7 Benefits of Real Estate As An Investment | Living Cashflow 101 ...

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Let me begin by saying that real estate as an investment?is the best to make in your entire lifetime.

Depending on how you perceive real estate as an investment, that may raise your eyebrows and cause you to be skeptical or you may agree and slowly nod your head.

Maybe for you, real estate is slow, takes a lot of capital and too risky an investment.

You prefer to keep it safe with time deposits or bonds. Or maybe try out your luck with mutual funds or even stocks.

Go ahead and do that for now but by the end of this post, I?ll show you why real estate is the best investment to make in your entire lifetime.

I?ll show you why time deposits, bonds, mutual funds or stocks don?t come close to real estate?s ability to automatically grow your wealth and give passive income.

In the end, that?s what you really want isn?t it? To be wealthy and not have to work or worry about your finances especially on your retirement.

Don?t get me wrong, I don?t hate time deposits, bonds, mutual funds or stocks. They have their purpose. I have them too.

But for automatic wealth-building and generating passive income,?real estate is the best investment for that. Here are 7 reasons why.

#1. Real Estate Appreciates In Value

The first benefit of real estate as an investment is appreciation. Land appreciates in value over time because of the limited supply of land. Like Oprah Winfrey said, ?They don?t make dirt.?

Land appreciates at roughly the same rate as inflation.

Inflation is the rate that the price of goods increases. It eats the value of your money by lowering the amount of goods it can buy. Your 100 pesos in 2015 will buy considerably less compared to your 100 pesos now.

You know that. Remember the jeepney fare 5 years ago or the price of a Big Mac meal? Your money now can?t buy the same things as 5 years ago. You can?t see inflation but your wallet can feel it.

Because of inflation, cash, time deposits and bonds turn into depreciating assets.

Cash actually loses value over time unless it?s invested.

The same with time deposits (TDs) and bonds. Although, TDs give interest, the interest on a time deposit is always lower than the inflation rate.

With bonds, even if the interest rate is higher than inflation, it?s not rolled over so the principal amount will always remain the same and will have a lower value when the bond matures.

I don?t know about you but I?d rather invest in an appreciating asset.

What all this means is real estate is your best weapon against inflation.

Not only that, real estate is your best weapon for growing your equity. You don?t have to do much for the value of the land to go up.

You don?t wait to buy real estate. You buy real estate then you wait.

#2. Real Estate Is Negotiable

The next remarkable benefit of real estate as an investment is you don?t have to pay the asking price.

That?s right, you can haggle the purchase price of real estate!

If you like haggling in Greenhills and Divisoria, you?ll love this even more.

Most of you don?t think it?s possible to bring down the price of real estate because you only look at properties being sold by real estate developers. Usually, there?s no haggling with developers. When they set a price that?s it. You can get small discounts with their promotions but who wants small discounts?

I would suggest that you only buy properties that is at least 20% below market value. Negotiate the price down to 80% of the market price or even lower.

You can?t do that with cash, time deposits or bonds. No one in their right mind will give you 80 pesos in exchange for 100 pesos.

Same thing with mutual funds or stocks. The value that you put in the beginning is what you get.

But with real estate and a little negotiating skill, you can get free money in the form of equity. If you buy a Php5,000,000 worth of real estate at 20% discount then you have a Php1,000,000 bonus in free equity!

Who wants free money, raise your hands?

#3. Leverage ? Using Other People?s Money To Buy Real Estate

You also don?t need to pay the full negotiated price yourself.

You can make a small downpayment and get financing from a bank, a lender or a partner to pay off the balance. This is called leverage.

You can?t leverage the price of time deposits, bonds, mutual funds or stocks. You have to pay the full price yourself. No bank will lend you money to buy TDs (which is ridiculous), mutual funds or stocks.

This is what gives real estate speed. You may think real estate as an investment is slow because you?re thinking you need to save up to pay off the full price. Not so, you can use leverage to quickly buy properties then turn around to resell them or rent them out.

It gets better because when you rent out property, you don?t have to pay the monthly payments out of your own pocket because you get it from the property?s rental income.

This allows you to get more real estate with the cash that comes in from your job or business.

#4. Real Estate Gives Passive Income

You can get true financial freedom with real estate because it gives passive income. Passive income is income that you don?t have to work for.

You get this by renting out your property. Once a tenant has been secured, all you need to do is encash their rental checks every month.

TDs, bonds and stocks also give passive income. But you have no control over the income you receive from these instruments.

With real estate, you can increase rents every year or every other year. You can also improve the property in many different ways and get even more rental income.

Control is such a nice thing. You can whine about inflation and the rising cost of living if you are a TD, bond or stock investor.

If you?re a real estate investor, you just smile, raise your rents and blame it on inflation when your tenant reacts!

#5. Real Estate Gives Tax Advantages

We all have to pay taxes eventually even for investments. However, real estate as an investment has certain advantages that are not present in other investments.

• You can depreciate the value of the structure on your property and deduct it from your taxable income. This lowers your tax and increases your cashflow.
• In the same manner, you can deduct a portion of the interest payments of your mortgage from your taxable income again to lower your tax and increase your cashflow.
• If you are a VAT entity, you can deduct the VAT that you paid (also called input VAT) from the VAT that you pay to the BIR. Meaning, you make money from VAT and increase your cashflow!
• You can also get chunks of tax-free cash without ever selling your property. You do this by refinancing your mortgage or getting an equity loan. Since this cash is not income, you don?t have to pay taxes on it while you still keep the asset!

Interest income from deposits and some bonds are taxed at 20%. It?s deducted even before you get it. And you can?t do anything about it.

#6. You Control The Real Estate You Own

You control your destiny in real estate.

As you have seen in advantage #4, you can control the income that you get from your rental property.

You don?t have to complain that inflation is eating your interest or dividends. Or that rates are going down ever closer to zero.

In fact, inflation is an excuse to increase your rent, so inflation is not your enemy but your friend!

You do not have to pray that the rural banks which hold your TDs don?t go bankrupt.

You do not have to rely on the stocks that you picked to always go up every year, which is actually improbable.

And you don?t have to worry about scammers like Aman Futures or Multitel running away with your money because you own and control the investment.

Control is a good thing especially for real estate investors, don?t you think?

#7. Real Estate Is Unmatched With Synergy

These 6 advantages taken one at a time already give real estate as an investment a distinct advantage over others.

Taken together, they make real estate the best investment vehicle for any investor.

By combining these advantages, you get an asset that you can easily afford, automatically builds wealth and gives passive income for a very long time.

Take this simple example.

• You found a condo unit being sold for 3.5M while other similar units are being sold for 4M. You negotiate the price down to 3M. You get a 25% discount from market value.
• You make a downpayment of Php500,000 while your bank gives you a loan for Php2.5M payable over 10 years at 8% interest.
• You rent it out for Php30,000 per month. You get a deposit of Php60,000 and post-dated checks of Php30,000 for 1 year. You pay the bank an additional Php300+ per month to cover the monthly amortization.
• Your tenant renews and as a sign of goodwill, you don?t increase the rent. But you get an additional 12 checks of Php30,000.
• On the 3rd year, you increase the rent by Php1,500. The rent now covers the whole monthly amortization and you get Php1,100+ passive income.
• On the 10th year, you?re faced with a dilemma. Should you sell for Php5M (the ongoing market rate) and make 10x your initial investment of Php500,000? or should you continue to collect the rent which is about Php36,000 in monthly rent now that the loan is fully paid? Should you get an equity loan for Php2.5M so you can still keep the asset and just buy a new car? Oh, the choices you have to make.

In this example, we combined appreciation, negotiation, passive income, leverage and control to create an asset that will either multiply your initial investment 10x or give you passive income for a long time.

That?s just 1 property. How many properties like this could you add in 10 or 15 years?

These are the reasons why the rich get real estate as an investment .

These are the reasons why real estate is the best investment you can ever make.

Do you agree now? Let me know what you think in the comments section below.

This is the first post in a series on ?How To Invest In Real Estate.? In the next updates, we?ll explore the different pitfalls, strategies and tactics in real estate investing. To get the whole series, subscribe to Living Cashflow 101.

Source: http://www.livingcashflow101.com/2012/12/benefits-real-estate-investment/

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Sell Books on Amazon | Virtual Office Center | Social media ...

Knowing how to sell books on Amazon can propel your career to the spotlight. This month I was on Life Conversations Radio sharing some ways virtual assistants help authors in their book development, publishing and marketing process. This conversation inspired today?s post. This article summarizes some of Amazon?s marketing options.

Digital Format Accessibility

EReaders give us access to bookstores on demand, which is a superb resource to sell books on Amazon. Once the book?s published, seriously consider uploading it to offer on eReader libraries for the Kindle, Nook and others. Making your books available on these devices, increases projected sales opportunities. Create an account on Amazon to upload your book, or if the process feels time consuming contact a virtual assistant to outsource the task. Having your book accessible in digital format will support receiving more sales.

Complete Your Author Profile on Amazon

Although it may feel time consuming or unnecessary, completing your profiles strengthens your book?s web pages on Amazon.? Your biography page is your opportunity to tell potential readers about your work. Encourage them to review your website or read about your other books. Be sure to use the main keywords from your website in your profile to help the search engines index your page correctly. These steps will support your objective to sell books on Amazon.

List Your Book in the Appropriate Category

To sell books on Amazon profitably, it is useful to list your books in the appropriate categories. This is a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy that supports successful marketing campaigns and indexing in the search engines. List your books in categories to enable purchasers searching Amazon?s library to find the books easier. Reaching a ranking of 6 or 20 in a category can boost your book?s exposure on the website in an Amazon book campaign.

Reviews and Uploading Videos

Reviews endorse your book to potential readers. Encourage your readers to write a review of your book on the website. Videos are the highest ranking media so harness its power by including a video about your book. Inform your readers that they can include video testimonials about your books, which will help sell books on Amazon.

Using these strategies will help sell books on Amazon successfully. Implementing these tactics in a clearly outlined marketing plan can yield favorable results for your book launch. When using your book as a positioning tool to attract a larger audience, these actions will help achieve your goal for more exposure while adding an income stream.

In addition, when starting in the book development stage, use these book writing strategies to tap into inspiration on demand. Many authors feel lost when writing the first manuscript, but these actions will help get ideas transferred from the mind to the pages. While writing, it is beneficial to be around other authors, find a mentor and notice the most constructive writing times (identify if you write easier in the mornings, afternoons or evenings). These actions help authors remain motivated and complete the book timely. Speaking of timely, setting a completion date is also useful.

After writing and publishing, marketing is the next step. Optimizing your profile and using Amazon?s marketing tools will improve the opportunity to make more sales. Whether you self publish or have a contract with a publishing company, marketing will be the responsibility of the author. Also consider creating a website for the book and promote on your social network profiles. All of these online marketing activities will help you successfully sell books on Amazon.

If you like what you read and want to be notified the next time I write something, subscribe to my RSS feedstyle="color: #0000ff;">. Thanks for visiting!

Written by: edford on December 24, 2012.

Source: http://www.virtualofficecenter.net/internet-book-marketing/sell-books-on-amazon/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sell-books-on-amazon

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Editorial: All I want for Christmas is a new HTC Nexus

To this day, I remain in love with my HTC One X, but its fate has already been sealed. Soon enough, this fast and beautiful smartphone is going to find a new life in a drawer that holds my spare change, sunglasses, checkbook and various receipts. Is it wrong to relegate one of the best phones on the planet to my stash of odds and ends? Perhaps, but the past few months have taught me that excellent hardware alone doesn't make a device that's sufficient for enthusiasts.

Like many, I've been waiting for an upgrade to Jelly Bean ever since HTC first promised it back in July. I have no doubt that the company is working hard to prepare the Android 4.1 update for its customers, but the software is already past its expiration date. Google has moved onto something better. Quite frankly, I'm no longer willing to perpetually live behind the curve. I want to play with new toys as they come out, and that's wholly impossible outside of the Nexus ecosystem.

Why should HTC care about my personal revelation, or the desire of anyone else who wants to stay on the cutting edge? Well, I'd like to offer the simple suggestion that enthusiasts matter. Take any introductory marketing class and you'll learn the early adopters -- in other words, the nerds who like playing with the very latest stuff -- set trends and influence others. Companies should be falling over themselves to cater to this influential segment, and yet within the Android ecosystem, that's the exception to the rule. There's only one device for sale today that's suitable for enthusiasts, and it's high time for that to change.

Continue reading Editorial: All I want for Christmas is a new HTC Nexus

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC

Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/24/editorial-all-i-want-for-christmas-is-a-new-htc-nexus/

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jogojitsurma: Free Magazines | Choosing Home Exterior | Ma.gazin.es

Have you stayed in your house for quite a long time now? Are you tired of looking at the same old exterior every time you enter your driveway? If you are then now is the time to think of improving the exterior of your home. This article gives you a brief discussion of five exteriors?exterior paint, vinyl siding, brick covering, stone covering, and stucco finish. Consider one of these coverings for a home improvement project that will surely boost the curb appeal of your home.

Vinyl Siding

Many homeowners prefer an exterior wall covering composed of the same plastic used in water piping (polyvinyl chloride or PVC). Vinyl siding is eye-catching and admired in many new homes and refurbished homes due to the fact that vinyl does not have to be repainted or treated for resistance against weather elements. Although it is thin, vinyl siding provides good insulation in colder climates. You can select numerous finishes and colors for a vinyl siding project and possibly decide to improve the entire home.

Exterior Paint

If the home?s exterior is bare except for concrete, stucco, and paint, or wood or wood-style paneling, it is simple to apply a new layer of paint. If a home has a special effect such as a custom stone, brick, or wood finish or vinyl siding, it would be better to check with a professional before deciding to paint. Some homeowners are willing to pay the extra cost of priming the exterior of the home before applying a new paint color. After a primer is applied, the new color will look more lively and there will be no traces of the previous color of the house. At the local home improvement store, choose from hundreds of colors that a paint professional can custom mix right in the store.

Stone Exterior

Stone contrasts well with other features of the home?s exterior. One option is to put in stone coverings to a few portions of the home while leaving the rest of the exterior intact. For example, some homes include stone cladding along the bottom three feet of the home?s front exterior or ornate stonework around the perimeter of the garage door. Talk with a local masonry company to decide the types of covering that will fit your home improvement budget. Pricing and availability will tell your choices of material. You can be more flexible in the pattern of the stones as long as you don?t have to match an existing stone pattern.

Brick Exterior

While brick is a costly wall covering, its lasts a long time and entails very little maintenance. Occasionally the homeowner will have to to match new brickwork to old brickwork on the property, including the exterior, the driveway, the sidewalks, and the columns supporting the house. Pick a brick finish that complements with other noticeable features of the home?s exterior. If your home has no bricks, you can choose any type of brick pattern.

Stucco

This style of finish is specifically popular in nineteenth century Tudor-style homes in the U.S. and twentieth century homes in Florida. This inexpensive material is made of cement, lime, and sand. You can slap it onto the concrete block exterior or to wallboard covering a wood frame. Stucco is also comparatively simple to apply to the exterior and can be painted easily. An alternative to stucco because of its tendency to crack and shrink in cold climates is the synthetic stucco, made feasible by the development of durable commercial plastics.

The exterior covering of a home is a significant aspect in its curb appeal. When you think of renovating your home, consider the long-term cost of every type of exterior and what will make you happy. Also consider how the exterior will draw potential buyers in case you want to sell your house in the future. Remember, the right home exterior can transform your plain home into a beautiful one !

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Related posts:

1. Home Repair Products: To Beautify Your Home
2. Selling Your Home At The Right Time
3. Effective Ways To Conserve Energy At Home
4. Choosing Garden Decor ? 5 Principles From a Designer
5. Electric Radiator Heaters ? The Perfect Way To Heat Your Home
6. Simple, Yet Professional Decorating Tips For Your Home
7. Approaches to Home furnishings
8. Considerations BEFORE You Buy A Home Theatre or Home Entertainment Center
9. Getting Started On Your Home Plumbing Projects
10. Home Decorating Magazines!

Source: http://ma.gazin.es/choosing-home-exterior/

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Source: http://jogojitsurma.blogspot.com/2012/12/free-magazines-choosing-home-exterior.html

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Flailing Honduras in yet another political crisis

FILE - In this Tuesday July 3, 2012 file photo, a Honduras national policeman sits on packages of cocaine that were brought to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The cocaine was seized from a small airplane that crashed after it was being chased by military planes and helicopters of the Honduras army near the town of Los Lirios, about 217 miles (350 km) east of Tegucigalpa. Three-quarters of all U.S.-bound cocaine passes through Honduras, an illicit business that has led to an explosion of violence. Honduras has more murders than any other country in the world, says the World Health Organization.(AP Photo/Fernando Antonio, file)

FILE - In this Tuesday July 3, 2012 file photo, a Honduras national policeman sits on packages of cocaine that were brought to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The cocaine was seized from a small airplane that crashed after it was being chased by military planes and helicopters of the Honduras army near the town of Los Lirios, about 217 miles (350 km) east of Tegucigalpa. Three-quarters of all U.S.-bound cocaine passes through Honduras, an illicit business that has led to an explosion of violence. Honduras has more murders than any other country in the world, says the World Health Organization.(AP Photo/Fernando Antonio, file)

In this Oct. 30, 2012 photo, Karla Escoto grieves over the body of her husband, police officer Henry Amador Roque after he was killed by assailants who robbed his car in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The political turmoil is but the latest trouble bedeviling Honduras. Even in the best of times, president Porfirio Lobo?s government, police and military exercise control over only about two-thirds of the country. (AP Photo/Fernando Antonio)

FILE - In this Jan 29, 2010 file photo, Honduras' President Porfirio Lobo appears on a screen from a TV crew during a press conference at a presidential house in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Three years after former President Manuel Zelaya was run out of office at gunpoint and in his pajamas, current president Porfirio Lobo twice publicly warned that his elite adversaries were conspiring to oust him in a coup, then provoked a constitutional crisis with the judges? removal, an act that legal scholars describe as everything from an abuse of power to a betrayal of the country. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix, file)

FILE - In this Jan. 27, 2010 file photo, Honduras' President Porfirio Lobo, waves after being inaugurated as the new president during a ceremony in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Three years after former President Manuel Zelaya was run out of office at gunpoint and in his pajamas, current president Porfirio Lobo twice publicly warned that his elite adversaries were conspiring to oust him in a coup, then provoked a constitutional crisis with the judges? removal, an act that legal scholars describe as everything from an abuse of power to a betrayal of the country. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, file)

FILE - In this June 28, 2009 file photo, army soldiers break into the presidential residency in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. More than a dozen soldiers arrested President Manuel Zelaya and disarmed his security guards after surrounding his residence before dawn. Three years after former President Manuel Zelaya was run out of office at gunpoint and in his pajamas, current president Porfirio Lobo twice publicly warned that his elite adversaries were conspiring to oust him in a coup, then provoked a constitutional crisis with the judges? removal, an act that legal scholars describe as everything from an abuse of power to a betrayal of the country. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix, file)

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) ? Members of the ruling party met behind closed doors, bartering all night for votes to depose four Supreme Court justices who had rejected the president's plan to weed out corrupt police. Ominously, soldiers and police surrounded the National Congress.

As the hours ticked by, representatives inside puffed on cigarettes in violation of their own anti-smoking laws and jokingly accused each other of vote-buying. Then shortly before dawn Wednesday, President Porfirio Lobo's National Party overwhelmingly and, many say illegally, approved the judges' dismissal.

That was a risky move.

"We don't know when we leave after the vote if there will be prosecutors waiting to detain us," admitted Sergio Castellanos of the Democratic Unification party, who voted with the majority. "Here you have to be ready for anything."

On global rosters of failing states, Honduras doesn't even crack the top 50, yet by many grim measures the troubled Central American republic is barely clinging to its status as a functioning country.

Three years after former President Manuel Zelaya was run out of office at gunpoint in his pajamas, Lobo is struggling. He has twice warned that his enemies are conspiring to oust him in a coup, and he then provoked a constitutional crisis with the judges' removal, an act that legal scholars describe as everything from an abuse of power to a betrayal of the country.

Political turmoil is but the latest trouble bedeviling Honduras. Even in the best of times, Lobo's government, police and military control only about two-thirds of the country. In at least three states, drug gangs rule the highways and clandestine airstrips, with firepower greater than law enforcement's, said Cesar Caceres, a former adviser to the Security Ministry.

As a result, three-quarters of all U.S.-bound cocaine passes through the country's lawless outback in an illicit business that has led to an explosion of violence, which in some cities has reached epidemic proportions. Honduras has more homicides than any other country in the world with 91 per 100,000 people, the World Health Organization says.

The country is as poor as it is violent.

The national government is so broke it needs to borrow $100 million to pay its employees, including members of the electoral council, who say they can't issue complete results from last month's primary for 2013 presidential candidates until vote-counters are paid.

Two out of three Hondurans live in poverty, on less than $1.25 a day, and only a quarter of children complete middle school. Every day, hundreds of people give up on their homeland altogether to make the dangerous trek north to look for work in the United States.

Since Lobo's election, the U.S. government frequently has noted Honduran progress on national reconciliation and respect for human rights, while acknowledging continued problems with corruption and impunity.

This week, State Department press adviser William Ostick said that, "We are monitoring the situation closely ... and urge all actors to respect democratic norms."

Many Hondurans say their country's problems run deep.

"Honduras is a weak state in a tremendous institutional crisis," said Hugo Noe Pino, who has served at times as finance minister, central bank president and Honduran ambassador to the United States. He called the country "ungovernable."

Jore Yllescas, a presidential commissioner for the Department of Revenue, concurred.

"Honduras is almost a failed state, incapable of solving its education or health problems, let alone justice, security or control of its own territory," Yllescas said. "I wouldn't dare to stay that it's reversible. I have no evidence to show that."

Long before political scientists began to talk of failed states, Honduras was known disparagingly as a "banana republic."

In the late 19th century, U.S. companies like United Fruit and Standard Fruit owned vast tracts of land and relied on the Honduran military to quell labor rebellions. The elites then formed the country's two major political parties in support of the fruit companies, cementing ties between Honduras' business and political interests, said Marvin Barahona, a historian at a Jesuit think tank in the capital.

With wealth concentrated in the hands of a few families, Honduras remained poor. Decades later, as U.S. aid poured into government coffers, many citizens complained that their country had been converted into Washington's client state, a base for the U.S. military and U.S.-backed Contras fighting the Sandinistas in neighboring Nicaragua.

But the status quo was fine with the oligarchy. Zelaya, a rich landowner from Olancho state, was one of them when he was elected president in 2006. When he began to move away from Washington towards Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez, however, his opponents feared a populist threat. His proposal for a referrendum on changing the constitution was the last straw. He was booted out by leaders of his own party, backed by the army.

The U.S. suspended aid as a sanction for the coup, and in the ensuing political chaos, drug traffickers saw an opening.

"Direct flights from the Venezuela-Colombia border soared to runways in Honduras, and thus began a violent struggle for control of this drug corridor," according to the 2012 U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime report. The report estimates drug trafficking now accounts for about 13 percent of Hondura's gross domestic product.

Cocaine shipments are dropped in the Mosquito Coast region, bordering Nicaragua, then are moved through Olancho or Gracias a Dios states, converging on the border of Guatemala.

In high drug-trafficking areas, many people depend on the cartels, not the government, to provide jobs and services.

"We're like Colombia of the 1980s," said Caceres, the former Security Ministry adviser who now heads a security support program for the European Union in Honduras. "People linked to drug trafficking are seen by part of the population as benefactors, because of the inability of the state to offer solutions to their poverty."

Hondurans say corruption and crony politics have deprived state coffers of revenue thanks to politicians who enact laws to favor their own business interests.

For example, Tito Asfura, a city council member running for mayor of Tegucigalpa, holds the garbage collecting contract for the capital and sits on the corporation that renews the contract. Fast-food franchises proliferating in the city's many shopping malls and street corners get tax breaks for creating jobs that often pay less than minimum wage, or for promoting "tourism."

"The culture of tax evasion is amazing in Honduras," said Mario Lopez Steiner, the 16th director of the country's Department of Revenue in 18 years.

Since taking office in January 2010, Lobo has been under international pressure to fix the broken country. He brokered an agreement to let ousted former President Zelaya return to form his own political party, and tried to regain the trust of foreign investors.

Lobo proposed creating private cities with their own laws and authorities, arguing that the country's justice system didn't work. It was an attempt "to create a Honduras from scratch," said Octavio Sanchez, Lobo's chief of Cabinet. But the Supreme Court declared the move unconstitutional.

In a nation where people have to regularly dodge extortion attempts from police and daily violence, Lobo launched a program of background checks on police officers ? a priority of the U.S. government, which gives Honduras about $100 million a year in aid.

Lobo's police reform sowed the seeds of the current confrontation. A constitutional court declared the purge unconstitutional because it did not include an appeals process for dismissed officers, and the full Supreme Court was expected to uphold the ruling. Before it could, congress voted to put the reform to a popular vote, and replaced the dissenting court members. The attorney general reacted immediately, saying he would consider prosecuting the congressmen who approved the ouster.

The Honduran constitution gives the president, judiciary and congress autonomous powers. Since the coup of 2009, and despite a subsequent truth commission report recommending the constitution be changed to allow for impeaching a president or a justice, little has changed.

Lobo interrupted all television programing on Thursday to call for a national dialogue with the country's key players, many of whom he accused of trying to oust him just a week ago, "to find a way out of this crisis."

Average Hondurans call it a power-struggle among the elites, and say they don't want to get in the middle of it.

"God help us, we don't want the chaos of another coup," said bus driver Moises Cruz. "The worst is that we're going through this crisis again because of all these politicians who only look out for themselves."

____

Associated Press Correspondent Martha Mendoza contributed from Santa Cruz, Calif.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-12-14-Honduras-Failing%20Nation/id-46cb84d701dd4e5f949fda1c67298760

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Storenvy Redesigns Site and Launches Social Marketplace for ...

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Store page builder redesigns website and launches social marketplace to help market 26,000+ creative businesses.

If you run a creative business that sells crafts or unique products online, odds are you?ve heard of Storenvy, an eCommerce platform that lets small independent merchants build an online shop. Not only can merchants host a shop on their own URL with their own branding, but their products are also featured in Storenvy?s marketplace.

?Right now, there isn?t a go-to place on the web to buy from independent creative businesses, like industrial designers, fashion boutiques, clothing companies, nonprofits or musicians,? founder and CEO Jon Crawford says. ?Amazon has done an amazing job of providing a place to find almost any commodity. But Storenvy fills the gap for interesting, non-commodity items.?

With its site redesign and the launch of a social marketplace, the San Francisco-based startup has taken another step to differentiate itself from its many competitors including Volusion, BigCommerce, Shopify, Goodsie or Etsy. Instead of embarking on a price war, and after Tumblr president John Maloney joined Storenvy?s board of directors, the online store builder decided to take a page out of Tumblr?s playbook by focusing on building up its community of sellers and shoppers.

?As Tumblr was revolutionary to blogging, Storenvy is similarly important in the commerce space,? Maloney says. ?Tumblr has proven that there is strength in being part of a network, and I see the same thing happening at Storenvy.?

Storenvy?s new features include:

• Shopper Profiles. All shoppers will now have their own profile, which show their profile picture, products they envy, products they purchased, shoppers they follow, shoppers following them, and stores they are watching.
• Follow Shoppers. Shoppers have the ability?to follow one another.
• Envies. Shoppers can envy a product they like (similar to a Facebook ?Like?). A nice feature is that followers of a shopper can see their profile pic in the corner of products they envy.
• Subscribe to Stores. Shoppers can receive new product updates by watching a store they like.
• Real-time Popularity. Over 6,000 new products are added to the Storenvy marketplace each week, so they?ve introduced a popularity algorithm that shows popular products in real-time. The algorithm takes into account a product?s envies (likes), shares, and sales revenue.
• Mobile-ready. The site is mobile-optimized, which offers full mobile web shopping and checkout.

Crawford elaborates: ?We?re democratizing the way excellent products get in front of the masses ? regardless the size of the business,? he says. ?The new Storenvy removes the gatekeepers. To get into a store like Urban Outfitters, you have to get the attention of one of their buyers. Most independent merchants have no idea how to do that. On the new Storenvy, any great product can be easily discovered by the community and rocketed to stardom. YouTube has made stars of many of its users. In e-commerce, there?s no way for that to happen without the permission of a gatekeeper. The new Storenvy changes that.?

It?s free for individuals and businesses to launch their own store, but at?some point in the near future, Storenvy plans to take a commission of all sales that originate from its marketplace. Sales that originate from a seller?s own storefront will continue?to be commission-free.?Premium features are available to storefronts for a monthly fee, including custom domain support (use your own custom URL) for $4.99/month and advanced discount features for $2.99/month.

For more small business resources, follow?Firmology?on?Twitter?or?LinkedIn.

To contact the writer on this story: Philip Nowak in Chicago at philip.nowak@firmology.com. Please?contact us?if you?d like to?submit a small business innovation story or small business tech startup, product or service.

Written by Philip Nowak

Philip Nowak is the founder of Firmology, a?small business news?and information media company focused on helping small business owners grow their business through technology and innovation.?You can find Philip on?Google+,?Twitter?and?LinkedIn.

Source: http://www.firmology.com/2012/12/12/storenvy-redesigns-site-and-launches-social-marketplace-for-26000-creative-businesses/

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Children Keep Active In Science - Reference and Education

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us news today: Fire Pits - Health And Fitness: Pain Management ...

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Union Thugs Hit New Low, Protest Cancer Research Event In NYC

Disgruntled union workers put their fight against Cablevision over the fight against cancer at a Times Square protest last night.

About 50 members of the Communications Workers of America Local 1109 disrupted a benefit for cancer research at the Hard Rock Cafe, carrying signs and blaring music as attendees streamed in.

Cablevision CEO James Dolan, whose rock band performed at the event, told The Post that the workers? actions are ?despicable.?

?They think being disruptive for their personal gain is more important than beating pancreatic cancer,? he said. ?Their values are twisted. I?m surprised at the depth of their lowness. Everyone who deals with them should take note. It?s shameful.?

The benefit was expected to raise $1.75 million for the Lustgarten Foundation, which funds pancreatic-cancer research.

The foundation is named for Cablevision exec Marc Lustgarten, who died of pancreatic cancer in 1999. Cablevision pays all the foundation?s administrative costs, and the foundation says that all the money raised last night will go to research.

Continue Reading on www.nypost.com ...

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Source: http://conservativebyte.com/2012/12/39406/

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White House to GOP: It's your move

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The White House says Republicans should come clean about how much they're willing to raise tax rates on the rich. Republicans counter that President Barack Obama's latest plan is a joke that avoids tough decisions on the nation's biggest entitlement programs, including Medicare.

It's a game of political chicken as the clock ticks closer to the end-of-year deadline, when George W. Bush-era tax cuts expire and automatic, across-the-board spending cuts kick in, sending the nation over a proverbial "fiscal cliff" that some economists say could plunge the fragile economy back into recession.

But based on the partisan rhetoric of those in charge of negotiating a deal, there's not going to be a solution any time soon.

"They have to tell us what makes sense to them, and then we can take a look at it," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said of Republicans on NBC's "Meet the Press." ''But what we can't do is try to figure out what makes sense for them."

House Speaker John Boehner countered that Republicans have plenty of ideas, even if he doesn't want to discuss the specifics publicly.

"There are a lot of items on the table," Boehner told "Fox News Sunday." ''The president knows what they are. The question is what are they willing to do?"

Last week, the White House delivered to Capitol Hill its opening proposal: $1.6 trillion in higher taxes over a decade, a possible extension of the temporary Social Security payroll tax cut and heightened presidential power to raise the national debt limit.

In exchange, the president would back $600 billion in spending cuts, including $350 billion from Medicare and other health programs. But he also wants $200 billion in new spending for jobless benefits, public works projects and aid for struggling homeowners. His proposal for raising the ceiling on government borrowing would make it virtually impossible for Congress to block him going forward.

Republicans said they responded in closed-door meetings with laughter and disbelief.

"The administration has put something out that polls well: taxing the wealthy," said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. "What they haven't done is anything to deal with entitlements, which is painful, and you're not going to have a deal until that happens."

Geithner called the back-and-forth "normal political theater," saying all that's blocking a timely deal is the GOP's reluctance to higher tax rates on the wealthy.

"It's welcome that they're recognizing that revenues are going to have to go up. But they haven't told us anything about how far rates should go up ... (and) who should pay higher taxes," Geithner said.

Republican leaders have said they can accept higher tax revenue overall, but only through what they call tax reform ? closing loopholes and limiting deductions ? and only coupled with tough measures to curb the growth of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

"If we gave the president $1.6 trillion of new money, what do you think he'd do with it?" asked Boehner. "He's going to spend it. It's what Washington does."

Geithner appeared on CBS' "Face the Nation," NBC's "Meet the Press," CNN's "State of the Union," ABC's "This Week," and "Fox News Sunday."

___

Associated Press writers Mark S. Smith and Michele Salcedo in Washington, and Erik Schelzig in Nashville contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/white-house-gop-move-085821407--politics.html

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The whats, whys and hows of Positive Affirmations Answered ~ The ...

?The Universe and the light of the stars come through me?. -Rumi

In this second part of ?The Power of Positive Affirmations? Series, we are going to dig a little deeper and see What truly are Positive Affirmations, How to make your own positive affirmations and How they can be used to create success and inner wellbeing. I will also share some of my favorite affirmations here with you.

I was initially introduced to the idea of a Positive Affirmation just by chance. After completing my Reiki masters and Silva Mind control courses I began reading a lot of Deepak Chopra. I was only 18 then and in one of his books he spoke of Affirmations and in the praises the name Louise Hay of ?You can Heal Your Life? came up. I was obviously intrigued and began reading some of her work. To say I was in ?awe!? is putting it mildly. I loved her work and still do. Even though I might have two Masters degrees and One Doctorate?what she shares is truly LIGHT. No amount of degrees can give you that insight. Its then that I started using and experimenting with Positive Affirmations only to realize I was affirming myself all my life?

What are Positive Affirmations really?

Very simply, they are positive statements or sentences, you say to yourself to subtly heal your negative beliefs and create positive success.

On any given day, in any given moment, we are swimming in a sea of affirmations. We walk out of our house in the morning thinking, ?This is a great day? (positive affirmation) or ?Such bad weather, I hate it.? (negative affirmation). ??I cant do it.? (negative affirmation) or ?I can do it? (positive affirmation).

Positive affirmation is positive self-talk. Making use of affirmations changes the way you think, feel and behave. You become what you say to yourself most of the time. Your affirmations must be positive and in the present tense. When you make an affirmation to yourself, you are confirming the truth of the statement. By saying it repeatedly to yourself, you are making a direct impact on your subconscious mind which eventually accepts it as a command and implements it.

Again, and the importance of this simply cannot be overstated; everyone constantly creates their own realities whatever that may be. Positive affirmations help to create a positive reality. They are an integral part of being a Positive thinker.

How to make your own Positive Affirmations everyday

Creating your very own positive affirmations is pretty simple.?Think about each area of your life one by one and write down a few positive statements summing up how you would like this area of your life to be. Please make sure that the statements are in the present tense and are positive, focusing on what you DO want rather than what you DON?T want.

Let me illustrate this with a few examples about how you can change negative thoughts to positive affirmations:

Negative thought: ?I will never get a promotion in this job?
Positive Affirmation:??I am so pleased with my excellent job promotion?

Negative thought: ?I will always be short of money?
Positive Affirmation:??I have all the money I really need?

Negative thought: ?my relationship will never improve and become a happy one?
Positive Affirmation:??my relationship has never been better or happier?

Positive affirmations must always be stated in the present tense, and most importantly charged with as much feeling, positive Energy and emotion as possible, as if the result has already manifested into your life as an absolute reality; a fact that you should have absolutely no doubt in your Mind. You should intensely feel the joy, happiness and all other emotions involved, which will generate the corresponding positive vibrations in you and around you.

Here are some examples of positive affirmations:

• I have all that I want.
• I have a healthy body and a happy mind.
• I have plenty of energy.
• My mind is calm and relaxed.
• I have an enjoyable and fulfilling job.
• Money flows easily and naturally into my life.
• I radiate love and happiness.
• I have a happy, loving relationship with my partner.
• I am successful in all that I do.
• I AM happy.

Its best to write your own in accordance to your situation.

The right way to Use Positive Affirmations for health, happiness and success

The more often an affirmation is repeated, consciously or otherwise, the more quickly and effectively it will manifest into your observable, individual, experiential reality.

An excellent time to repeat affirmations, with as much sincerity and emotion as possible, is just before drifting off to sleep at night, and just after waking in the morning before arising. At these times your conscious Mind is most in communication with your subconscious Mind and therefore the inner causal spheres of Energy.

Repeat the affirmation throughout the day, write down the affirmation on notepaper and place copies of your affirmation around your home, repeating the affirmation frequently, and whenever you are reminded to do so. If you make use of a personal computer for long periods of time, it is a very good and effective idea to have a copy of your affirmation on your PC desktop?utilizing?some appropriate software. You might not always notice the affirmation, but it will still be integrated into your subconscious Mind where it can begin its effect.

Positively Affirm with Love

Affirm with love, faith, feeling and interest, and feel and believe that your desire has already been fulfilled. This kind of thinking will accelerate its fulfillment.

It is natural for the mind to bring up doubts and negative thoughts, especially if your current environment and situation are very different from what you want to achieve. Persevere, and do not let your negative thoughts and doubts conquer you.

In the next(part three) article in this ?The Power of Positive Affirmations? series I?ll share with you different difficult situations I was in and how ?Positive Affirmations? helped me come out of them and heal PLUS some surprise guests Stay tuned!

What are your thoughts on this Positive Affirmations article? Do you have any favorite affirmations and how do you use them in your life?

With Immense Love & Gratitude,
~Zeenat~
Counseling Psychologist/ Spiritual Counselor
Motivational Speaker/Naturopath
Holistic Healer/Writer

GET YOUR ?HAPPINESS GOODIES?!!!?
Get the latest articles(FREE) as soon as they are published, by Email OR RSS.PLUS if you are an Email Subscriber, You get the Positive Living Handbook(new 2012 release!)+My Ebook ?The Best of Positive Provocations?+ ?Your Self Healing Starter Kit?+a free Positive Newsletter ?every month with the months highlights+Positive Living Affirmations +New Tips and articles which are Exclusively for Email Subscribers and not published anywhere else. Come Join the facebook community & follow me on Twitter?and Google+ for Positive Provocations Everyday!

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Source: http://positiveprovocations.com/2012/12/04/the-whats-whys-and-hows-of-positive-affirmations-answered-the-power-of-positive-affirmations-part-two/

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Highland Park woman's website offers support to breast cancer ...

By Adam Smeltz

Published: Saturday, December 1, 2012, 7:58?p.m.
Updated 6 hours ago

Sylvia Lowery-Lewis knew what she faced.

Diagnosed with breast cancer, she understood the triple-negative strain attacking her body could be especially aggressive and deadly. The cancer shocked and frightened her, she said, but she drew strength from her tight-knit family as she underwent a partial mastectomy in January and two rounds of chemotherapy.

Many cancer patients turn inward, but Lowery-Lewis of Highland Park made public her plight in order to bring awareness to triple-negative breast cancer and the importance of cancer screening.

Married and a mother of six, Lowery-Lewis told her story in ?Journey for Recovery,? a Tribune-Review special report published Sept. 30 that spotlighted breast cancer among black women.

She died on Oct. 22 at age 60, about 17 months after her diagnosis.

?For me, (cancer) made me stronger because it has made me a fighter to get information out,? she said about two months before her death. ?If I can turn the light on three people about this, I have done my job.?

Lowry-Lewis?s daughter, Jamine Lewis, said her mother worried that women coping with breast cancer might be hesitant to talk about it. Her mother wanted to put them at ease with asking questions.

?She wanted to make sure that people were more inclined to speak up, rather than keep it a secret, especially in the African-American community,? said Lewis, 35, of Highland Park.

National studies show death rates from breast cancer are 41 percent higher for black women than white women, even though fewer black women develop the disease.

Lowery-Lewis built a website, triplenegativebreastcancerawareness.com, and aimed to work through churches to foster conversation about the disease.

?I know that she wanted to dialogue and put all of this on her website,? Lewis said. ?She always felt a need to hurry up and get that information on there.?

As many as 30 percent of breast cancers in black women are triple-negative, while the percentage in all patients is 14 percent to 20 percent, according to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

The death risk from triple-negative cancer can be three times higher than those of more common cancer types, the journal Cancer reported. This cancer lacks three hormone receptors that are a key conduit for treatment.

?Cancer in many ways is disarming and disempowering ? that diagnosis alone,? said Dr. Dwight Heron, Lowery-Lewis? oncologist and the director of radiation oncology services at UPMC Cancer Centers. Lowery-Lewis ?was the kind of person, just with her own personality, who faced it head-on, looked it in the eye and said: ?I want to beat you. I?m going to beat you.? ?

She pledged to ?arm other people to carry on the mission because we?ve got to beat this thing,? Heron said.

The Rev. Barbara Gunn said no one expected Lowery-Lewis to die so soon. Her memorial service was conducted Oct. 30 at Unity Baptist Church in Braddock.

?She never hinted in any way that she was not going to make it through this,? said Gunn, a friend and the pastor at Mt. Carmel Baptist Church in North Versailles. Yet, ?I think she always knew there was more of a possibility that she wouldn?t (make it) than if she would. That?s why she was in such a hurry to get something done? for public awareness.

The women met at a Staples store in the North Hills where Lowery-Lewis worked as a supervisor, Gunn said.

Lowery-Lewis reconnected there with Sharon Herring-Turner, 61, a childhood friend from Braddock who was diagnosed with breast cancer. Herring-Turner?s cancer is in remission.

?I?ve never seen Sylvia in a bad mood ? never ? not even with the cancer,? said Herring-Turner, of Perry Hilltop in the North Side. ?If she could do anything for you, she would go out of her way to do it.?

But, she said, ?Her passing makes me think: Is (my cancer) coming back??

In an August interview, Lowery-Lewis spoke glowingly about her husband, Johnnie Lewis, 70, who survives at home. She was very much ?still in love,? she said.

?I don?t know what tomorrow?s going to bring,? she said, ?but I try to live my days to the fullest that I can.?

Adam Smeltz is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-380-5676 or asmeltz@tribweb.com.

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Source: http://triblive.com/news/3040403-74/cancer-lewis-breast-lowery-women-triple-negative-black-highland-park

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Report: High School Guidance Counselors Underutilized

School counselors can be a vital piece of the college-readiness puzzle for high school students, but many counselors are bogged down with tasks that don't allow them to put their skills to work.

"[In] our district, we are typically given every fundraiser, every party committee ... any need that there is, counselors are given it," says Kathy Smallwood, a guidance counselor at Mobile County Public Schools in Alabama.

Nearly 70 percent of high school counselors say they are tasked with administrative and clerical duties, according to a report released Wednesday by the College Board, a nonprofit organization that administers the SAT college entrance exam and oversees the AP program.

[Learn to weigh the benefits vs. stress of AP courses.]

Another 60 percent of high school counselors count test coordination as one of their job responsibilities, the report notes. The annual survey included responses from 806 middle school and 2,084 high school counselors.

Tasking counselors with testing duties is a waste of highly trained resources, says Pat Martin, assistant vice president of College Board's National Office for School Counselor Advocacy.

"School counselors ... are required to have a master's degree, teachers are not," Martin says. "To assign the kinds of clerical, low-level duties that school counselors are doing across the country is a terrible underutilization of a really, really critical force of people that could be redeployed to do meaningful ... things for students."

Among those things: Encouraging students to take AP courses, helping students through the college application and financial aid process, and connecting students with community resources to help them succeed both during high school and after graduation.

William M. Raines High School in Florida more than doubled the number of students taking AP exams between 2006 and 2010, largely due to the efforts of the school's counselors, according to the report.

[Read why high school students need to think, not memorize.]

At Chicago Public Schools, a retooled counseling model helped boost college enrollment rates for CPS students from 44 percent in 2004 to 60 percent in 2011, the report notes. The new approach put a greater emphasis on data--school attendance rates, AP enrollment, SAT scores, FAFSA completion, and college application completion--and the district used the information to tailor action plans to each school's needs, according to the report.

Leveraging data to improve student achievement can help counselors elevate their status from fundraisers and test proctors to leaders, says Smallwood, the guidance counselor in Mobile.

But counselors can't effect change from behind their desks, says Peggy Hines, director of the Education Trust's National Center for Transforming School Counseling.

"They really need to be out of their office ... teaming and collaborating to help the school better meet student needs," Hines says. "That means that school counselors are leaders and advocates, who use data to help the school figure out where, really and truly, they need to focus their school reform efforts and school improvement projects."

Stay up to date with the U.S. News High School Notes blog.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/report-high-school-guidance-counselors-underutilized-171336466.html

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