Business Disaster Plan: Plan Ahead

The Best Time for a Business Disaster Plan?
Before the Disaster Happens
Before 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, the concept of a business “disaster plan” was envisioned mainly in terms of weather- or fire-related disasters and heavy on the notion of evacuation.
The concept of business risk today is so much wider – legal threats from inside and outside [...]

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Stewardship Pastor Brian Kluth’s Generosity Book a Surprise Bestseller

Noted pastor, speaker, and author, Brian Kluth has published a book entitled
“40 Day Spiritual Journey to a More Generous Life.”
The book has become an unexpected bestseller with 200,000 printed in the first 12 months. Churches from over 60 denominations have ordered hundreds and even thousands of copies to give a copy to every family [...]

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Diversification: Not Just for Stocks

About a month ago, a rather unusual event occurred: in a single day, S&P slashed its ratings on two sets of AAA bonds backed by residential mortgage securities to CCC+ and CCC, instantly changing their status from top quality to pure junk.Despite the rarity of such an event, financial markets constantly make fools of [...]

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Get an Employer Identification Number (EIN) Online in Minutes

The IRS recently announced (IR-2007-161) that taxpayers can now request an Employer Identification Number (EIN) through a Web-based system that instantly processes requests and generates identification numbers in real time.
Here’s how it works. A taxpayer accesses the Internet EIN system through IRS.gov and enters the required information. If the information passes the automatic validity checks, [...]

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New Mortgage Study an Impressive Departure from Common Sense

The multitude of subprime borrowers who have recently found themselves on the losing end of a self-destructive mortgage can breathe a sigh of relief: your interest-only pay-option ARM was actually the “optimal” mortgage for you.
That’s right, two professors have determined that such a mortgage (recently referred to as “toxic” and “the worst of the [...]

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How to Evaluate an Early Retirement Package

Plano, Texas based Electronic Data Systems (EDS) recently announced an early retirement offer available to 12,000 of its employees. If you are offered such an early retirement package, should you take it?
Here are some factors to consider:
Can you afford to retire?
If you have reached financial independence, this might be just the exit opportunity you [...]

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Christian Teens Rank “Not Enough Money” as a Significant Issue

In a recent poll of Christian parents of teens, George Barna reported the following findings:
When given a list of possible challenges their teens might face, 45 percent of parents said not having enough money was a “very” or “somewhat” significant issue to their teen; 43 percent listed feeling misunderstood by their family; 40 said struggling [...]

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Warren Buffett: Statistically Insignificant

How much of an investment manager’s performance is related to manager skill?The question is critically important because luck isn’t worth paying for.Unfortunately, answering the question is, in most cases, impossible due to a concept called statistical significance. In every statistical study, one of several tests is used to determine if the outcome of the [...]

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God’s 401(k) Plan

Scripture requires us to be responsible stewards, doing our part in caring for our families and planning for our future. Security, though, can be found only in Christ not through earthly means, no matter how carefully planned.
How awesome, though, is God’s sovereignty in the equation: he has a 401(k) plan of his own [...]

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Do Alternative Asset Classes Yield Higher Withdrawal Rates?

Financial Planner Stephen Cassaday believes that by using “alternative asset classes” (i.e., real estate/REITs and commodities) along with the traditional asset classes (stocks, bonds, and cash), one can dramatically increase the “withdrawal rate” from a portfolio.
In addition to adding asset classes, he also adds the provision that withdrawals are increased each year by a set [...]

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