Personal Finance Blog

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There has been lots of blather about the profligate ways of the government and the meaning of the economy coming out of recession. In particular, massive amounts of broadcast time and print space have been dedicated to the immense spending of the Obama Administration and its impact on inflation. Less but still considerable time has been spent talking about the economy and the stock market recovery.

The key to the stock market outlook is earnings. What about earnings?

The stock market had a fabulous year in 2009. The S&P 500 stock index was up 26.5%. But this result was hugely concentrated in two sectors, technology and financials. Stock prices in these tow sectors rose without the benefit of earnings, resulting in very stretched valuations.

Here is my assessment of both inflation and earnings.

More Inflation? Not Likely!

The justification for higher inflation expectations is rooted in the massive increases in the money supply engineered by the Federal Reserve over the past 18 months. And yes there has been a huge increase.

Normally, the Federal Reserve Bank expands the money supply, called M1, in times of recession. The following chart shows that relationship for the past two recessions. The money supply expanded rapidly in the recession of 2001-2002 and again in 2008 and 2009. Read the rest of this entry »

Accounts receivable financing industry has become a billion dollar industry. The advent of the accounts receivable financing firms into the small-scale industry has perhaps increased its popularity among the corporate world. These financing companies offer you the with many accounts receivable financing programs, you can easily choose one that is the most beneficial to your business practices. These programs provide and maintain the necessary momentum to the working capital requirements of the firm to augment the daily operational requirements.

These types of accounts receivable financing programs may turn out to be a boon to the small scale or emerging companies, as they are more vulnerable to cash flow challenges. Most businesses work on the credit facilities, that is you render a service or sell a product to your client and bill him. This bill is usually held up to a period of about one or two months or more, so this bill becomes the accounts receivable for the company. The financing company buys these accounts receivables.

Depending on the various programs offered by the financing companies, they provide funding or ready cash to the company for a fee. The programs may offer funds that range from 60% to even 95% of the total face value of the receivable. A nominal fee of 1% to 6% may be charged as processing fee. The remaining amount of the value of the accounts receivable that you have sold out to the factoring firm is paid up after your client has cleared the amount.

Through these financing programs you can transfer the collection responsibilities of your accounts receivables to the financing company and concentrate on the business growth and development activities. This also helps you to capitalize on the opportunities of enhancing the business with the timely financial resources. This method of financing is easier and quicker than securing a loan from the bank as it does not require any or fewer collaterals and the process is not too time consuming nor requiring cumbersome paperwork.

The financing companies finish the process and release the funds in about 24 to 48 hours. Using this form of financing program, does not create an issue in the balance sheet, as there is no loan so no debt issues, hence the financial position on your debt sheet is strengthened.

However before taking the plunge into the accounts receivable finance programs, it is important to keep a few things in mind like whether the finance program is offering recourse funding or non-recourse funding. While recourse funding attracts a lesser fee, the risk is higher as in case the receivables do not materialize or are not paid up then you owe the money back to the financing firm. However if you opt for non-recourse funding programs the fee is higher but the risk of collection is borne by the financing firm. The creditworthiness and repayment history of the customers as well as the age of the accounts receivable are also considered, by the accounts receivable financing firms while providing the necessary cash flow.

Hence accounts receivable financing is a good option for revenue generation. However, it is advisable to weigh all the pros and cons while choosing the right accounts receivable program for your working capital needs.

Many personal finance articles have been written on the issue of money.  Can’t say I have been moved to action by many.  First I’d like to say it is ok that you feel down about the current situation about your personal finances.  I give you permission to feel your feeling for the next 24 hours and then pull yourself by your boot straps and let’s what we can do. 

There exist many a definition, I want to share with you  my personal finance definition:

Financial freedom is not an event, it is a skill.

I bet right now with the current economic situation you are saying to yourself, “I just wish I could the lotto!”  Boy don’t we all and yet statistics and personal finance facts show that the majority of people who win the lottery, end up broke and worse off before their winnings! Imagine that.  You among the many seeking wealth, riches, fame few people realize that money isn’t the solution to their problems;  the way you think about money is the problem and the solution. 

I can almost see you going oh yeah, give me the money and I’ll show you change in mindset!

My favorite entrepreneur of all times, Henry Ford was once asked, “What if you lost everything you own?” He responded without missing a beat: “I’d have it all back and more within 5 years.”

Being a master of your own personal finance is not about what is in the bank; it’s about the ability to acquire the skill that will show you how to produce new streams of income and wealth based on your knowledge and experience.

So before we go any further on this issue let us tackle the real problem here that is impeding your personal finance for good!  Why you might ask?  Well without the mastery of these 5 steps, your desire for your goal for financial success and financial freedom is highly unlikely!  This is why big players in any industry have coaches, Oprah has a life coach, football players and basketball players have coaches and mentors.  Tiger woods after every bad game will go in for coaching and training.  Why?  Those who achieve great financial success do not go it alone.  They always have a team.  Those who achieve great poverty have the do it yourself mentality!

Why is it important to plan personal finances?

5 Steps That Will Guarantee You Become Master Your Personal Finances

1. How do you think about money? Say you come up with an idea to do something. Do you think that will never work?  Are you afraid to follow through?  Are you scared of loosing money or do you see every dollar spent as an investment?

2. How do you manage and invest your time?  The average man has at his disposal  6 discretionary hours.  This is time they can do whatever they want.  No work, no chores etc.  Many will watch T.V., attend pricey sports events, spend money on meals at a restaurant and movies, see where I am going with this? Do you do personal finance budgeting?

3. How do you leverage the talents and life experiences you ALREADY POSSESS?
Most people see their experiences as failures.  They only talk of how they tried to do something as failed.  Thomas Edison failed more than I care to count, and yet he persisted to light the whole world. Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. Thomas A. Edison

4. Do you have a mentor and/or coach with a proven personal finance curriculum? This is the true measure of your desire for financial freedom.  This is where you literally put your money where your mouth is, can’t afford a mentor you say?  Well what was the last book you read? Gossip magazines do not count as literature sorry ?!

5. What do you think is “risky,” and what do you think is “safe and secure”?  Most people never break into the realm of the 5% wealthy group who own 95% of  the worlds resources because they want to play it safe.  They want the money, the fame, the accolades but they feel they should not have to go through the process of creating this wealth.  No wonder the internet and other places are full of scams and get rich quick opportunities.  Remember this success does not  happen overnight, but one night success does happen.  Someone once said to me, it takes 3 years to be an overnight success!

Despite efforts by the federal government and commercial lenders to suggest that there is ample business funding, confusion seems to be increasing about small business loans and working capital loans. As a result, the actual availability of basic business finance services such as commercial real estate financing and business cash advance programs is not clear to many commercial borrowers.

It seems apparent that there have been many reports suggesting that normal commercial finance channels are either frozen or extremely sluggish. After reviewing other funding sources, it is possible to find more commercial loan financing options than such reports might suggest. Uncertainties in credit and financial markets have produced misleading and often conflicting information about commercial financing availability. For most business owners, it is probably not clear if business finance funding is realistically available to them or not.

In spite of some admittedly bad news, there continue to be to reliable funding sources for commercial real estate loans, working capital loans and especially for business cash advances. At the same time, the current negative economic conditions will prove to be difficult for most businesses. Commercial borrowers should expect that extra efforts will be required to successfully arrange commercial financing. An especially harsh reality for business financing is that many banks have discontinued all or most of their business lending activities, often with very little advance notice.

To use an example, commercial finance reports might not accurately reflect that some specialized kinds of commercial financing have been disproportionately disrupted. Commercial borrowers might be unnecessarily confused by reports that do not refer to all commercial loan situations but rather primarily apply to a very specialized form of business financing. To illustrate with a key example, commercial construction loans are currently in short supply by most accounts. Such specialized business loans are not as easily available as they were just a few months ago, and a more accurate accounting would reflect that the number of commercial lenders currently active in construction financing has shrunk dramatically. At the same time, most commercial real estate loans without new construction have not been as severely impacted as funding requests which do involve construction financing.

Several publications have reported that most new business financing requests are on hold or have simply been rejected due to recent financial market uncertainties, and this is another example of how business finance funding reports might confuse small business owners. While the sources for this information might have been honestly told by one or more lending institutions that they are in fact deferring new commercial loan funding, this does not mean that is the case for the entire country. If the discussion involved automobile sales, it would be comparable to concluding that nobody is selling cars anywhere after learning that several major dealers and two manufacturers announced that they were going out of business due to lack of adequate sales. Just because one or more banks fail or stop making business loans, it does not mean that there are not commercial loans available from other sources.

Because the banking industry has been involved in financial disruptions of epic proportions, commercial borrowers should maintain a cautious perspective in determining how to obtain and refinance small business loans. Many banks are sounding and acting like they have been through the equivalent of a train wreck. In such a natural disaster, it might not be prudent for business owners to seek the advice of banks which effectively caused the train to derail in the first place.

Despite reports about limited availability of business financing, some commercial lending activities such as business cash advance programs are actually as active as they have ever been. In the current commercial funding crisis, small business owners should seek a commercial loans expert for a realistic assessment and candid discussion about working capital loans and business finance programs.

The current tax system imposed on corporations by the U.S. government is at best, a biased system; for corporations that have a net profit, taxes on those profits amount to a full one-third. So, if you’re doing business as a standard “C” corporation, and you do manage to make a profit, you’re going to owe Uncle Sam about 30%. That’s an amazing figure, so let’s look at some of the behind-the-scenes information that will help to enlighten us as to the “why” so much tax should be levied.

The first thing you must understand when dealing with the corporate tax structure, is that for the most part, many large corporations do not pay the complete 30% tax that would typically be levied against an individual if they were in the same situation; corporate accountants and the sheer process by which corporations must report their income, expenses, deductions, depreciation, dividends, and any other financial transactions allows for huge deductions that typically offset any tax due. This concept is a major topic of discussion today, as we attempt to better control and regulate corporate accountability for their finances.

When you have large corporations that are obviously reporting earnings and paying dividends, yet they pay no tax, you should be tipped off to the fact that there is a problem. How to fix that problem, may be another subject altogether.

The latest proposals have been to eliminate the corporate tax altogether. This would shift the tax burden to the individuals of this country; that is a tremendous shift from the post-war era of the Second World War, when corporations and individuals shared the responsibility almost equally. Thanks to the lobbying done by corporate lobbyists over the last thirty years, we’ve finally reached the point of no return. The latest proposals have come from within the halls of Congress to eliminate corporate tax, and let the average taxpayer assume all the responsibility.

In case some of you have noticed, we as individual citizens are losing more and more of our take home pay each year, to taxes of some kind. Medicare, social security, and income taxes take a larger portion of our dispensable income each year. This would take a step closer to making even more of our income the property of the tax man.

What about this seems unfair? As pointed out by the individuals who are in favor of eliminating corporate tax, it would encourage capital investment and job growth in this country and that is absolutely true, it theoretically would do just that. But since when does theory actually work in practice? Communism works in theory. Many individuals believe it is simply another way to provide tax-free income to CEOs, and Board Members. The latest scandals such as Enron and HealthSouth have shown this country real hard evidence of the corporate abuses that are rampant in this country, and so far uncontrolled. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has taken great steps toward greater accountability on the part of the corporate environment, but elimination of corporate tax is simply a legal way to avoid paying the tax.

The most interesting information I have found in researching this topic, is the fact that the media has paid little or no attention to these issues, thus allowing the purported growth of the corporate lobbyists to go virtually unnoticed by the American public. While mush emphasis has been placed on the Social Security issues we face, nothing has been mentioned about the loss of revenue we’ve experienced over the last thirty to forty years because of the decreased taxation of corporate America.

Where have tax laws and law makers turned to accommodate the decrease in corporate tax? There have been increases in individual tax liability and there has been an increase in sales tax. The sales tax affects the poorer of this country as a percentage of income, than the rich. The loss of revenue from the corporate structure of this country have led to starved educational systems, cities and counties that are revenue poor, and a economic system for the poor that only becomes harder to sustain.

When you factor in the ability of the wealthy and the corporate entities of this country to hire brilliant accountants that find loopholes in the tax system, and relieve their clients entirely of their tax liability, you cannot believe that the current system operates for the people, by the people, can you?

It is that time of year when individual wants to know how much he or she has earned and how much tax is owed. To define income tax, it can be said that the tax charged on the annual financial income of persons, corporations or other legal entities. In the case of individual income tax, the tax is charged on the total income of the individual (with some deductions which are permitted by law), while corporate income tax is on the annual net income. There are many income tax systems exist in the financial market with different degrees of tax incidence.

Income tax time or financial closing dates are one of the hectic and stressful times of the year as individuals, legal entities or companies have to make sure of all receipts and money matter in a proper order. Well, during this time of the year, one knows about his or her expenses and savings which have been made in the previous financial year. With the help of valuable income tax return tips the individual can reduce the tax that he or she owes at tax time with the proper guidance of tips. Some important income tax return tips are as follows:

Firstly, the usage of tax credits is considered as better option than tax deductions. To define tax credits, it can be said that it is the lower amount that individual owes to the IRS.

Secondly, individual must categorized his or her deductions. For instance, one must include all the expenses such as money contributed in charity under itemized category. The entire process of categorizing is time-consuming, but is worth as it would lessen tax at the end of financial year.

Lastly, individuals can use their status to income tax advantage. If you’re married for instance, then you can choose to file income tax account jointly or separately. But, if individual file his or her status as head of family then he or she is required to get larger standard deduction. Therefore, filing of status determines tax exemptions.

At last, individual must review his or her expenses to find-out the best ways to reduce tax and organize financial documents.