VPI Pet Insurance: the best gift for your pets.

For ages pets are considered to be human's best friend. Petting is an idea which is not new and from the ancient period this practice is in wide use. The pet lovers will agree the fact that , animals posses an unique power to make the humans happy, help them during emergency and create a positive environment altogether. Often the parents of a single child prefer to keep a pet so that his/her child can play with it. Besides the psychologists are of the opinion that the selfish and self centered habits doesn't develop in a child if from childhood they learn to love Pets and play with them. Gradually over the period of time it has been understood that animals(both pets and wild) are very useful resource to the nature. Besides various non profit animal rights organizations have also showed us the value of pets and other animals. But what we are doing for their well being and security?

The answer to this is VPI or Veterinary Pet Insurance. Whenever the question of money matters or finance arises , it revolves around the humans. But its time to think for your pets. VPI is America's number1 pet insurance recommended by 94 % of the vets and it is the most important tool to protect your beloved and cute pet from serious diseases, lab tests, surgeries. Besides in the police and firefighting , dogs play an important role and their protection and health must be strongly taken care of and VPI is the most authentic option for it. 86 percent of veterinarians are of the opinion that they would like to see wider use of pet health insurance among the pet owners, agreeing it gives their clients peace of mind. Nearly half a million of pet owners of America enrolled with a Vet Insurance Policy which proves the credibility and authenticity of the policy. A survey tells that out of every 10 Vets ,9 recommends to buy a VPI.

So if you are a true pet lover and planning to do something for your pet apart from your own financial planning,then the best option would a Veterinary Pet Insurance as Pets are the prized posessions who will always love you selflessly.

Investing huge capital cannot just make you rich. It is just a matter of acting Smartly

In this fast paced world one dream is common to all, & that is “making money”, to become the richest person in the world. We all love to dream and especially when we are sitting idle many revolutionary ideas come to our mind & we think that we can really bring a change, create something unique .Everyone likes to think of the ideal state. But the next day if some investment banker calls us up and asks for an appointment to show us a really good investment plan, we turn him down because to most of the people investment is just a dream and they are not ready to accept that a systematic investment can really make them rich. We think that if we do not invest huge amount, we cannot gain high returns. Now here lies the purpose of the article to show you and motivate you about the fact that only attitude and smart thinking can really make a difference to your life. If for this purpose an example is to be set , then I think the biggest motivating example is a Living legend, known as Mr. Warren Edward Buffet. In this article you will get to know about his historical timeline, which will be enough to motivate you and pinch you to start right now.

Warren Buffett is an American, businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He is the world's most smartest yet simple life leading investors and the largest shareholder and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is declared as the richest man in the world by Forbes with an estimated net worth of $62.0 billion.

His Historical Timeline

1943

At the age of 13 Warren filed his first income tax return, his bicycle and watch as a work expense for $35 for his work as newspaper delivery boy.

1945

At the age of 15 warren and one of his friends purchase a used pinball machine by just spending $25, which they placed in a barber shop. Within months, they owned three machines in different locations.

1950

At the age of 20 Warren applied for admission to Harvard Business School but was turned down. Buffett got admission in the Columbia Business School after learning that Benjamin Graham and David Dodd two well-known securities analysts, taught there.

1951

At 21 years of age Warren was graduated from Columbia and wanted to work on Wall Street, but his father and Ben Graham didn’t want him to do so. He purchased a Sinclair Texaco gas station as a side investment, but that venture did not work out as well .In the meanwhile he worked as a stockbroker.

1952

At the age of 22 Buffett married Susan Thompson.

1954

When Warren was 24 years old Benjamin Graham offered Buffett a job at his partnership with a starting salary of $12,000 a year. Here, he worked closely with Walter Schloss.

1956

When Warren was 26, Benjamin Graham decided to retire and close his partnership. But by then Warren’s personal savings has reached to $140,000. Buffett returned home to Omaha and created Buffett Partnership Ltd., an investment partnership

1957

At 27 Warren already built three partnerships operating the entire year.Buffett purchased a five-bedroom stucco house in Omaha for $31,500, in which he still lives,.

1959

At 29 Warren had six partnerships operating the entire year.

1960

At 30 Warren Buffet had seven partnerships operating the entire year.The partnerships were: Buffett Associates, Buffett Fund, Dacee, Emdee, Glenoff, Mo-Buff, and Underwood.

1962

At 32 Warren became a millionaire because his partnerships, in January 1962, had in excess of $7,178,500 of which over $1,025,000 belonged to him. He merged all partnerships into one partnership. He discovered a textile manufacturing firm, Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett's partnerships began purchasing shares at $7.60 per share.

1965

When Warren was 35 years of age, his partnerships aggressively began purchasing Berkshire; by paying $14.86 per share while the company had working capital (current assets minus current liabilities) of $19 per share. He took entire control of Berkshire Hathaway at the board meeting and named a new president, Ken Chace, to run the company.

1967

At the age of 37 Warren’s Berkshire paid out its first and only dividend of 10 cents.

1969

The age of 39 and the year proved to be very much successful; whenWarren liquidated the partnership and transferred their assets to his partners. Among the assets paid out were shares of Berkshire Hathaway.

1970

At 40 Warren as the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, began writing his now-famous annual letters to shareholders.

1973

Berkshire began to acquire stock in the Washington Post Company. Buffett became close friends with Katharine Graham, who controlled the company and its flagship newspaper, and became a member of its board of directors.

1977

At 47 years of age, Warren indirectly purchased the Buffalo Evening News for $32.5 million. Antitrust charges started.

1979

When warren was 49 years,Berkshire began to acquire stock in ABC. With the stock trading at $290 per share, Warren’s net worth neared $140 million. However, he lived solely on his salary of $50,000 per year.Berkshire began the year trading at $775 per share, and ended at $1,310. Warren’s net worth reached $620 million, placing him on the Forbes 400 for the first time.

1987

Berkshire Hathaway purchased 12% stake in Salomon Inc., making it the largest shareholder and Warren Buffet the director.

1988

At 58 years, Warren Buffett began buying stock in Coca-Cola Company, eventually purchasing up to 7 percent of the company for $1.02 billion. It would turn out to be one of Berkshire's most lucrative investments, and one which it still holds.

1999

Warren was declared the top money manager of the twentieth century in a survey by the Carson Group.

2006

At the age of 75,Warren declared in June that he would give away 85% of Berkshire’s holdings to Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

2007

In a letter to shareholders, Warren announced that he was looking for a younger successor, to look after his investment business. Buffet had previously selected Lou Simpson, who runs investments at Geico, to take up the responsibility. But, Simpson was only six years younger than Buffett.

2008

At the age of 77, Warren Buffet id declared as the richest person in the world, worth $62 billion, by Forbes, breaking the record of Bill Gates who was on the number 1 position for 15 consequent years.

After reading this you will be enough motivated to give up just thinking and will start doing. Smart moves can really make you rich.

Downsizing: a sedetive to kill the Financial pain.

In response to the present global financial crisis and the crisis faced by the US economy in over 80 years, CITI Group, a New york based financial giant has decided to cut 52000 jobs and it has been clearly and formally announced by the authorities on Monday.The main reason behind this drive is to recover the net loss of $20 billion, which the bank has incurred over the past few years. Another logic given by Mr Vikram Pandit,CEO,CITI Group is that the group is planning to implement a new restructuring policy followed by the job cut. It has also been seen by the authorities that the present job cut of around 52000 employees will reduce the cost upto 20%. According to sources, as of end of 2007 the CITI group had 375000 employees and as of september 30, it has 352000 employees. So the latest job cut will bring the total headcount to 300000. Earlier in April CITI Group decided to cut 17,000 jobs, shift 9,500 jobs to low cost locations, under pressure from the investors. The recent descision will affect the Europeon employees the most as CITI Group has its Europe headquarter in London with a total workforce of more than 10000 employees.The CITI Group Executives are under tremendous pressure from the investors to improve performance. The executives are of the opinion that this move will not really save the cost but will slow down the growth process. But it will still unknown that whether CITI Group will cut the jobs of top executives. Thus we can say that Win Bischoff, Chairman, CITI Group , will be spared. The worldwide situation is also same where countries like UK ,France,Japan, Hongkong,India are also facing the same problem as recession is crippling all of them. In a totality all the major Banking giants worldwide has already downsized jobs by 100000. Financial Organizations like Goldman Sachs has also started its downsizing programme by cutting 3200 jobs followed by Morgan Stanley who will cut jobs by 10%,Royal Bank of Scotland deciding to slash 3000 jobs. In Hong Kong ,HSBC has also slashed 450 jobs.The present Financial pain has engulfed the global market & corporates in such a way that the only option available to them is "Downsizing". No financial theories are working well on the situations,even experts have lost the direction to predict the positives.The only option available to deal with this situation is to just wait & watch with patience as only the upward movement of the global financial curve can improve the situation.

Want to make your child a Rocket Scientist?:You can really make your dream come true.

Every parents want their children to become the most successful, most powerful figure in the world. This dream is common to almost all the parents in the world. But dreams are easy to see and challenging to fulfill. The world has become a global village and nowadays the local corporate affairs have really become global, making this world a much more competitive & challenging place to survive. Everyone is running after their dreams but less than half is fulfilled. All the companies are running after profit, people are running after them to fetch a good earning to sustain, and the rising tide of inflation rate is running after people to make them even more miserable. I think the present scenario is affecting the people so much that parents are giving up dreaming as they have become confused and unpredictable about the future of this present situation. But its time for a GOOD NEWS. We all know the saying that "where there is a will, there is a way" and the US government has showed the "WILL" by introducing the idea of a PLUS loan(PARENT LOAN FOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS) which is sponsored federally for the undergraduate and dependent students. With the help of this , a parent can now dream of making his child a "Rocket Scientist" or a "Doctor" as they have got the best funding options to support their child's education.

Criteria for getting the Loan and basic features.
Parents can apply for the loan if they are doing it for the education of their undergraduate or dependent children.Parents of dependent students are eligible to get the loan. Besides the incumbent must be a US citizen. Before application a Credit check is also need to be done. One can take a loan equal to the full cost of his/her child's education. After a new law being enforced by the federal government on 1st July 2006, the interest rate of the loan taken on or after the mentioned date is fixed at 8.5%. The repayment starts after 60days of disbursement of the loan. But a parent can postpone the repayment if his/her child remains enrolled in the course or drops out or continue with the course. But a prior intimation through an written application furnishing the reason must be produced.

Credit Card: a Curse or a Boon?

"Credit Card",two simple words yet very powerful to help you during crisis or emergency, pay your urgent bills and even to ruin you and make you helpless.I think nowadays these three situations are common with almost all the people who own a credit card. From the ancient times human beings have learned the art of customizing anything according to their own need. In the modern times credit card is such a tool. Today credit cards hold different meaning to different people. It is a tool to deal with emergency,a smart device to impress your girlfriend , a way to spend in an unplanned way and finally a tool to make you cry at the end. Though it looks very smart when you open your wallet full of stylish,colorful credit cards for payment of your purchase in a mall or a store,yet many are still unaware of the fact that it has become a global problem.In the US most of the people are facing this problem.specially the student community. The card issuing authorities have acted smartly as they are fully aware of the needs of the students and youths and accordingly made sound marketing strategies to enter the market.But the failure on their part is that they have not mentioned the negative consequences and proper usage methods. This has resulted in unwise usage of credit cards which finally resulted in many suicide cases. The youths often get carried away when they find that with the help of a plastic card ,they can actually buy many things,even if instant cash is not available with them. But they often overlook the fact that spending must be in accordance with the income and ability to pay back the interest. Most of the credit cards charge high interest rates and the students find it difficult to cope up with the situation. I feel that in this global financial crisis,the credit cards played an important role.The banks have issued millions of cards just to gain profit.Their sales strategies were faulty with a poor research. They sold credit cards to practically everyone they wanted,but before that they forgot the fact that how they will recover the money. For example if a bank ,just to maximize its business, issues 100 credit cards worth 2 lakhs of credit limit ,all to the students ,the chances of recovering the debt is very low.I think that it is a crime on the part of the users, as wasteful expenditure is an injustice to the society and this situation is actually creating a crisis and a drift in the society and top of all the financial organizations and the banks are giving indulgence to the matter in order to maximize their profit.

insurance: a basic need.

This article is for two types of people: one who always thinks that he/she has saved a lot for his/her future and also for his/her family and will be able to sustain his life as God has given enough, overlooking the potential risks. The other type of people wants to get insured but has a great fear & dilemma in his/her mind thinking what type of policy to take?how much to invest ? or from whom to take. Now a days most of the Insurance companies operate through Agency model and sometimes people also look down upon this channel as they feel that the agents are mere representatives of the company and cannot manage their portfolio. Don't worry,this article will make you aware of basic Dos and Don't s before purchasing a policy and also about basic functionality of various types of Insurance Policy.

Today I will try to cover all about ULIPs or Unit Linked Insurance Plans as an overview.Don't get scared after hearing the word "UNIT LINKED" or thinking of the present Bearish market situation, you can infact still gain a lot. Making money is just a matter of paitence and time. Now lets start our topic:

ULIP: how they work?

Unit Linked Insurance Policies (ULIPs) as an investment option are very much similar to mutual funds in terms of their structure and functioning. As is the case with mutual funds, investors in ULIPs are allotted units by the insurance company and a net asset value (NAV) is declared.

Similarly ULIP investors have the freedom of investing in their chosen portfolio or funds like the equity funds, balanced funds and debt funds to name a few. Generally speaking, ULIPs can be termed as mutual fund schemes with an insurance component. But why to go for an ULIP..the answer is: wealth maximization can be realized only in the long run and though various companies promise to double your money in one year or so, actually cannot as nothing is in their hands. So it is advisable to go for ULIPS taking care of the present situation as only time can give you actual realization. Besides in ULIPs not all of your money is invested in the equity market.A portion is also kept safe in the debt instrument or money market instrument and you have the authority and freedom to construct your portfolio. But in case of OPEN_ENDED mutual funds you do not have the option. Either you have to invest in a equity mutual fund or a debt mutual fund.Besides in money matters people always have the mentality to get short-term gains.But remember nothing can be gained in shortcut. Besides another good thing is that there is a 3 years locking period in all the insurance policies thus it will act more or less like a fixed deposit for the traditional investors. Thus the option is up to you: you want to play safe? or take a chance? But most of the people don't go for ULIPS due this locking period but I would rather suggest that go for it if you want to gain out of this situation. Besides most ULIPSs are attached with good insurance schemes which will really benefit you and your family. I have seen people suffering due to certain sudden mishap.Anything can happen anytime but the problem is people always ignore those threats or danger. Besides do your Financial Health Checkup to know where you stand? How much you need to invest and covered on the basis of your income , present inflation rate and predictable future inflation rate.(I will publish the Financial Checkup Format in my later posts).

Basic Dos and Dont's before investing in an ULIP

1. Always opt for Child plans or retirement plans due to their smart combination of investment and insurance.
2. Go for a practical term period. If you are 25 then go for 10-15 years term in a single policy .
3. Don't think that you are over insured, no one is over insured, rather always take 2-3 policies with 10-15 years term. As this will give you maximum returns in time of maturity.Besides in time of emergency you can surrender one policy and still you will not have to worry as you have two more policies with you. If you have only one policy with a huge premium and a term of 30 years then think of the situation if something happens you are left with nothing.
4. Always enquire about the sectors where your money is invested, portfolio manager, his experience , surrender charges & allocation charges. Always go for policies where allocation charges are low.
5. Do not believe in fake promises like"doubling you money in 3 years" & etc etc.
6. If any agent contact you,tell him/her to take his/her Sales Manger with him and always give appointment to 2-3 agents of different company to make a comparative study.
7. Always do the financial checkup before deciding on the Premium amount: As a sales manger or agent may convince you to give high premium ..due to his earning benefit.but always calculate that according to your income and expenditure how much you can pay.
8. Besides always try to opt for Half-yearly or yearly premium mode.
9. Fill up the form by your own specially the sections where amount,terms,and name of plan to be given
10. After receiving your policy kit don't keep it in your cupboard rather use the ids and passwords given inside it to regularly track your wealth performance on a monthly basis.