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Why Consider Offshore Banking for Your Personal and Financial Privacy in this Post “9 / 11″

Nov 3

Posted by admin in Finance, Wealth Building

The point is, by moving assets offshore, you regain control. Within the United States, you must play according to federal rules ? rules that get a little less citizen-oriented every year. Offshore, there are entire jurisdictions organized to play by your rules. You design the game, and you get to be the winner

There are major concerns concerning privacy. You will hear a staggering number of horror stories from people whose lives have been indelibly marked by corporate and governmental intrusion.

If you’re like many Americans, you probably assume that the Constitution ensures your unalienable right to privacy. Unfortunately, you’re wrong. The Fourth Amendment ? the national guarantee most often cited when people talk about confidentiality ? specifies only that “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause….”

The men of 1787 who drafted this legal tenet clearly meant to protect privacy as it pertained to property. They wanted a right to unthreatened ownership of land and personal possession. Our founding fathers lived in a world where people shared common norms of morality. They didn’t need to sort through the questions that plague a global information-service economy. They didn’t need to worry about how one man might decide to use (or share) private financial information about another. They didn’t foresee an era in which sophisticated communication systems could instantaneously interact, calling up, comparing and exchanging information about you or me within a matter of several seconds.

In other words, they didn’t foresee the 21st century post 9 /11. Today, the greatest threat to your individual privacy has nothing to do with property theft.

It has to do with access to information about you and your activities. Where you live and work, the names of your children, your medical and psychiatric history, your arrest record, the phone numbers you dial, the amount of money you earn, the way you earn it, and how you report it to Uncle Sam after if s yours ? these are the information tidbits that will undoubtedly remain stored in lots of different places as long as you keep your money within U.S. borders.

An offshore financial involvement offers youand your family the one and only escape from this government-endorsed conspiracy. Just as you can legitimately make more money oversees than you could ever hope to earn in this country, you can also look forward to enjoying your foreign profits in an atmosphere of complete confidentiality. In money havens scattered from Hong Kong west to Aruba and south to the Netherlands Antilles, you can benefit from iron-clad secrecy laws that strictly forbid any bureaucratic review of your personal financial records. That means you can legally guard your assets from the overzealous inspection that has become part and parcel of U.S. banking and investment portfolio management.

If you’re like most upper- and middle-income Americans, the federal government alone maintains nearly 150 separate files on you. According to one recent analysis, Uncle Sam currently has computer tabs on 10 billion files, a virtual treasure trove through which an army of eager bureaucrats can search and snoop. The state in which you reside probably holds another dozen or so active computer files on you. And the Census Bureau routinely updates its records. Any minute of any day, its computer system can spit out your basic data: sex, race, ethnic origin, marital status, employment situation and place in the household pecking order. Most important, it can legally pass any or all of that information along to other interested branches of government.

Then, of course, there’s the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS knows how much money you make, and where it comes from. The Social Security Administration probably knows more than you do about your employment earnings history. If you served in the armed forces, you’re permanently listed in the archives of the Veterans Administration as well as your service branch.

Are you a borrower? If so, then at least one credit bureau (and probably several) keeps a file on you. Lenders nationwide can request from any one of these independent business operations a slew of information about your income, debts, employment history, marital status, tax liens, judgments, arrests and convictions.

Still another category of consumer investigation companies collect information about the health habits and lifestyles of likely employment and insurance applicants. How do these agencies get their information? Mainly from the friends, neighbors, employers, landlords and other casual professional associates of those they are investigating.

What does the law have to say about this blatant invasion of privacy? What are your rights when it comes to keeping your financial life confidential?

You don’t have many. And the ones you do have are steadily eroding. The bottom line is that while the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized your constitutional right to privacy in some cases, it has repeatedly failed to extend that right to “informational privacy.” In other words, you have very limited ability to curtail the collection, exchange or use of information about you or your personal financial situation.

There are, in fact, laws that authorize the invasion of your privacy. One of them is The Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 (Public Law 91-508). Its name is a deceptive misnomer because instead of protecting confidentiality, it gives our government outrageous authority to review and investigate personal and business bank accounts. The law requires all U.S. banks to maintain records of deposit slips and the front and back of all checks drawn over $100. Since it would cost so much to keep these records on hand, banks are allowed to routinely microfilm all your checks ? regardless of value. So they do. All of them!

The law also demands that banks maintain records of any credit extension (other than a real estate mortgage) that exceeds $5,000. Banks must report all cash transactions, deposits or withdrawals, in excess of $10,000. They are required to ask you for your Social Security number or taxpayer identification number before any new checking or savings account can be opened. If you do not supply this number within 45 days of the request, your name, address, and account numbers are put on a list for inspection by the Treasury Department.

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What if Buddha Invested?

Oct 25

Posted by admin in Wealth Building

I’ve seen many articles, even books written about the topic ?What if Buddha Dated??, so I decided to write one called ?What if Buddha Invested?? Given the non-attachment to materialism that Buddhism preaches, it may be strange to think that Buddhist principles can lead to better principles of wealth building, but selflessness and a detachment from the emotional aspect of building wealth, particularly the emotion of greed, can markedly improve one’s ability to build wealth.

If Buddha Was a Stock Picker

Approaching relationships with a Buddhist mentality, one would not enter a relationship by assigning false hopes or characteristics of glowing positivity to a potential partner that one was just getting to know. Furthermore, one would not become excessively attached to your partner, feeling a compulsive need to call or text message him or her every single hour of the waking day. If Buddha invested, he would also apply these same principles to choosing stocks. He would not assign numerous positive qualities to a stock from a single glowing TV report or newspaper article without truly digging deep to confirm that such a positive view was well justified. Furthermore, Buddha would never become enamored with a stock and hold on to a stock if it lost 25% of its value, convinced that it would come back. Instead Buddha, due to his credo of non-attachment to material things, would set the stock free and let it go once it had reached a certain stop-loss limit.

If Buddha Searched for a Financial Consultant

The Dalai Lama says, “If you want to be wisely selfish, care for others.” In martial arts, my first instructor, Sensei Dukes, told me that he could teach me to lose all fear, even fear of dying. He told me that all fear was rooted in ego, and that if you learn to let go of ego, all fear disappears. In relationships, all jealousy originates from ego. On the other hand, happiness originates out of selflessness. If Buddha were to invest and turn his money over to a financial consultant, Buddha no doubt would eliminate all persons that he even suspected of suffering from the vice of greed. If Buddha suspected that a consultant would fully invest all of his money when dollar cost averaging into the market would make more sense due to uncertain market conditions, Buddha would eliminate this person from consideration.

If Buddha heard a financial consultant brag about himself or herself as the best, the smartest, the one that manages the most money in his or her office, he would eliminate this person from consideration as well, realizing that such an extreme ego would lead to selfish decisions that were not in his best interest. If Buddha believed that the financial consultant was not selfless, but instead a ?company? man or woman that would tow the company line to satisfy his or her boss rather than make the best possible decision for his investments, Buddha would also eliminate this person from consideration.

In fact, Buddha would probably ask the financial consultant is he or she was invested in the exact same assets that he or she was recommending for him. If the answer was no, Buddha would be skeptical. If the answer was yes, Buddha wouldn’t necessarily be convinced that he had found a winner, but it would be a start.

If Buddha Ran an Investment Firm

But let’s return to the concept of ?non-attachment? for a second. Non-attachment in communication manifests itself in honesty. During conflict resolution, an adherence to non attachment manifests itself in the deliverance of ?I? statements rather than accusatory statements. Two of the main selling strategies of investment firms is utilizing the powerful emotions of fear and greed.

Fear is utilized by selling people on the fact that diversification is the best risk-reward setup for you the client. In reality, diversification is the lowest common denominator strategy that allows all firm consultants to allocate your money in the least amount of time to produce mediocre returns just good enough so you won’t leave but yet free up the most time for consultants to gather more assets for the firm.

Firms further utilize fear when “selling” clients on the necessity of diversification by leading clients to believe that more highly concentrated positions in fewer asset classes or fewer countries exposes clients to higher risk and thus higher possibilities of losses. Again, this is not true. More highly concentrated positions in fewer asset classes and fewer asset classes will lead to much greater returns if performed thoughtfully and with insight. However, this process requires time, and time is a commodity that acts as the enemy when the goal is to maximize the amount of assets gathered and thus, the amount of fees that can be charged. What reduces the amount of time needed to allocate your portfolio, but also returns? The theory of diversification. If Buddha ran an investment firm, he would never use the fear-driven Modern Portfolio Theory of diversification to manage a single client’s assets.

Greed is utilized by convincing clients to place their money in higher risk but higher-commission or higher-fee products with the hope of quick, easy returns. If Buddha ran an investment firm, he would invest in the exact same assets that he would purchase for his clients.

If Buddha Wanted to Build Wealth

If Buddha dated, Buddha would probably not subscribe to the Jerry Maguire mantra of ?you complete me?. Instead, just as every martial artist knows that only he or she can defeat him or herself, Buddha would probably work on improving himself first, knowing that such self-improvement would attract the perfect partner and save him many hours or years of searching. Likewise, if Buddha was an investor, he would no doubt desire to learn to invest himself instead of just handing his hard-earned millions over to a financial consultant, the overwhelming majority that have their selfish interests at heart versus the interests of the investor.

Buddha the investor would realize that there is no easy-way to build wealth, and that the easy path to investing, i.e. handing your money over to someone else, is often the path that will cause the most mistakes and grief. After all, if that average financial consultant has at a minimum, 100 clients, how many hours of personalized attention can your portfolio possibly receive? Buddha would realize that with a million dollar account, if managing his own account would yield $150,000 more a year than handing it to someone else, and that the effort required to do so would be one hour per day, or 260 hours a year, that this time commitment would be tiny on the effort-reward scale. Unless Buddha’s job paid him more than $576 an hour, the effort required for self-improvement in the investment knowledge arena would most definitely be worth the returns and rewards.

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Achieving Financial Success With Patience

Oct 25

Posted by admin in Finance, Wealth Building

The Holy Bible says, “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.” (Psalm 90:4)

Do you want to achieve all the goals you set for 2006? Do you want to achieve success in your career, business and family? Do you want to live the life you ever desire? All these are possible only if you can remove all excuses from your mind, demolish procrastination and stay focused in life. Nothing great gets accomplished in life without viable goals. It is one thing to set a goal and another thing is to wait patiently for that goal to become a reality.

Adversity may unexpectedly set in when you are trying to achieve a major goal in life but you must realized that the adversity you will experienced is for a purpose. And you must look unto God through prayers, fasting and meditation in order to overcome such adversity.

The truth is that, there is no short way to success. Any short way to success leads to a dangerous end. There is time for everything as the Holy Bible makes clear. Man has to struggle and yet wait for his time.

The Book of Proverbs says, “The horse is made ready for the day of battle but victory belongs to the Lord.” The seed is sown; and the Lord, in a mysterious creative process, makes it to germinate, to grow, to blossom and bear fruit.

The seamy side of life, the get-rich quick attitude has been a dangerous syndrome and the bane of our society. I once read a shocking story of an armed who was once asked why he chose to be a criminal instead of learning a trade. His reply was that all his friends in that evil and perverted habit were rich at tender age and he wanted to be like them. It was too late for him to realize that he was heading for an early grave. It was also too late for him to realize his dangerous mistake as he was caught and sentenced to death by hanging. While all his ill-gotten properties were confiscated. His final word was for young men to wait for their time. Only God knows what would be the faith of his family and friends.

God ordain things to happen to us at certain times in our lives in order to justify the trust we have in Him. We need to sacrifice a lot of things for us to succeed in life such as time, money, going through pains and learning lessons as we soldier on. Sometimes your patience may be sorely tried. Do not ridicule a small initiative or effort even when much time and energy has been invested as the case maybe.

I also once read a story of a young man who forfeited his monthly allowance to his family for a trade to enable him become somebody in life. The family literary went through “hell on earth” for sometimes before he was able to regain his financial strength. At that period, he avoided all his friends, relatives and associate to reduce spending, and to enable him actualize his goal.

Other sacrifice their time for a particular project just to succeed in life. Sacrifice or self-denial is a thing of the of the innate part of the body. It is an attitude borne out of self discipline and reverence to God.

Again, their is a close pastor friends of mine who I met in Lagos State Nigeria at the formation of his church. He had to send all his relations living with him packing, and also reduce the feeding allowance to his family. He was called all sort of name including his innocent wife. The man was determined with all moral compass to achieve a goal in life. He had to also resign his job with an oil company for lack of time for God’s work. All that was apparently to the detriment of his family most specially his wife and children. He wanted to achieve a goal though God’s work. He decided against all advice from his family and friends not to resign his job; but he disagreed and went ahead to resign.

After two years of pains, trials and tribulations, the young man became one of most successful men of God of our time. He has a large congregation and build one of the biggest churches in Nigeria today. He has re-united with everybody. It was right when Eleanor Roosevelt said; “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

God can do all things for you as long as you can diligently seek Him with a pure heart. Whatever He promised concerning you He will do. He knows your heart desire and He is full of grace and mercies. The basic truth is that God’s delay is not God’s denial.

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Global Warming : It’s Real and It’s Creating Opportunities to Build Wealth

Oct 25

Posted by admin in Wealth Building

I have never believed that Peak Oil was real despite the plethora of experts that claim its legitimacy. In life, the majority of people will believe something as long as enough talking heads repeat the same thing and enough newspapers proclaim it as ?fact? or ?inevitable?. Global militaries realize this as well and you can find such instruction in many military manuals ?

To get a nation, or even a world, to believe something, even if it is not true, print it in the major media. Then the whole world will believe it if it is in print. I have always formulated my opinions by trying to understand the origins of such claims rather than accepting something as truth because I heard about it on TV or read about in a paper. But the reality is that many people are lazy and would rather have someone else tell them what to think.

In December, 1999, a great majority of people all over the world believe in Y2K because the media made us believe in its catastrophic inevitability ? a catastrophe that was supposed to cripple the world that never happened. I believe Peak Oil is the same. But just as the theory of Peak Oil was invented by an employee of Shell Oil (and it’s just a tad ironic that the Peak Oil theory contributed to rising oil prices), I wouldn’t be surprised if the Y2K theory was invented by some employee of the computer/tech industry the theory most benefited.

However, I do believe that global warming is real. In fact, the reality, and not they myth, of global reality is changing the Peak Oil situation. Extensive melting of the polar ice cap is currently opening up previously unexplorable areas to exploration. This is not just true for mineral reserves but also for natural gas and oil reserves. This is Reality #1.

Reality #2 is that 375 billion of oil reserves are believed to lie beneath the polar ice cap. That would increase world oil reserves by 1/3rd.

Reality #3 is that with improved 4-D seismic imaging technology that can locate oil reserves much more efficiently and accurately, we will soon know if those estimates are accurate.

Reality #4 is that again, improved technology is making drilling to depths that were previously unfathomable, well, fathomable. Peak oil is based upon static reserves being depleted over time. With possibly 375 billion of oil reserves now accessible, that calculation significantly changes.

But access to huge amounts of oil is not the only investment opportunity that global warming is creating. In addition, with the rapid melting of the Arctic ice, a very important strategic shipping lane is opening up to sea vessels ? a path that would shorten the current shipping distance between Asia and Europe that passes through, you guessed it ? the Panama canal ? by 5,000 kilometers.

In 1903, the United States engineered a revolution in Columbia in order to set up an independent Republic of Panama. After they accomplished this, the U.S. named themselves owner of the strategic Panama Canal ?in perpetuity? and established military bases in Panama to ensure their control. This situation lasted for almost ? of a century until the canal lost its strategic importance and the U.S. turned over control of the canal to Panama.

The U.S. has already stated their official lane regarding these new shipping lanes. Despite Canadian sovereignty of the Arctic north, the U.S. has stated that they intend to use this new shipping lane regardless of Canadian consent. However, some of these shipping lanes, with sufficient melting, will fall outside of the legal jurisdiction of Canadian territorial waters so this contention may very well be moot.

However, an equally large, if not larger point of contention, will be the claim to the mineral and oil reserves that lie underneath these waters. In addition to possessing huge reservoirs of natural gas and oil reserves, the Arctic is home to vast amounts of diamonds and gold and uranium mineral resources that have previously been unexplorable. Canada claims that their exclusive economic zone which gives them sole rights to exploration extends 200 nautical miles from their coastline. This claim is being disputed by the United States, and perhaps other countries as well. So just as the U.S. seized a strategic military passageway in 1903, you can be sure that claims to this strategic Arctic passageway will be hotly contested today.

These two developments are well worth keeping an eye on. If one international shipping/freight company dominates this new passageway, it will be certain to profit hugely. Furthermore, whatever companies win the lion’s share of exploration rights in this area, based upon speculation alone, are sure to see phenomenal price appreciation.

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Streams Of Income : The Day Of Doing One Job Well Is Over

Oct 25

Posted by admin in Wealth Building

The day of being a one-trick pony is over. I think that has been the point of this season in my life. I was raised to get good grades, go to college and get a good-paying job. And for 40 something years, I’ve remained in that mindset’-putting all my energies into one thing.

Newly separated, I started looking around for what I owned or what skills I had that could stabilize me financially. One, I knew I could use my musical talents. So I put the word out that I was looking to play keyboard for a church. Before long, I entered a subcontractor relationship with a local church ministry. Two, I knew that I was good at typing, desktop publishing, and bookkeeping. Before long, I was producing monthly newsletters. It caught on and others started utilizing my services. In one month, I brought in $3000.

Things were going well at first. What I didn’t understand, however, is wells dry up. Tending to focus on one thing at a time, I was caught off guard when as quickly as the money started to flow, it stopped.

Streams of income have to be primed like wells. You have to get one well working, move to another and another, all the while, keeping a watchful eye on all of them. It reminds me of the juggler who spins plates on a pole. He’s got to spin one and then another, but keep them all spinning. It takes lots of work!

As all my spinning plates crashed to the floor, I felt the answer was finding stable employment. Therefore, I accepted a full time opening with the outpatient substance abuse agency where I was then working part-time as a counselor assistant. Exemplary performance led to an offer to run on office on my own. I accepted the offer. Initially, I felt great. The headquarters office was so chaotic: phones ringing, doors opening and closing, people constantly in each others’ way. It was a relief to be away from all that. At least, at first.

Sometimes revelation can be terrifying. Your wise self knows that something is not for you or that something has served its purpose and it’s time to move on but the timing couldn’t be worse. Fearing uncertainty, I tried to talk myself into the benefits of remaining at my job. I told myself that I was making almost as much money as I was making working with my ex. I told myself that I had a child to feed. I told myself that I was now 46 years old and did not have the luxury of irresponsibility. Despite my valiant arguments, my heart refused to listen.

I had to leave, but I had nothing else.

What I learned during that time would change my life forever and it’s this: do not underestimate the human spirit. It is relentless. If trapped in a prison with no foreseeable escape, the human spirit takes anything’-a popsicle stick, an old spoon’-and begins digging its way out.

As faith would have it, I had already begun a home study life coaching course and was almost done. I took a chance and gave a one month notice to my employer. In the weeks counting down to my last day of employment, I secured a piano-playing job with a local church. Within the pages of my coaching materials were some ideas on how to market my coaching business. My interest was sparked most by E-publishing. I began to contribute content to the directory thereby coaching hundreds of readers. Before long, I located an online publisher who would pay for my articles. I got my first payment within 5 days of submitting.

Today, I have a job interview with a temporary agency. Sound familiar? Don’t be fooled. I’ve shed that stinkin thinkin, that one-trick pony mentality. I don’t plan to vacate my other streams for one job. This time, I have my music income primed and producing. I have an online paying source for my articles primed and producing. Once I get a job, I’ll have three active streams of income. I’ll be doing what I enjoy doing, yet having the money in order to do it.

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Looking For Some Cash?

Oct 24

Posted by admin in Finance, Loans, Wealth Building

For a small business owner, it is not easy to arrange funds and start a new project. You have to face the financial crunch. You cannot put all your personal money into business projects. So, you have to look at the financing options that can provide cash on a reasonable rate for the smooth working of the business activities.

Today, you are not confined to the traditional means of getting a loan. You can also opt for some creative financing options.

Innovative Financing Options

Sometimes, a situation arises where you cannot acquire conventional loans. In that condition, you can opt for some non-traditional financing methods like:

Participating Bond Transactions (PBTs): Such transactions don’t involve an advance refunding. You can preserve a higher percentage of operating income, and take advantage of the lost-cost environment of a tax-exempt charity. You cannot only retain the ownership of all assets and operations, but you also will encounter reduced regulatory risks. It is very much suitable for joint ventures.

Off-Balance-sheet Options: In this the assets financed should be supplementary to the core business. Through operating leases, synthetic leases, and joint venture leases, one can own and use an asset that is actually owned be a third-party investor. In this way, neither asset nor liability gets recorded on the balance sheet.

REIT: Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) acquires a collection of real estate assets and leases the property to one or more operational organizations. In this way, it trims down the overall cost of an expansion plan.

Receivables Financing: If you are facing a really rigid liquidity situation, then this financing option is good for you. It demands the sale or undertaking of an organization’s account receivables and the securing of financing against these receivables.

In a fast-growing economy, banks and non- traditional lenders have emerged in the market to provide loans to small business owners. The most famous of these are finance companies and loan offices. The loans offered by these companies are generally secured loans, demanding some asset as guarantee of repayment. In automotive financing, such loans are quite popular.

If you are looking for home loans or property loans, then mortgage companies are a good option for you. If you have your own property and you want to get loans for some other purpose, then these companies can also help you.

A number of funding options are available in the market. Before choosing your favorite, you should analyze and compare the pros and cons of every option. It will help you get a better deal if not the best. If you face any problem, you can consult a financial expert or you can search the websites of finance companies. Proficient advice can help you make the best decision.

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Why All the Guilt About Being Wealthy?

Oct 24

Posted by admin in Wealth Building

There’s a strange dichotomy in Western culture, with people desiring great wealth but also believing that the rich should feel bad about having so much. We watch TV shows devoted to lifestyles of millionaires, envying their marble-tiled bathrooms, private jets and closets full of $300 shoes, but we also feel like actually having all that money is something to be ashamed of. It really doesn’t make sense.

The basis of our capitalist society is the acquisition of wealth it’s called the “American dream,” and our economy relies on it. Money provides us with food, clothes, shelter, cars and a wide variety of luxuries, and it also makes our later years more pleasant. But many people find it difficult to enjoy wealth once they achieve it, suffering from an affliction that’s been nicknamed “affluenza” ? a sense of confusion, guilt and even depression that hits the newly rich.

Sometimes acquiring wealth brings with it an overwhelming fear of losing it, with the subject becoming increasingly anxious over investments, expenditures over home improvements, and small, seemingly unimportant purchases. Terror of losing money may make someone scared to take risks with their money, even if they made their money through risky speculations in the first place. It can also turn rich people into penny pinching misers, spending thousands of dollars to build a tennis court behind the home but never picking up a lunch check.

Self-made entrepreneurs who hit it big often become workaholics, as if they have to burn the midnight oil to justify their success. They say they’re working so hard to provide for their families, yet their families don’t get enough quality time with them. In the process of building their fortune by devoting the lion’s share of their energies to their business, they lose the love of the people closest to them. But actually enjoying their money isn’t an option for many of the newly rich, who get in the habit of working so hard that they never take a break to play a little.

But money – particularly money that you’ve earned through hard work and smart investing  shouldn’t something that causes family problems and depression. And it certainly shouldn’t be something of which to be ashamed. Sure, movies and television usually portray rich people as mean, bitter people who have no qualms about stabbing others in the back to get what they want. But there are as many good-hearted rich people as there are good people of modest means. Millionaires like Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey create foundations to spread portions of their wealth among those less fortunate and still enjoy their money, building fabulous houses and flying their own jets to far-flung locations.

So achieve your dreams of wealth and then take the time to enjoy your money. After all, it’s what you’ve been working towards. Being rich doesn’t make you a bad person any more than being poor makes you a bad one it’s all in how you choose to live your life, so make the most of your success and have a good time!

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