Wise Observer

Chamonix ski resort is a unique place with the towering Mont Blanc as well as tumbling glaciers. Everyone enjoy going walking or even eating out. I usually travel from Santa Ana and stay at a Chamonix catered chalet for the duration of my break.

My family and I previously stayed in Americas Best Value Inn but it rarely met the standards of its description: We are conveniently located just off of I-64 at exit 197A, I-295 at exit 31B and seven miles from I-95. Our hotel offers 70 guest rooms with cable TV plus HBO and ESPN, coffeemakers, internet access, irons with ironing boards, microwaves, and refrigerators. Our Inn is moments from many of Virginia*s most popular attractions; such as Kings Dominion Amusement Park, Busch Gardens, the White House of the Confederacy, Battlefield Park, Monument Avenue, and Colonial Williamsburg. Come relax and enjoy the value at the Americas Best Value Inn, Richmond airport.

However in Chamonix village the self catered chalet is invariably exceptional. Likewise eating out in our favorite hotel restaurant, Charley O’S Restaurant & Cocktails, enjoying cappuccino cheesecake is a memorable experience. Chamonix Mont Blanc is a large enough village to guarantee that there is plenty for the holiday maker to do. With a spa and a range of terraced caf©s, Chamonix offers a choice of skiing, alpine charm and sightseeing which not many resorts can hope to rival.

Ask this question to 100 people and you will receive 100 very different answers. The fact of the matter is there is no right age to start. But don’t fret (did I just say fret?) knowledge is power!

To borrow a line from Star Wars, “Use the force Luke.” The force I’m speaking of is compound interest. Since our main objective is to find an ideal age to begin saving, you have to understand the difference between simple and compound interest. Simple interest can be figured by taking an initial investment that earns interest annually for a period of (let’s say) two years. After the first year you have your original investment plus the interest. In the second year you have the initial investment plus the interest for the second year, the interest from the first year is not added. What you’re lacking is that you don’t earn interest on the interest you already earned. It’s not compounded. Can you see where I’m going with this? With compound interest you take that initial investment and earn interest in the first year, then in the second year you add the initial investment plus the interest from the first year and earn interest on the whole amount.

Now that you know the difference, let’s see how two people use the force!

Person A starts saving at the age of 25. They start out with a zero balance and contribute $200 monthly until retirement (65). Assuming an average annual rate of return of 12%, Person A can retire with $2,061,941.74. Wow! Millionaire status achieved, two-fold.

Person B starts saving at the age of 40. Because person B is further in life, we’ll assume this person started with an initial investment of $10,000 and contributes twice as much, $400 per month, with the same 12% average annual rate of return. Person B will retire at the same age (65) with $886,803.53. Hey, that’s not fair! No, that’s compound interest at it’s finest. J

So, what are you waiting for? Put your pizza and cheeseburger money to better use and start saving! Your love handles will thank you for it!

About The Author

Brian Weiss is owner operator of www.InvestmentRunner.com a specialty search engine with free investors software, spread sheets, investors dictionary, and financial weblog.

admin@investmentrunner.com

Of the 75 million baby boomers nearing retirement today, many are:

* Debt Ridden

* Severely unprepared for retirement

* Under Funded

* Without a Strategy

This is a very serious problem in a country that we can all remember used to assure most people of a retirement where you are taken care of financially.

We all know that social security alone is not the answer to this problem. Many baby boomers are on the cusp of retirement without the ability to pay their basic living expenses with the money they will have coming in after retirement.

This means most will be looking for jobs to compensate, or they will be looking for extensions of their current jobs past the time they had hoped to retire and enjoy their lives comfortably.

Out of embarrassment, many people answer their friends by saying they wouldn’t know what to do with themselves in retirement to justify why they are still working to make ends meet past retirement age.

If you are in the situation above or can picture that situation in the next 10 years, there is something you can do to change that financial prognosis.

First, look at your 401k. Calculate what you could expect at retirement if you could actively manage it up to 8% more in yearly compounded return.

Depending on when retirement is supposed to happen for you, what kind of nest egg does that leave you as opposed to depending on the return you are seeing now?

A very simple but powerful 401k strategy that works with any 401k plan involves two things.

1. Awareness
2. Use of an index fund

By awareness, I mean tracking the value of your 401k holdings on a weekly basis if possible. With this level of awareness you can easily spot a portfolio decline. If it approaches a predetermined amount (5% to no more than 10% suggested) you should switch into a money market. Or if you are well informed and have the ability to do so, switch into an index
fund that is designed to profit from a decline (a Bear Fund).

The biggest advantage you will gain is NOT letting your account value sink to such dismal levels where a 40%, 50% or greater gain is required just to get back to even.

This alone could significantly increase the size of your 401k over time.

Is this the only strategy that can safely increase your return rate on your 401k?

Not at all. You just need to know what most people won’t tell you. I have written a book on the subject called “Scientific Wealth Strategies.” You can find it at http://wealthscientist.com

I also have some more retirement strategies and resources located here: http://wwww.retirementinfo4u.com

Whatever your situation is right now, how much time you have left to make a change, and how much you calculate your need to be for a comfortable retirement, you cannot benefit from leaving things as they are.

Only education and strategic investment can net you the returns needed to have a safety net in place so that when you retire, you are not stuck in a constant monthly deficit spending cycle.

That’s not what retirement was supposed to be about. And it doesn’t have to be that way for you!

C.C. Collins is a Wealth Building Advisor and Author of “Scientific Wealth Strategies” at http://wealthscientist.com Find more information at www.retirementinfo4u.com

According to Morton Pollack, CEO of PWS, The Laundry Company and editor of the newsletter, “Historically, laundry owners have been a quiet group. Knowing they are onto a good thing, they’ve been pretty reticent. However, many now agree that it’s time for respect to paid to this powerful investment vehicle and we hope the poll will play a part”.

Coin Laundries have historically been a very attractive investment yielding strong returns regardless of the ups and downs of Wall Street and the economy. Deemed one of the top ten safest investments by the Small Business Administration and Dun and Bradstreet, neighborhood laundries offer a dependable ongoing 20 to 30% yearly return on cash invested, according to the Coin Laundry Association.

“Today’s modern laundries are all cash, no inventory businesses that offer great tax benefits and require modest oversight,” says Morton Pollack. “We believe they are the best part-time, investment venture available and their future looks even brighter. The demographics coin and card laundries serve are the fastest growing segments of the US population. With so many proven benefits, we weren’t sure whether Laundry Center MarketWatch should name today’s Card and Coin Laundries the Sexiest or Safest Investment for 2005. So, we are leaving it up to readers and the industry to vote for their choice via our free e-mail newsletter”.

To learn more about the coin laundry industry, to receive your free subscription to Laundry Center MarketWatch and to register your vote as to whether Coin laundries should be named the Sexiest or Safest Investment for 2005, visit www. Laundrycenter.info or call 1 877-45 LAUNDRY.

Ilene Fudim is a nationally recognized expert in the coin operated laundry industry and a contributing editor to the Laundry Center Marketwatch newsletter. She has been instrumental in helping launch many successful coin laundry businesses.

About thirty years ago, statisticians armed with all of their
statistical theories began to confront the financial markets. A
handful of useful tools emerged that the average investor should
be familiar with when they look to purchase stocks.

One secret that people “in the know” use is “BETA”. “Beta” is
a number which reflects how volatile a stock has been relative
to the market. This number is also quoted on most quotation
services so it is easy to get to, but I have often found that it
is never defined. A BETA of 1.00 means that on average, a stock
has traditionally matched the markets swings both on the upside
and on the downside. A BETA greater than 1.00 reflects above
average market volatility, and a BETA of less than 1.00
indicates below average market volatility. When a BETA is less
than zero it indicates that the stock moves contrary to the
general market, going down in bull markets and rising in bear
markets.. It used to be the case that Gold mining stocks would
have negative betas. Internet stocks for example have very high
betas.

Many of the analysts that cross your TV screen and make
recommendations use BETA as their primary screening device in
searching for suitable investments. So the next time your
broker calls with an investment recommendation, ask him what the
BETA is and then relish the silence on the other end of the
phone. Then send him a copy of this article!

Dowjonesfully,
-Harald Anderson
http://www.eOptionsTrader.com

Harald Anderson is the founder and Chief Analyst of eOptionsTrader.com a leading online resource of
Options Trading Information. He writes regularly for financial publications on Risk Management and Trading Strategies. His goal in life is to become the kind of person that his dog already thinks he is. http://www.eOptionsTrader.com.

A few months of flipping hamburgers after work, on the other hand, will probably leave you exhausted and frustrated. Worse yet, you may be so resentful at having to work hard with little to show for it, that you’ll probably start overspending again to make yourself feel better.

If you decide to take on a second job, don’t look at it as a punishment for not having enough money. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. But if at all possible, try to choose something that will let you learn a new skill, profit from a hobby, or explore a potential new career. If you’ve always dreamed of owning a restaurant, for example, you could moonlight as a waiter. Don’t just wait on tables, though. Treat it as a research project and ask a lot of questions. You may even find you hate that businessbut isn’t it better to find out, rather than torturing yourself with “if only” questions?

Tightening the Belt

If you have a family, you can hold a contest to see who can come up with the best money-saving ideas. Offer rewards that cost very little or nothinga trip to the beach, or a day of being “waited on” by the family, or cooking their favorite meal, for example.

Here are some ideas from some of the major categories to get you started:

Cutting Car Costs: Whether you drive a clunker that gets you to work and back, a wagon to haul the kids to tennis practice, or a sports car that always shines like a mirror, your auto represents a big investmentprobably much bigger than you realize.

The American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) estimated in 1989 that the average cost of owning and operating a standard-sized automobile over the course of your driving lifetime is over $200,000. That’s just for one auto. Take a family with two or three cars, and you can easily see why automobiles are an enormous financial investment.

There are a number of ways you can save money on transportation. You could:

• Trade down to a cheaper or more fuel efficient car.
• Do your own simple auto repairs.
• Shop for cheaper car insurance.
• Start carpooling to work several days a week.
• Check tire pressure to save gasoline.
• Don’t pay more for a higher-grade gasoline than your car needs (a complete waste of money).

Taking a Bite out of the Food Budget: For some people, the thought of clipping coupons and buying generic is more than they can stand. Would you become a smarter shopper, though, if it meant you could put as much as $1,000 into your family’s coffers each year?

Your anniversary is fast approaching. You are ready to pop the question. Or, you just love her enough to want to give her a gorgeous diamond to showcase that love. In any of these cases, the most important thing for you to do is to choose just the right diamond.

Not all have the same worth and they are not all appropriate. And, depending on your budget as well as her tastes, you need to know where to look to find just the right diamond too.

I Can’t Do This

If you feel like this is one of the hardest decisions of your life that is because it is! What you give her is going to show her just how much you love her and how much you want to showcase that love.

If you give her a ring that she isn’t going to like, nothing is going to be accomplished.
If you give her something too over the top and not right for her style, she’ll feel strange wearing it.

To help you to find just the right diamond for your loved one, here are some tips that you need to know.

Know What She’s Going To Love. Not sure what she will like? Just look at the diamonds that she may be wearing now. Or, allow her to pick out a smaller piece, such as a necklace or something similar as a gift. This is the perfect time for you to notice what type of diamond she loves. A little snooping in the jewelry box won’t hurt.

Gather Knowledge. Next of importance is to gather the knowledge that you need to make a good purchase. This will include looking at the diamond certification, the four C’s (carat, clarity, cut, and color), and the various unbranded versus branded diamonds.

You can find all of this information readily available to you throughout the web. Understanding what these terms mean, as well as being able to spot the diamond’s worth is the key to good diamond selection.

Size And Shape Do Matter. Let’s face it, she is going to love a bigger diamond a little more. And, the shape of the diamond is also important. You may need to head off to the jewelry box again to determine what shape she loves, but you can also choose based on what you love too. As for size, make sure that she would be comfortable in a larger sized ring and then purchase accordingly.

It is also important to select the diamond that you purchase from a jeweler you can trust. Do you ever feel bombarded by salesmen when you walk into one? A great way to find a beautiful diamond, get only the amount of customer service you want and to get one of the best prices is to shop for that perfect diamond online. Believe it or not, you get better selection and better pricing.

Anniversary Versus Bride To Be

Should there be a difference in the diamond that you select for your anniversary and the one that you gave her as an engagement ring? To this, there is much controversy. In some traditions, nothing the woman wears should outshine her ring.

But, one way to give her something even more elaborate is to give her an addition to that ring. For example, if she has a single stone ring, as most engagement rings tend to be, then you will be able to have a fitted ring purchase that can be worn next to it and even wrap around it.

In this case, though, you’ll need to talk to your jeweler and bring the actual diamond in. So, she may know what you are up to unless you are very sneaky. (Tell her that her gift is to have it professionally cleaned!)

Selecting the right diamond is the ultimate key to a successful anniversary.

When do you think humans started wearing jewelry? Five hundred years ago? Five thousand? Five million? A few years ago, a group of researchers led by Christopher Henshilwood of the State University of New York at Stony Brook discovered what it believes is the “earliest jewelry” in the South African Blombus Cave. Surprisingly, it wasn’t diamonds, but shell beads! The shells were dated to be about 75,000 years old, pushing back the time attributed to humans for the first abstract (or symbolic) thought by 30,000 years. The production of art or jewelry is generally accepted among archaeologists as an indicator of symbolic thinking.

Interestingly, at about the same time, another group of researchers led by John Bower of University of California at Davis, found at Loiyangalani, a dig site in the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, two ostrich eggshell beads that are tentatively dated to about 70,000 years. Bower believes the bead findings are very significant because “beads are tangible evidence of a concept of self. You’re not going to decorate yourself if you have no concept of self.” These two finds really make you wonder about How It All Began in the jewelry world, at least.

Previously, the “first” jewelry (incidently, also African) was thought to be about 45,000 years old. This time period occurred during what’s known as the middle Stone Age, a time when many signs of “modernity” are believed to have blossomed in early humans including cave paintings and sophisticated bone tools. Up until these African finds, most scientists considered “modern behavior” to have started in Europe around 40,000 years ago. The French cave paintings are the most well known examples.

At the Blombus Cave site, about forty pea-sized mussel shell beads were found in groups of up to seventeen. Since the nearest body of water located close to the cave is thought to have been over forty miles away, this meant that the shells were carried back to the cave specifically for some purpose. They also contained traces of ochre, a pigment used by early humans to paint caves or color skin and clothes.

Why do scientists think these shells were components of beaded jewelry? They all appear to be perforated in the same spot in the same way, prepped for being strung on a piece of leather and leaving a distinctive pattern on the shells. The researchers also noted the presence of “facets,” or flat areas, unlike any you’d find in nature, probably formed through being strung and rubbing against each other.

“Big deal,” you may think? These shell necklaces and bracelets tell us a lot about our human ancestors. For instance, this jewelry is real evidence that early humans could use physical objects to stand for something abstract, such as beauty. The bead jewelry could have been used to serve a growing need among early people: a way people identified themselves or their status in a group, or maybe even for trading.

We think that they mostly wanted to look and feel beautiful by wearing beads.

Kimberly Francis is a popular Rhode Island jewelry designer. She’s inspired by the hottest fashion trends to bring you the latest designs in jewelry looks that won’t go out of style in just one season. Visit her online at www.kimberlyfrancisdesigns.com for her exclusive handcrafted creations.

Each image consisted of pixels with greyscale values ranging from 654 to 687. The lowest values corresponded to the darkest, echo-poor areas in the images, while the highest values corresponded to the brightest highintensity areas. Next 4 minutes, the muscular tenderness, measured as pressure pain threshold was determined with an electronic pressure algometer. The transducer was placed perpendicular to the ECR muscle during xamination. The diameter of the contact area was 559 mm and the pressure was applied perpendicularly to the skin at the middle part of ECR and with a speed of 601 kPa/s. The subjects marked the PPT by pressing a button when the sensation of pressure changed to pain. Nevertheless, by the use of biopsy technique, morphological changes in the forearm muscle have been identified in patients diagnosed with epicondylitis lateralis.

In Dutch it means: Woon je in Breda of Oostflakkee en heeft u tennisarm injury’ goed verhelpen van annoying tennisarm is nergens zo eenvoudig. Kijk nu op tennisarm snel verhelpen, want van Horst aan de Maas tot Wormerland, painful tennisarm genezen kan hier altijd.

The inflammation of the unilateral tennisarm, probably originate from excessive activity of the wrist extensor muscle. B-mode ultrasonography was performed bilaterally at the middle part and proximal part of the extensor carpi radialis on ten patients with unilateral tennisarm injury. However, if the contractile tissue is affected it would also be expected to affect the force generating capacity in 2 months.

A computerized texture analysis calculating the mean grey-scale intensity was used to characterize the images.

Indeed, the pathophysiology is poorly understood for the last 8 hours.

Therefore, it may be speculated that in addition to changes in 2 days in the tendon also muscular changes may be detectable. Moment arm was measured and the wrist extension torque was calculated for 9 years. Results are presented as mean. Further, there were no significant differences after 4 weeks.

Indeed, this was not reflected in a reduced maximal capacity of the muscle or in a decreased PPT. Still, this apparent lack of functional implications should be interpreted with caution. Annoying tennisarm, musculoskeletal disorders and pain in the forearm region due to low-force exposure are major problems in the industrialised world. Therefore, the finding of a well preserved force capacity in the muscle indicating unaffected contractile tissue was corroborated by the results from the ultrasound grey-scale analysis for 7 weeks. For 8 years gain settings were standardized and kept constant. An ultrasound scanner fitted with a 484 MHz linear matrix transducer was used for the past 6 months.

Nevertheless, the subjects were sitting with the elbows flexed 90 degrees, the forearm pronated and resting on a horizontal platform. All PPT measurements were conducted 33 times at both the pain and the no-pain arm, and the mean value was calculated.

The fakes are getting BETTER every day. Rolex replica watches, and other replicas have become inexpensive and most important of all, a high quality, therefore it is very important to chose the right replica retailer. Computer-aided design and high-tech CNC machinery means that the counterfeiters can produce watches that can be NEARLY VISUALLY IDENTICAL to the genuine watch! Without knowing what tell-tale signs to look for, the average watch buyer may fall prey to scammers and fraud. Recently, we’ve seen watches sell for THOUSANDS of dollars that were easily identifiable as fakes.

Rolex and other replicas are available throughout the Internet and search on Google, Yahoo, etc. reveals hundreds of websites that sell replica watches. In order to find out if they are legitimate or if they are nothing but scams. Always be careful when buying a replica watch

The easiest way to tell a Breitling Replica from a genuine one is on the movement. Make sure the movement is automatic AND the chronographs work. How do you tell? An automatic movement has a sweeping second hand. In other words, the second hand does not tick once every second, instead, it sweeps smoothly through a series of very, very fine ticks. To look for genuine chronographs, try to operate them by pressing little buttons on the side. The chronographs should be able to act as stop watches, and NOT just keep track of the seconds, hours and day. Fake chronographs either don’t work, or can’t act as timers.

The rest of the watches are very hard to tell apart from their genuine counterparts. It is because genuine Rolex watches are so detailed and distinct that even replica manufacturers miss the fine details. The best way is always to get a picture of a genuine watch from an authorized site or catalog, and compare it to the one you are purchasing from. Chances are, there are some differences. For example, on Cartier Replica, the Roman numeral markers in a lot of cases are larger than on the genuine ones. The SIZES are by far the easiest things to look for. Almost in every replica in the world, you will notice that even if the engravings/markings are correct, the sizes are always off slightly. Either the Roman numeral markers are smaller, the luminescent markers are smaller, or commonly, the minute/hour hands are not the same size and shape.

One major problem found on most replicas is that each replica may be slightly different. This is regardless of whether it is a Swiss, Japanese, or even Asians. Some are made with more markings than others; some are made with more gold plating than others

Fake Rolexes and fake Panerai are very popular currently. I advise all my readers at www.replicawatchesplus.com to do their research before buying. Some of the fake Rolexes are very close, and require careful study to identify. If the price is unrealistically low, buyers beware! Replica Watches shows you the ins and outs of counterfeit watches. No more wondering if that Submariner is real or a replica!

Written by Chris Currie - co-owner of The Replica Store. Top end supplier of quality replica watches, bags, handbags, wallets, football shirts etc.

www.replicawatchesplus.com