Finance Guide

Most personal finance gurus continually stress the importance of budgeting for monitoring and modifying poor spending habits. However, I have noticed that most people who attempt to implement a family budget eventually give up on the activity, mainly because it takes the fun out of spending money. You know what, I agree! An impulse purchase here and there feels good! And as it turns out, an impulse purchase made on occasion won’t necessarily create a big problem for most us. The problems arise when we decide to make them on credit. Here’s an excellent personal finance tip for all you budget-haters out there – pay cash for all non-investment expenditures and eliminate your need to budget.

What is a Non-Investment Expenditure Anyway?

First off, let’s define investment expenditure. By my own definition, an investment expenditure is a transaction that involves the purchase of an asset that appreciates in value. On the flip side, a non-investment expenditure represents all other transactions. One quick check you can make before whipping out your credit card to buy something is to ask yourself, “Is there a high likelihood that I will be able to sell this item in the future for more than I am paying now?” If the answer is “no,” pay cash. If you don’t have the money, you can’t make the purchase. It’s that simple.

Examples of Non-Investment Expenditures

Unfortunately, the vast majority of our everyday spending is classified as non-investment expenditures. Groceries, fuel for the vehicles, dining out, your cell phone bill, a new pair of designer jeans – these are all non-investment expenditures. Some of these items may be extremely important, even life sustaining. But purchasing on credit, even for life sustaining expenditures, encourages excess. Let’s take food, for instance. To purchase enough food for the family to survive really does not cost much money. What costs us a pile of money are the rib-eye steaks, junk food, alcoholic beverages, and sodas we routinely buy. Moreover, these foods are bad for our health! Grocery shopping with cash forces us to reconsider the food choices we make, in terms of both health and money. And that’s a good thing.

What Else is There?

You may be asking yourself, “Would any of my spending be classified as investment expenditures?” For me, two things come to mind – your home and your education. A home is rather obvious because, over time, houses have always increased in value. A college education would also be considered an investment because it provides one the opportunity to earn more money than he would otherwise make. Because these two items are considered investments, taking out a loan to pay for them can be justified. In addition, home mortgages and college loans offer some of the lowest interest rates of any form of credit, making them even more attractive expenditures.

One Caveat to Consider

Although following the above advice can eliminate the need for a budget, one other choice must be made to assure financial success in the future. An automatic investment plan must be initiated to make certain your investment accounts are funded before all the money is spent. If you work for a company that offers a 401k plan, this is done automatically. If you have outside accounts, you will have to notify the firm to initiate automatic transfers from your checking account. With most firms, you can set up the automatic transfers yourself from your online account interface.

Summary

Although a budget is a fantastic tool for monitoring and modifying our spending habits, the cold hard truth is that many of us will never stick to one. Should these folks be doomed to financial hell for the rest of their lives for this so-called lack of discipline? Of course, not! Just follow our simple personal finance tip to pay cash for all non-investment expenditures and you, too, will reach financial success in the future.

Stephen Bush asked:




The quality of business financing will directly effect the success of business opportunity investment strategies. Business finance strategies for business investments not involving real estate are more problematic than most borrowers expect, especially if investors are primarily familiar with real estate investing.

Buying a business opportunity is likely to be an extremely challenging task when arranging the business loan. This is largely due to the usual lack of commercial property as collateral for the business financing to buy a business. When buying a business that does not include commercial real estate, business borrowers need to realize that business loan options will be greatly reduced in comparison to a business purchase that can be financed with a commercial mortgage.

Business Opportunity Investment Financing Guidelines -

The guidelines and comments in this article are based upon business loan terms that are typically available from respected lenders willing to provide business financing for buying a business opportunity throughout the United States. There will often be various private financing scenarios in which the seller might be willing to wholly finance a business acquisition, and we will not attempt to discuss those commercial loan possibilities in this commentary.

Length of Business Loan to Expect When Buying a Business -

Business loan terms to buy a business will typically include a shorter amortization period than commercial real estate financing. A business loan term of ten years is normal, and that length of loan is likely to be tied to a requirement that the commercial lease will not expire before the loan matures.

Likely Interest Rates to Buy a Business -

In the current business loan interest rate environment, the likely range for buying a business opportunity is 11 to 12 percent. Because a rate of 10-11 percent is currently normal for commercial real estate financing, the rate for business borrowing should be viewed as quite reasonable. The commercial loan interest rate cost to purchase a small business is typically higher than the cost of a commercial real estate loan due to the absence of business property for collateral in a business purchase.

Down Payment Requirements -

Depending on the specific type of business and some other issues, a normal down payment for a business loan to buy a business is 20 to 25 percent. The presence of seller financing might lessen the down payment needed to acquire a small business opportunity.

Refinancing Options -

A related business loan issue to anticipate when buying a business is that refinancing the business opportunity loan terms will normally be even more difficult than the original business financing. There are several new working capital loan programs under development that could significantly change future choices for business refinancing. Until these new business financing alternatives are available, it is advisable to obtain the best financing terms when the business is initially acquired and not rely upon future refinancing choices.

Lenders to Avoid -

Perhaps the most important phase of the business loan process for buying a business opportunity is the selection of a commercial lender. In our view an even more critical stage of this process is avoiding certain lenders that are routinely unsuccessful in finalizing a business loan to buy a business.

By avoiding such lenders, commercial borrowers are likely to avoid many other business financing problems frequently associated with buying a business opportunity. Avoiding problem lenders will be instrumental to the eventual success of both the business loan process and the long-term financial health of the business being acquired.

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We humans are as creative on the “Dark Side” of commercial activity as we are in developing beneficial new products and services. In the face of huge financial benefits, however, some corporate executives can’t resist taking an extra dessert even before their shareholders have finished dinner. Some scandals have more of an impact on investors than others, and most produce unwarranted layers of government regulation and control that stifle honest creativity.

Plain vanilla fraud and theft are less worrisome to me than situations where the general acceptance of misinformation or “business as usual” practices allows inherently bad product ideas and blatant mismanagement to become accepted by regulatory authorities, financial professionals, and myopically gullible consumers. Here are some candidates for future “Blockbuster Scandal Awards” (B S Awards, if you will): Variable Life Insurance & Annuities, Wrap Fee Managed Investment Accounts, Portfolio Window Dressing, Asset Allocation Mutual Funds, and Obscene Executive Compensation.

1) Variable Insurance and Annuities: Variable products are a relatively new thing in the insurance industry, circa 1980 or so. Before that, the conventional wisdom labeled the Shock Market much too risky for Life Insurance Policy and Annuity Contract guaranteed benefits. In fact, these benefits had been “guaranteed” for so long that it became a generic expectation of anyone in the market for either. So why did the State Insurance departments cave in to the Variable Product lobby? And what is not emphasized as these products are marketed to potential insureds and annuitants?

As if the 8% sales commission on Straight Life Annuities wasn’t enough, the addition of Mutual Fund bonuses made the Variable Annuity irresistible… to financial professionals. Similarly, this product is so lucrative for the companies that they manipulate their rates to become more competitive. Since the introduction of variable benefits, there have been more insurance company failures and scandals, and not just a few disappointed recipients of reduced annuity payments. What’s in your retirement plan?

2) Wrap Fee Investment Accounts: From the very beginnings of wealth, the very wealthy employed Investment Managers to protect and to grow their portfolios. Most Investment Managers had just a few huge clients that they tended to while the rest of the fledging financial industry focused on property protection and estate creation through life insurance. Most of today’s (salaried) Investment Managers are employed by Financial Institutions to supervise thousands of Mutual Funds for millions of investors of all financial shapes and sizes. There are more Equity Mutual Funds than there are individual Equities on the New York Stock Exchange. Most investors today will employ many Investment Managers and never actually speak to any of them.

Enter the personally managed investment portfolio product offered by most major Financial Institutions. For a single fee, you receive the personal services of a professional Investment Manager, and a portfolio specifically designed for you. Except, of course, that you get neither. You get precisely the same portfolio as everybody else, and all at once regardless of price… a Mutual Fund with individual statements. But of course, you can speak to the manager any time you like, change your asset allocation, set aside a reserve for an upcoming expenditure, etc. Yeah, sure you can!

Note that “Flat Fee” managed accounts are quite different and may actually be separately and personally managed.

3) Portfolio Window Dressing: Every quarter, every year, we hear about the adjustments that portfolio managers are making as they attempt to look smart to their largest clients. Now in a discipline (Investing) that they all officially recognize as a long-term commitment to some specific strategy or plan, why do the Masters of the Universe spend so much time manipulating their short-term performance numbers? And why is this considered business as usual instead of common fraud?

4) Asset Allocation Mutual Funds: I look at Asset Allocation a bit differently than most professionals seem to and I regulate and monitor a portfolio’s structure using the cost basis of securities rather than their Market Value. But how, logically, can a one-size-fits-all Mutual Fund be the right mix for all investors? Here’s a definition found on the Internet: “A mutual fund that rotates among stocks, bonds, and money market securities to maximize return on investment and minimize risk”. And a definition of Asset Allocation from a similar source: “The practice of distributing a certain percentage of a portfolio between different types of investment assets, such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, cash, real estate, options, etc. By diversifying an individual’s asset base, one hopes to create a favorable risk/reward ratio for a portfolio”.

In reality, Asset Allocation is a structure-planning tool that determines what percentage of an Investment Portfolio is to be invested for Growth in Equity securities and what percentage is to be invested for income production. The proper allocation is a function of the investor’s age, marital status, financial position, employment status, retirement plans, expenditure needs, risk tolerance, family responsibilities, etc. Diversification occurs within the two (just two) asset classes. One size fits all… who’s kidding whom?

5) Corporate Executive Compensation: I strongly believe that everyone has the right to become filthy rich, legally of course. I respect anyone who gets there honestly because their success creates jobs, opportunities, wealth, and a higher standard of living for everyone. But, once they sell shares of their successful enterprises to the public, they have a responsibility to share future profits and growth. Obscene executive suite compensation (right down to the chauffeured limousines) is simply stealing from shareholders.

With every new Scandal, a voracious Media and a hypocritical Congress exacerbate the fear of shocked investors and call for more regulation of the very entities whose success, freedom, viability, and competitiveness they should be nurturing. Ironically, politicians are always the most outspoken critics… probably because of their familiarity with cover-ups and improprieties. But no one ever questions the integrity of the Financial Institutions that invent, produce, price, and promote products and services that do far more long-term harm than the few (albeit serious and sensational) incidents of corporate wrong doing.

Four of the five candidates for this year’s Blockbuster Scandal (B S) Award were created on Wall Street. The fifth is ignored by it. Which one bothers you most?

Business finance is term that means exactly what it says, finance for businesses. It deals mostly with bank loans, overdrafts, factoring, invoice discounting, leasing and investment. It is something a business takes part in to acquire and convert capital funds to meet the monetary needs of the business. The main part of the equation focuses on bank loans. Getting a loan is an integral part in keeping a business up and running. If a company has just started operation, it may be hard to secure a loan, as banks usually want to see a history of operation before giving out any money.

When applying for a loan, remember the main reason why banks will deny a business a loan is because they have determined that the business is at a high risk of not being able to repay the loan. In the world of business finance, this is known as risk assessment, something any lending institution will do before handing out a loan. A bank will need to look at many things including credit history, operation history, experience and education to decide whether a business poses little to no risk or if a business is at high risk of not paying back the loan.

Perhaps the most important factor looked at by a bank is a company’s business plan. A lender will analyse a business plan and can find out all kinds of information that will help them decide if they will give the business a loan or not. A bank needs to use good judgment when looking at a business plan, as making a wrong decision could cost the bank a lot of money if a loan is given out and not repaid. With business finance, a bank will use a business plan as well as numerous other factors to determine if a business is going to be a high risk or a low risk in terms of paying back the loan.

The business plan will show the lender many things including just how much money the business needs to borrow. It will also show how the business plans on paying back the loan, and when it should be paid off completely. In terms of business finance, the bank simply needs to make sure that the business has sound plans in place to keep its business running and operational so that it will remain profitable enough so that it can pay back the loan.

Asset Protection Guide:

The strange and sometimes puzzling evolutions in the business world ask for more and more secure methods of protecting the client’s assets. In spite of all popular articles claiming the right to be taken into consideration, asset protection strategies depend on individual perceptions. Each person involved in a business is supposed to choose his own means to protect his assets. His decision is crucial but it can be changed by several factors. First element which enters the system of asset protection strategies is considered to be the counselor. He can be a lawyer or not. His position is not really important. Most important fact about a counselor is to understand his client’s business and to be able to offer the appropriate advice. He is the most significant element which decides upon asset protection strategies. A counselor must be well informed about all law changes so he can direct his client in the right way. If the relation between two of them respects the basic principles of communication then results are fortunate. Each counselor has to know everything about his client’s business as long as he is supposed to guide him towards financial success. However each person owning a business has the right to decide on his future movements. Even if a counselor does try to influence him the final move depends on the client’s dynamic character.

A business man might be misguided by his private counselor. Applying asset protection strategies means playing with the law system. This is not about violating basic principles. Most of all is about discovering original ways which might give someone the chance to take advantage in certain situations. For example the principle of LLC might prove extremely operative. But if there are not any experienced persons behind the business master then he would probably miss this hint. The asset protection strategies system is quite sinuous and requires a capable person who is able to explain the basic rules.

People involved in a business might take this fact as a childish game and enjoy playing till the end. First of all, people are supposed to think about asset protection strategies. If taken into consideration right from the beginning then things are really simple. So the business man will enjoy his position being already protected against all possible dangers. If his counselor prescribes him the appropriate asset protection strategies then he does not have to worry about future success. From now on procedures are not so complicated. They remain exhausting but they are pleasant in a way. They are pleasant because they prove their efficiency. They are no longer insecure means of gaining money. Taking real advantage of the asset protection strategies means finding all the possible ways towards financial success. No one should miss this valuable tip of the presence of the counselor. Once a business is getting stronger and stronger, its owner must thing about all opportunities to protect his money. Of course that a counselor would always come with additional information but the final decisions belongs to the client. He is the only person who can decide upon asset protection strategies. He can say if certain strategies are compatible with his expectations. A counselor might always suggest something but if his client does not want to respect the plan then the deal is violated. There are no formal procedures to punish such a decision. The business man might be right. He knows his business. Maybe the counselor is wrong. There are numerous possible situations. But a good counselor would always be able to offer a good advice. So asset protection strategies might be best suggested only by a counselor.