and straining to buy either a less desirable place or one that requires a tortuous commute.

And as we're seeing, many people stretched themselves way too far to buy houses. They opted for adjustable mortgages or loans with exotic terms; what initially seemed like reasonable payments suddenly spiked, throwing financial lives into chaos and contributing to the current high delinquency rate.

You're not really throwing money away when you send a check to your landlord, anyway. You're exchanging it for a place to live. You're also getting flexibility and freedom -- things you sacrifice when you buy a home.

When you're a renter, it's the landlord, not you, who is generally responsible for maintenance, repairs and the toilet that blows up in the middle of the night. If the neighborhood should start to slide, or you get or lose a job, you can up and move, often with just a few weeks' notice.

It's true that you may have to deal with rising rents and recalcitrant landlords. Homeowners, however, are often stuck with rising taxes and maintenance costs, as well as recalcitrant neighbors.

Moving is never fun, but moving when you own a home is an expensive, time-consuming process. Finding a buyer can take months in all but the hottest markets, and you should figure selling costs will eat up about 10% of your home's value, once you add agent commissions and moving expenses. On a $250,000 home sale, that's like piling up $25,000 in cash and setting fire to it -- that much of your equity is gone for good.

In other words, homeownership is more like marriage; renting is more like living together. Make sure you're ready to be wedded to a house before you propose to leave behind life as a renter.
'I need the tax deduction'
Buying a house just for the mortgage break would be like giving somebody a buck just to get 35 cents or less in return.

That's because your write-off is limited to your tax bracket. If you're in the top federal tax bracket, every dollar you pay in mortgage interest only saves you 35 cents in taxes. Most people get even less, since they're in the 25% or lower tax brackets.

Don't misunderstand -- the tax break is nice, and you need somewhere to live. But you should make sure you can really afford to own a home before you take the plunge.

Remember that many of the real costs of owning a home aren't deductible. Uncle Sam won't give you a break for insurance, repairs or maintenance, for example -- and those costs can really add up.

Most homeowners should plan to spend at least 1% of their home's purchase price each year on maintenance and repairs, says finance expert Eric Tyson -- and more if they plan to hire someone else to do all the work. Tyson, a co-author of "Home Buying for Dummies," recommends setting aside some money each month in an emergency fund. You may not spend the whole amount every year, but sooner or later a big expense will come along -- a new furnace or roof, for instance -- that will consume several years' worth of savings.

If you fail to maintain your home properly, you'll pay even more when it comes time to sell. Many buyers won't even bid on a property that shows significant neglect. Even in hot markets, buyers are likely to ask for expensive concessions to pay for the repairs you should have been doing all along.
The key tests
The best advice on the issue of whether to buy remains the time-tested version: Do it when it's right for you. That means being able to agree to all the following statements:

I plan to stay put for at least three years. If the real estate market in your area is weak, you may need even longer for price appreciation to offset the costs of selling and moving.

I can swing all the costs involved. That requires, most importantly, having enough cash for a decent down payment (which in today's lending environment may mean at least 5% of the purchase price). I'm also a fan of using good, old-fashioned fixed-rate mortgages -- either the 30-year variety or hybrid loans that are fixed for as long as you plan to remain in the house.

If you can't swing the payments with one of those loans, you probably can't afford the place. (If you are contemplating a less traditional loan, make sure you find out how high the payments can go and determine whether you could afford to pay them.) Then make sure you can afford all the incidental costs, including taxes, insurance, homeownership association dues and assessments, repairs and maintenance. It's not a bad idea to limit your total housing outlay to 25% or 30% of your gross income, especially if you want to have money left over to save for retirement, fund your children's college educations and take the occasional vacation.

I want to be a homeowner. Houses are expensive and complicated to buy, finance and maintain. Appreciation is far from a given. If you don't have a strong desire to own your own walls, and do what it takes to keep them in good shape, you're probably better off remaining a renter -- at least for now.

Watch Your Weight Or Lose Your Job

2007-05-01T07:11:00.003-04:00

Overweight workers cost their bosses more in injury claims than their lean colleagues, suggests a study that found the heaviest employees had twice the rate of workers' compensation claims as their fit co-workers.

Obesity experts said they hope the study will convince employers to invest in programs to help fight obesity. One employment attorney warned companies that treating fat workers differently could lead to discrimination complaints.

Duke University researchers also found that the fattest workers had 13 times more lost workdays due to work-related injuries, and their medical claims for those injuries were seven times higher than their fit co-workers.

Overweight workers were more likely to have claims involving injuries to the back, wrist, arm, neck, shoulder, hip, knee and foot than other employees.

The findings were based on eight years of data from 11,728 people employed by Duke and its health system. Researchers found that workers with higher body mass indexes, or BMIs, had higher rates of workers' compensation claims.

The most obese workers -- those with BMIs of 40 or higher -- had the highest rates of claims and lost workdays. BMI is a measure of height and weight. A 6-foot, 300-pound person, for example, has a BMI of just over 40.

Study co-author Dr. Truls Ostbye said the findings should encourage employers to sponsor fitness programs.

"There are many promising programs," Ostbye said. "We'd like to see more research about what is truly effective."

James Hill, who heads the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado, said managers will pay attention to the findings because injuries mean more immediate financial losses than the future health-care costs of diabetes and heart disease.

"When you see that claims rates double, I think that's going to get people's attention," Hill said.

But there isn't enough good information about employer-sponsored programs that work, said John Cawley, an expert in the economics of obesity at Cornell University. Employers don't know whether paying for nutrition counseling, obesity surgery or anti-obesity drugs through health insurance makes economic sense, he said.

"It's now apparent to everybody that obesity is a big problem," Cawley said. "But the research isn't there to know where to get biggest bang for the buck."

Cawley noted that BMI does not distinguish muscle from fat and can equate a buff body builder to a couch potato. Although BMI, a measure of height and weight, is used in most obesity research, Cawley's research has found that blacks are particularly likely to be misclassified as obese by BMI.

New York employment attorney Richard Corenthal cautioned employers not to overreact with discriminatory policies.

"Employers need to be careful not to view this study as a green light to treat obese or overweight workers differently," Corenthal said.

The study, appearing in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine, got funding from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Workplace Etiquette you Can Live Without

2007-05-01T07:11:00.002-04:00

Caroline Levchuck,

For virtually every industry, there's an annual convention or two that really count. How you behave at these events will impact whether or not you're asked to represent your company in the future. Your actions can also establish whether or not you have a future with your current employer at all.

Follow these do's and don'ts to make sure you don't kill your career at the next convention.

* Do take care of yourself and trust your colleagues to take care of themselves. If you need to go back to your room and relax each night after meeting your professional obligations, do so. You are not under orders to fraternize with your fellow employees, nor are they.

* Don't drink to excess -- if at all -- with clients, vendors, or colleagues. You are representing your company at all times. Even if you're at a big corporate-sponsored blow-out, it's best to limit your alcohol consumption and have fun without getting out of hand.

* Do take notes during meetings with potential and current clients as well as your take on what your competitors are doing at the event and seminars that you've attended. Type them up when you return so that you have a document at the ready that will help you discuss your experiences at the event and what you got out of them professionally.

* Don't bring a spouse or friend along to the convention without clearing it with your supervisor first. Find out what your obligations are each morning and at night after the convention ends; you may not have much (if any) time to spend with a traveling companion anyway.

* Do make the most of your time at an event. Fill your daily schedule with meetings as best as you can. If there are gaps, walk the convention floor (which is probably formidable) and take in everything you see. Ask colleagues if you can help out with any of their appointments. Attend a lecture or volunteer to lend an extra hand manning your company's booth if there is one.

* Don't dress inappropriately. Anywhere. When you're at a convention, you're acting as an emissary for your employer around the clock. It doesn't matter if a client sees you having an early breakfast or a night cap in the hotel's lounge. You should always wear clothing that won't embarrass you, your client, or your employer. Leave the sweatpants and the slinky attire at home.

* Do return with a clear list of actions you'll need to take to follow up with clients and leads for new business and share this with your supervisor.

* Don't fake expenses or take advantage of your expense account. Companies are auditing employee expense reports more closely than ever and being deceitful on them can lead to your dismissal. Also, if you're entertaining clients, don't go overboard with lavish meals and cocktails unless you're instructed to by your superiors.

* Do keep in touch with your colleagues during the day. Keep your mobile phone or BlackBerry on at all times, and keep your appointments. Check in with people often. You're traveling on your employer's dime, so you're accountable for your time.