Take Advantage of Online Finance Management Tools to Manage Your Finances Better
Managing your finances is not always easy. It is a time consuming task to keep track of all your bank accounts, credit cards, mortgages and various other details of your personal finance. Traditional way of book keeping doesn’t solve your problem and most good personal accounting software comes at a price.However, the good news is that there are better and free ways to keep track of your finances. What I am talking about here is free online personal finance management tools which not only help you manage your finances by making it easy for you to keep track of your bank accounts and other financial details but also makes it easy for you to take financial decisions wisely by providing sophisticated analysis. These online tools if used properly can be of great help as apart from tools to manage your various accounts they also offer tools which helps you to analyze your spending, project your savings etc..If you are still clueless about what I am talking about or have heard about online finance management tools for the first time, you may like to take a look at Mint.com. Mint is perhaps the most popular online personal finance management tool at the moment. It is a free service that integrates all your bank accounts, credit card accounts at one place which makes it easy for you to keep track of them. This saves you the trouble of keeping track of your bank accounts manually which can be quite time consuming if you have multiple bank accounts (we all have right?). Imagine all your bank accounts being tracked for debit/credit and being updated for you to view it on the same place. Sounds quite convenient, isn’t it? These online personal finance management tools provide you with exactly the same thing.Moreover the online personal finance management tools also provide you with customized analysis of your spending and projection of savings thereby enabling you to make better financial decisions.Security has been always an issue with financial matters, more so when it comes to trusting a third party website with your bank account details. But most of these websites works by authenticating your bank accounts in a standard secure way which doesn’t require them to store your account credentials and it is verified using standard gateways. This makes them more secure to use.These online tools only make your life simple by providing you with easier ways to manage your personal finances. You can try out any of these free online tools and know for yourself. There are many online personal finance management tools available today for you to take advantage of them. Just choose any of these services and manage your finances in a better and easy way
Warning – Be Sure to Read This Article Before Making Any Lanzarote Travel Plans!
Dreaming of the perfect getaway? Consider a trip to Lanzarote, the easternmost Canary Island located just 80 miles off the coast of Africa in the Atlantic Ocean. This remote island is famous for white sand beaches and volcanic landscape, a remnant from eruptions in the 18th and 19th centuries. The island is owned by Spain, so brushing up on your Spanish prior to Lanzarote travel is always a good idea.There are many beautiful accommodations in Lanzarote. The island features luxurious hotels, comfy bungalows and villas and rental apartments. Many resorts feature beach-front properties that put you just footsteps away from Lanzarote’s gorgeous beaches. If the village lifestyle is more your thing, look for accommodations near the town of Macher, a quiet local village.The best way to book Lanzarote travel is through a vacation club. By paying an upfront fee, you can access deep discounts to the island’s best properties. As an added bonus, you will also receive discounts to luxury hotels around the world. With a vacation club membership, you can use membership discounts to return to Lanzarote for years to come or to explore other island getaways.Once on the island, you will find activities to suit all lifestyles. Boat and fishing tours are popular choices for all tourists. The north coast of the island is known for surfing, sailing, windsurfing and power boat racing due to rougher seas and stronger winds. Tour operators provide hiking tours of the island’s volcanoes, which give views of the area’s lava tubes and caves. Of course, relaxing by the beach or pool is always a tempting option for those seeking a relaxing vacation.Lanzarote is a great vacation spot for all types of families. Grab a vacation club membership, book Lanzarote travel and you’ll be on your way to a dream vacation in no time.
The Future of Commercial Real Estate
Although serious supply-demand imbalances have continued to plague real estate markets into the 2000s in many areas, the mobility of capital in current sophisticated financial markets is encouraging to real estate developers. The loss of tax-shelter markets drained a significant amount of capital from real estate and, in the short run, had a devastating effect on segments of the industry. However, most experts agree that many of those driven from real estate development and the real estate finance business were unprepared and ill-suited as investors. In the long run, a return to real estate development that is grounded in the basics of economics, real demand, and real profits will benefit the industry.Syndicated ownership of real estate was introduced in the early 2000s. Because many early investors were hurt by collapsed markets or by tax-law changes, the concept of syndication is currently being applied to more economically sound cash flow-return real estate. This return to sound economic practices will help ensure the continued growth of syndication. Real estate investment trusts (REITs), which suffered heavily in the real estate recession of the mid-1980s, have recently reappeared as an efficient vehicle for public ownership of real estate. REITs can own and operate real estate efficiently and raise equity for its purchase. The shares are more easily traded than are shares of other syndication partnerships. Thus, the REIT is likely to provide a good vehicle to satisfy the public’s desire to own real estate.A final review of the factors that led to the problems of the 2000s is essential to understanding the opportunities that will arise in the 2000s. Real estate cycles are fundamental forces in the industry. The oversupply that exists in most product types tends to constrain development of new products, but it creates opportunities for the commercial banker.The decade of the 2000s witnessed a boom cycle in real estate. The natural flow of the real estate cycle wherein demand exceeded supply prevailed during the 1980s and early 2000s. At that time office vacancy rates in most major markets were below 5 percent. Faced with real demand for office space and other types of income property, the development community simultaneously experienced an explosion of available capital. During the early years of the Reagan administration, deregulation of financial institutions increased the supply availability of funds, and thrifts added their funds to an already growing cadre of lenders. At the same time, the Economic Recovery and Tax Act of 1981 (ERTA) gave investors increased tax “write-off” through accelerated depreciation, reduced capital gains taxes to 20 percent, and allowed other income to be sheltered with real estate “losses.” In short, more equity and debt funding was available for real estate investment than ever before.Even after tax reform eliminated many tax incentives in 1986 and the subsequent loss of some equity funds for real estate, two factors maintained real estate development. The trend in the 2000s was toward the development of the significant, or “trophy,” real estate projects. Office buildings in excess of one million square feet and hotels costing hundreds of millions of dollars became popular. Conceived and begun before the passage of tax reform, these huge projects were completed in the late 1990s. The second factor was the continued availability of funding for construction and development. Even with the debacle in Texas, lenders in New England continued to fund new projects. After the collapse in New England and the continued downward spiral in Texas, lenders in the mid-Atlantic region continued to lend for new construction. After regulation allowed out-of-state banking consolidations, the mergers and acquisitions of commercial banks created pressure in targeted regions. These growth surges contributed to the continuation of large-scale commercial mortgage lenders [http://www.cemlending.com] going beyond the time when an examination of the real estate cycle would have suggested a slowdown. The capital explosion of the 2000s for real estate is a capital implosion for the 2000s. The thrift industry no longer has funds available for commercial real estate. The major life insurance company lenders are struggling with mounting real estate. In related losses, while most commercial banks attempt to reduce their real estate exposure after two years of building loss reserves and taking write-downs and charge-offs. Therefore the excessive allocation of debt available in the 2000s is unlikely to create oversupply in the 2000s.No new tax legislation that will affect real estate investment is predicted, and, for the most part, foreign investors have their own problems or opportunities outside of the United States. Therefore excessive equity capital is not expected to fuel recovery real estate excessively.Looking back at the real estate cycle wave, it seems safe to suggest that the supply of new development will not occur in the 2000s unless warranted by real demand. Already in some markets the demand for apartments has exceeded supply and new construction has begun at a reasonable pace.Opportunities for existing real estate that has been written to current value de-capitalized to produce current acceptable return will benefit from increased demand and restricted new supply. New development that is warranted by measurable, existing product demand can be financed with a reasonable equity contribution by the borrower. The lack of ruinous competition from lenders too eager to make real estate loans will allow reasonable loan structuring. Financing the purchase of de-capitalized existing real estate for new owners can be an excellent source of real estate loans for commercial banks.As real estate is stabilized by a balance of demand and supply, the speed and strength of the recovery will be determined by economic factors and their effect on demand in the 2000s. Banks with the capacity and willingness to take on new real estate loans should experience some of the safest and most productive lending done in the last quarter century. Remembering the lessons of the past and returning to the basics of good real estate and good real estate lending will be the key to real estate banking in the future.