Why businesses fail

I found this little tidbit on the internet, it seems to cover ground always covered with only some insite. Whether a business fails in it’s first year or tenth year, it is typically due to more than one reason. Understanding the specific causes behind small business...

Running a business

At one of my networking events, I was talking to someone who described their business as owning a job and not a business or a career. They were discussing what will be the survival rate of the business, meaning what is the survival rate of industry rivals. Finally,...

Difficulties with Small Businesses

I was reading an article that highlighted the following as issues concerning their financial stability.  Lack of Funds Nothing can hold a business back like money problems. This is even more true for small businesses. While most larger companies have enough cash flow...

The Future of College

It looks like there may be changes in store for college degrees in the future.  Attendance has fallen off, mostly due to the ever-increasing tuition costs and the likelihood of not finding a position that comes close to repaying student loans let alone a lifestyle. ...

Assumable Mortgages

Assumable mortgages are apparently making a comeback amid high mortgage rates. They allow a home buyer to take over the seller’s mortgage, including its interest rate and remaining balance. Roughly 25% of mortgages in the U.S. are assumable. They gained popularity in...

Fix things

As a country we don’t know how to fix anything any more. The world is more complex, a hundred years ago when I was a kid, tv’s had tubes in them.  Yes, I am that old… Now when a tv was not working you would unscrew the back off of the tv and look at the tubes, it one...

Scammers and Check Fraud

If you ever watched a movie or tv show you are aware of some common methods a scammer might use to commit fraud with a stolen check: Altering information on a check: A scammer may use common household chemicals to change the printed dollar amount and payee name on a...

Check and Mail Fraud

What you can do to protect yourself from mail theft and check fraud. There are steps you can take to help reduce your risk of getting taken advantage of by someone engaging in a mail theft-related check fraud scheme. Here are some tips to keep in mind to help protect...

General Illiteracy

As a follow-up to my last post on Functional illiteracy today, I now address the past. General illiteracy rates in the 1930s In 1930, the US Census reported 4.3% of the population aged 10 and over as illiterate, meaning they could not read and write at all. For those...

Functionally illiterate

I was rereading “Pudd’nhead Wilson” by Twain again, I enjoyed it years ago and wanted to reread it.  There was a mention of the illiteracy of some of the populace of Dawson’s Landing MO.  So, I thought where do we stand as a people today in the US. Functional...

Shakespeare bought a pension

It almost sounds like the beginning of a joke, yet it is the truth. William Shakespeare made investments that could be considered annuities to provide him with retirement income, similar to a modern pension. Specifically, in 1604, concerned about his financial future,...

America’s poor savings habits

How many Americans have $10,000 in savings?  Would you believe 4%? Last year, GoBankingRates surveyed more than 5,000 Americans only to uncover that 62% of them had less than $1,000 in savings. Last month GoBankingRates again posed the question to Americans of how...

America’s poor savings habits

We all know that building solid retirement savings takes years, even decades, for good reason. You can easily spend twenty or more years without a paycheck in retirement. That’s why financial advisers strongly encourage everybody to save early and often (just like...

Before Computers there were

Scaccarium – A chequered cloth resembling a chess-board which covered the table in the exchequer, and on which, when certain of the king’s accounts were made up, the sums were marked and scored with counters The Medieval counting table was covered in a  checkered...

Before Computers there were

The abacus, originated in ancient Babylon, is a calculating tool with beads that slide on rods or wires, was in use in the ancient Near East, including regions where Arabic mathematics flourished, says UCDA Design Conference. Structure: An abacus typically features a...

Before Computers there were

Excluding counting on the fingers, counting boards are the earliest known counting device, and a precursor of the abacus. Dust boards were used as counting tools: Dust boards, which were essentially tablets covered with a thin layer of dust or sand, served a similar...

S Corporation Owner Basis Limitations

S corporation shareholders encounter particular restrictions on the amount of losses and deductions they are permitted to claim on their individual income tax returns. These constraints are primarily governed by the concept of basis, which represents a shareholder’s...

Product Distribution

While in college a thousand years ago, I had a professor, who stated that if you could successfully get product distribution setup in Chicago, you could get your product distributed nationwide. I am uncertain if he was correct all those years ago, yet I was willing to...

Beware Private Equity

According to verbal reports given to me by my children Private Equity is removing single family homes, condo and apartment building from the purchase market to create a new class of forever renters. Apparently, they follow the teaching of Lex Luthor’s father in...

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