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I was a collector for many years. I had to leave the profession in 2003 due to health reasons. Over the years I talked to many people. I want to share some of the stories I heard. Some are funny and some are encouraging, some are poignant.

I would be assigned a portfolio to work each month. One month I was assigned one and was going through it when I found an account belong to a woman who was 101 years old. Normally when someone that old has an account, it is usually fraud by a family memeber. I have seen that scenario so many times. Also when they are that age often they have no clue about it. So I kept putting off calling her. Finally it came to the end of the month and I had to at least make an effort. Oh I hated to do it. So I thought, I’ll call,ask for her,if she’s there I’ll just run through it quick and get off the fon. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I called, she answered, I explained why I was calling.

Her reply:(I still remember it to this day)

I’m sorry young man that I’m behind, I usually always pay my bills. But right now I am trying to finish school, become a realtor and learn the internet. I”M GOING TO THE TOP !!! I wanted to say ” you go Granny and forget paying this mastercard.” But I couldn’t say that. ( Not if I wanted to keep my job) Heck if I would have had the money I would have paid it for her myself. She was as alert and spry as a 20 year old. God bless her !!

I had another elderly lady that I will never forget. She was 83 years old. We used an automated dialer so we called and she was on the phone. As she is talking I am listening to her and reading the notes on her account. I saw a recent note:

“card member used card for bail to get out of jail after attacking a police officer”

Ok Ok I had to ask.

“It wasn’t for beating a police officer. It was for DUI”

“Ok”; I thought to myself, “she was drinking and driving”

Then she stated “I was upset because my husband left me to go chase girls at UCLA.”

In my mind I am thinking he must be about 80 years old.

What she told me next almost floored me

“You know, he’s only 35″

????????

I called a lady once. She answered and identified herself. When she found out why I was calling she said “Ooopps I just remembered, I’m not home”

I had a gentleman I called. He was going on about his business and how much he was having to spend. Sometimes we say something and it doesn’t come up like we intended.

He said ” I have a lot of assets”

Quickly(without thinking) I replied ” Then don’t you think you need to cover your assets?”

I called another gent. ” clearly Id’d myself as “AAA” (not real name of company I worked for”) I verified “Joe Smith.”(not real) He was about to do a check over the phone when he stopped and said ” Ya know come to think of it, I don’t even have an account with you”

On another call, again I clearly Id(again we use AAA) my company. I even repeated the name 2 or 3 times in the conversation. The lady lit into me” I have already sent you a payment” She was tearing me up one side and down the other. We both thought that we had lost the payment. I was apologizing profusely. Then she got her checkbook and said “I sent check 150 to ABC company Read more…

The objective of federal grants is to strengthen America and its people. The main goals are economic development, strengthening the work force of America and providing a stable and strong economic infrastructure. Now President Bush has made its details available in a single website, providing a one-stop opportunity to apply for grants.

The federal grants are given through 26 federal agencies. There are 15 different ways of getting federal grants and hundreds of local and state agencies that disburse the grants.

The different ways the Federal grants are given are as follows:

1. Formula Grants: These grants are not given for any specific need. You can get a grant for a small business through a formula grant scheme. And the most attractive part is that you need not pay it back.

2. Project Grants Given for Free are given for a specific need and there is specific time frame for it. These grants include fellowships grants, scholarship grants, research grants, training, traineeships, experimental and demonstration, evaluation, planning, technical assistance, survey and constructions.

3. Direct Payments for Specified Use grants are given directly to individuals, private firms, and other private organizations to support an activity by someone with a specific goal.

4. Direct Payments with Unrestricted Use Free federal grants are given to eligible persons and there are no restrictions on spending the money. Benefits like retirement, pension and compensation programs come under these types of loans.

5. Direct Loans from the federal government are the other type. These are granted for a specific time period and many of them do not charge interest.

6. Guaranteed/Insured Loans Programs are meant to help lenders against defaults by those responsible for repayment of loans. The Federal government itself makes an arrangement to identify a lender.

7. Insurance Free grants give financial assistance to guarantee reimbursement for losses sustained under specified conditions. These grants are given directly by the government or through agencies. The beneficiary sometimes gets the benefit of non-payment of premium.

8. Sale, Exchange, or Donation of Property and Goods Programs provide for the sale, exchange, or donation of Federal real property, personal property, commodities, and other goods including land, buildings, equipment, food and drugs.

9. Use of Property, Facilities, and Equipment Programs provide for the Read more…

The objective of federal grants is to strengthen the US and its workforce. The main aim is to develop the economy by building a strong economic infrastructure. Details are available in a single website, grants.gov, providing a one-stop shop for applying for grants. According to the website there are over 1,000 grant programs offered by the 26 Federal grant-making agencies. These programs fall into 21 categories defined by the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance. Grants are awarded in categories such as Agriculture, Health, Arts, Housing, Business and Commerce, Humanities, Community Development, Information and Statistics, Consumer Protection, Law, Justice, and Legal Services, Disaster Prevention and Relief, Natural Resources, Education, Regional Development, Employment, Labor and Training, Science and Technology, Energy, Social Services and Income Security, Environmental Quality, Transportation and Food and Nutrition.

Government grants are the greatest form of financial assistance. They are awarded in the form of money to be used for a specific purpose. One attraction about the federal grants is that you need not pay them back, because it is basically a government assistance to get your education or improve your business.

It is not an easy task to get the federal grants. A tour to the grants.gov itself will tell you that it?s not an easy process. But it is easy to apply for the grant because it is done online. You will find the process less tedious once you understand the requirements and the mode of application.

The first step is to know about the grant that you wish to apply for. Check once more that you are fully eligible for the grant, and don?t forget to note the CDFA number or Funding Opportunity Number. This number helps you to return to the details of the grant quite easily, once Read more…

Once the proud center of the Uranium Universe, and until recently the world?s largest uranium producer, the city of Grants (New Mexico) nearly collapsed in the 1980s as uranium prices sank into a twenty-year depression. Five thousand uranium miners lost their jobs, and the city elders panicked, searching for an industry with which to replace mining. ?Uranium companies helped build our hospital, our school and most of our major infrastructure,? Star Gonzales, Cibola County?s Head of Economic Development, told StockInterview.com. ?We are a mining community and know it is beneficial.?

Grants is a sleepy town of less than 10,000, north of Interstate 40, off exit 85, and about an hour?s west of Albuquerque. This past November, we toured the town?s Mining Museum, which boasts of having the only underground uranium mining museum. Grants is now a ?prison town,? and instead of mining uranium, the town runs most of the state?s prison system. The times are changing again, though. Along with the recent $45.50/pound spot uranium price, revival of uranium mining in Grants is all but a done deal. Several uranium companies have taken their first steps into Cibola County. As with the state of Wyoming, more will follow them.

IS URANIUM MINING AGAIN WELCOME IN GRANTS?

We wondered what the political pulse on uranium mining would be like in Grants. So we talked to several representatives on the city, county and state level. Fasten your seatbelts, and move over Wyoming. Grants, New Mexico is making a public invitation to all uranium mining companies. ?We will greet them with open arms!? Star Gonzales shouted into her phone. ?We are very mining friendly in this community.? That?s an understatement. Grants Mayor Joe Murrietta returned from Vietnam after being wounded on the Fourth of July 1968 with a Purple Heart and began working at Anaconda?s uranium mill in Grants, New Mexico. He worked for Anaconda and ARCO for fifteen years before the uranium boom in his town ended. ?We can handle the mining industry, and we are looking forward to having it back,? Murrietta told us. The mayor is confident the entire community would welcome uranium miners back.

Grants City Manager Bob Horacek worked in a uranium mill, as a college student twenty five years ago, and remembered it was a nice source of income to help him pay tuition. ?We are obviously looking for jobs,? he told us. ?It?s a pro, and economically we could use the higher paying jobs.? Asked about one company, which announced it may build a mill, possibly in Cibola County, Horacek quickly responded, ?I?d like to visit with them.? State Senator Joseph Read more…

Federal lawmakers patted themselves on the back, last Friday, in a joint bi-partisan news release issued by three New Mexico politicians: U.S. Senators Pete Domenici and Jeff Bingaman, and U.S. Congressman Steve Pearce. Their celebratory remarks were meant to remind voters why the politicians were in Washington ? to bring their state new jobs for at least some of New Mexico?s voters. While the chorus of praise revolved around creating new jobs and bringing millions of dollars into the state?s economy, is there more behind this story, which has not yet been told?

For Senator Domenici, this was another major victory as the longest serving U.S. Senator in New Mexico?s history. The Republican Senator heads the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Domenici made his views on nuclear energy quite clear in his book ?A Brighter Tomorrow: Fulfilling the Promise of Nuclear Energy? (Rowman

During the last century the concept of business went through major changes in terms of the company ownership (Papers4you.com, 2006). Nowadays, fierce competition is no longer only in the access to market, but also in what regards to business ownership. Most of times, deals involving mergers and acquisition involve billions and are reported in newspapers all the time. The process of globalisation had an increasing effect on access to foreign firms? ownership control, and thus becoming the process of controlling other firms more usual. The traditional family business concept is now under threat and the concept of business has changed as a consequence of the trend.

Basically the operation of merger and acquisition is defined as when two companies get together, either by resulting on a new firm or by one being controlled by the other. The former form of merging firms is known as concentration and defined as A B = C and the later is known as incorporation and represented by A B = A. Another important issue is related to the nature of the firm business activity or the market in which they operate. A process of merging companies is a strategy of diversification of the business and can be of three forms. Vertical diversification occurs when two or more firms in different stages in the value chain are merged into the same company. Horizontal diversification is present when the merging occurs between firms operating in different business (e.g. Virgin). Finally, geographical diversification happens when firms expand their territorial control by merging or acquiring companies operating in different geographical location.

There is a huge number of examples on mergers and acquisitions. Although only Read more…

With the internet available in most homes and businesses across the globe, it?s understandable that consumers are presented with many opportunities such as online banking and even online shopping. In the United Kingdom,millions of people are now using the internet in accessing their bank accounts and millions also are regularly doing their shopping online. But on the other hand, most of these people are still concerned about the security of their accounts whenever they access it on the internet. Using a computer is said to be the safest way in either banking or shopping, but it is also advised not to let your guards down while you are making transactions online.

The possibilities of becoming a victim of online banking fraudulence are said to be very low,and online banks committed themselves in keeping it this way, because most online bank?s systems proved that they could not be easily attacked, instead most criminals turned most of their attention in gathering many of the information directly from online banking customers. Most often, these criminals are using Phishing where in they send e-mails at random, as if they have seem to be sent by a genuine online bank.

This is the attempt they make in order to convince customer to disclose their personal security information, a ,method seen more on websites run by scam artists. There are some usueful tips, however, on conducting safe banking transactions, the first being to know who you are dealing with. Always remember to type the bank?s web address into your browser. Never go to the site via a link from an email. Never divulge personal information requested through an email. Your bank would not ask for this information.

In case you are in doubt, try contacting the bank or the building society by dialing the given contact number. Always keep your passwords and PIN numbers safe. Be extremely cautious of unsolicited emails or phone calls asking you to give any information regarding your personal details or card numbers. Always keep this information a secret and be cautious of giving your information to someone whom you do not know.

Your online bank would never call or contact you just to ask you Read more…

Today, people are aware of the concept of online banking offered by several banks, of which some are newly opened banks and some are expansions of a well-established banking company. But one question remains to be answered, is Online Banking safe?

Despite the cut-rate deals offered by most Online Banks, numerous customers are questioning themselves about the safety of Online Banking. Most of the newly established online banks inform their customer that they have the advanced and secure technology to insure their client?s accounts with total confidence and give the assurance that their security is the one that you can trust.

Despite of all these assurances given by these Online Banks, most customers are still worrying, because their confidence is already shaken by computer viruses and hackers. Even a very established bank suffers online security malfunctions. The very reason why customers fear online is because if, in fact, their account was compromised, it could be a life-altering virtual nightmare of stolen identity and depleted funds.

As the years pass, these incidents are rarely reported and have not reached a big epidemic. Unfortunately, the few occurrences have received a lot of press. For example, in May of 1999 the online bank Egg upgraded its website, and with unexpected turn of events, the newly installed security measures scrambled the online session protocols which allowed users to view banking details of other customers. Also in November of 1999, the Halifax banks had to suspend all online banking services due to the bug that backfired while it was being fixed, and customers were also able to view the accounts of other customers, a total invasion of privacy.

The Barclays, which claimed to be the largest online bank in the United Kingdom, had to shut down their website at the end of July 1999 because their customers were serving bank statements by other clients. These incidents seems to have one thing in common, their advanced and secure technology opened up when they were upgrading the software. Here is a big problem to be Read more…

The foundation of modern portfolio theory (MPT) was introduced by Harry Markowitz in 1952. Thirty-eight years later, Harry Markowitz, Merton Miller and William Sharpe were awarded Nobel Prize for what has become a broad theory for portfolio selection. Modern portfolio theory (commonly referred as mean variance analysis) established a whole new terminology which became a norm among investment managers. (Gupta, FrancisMarkowitz, Fabozzi, Frank. 2002) It has wide application in different areas of financial management such as: asset allocation through mean variance optimization, bond portfolio immunization, optimal investment trust or manager selection, international asset allocation decisions, portfolio risk management and hedging strategies.

The core concept of the Portfolio Theory is based on asset diversification and directly relies on the conventional wisdom which advice to avoid putting all eggs in one basket (Papers4you.com, 2006). In its simplest form MPT provides a framework to construct efficient portfolios by selection of the investment assets, considering risk appetite of the investor. MPT employs statistical measures such as correlation and co variation to quantify the effect of the diversification on the performance of portfolio. In it is essence MPT attempts to analyse how different investments are interrelated to each other. What happens if one investment goes broke? Does it mean that all other investments will go broke as well? How to minimize the negative effect of the downfall in one particular investment asset?

According to Markowitz (1952) investors should focus on selecting portfolios based on their overall risk-reward characteristics instead of merely compiling portfolios from securities that each individually has attractive risk-reward characteristics. In a nutshell, inventors should select portfolios not individual securities. (Risk glossary) While the theory behind MPT is quite straightforward, the implementation of efficient asset allocation can become quite complicated. The model employs a wide range of different factors such as security returns, volatilities and correlation between asset classes for constructing efficient mean variance frontier. The frontier is considered to be efficient because every point on this frontier is a portfolio that gives the greatest possible Read more…

One a recent trip overseas I discovered just how useful a currency converter could prove itself, especially when negotiating contracts, hotel rooms, and even paying the restaurant bill.

While traveling this year I’ve converted my money into 4 different currencies and, if you’ve ever traveled abroad, you know you lose money every time you change your money from one currency to another.

In an effort to save my own financial skin, I turned to the Internet to help me figure out the best conversion rates ahead of time and gauge how much cash I’d actually need for each trip.

In the process, I discovered a veritable “buffet” of helpful and just plain cool converters and tools online.

They help you do everything from knowing your buying power abroad to what time to ask for a wake up call halfway around the world.

** Currency Converter **

Log on to http://www.XE.com and you can estimate the exchange of your currency into virtually any of 180 currencies in the world, including: U.S. dollars, Yen, British Pounds, Australian dollars, Euros, and more.

Simply enter the amount of money you want to convert, choose the currency you want to convert from and to, then click the button.

Instantly you’ll know the value of your money in another country based on the latest currency trading value available.

XE.com also offers a good FAQ section that explains how and why currency exchange rates vary along with information about currency markets.

XE.com gets their conversion data from a variety of sources around the world and, according to the site, updates their rates several times per day.

** World Clocks **

Log on to http://www.TimeAndDate.com to find a wealth of tools to help you get a global perspective not only of local times and dates, but also local holidays and the best time to plan meetings.

>From the home page a couple of links rate special attention.

The first, “The World Clock,” allows you to see the local time in most of the world’s capital cities.

You can select “Full World Clock” for an even more comprehensive list of cities and their local Read more…