Eggshell Tips

1. Throw your eggshells into the compost pile instead of the trashcan. According to him, these eggshells are calcium rich and are great for the soil, though it may take a couple of months before they actually decompose.
2. Put your hard or soft boiled eggshells along with the ground coffee on the brewer when making it, as it lessens the bitterness of the java and improves its taste.
3. Use the eggshells as biodegradable planters for seedlings as they effectively nurture the young plants, which is quite useful if you are into gardening.  Sprinkle pieces of eggshells around your flowers and plants as they repel deer and creepy crawly pests.
4. Crush the eggshell and mix it along your dish washing soap. The solution you create acts as an abrasive which is great for removing pot stains if you shake it with water and let it stand overnight.
5. Use eggshells as hydrogen fuels for the car.According to engineers at Ohio State University,  these eggshells are perfect for use as the fuel of tomorrow.

Jeff Yeager, author of “The Cheapskate Next Door” and “The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches,” is well known for helping people save money.  He has numerous videos online teaching people how to save “practically.” He even tours by bicycle throughout the Midwest, Pacific North West and up to the East Coast to promote environmentally friendly living among Americans.

Disputing credit errors may not be a fun thing to do but it is very important to managing your financial health. Why? Because banks use consumer credit history to determine your eligibility for a loan and to determine what interest rates they will charge you.   If you think you might be applying for a loan, it would be best to monitor your credit scores.

Finding Mistakes On Your Credit Report

Murphy’s law states that “anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” This is especially true with credit reports. Experian, one of the three main credit bureaus, stores 65 trillion bytes of data. Mistakes are bound to happen. Consumers should remember that inaccuracies found in your credit report can significantly lower your credit score.  Raising your credit scores depends on  getting these mistakes corrected. Remember that disputing errors is free to you.

You will need to get a copy of your credit report from three credit bureaus:  Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.  You should print a copy of these reports and go through each of them very carefully. If you find mistakes, highlight the data in question. It is important that you ask the credit bureaus to make corrections for you. Write down the credit report number for each of your reports. You will need to reference that number when communicating with the bureaus.

Once you have gone through all three credit reports, write an explanatory letter for each credit bureau. Your written request is generally called a dispute letter. Explain each disputed item clearly and concisely.  Send in your dispute letter with a copy of your credit report  via certified mail, call them or use an online form. Meanwhile, you can contact all lending institutions such as banks and credit card companies to tell them that your credit report is undergoing an investigation and that you have filed a dispute for erroneous information.

Contact Information For The Three Credit Bureaus

Equifax Mailing Address
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
1-888-202-4025

TransUnion Mailing Address
2 Baldwin Place
P.O. Box 2000
Chester, PA 19022
1-800-916-8800

Experian Mailing Address
P.O. Box 2104
Allen, TX 75013-2104
1-888-397-3742

What The Bureaus Do

Once the bureaus have gone through your files, they have 30 days to respond to your request. They will send you a letter containing the results of the investigation along with a note that they will remove or erase the inaccurate information in your credit report.

Once that is done, you can also request the bureau to mail correction notices to banks and lending companies they have sent the report to in the last 6 months. If you ask, they can also sent it to places that have requested your credit report in the last two years. The credit bureaus should send  you a copy of your report and they should include the details of the revised information.

In instances where the dispute has not yet been resolved, you can request the bureau to update you on the status of your request. Consumers must remember they cannot remove erroneous information on their own. A dispute must be filed for an investigation to happen.

Recommended Reading

For further information about credit management, you can visit the Federal Trade Commission site where you will find consumer information about credit and loans.

Experian provides the latest credit analysis news from 90 countries around the world. You’ll find out bits of information like New Yorkers have the most open credit cards and Phoenix has the least.

If you want to limit the credit card offers you receive through the mail, call 1-888-567-8688.

Strengthen your financial well being by educating yourself about managing your credit and making smart financial decisions.

Goggles captures business information easily.

On August 24, 2010, the L.A. Times published a photo of a man who had just stolen a  $9,200 Rolex gold watch from Classic Design, a store in the California, Glendale Galleria mall. The Glendale police department requested help in identifying the man in the photo. As this photo circulates the Internet and reaches more and more people, it will likely reach someone who can identify this person and help apprehend him.

Technology probably could in the near future identify this man with the use of Goggles by Google. Although David Petrou, a project lead of Google Goggles, claims that for privacy reasons, Google does not do facial recognition, one could see that it would certainly be helpful in catching criminals.

Currently, the new Goggles software allows cell phone users to snap photos and send them to  Google’s cloud services. Computer vision algorithms organize search results and provide you with  information about what you are seeing. In order for Google to identify the correct information in the picture, it has to compare it with an existing database. They already have 150,000 images for landmarks which give correct results only 50% to 60% of the time. Goggles can also be used with  logos, contact info, artwork, businesses, products, barcodes, or text.

The primary use for Goggles is in language translation,  helping people traveling in foreign countries. The user can photograph signs, menus, and other text related items and the output will be in the users native language. Goggles can translate English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.

Given the rapid development of technology in the last fifteen years, one wonders what life will look like in 2030. Will someone have developed the Goggle technology to be accurate 99% of the time?  Will society agree to allow law enforcement officials to  use a perfected facial recognition software in their pursuit of criminals? Will people be able to snap a photo of you and find out instantly where you are from? What does the future hold for us?  What do you think?

Roy W. & Elizabeth E. Simmons Entrepreneurial Center

There are some hidden treasures for business entrepreneurs in Kaysville, Utah. Entrepreneurs have access to a beautiful 16,000-square-foot building and a team of supportive staff to help them with their businesses.

Entrepreneurs are sometimes a disconnected group of people. Entrepreneurs need somewhere to go for support, networking and help without overspending. The Roy W. & Elizabeth E. Simmons Entrepreneurial Center center solves that problem.

The idea for creating this type of center came from the business teachers at the Davis Applied Technology College. They thought that it only made sense to build the center and have the staff supported by the proceeds of renting the building out to various companies and small entrepreneurs who need a small office arrangement without huge overhead fees.

Thanks to a generous donation from the Roy and Elizabeth Simmons, the $2 million dollar building itself is completely paid off and runs using that very business model.

History of Roy and Elizabeth Simmons

One may wonder how these people were able to offer such a generous contribution, so a little background history on this family is helpful. Roy Simmons began a career in banking in 1938. He worked for his father-in-law, L.E. Ellison, at the First National Bank of Layton, Utah. His career in banking skyrocketed and by 1952 he had organized the Bank of Utah. By 1955, he and his partners gained controlling interest in Zion’s First National Bank. Roy was named President and CEO of Zion’s and served until 1990.

This family was able to make significant contributions to the welfare of their community. They created The Simmons Family Foundation which contributed almost $3.5 million to the community. One of their contributions was the Roy W. and Elizabeth E. Simmons Trauma and Emergency Services Center at Intermountain Medical Center. It  is a state of the art facility and one of the  largest and best-equipped trauma centers in the area.

Northfront Business Resource Center

Services Provided By The Center

One of the services that they provide is a private consultation for you about any aspect of your business you need help with. They have gone through training to counsel with you and have experience running their own businesses.

This is where the Davis County Chamber of Commerce has their headquarters.

The center provides office space for people to rent and rooms to use for making presentations. There is a beautiful meeting room that has a view of the valley below. It is large enough to hold a hundred people.

The meeting rooms can hold up to 30 people and people are using it all the time. Be sure to find  their schedule of presentations. You may want to attend a meeting.

The administrative staff helps you get oriented to their building and services. They are completely supported by the revenues of the building and are very happy to be there.

For any entrepreneurs in the Utah area, be sure to take time visiting this incredible resource.

Roman Coins Found By Dave Crisp

In April of 2010, Dave Crisp was allowed to use his metal detector to search for metal on a neighbors land.  He started to hear some odd noises from his metal detector and began digging in that area.  As he dug down about a foot, he started to find small coins about the size of a dime.

“I put my hand in, pulled out a bit of clay and there was a little Radial, a little bronze Roman coin. Very, very small, about the size of my fingernail,” said Dave Crisp.  “I’ve been detecting for twenty two years and I’ve never had a hoard before this weekend.” A hoard is two or more coins that are over 300 years old at the time of their discovery.

When he continued digging he could see some sort of pot and more coins. At this point that he made a critical decision to stop digging and notify professional excavators.  He called archaeologists from the Somerset County Council to come out and take a look.  Historians will be able to learn more because these coins were excavated by archaeologists. They were able to photograph and document the process of excavating these coins.  When excavating was completed, they found approximately 350 pounds of Roman coins in a large clay pot.

Roman Coins Found In England

Generally, the landowner and the finder come to some sort of agreement as to what they will do with anything that is found before any metal detecting begins. The country’s laws need to be considered as well. England’s Treasure Act of 1996, states that anything found in the earth that is considered an artifact belongs  to both the land owner and the finder.  They must, however, offer the find for sale to the British Museum at a price determined by the Treasure Valuation Committee.  The value of this particular find has been estimated at around $5 million. The proceeds will be shared by the land owner and Dave Crisp.

Worldwide interest in the historical find has inspired the creation of a documentary. The BBC TV is creating a movie called, “Digging for Britain,” which will be released in August of 2010.

Before you go out and buy yourself a metal detector, be sure to study the laws regulating your finds. There are Federal and State laws that help protect and preserve artifacts. You don’t want to find yourself in jail because you found something and inadvertently broke the law.

Mortgage rates have fallen again to a near record low. You would think that people would be rushing out to refinance their mortgages and to some extent they have been. Applications for refinancing grew by 9.2 percent last week.

The dilemma is that people who would benefit by these lower rates are not the ones that are getting the new loans. With record unemployment rates, people have gotten into the situation where they now don’t qualify for these loans. Even if they have managed somehow to keep  current on all payments due to lenders and credit card companies, their employment history knocks them out of the game.

If you have changed professions, which many people have been forced to do, you need a two year record of proven income to be considered for refinancing. Even with record-low mortgage rates, there just aren’t a lot of qualified borrowers.

Rates From Mortgage Bankers Association

In California, one homeowner has not made a mortgage payment for seven months and has not been subject to foreclosure yet. “We have 19 million vacant housing units in the United States, and I’m afraid it’s going to put some more of them on the market,” says Ted C. Jones, chief economist for Houston-based Stewart Title.

Financial analysts predict that mortgage rates will rise soon over the next week. Mostly because they feel it really can’t go much lower.

Four Major Credit Card Stock Prices

The last five days of growth for Discover Financial Services (DSF), located in Riverwood, Illinois has been well above their credit card competitors, Visa, American Express and Mastercard. Why has this happened? David Nelms, CEO of Discover since 2004 says, “Our very strong results this quarter were driven by a significant improvement in the credit performance of our loyal customer base along with continued solid growth in cardmember spending.”

During the fiscal second quarter, Discover reported a record sales volume at $23 billion. Discover topped their prior year statistics by 6%. Where are the profits coming from?

Discover has three payment services Pulse, an ATM/debit network, Affiliate Banking and Diners Club. Together these services process billions of financial transactions a year.

PULSE is one of the nation’s leading ATM/debit networks, currently serving more than 4,500 banks, credit unions and savings institutions across the country and they have just partnered with MoneyPass which offers thousands of surcharge-free ATMs. It is now the company’s biggest money maker.

Diners Club International was acquired by Discover in July of 2008. Diners Club card entitles consumers to exclusive savings on travel, dining, and entertainment.

Struggling with the new banking rules which prohibit charging late fees over $25, Discover will be loosing between $80 to $90 million a year. To help make up for that they will be focusing on their consumer banking division to make up for lost profits. They have two bank affiliates, Discover Bank and Bank of New Castle. In addition to the credit card division, they also offer personal and student loans, online savings accounts, certificates of deposit and money market accounts.

David Nelms, CEO of Discover Financial Services

With David Nelms as the CEO, this company seems to be doing better and better. In fact, the earnings statement for Mr. Nelms is staggering. For 2009, his salary was $1 Million dollars, restricted stock awards $4,627,613.00, other compensations at $17,150.00 and pension valued at $39,750.00 for a grand total of $5,684,513.00 – over 5 1/2 million dollars a year. Looks like his MBA from Harvard Business school served him well.

The two most significant reasons he gives for the recent improvements have to do with how you and I have improved our credit reliability and continued to use Discover Card for purchases. Some employees from Discover have even suggested ways of making money through the significant rewards program they offer. If you are dedicated to watching your spending and able to actually pay off the monthly balance, you can earn money on what you spend. But that is only for the very self-disciplined spenders. This practice could leave you with nothing more than a huge credit card bill so be wary.

Gulf shores of Alabama

The catastrophic nature of the Gulf spill has affected 14 million residents of the Gulf Coast and could ultimately affect nearby Latin American and Caribbean shores.  Predictions have been made that the spill could reach the Mexican coast by December, followed by Cuba, the Bahamas and The Turks and Caicos Islands.  The Gulf oil spill has far reaching effects beyond the U.S. borders.

Such a huge disaster has everyone wondering why it happened and how we can prevent it from ever happening again.  There are numerous liability issues surrounding the spill. BP’s oil spill cleanup response costs have hit $2.35 billion. It has been speculated that BP could eventually be fined $258 million a day. This would be in addition to payments for cleanup costs and economic damages to businesses.

There is no doubt that the regulatory systems in place for overseeing  offshore oil and drilling failed.  That system is controlled by an agency called the Minerals Management Service (MMS).  It has been reported that they allowed BP to run the oil rig without demonstrating the ability to shut off the flow of gas and oil.

With fingers pointing to the MMS and pressure mounting, the head of the MMS,  Elizabeth Birnbaum, resigned from her position.  Michael R. Bromwich, a former Justice Department prosecutor and inspector general, has been appointed by the President  to  restructure the agency to make it a more effective regulator. There is now an independent commission investigating the Gulf oil spill that has been given subpoena power so that better regulating systems can be developed.

Is the United States accepting help from other nations?  There may be offers made that haven’t been accepted however there are skimming systems and other assets accepted from Mexico, Norway, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands. The President has also authorized the use of 17,000 National Guard members to help with the clean up.

Massive efforts by various non-government organizations have been taken to clean birds  drenched in oil. Some question the wisdom in this.  According to German biologist Silvia Gaus, it would have been better if they put the birds to sleep instead of cleaning them since most aren’t likely to survive long term. Experts from other countries also say that this is a better way to treat the animals since they will be suffering liver and kidney failure after ingesting oil.

The economic impact of the oil spill in the Gulf is devastating. The fisheries in the area have been declared as a disaster zone making the seafood-producing states lose money with many businesses failing. Louisiana’s seafood industry supplies up to 40% of the United States’ seafood supply and the price of seafood has risen. Apart from this, wildlife in the area have suffered. Tourism is affected as well since many hotels have reported cancellations in reservations.The toll on a wide variety of human health issues has not even begun to be studied.

Many scientists are hopeful something good will come from this oil catastrophe.  Americans have gained a better appreciation for their environment. We have turned to scientists to help answer the questions of why this even happened and how to prevent it in the future. People  recognize the importance of  a healthy marine ecosystem to our economy, culture and way of life in the Gulf Coast.

Trends For Interest in Writing Press Releases

Over the past two years, interest in writing press releases has decreased according to Google Insights for search. Prior to that there was a considerable amount of interest in press release writing. With the economy improving, interest has picked up a little. Learning how to write a good press release may be the key to whether you and your family dine at McDonald’s'  or at the Outback Steak House.

The benefits of writing a good press release and submitting it to press release websites are numerous. Widespread distribution of your announcements can build relationships, trust and hopefully more revenue. There are many sites that allow you to submit your release and the cost varies from free up to several hundred dollars.

If you follow these basic tips, you can get past writer’s block and start producing something people will want to read.

1. Research your topic.
2. Write professionally. Avoid exaggerations.
3. Answer the question, Why should anyone care?
4. Make your press release timely and unique.
5. Choose to highlight something unusual.
6. Discuss a study or real life example.
7. Clearly state the problem your company solves.
8. Highlight compelling industry trends.
9. Use real life examples.
10. Make the headline a summary.
11. The first paragraph should clarify your news.
12. Use the body of the press release to provide the details.
13. Tie your news release to current events, recent studies, trends and social issues.
14. How does your product or news satisfy desires?
15. If possible, provide a killer news hook for your story.
16. Attach images, videos, links, pdf document or any other materials that enhance your release.
17. Celebrate an anniversary, new president, or new employee.
18. Announce a new product line or service.
19. Promote community events.
20. Write it. Proofread it. Print it. Proof again.

According to www.prweb.com, a popular press release website, Amy Mauzy with Malibu Boats says:

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Feel free to add your debt story here.