As we mentioned in previous articles we know that our government only represents about 30% of our retirement income. The company retirement pension plan offers another 30 % and many of us do not have one. It is up to individuals to invest wisely short and long term in order to make up for the short fall if he or she would like to live comfortably after retirement without giving up some retirement plans. In this article, we will discuss investment return and inflation.

1. Inflation risk
Inflation means too much money chasing too few goods, and this results in prices for goods and services going up. Inflation may also be expressed as too much money having been printed by the central bank causing too much money compares to the same goods produced.
Sometimes with the economy’s down turn and to avoid the country falling into recession, some governments may overreact with stimulated packages, causing too much money in the market resulting in inflation. Normally, in the inflation period, interest rates to go up, all leading to a vicious spiral.
Inflation is measured by the annual percentage (%) change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
In this environment your investment’s real return must be higher than zero, otherwise you are losing money. Real return = rate of return of investment minus inflation rate.

2. Interest rate risk
Investment always carries interest rate risk
a) All long-term bonds are sensitive to ups and downs of the interest rate. When interest rates go up, long term bond prices suffer the most compared to short term bonds, and low rates do the opposite.
b) It is for your own investment’s sake by diversifying holdings and having debt securities with a range of maturities.
c) Common stocks are also influenced by high interest rates, because the high rates discourage business expansion. When the interest rate is down, businesses are likely to borrow for business expansion.

3. Market risk
The supply and demand law governs the marketing risk as follow:
a) When demand increases, supply decreases, thereby increasing the cost of the product.
b) When demand falls, supply increases at first and then it decreases.

4. Business risk
Investors are attracted to companies with growing or stable earnings, and they usually pay a higher price for investing in them, but under the down turn of the economy, the risk of earnings from the business decline, reducing not only your equity but also your return. It is for investor’s sake to defend against risks in your investment portfolio by understanding current economic conditions, knowledge of investments, and diversification.

I hope this information will help. If you need more information, you can read the complete series of the above subject at my home page:

http://lifeanddisabitityinsuranceunderwriter.blogspot.com/
http://financialinvesting09.blogspot.com/

Even though longer-term business finance techniques might be appropriate for many circumstances, there are some important short-term business loan options that will be less costly in producing improved credit card processing and commercial mortgage results for business owners. Short-term business financing choices can be misunderstood because of a preference by many business owners for long-term commercial real estate loan and commercial loan programs.

Two Important Short-Term Business Finance Options

Two of the most overlooked short-term working capital business loan strategies are short-term commercial mortgage loan programs and business cash advance programs in conjunction with credit card processing. Both of these business finance options are relevant for most business owners but are frequently misunderstood.

Short-term Programs for Commercial Real Estate Investment Financing

A long-term business loan is appropriate for many businesses that own commercial real estate investment property. Business properties should normally be financed with a combination of short-term and long-term business finance funds. When a longer-term commercial mortgage is viable, it is preferable to secure long-term business financing, preferably for 30 years.

However there will be many commercial mortgage loan situations in which longer-term real estate business financing is not appropriate for the business owner. In such circumstances it is important for a business owner to realize that there are viable short-term working capital management options.

When a Short-Term Commercial Mortgage is Appropriate

If a business owner plans to sell or refinance their business within a few years, it is preferable to explore short-term business finance options. The best short-term business loan will have minimal prepayment penalties in comparison to terms commonly included with long-term commercial real estate investment property financing.

The avoidance of business finance prepayment fees and lockout fees fees in some short-term business financing programs is an important benefit of these short-term commercial mortgage approaches. The absence of these potential fees could produce a savings of up to 20% or more if the business property is sold during the period which would have involved lockout fees in a longer-term commercial loan.

Short-Term Commercial Real Estate Investment Property Financing Limitations

There are some trade-offs that need to be understood if a business owner chooses shorter-term business financing even though prepayment fees will usually be avoided with a short-term business loan. When short-term commercial real estate financing is a realistic option, the loan-to-value will usually be no higher than 70%, the commercial mortgage will not be readily available for special purpose business investment properties such as golf courses and the interest rate will frequently be in the range of about 12%.

Best Investing Possibilities for a Short-Term Commercial Mortgage Loan

Warehouse, multi-family, office, mixed-use and retail business properties are the best possibilities for short-term business financing. Business owners should be comfortable with a time period of less than three years for a typical short-term business loan.

Fewer Mortgage Lenders for a Short-Term Commercial Real Estate Loan

There will typically be a very small number of commercial real estate investment property lenders who are effective at implementing the short-term commercial mortgage loan strategy properly. There are also a number of problems to be avoided with a short-term commercial real estate loan, so choosing an appropriate provider is extremely important to any business owner considering a short-term business finance program.

Credit Card Processing and Business Cash Advance Programs

For any business that accepts credit cards as a method of payment, a business cash advance is a critical working capital management tool that is often overlooked. Even thriving businesses frequently need more working capital than they can borrow. One of the least-known business finance strategies for successful businesses is potentially the single best working capital loan strategy for obtaining needed cash for growing their business: the use of a merchant cash advance or business cash advance program.

Primary possibilities to take advantage of this business financing program are service and retail businesses. This credit card processing and credit card financing strategy uses credit card receivables to determine the amount of a merchant cash advance.

Working Capital Management: Credit Card Financing and Credit Card Processing

This business financing technique is called credit card financing or credit card factoring. Some business owners might have used a business finance technique referred to as receivables factoring to sell future receivables at a discount and receive immediate cash.

Many service and retail businesses cannot document business receivables to obtain a business loan. Businesses such as bars and restaurants do not typically have receivables to use for business financing.

What these businesses do have in many cases is documented sales volume and documented credit card sales activity. It is this documented level of sales volume and credit card sales activity that becomes a financial asset to the business and its business finance strategies. Business cash advances from $5,000 to $300,000 can usually be obtained based on a merchant’s sales volume and future credit card sales.

A business financing merchant cash advance must usually be paid back in less than 12 months. For business owners that want to renew the working capital cash advance program, it is typically possible to get more working capital after payback of the initial advance.

Limitations and Problems to Avoid with Credit Card Processing and Merchant Cash Advance Programs

As with any successful business finance strategy, there will typically be only a small number of commercial lenders who are effective at implementing this working capital management strategy properly. There are also a number of problems to be avoided with business cash advance programs, so choosing the appropriate provider of this commercial financing service is extremely important to any business owner considering a credit card financing program.

Financing, Loans and Commercial Finance for Churches at Church-Financing.com.

Nearly all Churches necessitate the need of a commercial real estate financing. The financial sources for real and substantial estate includes: Regional banks, Private investors, Insurance companies, Saving and Loan institutions and Mortgage banking firms. First let’s touch on the obstacles that occur during the process of acquiring the church mortgage loans & church financing.

The Major Church Financing Difficulties:
(1) Church properties are unique and so, for this reason Lenders have a great apprehension regarding this matter because if the loans are not paid within a stipulated time, Lenders will be accounted for it. They have to assume ownership of the property. Owing to unique property features, it is not going to be easy to come across a new owner.
(2) For getting the hold of church loans, Lenders often entail the need of “personal guarantors” especially on account of prior observation with reference to the complexities that are involved in selling the church property again.
(3) When the church financing needs are attained, there are many objectionable terms that get exist. Such as: Minute amount of loans, low loan-to-value (LTV) of 50% to 60%, short-period time of loans and rates of high interest. By this, churches get many possibilities to face the countless financial difficulties.
(4) More than Purchasing and/or Refinancing, Church Financing, Church Construction Loans, Church Renovation and Land acquisition loans are considered as more intricate to deal with. Therefore, needed repairs are delayed for an indefinite period and new churches take lots of years to become a reality.

The Practical Solutions for the Problems which have been Issued above are:
(1) High LTV: High LTV of 75% to 85% would generate a realistic amount of about 15% to 25% that can be utilized for the purpose of down payment or non-financed portion in refinancing.(2) Long-term loans: To make the church financing more successful, rather than short-term, church financing should be of a long term, i.e. up to at least time period of 30 years.
(3) Non-Recourse Loans: Being reluctant towards individual guarantors fetches a non-traditional church lender. And than through this approach, church lending will no more rely on individual guarantors for the church financing.(4) Large sum of Loan: Ability to accommodate large church loan needs, at least of $500,000. This move would than persuade churches to finish their most business financing in one stage rather than by going through many stages.
(5) Low interest rates: Churches are being charged with the sky-scraping interest rates than it is actually required. Church financing payments can be phenomenally reduced if the payments are restricted to prime plus 1% or less than that. As a result, long-term church loan as well as decrease in overall payment will improve the church cash flow considerably.

For more detail log on to www.church-financing.com. Church Financing is a church loan division of Griffin Capital Funding offers church financing and loans with no personal guarantees, favorable rates and good terms.

When you start off looking for a mortgage it can very quickly become confusing. There are so many different mortgage products on the market at any one time that its hard to know which one is the one for you.

One of the products that you will probably research is bank rate mortgages. They can raise a whole host of questions in their own right so read on and try and clear the air regarding bank rate mortgages.

Why do bank rate mortgages vary? What makes the interest rates of these bank rate mortgages rise? What makes those of bank rate mortgages fall? These questions race through our minds whenever we are faced with a financial situation that requires us to understand a little bit more about bank rate mortgages.

The answer is simple enough. Bank rate mortgages are moved by several factors that are different from but are somehow connected with each other. Not surprisingly, one of these factors that affect the movement of bank rate mortgages is you – the consumer.

Bank mortgage rate money come from any number of sources. Bank mortgage rate money may come from deposits at banks and brokerages. Most bank mortgage rate money comes from investors who comprise the collective term, “capital markets.” These capital markets are where the purchase of debt instruments like bonds and bank rate mortgages are done.

To attract investors, sellers of bank rate mortgages and bonds in these capital markets compete with one another. This is done by providing their consumers with a variety of products, such as bonds and bank rate mortgage. These bank rate mortgage products have varying levels of risks and gains over given periods of time. In turn, these offerings compete with other investments which possess certain similarities in terms of performance. These include US Treasuries, corporate bonds, foreign bonds, bank rate mortgages, and others.

The bank rate mortgage investors act like typical consumers. That is, like you, they want two opposing things: low payments on their bank rate mortgages and high returns on investments. The demands of these investors play a significant role in moving the yields of the bank rate mortgage markets. The marketplace for bank rate mortgages is crowded because investors literally have hundreds of places to put their money into.

Sellers of various products like bank rate mortgages compete with others for those investor dollars. Demands for specific products, e.g. bank rate mortgages, rise and fall according to the changes made in the investment strategies. For instance, if demand for bank rate mortgages falls, a change needs to be done to attract investors again. And this is usually done by raising interest rates on bank rate mortgages.

Then again, bank rate mortgages are never that simple. The market makers of bank rate mortgages do not have the investors alone as their client. The other half of the coin is the home buyers. These two clients of bank rate mortgage markets take opposing sides when it comes to investments. The investors want the highest possible return on their investments. On the other hand, the home buyers want the lowest possible interest rates on their bank rate mortgages. The result is a virtual tug-of-war.

As interest rates of bank rate mortgages decline, the interest of investors and home consumers alike are tweaked just a little bit. But this all depends on the direction of the economic growth, inflation, appetite for the given product, and several other factors. A typical outcome of lowering rates for bank rate mortgages though is lesser interest on the part of the investors. No investor would put down in his book a bank rate mortgage with a low interest rate.

Question about bank rates

It is very easy for borrowers to overlook short-term choices for commercial loans. With an economic recession impacting business activity adversely, all working capital financing options should be thoroughly evaluated. This article will describe alternatives such as short-term commercial mortgages and business cash advances.

Due to misunderstandings about long-term commercial financing, short-term commercial loans are often not considered properly. Although long-term commercial real estate financing options are often appropriate, there are practical short-term business financing choices that will be more workable and profitable for commercial borrowers.

The most critical short-term commercial financing techniques typically include short-term merchant cash advance and credit card processing programs and commercial real estate loan programs. Both working capital funding approaches are frequently a source of confusion for business owners.

An underutilized commercial financing strategy for businesses is possibly the best commercial loan strategy to secure cash for their business: a business cash advance using credit card processing. Credit card financing is an effective business financing tool that is usually overlooked by any business accepting credit cards as a customer payment method.

Service businesses, restaurants and retail stores are the most likely candidates to benefit from this working capital cash management strategy. This funding strategy uses an under-utilized business asset (credit card receivables) to obtain business cash advances based upon sales volume. This working capital cash strategy is also known as credit card factoring. Some business owners have used receivables financing or factoring which allows them to sell future receivables on a discounted basis.

Not all service and retail businesses can document business receivables to obtain a commercial loan. Businesses such as bars and restaurants do not typically have receivables to use for business financing. What these businesses do have in many cases is documented sales activity. It is this documented level of credit card sales activity that becomes a financial asset to the business and its working capital management strategies. Business cash advances from $5,000 to $300,000 can usually be obtained based on a merchant’s sales volume and future sales.

The commercial financing repayment requirement for working capital advances is normally under 12 months. The arrangement can be renewed for merchants that need the business cash advance program for a longer time.

There will usually be only a few business financing sources that are regularly successful at executing the credit card financing and processing. There are key difficulties to avoid with a working capital advance, and selecting an effective funding source is essential to an appropriate business cash advance program.

A long-term commercial mortgage is appropriate for many businesses that own commercial property. Business properties should normally be financed with a combination of short-term and long-term funds. When a longer-term commercial real estate loan is viable, it is preferable to secure long-term business financing, preferably for 30 years.

However there will be many commercial mortgage loan situations in which longer-term commercial financing is not appropriate for the business owner. In such circumstances it is important for a business owner to realize that there are viable short-term working capital strategies.

It is prudent to explore short-term commercial loan choices for business owners who want to refinance or sell the property within a short time frame. Appropriate short-term commercial mortgages will have more reasonable lockout fees and prepayment penalties than typically required with long-term commercial real estate financing.

While we will not attempt to describe the technical aspects of commercial loan prepayment fees and lockout fees in this article, we will note that the absence of such fees in most short-term commercial mortgage loan programs is a very positive aspect of these short-term working capital management options. The lack of such penalty fees could easily translate to a savings of 10% to 30% or more if a business owner needs to sell their commercial property during the time period which would have triggered prepayment fees and lockout fees in traditional longer-term commercial real estate loans.

Although prepayment and lockout fees will typically be avoided with short-term commercial mortgage loans, there are some trade-offs to be made if a business owner selects shorter-term working capital loans. When short-term commercial mortgages are available, they will usually not be readily available for special purpose commercial properties, the interest rate will frequently be in the range of 11% to 13% and the loan-to-value will typically be under 70%.

Multi-family, warehouse, mixed-use, office and retail commercial properties are the best candidates for short-term business finance options. For a typical short-term commercial loan, business owners should be comfortable with a time period of less than three years.

Few commercial lenders are capable of successfully executing short-term business financing. There are also numerous problems to avoid with short-term commercial mortgage programs, so selecting a lender is critical to business owners wanting a short-term business loan involving commercial property.

It is sufficiently important to repeat that a vital key to successful short-term commercial loans and business cash advances is selection of an appropriate lender. Despite the potential benefits of shorter-term business financing, the choice of a lending source cannot be overlooked.

Question about working capital