With all the online casino offers online, how is one to know if the one they chose is the best among all online casinos? You see, it is virtual and it’s not like going to Las Vegas or Atlantic City in New Jersey where they advertise who has won the ‘loosest slots’ every year. When playing, you have to know whether your odds at winning is positive or negative.

If you play, it’s wise to know which sites are the best and you can go online to find out reviews and how players rate an online casino. They rate it by return, by bonus dollars given to them, whether US players are allowed or not. They have all the reviews done, all you have to do is decide which site you will choose to play.

I do play for fun once in a while. The good thing about me is that I only live 45 minutes away from Atlantic City, NJ. It’s a skip and a jump for me. But for those that are inaccessible to Las Vegas or Atlantic City, and would like to play casino online, you should have your review first. That’s an advice you won’t regret.

Here’s one for the books. I am not only a blogger - - this is just a hobby-turned-money-making-opportunity-part-time-job! I am employed full time as an I.T. Project Manager at a global logistics firm located here in the U.S. Prior to that, I was in operations for 10 years and managed different facets of our company from logistics, documentation, transportation and supply chain management. A big part of my job was definitely customer service. And although I wasn’t in sales, our goal was to be the best!

While I was in operations, I really wished we had implemented some kind of a Salesforce CRM software that would assist us in managing customer relationships. As they said, ‘it takes years to gain a customer, minutes to lose one.” Although without any intent to brag, I was a star during my operational days. It was something that I had a passion for but tools
like a Customer Relationship Management software would have helped me a great deal. Why? Let me tell you why.

Read the rest of this entry »

You may be wondering why my posts are not of Loans and Stuff lately. I have been introduced to a viral program that would give way to my financial independence. I have written about the best ways to obtain a loan, when to obtain it and how. I have also blogged about ways to save money, take advantage of credit card rewards and all but I haven’t blogged about how to make money, so you can save it and then you can pay your loans off. Until now.

The program that I joined is called Smorty. It is a medium for advertisers to promote their products and services through bloggers like me. Blogging is a fun way of getting the advertisers’ word out. It increases the visibility of their products and services and in the process, provides income to bloggers like me. It’s really simple and easy to become one. Just create a blog and provide good content on your blog. Get your blog rated and once your blog has aged a bit, you may start applying to these programs.

It is not unusual for bloggers to write about products and services. Reviews of websites are very common and lots of companies advertise on blogs. If you are looking for extra income and blog anyway, why not take the advantage of blogging for money? If you blog, it’s something that you already do anyway. Just take time and opportunities will be presented to you along the way. It’s up to you to grab the opportunity if it meshes properly into your theme or blog subject and even if it doesn’t, you may want to review the product anyway.

Blog advertising is the new way to make companies’ products known.  Just keep it simple and the income will come your way.

When my mom became ill, it was difficult for us her children, to decide whether to care for her at home or should we take her to a convalescent center where she can receive full 24/7 care. We had to work closely with the hospital’s social worker in order for us to make the right decision. Traditionally and culturally, a move to put your parents into a nursing home is frowned upon. However, when presented with the facts and the reasons why we should take her to a convalescent center, we obliged.

There are many baby boomers today that are aging and most of us who are the youth of today will have to face this question sometime between now and ten years from now. How do we decide what to do? Availability of nursing homes will probably be scarce when the baby boomers are in the age where they will need care similar to the scarcity of nurses expected in the coming years.

As a family, you must be able to look at facts and be presented with options unbiased to anyone’s opinion. If you are nearing this situation, online resources are available to you first hand. You should start you research early and be prepared to make that difficult decision. You can look at the care options that are available so that you can arrange the right kind of care, read daily care news and views, and receive tips on from care experts. There are also a community forums that allows users to discuss their own experiences within the care system. In our case, we had to do it with the advisement of our social worker because she made it clear to us that caring for my mom will be too stressful and we will be selfish not to allow my mom feel that she is still independent and free. The decision we made is something that we do not regret. In turned out that my mom accepted our decision to the fullest and was content with it.

Yes, the decision is difficult but if there are hard facts you cannot ignore, it will be best for you and for your loved one in the long run.

While refinancing your mortgage isn’t quite like winning a lottery, in many cases refinancing can actually save you money or provide a source of ready cash. However, the answer to whether you can actually save money (or get money) by refinancing your mortgage isn’t straightforward and you need to take a long hard look at refinancing before making a move.

How can I gain by refinancing?
Here’s some of the ways refinancing could improve your personal finances.

• After refinancing at a lower rate, you could make lower monthly mortgage payments.
• Alternatively, you could build up equity in your home faster if you continue to make the same payments based on a lower mortgage rate.
• If you currently have an adjustable rate mortgage, you can lock into a fixed rate mortgage and gain the security of knowing your mortgage payments won’t change for the life of your mortgage.
• Or, if you’re happy with an adjustable mortgage structure, you could still gain by getting a new mortgage with a lower rate or possibly one that contains better protective features like better rate or payment caps.
• Finally refinancing your mortgage could allow you access to some of the equity you’ve built up in your home. It could be the source of funds for a renovation or addition to your home, pay some bills, buy a new car or finance a child’s education

.
How can I figure if refinancing is an option for me?

• Determining if refinancing MIGHT be an option for you is primarily a function of two things, mortgage rates and how long you plan on staying in your home.
• Start by evaluating the interest rate you’re paying as opposed to prevailing mortgage rates. The rule of thumb is if today’s mortgage rates are 2 points lower than your existing mortgage, you should consider refinancing.
• You also want to be sure you’ll be staying in your home for at least at least five years so you’ll have time gain the savings from refinancing. Mortgage refinancing has some upfront costs, so if you plan on selling your home in less than five years you likely won’t be able to recoup them.

So there’s a downside, what kinds of costs go along with refinancing?

• The initial costs of refinancing a mortgage are similar to the costs for getting your original mortgage. You’re going to be looking at fees for legal services, title searches, surveys and property appraisals. While you may be able to minimize some of these fees by dealing with your original lender who already has all your original paper work thee are going to be fees.
• Your lender may also want ‘points’ (an upfront payment of a percentage of your property’s value), and this can be thousands of dollars. Bad news here, you can’t even deduct the total amount of the payment on this year’s income tax, since the IRS requires you to amortize the amount over the life of the mortgage.
• Also, your mortgage lender is under no legal obligation to renegotiate your existing mortgage, so getting out of your original mortgage may carry a penalty charge. Even if your existing mortgage has a prepayment option built into it, you could still be looking at a prepayment charge that could run into thousands of dollars.

How do I tell if refinancing is right for me?

As you can see there are a lot of potential costs before you gain any benefits and everyone’s situation is unique. If you feel mortgage refinancing COULD be a viable option for you, your next step should be to contact a mortgage advisor who can help you assess your personal situation. Refinancing isn’t for everyone and with your family’s security at stake your best option is to have a qualified professional do an analysis and advise you.

Source

The demand for shopping cart software programs have been very popular most specially to those that are interested in having a an online presence to promote their products or services. It was one of the requirements that I was looking for when I opened my online store. I was lucky to find a software that has a shopping cart already built in and was able to promote my products immediately. I had customers purchasing from my online store from day one.

If you are a merchant and are looking to present your products online, an is very helpful to get you started. My store is integrated directly to Paypal so my eBay customers were able to purchase from my site immediately without having to register any credit cards at all.

I love being an entrepreneur and the tools that are available today made that happen. When you’re thinking about opening up an online store, you must do your research carefully. It pays off to do your study first and maybe do a sampling of your products on eBay before going full steam. That’s just my opinion.

Below you will find a quick-list of the things
you need to know about Stafford loans before you sign on the dotted
line. Please read this carefully as there are many misconceptions about
this very common federal loan. 

Eligibility for Stafford Loans

• You must have submitted a FAFSA form.
• For subsidized loans you must have a financial need as determined by your school.
• You must be a U.S. citizen or national, a U.S. permanent resident, or eligible non-citizen.
• You must be accepted for enrollment or a school that participates in the FFEL Program or Direct Loan Program.
• You must be enrolled at least half-time at you school.

Stafford Loan Benefits

• Low interest rate
  - For Stafford loans first disbursed beginning July 1, 2006, the
  interest rate is Fixed at 6.8% Loans first disbursed before July 1,
  2006 have a variable interest rate of 6.54% in grace and 7.14% in
  repayment.
• Subsidy of Interest on Subsidized Stafford Loans - see below for more information on the two different types of Stafford loans.
• Grace Period - Stafford loans offer you a 6-month grace period after you finish school or are taking less than 6 credit hours. See Grace Period for more information.
• Deferment / Forbearance
  - Stafford loan payments can be postponed by using deferment or
  forbearance after your grace period expires. There is an important
  distinction between deferment and forbearance. See below for details.
• Option of locking into a fixed rate - Stafford rates can be locked-in through consolidation
  so the rate does not increase. Rate incentives after consolidation can
  also take your rate down from your locked-in rate for on-time payments
  or for signing up for automated payments.
• Credit is not a factor
  - Qualifying for a Stafford loan does not require good credit or any
  credit at all. Stafford loans are awarded based on your financial need
  assessment as determined by your Student Aid Report. You can generate a
  Federal Student Aid Report by completing the FAFSA form.
• Loan Forgiveness
  -Under certain circumstances, your Stafford loans can be forgiven. For
  a large list of student loan forgiveness programs, visit http://www.finaid.org/loans/forgiveness.phtml

 There are two different types of Stafford Loans: Subsidized and Unsubsidized.

• Subsidized
  This loan is awarded basis of financial need. You won’t be charged any
  interest before you begin repayment or during authorized periods of
  deferment. The federal government subsidizes the interest during these
  periods.
• Unsubsidized
  This loan is not awarded on the basis of need. You will be charged
  interest from the time the loan is disbursed until it is paid in full.
  If you allow the interest to accrue while you’re in school or during
  other periods, it will be capitalized- that is, the interest will be
  added to the principal amount of your loan, and additional interest
  will based on the higher amount.

 A Stafford Loan is not free money.
It
is a loan. That means you must pay it back once you stop taking classes
more than half-time.

 Deferment
If you cannot afford to make payments on your loans, you may qualify
for a deferment. This is a period of time when you don’t have to make
payments on your loans. During a qualified period of deferment, the
U.S. Government will pay the interest on any subsidized Stafford loans
you have. It is called a qualified period of deferment if you apply and
are approved for any of the following types of deferment. The
requirements for each are also listed.

• In-School Deferment
  - Your school must send proof of enrollment to the lender. This type of
  deferment usually happens automatically whenever you enroll for
  half-time credit work or more at a school that participates in the
  federal student loan program.
• Economic Hardship Deferment
  - You must apply and be approved based on your income and monthly
  student loan payments. You must also provide proof of the income level
  you indicated on the application for deferment by sending in your two
  most recent pay stubs.
• Unemployment Deferment
  - You must not be employed at all and registered with an unemployment
  agency. You will also be asked to send out a certain number of resumes
  or job applications per month to prove that you are actively seeking
  employment.

Each
borrower has a maximum of 3 years of deferment available. Deferments
are valid for up to one year, your situation must be re-evaluated to
determine if you can afford to make payments. After three years of
deferment are taken advantage of, and if the borrower still cannot pay,
the lender will place the borrower into a forbearance instead.

You must apply for deferment with your lender if you wish to defer making payments.  

Forbearance
If you are having difficulty making payments, but do not qualify for a
deferment, then you may request a forbearance. A forbearance is much
like a deferment, except the federal government will not pay the
interest on any loan, whether it is subsidized or unsubsidized. As long
as you have communicated to your lender and agreed on a timeframe that
you want your loans to be placed into forbearance, you do not have to
make payments until the agreed time ends.

Borrowers
also have 3 years of forbearance, that can be taken at a maximum of 1
year at a time. The borrower’s situation must be re-evaluated after
each year. Once those 3 years of forbearance are used up, the borrower
must begin making payments. Sometimes a lender may offer an
administrative forbearance. But this is rare.

You must apply for a forbearance with your lender if you wish to forbear payments.  

Grace Period
Your grace period is the 6-month period of time between the time you
stopped studying half-time or more and when your first payment is due.
This period of time is intended to allow you to get settled into your
new work environment, and also to give the lender time to get your loan
records in order so they can start sending you billing statements.

It
is also important to note that your interest rate on your Stafford
loans remains at the lower in-school rate during your entire grace
period, and raises 0.6% immediately when your grace period ends. If you
can consolidate during your grace period before your grace period ends,
you can lock-in to a significantly lower interest rate than if you
waited until your repayment begins.  

Origination / Guaranty Fee
Almost all Stafford lenders charge both an origination fee and a
guaranty fee. The origination fee covers the cost of processing your
loan paperwork, mitigates risk for the lender, and covers miscellaneous
fees payable to the Department of Education for the cost of maintaining
and enforcing regulations on the federal student loan programs. The
Guaranty fee is a charge from the Guarantor to guarantee the loan, and
enforce Federal Loan Program compliance with the lender. These charges
may vary slightly from lender to lender, depending on the guaranty fee,
but can be up to 1% for guaranty, and up to 3% for origination.  

Default
If you fail to pay your loans in spite of the benefits mentioned above,
and are delinquent on your payments for a period of 270 days (or
roughly 9 months) you are considered to be in default.

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT DEFAULT:

Federal
Student Loans cannot be discharged because of bankruptcy, default,
borrower negligence, or inability to pay. As long as you are alive and
capable of work, you will have to pay back your Federal Student Loans
without exception. If you default on your Federal Student Loans, the
Federal Government has the power to garnish your wages from any
employer you work for.

Your credit rating will also be damaged if you default on your student loans.

Stafford loans are better than private loans.
Below is a simple comparison between Stafford and private loan
programs. From this table, the advantages of Stafford loans over
private loans is clearly seen.

Source

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Analysis

Stuff is happening.

The economy may be
heading toward recession, inflation may be on the rise, gold prices are
up, oil prices are hitting record highs, the dollar is declining in
value, home prices are falling and the Federal Reserve Board met on
Wednesday.

Halloween.

Scary.

Almost all
financial markets have already priced in a quarter percent reduction in
short-term rates. Anything other than that will cause some reaction.
What may be more important than what the Fed actually did, however, is
the statement the Fed issued with their decision, “…the pace of
economic expansion will likely slow in the near term, partly reflecting
the intensification of the housing correction. Today’s action, combined
with the policy action taken in September, should help forestall some
of the adverse effects on the broader economy that might otherwise
arise from the disruptions in financial markets and promote moderate
growth over time.”

You see, long-term interest rates like the
rates on fixed-rate mortgages are based more on expectations of the
future than on what happens right now. The Fed has indicated their
primary focus is on fighting inflation, so they dropped the rates by a
quarter of a percent.”

The future is more uncertain than at any time in recent memory and financial markets do not like uncertainty.

Interest Rate Prediction

Usually, this is the place we
give an indication of where we believe interest rates will go in the
short-term and the long-term, but frankly speaking? This time we just
don’t know. Most likely, rates will go up slightly for the short-term,
but not by much. As things settle out over the next several weeks, we
expect that rates may begin to stabilize and perhaps begin to decline
again.

No one can guarantee economic or interest rate predictions, of course.

Source

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is on the wires again, this time
predicting that the number of potential home-loan defaults “will be
significantly bigger” in 2008 than in 2007.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal (subscription required),
Paulson said, “The nature of the problem will be significantly bigger
next year because 2006 (mortgages) had lower underwriting standards, no
amortization, and no down payments. He added that “We’ll watch
carefully mortgages that will be reset.”

Home prices fall

Paulson’s comments came before the National Association of Realtors
announced that home prices had fallen in 51 of 150 U.S. metropolitan
areas in Q3, with the median sales price falling to $220,800 in Q3
2007, compared to $225,300 in Q3 2006. The NAR also announced that home
sales fell to an annualized rate of 5.42 million units, including
single-family homes and condominiums, compared to a 6.29-million-unit
annualized rate a year ago.

Analysts say the combined statistics
suggest that the housing slump that started in 2006 is likely to
continue until at least mid-2008, and most likely considerably longer,
and will also serve to restrict U.S. economic growth.

The
housing sector is a pivotal component in the U.S. economy not solely
for the transaction value of real estate and mortgage financings, but
also because housing affects demand in companion sectors: furniture,
appliances, home improvement, and home services, among other sectors.
As such, increasing house sales almost always stimulates U.S. economic
growth; decreasing sales almost always lowers U.S. economic growth.

Seeking better rates

Paulson
said the Treasury Department is now aggressively encouraging the
mortgage servicing sector to develop criteria that would enable more
subprime and near-subprime borrowers who may be headed toward default
to qualify for loans with better terms, The Journal reported.
Many economists now expect the housing sector’s sluggishness to lower
U.S.GDP by up to 1 percentage point, or to roughly 1.8%-2.3% GDP growth
in 2008.

Further, the specter of an increased number of subprime
defaults in 2008 — if Paulson’s prediction proves to be accurate –
suggests that housing’s drag-effect may intensify in 2008, particularly
if measures are not put in place to help borrowers who to date have
represented a considerable portion of mortgage defaults: those
borrowers with interest rates that have been reset to higher rates.

Estimates vary industry-wide, but up to two million mortgages are due to reset to higher rates by the end of 2008.
Although
Paulson stopped short of endorsing a proposal by Sheila Bair,
chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., to have mortgage
companies freeze the interest rates on mortgages due to reset to higher
rates between now and the end of 2008, he said that’s “one idea,”
according to the Journal article.

Economic Analysis: Sec.
Paulson appears to be bracing the markets — and possibly the U.S.
Congress — for more housing fallout. The secretary’s effort to
encourage the mortgage servicing sector to help large pools of at-risk
borrowers will help, but as housing and mortgage payment data amasses,
it’s becoming more-clear that some type of additional mortgage
insurance and/or expanded secondary mortgage market purchase program
will be needed to both de-concentrate subprime mortgage risk and
maintain sufficient mortgage market liquidity.

Source

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By David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is pressing
the U.S. mortgage industry to help large groups of borrowers
automatically, worried lenders will be unable to staunch a worsening
mortgage crisis if they try to fix loans one-by-one.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Wednesday,
Paulson said he was “aggressively encouraging” the mortgage servicers
to develop new criteria that would speed the qualification of certain
borrowers for better terms more quickly as a crush of subprime
mortgages reset next year.

This is a shift from Paulson’s previous strategy of encouraging the
industry to work on a case-by-case basis with troubled borrowers.

He told the newspaper he is expecting a wave of mortgage defaults next year, adding:

“We’re never going to be able to process the number of workouts and
modifications that are going to be necessary doing it just sort of
one-off. … I’ve talked to enough people now to know there’s no way
that’s going to work.”

The change comes as a Treasury-organized alliance of mortgage
servicers, lenders, investors and counselors called Hope Now this week
began sending out 300,000 letters to at-risk borrowers to offer them
individual help to avoid default.

Paulson believes the high volume of borrowers seeking to modify
their loans could swamp servicers unless they take a more systematic
approach to assess borrowers’ financial situations, said Treasury
spokeswoman Michele Davis.

Mortgage servicers collect monthly payments from borrowers and pass
funds to the investors who purchased securitized pools of mortgages.

“His concern is simply that with the volume of loans resetting, a
system that looks at every individual case would be overwhelmed,” Davis
said of Paulson.

“There will always be loans that need to be individually reviewed,
but where there can be clear categories of borrowers identified who are
automatically eligible for certain modifications, that will speed the
process,” Davis said.

Paulson said the number of potential U.S. home-loan defaults “will be significantly bigger” in 2008 than in 2007.

“The nature of the problem will be significantly bigger next year
because 2006 (mortgages) had lower underwriting standards, no
amortization, and no down payments,” he said, adding: “We’ll watch
carefully mortgages that will be reset.”

A large number of subprime mortgages, which are made to borrowers
with poor credit histories, had low, interest-only “teaser” rates that
reset after two years to higher rates as amortization starts, causing a
jump in monthly payments.

MORTGAGE LOSSES AT $300 BLN

About $890 billion of subprime U.S. mortgages will have their rates
reset in 2008, peaking in March, the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development said in a report on Wednesday.

The OECD report said a hypothetical 14 percent loss-rate on subprime
mortgages being reset in 2008 could deliver an overall $125 billion hit
to lenders. Including the Alt-A or “near prime” category of mortgages,
cumulative losses in the $200 billion to $300 billion range “seem
feasible,” it said.

Paulson stopped short in the Wall Street Journal interview of
endorsing a proposal by Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila
Bair to freeze interest rates on 2 million loans resetting between now
and the end of 2008, saying it was “one idea.”

In California, four top mortgage lenders this week have agreed to a
deal brokered by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to allow borrowers facing
unaffordable resets to keep their lower initial rates for five more
years if they live in their homes and continue to make payments on time.

Schwarzenegger estimated on Tuesday that some 500,000 Californians
hold subprime mortgages whose rates will reset at higher levels over
the next two years.

Source

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