Understanding Mortgages

So you are ready to stop renting and buy a home. What is the full price of the residence; the price the seller is asking or willing to accept, the real estate agent’s commission, the cost of the mortgage, the legal fees and, of course, the down-payment. Have you saved enough to cover the down-payment, other borrowing expenses, insurance and home furnishings or do you have to borrow from family, friends or commercial lenders? Any mortgage provider, broker or agent is willing and anxious to help you.

Retiring Young

At a very young age, two people committed to a socioeconomic partnership that would see one party generating a fixed income while, the other tries to build a business (non-fixed income) to off-set inflation and generate investment (non-work) income for the foreseeable future. A retirement plan must start when you are young. 20-30 years old. Youth is wasted on the young. So, many youngsters do not take the advice offer to them. A young couple planning a family is best served by one of them in stable fixed income employment and the other with time prioritized to guide the children, maintain the home and grow a young business, hence one income to pay the family’s current bills and the other willing to be present for the family’s future.

Too Much Money

Money is an economic tool used to measure transactions. Such transactions can involve tangible property (Land, Building, Equipment, Furniture & Fixtures and Inventory Products) or intangible property (Royalties, Intellectual and other legally documented agreements). Put very simply, money measures market forces (supply and demand). If supply is low, plenty money is demanded but if there is a high supply very little money is demanded. If one considers Returns on Investment (ROI), which is a mix of Interest Income, Dividend Income and Gain or Loss on Share and Property Value, as a tradable product such as tomatoes or gold, which is affected by supply and demand pricing, then one understands the value of money.

Business Seasons

Business is a state of mind, a mix of strategies and plans design to meet pre-set objectives and carefully implemented to generate economically driven returns on investment. In recessionary times, with low sales prices and volumes, production is slow sometimes to a dead stop, employees are tensed and stressed awaiting unemployment notices and shareholders are in the sell mode. It is under and in spite of these conditions that the well-trained and experience business mind thrives.

Kitchen Garden

Once these following issues are not adequately addressed the world will always be in a food crisis: The present rate of global population growth; the present economic systems which benefit a few rather than the many; lifestyles successes driven by infrastructural development. And of course, manage responses to climate change. We obviously need an action plan.

I have long argued that the big issues in every society are Health and Education. In this model, Agriculture falls under Health. Feeding people is the only way to build and sustain a healthy society. This further allows for life-long learning and a productive population. Hence, food raw materials or finish goods trade, production, prices and security is an issue high on every Government’s agenda to avoid social unrest.

Constructive Solutions

As a people we constantly have to deal with problems, some can be classified as unintentional but most are of our own making and condemnations with follow. An animal appearing on the highway resulting in costly vehicle repairs can be described as an unintended problem. Not having adequate insurance to deal with the incident (vehicle repairs and of course, the animal) is a self-induced problem. Why would anyone drive without insurance or a healthy cash position?

Right is Right

People make mistakes. We are all subject to the ills of life and will fail to take due care and attention in dealing with certain matters. It is the good among us who will stand up and admit errors, faults in judgment or haste to conclusions. It is the majority of us who will compound errors to defend bad actions or promote others’ bad actions as a defense to our own.

People are both good and bad. I personally believe that all persons are capable of doing good and doing bad when the opportunity arises, as a consequent there are no good or bad people, it is a matter of self preservation. When someone does something good or bad the praise is normally misplaced, from the action to the individual, no person can nor should be defined by an action. The degree of good or bad is defined mostly by publicity, all our acclaimed heroes did bad things but more people knew about the good they accomplished.

More Civics

The current teaching is that in a democracy there are three independent branches of Government; the legislation, the judiciary and the executive branch. A case can be made to remove open politics from the execution of Government services by creating a forth branch; the Public Services.

The legislation is made up of both houses of parliament or congress, elected members representing their constituencies and appointed members representing expertise to review and make new laws. The judiciary is made up of judges and magistrates, officers of the courts sworn to without fear or favor uphold the existing laws. The executive branch runs the country’s economic affairs, policy and budget, within the constraints of existing laws and recommends changes to these laws that would improve operational delivery. The public service ministries presently falls under the executive branch and is charged to implement policy directives within budget but without the statutory power to execute.

Executive Decisions

Will thousands of job-cuts really save the organization? Many business executives seem to prioritize their decisions based on personal achievements or advancements, the protection of their salary and other retirement benefits, their personal and family security, their social standing and acceptance and finally, the preset goals and objectives of the organization, despite the fact that they may hold economic power over many subordinates.

Business Intelligence

Most Small and Medium Enterprises fail within the first five years of operations mainly due to poor planning and terrible decision-making (to put it nicely).
Proper research and development will strengthen a business plan by; identifying and quantifying customers’ needs, understanding competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, sourcing suppliers with the best prices and on-time delivery track record, building and sustaining strong banking relationships.