Real Estate Innovation

The Basics of Online Trading and Stock Market Hours

Most people would liken stock trading with gambling. However, in truth, the two couldn’t be more different. In fact, stock trading isn’t simply buying and shares as well. Developing a good trading strategy is the key to making it in the stock market. A stock market simulator, is an online game application that duplicates aspects of real-life stock markets, from trading strategies and information, down to the varying stock market hours of the different stock exchanges. Read on and know more about how you can learn and practice stock trading with an online stock game simulator.

To be able to practice stock trading skills and strategies, you have the option of choosing from two types of online stock game applications. Naturally, no real money is involved; play money is used, so you can practice stock trading without the financial risk. The two types of stock market simulators are: Financial and fantasy stock game simulators.

A financial stock market simulator allows you to practice stock trading through a fictional portfolio based on real stock entries, scenarios and stock market hours. Because this type of stock market simulator downloads and processes real and actual stock trading numbers and information, most online trading websites that offer these free stock games use a delayed data feed, that sends the information well after the end of the stock market hours. This prevents any abuse of the stock market simulator and the system by unscrupulous traders who want an edge before the start of the stock market hours of the next day.

Most online simulator systems ensure that the stock market information and data may not be used to do actual stock trading before, during and after stock market hours using their information. Safe, reliable and enjoyable, a financial stock market online simulator is a great way for you to practice actual stock trading scenarios and gain experience and a working strategy before you move up to the real thing.

The second type of stock market simulator is the fantasy simulator. This type lets you practice stock trading through thoroughly hypothetical yet amusing settings. While it retains many essential features of the stock market like premium stock picks and options, trading tickers, regular stock market hours, other traders, among others. But unlike the financial simulator application, fantasy stock market simulators feature imaginary stocks that, while representing real items, would never be actually traded in a real stock market trading setting.

In a fantasy stock market simulators, some items being traded include questions like the how long books will last on selected bestseller lists, the box-office success of specific movies, antics of infamous celebrities, rankings and statistics of sports teams and events, and more. The value of a fantasy stock market simulator is in its application of stock market principles and how these may work given a stock trading setting.

By making use of the fantasy analogy, anyone with no background in trading, may understand how the stock market works. Fantasy stock market simulators use these items because they are familiar to a lot of people, thus opening opportunities for learning online stock trading to more and more people. This is one way where you get to practice stock trading techniques and strategies while having fun.

Getting the hang of how shares are bought and sold, and how other variables like stock market hours affect your investments are all part of your learning experience. Learning the ropes with a stock market simulator is one of the best ways to get you started with trading stocks.

Making Real Estate Work-When You’re Married to Your Partner

Making Real Estate Investing Work - When You’re Married to Your Partner

Something that investing in real estate full-time gives you is flexibility. It gives you the flexibility to choose when to work, where to work, and who you want to work with. You can literally choose the people with whom you do business, the people with whom you will spend the majority of the time.

In fact, if conditions are right, you may even decide to work with your spouse.

In this article we will discuss working with the person who may you most important business partner, your spouse. We will focus on the following: 1. Deciding to work together 2. Setting ground rules and expectations 3. Pitfalls to avoid 4. Lessons Learned 5. Division of Labor 6. Pros and Cons 7. What about the children?

Deciding to Work Together

Deciding to go into business for yourself is never a decision that should be made lightly. Deciding to go into business with your spouse is one that should be considerable thought as well.

There are several reasons why we say this. Any new business ventures will be full of the unknown. You may be figuring things out as you go, or things may not be going the way that you had originally planned. When both you and your spouse are in the business together, any tension from the business may seep over into your married life as well. Because it is a very personal decision to go into business for yourself, you may take it personally if there are challenges. Too often, frustration can also be taken out on your spouse.

Of course, there are some very compelling reasons to go into real estate investing with your spouse. First, the reason that most people decide to get started investing in real estate is because they want to make a change in their lives. They may want more money, more free time, and/or to improve their quality of life. Those are very powerful reasons, and they create a very powerful image in the mind and heart. Imagine how powerful that vision is when it is shared by two people whose very futures are intertwined. Everything that they do will impact their future, their home and their family. They both see where they are going, and are willing to make the sacrifices to get there. Two people who share a common goal can make a lot happen. We know this from experience.

As you know, things will not always go as planned, but two working together can weather anything. This is not to say that real estate investors who have their own business cannot make it work. Rather, it is to say that, when spouses work together, they can help to lift each other up; to encourage each other not to give up the vision. There is a support structure built into the business.

Finally, it makes it a lot easier when both of you are on the same page. We have talked to countless people who are investing in real estate and want to get their spouse involved. Their spouse might not have any interest in real estate, they might have misconceptions about the market and what it takes, or they just might not be interested. To those people, we recommend that they help their spouse to get educated. Take them to a seminar or workshop, listen to CD’s together. Even late night infomercials are a great way to expose a spouse to what real estate investing.

Setting Ground Rules and Expectations

Once you and your spouse decide to work on and in your business together, it is very important that you sit down together to discuss your expectations, and lay down some ground rules. Whether you are doing the business full-time, part-time or a variation of the two, it is important that you treat your real estate investing as a business. This starts with the two of you sitting down and writing out your goals, expectations and ground rules.

In most cases, one of you guys will know more about real estate investing than the other. You will find yourself in a position of “authority,” simply because of your knowledge base. This was the case with us when we got started. Charles had begun researching real estate investing while still in law school and had begun to build an educational foundation. Kim, on the other hand, had no real knowledge of or interest in investing in real estate. It was up to Charles to convey the vision - all of the things that real estate investing had to offer, all of the life changing things in store.

Things would have gone a lot more smoothly for us if we had set our ground rules from the beginning. But, we didn’t. That is why we know it is so important to do. You need to have a plan of who will handle each part of the business. Think about the job that you may hold right now, or a job that you have left. In either case, you have known what was expected of you each day. You had measurements and goals, and you knew what you needed to do to be successful. Investing in real estate is no different. When spouses work together, this is even more important. We tend to have assumptions when it comes to our mates. We may think that we know what they can do, or what they want to do. But everything should be explicitly spelled out, by both of you. Try not to limit each other, or put yourselves in a box. You would be surprised at the ideas that you come up with when you give each other the freedom to grow, think of new ideas and try things out. In fact, we got involved in wholesaling because of a suggestion that Kim made. We decided to try it out, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Lastly, you have problem heard the saying that you can’t have more than one boss. In answer to this, we would just like to say, that how you divide your labor is up to the two of you. One of you may feel more comfortable taking on the majority of the responsibility, and the other may want to give that responsibility away. Or, you may decide that one of you will be the boss. Or, you may even decide to divide your business in two parts, and each of you is the boss of that area. The key is to discuss it, write it down and make it happen.

Pitfalls to Avoid

Being aware of the following potential pitfalls will help make your real estate investing a lot more profitable and enjoyable.

Don’t give anyone the majority of the dirty work. In business, as in life, there will always be some things that are not pleasant to do. Be sure that these types of tasks are divided between the two of you. No one person should be stuck doing the junk. Of course, what is considered junk can vary by couple, so you need to decide this for yourselves. But remember, you should be having fun. As you change your life, you want to both be happy doing it. It doesn’t matter if one of you is working the business full-time, and the other is part-time, neither of you should have the majority of the undesirable work. Do your best to divide it as equally as possible.

Don’t let issues in the business affect your marriage. When you are working closely together day after day, this can be easier said than done. And, of course, when things are running smoothly, this is not an issue at all. But when things are a little bumpy, this can be a totally different story. You have heard the expression “Don’t bring your work home with you.” This is so true when you are working with your spouse, even if work is the office you created in the guest room.

Your marriage is a very sacred entity. You want to protect it at all costs. This does not mean that you will never argue or disagree. But, try not to do so about your real estate investing business. Not only will it make your off-work hours stressful, it will also make your working hours less enjoyable. You don’t want to get so upset with each other that you lose appreciation of the opportunity in front of you.

Lessons Learned

One of the biggest lessons that we learned is to give each other the freedom to make mistakes. Again, nothing happens perfectly. In fact, some things flop. But, we love each other, we know our commitment to each other and the business and we do our best to support each other at all time. Again, this freedom that we give each other allows us to try new things. Sometimes, we just brainstorm about new things that we could do, new ways we can help people, exciting ways to grow our business. We are able to do this in a non-judgmental atmosphere and we have seen some tremendous fruit because of it.

Of course, you have to have good communication. This is very important in your marriage anyway, and you definitely want to carry this over into your business relationship. Don’t come down hard on each other. Watch your tone of voice (or your tone of e-mail). This person is your spouse; they deserve the same amount of respect that you would give your co-worker or employee in any other situation.

You should also structure your business so that you are each utilizing your strengths. Whether or not the business consists of just the two of you, or if you decide to hire staff, you still need to play to your strengths. Each of you should do what you do best. If that happens to be the exact same thing, you probably want to look into hiring someone else to do the other stuff.

Division of Labor

We have touched on this briefly in the previous sections. In order to maintain a strong relationship and to have a fun, profitable business, you both need to enjoy what you are doing. The best way to do this is to decide what your strengths are and divide the jobs up within your company along those same lines.

For instance, Charles loves to look at houses. He can look at a “fixer upper” and see it as it will be after repairs. Kim, on the other hand, doesn’t particularly care for rehab houses. She sees them as they are, and smells them as they are too. So, it makes sense that Charles is the one who evaluates properties.

Kim is more of a detail person. Charles is the visionary, who looks at the big picture. Even though she doesn’t work in the main office, Kim oversees the employees, pay roll, book keeping and the nuts and bolts that keep the business running. We are both very creative, in different ways, and are involved in the marketing. Even here, we have different strengths and enjoy different things, and we divide our responsibilities accordingly.

Remember, we grew to this point. It wasn’t crystal clear to us the way it is today. That is one of the reasons that we wanted to bring you this message. If you are thinking about working with your spouse, or you have started it, and things are kind of bumpy, we want you to be able to use our experiences to make it work for you.

Pros and Cons

As you can see, there are pros and cons to working together. Some people cannot see how we can spend so much time together, every day. We know that this is a challenge for some people. We feel very blessed that this is not the case for us.

Some people would consider the fact that you are both doing the business full-time to be a con. You might not want to be together that much. At the same time, you could consider that fact that you can both take vacation together, without having to ask anyone’s permission to be a pro. Again, some of these things are going to depend on you, your relationship and your goals.

What about the children?

Whether you have children or are thinking about them, being in business for yourself provides you with a wonderful opportunity to open up new worlds. Charles’s parents own their own business. Even though he has both his JD and his MBA, he has always wanted to run his own business. He saw his parents doing it, and he wanted to do the same thing.

We have three young children (ages 2, 4 and 6) with a fourth on the way. Investing in real estate has given us the freedom not only to have these wonderful children, but to spend time with them. They have all been on airplanes and they have been places that we did not visit until we were much older. They see how much is out there in the world, and they know that it is theirs for the taking.

Family and church are very important to us. Investing in real estate, together, as partners has allowed us to nurture both of these. We can go on fieldtrips, attend Bible study and just spend time together, because we work together and we make our own rules. We set our goals and we are responsible for making things happen. We love each other and the challenges and rewards of working together. When Kim was pregnant with Hannah, our first child, we decided that she was not going to go back to corporate America. That same December, Charles decided that he no longer wanted to work in the law firm. He knew that, if we invested in real estate full time, we could make some significant changes in our life.

It was an exciting time. It was a fun time. It was a scary time. But every day, we are so glad that we did it, together. No matter what has happened, or what will come, we know that we are working our real estate business - together.

Charles and Kim Petty are a husband and wife real estate investing team in Metro Atlanta. They are the creators of the Ultimate TurnKey Real Estate Investing System. For further information on Real Estate Investing products and services offered by Kim and Charles Petty call 1-800-841-2579.

Tips for Choosing the Right Homeschool Books

It is not necessary to spend a lot of money on homeschooling curriculum or homeschool books. Just by doing a little bit of research, you will be able to locate many resources to help build your own curriculum without making you broke.

In my opinion it is so much better to make your own curriculum. That way, it won’t be so hard to make last minute changes that suit the needs of your child. If you discover a method that works better for you and your child, you can easily add it.

One of the first things we do as a family is choose literature selections for the semester. We like to try and finish five to seven books per semester. We don’t have to buy specialized homeschool books for spelling or vocabulary. We use the literature that we have chosen to do this.

For instance, my kids will work on words and definitions by writing them in a notebook. Next week, these will also be their spelling words.

When it’s time for history lessons, we study the time period for each work of literature we’re reading. Then we add on science lessons by researching the scientific discoveries of the period.

When we format our homeschooling like this, it leads to some fascinating discussions at mealtimes.

Depending on your child’s interest, you have the freedom to study a work of literature in-depth, or you can just cover the most important facts. Unlike the rigid outline of homeschool books, you have the freedom to do this when you build your own curriculum.

When we study math, we do use homeschool books. However, we go to extra effort to turn the math worksheets into something more interesting: We try to make it so that the kids are applying math skills in real life situations. We do lots of cooking when we’re working with fractions, for example.

One of the key factors to creating your own curriculum is to understand your child’s interests and needs. Creating your own curriculum can help your child in ways that a public education couldn’t.

There is no need to spend a lot of money on homeschool books. You can use great literature as building blocks to create curriculum that fits your family’s needs.

Binding Persuasion

Binds are a fascinating strategy in persuasion which should be used sparingly, a little ‘persuasion seasoning’ so to speak.

Binds are language patterns that figuratively bind your prospect or client to do as you wish them to do. (Can you see why this should be used sparingly and with the utmost integrity?) Like all language patterns, there’s a formula to it.

For single binds there are two formulas: the first is, ‘if X, Y’ and the second is ‘the more you X, the more you Y.’

X, as a general rule, will be a pace. A pace is something that is verifiably true and can include a suggestion or challenge. Y is a lead. A lead is something you want them to do, think, or feel which they may or may not be currently doing. (Want more on pacing and leading? Stay tuned.)

Think of X as the set up and Y as the punch line.

Here’s a self-serving example (lol): ‘If you develop a deep understanding of the power of binds, you’ll feel compelled to sign up for The Persuasion Factor.’

Obvious, maybe. But it’s merely an example. And if we break it down you can see that the first part of the sentence, ‘if you develop a deep understanding of the power of binds’, is a pace. This is a suggestion or challenge. And the second half of the sentence ‘you’ll feel compelled to sign up for The Persuasion Factor’, is a lead. It’s something you may or may not be doing currently.

Here’s another example: ‘The more you read what I’m explaining, the more you’ll understand the power of using it.’

I’ll break this one down a little. The more you read about something, for example, the more you read about using binds, the more you will understand how powerful they are in persuasion. Is this true? I think it is. But it’s more of a presupposition than it is solid, hard, cold fact.

Binds do not have to in any way make sense or be logical.

For example: ‘The more you hear about this piece of property, the more you will be compelled to buy it.’ Is that logical? Not necessarily. In other words, hearing a lot about something doesn’t compel people to buy. Hearing the right things about something might compel someone to buy, but the suggestion here is that that there is a logical link between hearing about the property and being compelled to buy it. You’re creating that link, you’re creating the truth, and you’re making it so in their minds.

Here’s where we start to get into some really interesting ways of using this. ‘The more you try and object, the more you will find yourself going along with these ideas.’

What we’re doing here is issuing a challenge, so to speak. The more you try to do something I don’t want you to do, the more you will find yourself doing what we want you to do.

Here’s another one: ‘The more you want to feel good about yourself, the more you’ll need to act now on this proposal.’

You might say, ‘Kenrick, you can’t just say that to people.’ Well, yes I can. And I do. And it works great. My advice: write some samples out before you try using this technique. It is something that needs to be delivered smoothly or you will get an odd reaction.

Understanding Debt Consolidation

We’ve probably all heard the term debt consolidation in the media or from your mailbox. As prices at the pump, energy cost, and even grocery bills keep going up and up, consumers will find their financial budget gets tighter and tighter. Debt starts squeezing the wallet harder every single day. As debt begins to take over, consumers begin to look for some relief. This is where debt consolidation comes into play.

Okay, so what is debt consolidation? This plan or process involves all of your debt being combined into one bill that is paid on monthly. The result is having your monthly payment reduced and/or enjoying a much lower interest rate. With debt consolidation, your money will be freed up, making your budget more workable while getting out of debt quicker.

Sometimes, people will choose to combine unsecured debt into a loan that is secured. Usually, debt consolidation works this way, meaning that collateral is used as security against the loan. With a home equity loan, the house would become the collateral. For this reason, it is common for mailboxes to be flooded with all types of offers for this type of loan.

A collateral loan typically offers a lower interest rate to the consumer, because the lender is at less risk. The consumer finds the lower interest rate to be alluring to stretch their dollars.

One type of loan that many people get caught up in is the student loan. With four years of college, the expenses for tuition, books, tutoring, and so on, can be overwhelming. However, student loans can be consolidated but because this loan is unsecured, it would be handled differently from a home equity loan.

For students, loans can be consolidated by working with a private lender, usually securing a lower interest rate. However, if a student has gone this route and finds down the road they need to refinance again, they would need to work with the Department of Education since refinancing a student loan is rare. In this particular situation, the loan would be locked into one interest rate, rather than go through the normal financing process.

Debt consolidation can be very helpful for students and consumers to reduce interest payments and pay off debt. Consolidating several bills into a single payment can ease the budget and add to convenience, but it often comes at a price of putting up property as collateral.

The best thing you can do is homework, learning all you can about debt consolidation to ensure you make choices that will help your financial situation. If you do not take action about your debt, you may find yourself in a position where even debt consolidation would not help. Instead of just dealing with a tight budget, start your research to find the best debt consolidation option for your needs.

How to Print Your Own Checks

With most any bank, one of their larger hidden fees comes into play when you need to order more checks, despite their “free” checking. After all, these banks have to make money in some fashion. However, you can save the cost of checks by printing your own.

There are a few precautions that you should take before you start spitting out your own checks. It’s not as simple as just having them come out on a piece of paper. There are quite a few really good and inexpensive programs to help with check printing, so purchasing one of those isn’t a bad idea. Beyond that, here are some things to know.

What is Required?

In addition to the aforementioned software that you should pick up, there are some equipment standards that you will need to meet in order to successfully print your own checks. The convenient thing is that you can use your own home printer. You should go out and pick up magnetic ink, though. Getting your hands on this ink can sometimes be challenging, so a little searching might be required.

In addition to that ink, you will need special paper, so that your checks can’t be easily changed. You can purchase check stock paper from a number of online and offline retail outlets. This blank check stock can be purchased by the hundreds of sheets, so they will last for years if you don’t write a lot of checks. This paper will resemble the checks that you might receive at your bank. The most important thing about these checks is that they come with full security features, so that people will have a difficult time trying to change around the information held there.

For those people who use a money management program, you can also purchase checks for Quicken or other programs. This type of check stock is made especially for those programs, so you can automatically print checks for certain expenses that are a part of your bookkeeping program.

More on Magnetic Ink

Magnetic ink is imperative for numerous reasons. Most importantly, after you write a check, it will subsequently be run through a reader and non-optical readers can only read checks printed in magnetic ink. If you don’t print with magnetic ink the bank will have to manually process the check. This can lead to delays and additional fees, defeating the purpose of saving money.

What are MICR Fonts?

Have you ever given any thought to why exactly the bank account information and the routing data printed upon your check look so peculiar? It is due to the fact that they are written in what is called an MICR font. For most banks to consider honoring a check, the numbers must either be printed in the MICR or a similar font, known as E-13B. These fonts often require a laser quality printer in order to print properly, so you should check the compatibility of your printer first.

If your household dynamics require a lot of check writing, check printing can add up to a substantial savings. Despite the fact that, when you start, the additional equipment might be a little more expensive, in the end you will reap the benefits. But you ensure that all of these security measures are taken to heart. If you fail to do take these measures, then you may end up having somebody alter the details of one of your checks, which can create an abundance of troubles.