For Better and For Worse:

May 25, 2008 by Claudia · 10 Comments

A woman’s guide to financial security before, during and after divorce

For many women, the financial ramifications of a divorce can be devastating. Women are much more likely to interrupt their careers to raise families, to neglect insurance and retirement planning, and in many cases, to have no plan at all when faced with a divorce. According to Prudential’s 2006 study on Financial Experience and Behaviors Among Women, 62% of women gave themselves a grade of “C” or lower when it came to their knowledge of financial products and services. And only one in five women feel very well prepared to make wise financial decisions. These days, nearly 43 percent of first marriages end in separation or divorce within 15 years.* It may seem pessimistic to plan your finances around this possibility, but to ignore it could have dire consequences. To get started, take a personal financial inventory:

· What if any assets are in your name only?

· Whose name is your house in? Would you be at risk of losing your home if your marriage ends?

· Do you and your husband both have a will? If so, who are the beneficiaries? (If this is a second marriage, make sure your will has been updated.)

· Update or create your will to make sure your assets are protected from probate court.

· Make sure you know how to access vital documents like the title deed to your home and insurance documents. Many women still leave records’ management to their husbands and are woefully in the dark when they find themselves on their own.

· Review your insurance coverage, including your life and disability needs. Be sure to ask your financial advisor how long-term care insurance fits into your plan.

· Max out your 401K. There’s nothing like having savings set aside in your own name to boost your financial security and peace of mind.

· Start educating yourself about products created to help secure your retirement income, like an annuity with an optional benefit, which can guarantee a lifetime stream of income. (The guaranteed income is based on the claims paying ability of the issuing company.)

· Meet with a financial advisor who understands divorce laws in your state and review your situation. Make suggested changes now – just in case.

For better or worse, married women need to take financial matters into their own hands so they are prepared if they become suddenly single due to divorce. Should the day arrive when you are required to make it on your own financially, will you be prepared? With these simple steps, you can be.

*According to a 2005 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Prudential Financial, its affiliates, and their licensed financial professionals do not render tax or legal advice. Please consult with your tax and legal advisors regarding your personal circumstances.

Stacey A. Gordon, MBA & Amanda C. Satyadi, – CA Life Insurance #s 0F94638 & 0F30979 are Financial Services Associates with The Prudential Insurance Company of America’s Greater Los Angeles agency located in El Segundo, California. Both Stacey and Amanda can be reached at (310) 414-4111 with the following email addresses: Stacey.Gordon@prudential.com / Amanda.Satyadi@prudential.com.

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Women and Investing: Finding the Extra $$$ to Save

May 15, 2008 by Claudia · 6 Comments

Many American women spend less time in the full-time workforce, as they juggle family and work responsibilities Multiple demands on their time and money mean they may have fewer opportunities to accumulate pensions and retirement savings. And despite some progress, women generally still earn less than men in comparable positions. They also live longer than men. This is not a good combination for creating financial security in retirement. Overcoming these odds takes an attitude shift that makes saving for the future a priority, a plan of attack with defined goals, and the discipline to stick with it.

Refocus Your Priorities

Samuel Johnson once said, “ Resolve not to be poor, whatever you have, spend less.” Two good thoughts there: first, make a conscious decision to break the spending habit and change your mindset into a saving state. Secondly, find creative ways to save additional money that you can then invest for retirement. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Pay off outstanding credit card debt as soon as possible. Get out from under the burden of high interest rates and finance charges. Resolve to pay cash whenever possible.

Have your paycheck deposited directly into your bank account and set up automatic monthly deductions for investment accounts if you can. Although automatic deductions make it easy to stay on track, please remember that they do not assure a profit or protect against a loss in declining markets.

Shop around – for a car, a mortgage, shoes for the kids. Don’t pay more than you have to. Negotiate on everything – you may be surprised to find you can pay less for things, just by asking for a deal. Re-use, recycle, repair whenever possible.

Borrow instead of buy. Your public library is a great source for free books, magazines, music and movies.

Re-examine your monthly accounts for phone bills, television, Internet access, cell phones, and more. Are there cheaper alternatives? Investigate using a package of services from just one provider with a single, consolidated smaller bill.

Simplify your life. Sell unused furniture, cars, clothes, jewelry, books, toys and household items. Yard sales and online auction sites have taught us that there is a buyer for virtually anything.

Invest, rather than spend, any windfalls you may get, from lottery or gambling winnings, bonuses, gifts, income tax refunds, inheritances, or yard sale profits.

Consider raising the deductibles on your insurance coverages. Your premiums will be less, and you can invest the difference.

Discipline Makes the Difference

Start small – don’t try to accomplish everything all at once. Educate yourself about saving, investing – and financial strategies. See a financial professional to help get started right, and then stick to your strategy and revise it as your situation changes. There is a wealth of resources available online, in the library, and in the phone book.

WARNING: WALKING AWAY WILL BE COSTLY

May 14, 2008 by Claudia · 5 Comments

Nation’s Housing

By Kenneth R. Harney, Washington Post Writers Grou

The two largest sources of mortgage money in the country have a blunt warning for anyone thinking about joining the growing “walkaway” trend and becoming one of those homeowners who stops making payments and months later sends the house keys back to the lender: You will feel the pain.On March 31, Fannie Mae sent out new guidelines to lenders. Fannie now will prohibit foreclosed borrowers from getting another mortgage through the giant investor for five years unless there are “documented extenuating circumstances.” In those cases, the prohibition is three years.

Even after five years, borrowers with foreclosures in their files will be required to make at least a 10% down payment and will need minimum FICO credit scores of 680.

Filed Under: Property Info, Tips
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THE METHOD FEST AWARDS CEREMONY AIRS ON SOCAL’S LEADING CABLE CARRIERS FOR THE FIRST TIME

May 14, 2008 by Claudia · 5 Comments

mast The Awards Ceremony of the 10th annual The Method Fest Film Festival held April 3 in Calabasas, Calif., will be available for the first time on cable TV in Southern California households.

Charter Communications™, producer of the Awards Ceremony, will offer the 85 minute show The 2008 Method Fest Independent Film Festival Awards Ceremony in partnership with Time Warner Cable, through their Video on Demand (VOD) services. Charter Communications™ and Time Warner Cable are both presenting media sponsors of The Method Fest.

The show will be offered through Southern California cable systems on both Charter Communications™ and Time Warner Cable, which have a combined viewership of approximately 2.5 million subscribers in the Southland.

Noted Academy Awards segment producer, Harrison Engle, and William Kucera, Creative Director for The Method Fest, produced the Awards Ceremony along with the production team from Charter Communications™ led by Local Programming Director, Chando Mapoma. Chris Holmes served as technical director for the Awards Ceremony and the festival.

The 2008 Method Fest Awards Ceremony will be available on Charter Communications™ Video On Demand Channel 980 under the Community Interest tier and can be viewed by Charter customers from Malibu to Big Bear, and from Ventura to Long Beach.

Time Warner Cable now serves Southern California communities from Fillmore to Santa Fe Springs, from San Bernardino to Beverly Hills and Marina Del Rey, and from Lancaster to Beaumont. Footage from the Method Fest can be accessed via Channel 1 across Time Warner Cable’s Southern California service area.

Named after a famous school of acting, The Method Fest is the only major film festival in the U.S. focusing on acting, celebrating breakout acting performances in story driven independent films. The Method Fest is a discovery festival, looking to help launch the works of young fresh filmmakers and to discover breakthrough performances by young, bold new actors.

The Method Fest is presented by the City of Calabasas. Presenting media sponsors include Charter Communications™, Time Warner Cable, the L.A. Daily News and LA.com. Golden Reel sponsors include Corona. Silver Reel sponsors include Prudential California Realty, Christie, Sony, and Country Inn & Suites.

Award winning films at the 2008 The Method Fest film festival included The Visitor, and Then She Found Me, both currently in theatrical release, with “Diminished Capacity” upcoming. Also, films like Harrison Montgomery, Chronic Town, Corpo, Unfinished Skies, Choosing Connor, Chain Link and Lullaby.

Contact: Don Franken cell (310) 962-3297 or (office) 310 535-9230

don@methodfest.com

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Know What A Short Sale Is!

May 8, 2008 by Claudia · Leave a Comment

Short Sale: A sale in which the proceeds from the sale are insufficient to pay off the loan secured by the property being sold. To be successful, the lender must agree to release it’s lien against the property even though the existing loan is not being paid in full.What Buyers Should Know About Short SalesAt this time it is a buyers market!!! When you make a reasonable offer to a seller they should be jumping on that offer. But many times when you do make an offer on a short sale you may be told that while the offer will be accepted, the seller will for the first six weeks of the contract, reserve the right to accept other offers and that you will have to match any higher offers or they will cancel your contract? Naturally in today’s market a smart buyer will walk away and find something else. There is plenty more houses out there probably in the same price range if not better matching the same criteria.Unfortunately, with short sale offers this is essentially what happens every time a buyer makes an offer on a property. The seller continues to accept other offers and submits them to the bank. It usually takes the bank six to eight weeks to respond. Basically the bank is not approving your offer if higher offers have been received.

Most knowledgeable, legitimate buyers who understand this process are not willing to spend their time with short sales. This leaves mostly bargain hunters to play the short sale game. The lenders, for their part, are trying to get as much as they can and are not interested in approving contracts at fire sale prices. Please note that In the last 12 months there have been roughly 299 attempts to do shorts sales with only 28 (9%) of those actually resulting in a closed sale. The present system benefits neither legitimate buyers, sellers or their lenders.

A much better option is to wait for the property to be foreclosed on. You will find that dealing with the lender as a seller is faster and less stressful than trying to deal with them in a short sale.

What Sellers Should Know About Short Sales I’m often asked if doing a short sale in lieu of going into foreclosure will save the seller’s credit rating. According to the lenders I have talked to, there is no difference on your credit score between a foreclosure, a short sale or a deed in lieu of foreclosure. According to these sources, the only difference between these three remedies in terms of it’s impact on your credit is the number of late payments that show up on your credit report. So, the faster you can complete the transaction, the less your credit will suffer.

Short sales are not easy to get approved (as evidenced by only a 9% success ratio). They are they also slow. Whatever option you do choose when deciding to sell will likely have tax consequences. Talk to your accountant before deciding how to proceed. Also talk to your lender to see if there is any way to restructure your loan to avoid a short sale, foreclosure or deed in lieu of foreclosure. History shows that when prices turn around, the median home price will likely double or triple from their low point in the housing recession. If all else fails, a deed in lieu of foreclosure will probably be faster and less stressful than a short sale or foreclosure though they will not work in every situation.

Filed Under: Property Info
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REMEMBER Mother’s Day is SUNDAY - May 11 - order a CANDY BOUQUET!!

May 7, 2008 by Claudia · Leave a Comment

Show your mom and wife how much you care by giving her an original and authentic Candy Bouquet!!!

Visit www.candyflowers4u.com

or phone for orders: 818-923-8377

Flowers are nice…

Balloons are Okay…

For a lasting impression send a CANDY BOUQUET!

Welcome to Candy Bouquet - the perfect place to find that perfect gift. Friends, family, loved ones, or clients will be pleased with a gift from Candy Bouquet. Whether it’s for birthdays, anniversaries, a new baby, that someone special, holidays, corporate gifts, or for no occasion at all, Candy Bouquet can create the perfect gift.

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Filed Under: About, Business
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“What To Write on a Simple Postcard That Will Bring You an Endless River of Customers.”

May 6, 2008 by Claudia · 13 Comments

(Keys To Successful Postcard marketing, Part One)

By Ben Hart

Here’s one of the coolest tricks I’ve ever discovered.

It involves using postcards to generate an avalanche of customers for you.

Here’s what you need to get started . . .

First, you need mailing list of customers and prospects.

How to compile your list is not the subject here. I deal with that critical subject elsewhere. And I’ll be covering this subject of how to build your list in a lot more detail in the coming weeks and months.

The subject here is what to say on your postcard mailing that will produce a flood of customers for you. It’s a pretty amazing little secret.

Now let’s say you’re in the real estate business. All you do is print up your postcards and you write something like:

Dear Friend:

Would you like to learn an amazing secret that will allow you to buy property for 20% below what everyone else is paying?

If so, all you have to do is call 000-000-0000 and you will hear a free recorded message that reveals some truly amazing bargains.

Sincerely,

John Smith

Now that was pretty easy.

Then what you do is you write out a telephone script. You practice it a few times. And then you read your script into an answering machine or a voice mail system. And once you are happy with it, you save it.

Your script will say something like this.

“Thank you for calling. My name is John Smith and I’d like to show you a few properties I have available that are being sold by people who are moving out of the area and so they absolutely must sell right away, no matter what. One property must be sold by next Wednesday. Another property I have must be sold by the following Tuesday, July 13th. I have some other fantastic properties in prime locations in the San Diego area that must be sold by certain dates as well because the owners are moving out of the region.

If you’d like to learn more, just call me on my cell phone at 000-000-0000. I’d be happy to describe these properties to you, and show them to you if this opportunity interests you.”

Or there might be other reasons you have for why you’re able to offer these properties at rock-bottom prices. But my point here is not to give you your reasons or to write your phone script for you, but to show you the formula. You’ll have your own story to tell, your own reasons and your own deals to offer.

And this message can be pretty long if you have a lot of interesting things to say. Some of my recorded messages run 10 minutes or more. It just depends. Sometimes short and sweet is best. Sometimes longer is good, if what you have to say is super interesting. Better short and sweet than long and boring. You want to create interest and intrigue so they call you. Don’t give them all the details.

Give them just enough, so they’ll want to call you and find out more. But give them enough detail so that they believe you.

And that’s a big part of effective copywriting and marketing. Tell an interesting story. And the story should be about why you are able to offer your prospect such a great deal. That’s what makes you credible.

So once you’ve recorded your message, you then mail your postcards and wait for the phone to start ringing. And it will ring if you offer something along the lines of what I just described. Your prospects will always be interested in getting a bargain — something at a great price. The job of your script — and the story you tell on your recorded message — is to persuade your caller, your listener, that:

1) You really are offering a great price, a bargain they can’t get elsewhere; and

2) You only have a few properties (or whatever you are selling) that fit this special situation criteria. Once the properties (or items) are gone, so is the special one-time opportunity.

So here’s why this simple strategy works so well:

#1 You are offering free insider information on what you know your prospect is interested in.

#2 Your prospect is more likely to call if it’s just a recorded message than if she thinks she’s about to be collared by a high-pressure salesman. The prospect knows she can just hang up on the recorded message. So she’s much more likely to call.

3# When your prospect calls your recorded message hotline, she sees that you are a good guy because you actually delivered what you promised — information on how to buy some great properties at rock-bottom prices. And your friendly, casual voice further reassures your caller and puts her at ease.

#4 And you really have shown your prospect that you have a great opportunity for her — but one she’ll miss if she does not act now.

And, by the way, the tone of your recorded message is key. Just tell the story and state the facts. You should not yell or scream into the phone or the recorder. You should not sound like a street corner huckster. Just the story - Just the facts - Just the opportunity you are offering - Very matter of fact. Very calm, reassuring and friendly.

I picked real estate as my example. But this formula works for any business.

If you are a plastic surgeon, here’s some sample copy you might try for your postcard:

Dear Friend,

I’m using a new procedure that can make you look 15 years younger for a lot less than you probably think. Plastic surgery used to cost a small fortune.

But now almost anyone can afford it. We also offer packages that allow you to pay over time. And it’s very safe. And there’s hardly any recovery time.

If you would like to learn more about this revolutionary new xxx procedure just call 000-000-0000 and listen to the free recorded message for all the facts and details. You can call the recorded message anytime, 24/7.

Sincerely,

Dr. John Smith, MD

See the pattern? And notice that I used the old-fashioned courier typewriter font for my postcard. It’s more personal looking; more friendly, looks more like a letter, and is more attention-getting. My tests show that courier still works better than Times Roman or the other desktop publishing fonts.

Here are a few more examples (just the first lines) to get you thinking in the right direction:

· “Would you like to learn how to play the piano in a week?”

· “It takes the schools two years to teach algebra. Would you like it if your child could learn the same material in just two months?”

· “I have a way to get you very high-quality diamonds for less than a jeweler would pay for them?”

Think of your postcard as a teaser, as very much like a headline. If you have knack for writing great, attention-getting, intriguing headlines, you can write great postcards that will generate lots of calls. It’s all about emphasizing the big benefit to your reader. What’s the big payoff for calling your recorded message hotline?

By the way, you can follow this same formula with your other advertising, not just postcards. You can run ads like this in the classifieds, in the Yellow Pages, and in little newspaper ads. And tiny ads like these are super cheap to buy, unlike full-page display ads. And you can put text like this on fliers you distribute — even on your business cards, or on signs and billboards. And you can use this formula with your email marketing.

In addition to driving people to your recorded message hotlines, you can send them to your website.

But I love the recorded messages because they have your reassuring voice.

I’m sure you now get the formula. It’s super easy. You just apply it to your own situation. You can follow the exact same formula no matter what you are selling, and no matter what business you are in.

I’m doing something similar for my own business and just generated 5,500 calls.

There is actually a great recorded message service I use that’s designed for exactly this kind of program. It’s called Automatic Response Technologies. And you’ll find it here: http://www.automaticresponse.com/

This service not only makes it a whole lot easier than setting up a recorded message answering system yourself, it will actually give you a report on exactly who called. Even if the caller hangs up and never calls you, you’ll know who did that . . . because you’ll get a report with the names, phone numbers and the addresses of most of the people who called.

Now some people will block their numbers. So you’ll miss those people. But most don’t block their numbers. So this is a great way to then build your list of highly qualified leads — that is, of people who were interested enough to call.

You then add these people to your newsletter list.

This program fits perfectly into my “Automatic Marketing” system. It’s a very low-tech, simple way to automate a big part of your selling — to let machines do the lion’s share of your selling for you, to let machines handle the initial sales presentations, to let machines do most of the sorting and sifting of your leads so that you yourself never again have to make a cold sales call.

You then just talk to those who are all set to buy from you.