March 2015

What is the Beal Conjecture / Who is Andy Beal?

Just how good at math is Andrew Beal? The answer to that question depends on which qualifier you’d like to use as proof of his skills. On the one hand, there’s the fact that he is worth several billion dollars. There’s the fact that a mathematical proposition called Beal’s Conjecture named after him.

And, there’s the fact that he’s won the largest single game of poker ever, taking in eleven million dollars with the right cards. If you’ve never heard of Andy Beal, you can be forgiven. He’s a much less visible billionaire than Bill Gates or Warren Buffet, but his example of success is an inspiration to get better for anyone who claims that they aren’t very good at numbers.

From Humble Origins

Andy Beal began to build up his fortune at just age 19 when he began to flip houses in his native Michigan. While his first home offered rent for just $120 per month, he developed a career in real estate that reached a climax by selling off the New Jersey based Brick Towers property for 3 million dollars after purchasing it earlier for only $20,000.

With the money made from flipping real estate, Andy Beal opened a series of banks and began to capitalize on market turmoil by buying up assets when they had reached a low point, holding onto them, and selling high in the aftermath. Examples include debt on airline companies following 9/11 and real estate during the 2008 housing crisis. There are now 37 branches of the Beal Bank across the United States, which enjoy a return on assets of 8.1, far exceeding that of most other major banking firms.

He further developed a space exploration company called Beal Aerospace, but had to shut it down after three years due to the difficulty in competing with NASA and the firms that provide NASA with equipment and parts for their space program. In part due to his head-butting with the national space program, Andy Beal announced his open dislike of “big government” that restricts the capabilities of private enterprise.

Do You Really Want to Retire Early?

by Guest Contributor

Do you want to retire early? The following is a guest post by Donny Gamble Jr. Donny is an online entrepreneur, author, and runs investing blog Personalincome.org. If you’d like to submit a guest post on Money Q&A, please check out the site’s guest posting guidelines. Early retirement has been a hot topic lately. It seems that many new goals are to retire early and live out their lives on a beach somewhere. While that dream sounds great, retiring early isn’t meant for everyone. For starters, you have to be able to fund this dream of yours to retire early. With more than one-third of Americans not even saving for retirement, early retirement isn’t even an option for many. For those that can … Read more

All You Need To Know About Financial Spread Betting

by Guest Contributor

Financial spread betting is exciting, it’s potentially profitable and whilst it may take a lifetime to master, and it takes only a few minutes to learn how to play. Those are the headline plus points. Inevitably, there is more to this relatively recent innovation than this description alone, and it is worth knowing precisely what is involved before deciding whether or not FSB is appropriate for you.

FSB was pioneered in the 1970s when it was originally set up as a vehicle enabling a small number of London brokers to bet on the price movements of gold. The advent of the internet and the digitalization of the world’s markets means that anyone with an internet connection is now able to enjoy that same derivative-based mode of investment on stocks and markets that extend well beyond the price of gold alone.

Specialist providers

Today, numerous specialist firms provide apps and highly sophisticated desktop trading screens that enable players to access thousands of different markets around the world. For example, London based providers Tradefair offer their clients three different suites of software depending on whether they want the sort of casual (or follow up) mobile access that a smartphone allows or more comprehensive desktop packages that provide fully up to date market and stock news-feeds, histories and graphs.

What You Need to Know in Order to Find the Best Mortgage Rate

by Guest Contributor

With UK mortgage rates at an all time low, and house prices falling by 0.1%, now may be the perfect time to consider buying a new home. But even with today’s falling interest rates, taking on a mortgage is a major responsibility. Naturally, you want to find the best deal possible.

Mortgage rates may currently be low, but that’s no reason to take the first deal that’s offered, or to pay more than you need to on the total cost of your home loan. Before you sign on the dotted line, let’s review a few simple tips to help you find the best possible mortgage for your new home.

Credit Scores

Before we go any further, we will assume that you have found a property you are interested in, and that you have a firm idea of how much you can afford to spend on your new home. At this point, before you start looking for a mortgage, it is important to know your credit score as it will have a major impact on the loan process.

Knowing your credit score ahead of time will allow you to negotiate with a lender without them running your credit history. Remember, every time a lender checks your credit history, your credit score takes a ding.

Tax Challenges for Small Business Owners

by Hank Coleman

You’ve worked your accounting and payroll department to the bone working on tax challenges for your small business. Finally, everybody’s W-2s have been sent out, and you are totally positive that they are 100% correct. Now it’s time to relax, right? Nope. You’re a small business owner, and there are tax challenges for small business. Now you get to focus on your company’s taxes for the coming year and making sure you get those correct. This is a little harder because every year the tax codes change and this year there are some whoppers out there that could really bite you if you don’t take care of them properly. There are tax challenges that small businesses must understand. Grow Your … Read more

The Most Important Budgeting Tip You Are Forgetting

by Hank Coleman

Budgeting isn’t easy. Many people feel overwhelmed and give up before they even get going. But even among those people who don’t quit, many miss the most critical step when creating the family budget: tracking all of your expenses. And I mean down to the penny.

According to Gallup’s annual economy and personal finance survey, only 32% of American households prepare a written budget or use software for a spending plan.

There are only two sides to a budget: income and expenses. Most American workers receive a pay stub that lays out exactly how much they earn. Of course, for those on commission, small-business owners and others, income fluctuates from month to month. But the majority of us have steady wages. There may not be enough money coming in, but that’s a separate issue.

Do You Lose Track of Cash?

It’s the spending side of the budget equation we struggle with. And that’s why you have to be vigilant.

It’s easy to lose track of cash, for example. That’s one reason that my wife and I use a credit card to budget with each month and track spending. Cash has a way of leaking out of your pocket. You don’t remember where it went, and it’s easy to toss or misplace receipts.

“Tracking every penny of expenditures with receipts and income is the first step to gaining control of your finances,” says Eric Wentworth, author “A Plan for Life: The 21st Century Guide to Success in Wealth.” “Money leaks are nearly invisible, but can ruin any attempt to get control of your finances.”

Dave Ramsey is famous for saying that every dollar of income must have a name. Families must assign every dollar in the budget a purpose at the beginning of the month. At first, families often find it burdensome to track spending that closely. But start by committing to do it for just one week.

Keep a notebook with you and write it down every time you spend cash, along with the place, and item category. Save your receipts. Odds are, after you get the hang of it, you’ll find it’s not too hard keep at it for another week, or two or three. Tracking your spending will soon start to become second nature.

Track Expenses Like You Track Calories

“If you want a successful budget, you have to be honest with yourself and figure out where all of your money is going,” says Glen Craig, author of the popular personal finance blog FreeFromBroke.com. “Too often we list out most items, but we don’t take it serious enough to find everything. And then the budget never has a chance to work.”

You will have no idea how much your family is spending every month until you keep track. Like counting calories, we focus on what we count. It has our attention. When we write the money spent or calories eaten in a journal, it helps us to visualize, monitor and change behavior.