Home Based Business is a overrun online business opportunity on the internet and if you don’t know what you are doing, then you can get lost in the big jungle of home business opportunities.Thousands are joining the home based business industry and it is true, that ninety percent of the people, who just start out, fail in the first 3 month.So why people are really failing online?The reason why so many people are failing online, is that they jump from one opportunity to the next one and they all hope, that they will find the golden apple and make money straight away.That is not the case and if you think you can make quick money online if you just start out, then you are up for a hell of a ride and maybe end up, to loose more money then you make.Secondly and the most important factor when it comes to having success in the home business industry, is that you need to build your own list of subscriber.Without a list, you will never be able to create a huge income online and compete with the big online marketer.Building a list for your home business is a must and with a customer list, you are able to build a home business success machine.You are able to provide the list of customer with valuable information and can build a relationship with them.So the first step to being successful online, is to build your own customer list and you can do that in using a squeeze page or optin page to market online.That way, you can collect information from people, who are interested in what you are doing online.If you provide them with valuable and free information, the you will be able to build up trust and that will lead to sales in your home based businessDo you want to learn more about how you can make money online? We have just completed a brand new marketing system. You Can Find It Here: http://www.choose-the-right-team.com

Top home based businesses can help a person kiss the 9-to-5 commuter gridlock routine goodbye, and say hello to a better return on investment. More time with family, lower stress, better overall health and a better quality of life. Top businesses provide training, ongoing support, and multiple streams of income. Many have over-hyped claims of earning potential.For the more industrious, working for yourself can take two primary roads. You can work to assist with someone else’s requirements as an independent contractor or consultant. Another road is to launch your own small business. While the employment market is not as flooded with opportunities, home based businesses are flourishing. The avenues to find these opportunities have expanded along with the home based workforce. Top home based businesses are in direct competition and as successful as the more traditional businesses. It’s common knowledge that both “eBay” and Microsoft started out at home. Since the internet boom, dot.com and web brethren have seeded businesses that blossomed into business giants.Types of home based businesses that are performed for a third party have benefits and disadvantages. Just as an employee would compete for a traditional job, working from home for others involves winning the job. This entails market research for job opportunities, applying, winning and successfully performing. Applying for contracting jobs includes proposing at the right mix of labour types, responsibilities, costs and time line.Performing the role as a consultant or contractor has benefits and drawbacks. Contractors are often responsible for deducting and paying IRS taxes due. Contractors and consultants are typically responsible for tasks and deductions normally handled by a Human Resource department. Health care and life insurance are critical benefits that garner much interest from the independent workforce. For independent workers, self employment organizations, such as the National Association for the Self Employed, can assist with payroll, business, legal, marketing, and accounting requirements.YourNetBiz – provides products, training and support and only sold through sponsors who partner with you in the business to help you succeed. It allows greater potential for success if you choose the right mentor or sponsor.Industry market research data can be instrumental in establishing which industries are stable, declining or growing. Occupational research provides critical rate and salary data, identifies standard training, education, and staff composition. Data can be incorporated into competitive proposal strategies to become a contractor, consultant or to win business, contracts or grants for your own company.Not surprisingly, top home based businesses include administrative support. Independent work portals typically have virtual assistant, administrative, typing, transcription, reception, data entry, and similar employment assignments. Each of the following sites offer administrative employment and employees:Guru.com, freelancer.com, ifreelance.com, odesk.comFor the artistically inclined, deviantart.com, etsy.com and eBay offer marketplaces to sell and buy products. Crafts such as clothing for people and pets, candles, bath and body products are bought and sold from home. These products are among the best home based businesses. Specialty or gourmet edibles like cake, candies, and cookies are a self renewing customer need. Specialty coffees, teas or drinks are sold online from homes around the world.Technical work such as programmers, coders, developers and support positions such as web content developers and designers, are among top home based businesses. Practically any employment website has countless technical opportunities. A web master can be self created. Much like an artist, technical workers can create a portfolio of work to demonstrate knowledge, skill, and abilities to develop a small business, or provide contract services. Anyone who is technically inclined can rack up credentials and certifications as quickly as they’d like to progress into earning a living.The contracting arena is a wide net. It casts out primary and secondary players like those who need a product or service, and those who can provide it. In between are other entrepreneurs. Proposal or grant writers, for example, are another cottage business. Much like an artist and a technical person, to step into this world, you can take an alternate route by demonstrating via portfolio what you can do. To get an edge on competition though, a business should strive to win at least one grant, contract or award for their portfolio, and grow it from there. The internet has enabled many businesses to conduct business via phone, fax, internet, and online meetings. Proposal manager or proposal coordinator staff are responsible for shepherding grants or proposals through the system. Any of these positions can be done from a home base.Despite challenging economic times, the good news is that the best home based businesses are everywhere, where the heart is, and most importantly, at home.

Recently….well over the last year anyway, I have had friends ask me for advice on whether now is a good time to rent or buy real estate. As most of my friends, colleagues, and locals know, I consider myself a real estate geek and have learned enough hard lessons, however had many great experiences professionally and personally to last a lifetime…and I am only 30 years old but this is an age to where we can take those lessons and build on our future, using real estate as a catapult to financial freedom one day….Discontinue reading if you think real estate is a “get rich quick” scheme. I thought it was when I was younger. Believe me, it’s not.

I can write a novel on the difference between renting and buying real estate but I will try to make this short yet helpful. All things equal, owning a house far exceeds the benefit of renting a home. The obvious factors are that by owning, you can build equity and write-off your interest payments on your mortgage. This doesn’t mean that everyone in America should be a homeowner. Real estate is local. For instance, property values are still declining in California. In Florida, prices are starting to level off. In New Jersey I can point out 30 different markets where the market conditions are different. If you live in Montclair, the market is different in Clifton, less than 2 miles away.

If real estate values are deteriorating in your neighborhood of choice and your interest rate is not favorable, it could be a good reason to stick with renting for now. Deals don’t go away overnight.

If you have cash saved, some tenants prefer renting so that they can play the stock market which historically return 8-10% per year with a good broker. Real estate values typically follow the rate of inflation over the long term. That being said, home ownership has the best tax incentive. Married couples can earn up to $500,000 in gains on their homes TAX FREE, where singles can earn up to $250,000 in gains TAX FREE. If you played the stock market, those gains would be hit by nearly 50% by Uncle Sam.

First and foremost, you need to find a neighborhood that you absolutely love. If you have kids, it is important to look in their best interest FIRST before yours. Second, look at property values. If prices are declining and homes are sitting on the market for over 180 days, it may be better off to hold off and rent, analyze for the next year, and buy something possibly in foreclosure when you are ready. How do you find out about Days On Market (DOM)? Call a local agent and ask for homes for sale in your preferred neighborhood. DOM is normally listed.

If you do buy, it is best to put down 20%. Avoiding Private Mortgage Insurance is huge today. PMI companies are going broke or already did, and the ones left standing are charging an arm and 2 legs for coverage. Not to mention your closing costs are about 3% higher. Although an FHA loan sounds great with 97% Loan To Value loans, it is quite expensive when you roll things out. Be sure that you understand the pros and cons of FHA versus Conventional financing. I will offer friendly advice to those who ask.

Some pros and cons about renting and buying…Well if you rent, you have the flexibility to move. Leases run month to month, 6 months, and 1 year. Home ownership limits you to the market whether it is a buyer or sellers market. The resale of your home is based off of competitive sales and overall demand, not a lease. Renting allows you to blame everything on the landlord. If you don’t like dealing with broken water heaters, leaky roof, and running toilets, then maybe you are a lifelong renter. OWNING a home allows you a huge tax advantage, potential tax-free capital gains, and emotional satisfaction. With that however, comes property taxes and upkeep.

If you purchase or contract a home by the end of 2009, you are eligible for the $8,000 tax credit from the IRS and can spread this out over 2 years, something Congress passed to stimulate home ownership. All things aside, this is truly a very good time to start shopping for a home. Historically low prices, low interest rates, and real estate provides an amazing tax shelter. Read my article about the tax credit HERE

So a couple paragraphs to conclude, real estate is a very tough and mean industry. If you are not careful, it will eat you up 10 times over. Most people get only one chance and you are done for a long time. Most decisions in life are based off emotion, and in real estate, if you let emotion control your decisions, you are in for a potentially catastrophic ride. Most importantly, let a professional help you with a plan. You can either agree or disagree with their input. But a guy like me can share a wealth of information for those who don’t even know what a home inspection is. Don’t try to tackle buying a home by yourself.

On a side note, most of you that know me know that I have more stories about real estate and business that will even draw a surprised look from Ben Stein. I have learned from the best in the industry though and at 30, I feel I have a great amount of experience in real estate acquisition, construction, and finance. I have shared my stories with investment groups across the country and now speak at forums about risk mitigation. One thing that is so important to understand and I’ll say it again, is that real estate is the biggest catapult to financial wealth, freedom, and stability. Most of our parents made a lot of our upbringing possible by home ownership and equity.

If you are not ready now, don’t panic or feel that you are missing the boat. The nice thing about real estate is that it is tangible. It will always be there no matter what, different than stocks. Think things through, talk to people, and make a smart decision. Once you make a smart decision, your emotions will take over.

Aside from my beautiful family, real estate is the most important thing in my life. I strive to make more good decisions than bad, and if you understand the way I just said that, the industry will force you to make both types of decisions. The key is to not jump the gun. Understand EVERYTHING. Then…one day…everyone will have an opportunity to lead a more secure life no matter whether it is just buying 1 house or 20 houses.

After you’ve eliminated your bad debt, you’ve started a retirement account, and you’ve saved an emergency fund. It’s now time to start the intermediate levels to Financial Freedom and on to Level IV – Investing!

There are few things you need to think about determining how you are going to achieve this level. First, do you have the time and inclination to learn about investing? If yes, then you can consider the complex option to this level. If not, then you need to proceed straight to the simple option.

For you to be able to take on the complex level, you’re going to need to read a few books, understand how to value an investment, and start to understand broad markets like the stock market and the commodities markets. You need to start understanding how inflation (or disinflation), commodity prices, interest rates and their direction, the growth in the economy and public policy affect the markets. So which option is best for you?

Investing Options

Simple Option

A first possibility is a simple option and it is to use the robo-advisor. A robo-advisor is a platform like Betterment, Wealthfront or Personal Capital that manages a portfolio for you of index funds based on an investment plan and a managed asset allocation. Using a platform like Betterment, in particular, allows you to set up goals with time horizons and an investment profile for each goal. You can set the duration of how long to reach the goal based on your risk profile and it will help create an investment plan for you. This makes the whole process automated, simple and manageable. The investment plan will outline your asset allocation for your portfolio and how much per month you need to contribute. This is a very good approach towards solid systematic goal-based investing.

For example, you want to have a goal of buying a house in 3 years. You think you need $60,000 for a down payment and you have a moderate risk profile. How much do you need to contribute every month and what do you need to invest in to reach your goal? Betterment’s platform handles the entire process. Based on these assumptions and configurations, the platform recommends you save $1,500 per month towards this goal. As time goes on and you start generating returns, the estimate contribution to stay on the target may change, but you get the idea how this will help you manage to your goal.

Complex Option

A more complex approach requires you to set up a brokerage account and learn much more about investing.

If you’re going to pursue the complex option to investing, then you’re going to have to learn a some of the basics. One of the basics is about how to value an investment. Let’s start with stocks. Some of the basic fundamental indicators for how to value a stock includes PE ratio (Price / Earnings), PEG ratio (PE to Growth) Ratio, dividend yield and ROE (Return on Equity).

Valuation Criteria for Stocks

Let’s take each of those ones by one. The PE ratio is the price to earnings ratio. This is generally how much you’re willing to pay per dollar of earnings. The average PE for a large cap company in the S&P 500 is 15. This means that most investors are willing to pay $15 in stock price for a dollar of earnings. The standard valuation model will change depending on the company sector and industry. For example. the high-growth tech sector may have an average PE of 25 while the low-growth utility sector may average a PE of 8. But, the general criteria to learn here is what is a good PE ratio that represents value and what PE ratio represents over-valuation.

The next indicator is the PEG ratio, that is the price to earnings to growth ratio. This indicator measures price earnings to the company’s growth. In other words, this indicator is measuring how much an investor is willing to pay for growth. If a stock has a PE 15 and an average 15% per year of growth then the PEG ratio is 1.0. If the company has a PE ratio 30 and company has 15% annual growth, then the PEG ratio is 2.0. Generally speaking, a PEG ratio of 1.0 indicates a good investment opportunity, and a PEG ratio of 2.0 or higher indicates a time to sell a company’s stock. An investor wants to be mindful of how much they are willing to spend on a company relative to its growth. If you’re investing for growth, this is a key indicator to follow.

The next indicator an investor wants to consider is the dividend yield of the company. This is the main indicator for the value sector of your portfolio; if you’re investing for value, this is an important indicator to follow. An investor would like to see a company have a dividend yield that is higher than the 10-year Treasury interest rate. So, for example, right now the 10-year Treasury is 2.3%. An investor would like to find companies that have a dividend yield higher than 2.3%. This will obviously adjust over time as inflation and interest rates change. This is indicator does not work well for evaluating growth-based in assets or investments held. But, it is something that should be considered within your overall investment strategy.

When evaluating stock investment options, the final base indicator that should be considered when evaluating a stock investment is the ROE or a return on equity. The return on equity indicator demonstrates a companies’ ability to generate a return per invested dollar. Generally, companies with good brands that don’t need large capital expenditures can generate a good ROE. Companies with lower ROEs have less defensible business models. ROE is important because it shows a business’ efficiency in generating a return for shareholders.

Diversification

The next important factor to learn to become a good investor is diversification. I think it was Jim Cramer who said diversification is the only free lunch. Diversification allows an investor to manage and mitigate against various market changes. As an investor, you want different asset classes in your portfolio, which will all be affected differently against interest rate changes, inflation, economic growth and commodity price changes. One of the basic diversification calculation is a percentage of stocks and bonds in your portfolio. Generally, I would break it into owning most of the following 9 asset classes – US Stocks, Developed Market Stocks, Developing Market Stocks, Real Estate (REITs), Natural Resources (Timber & Oil), Gold, Corporate Bonds, US Govt Bonds and International Govt Bonds. Many go into other diversification like sector diversification or company size (large cap or small cap), but I think it’s more important to think about these larger asset classes. Based on your goal(s), time horizon and risk profile, you should think about diversifying your investment portfolio over these general asset classes. My favorite book on the subject is David Swensen’s, “Pioneering Portfolio Management”.

Conclusion

There’s no way to cover all the details that are required in handling personal investment in one article, but I hope I’ve given you some ways to approach winning at Level IV. The goal is to set up a system of investment. All investment dollars should be tied to a goal and all goals should have a time horizon, risk profile which leads to an asset allocation. You can use a platform like Betterment to help manage to your goals, you can hire a professional, or if you have the time and inclination, you can start learning about investing.

Most people start investing by learning how to invest in the public stock market. I agree with that, so I’ve outlined a few points to think about on how to value whether you’re getting a good deal on an investment and how you should broadly diversify your investments. Once you’ve built a system and reach one financial goal, you’ve won at Level IV – Winning at Financial Freedom.