A closer look at the news shaping our world today

Monthly Archives: December 2015

weight training

Health Benefits of Weight Training

You can follow a healthy diet and exercise until you are blue in the face (please don’t do that though – it’s just an expression), and your body will never achieve that sinewy, conditioned look you see in the pages of fitness magazines.  Before you assume those chiseled-looking bods of the men and women who grace the magazines’ pages is the result of Photo Shopped images, you should be aware that the look that you admire, and perhaps covet, comes from weight training.

“Oh… weight training” you say glumly.  But… wait a minute – before you stop reading and go no further, because, although you know you’re interested in looking good and getting a primo workout to your muscles and lungs, you may shudder to think that you will end up looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Well this article will dispel that myth right now.

nuts. healthy

Health Benefits of Nuts

Not so long ago, the medical honchos told us that eating nuts was not good for our health.  We believed them because they are, after all, the medical gurus, and we are just mortal men and women.  Besides, if you think about it, what possible redeeming value could a peanut butter and jelly sandwich be, or, if you are really decadent and like swirling your tablespoon around in the Jif bottle and delivering yourself a big mouthful of that creamy or crunchy goodness?  They shamed us into believing peanut butter was a no-no.

drinking water, healthy

Health Benefits of Water

The common belief is that you must drink eight, eight-ounce glasses of water daily to stay healthy.  In fact, health magazines or websites all seem to promote this thought.  As a matter of fact, this age-old suggestion to drink eight glasses of water a day was simply a guideline and not based on any scientific evidence.  We see many people carrying around bottled water, and, where pop was once a staple in everyone’s diet, water has now superseded soda or pop, even Gatorade, which many use to replenish fluids and electrolytes that are lost during intense exercise sessions.

commercial mortgage broker

Questions to Ask a Commercial Mortgage Broker

So you say that you’re about to fulfill a lifelong dream of owning your own business.  Being your own boss.  Before you get the gears in motion, first… stop and catch your breath, then compile a list of items to ask the mortgage broker who will, hopefully, be able to bring those dreams to fruition.  Your best bet for choosing a mortgage broker is to locate someone who is both trustworthy and an expert in commercial real estate financing.   Let your lender be a friend and help guide you through this process.

Before you grab a pencil and paper to write your list of questions to ask the lender, there are a few questions you need to address about yourself first:

commercial and residential mortgage

What is the Difference Between a Commercial and Residential Mortgage?

Now that you’re settled into your new abode and are feeling pretty pleased with yourself, next on your list of priorities is to fulfill your lifelong dream of being your own boss.  If that dream job cannot take place using your house as home base, i.e. you must take the business out of the home, and into a building, or, if you are simply purchasing land upon which you will erect a particular building, the process for securing a loan for a business venture is way different than the one you endured for the purchase of your new home.

The procurement process is similar enough since commercial, as well as residential mortgages, essentially are loans procured through a bank or lending institution. Another factor which may be similar is whether or not you still carry student debt, as sometimes it can delay implementing the loan process.  Don’t let the commercial loan procurement process thwart your attempt to fulfill a dream of owning your own business.  The cumbersome details may be hard to grasp, so why not consider consulting with an expert, a commercial real estate lender who will help smooth out the loan process for you?

finance, hospital

How to Finance a Hospital

Hospitals today are not the same as you may remember from back in your youth.  Hospitals, for the most part, are all about making a profit these days, and, since the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) became a reality, more and more people find themselves with elective surgeries are on the rise.  The ACA has also increased the need for more hospitals, as well as doctors and related hospital staff.  Truly the ACA has been a win-win situation in the medical field, especially when you discover that as recently as 2014, hospital’s uncompensated care costs were estimated to be a whopping $7.4 billion, or 21% lower in 2014 than they would have been in prior years due to the absence of coverage expansions.  One of the ACA’s chief aims was to incentivize hospitals to promote high-quality care and avoid unnecessary re-admissions, and slowly and surely this is coming to fruition.

healthcare

How to Plan for Future Healthcare

Let’s be honest for a minute.  When your head is bent over the pile of monthly bills, with your calculator nearby at your elbow, the realty hits you… unless you ask for, and receive, a raise, one or more of those obligations must get pushed to the side.

When it comes to those “obligations” for which you must dole out your hard-earned pay, never scrimp on, eliminate or fall behind in any insurance premium!

You’ve read or heard the advice before, most likely from financial advisors, to always adequately insure your home or vehicle, and that advice goes for your healthcare as well.

When it comes to protecting yourself, and your loved ones, you need to plan ahead.  Plan for a future that may not be as rosy as you’d like it to be, or, at the very least, know that the years ahead may become tarnished, not golden, due to illness or other such circumstances beyond your control.

The time to put insurance policies for disability, long-term care and life insurance benefits into place is when you are younger, not when you are older or thinking of retirement.  By then it might be too late.