Fresh Ideas

Archive for September, 2008

The usual saying is that investors should create or focus on their assets and have little debt as possible. Many individuals are now learning that to build net worth through books, seminars and financial gurus that taught, “Managing what you owe” is as important as “Managing what you own.” Therefore, your home-financing strategy should be a key component of your financial plan to ultimately help you build your net worth and get out of the rat race.

Did you know that your mortgage is one of the largest financial transactions you will ever make? That’s why it is important to select the mortgage program that not only meets your home-financing needs, but that also has a potentially positive impact on your financial plan.

As I see it and I think many of you will disapprove this, 15- and 30-year fixed-rate mortgages are not the best choice in today’s financial environment. The appropriate integration of home financing strategies into your financial plan can actually turn your mortgage into an asset. The right mortgage can help you reduce interest expense, maximize potential tax deductions and avoid disrupting a well-planned investment strategy to help your net worth.

What’s the Advantage of Early Paying Off your Mortgage?

Early paying off a mortgage is often more of an emotional goal rather than a sound financial strategy. Paying down principal early may be financially correct for those who are heavily invested in short-term investments, such as certificates of deposit and money-market funds, if the mortgage interest rate is greater than the return on such investments.

Compare your mortgage interest rate with the rate of return of an investment portfolio. Continue making standard monthly mortgage payments when your investment return rate is higher than your mortgage interest rate.

Pay off your mortgage early when your investment return rate is lower than your mortgage interest rate. However, since mortgage financing is generally one of the least costly sources of funds available, mortgage prepayment may not be financially correct for long-term, active investors. Always compare investment earnings with the interest paid on borrowed funds, and keep in mind that earnings on most investments are taxable, while mortgage interest is generally tax-deductible.

There are now mortgages that allow you to pay only the interest portion for a period of time. A disciplined investor can take advantage of these programs to:

• Maximize potential tax deductions.
• Invest or use the payment savings for other more financially intelligent purposes.
• Lower monthly payments.

In Western-style cuisine, the Chinese dumpling is a simple staple, a source of carbohydrates and great comfort food. Done Chinese style, it is a work of culinary art.

This is a concoction made of dough stuffed with meat and/or vegetables. It is often served as part of dim sum. Proper preparation takes a bit of time and effort. But the results, when done correctly, are well worth it.

 

Ingredients

Wrap:

• 4 cups white flour
• 1-1 1/2 cups water
• 1 tsp salt

Chill the water to just above freezing and dissolve the salt into 2 cups of it. Blend thoroughly and add the extra 1/2 cup only if the dough isn’t completely wetted. Knead well and ensure that the result is firm. If needed, sprinkle in a bit more flour. Then chill the dough.

Filling:

• 1 lb lean ground meat
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp brandy
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp white pepper

 

Instructions:

1. Combine all the ingredients, then stir. Don’t overdo it in order to avoid making the meat mushy.
2. Bring out the chilled dough and separate a piece into two parts. Flatten each section until they’re about 1/8 inch thick. Layer the meat mixture onto one then cover with the other. Crimp the edges until the result looks something like a white fortune cookie crumpled around the rim.
3. Repeat until you’ve used up all the dough and meat.
4. The raw dumpling can be boiled or fried, as desired.
5. To boil, use a pot large enough to cover the dumplings with a couple of inches of water. Bring the water to a boil, then layer the dumplings along the bottom of the pot. Stir gently to prevent them sticking together. Continue heating until the mixture boils again. Add a cup of cold water and allow to come to a boil again, then remove from heat.
6. To fry, simply line a wok with a layer of sesame oil and bring to a high heat. Then toss in the dumplings. Remember that woks cook very quickly. You’ll need to keep the dumplings moving in order to get them evenly cooked on both sides. It’s particularly important to ensure that the meat inside is well done.

Serve
The results are often dipped into a sauce of equal amounts of black vinegar and soy.

The Ateneo Blue Eagles dominated the court and captured the championship crown against the De La Salle Green Archers in the 71^st season of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines men’s basketball tournament at the Araneta Coliseum on Thursday, September 25, 2008.

Ateneo swept the best-of-three series, and ending game 2 with 62-51 points. The win was Ateneo’s first title since 2002 and the fourth overall since joining the league in 1978.

This was the fourth UAAP championship titles of Ateneo and second this decade.

20,000 people jampacked the Coliseum of mostly students, faculty members, alumni and supporters of the two premiere universities in the country.

Coach Norman Black was ecstatic of the result of the team’s hard work. Black has been coaching the Blue Eagles for four year’s already and this was his first championship crown in the collegiate level.

Ateneo team captain Chris Tiu made up for his poor performance in the first game, contributing 16 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal.

Nonoy Baclao, who was later on named as the final’s most-valuable player, had 8 points, 10 rebounds and 4 blocks for the Blue Eagles.

The season’s most-valuable player, Ateneo center Rabeh Al-Hussaini, chipped in 7 points, 5 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 block.

Meanwhile, the Green Archers’ star player JV Casio finished with 18 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal, while PJ Walsham and Rico Maierhofer combined for 15 points.

The Archers inched within just 3 points, 47-50, going into the final 10 minutes, with Casio’s triple behind the arc.

Unfortunately, La Salle’s Center Maierhofer was thrown out of the game for taunting.

The Eagles displayed a very impressive defense down the stretch, as they limited the Archers to just four points.

In the first championship game, Ateneo wins over the Green Archers 69-61.

Even if I’m not an Eagle’s or Archer’s fan, still I congratulate the Blue Eagles - the 2008 UAAP 71 Men’s Basketball Champions!

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

I came to read this interesting topic regarding targeting keywords. According to some research, searches on search engines, using only one keyword is not a very good practice for your target market.

It is really important for SEO to use two words on keywords because searching using one keyword only was very general in its sense. Usually, users or potential customers will search using specific keywords, and they know that they can get more specific results by using two words searches or even three words.

According to research, two-word searches rated just a couple of points above three-word searches. The known search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN can drive traffic on your site and it is imperative that you know how to use keywords for the searches to point it in the right direction to your site.

Two-word searches are good and being targeted is much better.

I have read a dozen articles in regards to writing good content for websites and I have come up with a very simple list that really sticks to my mind when it comes to writing successful contents.

All websites that has good content has these features:

• Short paragraphs, about 1 to 4 sentences.
• Updated. Updating the content at least once a week or more.
• Relevance on the context and keywords should not flood the content and there should be variation of it so that it does not look like keyword stuffing.
• Sentences should not be too long and should only contain 10 words or fewer.
• Be sure to check the spelling and grammar.
• Lists should be bulleted or numbered.

I don’t really understand the meaning of investing in stocks, bonds or money market and reading these terms makes me nauseous and vomit. However, I came to read a very good article in MoneySense magazine that completely gave me a good insight on how things are going and how I can understand these in layman’s term.

Actually, this post should have been for a different category, but I think because I already have a category that is all about money, then I should say that it can still fit in.

Let me start by saying that now in these trying times, it is hard to part ways with your hard-earned money to invest in something lucrative that can expand your asset.

Investing in banks nowadays is not making any sense at all, money wise.

Earning money the easy way is very tempting for anyone given the sweet words coming from counselors and advisors.

However, zero or very low risk investment with a very high, and I mean incredibly high return is really nonexistent unless it is a scam.

There are still several investment types that is low to medium risk and give also low to medium returns.

But if you wanted high yield in your investment, you should convince yourself that this kind of investments are also very, very risky and you may or may not gain again your principal.

One good investment is through Government Securities or GS, which is almost risk-free and offered a fixed income instrument for prudent investors.

Investing in GS is considered risk-free because it is a direct and unconditional obligation of the government and the principal and interests are guaranteed – unless the state goes bankrupt which is impossible to happen.

Government Securities type:

The Philippine government issues two kind of GS: Treasury Bills and Treasury Bonds. These GS are issued by the Bureau of Treasury. Some government agencies and government controlled corporations may issue securities but are not called Treasuries.

Treasury Bills mature in less than a year with a tenor of 91-day, 184-day and 364-day.

The Treasury Bonds in the meantime mature beyond 1 year. The present five maturities are: 2-year, 5-year, 7-year, 10-year and 20-year tenors. Investors are being paid through semi-annual coupons.

Sometimes, the Bureau issue bonds for small investors for a minimal investment requirement of P5,000, which are called Retail Treasury Bonds (RTBs) with 3 to 5 years maturity period.

GS are considered low-risk investment, however, the yield is very different in conventional investing process.

The higher the country’s economic situation is, the lower the government will pay for the premium.

The yield however is much better than just depositing it to the bank. Also, one good thing is that you can sell these GS holdings if you suddenly need cash because these are marketable assets. One other good thing is that you may use GS as collaterals when borrowing to a bank.

The average yield of 91-day tenor for T-Bill is 5.895. You may also check the latest Average Yield for T-Bonds through the link on Asia Bond Online webpage: http://asianbondsonline.adb.org/philippines/philippines.php

One thing that you need to take into consideration is that the interest on these investment is subject to 20% final withholding tax.

Dealers of GS requires minimum investment of P100,000 for T-Bills and P1 million for T-Bonds.

There is also another means of investing, which is through Philippines Foreign Currency Denominated Bonds called ROPs. It is a low-risk investment; however, one issue here is that when dollar plunges on its value on the foreign exchange, your earnings will also decrease. ROPs are good investment for OFW and exporters when this thing will happen.

Investing in Tier 2 notes from Banks are also very promising; however, I will discuss it on my other post in regards to that subject.

The second annual Billabong Cloud 9 Invitational Tournament will be held on September 20 to 26, 2008 in Siargao island, Surigao Del Norte.

Surfers around the world together with some local professionals will then again compete with one another in this very prestigious event in the surfing circuit.

 The break in Cloud 9 in Siargao has been tagged as one of the ten best waves in the world and was compared to Hawaii and Indonesia.

The right hand reef break is also the site of the annual Siargao Cup, a domestic and international surfing competition sponsored by the provincial government of Surigao Del Norte, and now the annual Billabong Cloud 9 Invitational Tournament.

Last year’s champion Wade Goodall will again shows off his wares together with 48 of the best tube riders.

Ingredients

• 1 pound ziti pasta
• 1 pound fresh mozzarella
• 3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan
• salt, pepper, crushed red pepper flakes
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 pound sweet Italian sausage
• 1/2 pound hot Italian sausage
• 1/2 medium onion
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes
• 1 can tomato paste
• Fresh Thyme
• Fresh Basil

Directions

1. This will be a very long direction to follow, so please bear with me hehehehe!
2. Remove the casing of the sausages and crumble.
3. Add two teaspoons of olive oil, and proceed to browning the sausage.
4. Put the tomatoes in the blender and puree it.
5. Diced the onions.
6. Chop the basil, thyme and garlic.
7. Add onions and garlic to now-browned sausage. Cook for a few more minutes until transparent.
8. Add the tomato puree.
9. Add the chopped spices (basil, thyme and garlic). Stir this up and let it simmer on low for 10 minutes.
10. Cook the Ziti.
11. Grate your own parmesan, and get FRESH mozarella. You can tell the difference. It’s wet and sweet like ricotta.
12. Cut the mozzarella half of it into 1/2 inch cubes, the other half in as thin of slices as you can manage.
13. Add a can of tomato paste to your sauce to thicken it up and give a more intense flavor.
14. Add the pasta, your sauce, the mozzarella and half the parmesan in a baking dish. Add some salt and pepper to taste.
15. Mix all.
16. Top with the sliced mozzarella and the remainder of the parmesan.
17. Bake for 30 minutes until golden brown.

Third Eye Blind, an American alternative rock band will perform here in the Philippines courtesy of San Miguel beer. This will be for the opening salvo for the Oktoberfest on September 5, 2008 Friday.

Third Eye Blind top hits include “A Semi-Charmed Life”, “How’s It Going To Be”, “Jumper”, “Never Let You Go”, and “Deep Inside Of You”.

Also, this year’s line-up are The Dawn, Rivermaya, After Image, Rico Blanco, and other known Pinoy bands. Oktoberfest begins this September 5, 2008 and ends on December 2008. The event will be the longest Oktoberfest event ever in the Philippines history and the longest festival in the world!

There will also be a record breaking in the Guiness World of Record for the most number of people toasting and the longest bar. 4 stages were also setup for this kick off party at the San Miguel Avenue corner Julia Vargas Avenue.

The 600-meter bar will be from Julia Vargas Ave. until Lourdes Ave. According to record, the longest was from Taiwan, which is only 240 meters.

The world record for the most number of people toasting was set by the United States in Las Vegas, Nevada with 13,500 people. Hopefully, we will beat them hehehe!

Several venues will also host the Kick off party simultaneously in Davao, Iloilo, Olongapo, Cebu, Sta. Rosa and Lapu-Lapu City.

The Kick off party is open to the public. Ticket prices are sold at Php120.

The General Admission ticket (P120) can only give you access to the longest bar and if you wanted to see a good spot on the Third Eye Blind, you’ll need to buy the Gold Ticket (P1500). Purchase of tickets is in the San Miguel building. Tickets can also be bought at the gate during the opening.