Mutual Funds - What Are Mutual Funds?

Mutual Funds - What Are Mutual Funds?

Mutual funds are very popular. In fact, they are the one of the most popular investments on the market today. What does that mean in numbers? There are over 10,000 different funds with over $17 trillion in investments!!

Total U.S. retirement assets were $17.0 trillion as of September 30, 2011, down 7.5 percent from the record high of $18.4 trillion in assets recorded as of June 30, 2011. The decline in retirement assets was driven in part by the drop in corporate equity values—for example, the S&P 500 index fell by 13.9 percent in the third quarter.

Account balances fell by less than stock indexes because of asset diversification and ongoing net inflows from retirement plan contributions. Retirement savings accounted for 36 percent of all household financial assets in the United States at the end of the third quarter of 2011.

Why are they so popular? For some, it is because of their great returns. Others like funds because they are easy to buy and sell. Still others like them because they are diversified and less risky.

A mutual fund raises money from investors to invest in stocks, bonds, and other securities. It is a package made up of several individual investments. When those investments gain or lose value, you gain or lose as well.

When they pay dividends, you get a share of them. Mutual funds also offer professional management and diversification. They do much of your investing work for you.

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Banff - Banff And Lake Louise, Canadian Rocky Mountain Jewel

Banff - Banff And Lake Louise, Canadian Rocky Mountain Jewel

Banff: One of the most beloved travel destinations in Canada is the Banff and Lake Louise area located in the province of Alberta. The town of Banff is 90 minutes (75 miles) west of Calgary and is within the Banff National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

One can see the Rocky Mountains from Calgary since the Banff area is at the eastern edge of the Canadian Rocky Mountain range. It is also one of the most visited areas in Canada all year round since the rugged beauty of the mountains and the protected wilderness draws tourists from around the world. 

During the winter, the three local resorts of Sunshine Village, Norquay Mystic Ridge and Lake Louise offer some of the best snow skiing around.

Banff

There are numerous shops, restaurants and small to mid-sized hotels in the town of Banff which is why the majority of travelers use it as the base during their stays. The town itself is small enough to walk around in as large scale development is limited.

The reason being Banff is located within a national park. As a result, the town of Canmore just outside the national park boundary has become a recent spot of development. This offers tourists with rental cars another choice for accommodations.

There is a complete range of accommodations from budget motels to the ritzy and majestic Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel overlooking the nearby valley. Many hotels have views of the mountain ranges and there is something very magical about waking up and seeing a snow capped peak first thing in the morning, particularly during the non-winter season.

Like the choice of accommodations, the range of dining opportunities covers the entire spectrum as well. Travelers can dine at the most fancy eating establishments or buy their own groceries at the local grocer.

One thing for beef lovers is not to miss the Alberta prime rib here which is a local specialty. It practically melts in your mouth. Some restaurants serve very generous 24 ounce (or higher) portions called mountain cuts for those who think they can eat it all.

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Self Help - Acquire Power Through Self Development

Self Help - Acquire Power Through Self Development

Self help: It is the natural right of every human being to be happy to break away from all the miseries of life. Happiness is the normal condition, as natural as the landscapes and the seasons. It is unnatural to suffer and it is only because of our ignorance that we do suffer.

Happiness is the product of wisdom. To attain perfect wisdom, to comprehend fully the purpose of life, to realize completely the relationship of human beings to each other, is to put an end to all suffering, to escape every ill and evil that afflicts us. Perfect wisdom is unshadowed joy.

Why do we suffer in life? Because in the scheme of nature we are being forced forward in evolution and we lack the spiritual illumination that alone can light the way and enable us to move safely among the obstacles that lie before us.

Usually we do not even see or suspect the presence of trouble until it suddenly leaps upon us like a concealed tiger. One day our family circle is complete and happy. A week later death has come and gone and joy is replaced with agony.

Today we have a friend. Tomorrow he will be an enemy and we do not know why. A little while ago we had wealth and all material luxuries. There was a sudden change and now we have only poverty and misery and yet we seek in vain for a reason why this should be. 

There was a time when we had health and strength; but they have both departed and no trace of a reason appears.

Aside from these greater tragedies of life innumerable things of lesser consequence continually bring to us little miseries and minor heartaches. We most earnestly desire to avoid them but we never see them until they strike us, until in the darkness of our ignorance we blunder upon them.

The thing we lack is the spiritual illumination that will enable us to look far and wide, finding the hidden causes of human suffering and revealing the method by which they may be avoided; and if we can but reach illumination the evolutionary journey can be made both comfortably and swiftly.

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Fundraising - The Four Major Forms Of Fundraising

Fundraising - The Four Major Forms Of Fundraising

Fundraising is, without a doubt, extremely challenging work. For any of you with experience in this line of work, you will understand what I mean. For the rest of you, go out and volunteer your time with a local non-profit organization.

After that, I think you will understand. While this can be a challenging profession, it continues to be quite rewarding in many respects.

Fundraising is simply the process of soliciting and gathering donations as money or other means, by requesting contributions from individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies.

Fundraising typically refers to efforts to collect money on behalf of non-profit organizations, and is at times used to refer to the identification and solicitation of investors or other sources of capital for-profit enterprises.

Typically, fundraising consisted mostly of asking for donations on the street or at people's doors.There are four major forms of fundraising. When one mentions fundraising to the average person, the image of a well-meaning person going door-to-door begging for support immediately comes to mind.

While most of us have been there at some point or other, there is a lot more to this business than meets the eye. And yes, this is a business. The business of managing relationships; relationships which, more often than not, are the key determining factor for success.

The first major form of fundraising is dealing with institutional grantors. These organizations are often the most difficult to deal with, due to the inherent bureaucratic nature of these types of organizations.

On the other hand, grants and endowments from these organizations can often amount to incredible sums of money. For this reason alone, they should not be dismissed.

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Prostate - 7 Things Every Man Should Know About The Prostate

Prostate - 7 Things Every Man Should Know About The Prostate

Prostate: The next time you see your father, your uncle, or any older gentleman over age 60 or so, ask them about their prostate.

If you know the guy well enough, and he feels comfortable enough around you (some would say too comfortable), he will surely share a whole litany of the common prostate problems that are troubling him, or have troubled him, or will trouble him in the near future.

That's because an enlarged prostate, benign prostatic hypertrophy, and even prostate cancer can be in the cards for every man past a certain age.

It's the scary but true fact of getting old as a man. For instance, every man should know that prostate cancer is one of the most common prostate problems out there.

It tops the list of cancers that afflict men, happening in nearly as many men, roughly speaking, as breast cancer in women. Prostate cancer doesn't get the press that breast cancer does, however, probably because most men would rather not speak about what's happening down there.

The second thing most men don't, but should know is exactly what that prostate is. A prostate is actually part of a man's sexual organs. Located just below the bladder in a man, wrapped around the urethra, the prostate is about the size of a walnut.

Its main job in the birds-and-bees scheme of things is to add fluid to your sperm during ejaculation.

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Tips For Setting Goals - Personal Goal Setting

Tips For Setting Goals - Personal Goal Setting

Why is it that most goals are never achieved? These seven tips for setting goals if applied will ensure you achieve your goals but it will continually be hard work.

Is it even possible to count the number of times that you have heard that being successful is all down to setting goals? It may come as no surprise to you to learn there is a lot more to success than just setting your goals.

Most of us, at some time, have been told that an essential part, if not the most important part, of being successful is setting goals. If that were true many more of us would be successful millionaires, actors, parents...etc. In this article I show you why many people fail to achieve their goals and how to be successful whatever you want or need.

1) What is a goal?

A goal is a target achievable in measurable attainable steps. It is more than just a desire or a need and has an existence of its own. A desire or a wish is less tangible and often just fleeting. Who doesn't desire or wish to win the lottery with all its millions in prize money.

Very few would not but, despite the widespread desire, it is not a goal. A goal is a desire, wish or need achievable by actions you can take. It is more than a mere wish or desire.

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Choice Theory - An Explanation Of All Human Behavior

Choice Theory - An Explanation Of All Human Behavior

Choice Theory is actually an explanation of all human behavior developed by Dr. William Glasser. There are basically five components of this theory—the basic human needs, the quality world, the perceived world, the comparing place and total behavior.

This is a brief overview of each one, starting with the five basic human needs.

The Basic Human Needs

We are born with five basic human needs—survival, love & belonging, power, freedom and fun. We are all born with these needs but we experience them to varying degrees.

One person might have a high love & belonging need, while another person is high in freedom. We are born with these needs and are biologically driven to get them met in the best way available to us.

The Quality World

This is a place that exists inside all of us where we store pictures of things that have satisfied one or more of our basic needs in the past or things we think may satisfy them in the future.

These things do not have to meet society’s definition of quality. Alcohol is in the quality world of an alcoholic, stealing cars in the quality world of a car thief, and domestic violence is in the quality world of a batterer.

The only two requirements for entry into the quality world are that it meets one or more of our needs and it feels good.

The Perceived World

There is much to be said about the perceived world but for the purposes of this article, all I want to say is that we each have our own perceptions of the world.

Our sensory system takes in information through sight, touch, sound, taste and scent, however we all have unique ways of processing that information based on our life experiences, our culture, and our values.

The main thing to remember about the perceived world is that if you encounter others whose perceived world doesn’t match yours, it doesn’t mean one of you is wrong. It simply means you are different.

Remembering this simple statement will reduce much of the disagreements and fighting that occurs in people’s lives.

Acceptance of this fact would mean we could give up the need to convince others of our point of view. We could simply accept the fact that we see things differently and move on.

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