Home Improvement: To Build Your Very Own Comfort Zone

Home is your sanctuary. The place you go back to every night and somehow it doesn’t seem right. Your home is an expression of who you are and if you walk out each of a place that you does not seem to belong to you then probably your home needs improvement. You are probably guessing how you are going to make the payments for your home improvement. Your home remodeling plans are no longer to be restricted to the thought stages. Let them see the light of day. Home improvement loans will provide you with a dependable groundwork to build on the home you have a vision of.Home improvement is predominantly triggered by the desire to own a comfortable home. Home improvement can be slightly difficult, if your financial position is tight. This is where home improvement loans have a function to perform. Being a homeowner you could not have been in a better position to apply for a home improvement loan. Home improvement loans are functional for any kind of improvement or home extension. Home improvement loan is available for double glazing, new conservatory, heating system, new kitchen, rewiring and plumbing or any home remodeling that you can think of. The cost of home improvements is generally paid by savings or revolving credits like credit or store cards. Credit cards imply no borrowing. In many ways it is idyllic for there are no repayments to be made. But credit cards can be an expensive option especially if the borrowing extends beyond the credit limit. Store card interest rates are as high as 30%. In every circumstance a personal loan for home improvement is a more disciplined and cheaper option.Home improvement plans can be funded by means of a secured loan, unsecured loan, remortgaging or taking further advance on your mortgage. Unsecured home improvement offers a typical flat rate of interest 12-14%. But a little bit of research will get you an unsecured home improvement loan for 10%. A secured home improvement loan indisputably attracts lower rate of interest. APR of a secured loan is around 7%. You can borrow anything from £ 5,000 to £ 75,000 for home improvement. The repayment term can be extended from 5 years to 25 years depending on the loan amount, your available income and the amount of equity in the property.In the contemporary context, one of the ingenious thing one can do with a home’s equity is to put it right back into the home. Home improvement is besides providing you with the much needed changes, increases the equity of your home. There has been a rise in home improvement loans in the past decade. If the property cannot be sold then home improvement is the answer. Home improvement is remarkable if your primary motive is to raise large amounts. But not every home improvement will improve the resale value of your home. So it is recommended that you stick to those home improvement plans that give you the maximum returns. It is important to remember that over enthusiasm with improvement won’t lead to any gain. It is difficult to recover investment in a home that is already more valuable than those in the neighbourhood. And keep your whimsical tastes to respite for there might not be many mainstream homebuyers for them.
Home improvement loan might seem like an unreal thing for many homeowners. But the newer more sophisticated home improvement loan options are very easy to adjust to. They are designed to keeping in mind the conditions and status of every homeowner. The ever expanding mortgage market gives you an opportunity to apply for a mortgage for home improvements and that too in the most uncomplicated manner. More and more homeowners are administering for remortgage to raise capital for home improvements. By completely remortgaging the consolidated loan, the entire mortgage market is assailable to the loan borrower. If you care enough to shop around then you can find a very reasonable and cheap mortgage loan for home improvement.Home improvement loans are a package that includes any kind of meliorations that you can think of. It is your home and you have every right to improve it the way you want to. Contrary to accepted conviction home improvements are vital and absolutely necessary. Why home improvement? If that is what people ask when you suggest it then they probably don’t know what is the meaning of comfortable living is. Home improvements improve the quality of life. We work hard and save money to buy personal satisfaction and comfort. If the house that we have build does not provide the relief then perhaps home improvement is what you need.

Advertising in the Age of Google Empire: Killing Off Big Media Dinosaurs for Your Profit

Here’s a bold claim. Whatever your business, whether it’s brand new or well established, whether you live in America, on the Continent, and almost everywhere on the globe, Google and Google AdWords affects you today and will, in all likelihood, affect you even more in the future.This is not an exaggeration, simply a statement of fact.Just two decades ago, only a few people on the globe had ever heard of the World Wide Web. Originally governmentally funded solely for things like noncommercial research and enhanced networking capabilities for universities and governmental agencies, including NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and the military, the world of communications and information exploded almost instantaneously in 1992 when the United States Congress opened it to commercial activity.Most Americans’ first experience with the Web came about with the peculiar, but very useful, little communication tool called email and the development of online tools and the first search engines like AOL, Netscape, even Yahoo. But, in point of fact, for most folks it was merely a fun novelty until two bright Stanford students, one born in the U.S.A. and the other an immigrant from Russia, set the internet world on its head. The world knows their work as Google.Like an electronic tidal wave, it submerged its competitors. Seventy percent of all global searches are made on Google. Every continent, nation, and city on the planet in hundreds of languages, including Klingon for Star Trekkers.”All very interesting”, you might say, “but I thought this was supposed to be about how Google advertising affects me”. To which I say: “Two words: Google AdWords.”Here’s the real deal you need to know. Even if you aren’t advertising your business with AdWords, your competitors are, to your business disadvantage.Don’t take my word for it. Consider: “We’re not in the business of keeping the media business alive… we’re in the business of connecting with consumers.” Trevor Edwards, Corporate V.P., Nike, Inc.Maybe you ought to ask yourself whether continuing to spend thousands and thousands of dollars for so little return on your investment makes sense when there’s a better way of getting customers. Think about the antiquated marketing model, you know, the one we all grew up with: radio, television, signs and posters, newspapers and fliers, magazines, billboards, Yellow Pages, and more. So expensive, so inefficient spreading your advertising marketing message far and wide instead of targeted messages to your real audience. Such a waste of your valuable marketing budget.Thousands, tens of thousands, sometimes way more, of dollars given to Big Media, making it rich and you, well, not so much. Can you keep throwing your money down an advertising hole? That sucking sound you hear is your valuable dollars, pounds, euros, dinero in the black abyss of old-style advertising. Sure, Big Media was once the mightiest economic dinosaur of all but, like its ancient reptilian ancestors, it awaits its cruel fate.You may be concerned about the risks of making dramatic changes in your approach to marketing but it is better to concentrate instead on the risks inherent in failing to make the changes necessary to compete for the modern consumer.We all know that many otherwise-smart companies remain mired in prehistoric marketing methodologies. If you’re hesitant, think about the fate of the dinosaurs, your competitors, and Big Media. Dinosaurs from long ago, competitors of today, Big Media. Carnivores all.How can you possibly compete in the face of all that? Simple: level the advertising playing field with the revolutionary Google pay per click model, still in its infancy, but already so powerful that it already reaches 85% of the world’s markets. 85%! Hundreds of countries, every imaginable language, every imaginable market. All not only affordable (you pay only for clicks on your ads), but once you understand the techniques for writing AdWords ads, you can set your marketing campaigns around your budget, compete with the Big Boys of commerce on your terms, and dramatically increase your customers through targeted ads.There is no exaggeration here. Just a decade old, AdWords advertising is the marketing meteor that, having flamed to earth, is killing off the Big Media dinosaurs. It’s almost everywhere. You see it every time you, and hundreds of millions of others, search Google. It’s probably on your cell phone and certainly on your Gmail. It’s on every YouTube video, not to mention over a million (!) commercial websites. Imagine your AdWords ad in the New York Times, Fox.com, or Sportsillustrated.com! And, now on Google TV which some are predicting will be more than a hundred billion dollar market.Plain fact is that, whether you’re a professional like a doctor or lawyer, own a brick and mortar or virtual store, a contractor or plumber or other service provider, student, housewife or househusband who wants to work at home to make a bit more money, AdWords already affects you. If you’re not in the online marketing game, know this: your competitors are.Your choice is stark. Be in the business of keeping Big Media advertising on life support… at your expense… or get in the business of connecting with customers in today’s world.

SPDN: An Inexpensive Way To Profit When The S&P 500 Falls

Summary
SPDN is not the largest or oldest way to short the S&P 500, but it’s a solid choice.
This ETF uses a variety of financial instruments to target a return opposite that of the S&P 500 Index.
SPDN’s 0.49% Expense Ratio is nearly half that of the larger, longer-tenured -1x Inverse S&P 500 ETF.
Details aside, the potential continuation of the equity bear market makes single-inverse ETFs an investment segment investor should be familiar with.
We rate SPDN a Strong Buy because we believe the risks of a continued bear market greatly outweigh the possibility of a quick return to a bull market.
Put a gear stick into R position, (Reverse).
Birdlkportfolio

By Rob Isbitts

Summary
The S&P 500 is in a bear market, and we don’t see a quick-fix. Many investors assume the only way to navigate a potentially long-term bear market is to hide in cash, day-trade or “just hang in there” while the bear takes their retirement nest egg.

The Direxion Daily S&P 500® Bear 1X ETF (NYSEARCA:SPDN) is one of a class of single-inverse ETFs that allow investors to profit from down moves in the stock market.

SPDN is an unleveraged, liquid, low-cost way to either try to hedge an equity portfolio, profit from a decline in the S&P 500, or both. We rate it a Strong Buy, given our concern about the intermediate-term outlook for the global equity market.

Strategy
SPDN keeps it simple. If the S&P 500 goes up by X%, it should go down by X%. The opposite is also expected.

Proprietary ETF Grades
Offense/Defense: Defense

Segment: Inverse Equity

Sub-Segment: Inverse S&P 500

Correlation (vs. S&P 500): Very High (inverse)

Expected Volatility (vs. S&P 500): Similar (but opposite)

Holding Analysis
SPDN does not rely on shorting individual stocks in the S&P 500. Instead, the managers typically use a combination of futures, swaps and other derivative instruments to create a portfolio that consistently aims to deliver the opposite of what the S&P 500 does.

Strengths
SPDN is a fairly “no-frills” way to do what many investors probably wished they could do during the first 9 months of 2022 and in past bear markets: find something that goes up when the “market” goes down. After all, bonds are not the answer they used to be, commodities like gold have, shall we say, lost their luster. And moving to cash creates the issue of making two correct timing decisions, when to get in and when to get out. SPDN and its single-inverse ETF brethren offer a liquid tool to use in a variety of ways, depending on what a particular investor wants to achieve.

Weaknesses
The weakness of any inverse ETF is that it does the opposite of what the market does, when the market goes up. So, even in bear markets when the broader market trend is down, sharp bear market rallies (or any rallies for that matter) in the S&P 500 will cause SPDN to drop as much as the market goes up.

Opportunities
While inverse ETFs have a reputation in some circles as nothing more than day-trading vehicles, our own experience with them is, pardon the pun, exactly the opposite! We encourage investors to try to better-understand single inverse ETFs like SPDN. While traders tend to gravitate to leveraged inverse ETFs (which actually are day-trading tools), we believe that in an extended bear market, SPDN and its ilk could be a game-saver for many portfolios.

Threats
SPDN and most other single inverse ETFs are vulnerable to a sustained rise in the price of the index it aims to deliver the inverse of. But that threat of loss in a rising market means that when an investor considers SPDN, they should also have a game plan for how and when they will deploy this unique portfolio weapon.

Proprietary Technical Ratings
Short-Term Rating (next 3 months): Strong Buy

Long-Term Rating (next 12 months): Buy

Conclusions
ETF Quality Opinion
SPDN does what it aims to do, and has done so for over 6 years now. For a while, it was largely-ignored, given the existence of a similar ETF that has been around much longer. But the more tenured SPDN has become, the more attractive it looks as an alternative.

ETF Investment Opinion

SPDN is rated Strong Buy because the S&P 500 continues to look as vulnerable to further decline. And, while the market bottomed in mid-June, rallied, then waffled since that time, our proprietary macro market indicators all point to much greater risk of a major decline from this level than a fast return to bull market glory. Thus, SPDN is at best a way to exploit and attack the bear, and at worst a hedge on an otherwise equity-laden portfolio.