Establishing Your Credit - A Better Way To Financial Success

In today's economy, so many people are worried about their credit score. They believe that their credit score is incredibly important. However, if you manage your finances properly, you may never need a credit score. I know this sounds crazy... but relying on a credit score to handle your finances means that you are living beyond your means.

Join the Revolution-Live Debt Free

Imagine if our nation had not overextended itself prior to the recession. What if companies minimized the amount of borrowing that they did? What if your family no longer carried $10,000 in credit card debt or more? What if we spent what we had and not a penny more?

It may sound unfavorable, but when normal means you are broke, why do you want to be normal? That is the question that Dave Ramsey asked many people. He encourages people to live debt free. The concept is not a new one. Even in biblical times during the 7th year all debts were forgiven.

If we look back in history to and learn from our past, let us look at the great civilizations of the past. The longest lasting empires and most advanced civilizations in our history did not allow the levels of debt that our society incurs everyday. Have we forgotten the successes of the past? Have we forgotten the wisdom?

Choose to Be Different

How you manage your debt is up to you. But, if you want to establish your credit why not start by only spending the money that you make. Here are a few tips to help you do that.

Step One-Spend Your Money on Paper Before You Spend It at the Store

I know that keeping a budget can be difficult. However, if every time you get paid, you keep a budget or log of how you're going to spend every penny, you will ensure that you do not spend more than you have. Basically, you sit down with your paycheck and a piece of paper. On each line you write what you owe and what you were planning on spending for certain categories. Then, you total up all of your spending and make sure that it equals how much is in your paycheck. If there is money left over, you need to add a category for where that money will go. A great category if you have extra is "savings".

Step Two-Check Your Budget Every Week

If you are anything like me, you can find time to watch your favorite TV show every week. But, you struggle to find time to check your financial situation every week. By setting a regular appointment to check your finances, you can make sure you are staying true to your budget. It does not have to be an involved balancing your checkbook process. You just need to make sure you are staying on budget. By doing this every week, you ensure that you never get too far off track.

Step Three-Create a Heaven-Only-Knows Category

Okay, we know that we can not be perfect at this system. If you were already perfect at this, you would not be reading this article. So, as a way to give you some flexibility, create a HOK category. The HOK category is your indiscriminate spending money. You can use this for what ever you want. And only Heaven will know what it was used for. Do not overspend. But, feel free to use your HOK money however you see fit.

By using these three steps you can be on the road to a well-established credit and a financially stable situation.

If you are looking for additional ways to manage your finances in a responsible way, read more of Jacob's articles by clicking on his Author link below.

A few others you may find of interest are Dave Ramsey, MotleyFool, and of course, one of my favorites, a book entitled: The Richest Man in Babylon.

How to Achieve Financial Freedom with Your Home

The secret disclosed on how you too could achieve financial freedom through property (and tell the pension companies just where to stick their measly, worthless ‘pensions’) Geoff Morris is a self-made property millionaire who made it in less than 18 months even with a hectic 'day job'. He has written a series of articles to help people like you achieve the same levels of success – as long as you are willing to ‘Go For It!’

Many people these days are getting more and more concerned as they approach retirement age. Even those in their late twenties are beginning to become concerned about the effects of old age. What has brought on such a dilemma in those so young? It is the plight of the pensions in this country that is causing this concern?

Probably.

But there is a solution to all this that could not only remove this fear, but also dramatically improve the lifestyle of all concerned.

What is this solution?

Most people are brought up to believe that their main goal in life is to own their own house, and have fully paid for it by the time they retire.

Why?

What is the point in just scrimping and scraping throughout your working life only to have to sell your house and move down market, or worse still, sell up and rent, while you just try and make ends meet on a pitifully small handout from the State?

As soon as you have bought your first house, you should be thinking about buying your second and your third, and your fourth…..

“What on earth for” , will be the retort of most of you, “ we can only just afford the repayments on the first one, let alone buy any more”

Let’s look at the way most people buy a house, and then lets look at some alternative methods.

The usual way of acquiring a house is to put down a large deposit – somewhere in the region of 10 – 15%, which on an average £200,000 house will equate to around £30,000.

The next route is to take out a repayment mortgage over a fixed term, say 15 to 25 years, where you will be paying a combination of interest on the outstanding loan, as well as repaying the capital.

On top of this, most people will take out some other financial facility, such as an endowment policy coupled with a life insurance policy for the period of the mortgage, so at the end of the mortgage term, they will not only own the house outright, but also have a lump sum. Not a very large lump sum, as a lot of the insurance premiums would have gone towards the life cover purchased.

Now, we have all seen how endowments have failed terribly of late due to overoptimistic performance, so there is no guarantee that the above route wil produce anything other than a tremendous financial drain on this person for a very large period of their lives, and with no real plan for their future except ownership of a house, a small endowment, and probably a ridiculously low pension to keep them going in their retirement years.

However, there is another way. Interested? Then read on….

Let’s look at a totally different scenario, where the couple looking to buy their first house took specialist advice from one of the more reputable property clubs that are around. These clubs are admittedly usually aimed at property investors, but isn’t that what we all should be?

Now, let’s take our example of the £200,000 dream house for our hopeful house buyers. They see a development of dream houses by one of the nationally recognised house builders. Do you think they could persuade the developers to pay the 15% deposit for them? On their own – not a chance, but if our hopefuls go via one of these property clubs, the chances are that the developer would now be willing to pay the 15% as a ‘gift’.

I can see your expression now. “Not a chance” you say. But it does happen, and we can arrange introductions to make this possible.

So, you now have bought your house, and instead of having to find £30,000 deposit, al you have to do is get your self a mortgage.

Now, when you move into a house, especially in your early years, the chance of you staying there for the term of the mortgage is very unlikely. You may change jobs; you may want to move to a different area, or there may be many other reason why you will want to move within a few years. So, the house you have bought is only a temporary residence, and you could almost treat it as a rental property – but with one big big difference.

Whether you paid the deposit, or whether you got this ‘gifted’ deposit from the developers, this money, this equity in the property is YOURS. And not only that, it is a historical fact that house prices, given time, will always increase.

So as this is a ‘temporary’ abode, why go for a mortgage that includes a repayment element in it? Why not go for what is known as an interest only mortgage? What this is then is a loan where you never pay back any of the principle of the loan, but only the interest on it. You will have to pay back the capital at the end of the term, but we will be showing you how easy that can be achieved a little bit later.

Your situation now is that you are paying the barest minimum mortgage repayment, but are also sitting on a considerable amount of INCREASIING equity! You do not have to pay for an expensive endowment policy, although a life policy may well give your other half a comfort blanket.

But now look at another effect, which is called ‘Leverage’. With a no-money down deal, the leverage is enormous, but consider the case where you bought a £200,000 house and put a 10% (£20,000) deposit down on it. If the house goes up in value by 10% the equity in your house will have increased by some £20,000. Now, your initial investment was £20,000, so you will have DOUBLED your investment in 12 months. Not bad huh! Try doing that at your local Bank, or even if you dare, the Stock Market!

So, let’s say house prices went up by just 5% per annum over the next 2 years. This would mean an increase in your equity (equity being the difference between the value of your house and the amount of the mortgage on it). This would mean you now owned an extra £10,000 after the first year (5% of £200,000) and £21,000 after the second year (5% of £210,000 + £10,000 from the previous year). This would mean that your house was now worth £221,000, of which you now owned (£221.000 - £170,000) which comes to some £55,100.

Wow! £55 Grand that belongs to you!

Now, let’s do something with this money!

With a good clean credit record after the last 2 years (assuming you had no defaults on your mortgage payments) you could now refinance your house. You could go to your existing lender (if you have a penalty period in your mortgage), or you could go to any other lender and negotiate up to 90% (subject to your financial status) of THE NEW VALUE OF YOUR HOUSE.

90% of £221,000 is £198,900. So you can release nearly £30,000 out of the equity in your house. And the best thing about this money is it is totally tax free! No capital gains to pay and no income tax! If you don’t believe me, speak to an accountant.

Many people have in fact done this, but have then spent the money on new cars, boats, holidays and the like, but once the money is spent in this fashion, it is gone for ever.

But how about if you went and bought another house, this time as an investment property?

You never know, your friendly developer may be persuaded to give you another gifted deposit, in which case you could buy several more houses (your only expense being legal fees, broker’s fees, and stamp duty, which on a £200,000 property would come to around £5,000). In this case, with your £30,000 you could buy another 6 houses!

But how do you go about buying all of these houses? And how, if they all have £170,000 mortgages on them are you ever going to meet the repayments. Assuming an interest rate of 5%, that would be about £700 per property per month! £4,200 per month mortgage! Heaven forbid. How would you sleep at night with that level of debt to your name?

Some years ago this would have been impossible as there was no real financial system that would enable an individual to do this. However, now, you can get what is known as a ‘Buy To Let’ mortgage, where lenders will usually lend up to 85% of the property in question, as long as the anticipated rental income will cover the repayments , plus a bit. The ‘plus a bit’ tends to vary from lender to lender, but you can very quickly get an answer from lenders on whether they will meet the loan. Also, if you are going to get a ‘gifted deposit’, there are only a few lenders who will offer 85% of the list price, so once again, you will need to use a property club or a broker who is used to this situation.

So, you are now the lucky owner of 6 investment properties, as well as your own house.

You also have a commitment to pay 6 investment mortgages as well, and we totalled that as being some £4,200 a month!

But – you don’t want to have to pay that do you? No! You get tenants in, who very kindly pay the mortgage for you (plus a bit for your pocket and 10% or thereabouts for a managing agent to look after the tenants). You can also take out insurances to cover loss of rent, damage, legal fees on disputes, so it is eminently possible for you to become an ‘armchair’ investor landlord.

However, you now own 6 investment houses, not one. You have already seen how equity can build up in your own house. So let’s look at each of your investment properties.

If each property was worth £200,000, and you got a 15% gifted deposit on each one, you are already looking at an equity of some £30,000 in each unit.

If each property increased in value by just 5% per annum, that’s £10,000 from every unit.

Just look what you would be gaining. You would now own a property portfolio of 6 investment properties worth £1.200,000 of which you would have instant equity of around £180,000, and this would be increasing (at just 5%) of some £60,000 every year. Without compounding this increase, if you sold all of your investment properties after 10 years, you would walk away with well over THREE QUARTERS OF A MILLION POUNDS!

So, do you still believe that – whatever the cost – your main objective in life is to pay off your mortgage?

By all means, have this intention – but only after you have made so many other gains that you can really afford this luxury.

This is just one in a series of informative news articles issued by Geoff Morris.

Others include:

• “How to generate an income in excess of £30,000 per annum without leaving your Day Job” • “How to benefit from Off-Plan property purchases and what pitfalls to watch out for” • “How to use a SIPP (Self Investing Pension fund) to grow your portfolio and protect it from the Tax-Man!’’

Other articles can be viewed by just signing up to his property investment page at [http://www.propertyprofits4you.com]

Geoff Morris has built up a multi-million pound property portfolio in less than 18 months. He has written a number of articles aimed to help others follow the same path to financial freedom. Imagine the peace of mind that you would achieve if you follow the advice to be found in his Free reports and consumer guides to be found at [http://www.propertyprofits4you.com]

Free Debt Help - How New Laws Have Created Debt Relief Options

There was a time when people could get out of a difficult financial situation by filing bankruptcy and get a trouble free fresh start. But with change in laws free debt help has come to the rescue of the masses so that what has been changed by the new laws can get people some respite.

Today what people face are the changed implications of the personal bankruptcy rules given in chapter 7 of the bankruptcy code. According to the new rules anyone filing insolvency will have to pay some part of the debt that he or she owes to the financer. Besides that there are many other types of loans which are not exempted from being written off, such as student loans and government taxes have to be paid in full without any reductions.

These changes in the laws have made bankruptcy an option which should be considered the least when it comes to resolving debt issues.

When one passage shuts new avenues appear. This is what happened with the implementation of the new bankruptcy rulings. People found debt relief as a far better option in the current scenario. With a bankruptcy you will end with a very low credit score, but on the other hand a settlement will give you a lesser damage. Besides when you have to pay a part of the debt then it is best in everyone's interest that maximum amount is waved off. This is what relief options offer.

If you are in need of free debt help you have a better chance of finding it online. Free debt help is available for all those who have a balance in debt exceeding $10,000. There are relief networks that provide information regarding personal debt elimination. Here you can learn all about the available options that you can exercise and benefits that each option has to offer.

For those who think that the new laws are unfair, all that I will say is that the government has its duty to protect all individuals and all institutions from being harmed. The present economic situation in the country dictates that the financial institutions need support from both the government and the account holders. The new laws are here to protect the system without which our economy is likely to deteriorate further. The change was inevitable but the debt relief options give all of us a lot of support which should be utilized fully as insolvency cannot solve anything anymore.

Getting out of debt through a debt settlement process is currently very popular but you need to know where to locate the best performing programs in order to get the best deals. To compare debt settlement companies it would be wise to visit a free debt relief network which will locate the best performing companies in your area for free.

Free Debt Advice [http://www.freedebtsettlementadvice.com].

Finance for Children: How to Provide Financial Education Through Allowance

Are you looking to teach your child about money management? The earlier you start this process, the easier it will be for your child to develop financial habits that will benefit him or her for a lifetime, and prevent them from moving home after college in serious debt. Statistically speaking, they may still come back to the nest, but debt free would be nice. Yet sadly, too many parents avoid talking finance for children as they think it is too advanced. Maybe as parents our finances are not the way they should be, too much debt, late bills, and collections so we chose not to talk money with our children? Don't fall into this category, regardless of your circumstances. Your child can learn to budget wisely starting at the age of three, yes, starting at the age of three, and odds are as parents we'll learn something along the way. By the time he or she is ready to head out on their own, these habits will be so deeply ingrained they won't experience the financial difficulties many of us have had to, and better yet, if they fly back to the nest, they can treat us to dinner! Here are six steps you should follow when setting up an allowance that can teach finance for children in a fun way.

1. Start by determining how much money your child should be receiving and the frequency of payment. If they are old enough, let them be a part of the negotiation. Get creative, many parents will chose chores as the foundation for payment. This is a great opportunity to instill the entrepreneurial spirit in your children. Not just chores, maybe you would like the artwork on the fridge updated monthly, or fresh flowers on the table every few weeks. Give them opportunities to explore their passions, it's a delicate balancing act, putting a value on what the enjoy, but this will encourage them to investigate ways to create income beyond a J.O.B. Which for many of us means "Just Over Broke".

2. Once you and your child have determined what activities generate income, they can be compensated in the form of an allowance. How you choose to pay your children is up to you. Over 50 million people bank online, at our house, over 95% of our money management is virtual. With the advent of online banking, online bill pay, and banking apps it is vital that our children learn how to manage money without having cash in hand. Here you have a few choices, set up a bank account that your child can manage online, or use an online system where they can manage virtual money, like Three Jars, or create a spreadsheet. If they're young enough, consider decorating 3 jars as a craft project, and set up some form of payment system.

3. When your child receives their allowance, you want to show her how to budget wisely. As many financial experts will tell you, the most important thing to remember in terms of finance for children and adults, is always pay yourself first. Before they enter the complex world of bills, investments, and life on their own it is important to build a strong foundation beyond take the money and run. As adults, we use a six jar system taught by T Harv Eker. While this may be complex for children, this is the perfect opportunity to teach them about saving or paying yourself first, spending, and giving. So make sure a portion of the paycheck goes into savings. While it may be a little early to teach saving to create passive income, it's never too early to save.

4. Now for the next step, teach your child to give to charity or support a cause. Again the amount designated for charity will be up to you, but we recommend a minimum of 10%. As your child will learn, giving and receiving are closely intertwined. How often are they asked to raise money for a school event or project? Having a charity account within their allowance will give them a sense of pride knowing that they can make a direct impact. If school fundraisers aren't their thing, let them chose where they want the money to go, there are endless charities that appreciate any support.

5. The remaining money will be the child's spending money for the pay period until his or her next allowance. Whatever he or she has to spend, don't supplement it if they run short. If they run short, this is the perfect opportunity to review budgets, as well as generate financial solutions that avoid debt.

6. The last step is to help your child track his or her spending during this period. This will help him or her to learn finance for children and how important it is. By tracking this information, your child can see where he or she is spending the most money and make changes if needed to ensure the allowance lasts longer. Or better yet, create ways in which they can use their money to create additional income. Work out a deal where he can rent the lawn mower to mow neighborhood yards for extra money. Or buy lemonade mix and run a lemonade stand to double their profits. You get the idea, we can learn just as much from our children when we help them learn to not only manage their finances but be creative in generating income.

By following these steps, you can teach finance for children by saving, spending, and giving. Remember, if we start early, and establish a strong foundation, when our nest is empty, a debt ridden birdie won't be coming back. It will be your child whom you taught to bring home the worm.

Nick Lubbers is one half of The Minivan Millionaires, experts at maintaining family balance while being full time entrepreneurs and parents. They invite you to join them as they provide helpful tips in achieving Family Freedom at: http://theminivanmillionaires.com/

Why Do You Need to Invest in Your Financial Education?

Wikipedia defines financial literacy as the ability to understand finance. More specifically, it refers to an individual's ability to make informed judgement and effective decisions based on sound financial knowledge and understanding.

Our school system was designed to train employees for the industrial age. No wonder you were not taught how to handle your money and make wise financial decisions. Most financial knowledge comes from your own experiences (either good and bad) and your close ones like your parents, friends and relatives. You invest in 401K or RRSP and diversify your mutual fund portfolio because that's what other people do and you don't know any other investment options. It becomes a serious problem during the economic downturns. While many people saw their lifetime saving shrank dramatically from the last global financial crisis, some with a solid financial education became richer than ever. You wonder how they made it.

It is time to invest in your own financial education. It is time for our school system to adopt financial education into the curriculum of high school and college/university. Because a sound financial education gives you an unfair advantage to those without.

In his best-selling book "The Conspiracy of the Rich", Robert Kiyosaki lists four basic investment categories (business, real estate, paper assets and commodities) and says a sophisticated investor invests in all four categories to achieve true diversification. If you have only one source of income (e.g. "Job", "self-employed"), no matter how much you earn, you are vulnerable to any financial instabilities. You need to have multiple sources of income. You need to have more than one investment vehicle to build and protect your wealth. You may ask "Sounds great but where do I start?" Well, the best and the quickest way to success is to learn from those who have been successful. In this section, you will be introduced to some of the most successful and influential investors, entrepreneurs and financial educators of our time in North America. So fasten your seat belt and let's explore their world.

Robert Kiyosaki -- author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, is an investor, entrepreneur, educator and New York Times best-selling author. His financial education book series Rich Dad Poor Dad has been translated to over 100 languages and sold more than 26 million copies world wide. He also created the educational board game Cashflow 101 to teach individuals the financial and investment strategies that his rich dad spent years teaching him. Robert Kiyosaki's perspectives on money and investing are different from traditional teaching. The old beliefs of getting a good job, working hard, saving money, getting out of debt, and investing for the long term are obsolete in today's world. Robert Kiyosaki's teachings focus on generating passive income through investment opportunities, such as real estate and businesses, with the ultimate goal of being able to support oneself by such investments alone. Some of Robert Kiyosaki's bestselling books:

Cashflow Quadrant: Rich Dad's Guide to Financial Freedom by Robert Kiyosaki (1998)

Find out which quadrant you belong to, why people from different quadrant think and react differently and which path to take to achieve financial freedom. Download Notes taken from Cashflow Quadrant.

Conspiracy of The Rich: The 8 New Rules of Money by Robert Kiyosaki (2009)

If you are still in the mentality of having a secure well-paid job and counting on your mutual funds to retire you comfortably at age 65, you need to read this book. In this book, Robert Kiyosaki shares his view of global economics and explores why people are finding themselves challenged by these turbulent times. If you are worried about or were hit by the last financial crisis, you want to be prepared for the next one. Notes taken from Conspiracy of The Rich.

Michael Maloney -- To escape the rat race, you not only need to build wealth but also need to protect it against inflation and financial downturns. Gold and silver serve such purposes for hundreds of years. If you are interested in investing in gold and silver, you've got to learn from Michael Maloney, who is Rich Dad's advisor. Michael's book Guide to Investing in Gold & Silver presents a historical view of economic cycles, money history, gold and silver, fiat currencies, and the Federal Reserve in an easy-to-understand way. It explains how the US government is driving inflation by diluting its money supply and people's purchasing power, why to invest in gold and silver, and how to invest in gold and silver. Through the lens of the history, you know where we stand today and how to prepare for our future.

You will find updated news and analysis on gold and silver investment from Michael's website goldsilver.com which attracts hundreds of visitors daily. You can purchase gold and silver online through his website.

Robert G. Allen -- a Canadian born financial author. Some of his best-selling books are: Multiple Streams of Income, Creating Wealth and Nothing Down. He has helped tens of thousands of people achieve their financial goals with his books and seminars. His Multiple Streams of Income covers the topics such as stock market, real estate, tax liens, network marketing, internet marketing, etc.

Robert Allen reveals the secret formula for extreme networking marketing success through his 14-page eBook "The Secret Formula For Financial Prosperity".

Don R. Campbell -- Canadian-based real estate investor, author, and market researcher. Formerly worked for Sears back in early 1980, Don achieved his financial freedom through real estate. He is the president of Real Estate Investment Network (REIN) which one of the largest organization of its kind in Canada and has more than 15 years history. To be a REIN member, you need to fulfill a 17-month membership obligation. The monthly fee is relatively high to some people but the information on Canada's most current real estate market and education you will get are worthwhile. If you are new to real estate, it is definitely a good starting place and save you many trial and error.

If you are interested in Canadian real estate investment, Don R. Campbell's best selling book 97 Tips for Canadian Real Estate Investors is a must for you. It offers Canadian specific content and advice that are relevant to Canadians.

Chris Martenson -- a trained research scientist, and a former Fortune 300 VP. His free video series Crash Course gives a clearest and most straightforward explanation of how our economy, energy systems and environment interact -- how we got to where we are today, and some reasonable expectations for the future. Chris sends out the same message Robert Kiyosaki has been teaching over the years -- the next twenty years are going to look very different from the last twenty years.

Stay tuned. We will continue introducing some other successful and influential investors, entrepreneurs and financial educators of our time through future article submission. We highly recommend you invest your time in your financial education and personal development. As an old saying goes, "Success is not something you pursue; Success is someone you become".

To search other high-value added research articles written by Oliver Gu, please visit Oliver's website at Business Training | Business Marketing
Marketing Training | Internet Training

Let Financial Freedom Ring

For most Americans, the month of July conjures up images of fireworks sizzling in the sky, back yard BBQs and the thrilling sound of patriotic songs; "Our country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing." America was built on a solid foundation of freedom for all, with the additional caveat that all men and women were created equal. At least that seemed to be the original idea.

The word liberty refers to the state of being free from other's restrictions on how one chooses to live life. If we apply this definition to what we actually have today, we can see that there are millions of Americans who aren't free at all.

Being truly free generally requires that we have the information and tools necessary to create that freedom. And in order to create that freedom, it's helpful to have at least a basic understanding of how money works in society and the primary investment principles that are required to become free. In addition, a strong entrepreneurial spirit is almost mandatory these days if you really want freedom in your life.

Learning this critical information currently doesn't come as a natural right of being born an American, or a Canadian, or a Mexican or a Frenchman, etc. Financial intelligence, for some strange reason, is usually relegated to 'elective' status when it is as necessary as reading, writing and arithmetic. And often when it is taught, it's about budgeting and balancing checkbooks, not investing in passive income producing assets or thinking like a wealthy person. Heaven forbid, we teach kids how to become financially free when they're young instead of expecting them to spend 40-plus years in a job where they will hopefully 'accumulate' enough money to 'retire' at some point in their future. What if we teach kids the concept of financial 'utilization' instead; using their natural born entrepreneurial talents to create businesses that allow them to live amazing lives while helping others along the way? Gone are the days of a good, stable, secure job; here are the days of creating your own way.

At present, most of America's youth are not learning about money in school and the vast majority of children never learn about money at home. This is because most parents don't understand money either and those that do, for whatever reason, don't talk to their kids about it. The fact that such a small percentage of people actually understand the 'language of money' explains why the consumer debt number in America in 2007 reached an astronomical $2.5 trillion dollars, not including real estate mortgages. According to the Federal Reserve, $2,500,000,000,000 represents $8,200 for every man, woman and child that lives in the US.

Something happens when the numbers get this big. There's a shift in our ability to conceive it as real. It is one thing to owe someone $1000 but quite another when that debt reaches $100,000. The idea of adding another $100 to a $1000 debt causes most people to consider what they are doing. Adding $100 to $100,000 worth of debt often doesn't raise an eyebrow.

It's a matter of contrast; the bigger the contrast, the smaller the perceived reality. This is exactly what's happening when Americans view our national debt: the numbers are SO big that you just can't wrap your head around them. It's kind of like thinking about the Universe; our brains short-circuit and shut off.

So what do we do? Well, in my opinion we must start educating our youth about money. I believe the more we educate, the less we must legislate. How do we do this? I have three simple things that, if done, will yield amazing results for our nation's financial future.

First and foremost, we must set a better example for our youth, from mom and dad all the way up to the highest branches of our government. Children learn first by example and they learn by example in three primary ways: by what they SEE; by what they HEAR; and by what they EXPERIENCE. Bottom line: start watching what you and others are teaching your children about money by what they see you doing with it, what they hear you saying about it and by the experiences your kids are having with it.

Second, talk to your kids about money. Just like sex and drugs, if you don't talk about it, you have no idea what they are learning, or from whom. We all have to get over the idea that money makes us who we are. Money is simply a tool to reach our dreams, help others and do good in the world. Money doesn't make you happy, pretty, sexy or cool. Money generally just makes you more of what you already are. If you were greedy when you were poor, chances are you'll be more greedy if you become rich. If you were generous when you were poor, chances are you'll be more generous when you're rich.

How do you bring your kids into the 'family money conversation?' Simple... just start talking. Let them help you pay bills online and write checks, balance the checkbook, work on the family budget. Let them tag along when you visit your financial planner. Invite them to work with you or give them a job in your business. Talk to them about your paycheck and taxes, your investments, your debt. Yes, I said your debt. What better way to help them learn about debt than to experience the pain around it. Don't shelter them. Show them. Let them see that money is just another tool we all have to learn to use wisely. Make learning about money a family affair. Show them what it takes to be an adult who is working towards self-reliance and financial freedom.

Third, give your kids practice with money before they move out and their mistakes cost them dearly. College students are dropping out with huge amounts of debt. Some are even committing suicide over the debt they accumulate. For the most part, teens don't have the maturity or necessary knowledge to handle their own finances. This includes all the credit card offers they are tempted with, the high cost of living and competing with their peers in terms of clothes, entertainment, vacations, phones and more.

Financial practice must start early and you must have a system. The Ultimate Allowance is one such system. This book is the result of teaching thousands of kids and their parents about money for the past seven years. It shows you, the parent or guardian, how to run the money that you're spending ON your kids, THROUGH them instead.

Consider this example: If your son or daughter came to you wanting to grow up and become a major league baseball player but you never gave him or her a ball, a glove, a bat, time to practice, a place to practice or heaven forbid, THE RULES, what's the chances of him or her accomplishing the dream? Slim to none. This is exactly what we're doing with our children. We MUST start teaching them how to think like, and make decisions like, people who value financial freedom over Piddlycrap.

What's Piddlycrap? Just look around your house and you'll see it everywhere. It's the stuff we waste our valuable financial resources on every day; the stuff that goes down in value instead of up. The stuff you sell at a garage sale for pennies on the dollar. It's the stuff that takes money out of our pockets instead of putting money into them.

Parents, your number one job is to prepare those beautiful kids of yours to be self-reliant ~ and loving them is not enough. This means you have to:

1) set the best example you can;

2) talk to them about everything money; and

3) give them plenty of practice while they're young.

Doing these three things will dramatically increase your chances of successfully turning America's children into resourceful, financially free leaders who will make this country's economy strong again. And isn't this what all parents want?

In 2002, I dedicated my life to teaching our youth, and their parents, the basic financial principles I never learned in school or at home. I have taught many different races and cultures, genders and ages and, everywhere I go, I find people want to learn the same thing. They crave the knowledge they need to know how to make informed choices and decisions that will help them create a sense of freedom for themselves.

Isn't that what this country is all about? Isn't that where we started; a desire to be free? Isn't that what Martin Luther King, Jr. was willing to give his life for? Isn't that what this nation stands for?

Let's make financial literacy mandatory in our schools and financial intelligence a sought after value. It's time everyone had access to the information and tools they need to create real freedom in their lives. Join me in this mission, won't you?

Teach your kids about money using The Ultimate Allowance system, available at http://www.ultimateallowancebook.com or visit me at Creativewealthintl.org or give me a call at 805-957-1024.

Elisabeth Donati
Author, The Ultimate Allowance
Creator, Camp Millonaire
elisabethdonati@gmail.com

Downline Building Network - How to Triple Your Network With Google AdWords

Downline building network can be done through several methods like advertising your business in PPC sites and Google AdWords. Right now, one of the most famous tools when it comes to garnering leads and downline building network is through the use of Google AdWords because in this manner you can be certain that all those individuals who click on your ads are the ones who are really attracted to your ads.

One of the first basic things that you will have to do is to identify which types and groups of people you want your ads to target. Once you are done figuring out about this, you are on your way to finding the suitable but reasonably affordable keywords that you can promote to your webpage on the Google AdWords platforms which will only cost you for about $40 cents per click. Being in the top 5 to 10 will not actually hurt your ads but rather, according to internet marketing, being on those spots will actually help you to maximize the clicks on your site. The key factor that you have to do here to attract large numbers of potential customers to help you in terms of downline building network is through the use of witty and convincing promotional headlines. With this, you will be amazed at how fast your site will rise from top 10 to top 1 position on the Google AdWords list.

The next step that you have to do in building downline network is to construct an opt-in folio wherein you can be able to transmit all the traffic that you receive. In this place, your clients should be able to receive free information about your products or services and the contents of this page should be persuasive enough to convince your visitors to sign up and avail of your services or merchandise that you are offering. Also, do not forget to place the link of the site that you are promoting, to make sure that you will appropriately get your commission.

Placing your ads on Google AdWords will not only let you create a downline building network, it will also give you the opportunity to earn huge amount of profits thus resulting to a financial freedom that you only once dreamed about. Unquestionably, this is the best way to have your investment returned to you at the fastest rate without you even knowing it.

Since Google AdWords is known for its good reputation and credibility, there is a 100% chance that a lot of people will trust your site to the point that they will wholeheartedly entrust their name and email to your care. The next sure thing that they will do is to avail of your services and products. It is very crucial that you realize the importance of Google AdWords when it comes to downline building network because if your webpage is not being visited by potential buyers very often, chances are, you will not accumulate profits. So, what is the sense of exerting your effort, time and money if your site is not successfully gaining profits?

Tired of downline building network and MLM programs promising you millions but leaving you with hundreds or even thousands less in your bank account?  Get out of MLM and network marketing and get into marketing REAL products in customer hungry niches.  Visit Better Lifetimes to get your FREE Quick start Guide to Internet Riches TODAY before they are all gone - go to http://www.BetterLifetimes.com now!

Free Internet Business System

Everyone is searching for a free internet business system that they can set up at home and make gazillions of dollars before breakfast each morning in their jocks. Well there are plenty of those advertised out there but they all want lots of money to impart to you the holy grail of magic secret formulas. You have all read the adds, pages and pages long, as if by their sheer power of words you will be compelled to press that magic PayPal button and all your financial woes will be over. Buckets of cash will be flooding into your account within 24 hours and you will soon be living the life of the filthy rich.

Sorry to sound a little cynical but you tend to get that way after you have been bitten a few times. It doesn't make any difference how much you pay for the system it is no different. I have spent well over $10,000 to date with no results at all which means many of the programs out there are blatant scams or the only system for making money they offer is to convince others to buy the system off you. So that means they are making money but not from a legitimate internet program but the cash they earn is coming from us buying their worthless programs. I mean think about it. If the system that they are selling is so good then why do they need to sell it to make money.

No doubt there are some ways out there that you can make some cash or even a decent income but how do we find them without spending heaps. We could get into affiliate marketing through article marketing which you could do absolutely without cost. You need to find an affiliate product to sell and join the affiliate company selling it. That could be something as simple as Amazon's affiliate program. Yes you can sell anything on Amazon and they will give you a commission. You could sell digital products like those available on ClickBank and pay up to 75% commission or products from companies like Commission Junction. However, this market is very competitive and to get any sort of an edge you will need some coaching to get it somewhere near right. For instance, sites like this one do not allow you to link directly to an affiliate link so you need a website or landing page in between so it is getting complicated already.

If you want to get into pay per click advertising to sell an affiliate product you must be very careful with your maths. Because you pay for every click to your add you can run up a lot of money and if all those people who are clicking are not buying you are down the tubes very quickly. There is another science here in learning the tricks and formulas to be successful which makes it all very complicated again. The average sale per click can be as low as 1% which means for every 100 people who click on your add only 1 will buy your product. So you see that you can easily spend far more on advertising that you can make on sales which is not a good formula for a successful business.

The good news is, all the information you need to start and run any internet business is already out there free on the net. Just do some Google searches along those lines and you will get all the education you want. Don't pay for it because it is all free for the taking. However, if someone can put it into a system for you so it is easy to understand and get started then it may be worth some cash. If they have already sifted through that free information and arranged it into an organized money making system you may be tempted to have a look. But that takes us back to where we started. How do we pick the right one with out wasting our money again. That is the quandary. Some have a system put together where they have managed to get that sale rate up to 50/60%. That is 50/60 sales for every click on your add. That is more like it. If you combine that with free advertising you can be racking up $100 days in no time.

So, what is my advice here. If you want to learn about basic and advanced internet market there are plenty of free tools available out there just for the searching. If you don't want the hassle of having to learn all that stuff and can do simple stuff like copy and paste say, then search for someone who has got their click through rate up to at least 50%. Then you want to be able to just copy and paste their pre-written adds into free advertising sites. If they can produce a system similar to that where you can spend an hour or two each day posting adds and see a few hundred each day for your effort then you may be on to something. Don't pay any more than say $50 for something like this and it may be worthwhile.

You are going to need to do some searching on Google for internet businesses and sift through them. That could take you a while but just go for a company with the features I have outlined. That way you have more than half a chance of making some real cash. Once you get started then you have seed money to upgrade to whatever level you feel comfortable with. There are some sites out there who will help you get going absolutely free. Just start searching. Internetmarketing.com is one who has lots of free tips and education.

Hi Guys,

There is a free Ebook here which will show you an easy copy and paste way to your first $100 day system.

[http://www.copy-and-paste-money.com]

Will the Public Ever Learn They Need to Be Financially Educated?

It's very important to place the need for a financial education today in perspective so people understand and appreciate the conditions most of them, knowingly or unknowingly, are dealing with as they try to accumulate wealth in our financial system. Hopefully, the events of last year's market crash and the ensuing bailouts have shown the public how the consumers are repeatedly screwed by the Wall Street, political and regulatory elites, better known as the 3 ring circus.

In truth, this 3 ring circus is only interested in their corrupted ability to manipulate the system to line their own pockets and give them more power. They could care less about the public they are supposed to serve.

Nothing illustrates this point more dramatically than our present worldwide financial debacle and recession caused by the 3 ring circus and yet they are the major recipients of the TARP bailout money, not us the taxpayer. In both directions, they've made billions & everyone else lost big time.

Look back in history, our country's financial debacles have always been caused by the 3 ring circus but the public's losses in 2008 were so huge - trillions of dollars - that this time, they destroyed the trust and integrity so vital to the financial service industry. There is no doubt that a hands-on practical financial education is necessary and a better way to insure against such massive losses in the future due to one amazing fact.

When you combine the constant corruption and self dealing of the 3 ring circus with most people's deplorable lack of a practical hands on financial knowledge and education, it makes the public highly susceptible to the continual bad advice and poor performance of the big Wall Street firms and most financial planners (who are nothing more than glorified salespeople) with their hidden agendas, conflicts of interest, self-dealing and high fees designed to line their pockets and not yours. Only now are people finally realizing this and firing their financial advisors in droves while searching for a better alternative.

Well, a practical, hands-on financial education is certainly a better alternative and a cleaner, more cost effective way for the consumer to become money and investment smart. Nothing is comparable to this type of education as it instills the confidence and knowledge to take control of one's finances thereby preventing the consumer from being taken advantage of by the Wall Street boys and most financial planners with their hidden agendas.

Such a financial education should provide its students a reliable source to receive the necessary financial education and knowledge, from the most elementary to the most sophisticated, which allows them to control their finances, get out of debt as quickly as possible, and become money and investment smart. This financial education should further allow a student to know how to constructively use experts in every area of financial planning from the legal, tax, business, asset protection and investment arenas. This should then be done totally free of the high fees, middlemen, conflicts of interest and self dealing so prevalent in the financial service industry today. A financial education student should be so armed to be able to determine that he or she is in fact going direct for any one of these services.

Most investors have a "fellow the herd" investment mentality and have been perfectly content depending naively upon Wall Street to be responsive to their needs. Even many multi-millionaires have been guilty of the same mentality but are now actively seeking advanced financial education and investment avenues so they can be first in strategic investment opportunities. On the other hand, many less well off individuals drowning in debt are seeking the necessary financial education to help them be debt free in less than 15 years, including their mortgage. Therefore, these needs must be addressed by any well thought out financial education curriculum. Heaven knows the type of financial education curriculum this article has been addressing is long overdue.

Harley Hunter is an accomplished 40 yr. financial consultant, innovator, entrepreneur and CEO, Elite Wealth Plan. If you found this article disturbing and want to know how you can protect yourself, claim your free e-report "Discover The Fortune That Lies Hidden in This Economy" available at:=> http://www.elitewealthblog.com

How Generational Changes Can Help Save Our Economy

This article is something for America to ponder. If you don't agree, make changes or state your own solutions that we can all ponder, but please don't wait for Congress which created these problems by putting their Aristocracy and hunger for power before America's well-being. A Congress that seems to be more loyal to political parties than to the United States of America has caused all of the problems America is now facing. The question is who will offer solutions we can ponder.

1. Legalize drugs. I know, before you go crazy just listen for a moment and ask yourself some questions. First of all, more people die from legal pharmaceuticals than any other drugs in the world. All you have to do is see the commercials on television and listen to the side effects that include death, stroke, heart attack, cancer and much more. Google LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) and read what the professionals have to say; judges, prosecutors and police officers. The benefits of legalization are many; reduced cost of incarceration; reduced cost of law enforcement; the gain in taxes; and crime on our borders and in our neighborhoods cut by at least 70%. Opponents of legalization say it will only bring in 15 to 35 billion. Law-enforcement and incarceration savings are not included in the conversation. What also isn't included is how much money and taxes can be made by the hundreds of products the hemp plant alone can produce, like clothing, paper, medicine, rope, silk and much more. At one time General Motors thought of mixing hemp fibers with plastic to make a stronger automobile body. I don't know if they went through with it, but it was one good idea amongst many. Legalizing drugs also takes the 'forbidden fruit' aspect from our youth and brings the effects out in the open so parents can point to those effects and say, "Don't be like that". We can make sure anyone giving an adolescent under sixteen drugs without their parent's approval will get an automatic five-year term without parole. A second offense will be a ten-year term without parole, and a third offense will be a twenty-five year term without parole. Keeping drugs illegal creates crime-lords and killing just like in the Al Capone days, and those innocent folks were smart enough and had enough that they amended the Constitution. Illegal drugs foster crime and creates billionaires who can then buy politicians, judges, prosecutors and police officers. Take the money out of drugs and you reduce crime and corruption.

Another benefit of legalizing drugs is stopping private prisons. Right now there are companies that run for-profit private prisons that trade on Wall Street and they are constantly lobbying Congress to make more things against the law so that they can make more money for themselves and their shareholders. Now that's a crime or should be a crime. Read what our Forefathers said in the 1700's when some folks wanted alcohol made illegal. They said not to prohibit anything because only ten-percent of the population will imbibe, rather they said to tax and control the 'sins' of man. Abraham Lincoln said the same thing. Drug addiction is a character and medical problem. It can be fixed if we use some of the money made legalizing it to do two things: One, create rehabilitation facilities; and two create advertisements like we did for cigarette use and I'll bet you in one generation drugs will not be a problem in our society. Don't you think it's ironic that pharmaceutical companies sell drugs that can kill you, yet a person who wants to smoke marijuana goes to jail and their life is ruined? Afterward it's hard to find a job and they can lose their voting rights. Yet we subsidize pharmaceutical companies with our tax money so they can put more drugs with killing side effects on the market. Just how stupid are we? And why do we let our American Royalty, the Congress, get away with telling us how to live. I thought they worked to serve and represent us, but oh my God, the hired help has taken over the house, weakened the foundation, and is getting ready to demolish it and tells us it's our fault and we must pay while they live high on the hog. Have we had enough already? Let's have an adult conversation without any of the fear tactics. Take the illegal money incentive out of drugs and reduce crime while taxing and controlling production and usage. We can save one billion a year on prison and law enforcement cost and make another billion on tax and hemp products. That's two billion a year and twenty billion in ten years. Hemp also has many medical purposes and the side effects won't kill you like some of the drugs pharmaceutical companies sell. Opponents say hemp is a gateway drug, that's like saying mothers breast milk leads to beer drinking or having sex leads to rape. Just another fear tactic to keep us from having a useful and adult conversation because illegal drugs is our hidden economy that brings in billions of dollars a year for drug king-pins and law enforcement. It's time to legalize drugs, reduce crime and make the billions of dollars to pay down our National debt. What do you think? Start screaming and shooting, I'll duck.

2. This one is a generational change that will cost money but payback great dividends in years to come. Bring back the draft. But make it a voluntary draft. First we roll Americorp from the Clinton Administration and all like programs from other Presidents into the Peace Corp; then we make the Peace Corp a cabinet position to show the world we take peace seriously. The Peace Corp will have an international and a domestic arm and any person between the ages of 18 and 26 who will serve four-years in the Military, Peace Corp or the State Department will get a free four-year college education or a couple of two-year degrees at a two-year college or four one-year certificates at one-year technical schools. If someone over 26 wants to serve we choose by health and education. Just imagine our Military having cooks, electricians, plumbers, heavy equipment operators instead of contracting it out to companies that don't have any skin in the game and just want to make a profit from war and our heroes dying. Even in the Peace Corp young folks will learn a trade that will last them a lifetime. We will produce many skilled workers with this one voluntary draft. Please don't think it won't work, because many young folks will gladly volunteer in the Military, Peace Corp or State Department to serve their country, learn a trade and get a free college education. We will be building an educated work force for generations to come. The benefits gained are well worth the cost. Plus we will be giving our children something we had when we were younger and that is a rite-of-passage and a pride in serving, something that is missing for many of our youth today. Remember, this draft will be absolutely voluntary and the benefits enormous to our future workforce. With the added benefit that it will cost less than any Government contract with any company that tried to compete, because we will have an educated workforce with the pride of serving, and you can't put company profit ahead of that. But you can put a generational and National profit on our youth serving while learning a useful trade. Bring back a voluntary draft, watch our country and our youth blossom, and be ready to compete in a global economy and win.

3. This fix is both generational and political. First, we offer 250 billion dollars to the first company that comes up with a three stage clean energy fix for both transportation, which includes trucks, cars and airplanes, and a clean energy fix for buildings and houses. The first stage must be an economical way that can be adapted to our cars and trucks today. The second stage must be an economical way that we can adapt it to our buildings and houses. The third stage will be a complete change for future products. The Government will match the 250 billion dollar reward with 250 billion dollars in research and development. We will use the money left over to help adapt stages one and two. Imagine the money and lives saved. Over one generation we will have saved the amount it cost us to do this and the United States Government will own at least 10% of all profits from this energy fix. That will sure cut into our taxes and our National Debt. Now the political part of this is our American Royalty, the Congress, they will never go for this because they make much of their money from energy dealers and energy lobbyist who write the laws that wrong the people and kill our troops, just to keep their power and Aristocracy. Have you ever counted how many Congressional persons and Senators are now millionaires or billionaires, but when they entered Congress they weren't worth much more than three hundred thousand dollars? How did they do it on $170,000.00 paycheck? Now is the time for an Energy Manhattan Project. Because if we can go to the Moon in ten-years I imagine we can be energy independent in less than ten-years with today's technology. Please, let's do it now because it will save lives, invest in our youth and create jobs; and just imagine how strong our country will be in just one generation.

4. This last fix I wanted to talk about was health care, but I didn't want to make the same mistake Obama made when he should have been concentrating on jobs. This fix is about education and putting our school age kids to work. But it will behoove you to research the top ten Veteran Health Care Facilities in the United States. Each patient has a team doctor, a team nurse and a team administrator. When a veteran goes to the lab for blood test or x-rays, within two-hours the results are on the doctor's computer. The VA gives some of the best health care in the world at a very reasonable cost. I will go into the cost savings using the VA system at another time because we should model our healthcare system after the top-ten VA hospitals, but that is for another article. Now I'd like to speak about our school age children going to work and how it can help families and corporations. My proposal is simple and will give children the impetus to help their family and the incentive to do better in school. Why? Pay every student for every grade ranging from A+ to C-. Every gas company, electric company, water company, insurance company and mortgage company will pay every child in every family one dollar for every C, two dollars for every B and three dollars for every A, whether those C's, B's or A's are plus or minuses. Of course each company will be able to deduct a tax write-off dollar for dollar. Imagine if Sears, J C Penny, Walmart or any other outfits got into the act by offering coupons. Imagine the pride of the children going to work and being able to help their family financially. Because now a family with four children whom each get six A's can write-off seventy-two dollars from each of the five companies mentioned above and save $360.00 for the month. And the great thing is the companies can write-off that $360.00 from their taxes. Children will learn the value of a dollar and the pride of helping their family. And most of the savings will go right back into the economy. Imagine if companies were patriotic enough to get on board and make it happen. Ah, the American dream isn't lost, just delayed by fear. How scared are you by your Congressperson or Senator? Will you write, email, call and generally raise hell until Congress institutes some or all of these fixes?

Please ponder these solutions. Make changes if you can improve on them or use them to create your own solutions. But get involved and contact your Congressperson and / or your Senator. Don't let politicians divide us and have Americans hating and fighting other Americans because of our political views. In the end we are all Americans and in the same boat. Let us not have name-calling without proposing solutions. Loyalty to America before loyalty to party is the solution to almost all of our problems.

Tom C. Watson is the founder of The Bunny Brigade. Tom uses this site as a means of dedication to support the reinstating of the original concepts as depicted in The Constitution of the United States along with its Bill of Rights. Tom also suggests that the federal government should stop over regulating business as well as eliminating of federal deficit spending. The site features Benny The Bunny and the site tells about the founding of the bunny brigade organization. The Web site also addresses solutions to fixing the nation's ills. Lastly, the site's author also has produced free bunny videos that you may view. Please visit the bunny site as often as you desire. It is located at http://thebunnybrigade.com/

Help To Boost Your Immune System

We are constantly bombarded with information about vitamins, supplements and complementary health ideas. Whether we act upon that information or not is a matter of individual choice. Some people are more health conscious than others. We have our own individual attitudes on the subject and prioritize complementary health accordingly.

Whether or not you are proactive in terms of promoting your own good health and wellbeing, I am sure that almost everyone would like to be fit, healthy and well. Like everything else in life you no doubt weigh up how you want to be versus the cost of achieving that goal. When I say cost I do not simply mean the financial implications; I am including time, taste, energy, effort and every other element involved.

When contemplating the cost versus reward equation it is inevitable that the majority of people end up actioning the things that seem the easiest to incorporate into his or her lifestyle. Many things that could be done to help boost your immune system end up getting overlooked or ignored, if only for the simple reason of lack of time to research what could be done.

One very simple thing that everyone could do to boost immune system functioning, at little or no cost in terms of time or of a financial nature, relates to how your mental processes affect your body. There is a constant two-way flow of information between your mind and your body.

The two are inexorably linked. Just as a physical ailment has the power to affect your mental and emotional equilibrium, the same applies in reverse. Your body reflects your thoughts. Thus a very simple thing that you could do is firstly to become alert to this fact and secondly to choose to intentionally direct your mind to promote good health in your physical body.

One very powerful thought that you could affirm to yourself upon a daily basis is that of turning up the thermostat that controls your immune system. You can in this way give your immune system a mental boost. This is incredibly simple to do and doesn't cost you anything at all. Although simple to do, this "treatment" has an incredibly powerful reach and the positive impact can be truly amazing.

This mental boost to your immune system can be made even more powerfully effective when used in conjunction with hypnosis. Hypnosis is a natural state of relaxation that at the same time allows access to your subconscious mind.

Your subconscious mind is the part that acts automatically and instinctively and you draw from this part of your mind every moment of the day and night without even being ware of it. To listen to a hypnosis recording that is designed to boost your immune system is again very simple to do. If you were to do this at night as you fall asleep it wouldn't take any time out of your day and would also most likely ensure a great night's sleep as well.

Roseanna Leaton, specialist in hypnosis mp3 downloads for health, including help to boost your immune system.

P.S. Discover how you can relax and focus your mind with hypnosis. Grab a free hypnosis download from my website now.

Grab a free hypnosis mp3 from RoseannaLeaton.com and check out her library of hypnosis downloads to help boost immune system.

The Many Benefits of Investing in a Home Security System

In these tough economic times, Americans are being forced to dig deep into their pockets to afford even the basics. What may have once been considered a small luxury - a Sunday afternoon pedicure or a Friday evening movie - is now becoming an unaffordable frivolity. In light of the recent economic downturn, Americans are choosing to forego many costs, ranging from food items, to hobbies, to travels.

One area in which we cannot afford to skimp, however, is that of home security. Our lives and personal well-being have no price tag, nor do those of our families. Our safety is too important an issue to be ignored. Home security is too beneficial to be foregone.

First and foremost, the installation of a home security system renders us more secure. Potential intruders may decide against breaking into a home if they see that it is protected by an alarm or other security system, unwilling to take a risk. A simple window sticker advertising a home security system may ward off potential criminals and prevent a crime from ever taking place.

That said, even if a thief or attacker ignores the warning and enters anyway, those within the household will be alerted and will have a better chance at self-defense and escape. Many home security systems alert emergency services as well, meaning that a police officer will be dispatched almost immediately after an alarm has been activated. These features of alarm and security systems have the potential to save lives.

Home security systems not only help us to literally be safer, but they help us to feel safer as well. Simply knowing that we have done all that we can to protect ourselves can help us to sleep better at night, to concentrate more on our work and to further enjoy our time with our families. The sense that we have done something to take our safety into our own hands is empowering. Moreover, other members of our households will be more at ease at well. A live-in parent or grandparent may feel relieved by the ability to call for help in case of a fall. A small child will be less fearful of a stranger coming to take them away.

Investing in a home security system has two very different main benefits - one residing in reality, and the other in the mind. Security systems are something we cannot go without whenever financially possible.

Furthermore, home alarm systems are becoming increasingly affordable. Companies that specialize in such apparatuses offer a wide range of options and prices, meaning that the investment in a system of some type (even if that system is as simple as an extra lock on a door) is accessible to most, if not all, Americans.

In these tough economic times, feel free to skip out on movies or vacations or trips to the beauty salon, but don't leave all thought of home security behind. Such a mistake could be the most costly of all.

Home security is too important an issue to ignore. Allow the experts at adt home security to explain to you the benefits of installing a home security system.