Archive for the ‘Needs Link’ Category

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Taking Netiquette To A New Level

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
This is just a quick, fun piece about an interesting new business. See if you want to give it a try!
  • Alexa and James Hirshfeld, two siblings living in New York City, have started Paperless Post, a Web-based business that allows users to design and send invitations through e-mail.
  • The business was created to cater to the needs of people who want something more upscale than Facebook invites but don’t want to go through the time and expense necessary for printed invitations.
  • Paperless Post seems to be growing in popularity, boasting such clients as Zac Posen and Diane Von Furstenberg.

Facts & Figures

  • The Hirshfelds have sent out 60,000 invitations since January 2009, and 150,000 since the previous fall.
  • Paperless Post boasts a variety of letterhead templates, fonts, motifs, border patterns, paper colors, sizes, stock, and textures, as well as an RSVP tracking system.
  • The carbon footprint of Paperless Post is virtually zero.

Best Quote

“The Internet has been a kind of vacuum in terms of aesthetics. We wanted to leverage functionality with design.” — Alexa Hirshfeld, Co-Founder of Paperless Post

A Microloan is…

Monday, June 29th, 2009

A microloan is a relatively small amount of money (usually from $100-$25,000) lent to an individual or entrepreneur to help him or her get a business up and running. Microloans are generally targeted at people who are unattractive to large financial institutions because they don’t have good enough credit or collateral and are therefore considered risky customers.

Understanding New Options for Retirement

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

Now that Roth IRAs are undergoing a rule change, people at higher income levels can get access to these highly desirable accounts. Read on to learn what the new rules do and don’t allow you to do, as well as how best to convert to a Roth and the pros and cons of doing so.

  • On January 1st, 2010, the government is removing the income restrictions that prevent some individuals from converting to a Roth IRA.
  • Roth IRAs are desirable because there are virtually no taxes on withdrawals – for you or your inheritors – and you aren’t required to start making withdrawals when you reach a certain age, as is the case with traditional IRAs.
  • The obstacle to conversion is that you have to pay taxes to do so, and since you can’t pick and choose which assets to convert, these taxes are often quite high.

Facts & Figures

  • Currently, you can’t open a Roth IRA if your modified adjusted gross income is more than $120,000, or $176,000 for married individuals who file joint tax returns. These restrictions will stay in place in the future.
  • The restrictions that will be eliminated are those on converting to a Roth: currently, you can’t convert if your modified adjusted gross income for your entire household is more than $100,000. In addition, someone who is married but who files an individual tax return can’t convert regardless of his or her income.
  • The government is providing a special deal for those who convert to a Roth in 2010: they can split the taxes they’re charged for the conversion over 2011 and 2012.

Best Quote

“If I can take a portion of my assets and shift them over to a Roth, am I going to sleep better knowing they can’t be touched by future tax increases?” – Ben Norquist, president of Convergent Retirement Plan Solutions LLC

What’s so hostile about a corporate takeover?

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

Normally, someone can’t buy something from you without your permission – a guy can’t just walk into your living room, throw down a wad of cash, and make off with your sofa. You’d expect the same principle to apply to corporations: if you own a company, how can someone else buy it if you won’t sell it to him? But depending on the type of company you own, another individual or corporation can actually buy it without your permission, in a maneuver called a hostile takeover.

If your company is private, you don’t have to worry about hostile takeovers, because the company’s owners (you/your partners/your fellow members on the board of directors) have a controlling interest in the stock. But in a public company, although the board of directors may have the single biggest chunk of shares, the majority of the shares are dispersed among the general public. Think of each share as something like a vote. If someone wants to become the owner of your company, all he has to do is collect the most votes – it doesn’t matter if he has your votes or not, as long as he has more votes than you do. So what he can do is appeal to the public, and offer to buy their votes (their shares) for a higher price than they could get for those shares on the stock market. If enough shareholders take him up on his offer, the company becomes his – in other words, he’s completed a hostile takeover. So it turns out that in the world of finance, people can actually buy something of yours… whether you like it or not.

A Tax Bracket is…

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

A tax bracket refers to an individual’s level of income tax. Once your income reaches a certain level, you fall into a higher tax bracket, and you have to pay a greater percentage of your income in taxes.

Principal is…

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

Principal is the original amount of money making up a debt or investment. For example, if you take out a $10,000 loan, interest will increase your debt over time, but the principal is that initial $10,000.

Why do customer service calls connect you to India?

Friday, June 5th, 2009

Chances are if you’ve called a large company to ask them to help you with your phone, computer, or pretty much anything, you have talked to someone in India. Not just anyone, but a trained professional who can help you through your problem.

Companies from all over the world outsource their call centers to India and other countries because a strong portion of the educated class there speaks English and the workers do not require as much in wages as call center operators in America. The economic theory behind the difference in wages is called comparative advantage, which is when one provider can produce something more efficiently than another provider. In this example, Indian call centers have a comparative advantage because they can pay their workers less than American call centers can.

So what’s the easy answer? Companies contract with Indian call centers simply because it’s cheaper. And if they can lower their operational expenses without lowering their income, it adds up to more profit for company shareholders.

A Commodity is…

Monday, May 18th, 2009

A commodity is a raw material that’s just like any other raw material. For example, tobacco, rice, petroleum, iron ore and cows are all commodities because they’re basically the same no matter what company “produces” them. iPods and breakfast cereals aren’t commodities because they’re processed and branded. Even though they may use commodities in their production (such as metal and wheat flour), the final product is tied to the success or failure of its particular company.

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An IRA is…

Monday, March 16th, 2009

An IRA is an investment account that has tax advantages; IRAs permit you to put in pre-tax dollars for investment. When you take the money out, you are taxed at the prevailing tax rate. Thus, it makes sense for people to wait to withdraw the money until they retire and have a lower tax rate (because they are earning less than they used to).

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