“I already own several properties in the UK where I do a bit of buy-to- let. I’ve got my own little hideaway which I don’t let out, and have dabbled a bit in stocks and shares, but so far I have seen little return on any of my investments.

“This has led me to think that perhaps investing abroad is a better idea. Some time ago I visited an overseas property show where I heard about leaseback schemes, which sounded very interesting. I’m at the very beginning of thinking about all of this, but I would definitely like to know more. From what I recall, you buy somewhere but simply hand over the running of it to someone else and this takes away all the worry about owning a property overseas. After all, it’s easy in the UK if something goes wrong; you can sort it out. But abroad it’s more of a hassle.

“From my understanding, these schemes are only available in France and I don’t think that you can use them yourself; they are merely for investment. This doesn’t worry me, as I don’t want anywhere to use for my own holidays. France definitely appeals. If they exist elsewhere, then I might be interested. But I prefer to invest in the EU as I think this is safer. I’ve got a budget of pounds 200,000; but if I can get three for pounds 50,000 each and spend the rest, this would suit me.”

THE ADVICE

Lynne Williams replies: “The concept of leaseback came about in 1979 in France to provide enough tourist accommodation, but it’s now been rolled out everywhere. We sell in France, which is the world’s most visited country, Spain and Italy.

“The concept is simple. A buyer purchases a freehold property and they have the title deeds, then Pierre & Vacances enters into a contract whereby we leaseback the property, initially for nine years with an automatic renewal for a further nine years. We guarantee the owner a rental income, which is index linked and up to 4.5 per cent. We cover all costs, such as maintenance and utilities, and the only extra charges the buyer pays are the rates, which they have to do by law.

“There are many advantages for buyers. They get a secure long- term income and there are options to use the property themselves if they wish or they can exchange their time and stay in other developments, which are also in the scheme. However I must stress that this is nothing like timeshare as a buyer retains the title and freehold.

“But the major incentive is that the management company handles everything. I’ve known of owners who’ve had years of fun and games handling the rentals themselves but it’s hard popping back and forth when you’re in a different country.

“There are also major tax incentives. Under this scheme buyers are entitled to reclaim VAT, now at 19.6% in France. If they sell before the term ends they don’t get this benefit. All properties are sold furnished, are in a refurbishment programme, and all properties must be of a certain standard.

“Anyone who is considering leaseback should use a reputable company who have been operating for a long time. In France we’ve had cases of companies who’ve offered higher returns but who have only been able to sustain them for a few years and then have gone bust, leaving the buyers without any guaranteed rental income.

“My advice to Peter would be to get a fixed-rate mortgage – cheap in the Euro zone. If he’s guaranteed an income of 4.5 per cent and his mortgage is 4.25 per cent fixed for the whole term, where’s the risk in that? The cherry on the cake is that he can expect excellent capital appreciation at the end of the term. The only thing to bear in mind is that to get the maximum advantage this is a long-term investment.”

Lynne Williams is the international sales director of Pierre & Vacances (020-7368 1633, www.pierre-vacances.fr/immo)

THE SOLUTION

Property one: Bonavista, Bonmont, near Barcelona (above).

Price: One- and two-bed apartments from EUR135,000 (pounds 92,000).

Agent’s details: Situated on an 18-hole, par 72 championship golf course, the development consists of 216 fully furnished apartments split among seven two-storey buildings. Each has sea or golf course views. The clubhouse includes; restaurant, bar, conference and meeting rooms, terrace, pro shop and buggy hire. Facilities include four tennis courts, a semi-Olympic swimming pool, small children’s pool, jogging trails, exclusive access to the beach and a fitness centre.

Property two: Calarossa, Sardinia (below). Price: Studios from EUR105,000 (pounds 71,000), one-bed apartments from EUR130,000 and a two-bed starting at EUR170,000.

Author: Interviews by Ginetta Vedrickas

Spending some money on maintenance once in awhile protects the money the owner has already put into buying it.

It is important even if the home is rented out to someone else to live in.

Topekans voted to issue $7.5 millionin bonds to help construct the track, which first opened in 1989. If the race track is well- maintained, we can count on it to continue producing income for us.

The present renter is Raymond Irwin, who has operated the track since early 2003. Irwin has asked the Topeka City Council for $5 million to apply toward $15 million in needed repairs and upgrades.

Even if a renter is contractually committed to maintain the property, it is often in the property owner’s best interest to pay for some upkeep the renter either can’t or won’t do.

The city benefits greatly from the events at the track. Irwin cites a study done by Washburn University indicating the Topeka economy benefits by about $45 million a year from the thousands of race participants and fans who come to the track for several events each year — events usually lasting several days.

After Lario Enterprises decided to stop operating the track, there was fear for awhile that the track might be abandoned, until Irwin showed up.

Irwin said the track will host more than 40 more racing events this year than it did in 2003, but some of those events will leave Topeka unless the track is improved and repaired.

There might be room to find a package of improvements that would meet Irwin’s minimal needs within the amount of money the city could find to contribute.

Maybe Irwin could scale back the package of improvements, or find other sources of funding.

In light of the recent concern over a tax increase needed by the city to make its debt service payments, this wouldn’t be a good time for the city to be increasing its debt by $5 million.

However, the city works from a long-range capital improvements plan that is updated every year to reflect changing needs. Among the projects scheduled for 2004, 2005 and 2006 might be some that could be postponed for a year or two to free up some of the funding Irwin needs at Heartland Park.

Author: Capital-Journal

While attacks such as Zotob cripple productivity on computer networks around the world, most technology experts say that a more serious threat is current money-thieving schemes that attack corporate infrastructure and lurk on the Internet. As criminals have shifted their activity from scattershot attacks on IT infrastructure to targeted fraud leveled at specific businesses and individuals, they have become even harder to track down.

And although laws that force businesses to disclose data breaches are shedding light on those incidents, there is likely an epidemic of unreported computer crimes that involve the theft of cold, hard cash, said David Marcus, security research manager at software maker McAfee.

For advice on how to secure your network and applications, as well as the latest security news, visit Ziff Davis Internet’s Security IT Hub .

Deciphering the web of finance and money laundering shared by those committing the attacks is virtually impossible, he said.

“It’s likely that there are many, many attacks that steal money from businesses that never even get reported, so these guys are getting away with it and no one can follow where the money is going,” said Marcus, who works in McAfee’s Avert Labs, in Santa Clara, Calif. “[Thieves are] using online payment companies to launder their profits and exploiting the shortcoming of international law enforcement [so that they can] run and hide their money in any number of ways.”

Underground networks aside, criminals are still capable of using popular payment networks including online sites such as PayPal and E-Gold to mask their activities, the researcher said. E-Gold is becoming increasingly popular, since users can circumvent government tracking of paper currency by dealing in shares of precious metal.

Law enforcement officials agree that it’s almost pointless to go after the fraudsters carrying out targeted attacks such as phishing schemes against banks and other financial institutions. Instead, they’ve turned their attention toward stopping the influx of adware and spyware being distributed on the Internet. At least there is some hope in tracing spyware attacks?believed to feed into widespread identity fraud efforts?and the unscrupulous Web advertising programs to which the attacks are often linked, said Justin Brookman, an assistant attorney general for the state of New York.

“We haven’t even begun to look at the finances behind a lot of the pure fraud, such as phishing, because of the sheer volume of what is going on; we can have a greater effect in hunting down adware and spyware purveyors,” Brookman said in New York. “We’re primarily looking at adware right now because there is so much money going into it; we’re dealing with large companies that make millions of dollars per year who are much easier to find.”

Read more here about the current state of cyber-crime.

Brookman, who led the New York state attorney general’s case against Intermix Media for distribution of spyware that led to $7.5 million in penalties levied against the company, said that progress is limited by state and federal governments’ lack of resources to solve the problem in the United States and by some foreign governments’ lack of concern over the issue.

However, even in the adware and spyware arenas, there remain serious impediments to following and stemming the money stream, experts say. In some cases, the lax enforcement of standards used to determine the legitimacy of online advertisers by major technology companies?including search giant Yahoo and Internet phone software maker Vonage?is helping to sustain the adware and spyware sectors, researchers contend.

Those companies are guilty of feeding the finances of the malware industry by dealing with companies such as Intermix and Direct Revenue, another company pursued by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer for distributing adware and spyware, said Ben Edelman, an attorney and IT security researcher, in Cambridge, Mass.

Author: Matt Hines

Recycling Kids

No, I’m not proposing putting them in the compost heap – I’m suggesting that they should be shown how to earn some extra pocket money. For instance, they can recycle can and other aluminum scrap.

For slightly older kids you can try recycling containers made of wood, and the palettes that bricks are delivered on to building sites. Remove the nails carefully, and make simple wooden toys that your kids can practice their salesmanship on. Oh, it won’t make them a fortune, but it will teach them things that will be useful all their lives.

Teenagers With Utility Vehicles

This idea is great for teenagers because it encourages them to be active and use their ingenuity to recycle parts from one computer into another. It also teaches them salesmanship which will help them for the rest of their lives.

Those are also the disadvantages for me. I’m too old.

Just drive round when stuff has been put out at the verge, waiting for the annual rubbish collection, and collect computers. Take parts from one computer and add to another till you have a good working computer, then sell it.

For myself I would be more interested in the money-saving aspects. If I was lucky enough to scrounge enough parts to get a fast motherboard assembled in a good mainframe, it could save me a grand or two.

Teenagers And Fit Adults:

You make a profit by buying cheap and selling dear. Right?!

How would it be to buy for nothing – as in recycling? You can’t beat that – or can you? If you are fit enough and have a small truck or utility vehicle you can put leaflets in local letter-boxes offering to cart away their old furniture etc. that is just taking up valuable storage space. You charge them $25 and make it clear to them that you will only take good quality stuff.

What have you done? You’ve got your stuff for less than nothing! They are paying you to take it away. What about salesmanship and where to recycle? There are used furniture shops that will buy all the furniture that you take to them without any salesmanship. Scrap buyers will take all your metal scrap. Again, they have to make a profit on the price they pay you.

Oh, if you are a good salesman you could get more than the miserable price that they will give you, but remember you have been paid to cart the stuff away. If you were a good salesman you would be holding down a lucrative job, instead of doing all the hard physical work of loading furniture onto your vehicle.

You can sell smaller and more valuable items on eBay.

Recycling waste is a matter of opinion. Waste is the opinion of the person getting rid of such things as metals scrap. But someone else will probably want to buy it.

Home Recycling

The idea is to buy nasty houses, improve them and sell for a profit – a very big profit.

1. Look for houses only in a good neighborhood.

2. In the good neighborhood, find houses destroyed by tennants. You know the sort of thing – plasterboard walls kicked in (they respect their feet too much to kick brick walls) and excrement thrown all over the place.

3. Don’t buy houses with serious structural damage. Plasterboard can easily be replaced, and so can walls and carpets and doors and light fittings.

4. Ask several estate agents how to increase the selling price of your property. They get a commission for sales based on the value of the sale, so they are eager to help you.

How to recycle waste for enormous profit.

So far I’ve told you about waste recycling ideas that have the following disadvantages

* Salesmanship needed

* Physical fitness needed

* Utility vehicle and drivers licence needed

* Technical skill needed

Author: Ian McAllister McAllister

personal loans for the unemployed.

Human desires are unlimited but the finance that one acquires always
seems to be scarce. The payday loan is credited directly into the bank

account of the borrower.

In the first case, the loan is approved quickly because of a special
requirement of borrower. Borrowers, in a few cases require loan urgently.

There are numerous reasons to use a payday loan company. For starters,

cash advance personal loans are short-term loans, thus you do not incur
longstanding finance charges and fees. Do you spend a lot of time and

energy courting prospective new customers, hoping to pump up your
bottom line? If so, you’re probably missing an untapped source of sales

that exists right inside your company — there’s truth in the statement
that your customer list is your most valuable asset.

There’s a gold mine of opportunities to make easier sales and create a

loyal following of customers that will return time and again by using your
existing customer base to grow your sales. But when I ask small business

owners what action they are taking to keep in touch with current
customers, the answer is normally “we don’t.”

How do you turn a pile of dusty invoices and sales receipts into profit

generators for your business? How can you create loyal customers who
will return time and again to increase your small business bottom line?

There are three keys to creating customer loyalty.

1. Know Who They Are

Do you? Compile and maintain a list of your customers. Track their habits.
Monitor your list so you know when they are doing business with you

differently. Then ask why.

2. Know What They’re Worth

Unsecured loans, on the other hand, require no collateral but almost
always have a higher interest rate than secured loans. Since secured loans

commits an assurance against the loan claim there is a huge market of
loan lenders who are providing for secured loans. Some of these like the

credit check are necessary for determining the reliability of the borrower.

An individual who is caught in the midst of debt trap can take a debt
consolidation loan, to reduce the debt burden and become debt free in

the future by paying the existing debts.

Although bad credit history may prove to be a temporary obstacle in the
process, it definitely doesn’t prevent you from getting the money you

need.

I overheard a remark the other day. It was, “Oh, that lady. I barely pay
attention to her. She comes in twice a week, but only spends about five

dollars. What a waste of my time.” Have you had the same thought about
any of your customers? Before you dismiss the customer that only spends

five dollars, take a look at her long-term value. How often does she
purchase over time? How many people does she refer to you that have

the same spending habits? A $5 customer can really be worth over
$50,000 in the long term and should be treated like a queen.

3. Take Action

Your customers are busy people. They need to be reminded that you

exist and how you can eliminate their pain (wants or needs). Have you
ever received mail from a company and decided to save it so you could

“check them out later?” Then you find that piece of mail in your “to do”
stack months later and realize you never contacted them. Your customers

do that too. You have to remind them. Often. Customer loyalty is not
rocket science. But it does take consistent effort. Over 90% of small

business owners are letting money walk out the door of their business
each and every day. Are you one of them?

The loan can be repaid over any term between 5 and 25 years,

depending on your available income and the amount of equity in the
property that is to provide the security for the loan.

Credit card debts can mount up and get out of control quickly, you can

reduce them today! The payday loan is credited directly into the bank
account of the borrower. Cash advance loan and no fax payday loans are

some of the classes of instant loans that are prevalent nowadays. Usually
the loan lender is not bothered about the reason for which you are taking

the loan. Some people even take secured personal loans for things
consolidation of credit card debts. Consolidation of loans undoubtedly

constructive but you must learn to never again get into credit debts
again.

Only a few years¡¯ back traditional lenders ruled the UK loan market. The

loan process was lengthy and full of hassles. Borrowers had to wait for
months to find whether they will be getting the loan or not.

Direct loans are convenient, flexible and simple. A Direct loan is a loan by a

lender to a customer without the use of a third party. This type of loan
enables the lender to have greater discretion in the distribution of loans.

Author: Terry Smith

There are plenty of online home business plans. You just need to look for the one that suits you best. For your convenience and for the convenience of all the uninitiated souls, here is a quick lowdown on some of the popular working from home opportunities online.

Paid online surveys are a great way of making some extra cash while working from home. You don’t really have to expend too much in this home business opportunity. All you need to do is just fill out simple MCQ-based questionnaire. The payment depends on the length of the questionnaire. Longer the survey, more the money! An average survey takes about half an hour to complete, and the pay ranges from $5-$75 (some companies even pay more). Apart from money, you can also look forward to free sample products, entry into sweepstakes, and occasional bonus amounts.

Pay Per Click (PPC) is another viable option that you can explore working from home. PPC is actually a strategy to increase the popularity of a website by increasing the traffic flow on that particular site. You just have to click on the links to the websites and get paid in the process. Before opting for this home business option, make sure that your PC is fully loaded with latest anti-virus, anti-spyware, and anti-malware tools since you never know the veracity of the sites you are about to visit.

Paid posting in forums and blogs is another paying option that can give you small but steady income. The forum and blog postings are a great way to increase the popularity of a website and in return the owners of these forums and blogs pay the posters decent money. Even if the payout is small, you’ll require minimum skills to actually post on forums and blogs because grammatical skills don’t carry much weight for these postings.

Author: Thomas Lindblom

1. Slow down. A rush to judgement can leave you wanting to believe what may not actually be true. Good trusting people have been getting scammed since the beginning of time, so whether the business opportunity you are looking at joining costs a little to get started or it costs a lot, you should do your due diligence and thoroughly check it out from top to bottom.

2. Visitingto several discussion forums can give you some insight from people. Visit a search engine and search for “discussion business opportunity” or “work from home forums” and join a one or two. Use the forum’s search facility or ask questions to see if people are aware of the opportunity you are thinking of joining. Look at the comments to see if there may be a problem. Also beware of people who complain and would never make any money no matter what they did because they did not work.

3. Enter thebusiness name at Complaints.com and see what comes up.

4. Ask for a reference list. Either call or email and ask for comments. Certainly do not invest a lot of money without doing more research.

5. Contact the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to see if there are any issues that have not been resolved

Make sure you never pay to work for someone. This seems like a simple thing, but it is amazing how many people will do this. Buying a how to book or a paid membership program is o.k. if you use it to help you get started. Most legitimate work from home programs will require some sort of investment to cover the cost of material they provide. Paying someone to work is different from this.

Affiliate programs are a good example of how to work at home without spending any money doing it. Network marketing businesses will require some money to get started. Franchising can be a way to work at home, but you could spend thousands of dollars to get started.

Any business opportunity should have a website that is easy to navigate. You should be able to locate either a contact us or email button. They may have a phone number. Real testimonials should include a person’s name and a way to get ahold of them if you want to. It is easy for anyone to put up fake testimonials.

Another thing you can do is look for the most successful people and contact them. You will get the real story. Usually they will let you know how they did it and how much work is involved. If there are product or commission issues you can find those out as well.

Author: Suzanne Morrison

(PRWEB) June 5, 2005 — Both New and Experienced Internet Entrepreneurs alike, are finding it easier to access useful business tools, as well as the latest trends in Profitable Online Money Making Opportunities. With TrueBizProfits.com you can cut time spent on research by finding exactly what you need in a One-stop Resource type environment. Offering not only valuable products and services, a user friendly menu, and a Featured 5 Hot List, but also in the works is promised to be a page containing Free Marketing Tips that will help maximize profits for any online business.

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President, MNMC, LLC

www.MyNetMarketingCenter.com

The simplicity of www.TrueBizProfits.com is appealing to all online users. You just click on your page of interest, find a link to what you need, make a purchase if you choose, then leave to continue conducting business online. The website TrueBizProfits.com provides a place for all levels of entrepreneurs to view areas of interest with the ease of direct links to more information on any items chosen. Visitors can expect to find the hottest products, services and the latest online money making opportunities using TrueBizProfits.com.

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Author: Sok Nou Meas