Friday, October 29, 2010

Be as Happy as You Want to Be

A lot of people must have heard the song 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' by Bobby McFerrin at one time or another. The song has a catchy way of conveying its message to everyone about being happy. Bobby McFerrin’s simple message surely motivated a lot of people by telling them not to worry.

Living a happy, resilient, and optimistic life is wonderful, and it is also good for your health. Being happy actually protects you from all the stress in your life. That’s good because stress is linked to top causes of death such as heart disease, cancer, and stroke.

One of the best things ever said is – “The only thing in life that will always remain the same is change”. In our lives we have the power to make the necessary changes if we want to. Even if we find ourselves in an unbearable situation, we can always find solace in the knowledge that it too would change.

Social networks or relationships are essential to happiness. People are different, so accept people for whom or what they are and avoid clashes and constant arguments. Also, let go of all kinds of resentments. If arguments seem unavoidable, still try and make an effort to understand the situation, and you might just get along with well with it.

Happiness is actually found in everyone, so increasing it is a way to make life more wonderful and healthier.

Being happy is relatively easy. Just decide to be a happy person. Abraham Lincoln observed that most people most of the time can choose how happy or stressed, how relaxed or troubled, or how bright or dull their outlook will be. The choice is simple really, so choose to be happy.

There are several ways which you can do this.

Being grateful is a great attitude. We have so much to be thankful for. Thank the taxi driver for bringing you home safely. Thank the cook for a wonderful dinner. Even thank the guy who cleans your windows. Also, thank the mailman for bringing you your mail, thank the policeman for making your place safe, and thank God for being alive.

News is stressful. Get less of it. Some people just can't start their day without their daily dose of news. Try and think about it, 99% of the news we hear or read is bad news. Starting the day with bad news does not seem to be a sensible thing to do.

A religious connection is also recommended. Being part of a religious group with its singing, sacraments, chanting, prayers, and meditations foster inner peace.

Manage your time. Time is invaluable and is too important to waste. Time management can be viewed as a list of rules that involves scheduling, setting goals, planning, creating lists of things to do, and prioritizing. These are the core basics of time management that should be understood to develop an efficient personal time management skill. These basic skills can be fine tuned further to include the finer points of each skill that can give you that extra reserve to make the results you desire.

Laugh and laugh heartily everyday. Heard a good joke? Tell your friends or family about it. As they also say – “Laughter is the best medicine”.

Express your feelings, affections, friendship, and passion to people around you. They will most likely reciprocate your actions. Try not to keep built-up anger or frustrations as this is bad for your health. Instead, find ways of expressing them in a way that will not cause more injury or hurt to anyone.

Working hard brings tremendous personal satisfaction. It gives a feeling of being competent in finishing our tasks. Accomplishments are necessary for all of us. They give us a sense of value. Work on things that you feel are worthy of your time.

Learning is a joyful exercise. Try and learn something new everyday. Learning also helps us expand and broaden our horizons and could also give us more opportunities in the future.

Run, jog, walk, and do other things that your body was made for! Feel alive!

Avoid exposure to negative elements like loud noises, toxins, and hazardous places.

These are the few simple things you can do everyday to be happy.

Finally, always remember the quote from Abraham Lincoln. "Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."

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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Marking Your Presence through Forums

Being involved in the business of network, you will know that participating in forums is an effective way to grow your downline if you do forum marketing the right way. If you are using forums to build your downline, there are two basic things you must do regularly to get hundreds of your target audience interested in checking you out and joining your team.

Regular Participation

Inability to use forum marketing everyday is overlooked quite often. Most people think after joining a forum and participating for a few days that people will check them out. Unfortunately, they generate no leads because you must post regularly before anybody will check you out.

Here is what you should do for maximum results. First, locate three to five forums that are in your network marketing field by searching on Google. By doing this you will get a list of recommended forums to join and participate in.

While doing your search make sure you look for forums that have at least 10,000 members. This will increase your chances of getting enough traffic that will subsequently pay for the time you have spent posting on the forum.

Next, prepare a good signature through your profile settings. Create something that will get everybody’s attention towards you after reading your posts. However, do not overtly try to advertise your signature, but rather be subtle and get the message across. Every little detail you think will add to your credibility should be added in your profile.

Once you have done this, introduce yourself to the community. After that make sure you regularly post on the forum. Traffic will not come if you have not regularly posted on the forums for at least 2 weeks.

Only Post High Quality Content

Every day you will encounter new people who will post questions. Try to reply to every post that you have an answer to or an opinion about. Do this for at least 5 people each day on each forum. You can also ask relevant questions yourself for attracting replies so that people will notice your signature link.

Also, try to write posts that are informative and are relevant. This benefits others on the forum. You should also write articles based on your experience. For example, write about topics in areas where you have been successful in getting traffic, or write about any similar useful tip that would help others build their businesses.

Following these two tips will help make your presence known in the forums, not to mention make you highly reputable. Others will come to you with questions if they feel you will greatly benefit them.

Search Amazon.com for Presence in Forums

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

FOREX Traders: The Need to Be Objective

It is difficult for FOREX traders to realize that the currency market is extremely unpredictable. As new traders spend some time trying to learn the mechanics of foreign exchange trade and focus their time and energy on trying to find a method for predicting movements, they naturally expect some rules governing the movement of the market. This not being the case, many traders find themselves at a disadvantage.

While FOREX traders have a number of tools at their disposal that allow them to judge when it is right to open or close a position, many prefer to rely mostly on one tool. So, having opened a position, they watch their favorite indicator and, to a large extent, base their trading decisions solely on it, thereby ignoring the others.

This works well until that indicator starts telling them something different from what the others are. Traders caught in an open position where their favorite tool is telling them to hold will often do so, despite the fact that other tools are telling them to close and get off the market. These traders end up losing money.

The basic problem, of course, is that the trader is not looking at the market as is, but through the lense of his or her own expectations about it and further using his or her favorite indicator to reinforce those ideas instead of looking at the bigger picture. Therefore, encouraged by the fact that his or her chosen indicator is forecasting the profit he or she wants, the trader is focusing more on money than on the market.

If the FOREX market was predictable, it would collapse because each trader would profit at all times. There are many tools that can help traders predict the direction of the market, and they usually do an efficient job. However, even in the hands of the most experienced traders, the best tools occasionally fail to predict the market’s movements correctly.

Losing in trade because of predicting the market incorrectly is an innate part of FOREX trading, and traders need to accept it. Besides, they need to learn to avoid getting in a position where they do not have many choices.

For this, the trader needs to accept the fact that the foreign exchange market pretty much has a mind of its own, and traders have to follow its movements instead of trying to make it go in the direction they want it to.

Search Amazon.com for FOREX Traders

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

09/16/2010 PRESS RELEASE

IRVINE, Calif. - Sep. 16, 2010: RealtyTrac (realtytrac.com), the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released its U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for August 2010, which shows foreclosure filings - default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions - were reported on 338,836 properties in August, a 4 percent increase from the previous month but a 5 percent decrease from August 2009. One in every 381 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the month.


The trend lines of decreasing default notices and increasing bank repossessions converged in August, with virtually the same number of new default notices and bank repossessions for the month - a clear indication that the clogged foreclosure pipeline is being carefully managed on both ends by lenders and servicers,' said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. 'On the front end, seriously delinquent loans are rolling into foreclosure at an unusually slow rate, while on the back end the dammed-up inventory of properties already in foreclosure is moving to REO in steady stream rather than a flood - presumably to prevent further erosion of home prices.'

Foreclosure Activity by Type:

A total of 96,469 U.S. properties received default notices (NOD, LIS) in August, a 1 percent decrease from the previous month and a 30 percent decrease from August 2009 - the seventh straight month where default notices have decreased on a year-over-year basis. Default notices peaked in April 2009, when 142,064 were reported nationwide.

Default notices increased on a monthly basis in some states, counter to the national trend. Default notices in California increased on a month-over-month basis for the third month in a row, and New York, Indiana, Ohio and Florida also registered month-over-month increases in default notices.

Foreclosure auctions (NTS, NFS) were scheduled for the first time on a total of 147,003 U.S. properties in August, a 9 percent increase from the previous month and a 2 percent increase from August 2009. The August total for scheduled auctions was the second highest monthly total in the history of the report, which goes back to April 2005, and was 7 percent below the peak of 158,105 in March 2010.

Lenders foreclosed on 95,364 U.S. properties in August, the highest monthly total in the history of the report and about 2 percent higher than the previous peak of 93,777 bank repossessions (REOs) in May 2010. August REO activity increased 3 percent from the previous month and was up 25 percent from August 2009 - the ninth straight month where REOs have increased on a year-over-year basis.

Nevada, Florida, Arizona post top state foreclosure rates in August

Nevada continued to document the nation's highest state foreclosure rate for the 44th straight month, with one in every 84 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing in August - 4.5 times the national average. Nevada maintained the nation's highest state foreclosure rate despite a 25 percent year-over-year decrease in foreclosure activity in August - the 11th straight month where Nevada foreclosure activity has decreased on a year-over-year basis.

Florida foreclosure activity decreased on a year-over-year basis for the fifth straight month in August, but the state's foreclosure rate still ranked second highest among all states. One in every 155 Florida housing units received a foreclosure filing in August - 2.5 times the national average.

One in every 165 Arizona housing units received a foreclosure filing in August, the nation's third highest state foreclosure rate, and one in every 194 California housing units received a foreclosure filing in August, the nation's fourth highest state foreclosure rate.

One in every 220 Idaho housing units received a foreclosure filing in August, the nation's fifth highest state foreclosure rate. A total of 2,915 Idaho properties received a foreclosure filing in August, an increase of nearly 9 percent from the previous month and an increase of 11 percent from August 2009. Idaho was the only state with a top 5 foreclosure rate to document a year-over-year increase in foreclosure activity.

Other states with foreclosure rates ranking among the top 10 in August were Utah, Georgia, Michigan, Illinois and Hawaii.

Five states account for more than 50 percent of national total

California alone accounted for 20 percent of the national total in August, with 69,143 properties receiving a foreclosure filing during the month - a 3 percent increase from the previous month but a 25 percent decrease from August 2009.

Florida accounted for nearly 17 percent of the national total, with 56,877 properties receiving a foreclosure filing - a 10 percent increase from the previous month but a 9 percent decrease from August 2009. Florida default notices were down 46 percent from August 2009 but increased 2 percent from the previous month, ending five straight months of month-over-month decreases in Florida default notices.

Michigan, Illinois and Arizona each accounted for about 5 percent of the national total in August, with 17,764 Michigan properties receiving foreclosure filings, 16,808 Illinois properties receiving foreclosure filings, and 16,510 Arizona properties receiving foreclosure filings.

Other states with foreclosure activity totals among the nation's 10 highest in August were Georgia (16,366), Texas (14,290), Ohio (13,479), Nevada (13,385), and Washington (6,760).

Metro foreclosure hot spots continue downward trend

All 10 metro areas with the nation's highest foreclosure rates in August posted year-over-year decreases in foreclosure activity for the second month in a row.

The Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev., metro area documented the highest foreclosure rate among metropolitan areas with a population of 200,000 or more, with one in every 73 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing, despite a 25 percent decrease in foreclosure activity from August 2009.

Foreclosure activity in Modesto, Calif., decreased 10 percent from August 2009, but the city still documented the nation's second highest metro foreclosure rate, with one in every 95 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing in August. Six other California metro areas had foreclosure rates ranking among the top 10: Stockton at No. 3 (one in every 100 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing); Merced at No. 6 (one in 111); Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario at No. 7 (one in 113); Bakersfield at No. 8 (one in 120); Vallejo-Fairfield at No. 9 (one in 124); and Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Roseville at No. 10 (one in 125).

Two Florida metro areas registered foreclosure rates among the top 10: Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., at No. 3, with one in every 104 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing; and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach at No. 5, with one in every 111 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing.

Report Methodology:

The RealtyTrac U.S. Foreclosure Market Report provides a count of the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing entered into the RealtyTrac database during the month - broken out by type of filing. Some foreclosure filings entered into the database during the month may have been recorded in previous months. Data is collected from more than 2,200 counties nationwide, and those counties account for more than 90 percent of the U.S. population. RealtyTrac's report incorporates documents filed in all three phases of foreclosure: Default - Notice of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens (LIS); Auction - Notice of Trustee Sale and Notice of Foreclosure Sale (NTS and NFS); and Real Estate Owned, or REO properties (that have been foreclosed on and repurchased by a bank). The report does not count a property again if it receives the same type of foreclosure filing multiple times within the estimated foreclosure timeframe for the state where the property is located.

RealtyTrac - Foreclosure Data, August 2010


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