Free Retirement Plan

The California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CSTRS) is the second largest public pension fund in the nation, providing retirement, disability and survivor benefits to California schools educators. Over 776,000 kindergarten through community college educators are members of the CSTRS, which currently has an investment portfolio of $142 billion.

Keeping quality educators in the California schools is of primary concern to everyone in the state. Without well-educated California schools youth, the city, businesses and economy of the state will suffer. Thus, when Lionstone Group, a research-based real estate investment firm, announced last month they and CSTRS had formed a discretionary $100 million real estate investment fund, the news was well received by everyone. As with any organization, good benefits will attract and keep quality educators in the California schools.

What makes the announcement so exciting is Lionstone’s track record with another fund it created with the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund (OPERF). Called the Cash Flow Office One, the fund has consistently exceeded expectations since its inception in December 2002. At that time, OPERF committed $75 million to the fund, expecting Lionstone to invest the capital within 24 months. Lionstone invested over 80 percent of OPERF’s capital within 12 months with excellent returns. OPERF expanded its funding commitment in 2004 and now has over $200 million of equity and owns 20 office buildings around the country that are valued at $550 million.

Like OPERF’s fund, the California schools educators’ fund, known as the Cash Flow Office Two, will target high occupancy office buildings in permanent locations across the United States.

CSTRS has committed $100 million to the fund, which can grow to over $500 million over time. Lionstone contributes one percent of the fund’s total equity. With the combined equity added to debt of up to 50 percent loan-to-value (LTV), the total buying power of the fund is approximately $1 billion.

The Lionstone Group was formed in 2001. It creates national investment strategies using primary research. Dedicated teams execute each investment strategy, including the fund for the California schools educators. Before creating the fund with the California schools educators’ retirement system, Lionstone refined their investment process to target locations that produce buildings with lower risk factors, according to Lionstone Principal Dan Dubrowski.

The California schools CSTRS Portfolio Manager Michael Thompson stated that the Lionstone management team over the Cash Flow Office Two fund is very entrepreneurial. He added that their skill set will enable CSTRS to continue to grow their core real estate portfolio.

This news gives all California schools educators hope for a better future, knowing they have an excellent resource during their tenure with the California schools and in retirement.

Patricia Hawke
http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/california-schools-educators-retirement-system-and-lionstone-group-create-investment-fund-54740.html

I need some information about environmental risk management, I mean about what environmental risks and liabilities are and how to manage them and about environmental insurance! Can anyone introduce some resources? or can you give me some information?

IRMI is an outstanding source of information about insurance and risk management. This link is to IRMI. On the page are articles specifically related to your subject.

http://www.irmi.com/Expert/Topics/RiskManagement/Environmental.aspx

One of the fastest way to minimise your chances of web business success is to use a Content Management System (CMS). There are a number of open-source CMS products, such as phpWS, Mambo, Plone, Drupal, Geeklog, Siteframe, and phpNuke etc and and a plethora of proprietary CMS products espoused by individual web design companies as the answer everything from lack of HTML knowledge to rapid shopping cart deployment etc.

Expressing this in simple terms, its said that possibly as high as 80% of online purchases are made from leads generated by search engines. CMS systems place a huge handicap on achievable Search Engine rankings. meaning there is a direct, immediate and practically insurmountable conflict with business aspirations. There are multiple reasons for this.

Duplication of Content
Search engines loathe duplicate content. In the average CMS, there are numerous common design elements, images, HTML and/or JavaScript code blocks etc, which are portrayed across ALL sites using the same system, and this is not a good thing.

Many CMS systems make it hard to impossible to generate unique page Title, Description & Keyword meta-tags, meaning all pages can look identical in search engine results. Many CMS systems do not permit you to assign keyword-rich image names, or apply unique and specific image ALT tags, and the page file names are usually not directly controllable. Few CMS systems allow you to easily add anchors on specific pages, and to link to those anchors from other pages. All of this translates into losing you valuable search engine optimisation opportunities.

Shared IP Addresses vs. Unique IP
Proprietary CMS systems usually go hand in hand with a “total package deal” that includes web design, web hosting and CMS.

The hosting is invariable on a “shared server” meaning your site has the same IP Address as all other sites on the server. Should a situation occur Where another site or sites are offering very similar or identical products and services, there is a potentially serious conflict of interest which the web design & hosting company will probably not advise you of! The first
site is highly likely to be given priority rankings and treatment by the search engines, and all subsequent sites are highly likely to be consigned to oblivion as Search Engines will probably regard them as “duplicate content!” So two or more “Christmas gift shops” on the same “shared server,” or two or more “human resource consultants” face a problem they will be blissfully unaware of. Having a unique IP address assigned to your site is far more sensible!

Usability
Open-source CMS systems are written by geeks and nerds, for other geeks and nerds. It is painfully obvious that none are written by people with the faintest understanding of search engine optimisation, or an awareness of the old adage “form follows function.” As for “usability testing” there is no demonstrable evidence that any research and science has been applied to either the user or the administration interfaces! Unfortunately, the same criticisms can be levelled at the commercial CMS systems on offer.

CMS and Being Held To Ransom
In terms of the proprietary CMS systems, you are also seriously at risk of being captured and held hostage by your web design company, because they now “own” your site and you cannot easily escape without sacrificing your total investment. In this respect, use of CMS demonstrates a complete lack of business risk analysis. From that point on, you can also be
systematically milked like a cash cow for every amendment, change, edit etc that they carry out on your behalf! Believe me, it happens every day… and I’ve seen people charged $90 for a simple edit that took me less than 2 minutes to implement!

CMS Saves You Money?
Yeah, right!!! The overheads of managing a CMS are usually far in excess of managing a conventional site. Content percentage-wise, most sites actually change very little, and the majority of pages are static and do not change at all. CMS is total overkill for the average business site.

Stand Out from the Crowd
To succeed on the web today, you need to be a clearly unique entity, with original content, properly organised, logically described, and all pages must be optimised for a set of specific keyword phrases that accurately describe your products or services. Anything less is a compromise, and is to YOUR business detriment. A CMS system has a direct, negative impact on almost all desired outcomes – from minimising business risks, improving search engine rankings and prompt return on investment.

Ben Kemp
http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/content-management-systems-equal-business-suicide-98350.html

Author: Max Redd

If you want to make ‘serious’ money from betting on horse racing, then you have to take the whole business of betting seriously. Treat betting as a mere ‘distraction’ and your entertainment will almost certainly come at a cost.

In Part One of this series of articles on sensible money management, I said that much of the reason people will lose money through betting is because of bad habits. How do you overcome bad habits? Discipline, of course!

If you were running your own business, you would treat it as a business and not a hobby. You would get to your desk on time each morning. As well as doing the things you enjoy about your business, you would attend to all the mundane tasks necessary for things to run smoothly. You would file your tax returns on time. You would have a business plan and you would set budgets for attainable growth. You would aim to make a profit by earning more in revenue than you spend in costs. You would not continue to sell a product at a loss. Etc., etc.

To run a business takes a lot of self-discipline, and so it is with making a long-term profit from betting. It is not as easy as some people would have you believe. If this were true, then tens of thousands more people would be placing bets from their laptop by a pool in Spain, and there would be no more bookmakers in your local High Street!

If you are prepared to discipline yourself, then you are far more likely to elevate yourself from the 98% of punters who continually lose money through gambling.

The very first task you should undertake is to set up a separate account for your betting funds. It is essential you keep your betting activities separate from your other financial affairs, otherwise you will find it very difficult to see if you are making a profit, and how much return you are getting on your investment.

No-one needs to be reminded that you should only bet with money you can afford to lose, but the more money you can set aside for betting purposes, the more likely you are to see any worthwhile gains. You should view your betting bank as working capital, and an investment you have made in your own business.

Do not be tempted to place a bet using your credit card, or the debit card on your current account.

Anyone following my betting advisory service will know that I am always preaching about getting value when you bet. My philosophy makes perfect sense to me, but then I’ve been trying to drum the principle into peoples’ heads for years! But going back to the analogy of running a business, you wouldn’t pay £10 for a product from a wholesaler if you couldn’t sell it for any more than an average of £5. You may make the occasional sale at £15 or even £20 but if the average return is only £5 then in the long run you will lose money.

The same principle applies when backing a horse – don’t accept a price of 5/1 when the real chance of the horse winning should be represented by a price of 10/1

If you fancy a horse to win, but you cannot get the price you want, then have the discipline to let the horse run without your money on its back. Horse racing has been around for more than a century — there will be other opportunities. You should not be betting purely for the thrill of risking money, and only putting your investment at risk with the potential of a good return.

Take the time to review how your strategy is working (or not). How much profit are you making? Which systems or tipsters are making you the most? Without continual review, you will not be able to maximise your returns (nor indeed limit your losses).

Your betting bank should be large enough to absorb any losing runs you will encounter from time to time. This is akin to managing your cash-flow of your business. Having a “large bank” does not necessarily mean having a lot of money sunk into your betting account. Moreover, it means you should be staking only a small proportion of your bank on each bet.

The same £1,000 bank fund could be divided into a large bank of 1,000 points, ie £1 per bet. Or it could be divided into a relatively small bank of just 10 points, ie £100 per bet.

As your bank grows, then the same small percentage of your total funds will represent a higher monetary value.

Do not be tempted to increase your stake on any particular bet. Set your proportional stakes plan and stick to it. Yes, review your stakes from time to time, but never alter your stakes on a whim, on hearsay of a strong bet, or for any other irrational reason. Be wary of getting greedy.

This is a good time to warn you of the perils of betting whilst under the influence. Never bet after having a drink. The reasons should not need further explanation.

If your method of selection is losing you money, then stop betting.

Allow me to expand upon the last statement. If you have a losing day, do not be quick to toss your system in the bin or cancel your subscription to your favourite tipster! Everybody has losing days, indeed everyone has losing weeks and bad months. However, after a reasonable period of time you will be fairly certain whether or not a particular source of bets is returning worthwhile profits.

Discipline will play a big part in managing your portfolio of systems. On the one hand you should not be too hasty to give up on a profitable system, if it suffers a downturn in performance. At the same time, you should be prepared to relegate a system from your portfolio if it is consistently losing money.

Always ‘paper-trade’ a system or tipster over a significant period of time (I would suggest at least two months) before actually committing any of your betting funds. If you are then confident enough to risk your own money on a system, then equally you should be prepared to endure two losing months before dropping it.

If you do find yourself starting to lose money at any point, never be tempted to chase your losses. Do not increase your stakes in an effort to re-coup what you have lost, as you may well find yourself with even greater, unnecessary losses.

To summarise, treat your betting activities in a business-like fashion. Develop a plan and have the discipline to stick to it. Below is a list of Do’s and Don’t’s. For those who need help to adopt a disciplined approach, stick by these rules and you will not go too far wrong!

DO’s and DON’T’s

DO have a separate account for your betting funds

DO try to get value in the price of your bets

DO keep records

DO take the time to analyse your betting

DO be wary risking a high percentage of your bank

DO operate with a bank of suitable size

DO change or drop a losing system

Do NOT bet when you are drunk

Do NOT get too greedy

Do NOT bet without paying consideration to the price

Do NOT bet if you cannot get the price YOU want

Do NOT try and get rich quick

Do NOT chase your losses

About the author: Max Redd has been making a living betting on horse racing for over 10 years. He runs the Redd Racing betting advisory service which offers members a FREE trial and a 60-day money-back profit guarantee. Find out more at http://www.reddracing.co.uk

Max Redd
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-gambling-articles/betting-on-horse-racing-sensible-money-management-part-4-134694.html

Part of the “Expansion Pack” of videos accompanying the video “How It All Ends.” See “How It All Ends: Index” for a roadmap to guide you through the expansion pack.

Duration : 0:9:50

(more…)

I am a CA inter from India. I need to start off a career in financial management and my aim is to be a fund manager. My total work experience in the audit department of a bank is of 10 months and no other experience.

There are various courses (for example: http://www.theirm.org/courses/COcourses.html) on risk management. You could start by getting a job in the insurance industry, they often send staff on free courses in risk management.Otherwise you’d need to research the risk management diplomas and certificates available in your country.
Other sources:
www.edwel.com
www.learningtree.com/courses/286.htm

Managed investment funds are designed to offer the potential for high returns. Using some of the world’s leading investment managers, WealthCap funds aims to deliver high returns and diversification. WealthCap funds are long term investments, each of which is designed to build a diversified portfolio, with funds covering a range of asset classes, management styles, sectors and geographic regions.

Professionally, managed investment funds pool money of numerous investors (for example, unit trusts and insurance bonds). Money is what everybody is running after. It is the only thing that people seem to be bothered about. People are not satisfied with what they have and there is a constant strive to earn more. And once you acquire these funds, the next question that strikes you is: what to do with this money?

That is the irony of the situation. Hence, the only other alternative that is left if you do not consider hoarding and splurging is investment. Be it real estate, property or the stock market, people invest their money in these things, which ensures them a fair amount in return.

Managed investment funds is when many people pool in their money in a single investment to acquire assets of high value, but the ownership remains with one individual. We will now assess the benefits and the risk factors associated with managed investment funds for the benefits of most who have heard about managed funds but do not exactly know what it is.

Benefits of Managed Investment Funds:

The main benefit of managed investment fund is definitely that it provides a platform to the investor to invest in areas, which probably he would have never given a thought. With professional help at hand, one tends to be more relaxed while investing, since expert professionals back them. There are innumerable funds, which are present in the market each tailor made according to the preferences of individuals and thus one can pick and choose among the funds. Some of these funds are a little riskier than others, but the very fact that these funds ensure a constant income over the years coaxes the investor to pool in his monetary resources.

Investment management has assumed high [popularity in Australia now days. Be it Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne or Perth, you will find people curious about investment funds.

However, the greatest advantage of these funds is the professional help that one gets from these funds. They have good contacts with people outside the firm and have access to information, which helps them take timely decisions, in favor of the investment by investors. In case you are among the ones who are interested in investing in these funds, go ahead, but read the risk factors carefully before investing.

For more details please visit www.wealthcapfund.com

Mark Plummer
http://www.articlesbase.com/investing-articles/managed-investments-funds-offer-high-returns-135387.html

I have experienced that in order to make money, I need to have to proper knowledge for it. It is very important to consider that making money is not that simple at all. This is because I have to know how to weigh the risks of investments, as there is no assurance that I will get my investment back.

After reading a number of books and attending a few seminars on wealth creation, I realized that it is important that I should be educated first about money in order to lessen the risks of losing my money and increase the chance of earning more money and retaining it. I have to consider that it is not just all about how I make money, but it is also about how to properly manage my money and my investment.

So what are the affordable ways to learn?

Firstly, there are free preview seminars that are readily available. The free preview seminars usually are meant to sell workshops that last a few days. By attending these free preview seminars, I can still learn something about investment and money management.

For example, there is a free preview on option trading. The free preview is mostly likely trying to sell me certain option trading course or workshop. But I will be able to learn something about option trading in the free preview seminar.

Secondly, I can consider getting financial books or magazines from the library. It is free and I can learn about accounting and finance and ways to effectively handle my money. Also, I am able to listen to audio books on investment and money management in the library. In addition, I can watch educational seminars on videotape or VCD in the library.

Thirdly, I can play board games such as Cashflow 101 that teaches financial knowledge. I can go to cafe that offers board games for playing to play the game with my friends. Alternatively, I can search and join any interest groups that play such board games regularly in my neighborhood.

Next, getting financially educated on the web is also an affordable way to be financially literate. There is always information on personal finance and investment. They are available especially in personal blogs as free information.

In fact, webducation is going to be the next big wave and it is threatening to shut down traditional schools. We are lucky in the sense that Internet technology is matured enough to support streaming videos. Internet technology has caused a lot of things to be available at affordable price because they remove the physical boundaries and the cost of delivery.

What this mean to me is that I am no longer restricted by distance to attend seminars. Even if a financial guru is oversea, I can still learn from him via recorded video seminars that is accessible online. Also, if I have broadband at home, I can learn at the convenience of my home 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The live seminars are recorded and put online for free access or paid subscription. These online video seminars are usually very much cheaper than live seminars as there is no reproduction cost. By comparing against recorded seminars in DVDs, online video seminars are still much cheaper because there is little or no cost involved in reproduction and delivery.

Lastly, I can search and join interest groups that focus on investments or personal finance in my neighborhood. These interest groups usually have regularly meeting to share information about investments or personal finance.

No matter how much I have learned theoretically, my knowledge will be useless if I do not put it into practice. By taking actions to practice, I will have a deeper understanding on the subject.

For example, I have started to invest in stock after learning all about stock investment such as risk management, money management and so on. By trading using real money, I will have a real taste of fear and greed coming into play to affect my investment decision. These are things that I cannot learn by reading books, listening to audio clips and watching video seminars. It is through real experience that I will gain more from my theoretical knowledge.

One thing to note is that if I am practicing what I have just learned, I will not be risking too much money. This is because I know that I will be making mistakes in my investment and personal finance as a beginner. Though learning from mistakes is a quick way to achieve financial success based, I may not be able to recover from a single mistake if I have lose a lot of money in that mistake. Thus, it is important to be patience in my practice by risking as little money as possible.

* DISCLAIMER *
The author, publisher and distributors particularly disclaim any liability, loss, or risk taken by individuals who directly or indirectly act on the information contained herein. All readers must accept full responsibility for their use of this material.

Max Ng
http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/affordable-ways-to-learn-114674.html

What are the competing products for the Solarc RightAngle Energy Trading and Risk Management Software?
Which are the vendors that sell these products if any?
Are these products customizable, if they are what software tools are needed for customization?

About Us

SolArc, Inc. is the premier, global provider of multi-commodity supply, trading and risk management software and services. Many of the world’s most successful companies use our solutions to exercise greater control over their commodity supply and trading environments while better managing their risk. In brief, we enhance their profitability and operational effectiveness.

Since 1991, we’ve served more than 50 leading corporations, such as Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Constellation Energy, Tyson Foods, Union Pacific Railroad, Southwest Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan and Barclay’s Capital. Our software and services cover a range of vertical industries, including energy, transportation, finance, agriculture, consumer goods and others.

Headquartered in Houston, Texas, SolArc also has offices in Dallas, Tulsa, London, and Singapore.

Expertise

In 1994, our groundbreaking RightAngle enterprise application launched the category of Energy Trading and Risk Management (ETRM) products. Today, the market continues to recognize our leadership in commodity supply and trade operations and our unmatched expertise in meeting the demands of our customers.

Leadership

Our success rate is 100%. Over two decades, we’ve never failed to implement a solution for a customer, regardless of the challenges – something our competitors only wish they could say. Truth is, they can’t honestly make that promise.

Recognition

SolArc was named to the Inc. 500 list as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the nation. Information Week has named SolArc one of the 75 fastest-growing independent software vendors for the Windows Operating System. And New Energy Economy magazine named SolArc co-founder and CEO Brad Anderson one of the top 50 most influential people in energy IT.

According to the Cashflow quadrants by Robert Kiyosaki, I will need to switch to either a business owner or an investor to become wealthy. If I were to choose the path as an investor, I realized that there are certain responsibilities that I need to fulfill.

What are the responsibilities?

To answer this question, let use the example of investing in mutual funds.

As we all know, fund managers managed mutual funds. They are expert and more qualified than the average investor in stock investment. Thus they are in a better position to make money from the stock market.

Another advantage of mutual funds is that there is diversification to reduce risk. The amount of money is pooled to invest in different stocks, thus achieving diversification. These are the two selling points of investing in mutual funds.

When I initially started to invest in mutual funds, I never do any detailed research. Like most people, I simply invest in a mutual fund that I think it will make money. The decision is usually purely based on the information presented by the sale persons. Happily, I invested and forget about it. I felt that since the expert fund manager is managing my investment, I had nothing to worry about. And I never really monitor the performance of the mutual funds.

This did not just happen to mutual funds investment. I did that to other kind of investments as well. I felt that I wanted to spend as little time as possible and leave everything to the experts. I was lazy to learn and manage my own investments actively.

Later, I learned from the Rich Dad’s series by Robert Kiyosaki that financial education is essential. Since I always desire to be wealthy, I have decided to gain financial literacy. After studying for a few years, I have learned a lot of things and that really open my open eyes.

As an investor, I am responsible for the outcome of my investments. No one else is responsible for the result of my investments. This is the part where most people missed out. They thought that they could leave things to the expert and do nothing.

Firstly, I have the responsibility of selecting the expert to manage my investments. I need to select expert based on their track records. In the case of mutual funds investment, I need to select the fund manager who has track records to increase my odds of winning.

Secondly, I have the responsibility of monitoring my investments regularly. If things are not in order, I should consider cutting loss and get out of the investments. In the case of mutual funds investment, if I have invested in a particular sector, I need to check that there are no bad news regarding the sector that may affect my investments. If the sector is expected to perform badly for the next few years, then my mutual funds investment will definitely perform badly. Then, I should consider cutting loss.

Thirdly, I have the responsibility of choosing the correct investment company. If an investment company has financial problems, then I face the risk of losing money if the company were to liquidate. In the case of mutual funds investment, if the fund house had financial woes, I would be asking for trouble by investing my money with them.

Next, I have the responsibility of choosing the right investment product. If I choose the wrong investment products, I am almost guaranteed to loss money. In case of mutual funds investment, if I had chosen a dotcom fund just after the dotcom bubble had burst, I would definitely be losing money.

Then, I have the responsibility of getting the cheapest investment cost. If I have choose an investment with high investment cost, then it simply means that my investment return needs to perform better than the high investment cost before I can make money. In the case of mutual funds investment, I should look out for ways to reduce sales charge, expensive ratio, fund management fees and so on.

Lastly, I have the responsibility of planning for my investment. Like what I have learned from the Rich Dad’s series by Robert Kiyosaki, investment is a plan. In the case of mutual funds investment, I should time my entry and my exit properly. The performance of the mutual funds goes up and down over the years. If I had not set any profit target for my mutual funds investment, then I would be holding on to the funds indefinitely. I would end up not selling my mutual funds when there is a reasonable profit. If I needed my money when the market had dropped, then I would be losing money by cashing out at the wrong time.

The above are just some responsibilities as an investor. They are by no means complete. I believe when I learn more, the list of responsibilities will grow. In short, one need to be responsible for one’s investments.

* DISCLAIMER *
The author only provides the material and information as a layperson’s views about an important subject. The materials and information are from sources believed to be reliable and from his own personal experience, but he neither implies nor intends any guarantee of accuracy.

All the materials, information and procedure in this book are only the author’s personal opinion. You must consult your own professional advisor and other reputable sources on any matter that concerns you or others.

The author, publishers and distributors are not competent and do not profess to give legal, accounting, medical or any other type of professional advice. The reader must always seek those services from competent professionals who can review your own particular circumstances.

The author, publisher and distributors particularly disclaim any liability, loss, or risk taken by individuals who directly or indirectly act on the information contained herein. All readers must accept full responsibility for their use of this material.

Max Ng
http://www.articlesbase.com/non-fiction-articles/be-a-responsible-investor-102531.html