David Beckham to be given Lifetime Achievement award #bbc #david #beckham #award

David Beckham to be given Lifetime Achievement award.

 

Former England captain David Beckham is to receive the BBC Sports Personality Lifetime Achievement award on Sunday.

The 35-year-old midfielder is England's most capped outfield player and won six Premier League titles and the Champions League crown with Manchester United.
He won the Spanish league with Real Madrid after a £25m move from United before joining Los Angeles Galaxy and also spent two loan spells at AC Milan.
In 2001 Beckham was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
The lifetime honour is one of several awards which will be presented during the BBC Sports Personality of the Year show from 1900 GMT on Sunday.

5 Ways To Save On Investments

 

 

 

John C. Bogle is the founder of Vanguard Investments and is one of the biggest proponents of low-cost investing. In his estimation, investors as a whole pay between 3 and 3.5% in costs on their investments. This collectively goes to the investment profession in terms of trading commissions, management fees and other charges that advisors and brokers charge for providing advice to their clients. (For related reading, also check out Earn More Profit With Less Trading.) 

In an environment of low interest rates and flat stock market returns, this is a big deal. Historically, stocks have offered the best returns, posting annual returns of roughly 10% since 1928. If you subtract inflation, real returns have been a couple of percent lower, and subtracting investment costs means most investors are lucky to gain anything in real terms on their investments, which is true even in a normal market environment when yields are higher and stocks post positive returns.
With that, here are five key ways to lower costs on your investments.

1. Index FundsWarren Buffett has stated that, for the majority of investors, indexing is the best way to invest. His mentor, Benjamin Graham, divided investors into two camps. The first are enterprising investors that have the time and energy to devote to searching for investments that have a good chance of outperforming the market. The second are defensive investors that have no time or interest in investing.  These investors could look to hire a broker or investment manager, but given the majority underperform the market over time, it makes sense to save by buying a low-cost index fund and not have to pay them a management fee that can easily cost 1% of assets under management or more. Bogle is also a big proponent of index funds and Vanguard was one of the pioneers in offering them to individual investors. In his estimation, index funds charge only about 20 basis points, in terms of total expense ratios.  
   This is especially important when it comes to investing in bonds. Interest rates are at historical lows so investment costs can easily eat up the majority of fixed income returns. Low-cost bond index funds can help, as can buying individual bonds and holding them to maturity.
   
   
2. Low-Cost Mutual FundsIndex funds are some of the lowest cost mutual funds in the market. Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are generally also very low cost and have other tax advantages, though it is important to note they are not mutual funds and have other characteristics that will need further investigating. For investors interested in looking to actively-managed mutual funds, it pays to keep the management fee as low as possible. One percent or lower is a good rule of thumb. 
   
3. Account FeesIt used to be that the only way to open and maintain an investment account was by using full-service brokers. Annual account maintenance fees were common and still exist for more affordable discount brokers. There should be no reason to pay maintenance fees. Even if they are low at $10 to $15 annually, a broker is getting a benefit for using your money, including through securities lending and other activities that let the brokerage firm earn a higher return on your cash than the interest they are paying you.  Again, certain individuals may find it more convenient to completely outsource the managing of their assets to an individual, but those that are more keen on saving money will find that it doesn’t take much effort to find low-cost ways to maintain investment accounts. A primary way to do this is to avoid full-service brokers. (To learn more about choosing a broker, see Brokers And Online Trading: Full Service Or Discount?)
   

4. Low-cost TradesAs with unnecessary account fees, full-service brokers generally charged $50 per trade or more, depending on the number of shares traded. Brokers used to also get paid per trade, so the incentive was to buy and sell stocks or bonds as much as possible. These days, an online broker charges a fraction of the cost of a full-service one. It is very easy to find stock trades for less than $10, and therefore the bite that trading costs can subtract out of an account’s value over time.  On a related aside, always read the fine print in your accounts to see if there are any other hidden commissions or fees. I knew of one firm that charged next to nothing for trading commissions but offset this benefit by paying well below money market interest rates for cash held in client accounts.
   
   
5. Low TurnoverBuy-and-hold investing has received a fair amount of criticism over the past decade. This is certainly warranted given stock returns overall are roughly flat over this time frame. However, many stocks have performed well and those that don’t trade often have the opportunity to maintain profits in the form of unrealized gains. Not realizing gains saves on capital gains taxes and also keeps brokerage commissions to a minimum. This is obviously not possible in retirement or other tax-advantaged accounts, but it can save a substantial amount of tax expense in taxable accounts.

Bottom LineThe above represent some straightforward ways to keep investment costs at a minimum. Investment gains are still important and the future should be less of an uphill battle as interest rates should rise and stock market returns are generally stronger after struggling over a ten-year period. Investors can further their chance for positive overall returns by keeping a close eye on investment expenses.

5 Steps For Avoiding Retirement Postponement Syndrome

 

 

Some financial analysts describe people that don't save and delay planning for retirement as facing the "retirement postponement syndrome" or RPS. Many of these procrastinators hope that something magical will happen to boost their savings, but usually they end up desperately scrambling to save as they get older. (For more, see The Top 4 Reasons To Save For Retirement Now.)

The people trapped in retirement postponement syndrome are often in debt or overly extended from paying their children's college tuition and mortgage payments. In fact, a 2006 Consumer Federation of America and Financial Planning Association survey revealed that only 10% of people expect to save a million dollars in their lifetime, 11% hope to inherit money and 21% are depending on winning the lottery. Only 55% said saving monthly was the best route for a sound retirement.

#Financial #Resolutions #2011

Financial Resolutions For 2011

 

 

Who doesn't like the fresh start of a new year? A clean slate and an optimistic outlook make January 1st a magical time. The only problem is that every year we vow to take care of our finances, but we ultimately get sidetracked with excuses. But this year will be different, and to help, here are some smart money moves for the New Year. (When you're short on cash, a strict budget is the best tool for finding financial stability. See Budgeting When You're Broke.)

Review the Previous YearWhat better place to begin a new year than to reflect upon the past? Take a look at last year's budget, identify the good and bad money moves you made last year and resolve to make the necessary improvements for the upcoming year.

Set One Financial GoalKeep it simple this year and set at least one goal you'd like to achieve by the end of this year, then put all of your focus and energy towards achieving the goal.

Some financial goals could be to:

• Automate Your FinancesIf your money seems to slip through your fingers before you can save any of it, putting yourself on an automatic savings plan to debit even $50 per month from your account is a good way to save without feeling the pinch. If you don't see the money, you won't miss it and before you know it, that $50 per month in savings will be $600 at the end of the year. If your problem is more that you keep forgetting to pay bills and end up paying interest on overdue bills, you can also automate your bill payments by calling the companies directly to ask if they can debit your account every month, or talk to your bank about automating your recurring bill payments.
  
  
• Improve Your Investing KnowledgeThis is probably the area most people are afraid of. Of course it will all look confusing to begin with if you want to tackle everything under the sun in a short amount of time. So start slow and simple with something like learning what bonds, stocks and mutual funds are. For each topic, apply your newfound knowledge towards your money so that the information becomes relevant to you. Your company might also offer free seminars to understand your finances better. You can also go online to learn the basics at your own pace. (Make it to the end of the month, before you run out of money. To learn more, refer to The Beauty Of Budgeting.)
  
  
• Get Out of DebtFor anyone who is in debt, it is really better knowing what your financial situation is than to stay in the dark. Next, create a budget listing your net income per month and where you plan to spend your money in each category. Once your budget is done and you know what you have to work with, make a separate plan to get out of debt. Start by listing all of your debts, their interest rates and minimum monthly payments.
  Now minus the total amount of minimum debt repayment you'll have to make each month, and whatever is leftover should be applied to either the lowest debt balance you have or on the debt with the highest interest rate.
  As you clear each debt, take the amount you used to pay towards that debt and apply it to the next debt in line until you're debt-free.
  You may find that your minimum payments equal or exceed 15% of your net income. In that situation, you will need to adjust your budget percentages and cut back on your housing, life or transportation costs, or simply make more money.
  Don't rob your savings category in the beginning to pay down your debt. You should save a minimum of $1,000 for emergencies before adjusting your savings.
  

Make a PlanKeep it simple and make sure you've covered all the bases for each goal. For example:

Goal: Save $5,000 by the end of the year for an exotic holiday vacation.

Step(s): Save an additional $417 per month, or $208.50 per bi-weekly paycheck.

The Plan: Review your budget and set up an automatic withdrawal from your paycheck into a savings account.

The Bottom LineThere are plenty of other goals out there, such as buying a home, a new car or going on a European vacation. The main thing to remember is that without a plan, your goals will always be dreams.

 

#Billionaire businessmen and their box office gambles . #Angelina Jolie #Johnny Depp

Billionaire businessmen and their box office gambles

Backers throw their support behind Hollywood blockbusters — and disappointments 

 

 

 

Two billionaires are going head to head in a box office battle this month. Philip Anschutz's "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" is facing off against Tim Headington and his Johnny Depp/Angelina Jolie thriller "The Tourist."

It is not the first time these billionaires have made big Hollywood bets. The two tycoons have plenty of company. Dozens of billionaires have spent excess cash funding the risky but sometimes glamorous business of Hollywood films. Some have scored big returns; others bankrolled flops.

Facebook suffers brief shut down #Facebook #FB #Social

 

Facebook suffers brief shut down.

Facebook was forced to take itself offline after a staff member accidentally leaked internal product prototypes.

The social network was unreachable for about 20-30 minutes while the mess was cleared up.
The outage happened as the site introduced redesigned brand pages, a revamped photos section and a new page management feature.
In a statement on its blog, Facebook apologised for the brief downtime.
"For a brief period of time, some internal prototypes were made public to a number of people externally." read the message. "As a result, we took the site down for a few minutes. It's back up, and we apologise for the inconvenience."

wi-tribe ranked Pakistan's No 1 Broadband Company

KARACHI  (December 10, 2010) : In its 2010 annual report, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) announced that wi-tribe Pakistan successfully ranked number one in both the 'Technology Neutral' and 'Technology-wise' categories for highest Quality of Service, despite being the youngest broadband company, after just over one year of launching commercial services.

IT's new age of possibility #IT's new #age of possibility

IT's new age of possibility

 

 

It's only been around about 50 years, but information technology has already affected almost the entire landscape of human activity. How science is pursued, how products are designed, how commerce and supply chains work, how businesses are run, how human beings communicate with one another--there's almost no arena in which IT isn't a critical enabler.
Given this, it may sound peevish to say IT has, at the same time, been hide-bound and conventional. But IT has been conventional. Oh, sure. We've had our moments--modernizing supply chains starting in the 1970s, the PC and distributed computing blooms of the '80s, the Internet and Web builds-out of the '90s, the analytics everywhere and everything mobile of the Aughties. But these epochal endeavors were spawned by others.

Japan defence review warns of China's military might

 

 Japan has unveiled sweeping changes to its national defence polices, boosting its southern forces in response to neighbouring China's military rise.

It said Beijing's military build-up was of global concern. Japan shares a maritime border with China.
It will also strengthen its missile defences against the threat from a nuclear-armed North Korea.
China has responded saying it is a force for peace and development in Asia and threatens no-one.
China's Foreign Ministry said no country had the right to make irresponsible comments on China's development.
Flashpoints

Chrome to Phone #Chrome #Google #Phone #iphone #apple #andriod

Chrome to Phone.

Android phones are remarkable devices, and essentially are full-blown computers that fit in your hand. In lots of ways, they work well with your PC--but not in all ways. One of the biggest issues is Android's handling of bookmarks and browser information. Your Android browser doesn't talk to your PC browser, and vice versa. If you find a Web page on your PC that you want to save as a bookmark, it won't be saved to your Android browser. Chrome to Phone is a nifty, free workaround.

Nokia Apple patent row escalates #Nokia #Apple #Ipad #patent

 

Nokia Apple patent row escalates.

Nokia has extended its legal action against Apple by filing 13 more patent infringement claims.

Nokia's latest legal move involved filing claims in courts in the UK, Germany and Holland.

The claims build on legal action started in October 2009 when Nokia sued Apple, alleging 10 patent infringements.