What is identity theft?

With all the data leaks in the news, there is a lot of concern about identity theft and, frankly, a lot of confusion. So, let’s first start by defining what “identity theft” really means. California law defines identity theft as the “unauthorized use of another person’s personally identifiable information to obtain credit, goods, services, money, or property.” California. Civil. Code § 1798.92(b). OK, but enough with the lawyer stuff, what does that really mean?

Basically, if you use someone else’s name or identity to get something in return (usually money), that’s identity theft! Many people think that they have to lose their entire life to qualify as a victim of identity theft. That is not true. Even something as simple as an unauthorized credit or debit card purchase can qualify as identity theft. After all, whose name is on the card they’re using to make that purchase, theirs!

Are You a Victim of Identity Theft?

OK OK, so identity theft can be basically anything, but how do you know if you really are a victim of identity theft? There is no single perfect answer to this, but there are some obvious signs:

1. You receive calls or letters from debt collectors for accounts that are not yours;

2. You receive letters from creditors informing you that you have been denied a recent credit card application or a loan you do not recognize;

3. Your credit score plummets with no explanation; Prayed

4. You start seeing tons of new inquiries about your credit that you don’t recognize.

Many of my clients tell me that they simply ignored the first few debt collection calls they received for accounts that were not theirs. Please do not do that! If people call you about accounts that aren’t yours or if there’s a problem with your credit report, look into it and get help. There are tons of resources online for victims of identity theft. Many of my clients can successfully resolve their credit problems by doing a quick Google search. However, others often get frustrated that there is so much information available or hit a roadblock and get discouraged. Many would like to speak to a lawyer but assume it will cost them an arm and a leg. That is rarely the case. Almost all attorneys offer free consultations, and many attorneys offer legal help with no out-of-pocket costs. So if you are feeling overwhelmed, find a professional near you, give them a call and get your identity back!

-Wayne Sinnett, Esq.

If you have a criminal record, it can prevent you from some basic freedoms that can make your life difficult, such as:

(1) Employment

Most job applications and job postings will require you to indicate if you have had a prior felony or criminal charge. Many jobs now have background checks as due diligence by employers. This can limit the jobs you can find for employment.

(2) Voting

If you like to vote and want to have a say in who runs your local, state and federal government, this privilege will be taken away if you have a criminal record. At least for a time.

(3) Ownership of firearms

If you are interested in obtaining a gun permit in order to purchase or carry a gun, this privilege will be prohibited if you have a criminal record.

(4) Sitting on a jury

Having a felony conviction on your record prevents you from sitting on a jury of your peers.

first time offenders

First-time felony offenders in New Jersey may be able to have their felony conviction remain off their permanent record

New Jersey PTI Program / Pretrial Intervention Program

You may be eligible for an alternative to standard New Jersey criminal procedures. This program is for the most part a first time offender program. The objective of the program is based on the early rehabilitation of the offender, to prevent criminal behavior in the future. There are many conditions attached to this program, so it is best to talk to your attorney about the program and whether you might qualify for it.

Reduction of felony charges to a misdemeanor

The prosecutor may be influenced by your attorney to reduce the felony charge to a misdemeanor charge. It is vital that you have experienced representation who knows and understands the legal angles that can help sway the prosecutor. Often the fact that he has no criminal record can be enough. He should talk to his lawyer about whether a reduction might be a possibility in his case.

felony degrees

Qualifications differ by state. Some states make use of numerical grades to represent classifications (for example: capital, life, 1st rating, 2nd grade, 3rd level, or class 1, 2, etc). Others use a bottom-up reporting system (Class A, B, etc.)

extended effects

When convicted of a felony in the US, there may be additional concerns after serving a prison sentence. Some cases:

Deportation if the criminal is not an occupier

Loss of voting rights

You are prohibited from purchasing or possessing firearms, bulletproof vests, or ammunition

Disqualification from running for public office

Ineligibility to serve on a jury

Exclusion of obtaining private licenses

Learn Japanese! This Japanese item might be more than you bargained for. Seriously, if you want to say things like “This gift is more than I expected!” you will learn how to do it here. Also, if you have any questions about formal and informal Japanese, this is the place to look. In this Japanese for beginners article, discover the many ways to use Nakanaka, a Japanese adverb meaning “quite, considerably,” or “more than expected.” Plus, you’ll find a complete review of formal and informal Japanese speech with helpful charts included. Don’t miss the one major exception to the rule that you’ll only find here!

Vocabulary: In this article, you will learn the following words and phrases:

okari – “welcome back, welcome home”

Tadaima. – “I’m home.”

ryokoo – “one way trip”

nakanaka – “quite, much, considerably”

tanoshii – “nice, fun” (-i final adjective)

samui – “cold” (final adjective -i)

kimochi – “feeling”

tsuaa – “tower”

toshiyori – “the old, the old”

oh – “many, much” (-i final adjective)

hanasoo – “talk, talk” (verb 1)

Roppongi – “Roppongi” (a town in Tokyo)

kurabu – “disco, club”

tsurete iku – “to take someone” (verb 1)

wakai – “young” (final adjective -i)

Grammar: In this article, you will learn the following words and phrases:

Vocabulary and useful phrases

nakanaka

Nakanaka is an adverb meaning “quite, considerably” or “more than expected.”

For example:

1. Kono hon wa naka naka omoshiroi yo.

   “This book is quite interesting.”

toshiyori

Toshiyori means “elders”. The honorific prefix oh often precedes this word.

tsurete iku

In Beginner Series Season 4 Article 17, you learned the usage of the following words:

clod iku – “take something”

tsurete iku – “carry someone or an animal”

motte kuru – “take something”

tsurete kuru – “a carry someone or an animal”

Usually, iku corresponds to “to go”, and kuru corresponds to “to come” in French. However, we describe the action of the speaker approaching the listener with iku, not kuru.

Do you really want to succeed in life? Is there a goal you would like to achieve? Do you want to be happier, healthier or wealthier? One of the most important ingredients in achieving something great in your life is persistence. Persistence has the power to transform wishes into reality. John D. Rockefeller once said, “I don’t think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It surpasses almost everything, even nature.”

Persistence separates the extraordinary from the ordinary. You too can be successful and achieve great things in your life if you cultivate the habit of persistence. Everything is possible if you persist. People who persevere never accept defeat. They just keep moving in the direction of their goals.

One of the main reasons why goals are not achieved and why most people are not successful is a lack of persistence. Initially you are very excited and highly motivated when you make the decision to achieve your new goal and you are determined to succeed. However, once an obstacle, big or small, appears, more often than not, you allow that obstacle to discourage you from continuing to do whatever it takes to achieve your goal and succeed.

People who have achieved excellence have encountered many obstacles while climbing the ladder to success. Such obstacles would have discouraged most ordinary people long ago. These extraordinary people, however, refused to give up. They persevered until they succeeded. Thomas Edison is a very good example of the power of perseverance. When asked how he managed to persist in the face of continued failure, he replied, “I didn’t fail. I just found 10,000 ways not to invent the light bulb.” Most people fail simply because they gave up too soon. If they had persisted, success would have been theirs.

You need to persist despite the obstacles you encounter. You must keep telling yourself that as long as you keep trying, as long as you keep pushing yourself to do what you have to do to achieve what you really want, you will succeed. Always remember the wise words of Og Mandino, who once said, “I will persist until I succeed. I will always take another step. If that doesn’t help, I will take another, and another. Truly, one step at a time is no too difficult… I know that small attempts, repeated, will complete any undertaking”.

If you persist, you will triumph over the person who has more money, more education, or even more talents than you. Calvin Coolidge was right when he said: “Nothing in the world can replace persistence. Talent will not do it; nothing in the world is more common than talented men who fail. Genius will not do it; genius without reward is a proverb. Education won’t do it; the world is full of educated bums. Only persistence and determination are omnipotent.”

Persistence has incredible power. Constantly act in the direction of your goals and trust that the best result will always materialize. Never give up. Don’t stop singing if you don’t get accepted at an audition, don’t quit that job you always wanted, don’t stop striving to be the person you always wanted to be, don’t give up on your big dreams. Always remember that all great people started out as ordinary people but they had a dream and they persevered and with a positive mental attitude they achieved extraordinary success. If they persisted and succeeded, so can you! So start persisting now and remember what Winston Churchill said: “Never, never, never give up!”

Question One: How many employment law cases have you attempted to complete?

Question Two: What systems do you have to manage my case?

Question Three: How active are you in professional organizations?

These are difficult questions perhaps, but with a little preface to the questions, they will seem perfectly reasonable: “I am a layman. I am trying to select the most qualified and trustworthy attorney. May I ask you several questions about your background?”

Good lawyers will answer your questions with kindness and generosity. If you do not get that reception, it is best to find another employment law professional. But there are also three questions you may find helpful to ask yourself after your meeting with your attorney candidate:

Question 1: Did I feel a positive and trust-inspiring connection with this person?

Question 2: Did I feel that I was heard and that he or she got the essential points?

Question 3: Did I leave feeling like I understood the big picture of what this attorney would do for me, how, and when?

You don’t have to like your attorney to get good results, but it will make the process easier because you’ll be working as a team. This “team” approach to the case is especially true in contingency cases where you and the attorney each have a percentage share in the outcome. A good attorney will want that team spirit and connection just as much as you do. Here are three questions to ask yourself and your attorney before moving forward:

Question 1: Do we communicate clearly and efficiently with each other?

Question 2: Can we laugh and relax even while discussing difficult legal issues?

Question 3: Do we exchange ideas and views on the case freely?

These “team” based responses will give you a preview of how you and your lawyer will respond when there is an unexpected negative turn in the case (and there always is). For example, what if the other attorney uses intimidation tactics or a particular piece of evidence is excluded, or a critical motion is denied, or perhaps a cooperating witness goes missing or changes their anticipated testimony? They must work together at such times to develop new approaches in the heat of the moment.

Here are 3 final questions, perhaps questions at the highest level of assessment:

Question 1: Can my lawyer tell the emotional story of my case?

Question 2: Is my lawyer able to connect well with other people, especially people who are likely to serve on a jury or be a judge in my case?

Question 3: Is my lawyer creative and looking for tactics and approaches that may seem unusual, but give us an advantage against the opposition?

There are no perfect attorneys, just like you won’t be the perfect client with the perfect case. Your goal is to find the best imperfect lawyer you can and be able to work with both the strengths and weaknesses of him or her and her particular case.

I used to worry that other people would steal my work. I do a lot of different kinds of things, so there’s a lot to steal. In 35 years of being in business, I have produced many exceptional photos, illustrations, graphic design, advertisements, websites, print collateral, logos, music, and writing, to name just a few. And of course I also have plenty of clients for all my competition to try to steal from me as well. This is normal. If you are talented in any way, or in business of any kind, people steal from you.

What about copyright laws? Unless you want to waste a lot of money hiring a lawyer to go after all the crooks and take them to court only to get a judgment against you that they will probably never pay, what good is it? And that’s if you’re lucky. More often than not, in internet breach cases, the person responsible can never be located, let alone convicted of the crime. But it’s not money I’m after. If it was, why the hell would you be writing articles for internet article directories that don’t pay to use your articles? I write for such sites to get the benefit of links to my website and blog. What are back links? They are a vital component of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), as links to my website from popular and highly ranked websites, helping me get first page search results for my own website when the words are searched. appropriate key in Google. It’s complicated but it works.

I was recently looking for some javascript code that I could use to do something clever on my website. When I found what I wanted to adapt, I checked what the terms of use were. The code writer humbly asked for just $5 if he wanted to remove his name from the invisible credits that would only appear where other code seekers would see it. Otherwise it was free. How can you not respect a request like that? I happily left his name even though I had to spend many hours modifying the code to make it work for my situation, but I felt a certain kinship with this skilled individual who engendered the utmost admiration and obedience. I treat others as I would like to be treated.

It certainly was upsetting when I first realized that my articles were being used inappropriately and published as if they were written by someone on the website where I found them. I checked the usage policies of the article websites I had submitted my articles to, which stated that articles were required to be posted with a signature line (i.e. author’s name) along with a link to the website from the author.

After reading that, I thought, “Oh great! Maybe they’ll help me enforce their policies.” But after reading more I quickly learned that it was me responsibility to do any police work, notifying criminals of what they had so innocently overlooked. Once such violations come to light, these well-intentioned publishers will be eager to correct their ways. Say oh! That’s a laugh!

Not only do these offending websites have no way to contact anyone, but they are shrouded in secrecy by unknown hosts who ironically invite you to “report abuse”, only to inform you that they cannot accept responsibility for the offenses of individual blog publishers. . If you want to try to post a comment to report the violation, you usually have to register and log in, revealing all your personal information, so your comment will eventually be picked up by Google associated with a disreputable website in some future search that will follow you until your grave. (Is this where we are headed, as members of this Google-dominated culture in which we live?)

While searching for the title of my article, which is how I discovered stolen uses, I saw something else that made me realize the tangled web we weave on the Internet. One instance of my article used my title verbatim, but what followed in the body of the article was what appeared to be a horrible, error-riddled translation from another language, into broken English, suggesting that this article had come full circle. I envisioned someone posting my article in English, say Chinese for example, and someone translating it back into English for use on the website where I found it. Let’s just say he wasn’t a little unhappy with the lack of attribution in this situation!

But this is sad… a very sad state of affairs, don’t you agree? Or isn’t it more like, “Wake up and smell the coffee! This is reality, so get over it”? Hence my resignation. For starters, as a person with wavering self-esteem, I accept someone hacking my work to call it their own the same way I accept someone cutting me off in traffic or cutting me off in line at the grocery store. It has become so common that what else can you do but just shrug about it? Sure, you could make a scene but ironically, in today’s society, you would risk arrest for disturbing the peace and instigating a public disturbance. That would be a perfect example of justice today. No, thanks. I prefer to look the other way and be glad that I am not considered the real criminal for posting interesting articles that tempt others to steal them.

But… wait! Isn’t that a website that has actually listed my name as the author? And did you include a link to my image and website as well? Good now. It’s not so nice of someone, to be so nice! It’s funny how sticking to the rules we’re all supposed to follow is the new supernatural, worthy of reverence usually reserved for the divine or the immortal.

Are we so jaded that simply obeying the law of the land has been elevated to an act of sanctity and deserving of the grand prize bestowed only on superhumans? I guess it follows that telling the truth, showing respect, offering help, and being fair are also beyond normal people’s expectations, and anyone displaying such behavior should be honored with recognition as one of today’s superheroes. It doesn’t matter that many religions teach “Thou shalt not steal”; in fact, raised as a Catholic, I was taught not to even “covet” my neighbor’s goods, much less go so far as to steal them. It was wrong to even “covet” them, to use a term Jimmy Carter made famous (or would it be “infamous”?) in a 1976 Playboy interview. But this is more than that. It’s not just taking it, but also getting glory from it! And in some cases, it even earns revenue from advertising that appears as a result of its sellability and magnetic appeal, driving cyber-traffic to fulfill its promised ad audience. That should fall into a more serious category and worthy of even greater punishment.

And if I wanted to contact a copyright attorney, they would inform me of my many rights in such a case. I would also be informed that I would be responsible for payment to the attorney representing me, whether or not I am successful in apprehending the at-fault party. Another case of divine justice gone wrong. My rights are violated and I pay as a result. No pain, no gain, right? The pain is my shock and amazement at having been so flagrantly ripped off; my outrage at having someone else impersonate me as the author; and my disgust at having to pay a lawyer to defend my rights. The profit? Obviously everything in the thief’s court, so to speak.

The life science of Fullerene Chemistry of the three 1996 Nobel Prize Winners in Chemistry was based on Buckminster Fuller’s synergistic engineering principles, which challenged the foundation of 20th century science. Professor Novatis of Harvard University, Amy Edmonson, in her online book titled ‘The Fuller Explanation’, explains that Buckminster Fuller derived his engineering principles from mathematics from the Greek philosopher Plato. Most people have heard of the term ‘platonic love’ and now that platonic-fulerene chemistry has come into existence, we might ask the question, what practical engineering principles could be associated with platonic love?

To answer that question, we can examine how the new chemistry challenges the general understanding of modern science. NASA’s High Energy Astrophysics Division Library has published papers arguing that the Platonic tradition of Greek philosophy was based on fractal geometric logic. All of the life sciences, within the current accepted understanding of science, can only try to drive species toward extinction. This is because Einstein’s ‘First Law of All Science’ calls for the total destruction of all life in the universe when all its heat is radiated out into cold space. On the other hand, Plato’s ethical logic is based on fractal geometry, which we know extends the science of life to infinity. The New Measure of Humanity Project of the University of Florence, on September 24, 2010, was honored with the Georgio Napolitano Medal on behalf of the Republic of Italy. The Project’s upgrade from quantum mechanics to quantum biology agreed with Plato’s logic.

The practical engineering principles we seek pertain to the difference between aesthetics and ethics. Ethics can now be seen as part of science itself, rather than just about how we use science. We can explain the difference in simplistic terms instead of complex electromagnetic biological terms that belong to quantum biology. We know that the ancient chemistry we have, in fact, obeys Einstein’s law of universal decay. However, we know from the discovery of Sir Isaac Newton’s unpublished papers, discovered in the last century, that Newton firmly believed that there was a deeper natural philosophy to balance the energetic breakdown of the mechanical universe. Newton’s principles, responsible for this balance, belonged to Plato’s lost ‘Science for Ethical Purposes’.

During the 18th century, the philosopher Immanuel Kant defined aesthetics as the theory of art appreciation, but also sought ethical technology within the electromagnetic theories of his time, an electric motor to make what we know by comparison as a child’s toy. . Kantian aesthetics in the 21st century has become the basis of a moral logic to guide various types of organizations. There is a revival of interest in ethical electromagnetic biological science, due to the new Platonic-fulerene chemistry.

Any aesthetic awareness in the beauty of, say, a painting of a beautiful mountain range with majestic waterfalls, is about seeing the decaying beauty, the waterfalls are eating away at the structure of the mountain. The aesthetic feeling, therefore, belongs to the material world of destructive reality, but it inspires in the mind a peaceful harmonic creative intuition. Medicine Nobel Prize winner Svent-Gyoergyi was so insistent that this material decomposition was balanced by the evolution of consciousness that he called scientists who did not realize this mad apes and wrote a book with that title. Now we can begin to think that the mental harmonics associated with Marialist aesthetics and the evolution of the mind, could have some great universal ethical purpose and begin to search for the new technologies that Immanuel Kant intuitively envisioned. These are the principles of spiritual or holographic optical engineering that Plato wrote about.

The harmonic balance of the decomposition of matter with the more natural deep balance philosophy of Sir Isaac Newton, describes a kind of entanglement between the energies of decomposition and evolving creative consciousness. This is known as quantum entanglement, a process existing between quantum mechanics and quantum biology. The biologist Dr. Carl Johan Calleman, author of the book ‘The Purposeful Universe’ has quantified the functioning of the human cell. This allows us to identify the rather incredible nature of the ethical electromagnetic technology sought by Immanuel Kant.

Dr. Callerman points out that the male sperm is propelled toward the egg by a small electromagnetic motor that drives its tail. Upon entering the ovum, the masculine engine is transformed into a balanced Yin-Yang life engine. This spark of life programs has a universal message of evolution towards the first bone created within the embryo, the sphenoid bone. The sphenoid vibrates with the seashell pattern of the inner ear, to provide the electromagnetic music of life that Plato referred to as the Music of the Pythagorean Spheres. Dr. Richard Merrick of the University of Texas, in his book ‘Interference’ has mapped out the electromagnetic workings of the Music of the Music of the Spheres within the workings of evolving consciousness.

The Australian Science and Art Research Center discovered the mathematical structure of the Music of the Spheres that governs the evolution of seashells over millions of years through space-time The discovery was reprinted by the research institute The world’s largest technological IEEE SPIE Milestone Series in Washington in 1990 In 1995, the work won the Institute for Basic Research Biology Award for the discovery of new physical laws governing optimal biological growth and development across space-time. Since then, it has been discovered that the human sphenoid sings the same Music of the Spheres song of life, which means that it is now possible to discover a practical technology from what was once called the principles of optical spiritual engineering of Plato.

The Center for Science and Art obtained experimental evidence for the existence of Plato’s spiritual optics through the use of special 3-D glasses by discovering that, over the centuries, some artists had unconsciously depicted holographic images in their paintings. The new technology is about the evolution of humanity’s understanding of the nature of Einstien’s protégé, David Bohm’s infinite holographic universe. Now that the difference between aesthetics and ethics is understood, humanity stands on the threshold of what Buckminster Fuller called Uopia or Oblivion.

Within the Platonic tradition of Greek philosophy, Aristotle’s ethical science was designed to become the basis for an ennobling medical policy for the health of the universe, so that the universe would not allow civilization to die out. Platonic-Fullerenic Chemistry is part of that political medical science and there is no place for any aesthetic obsession to dominate political or religious beliefs. For example, aesthetically appreciating blonde, blue-eyed people who are turned into a master race is unethical, any more than using the aesthetics of Angel Physics to legalize the torture and burning alive of countless women and children as witches.

Dr. Luc Montagnier, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine, is among an emerging group of academics who say evidence has been obtained to show that DNA can carry fingerprints of itself electromagnetically. For teleportation to be ethical, the general assumption that nature will find some way to eliminate overpopulation would need to be changed. Transparent global medical scientific research, available to the public, must exist to allow ethical debate on such issues to occur. That very process, operating despite being governed by the current understanding of unbalanced entropic decay, will demonstrate the existence of new technologies, for the betterment of the human condition, far beyond the capacity of an entropic mindset to even imagine.

Professor Robert Pope (S)

The SAT and ACT are nationally recognized and respected tests. Historically, there has been a geographic divide between the two; today, very few universities require or prefer one test over the other. So which one should you take? Well, since you can’t really say that one test is easier than the other, it all depends on your skills and preferences. Basically, you should choose the one that you will get a higher score!

Here are some tips to help you make your decision:

1. Who says size doesn’t matter?

The ACT is a shorter test. The SAT is a whopping 3 hours and 45 minutes while the ACT is a whopping 2 hours and 55 minutes, making the SAT 30% longer than the ACT. Either way, you’re stuck taking a long test. If you have a ridiculously short attention span, then the ACT might be right for you, but realistically, after almost 3 hours, why sweat another 50 minutes?

2. When in doubt, just guess… right?

The SAT has a penalty for guessing: minus a quarter point for each wrong answer. Not so with the ACT. Guess! Therefore, you must answer all questions on the ACT, but on the SAT, you must leave the answer blank when you cannot eliminate at least one answer choice. Does this make the SAT “harder”? Not really. With the right strategies, you can even make the SAT guessing penalty work to your advantage.

3. It’s a bird! It is a plane! It’s superscore!

The SAT reports each of its three “sub scores” separately, one each for critical reading, writing, and math. Therefore, many colleges will combine your best three subscores from all the times you’ve taken the SAT to make a “superscore.” In the past, schools did not do this with the ACT. Recently, however, many schools have also begun doing ACT “super scores.”

4. What’s the difference anyway?

Both tests have parts of grammar, reading comprehension, essay and mathematics. The ACT has an extra “science” section, but don’t worry. I used quotes because it’s really just another test of your reasoning skills: you don’t need a lot of knowledge of chemistry, physics, or biology. Generally speaking, the ACT tests skills you (should have) learned in high school, while the SAT tries to test your innate problem-solving abilities.

For example, the ACT math section tests have few topics that aren’t normally covered until precalculus. While the SAT skips these topics, its math problems generally have more complicated setups.

The ACT essay is optional, but some colleges still require it. The topics of his essays are always school policy issues, while the SAT essays deal with more abstract moral or philosophical issues.

In the critical reading sections, the SAT vocabulary is more difficult, but the ACT tests your critical reading and analysis skills. The ACT English section gives you a couple of long passages with grammar and critical reading questions mixed in; the SAT tests reading and grammar separately.

5. You can’t know if you like it until you’ve tried it!

How do I know which test is best for me? Try them! Take some free practice tests online and see which one suits your needs. Both the SAT and ACT offer practice questions or tests on their official websites.

Hobbyist photographers with an entrepreneurial spirit have found new ways to turn their hobby into an additional source of income. The quality and flexibility of digital photography, coupled with the wide reach of the Internet, has created numerous opportunities for photographers to take advantage of their images and services. Here are some creative ways you can participate in the profitability of this new work-at-home market.

follow the people

The key to finding big money in digital photography is as simple as finding where the people are. Think of all the places where crowds gather where people might want to take a memorable photo. Competitions, concerts, parades and tourist attractions are just some of the attractive markets for this service. It’s literally as simple as bringing some business cards and start shooting. Post your images on a website or file-sharing service where people can search for the images and buy the ones they want.

Create novelty items

There are a number of Internet companies that help you superimpose digital images onto just about anything. Use your experience with these services to sell a variety of fun souvenirs to groups and businesses. Of course, you’ll add the cost of your time and travel to the price of each piece, giving you a nice markup for doing all the coordinating.

Personalized Greeting Cards

As with novelty products, you can find services that will allow you to create custom photo greeting cards for your customers. People love to send these types of cards to family and friends as Christmas cards, special announcements, and even invitations. You will have to work hard to market your services at first, but once the community sees your great work, the orders will start pouring in on their own.

Create slideshows

Software like Microsoft PowerPoint makes it easy to design a photo slideshow that can be a great addition to any social event. However, some people don’t have the time or experience to create their own programs, and this is where you can make money. Think of all the businesses and organizations in your area that might need a service like this. Give them your business card or a sample of your work. Even if they don’t call you directly, one of your members can use your services in the future. The key is to spread the word and take smaller jobs until you build a solid reputation.

offer a class

Even if you’re not a professional photographer, if you have significant experience as a hobbyist, you probably have plenty of tips to share with others. Groups like seniors and busy adults are often looking for a friendly face to help them survive the learning curve of technology. You can capitalize on this need by offering a class at a community center or coffee shop once a month. He charges around $10 per person for a one-hour session and offers private instruction for a similar fee. The more people talk about your class, the more students you will attract.

There are literally hundreds of ways that you can use your digital camera to make money. The key is to be creative and meet the needs of a hungry market. Once you find a niche that suits you, implement a marketing plan and continue to develop your business plan. If you do it right, you can turn your hobby into a steady stream of income.

Do you need life insurance?

The idea behind life insurance is to have covered liabilities in the event of your death. The old adage about death and taxes is the reason many people consider life insurance. When death and taxes come together, life insurance is a potential cure for the combined effects.

What is the premise behind life insurance? What the insurance company hopes to do is take the money you give them as a premium, invest it over a long period of time, and then return a portion of it to you at your death, while keeping a portion as a return. The easier it is for them to do this, the cheaper your premium will be. This is made possible by the idea of ​​compound interest. To understand how an insurance policy would pay you, you would need a calculator that would calculate the interest on an annuity. These formulas are similar to the ones you saw in elementary school math class. In terms of the concept, the two main drivers of why your money grows over time are the interest rate and the time factor. The higher the interest rate, the faster your money will grow. The longer you can work, the faster your money will grow. One thing to keep in mind is that the rate at which your money grows will speed up the more time you put into it. The accumulation of money will occur faster in the later years of the time period in question. That’s why you see those ads that say: if you contribute $100 a year to an RRSP for 30 years, versus $200 a year for 20 years, you’ll get more money at the end of the term in the first case with less money contributed. The reason is that if you start earlier, you’ll get more time for the composition to do its job.

This concept of compound interest appears in all forms of debt, interest-bearing investments, bank accounts, and annuities such as life insurance. The word annuity just means a bunch of payments going into an account over time, followed by a bunch of payments going out of the same account at a later time, usually at a set frequency like monthly or quarterly. Typically, you pay money over a period of time at a set frequency and then receive money as a lump sum or over another period of time at a set frequency. These terms are detailed in the contract, that is, the life insurance policy.

When should you consider life insurance?

Do you need life insurance? The famous answer to this question is “it depends”. The first questions to ask yourself are: why do I want life insurance? Who do I want the money to protect?

The first common scenario is: “If I die, I want my children to be okay because they are too young to take care of themselves.” This is fair enough: make sure that when your children are able to care for themselves, this strategy is reviewed. This would generally mean a “term policy”, which is insurance that lasts for a set number of years. If you have other reasons under the other scenarios below, you want to get a “universal life policy” that covers you until your death.

The second scenario is “When I die, my estate will be affected by a huge tax bill, and I don’t want my children to have to deal with that reality.” Again, this is a good reason to consider life insurance. The real problem is “how do I minimize the huge tax bill?” Life insurance is an attractive method of doing this, but there are others. You can divide your estate while you’re still alive to avoid the “presumptive disposition” that triggers the huge tax bill. Deemed disposition means that something is automatically considered sold due to an event (such as death), which means that capital gains taxes are due in the next tax year. This does not apply to primary residences, so if you own your home, the tax issue is resolved in most cases. If you have assets that would be taxed at a later date (tax deferred), such as investments that would produce a capital gain, perhaps they can be sold in a timely manner before your death to minimize the tax consequences? There is also the use of a corporation, where the corporation would pay the taxes instead, or where the beneficiaries may receive salaries, dividends, or shares in the company over a longer period of time rather than all at once at the time of death. If you only have an RRSP and you have a spouse, the income from the RRSP can be rolled over tax-free to the spouse, which would also defer the tax bill beyond your death.

The third scenario is: “I want the insurance to be an investment in addition to an insurance policy.” This is also a good reason to consider life insurance. You’ll also need to consider the return on investment versus the alternatives, the tax implications (these policies tend to be tax-exempt, but tax rules can change if too many people start taking advantage of them), and restrictions on access to your money.

Considerations for buying life insurance

What should you take into account when making the decision to purchase life insurance?

The first thing to consider is your age. The older you are, the more expensive your life insurance will be, because there is less time for compounding to accumulate money.

The second thing to consider is your health. Generally speaking, the more likely it is that you will die sooner, the more expensive your life insurance premium will be. Again, this is because there would be less time for compounding to work. If you know you want life insurance, get it when you’re younger and in optimal health.

This brings me to the third thing: can you simulate life insurance by getting an achievable return? If you can generate a return as well as the insurance company, and you have a long period of time to do so, and you don’t have issues with early death (such as a situation where you have no dependents or tax issues), you may want to Simulate a life insurance payout by putting a certain amount of dollars into a separate account each month, invest it, and at the end of a long period of time, you will accumulate a large sum of money. How do you know what profitability the insurance is giving you? Use one of the annuity calculators below and enter how many years you are paying the premium, the monthly or annual premium amount, and the final value of the insurance company’s proposed lump sum payment, if known. You should be able to get an interest rate. Compare this rate to what you normally earn on your investments and see if you can consistently beat it. Take into account taxes and expenses. There are tax issues with this simulation, as well as the risk of generating returns, so this method is for people who are knowledgeable about investing. This method also requires discipline in funding the account.

The fourth thing is the assets that are protected. If you only have a home and no dependents, you probably won’t have additional taxes at death. You probably don’t need life insurance. If you have no assets but need to protect your children, you may need life insurance if there are no other ways to protect them. If you have investments that will generate a large tax bill and there aren’t many other options, life insurance can be helpful.

Combined with this fourth thing is if you have a financial plan and if you have a complex tax situation. This would be if you have complicated investments, a corporation, multiple companies, foreign assets, etc. This scenario will require specific professional help from your financial planner, attorney, accountant, and perhaps a few other specialists for various needs.

The sooner you do your estate planning, the better. There are personal considerations such as “I don’t think my children can manage the money” or “If I divide my estate before I die, there may be family disputes.” These are very important considerations. Most of the time, decisions are driven by your feelings rather than your reason. If a consideration like this prevents you from making an estate plan, it should be examined before doing something financial, such as buying life insurance. If you deny an issue like this, be aware of the limitations it creates for your plan and the possible additional costs to your estate as well. The more harmonious you are with your money on all levels, the easier it will be to make these decisions, such as life insurance or estate planning.

The point is that not everyone needs life insurance; It depends on what happens to your finances when you die.