Chosen Thought

Archive for the ‘financing’ Category

Whether you’re a CIO considering a switch from Sun to IBM or a manager debating about upgrading your entire Server platform, one thing remains the same: you’ve probably got one eye on your efficiency gain and the other eye on your budget.
Fortunately, there are several financing options available to help you break down large technology acquisitions into more affordable monthly payments.
The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA) estimates that eight out of ten U.S. companies lease at least some equipment, but what many people don’t realize is that there are flexible financing options available for almostany kind of technology equipment, including software, services and training.
Equipment financing is a popular way to maximize your purchasing power largely because it is acost-effective way to obtain the newest equipment without a large outlay of cash.
Financing also helps shield you from the effect of equipment obsolescence, a real issue for all those using any type of technology asset. It’s easy to add the latest software version to your master lease so you don’t have to worry about working with outdated technology.
The Benefits Add Up
Some of the other recognized benefits of financing technology equipment include:
• Reduced Tax Burden – The IRS does not consider certain leases, for example, to be a purchase, but rather a tax-deductible overhead expense. Therefore, you may be able to deduct the lease payments from your corporate income.
• 100 percent financing – Some financing options require very little money down – perhaps only the first and last month’s payment are due at the time of the acquisition.
• Immediate write-off of the dollars spent – With some financing options, payments can be treated as expenses on a company income statement, so equipment does not have to be depreciated over the useful life of the equipment.
• Flexibility – As your business grows and your needs change, flexible financing options provide more opportunities for businesses to add or upgrade equipment during the lease term.
• Asset management – Financing provides the use of technology equipment for specific periods of time at fixed payments. With some financing structures, the finance company assumes and manages the obsolescence risk of equipment ownership. At the end of the finance terms, the financing company is responsible for the disposition of the asset.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to reasons to finance technology equipment. Some of the other recognized benefits of financing include:
• Upgraded technology – Equipment that is frequently updated, such as software, should be financed to limit your risk of being stuck with obsolete equipment. It’s easy to add the latest software version to your master lease, for example, so you don’t have to worry about working with outdated technology.
• Speed – Some financing options can allow you to respond quickly to new opportunities with minimal documentation and red tape. Most resellers work with a finance company that can approve applications within twp hours.
• Improved cash flow – Many finance structures can result in a lower monthly payment when compared to a standard loan. In addition, some finance companies offer seasonally adjusted payments to match a company’s needs.
• Simplicity- Financing process and documentation is straight forward and easy to understand.
Finance Services Too

You really can’t blame people for getting it all screwed up. They have been taught that way, and we are social animals and we learn from our environment-I mean, this is nature. However, it’s just numerically the case that they were born in that relationship, in that family, in that city, in that society. The truth is absolutely different.What am I referring to? I am referring to how you’re taught and trained to get a job; taught, trained and educated to get a job.And you’re taught, trained and educated that you can get a better job if you want to make more money and have more of the comforts of life, when in fact there isn’t a job that will ever do it for you. A job, which some people say is an acronym for “just over broke,” is, as a matter of fact, what most people are.

What are we talking about? This: it means being in business for yourself. But not just any business. Many business “owners” simply traded their job for a “pay yourself last” chain around their neck.. That could be worse than a job. You’ve got to get away from trading hours for dollars.”Oh, this is a good job. It pays $20 an hour.” (Adjust this figure for your own location and time.)You think so? Hey, on an eight-hour day that’s $160. Now, you can convert that to your own currency, but then by the time you pay 40-50% to the tax person, that ain’t a good job!And what are you going to do? Are you going to put in a little bit of overtime? How much can you do, and how much do you want to do? You’ve got to think leverage. You’ve got to think multiplication.

After an exhausting day at work all you desire is a moment of silence, instead, all you do is just retreat in your own home and start thinking about your family, your children’s hopes and needs, when, you might think of establishing an irrevocable life insurance trust.

Since your life goal is to secure their future, these thoughts can get over your head sometimes, so why not start looking for solutions? An irrevocable life insurance trust might be the perfect answer.

Making an idea of how it works and most of all, understanding its benefits is a must. You should contact a specialist and ask him / her to give you some advice in order to begin creating a trust. Investments coupled with insurance has become one of the most common ways that people use to their wealth planning, including wills or any other amounts of money.

Once you decide to go on with your plans, you should know a few things about the irrevocable life insurance trust as well as some of its benefits. The main purpose of the irrevocable life insurance trust is to reduce the size of your estate, and thus your estate tax liability. You will be able to protect your life policy’s value from any creditors and also to know how or when your trustee(s) get the income.

In other words you will be transferring the investment insurance ownership to your spouse or children who are being defined as the trustees. Thus you will no longer be the owner. Hence, when you die, the insurance proceeds will be deposited for the benefit of your followers.

When creating a trust you must be aware that there are some possible risks that you have to take into account. For example, if you have a life insurance policy that you own, it will be taxable upon your death, but if you don’t own it, you can’t change it or even cancel it.

If one chooses to leave his/hers insurance proceeds to a spouse, it will eventually, not be charged but the living spouse’s estate will be taxed. Creating a trust offers you the opportunity to avoid some taxes, but notice that if the insured dies within three years from the day that the policy had been signed, the proceeds will be taken into account for tax object.

Promotional merchandise is a great marketing sensation. Mugs, mouse pads, pens, stationary, T shirts and so many other common usage items are used to promote businesses and it works like a miracle. The investment is not as big as buying air time during prime hours on the radio or television but needs to be sufficient to reach out to a selected large group of people at whom you aim these products.

The good thing about promotional merchandise is that it works in a variety of ways and in comparison to other marketing techniques around, the merchandise has a better reach in respect to the spectrum of people it can capture. Most marketing techniques are centered on a narrow group of individuals, but things like promotional clothing can be a really great idea because not only is the brand being promoted to the wearer but also to everybody in their environment when the clothing is worn.

Some products have an inherent potential to be marketed with promotional clothing. Most of such products fall under the category of diminishable items like eatables. Everybody loves food and if you can make your promotional clothing attractive, some people would go as far actually to ‘get’ this type of clothes. This thing actually goes really well along with social marketing and can have a good effect on the perception of your product because it’s becoming a part of the urban culture.

Promotional mugs is also a great idea when it comes to promotional marketing, because of the fact that they fall in the category of daily usage items. Daily usage items are a part of your life. You can not ignore them and you keep looking at each time they are used. It’s a really great idea to have your logo printed on a lot of promotional mugs and giving them to people for free.

Since 2004 our market has given investors a rollercoaster ride. From 2004 to 2007 it rose 50% on the back of the global economic boom. Then, from October 2007 to March 2009, as the recession and global financial crisis started to bite, it fell by an unnerving 40%. But it has staged a remarkable 24% recovery since March.

Before we get too excited, we should acknowledge that even though it has bounced beautifully over recent months, the market is still 27% below its 2007 peak. It needs to gain a further 38% to regain this 2007 high point.

Therein lies a very important lesson for investors of shares. Notice that the 40% decline requires a recovery of over 60% to get the market back to square. Such is the brutality of maths – losses require gains of a much higher magnitude to get back to the starting line.

It is worth bearing this mathematical reality in mind as we ponder whether to buy now or not. Many people are regretting missing out on this latest rally. But the truth is that today, even after a 24% rally, people who reduced their share exposures in 2007 but also missed buying in March, are still well ahead of those who suffered the 2008 losses but stayed in the market and benefited from the recent bounce.

A conservative approach, it would seem, is still the best way to approach the market. It is far more important to be right about avoiding losses than it is to be right about picking rallies.

Frankly, I do not nor, I would humbly suggest, does any other human being, have any idea whether it will continue upwards or not from here. Markets are utterly unpredictable.

But after such a strong spike in the market, it would seem prudent to take a cautious tack. The golden rule that is better to buy when markets are low than when they are high, still applies.

I see a number of experienced investors at present, that are wary of the risk of a decline in price, but also recognise that the market could continue northwards, who are approaching the market by investing in instalments.

I believe this is a very wise approach. It takes timing right out of the equation. These people are splitting their investment capital into smaller chunks and then drip feeding this into the market. They are also choosing to buy the companies on their buy list that look the cheapest.

This is a very sensible way of mitigating the risk of buying just before a fall, while also gradually allocating capital to the market in case it continues to rise.