March 29, 2024

RECENT NEWS

The Process To Buy Listed Insurance Companies

No matter how harmless the buying of insurance seems, acquiring policy returns are subjected to market risks. The insurance market is full of credible companies and trickster enterprises alike. Gullible clients get trapped in the lofty policy returns that some insurance firms claim to make but eventually fail to execute. At the time of such crisis, if legal actions are taken against the insurance company, then all its assets get liquidated. There is a protocol that all insurance companies have to follow in order to acquire the license required to sell insurance. Firms only get a legal certificate if they can mortgage a considerable part of their assets. The company must have floatable assets in order to get into the business. If an insurance company gets bankrupted at any point of time, its assets are listed at chartered websites. There is a specific procedure involving specialty insurance consultants to buy an insurance company’s corporate assets.

The buying of an insurer

An investor, seeking to eliminate loss due to market risks, should apply for the purchasing of an insurer in receivership. This process allows you to be notified when an insurer is listed up for sale. The investor needs to register oneself with the in-charge of the receivership court with a non-refundable deposit. After being approved by the court, you will get the right to be informed as soon as the insurer goes up for sale at a chartered website.

Buying books on insurance

This is applicable for licensed insurers who seek to buy an insurance company as soon as they get listed. The insurer applying for an offer to purchase books of insurance will first need to prove his financial credibility. The buyer of the firm’s financial assets must be able to write off clients who have their returns put on hold by the suspended insurance office. The company making the purchase needs to register under the new policy of coverage that includes the floated firm’s financial assets. The buyer needs to make an offer which if found commendable; they get to proceed with the application. The court will then notify the buyer at the time of liquidation.

Assuming a book of insurance

If there is a transfer of risk from a listed company, the buyer has to write off the insurance products on sale. The purchaser making such an offer at the receivership court needs to be licensed in order to carry out the obligations of the floated firm. The buyer requires to get registered at the court with necessary documents. This followed by an approval will enable a buyer to get notified at the charted website when the insurance company in question gets sold.

Buying a loss portfolio transfer

This agreement allows a firm listed at the receivership court to obtain a portion of the liquidated firm’s liabilities. This is paired with a considerable part of the insurance company’s assets. The carrying out of this exchange will enable a buyer to write off insurance products stated by the insurance firm in the receivership. The buyer needs to be a licenc3d insurer in order to be eligible for this transaction. This exchange too is carried out via the court where the buyer has to register his offer. The selected buyer will be informed once the company being floated is put up on the respective website

Ways to Relieve Back Pain

The modern world has seen so much, among which the back pain has become a common issue in almost every person we meet. Every form of back pain that one suffers form isn’t actually a fault of him/her but it’s the lifestyle that has to go with. Well, speaking in medical terms, the back pain occurs from the muscles, the joints, the nerves that constitute the back part of our spine. The need to understand which form of back pain is one suffering form is very important to get a effective and adequate remedy. Some well known forms of it are neck pain, upper back pain, lower back pain and tailbone pain. There is Orthopaedic Specialists of Austin that can help you with this. These specialists are trained professionals that you rely on for your back related problems. You can make sure that you get the best treatment for your back pain there in Austin.

The simple and the most effective ways of treating the back pain is mostly not taken into consideration by many and as a result of which the expensive and fast relief surgeries are done right at the spot of the emergence of it or even after trying to cure it by their methods and failing. The surgeries prove to be a quick relief but in fact aren’t so, the ill effects starts to rise in a small period of time as we continue with our daily choirs. The cure lies in patience and continuous following of the on going technique. These include:

Yoga: The most acclaimed method that guarantees the total removal of the pain for ever and even make one deal with the prevention side, that proves to be very much in the affordable and effective side of the healing. The medication even can play a part in dealing with the pain not only physically but mentally, which is more important when one considers the will and the body as a whole.

Massages: The comfortable healing is possible with the massaging sessions that can prove to provide relief but should be continued, and not stopped when the pain seem to fade away. The professional massage-parlors surely deal with treatment of back pains.

Acupuncture: Chinese methodology of treatment for human body disorders can definitely help in finding the back pain cause and deal with it as required for each and every peculiar body type. The treatment is famous in healing not only back pains but several other disorders.

Home exercises: Before the pain gets into the chronic stage the back bending and joint relieving exercises can be practiced, the several positions can be learned though simple consulting of a physiotherapist just once not more than that, I believe. When the disc slips or even the small cracks are the cause for the back pain then the exercise is never to be tried, which would worsen the condition.

Heat treatment: Hot water bags with herbal medicines added in it and soaking it over the back for a period of 10-15 minutes can do wonders when the method is continued for a few months. The herbal medicines do have a quality that when its use begins the healing takes time but when it starts healing it heals forever.

Meditation: Healing plays not only a part in the physical kind of it but the mind and the soul in myth terms have to be bonded well enough, the proper and quality medication tips and guiding is a kind of weapon that can heal the pain as readily as the strong medicine has the capability to.

There can be any method that can be opted according to the suitability of the person’s body kind , the only thing that has to be kept in mind is to not let the pain control you rather you realize it and act as quick as you can to permit yourself to get rid of the pain once and for all.

 

Going Broke in the Wrong Small Business

Becoming your own boss is the dream of almost every person that feels they are underpaid or unjustly treated on their job. Not having to kiss the ass of a superior employee every day is a step toward personal freedom. Many accept their slavish fate and go on doing what they hate. But other more adventurous people go into a small business hoping that one day they will become their own boss. Unfortunately only fifty percent of them are still in business after five years, the rest fulfill the dream of becoming their own boss. But I will tell you about a small business where ninety percent of investors fail in the first year, and that is in the vending machine business.

The salesman encouraged me into buying ten candy dispensing machines costing me fifteen thousand dollars. He promised that once on location I will be earning more than two thousand dollars a month. That meant that my investment would be returned in less than a year. It sounded great and I was sure of being successful. This is how many investors lose their hard earned money. There are several best small business crm software that these investors can use in order to minimize their risk and they can analyze the market as well.

My fifteen thousand dollar investment was delivered, and I proudly examined my candy machines to see if they were in good condition. They worked perfectly and I was sure that I got a good deal. Now all I had to do was follow the salesmen’s advice and put them on location. First I tried the motels and found that all of them had gigantic candy vending machines combined with ones that dispensed coffee and cold beverages. They were owned by a large corporation that had its machines in all of the motels. My little candy vending machine had no chance of being given a spot to stand. I then tried to locate them in beauty parlors and gas stations, and within three weeks all my ten machines were on location. A month later it was collection time and I happily went out to collect the money in the machines. At the end of a hard day of collecting and replacing a few candy bars, I was rewarded with twenty two dollars and fifty cents. Tears flowed down my cheeks.

I called up the guy that sold me the machines and told him my problem. He said that what I did was correct, but I had to give the machines a chance. People will start to use them after a few months. Six months later I called again and told him how bad business was, he said he could help me recover my loss. My problem was that the locations I picked were bad. He said that he would get better ones for me at a cost of seventy five hundred dollars. He said the results were guaranteed. I had no choice but to agree. After three months of earning next to nothing I called him—his phone was disconnected and I was broke.

We all learn from experience, I learned not to buy candy vending machines. That mistake cost me over twenty thousand dollars. I also learned that the guy that sold me the machines and the people that manufactured them are better at business than I can ever be.

A Quick Introduction to Liposuction

Liposuction is a technique used to remove extra fat from the specific parts of the body. This advancement in the field of medical science was introduced in Dallas, Fort Worth and rest of parts of United States in early 1980s. This technique is effective in various body parts including tummy, waist, hips, buttock, breasts, thighs, calf, arms and chin. Now days, this Liposuction technique is widely being used in plastic and cosmetic surgeries. People find it the most effective and easiest way to give an attractive look to their personality.

Though Liposuction is used to impart a perfect shape to an obese patient, the effect can no longer be visible if a perfect diet is not maintained by patient. Hence, it could be misleading to believe that these procedures can completely change your outlook without efforts. The success of liposuction lies mostly on the hands of patients. There are few factors based on which the effectiveness of a liposuction surgery or the plastic surgery of lies. There are various tiny canellas that are being used during a surgical operation by cosmetic surgeons to suction the fat deposits under the skin. A much smoother body contouring can be achieved with the help of these small canellas.

Saturating the site of liposuction before the operation counts to the easily removal of fat layers, minimizes the blood loss and reduces pain and trauma to much extent while performing ultrasonic techniques based operation. The fat thus removed from the patients may further be reused for the grafting. Grafting can be done by harvesting, purifying and then ejecting the cells into the depressions or wrinkles under the skin. Ultrasonic techniques are being used for the regions which are much more difficult to operate manually. Above procedures are followed for a successful completion of a liposuction operations. Liposuction can be used to remove or implant fat to any of the part of body, but its result is best viewed on inner and outer thighs, waist, abdominal region, inner knees, inner arms, chin and neck.

There are various techniques that are followed for liposuction surgery. Tumescent technique, dry technique, wet technique, super wet technique, ultrasonic technique and power assisted technique are some of the most widely followed and effective liposuction techniques. Before a patient is declared fit for the liposuction surgery, he/she has to go through certain medical tests. Due to risks and certain complications involved in these surgical operations, the candidates are first checked if they are a smoker or not, have had any medical history of diseases like cardiac disorders, lung disease, high blood pressure, diabetes etc. If a person is found affected by any of these diseases then they may not be allowed to go for liposuction operations. Depending on the operated area general liposuction cost up to $12000 to $20000. The price may vary as per the volume of operation.

Body sculpting has recently become more descriptive so as to impart the patient with their desired outcomes. It is recommended that patient should be completely open to the cosmetic surgeons in order to achieve the perfect figure that is desired. Body countering needs a detailed survey of each and every aspect of the patients. If a patient is little over obese then he is instructed to loose some weight by following a set of diet for certain period of time. Dallas Fort Worth institute of body sculpturing is most famous for breast enlargement. Belly button technique is used to resize the breasts of the patients.

Prior to the surgery, the desired area to be operated is first confirmed by the surgeons. Contour marking is then done accordingly keeping in view all the possible postures of the patient. After the counter marking of the desired portion, small incision is made with the help of canellas. The canellas are slightly inserted in to the skin and the liposuction procedure works on. These canellas are moved all across the portion marked to remove extra fats beneath the skin until the most pleasing shape and size is achieved. While someone has to gain fat under their skin then fat grafting procedure is used. The extra fat is processed and ejected on to the depressions or wrinkles of the skin with the help of these canellas. The whole process involves minimal risks and hence general anesthesia is sufficient enough for the whole liposuction surgery to be accomplished.

A general recovery time after liposuction is scheduled. Initial two days should completely be given for bed rest, only sponge bath is allowed and the patient is instructed to drink plenty of fluids. Pressure garments are kept intact with the patient until the third week of operation. After 3 weeks, a light exercise is suggested with proper massage or ultrasound for smooth effect.

Bear in mind that the cost of liposuction ranges from $2,000 to $3,500 per treatment and not everybody can afford it.

Review of Small Business Management Tool, OfficeInteractive.com

If you are a small business owner who is looking for a CRM tool, you’ll want to demo Office Interactive.

In the past, I’ve configured and trained sales teams to use salesforce.com. I thought it was a fine tool. As a tech person, it was easy to configure. And, management could run the reports they needed with no problem. Now, as a small business owner, I don’t have an international sales staff nor an office in Bel-Air, yet. So, for me it doesn’t make good business sense to go the salesforce.com route. I want something that is inexpensive, but at the same time meets my demanding business need like sales tracking software. Basically, sales tracking software is designed by sales managers themselves so you are sure and confident that the features are relevant and based on real life experiences of sales professionals.

When I interviewed the Raz Choudhury, President and Co-Founder of Office Interactive, Inc, he warned me that Office Interactive could be much more than just a CRM tool, yet much less expensive than what Fortune 500 companies use. He said that it is ideal for the small business owner.

“Traditional software vendors have neglected the small business segment,” explained Raz Choudhury, President and Co-Founder of Office Interactive, Inc. ” Most products were either too expensive or were inadequate for small business. Office Interactive was built from the ground up on the belief that individuals and small businesses should have access to a free and easy-to-use platform that will grow with their needs.

He was right. At a base price of $9.99 per month per user, the small business owner has access to the following features:

Productivity Collaboration: Collaboration amp; Productivity Suite

Sales: Sales Management amp; Sales Force Automation

Customers: Customer Service amp; Customer Data Central

Marketing: Ad Campaign Tracking amp; Management

Billing amp; Expense: Invoice amp; Expense Management

HR: Resource amp; Recruitment Management

Project Management: Project Tracking amp; Management

Security

Being the control freak that I am, I wasn’t too thrilled with the thought of having all of my company’s customer related information on the net. Web apps are useful and I loved being able to access my data at anytime in any place, but what about server downtime? What about set-up support? What if someone hacks into my data while it is on Office Interactive’s servers? I was pleased to find that Office Interactive has world class data center with redundant connectivity and power backup, and 24/7 security monitoring. Heck, my small business data is safer on their systems than it is on my own!

Office Interactive has a great dashboard that I can personalize to show my email, appointments, individual and shared tasks. It also has a bulletin board and blog. And, the mail feature can be configured to support Outlook.
I can Instant Message my team members, store and track my sales efforts and even project my earnings. Office Interactive makes it easy to keep track of paid and unpaid invoices, top 5 clients and top 5 expenses.

It even has an HR component that allows me to assess and develop the skills of current employees as well as candidates.
The only thing I didn’t like was the “session time out feature”. That is, for security purposes, Office Interactive would log me out if my session was idle for a certain period of time (Don’t worry. I am fully aware of the contradiction between being a security conscious control freak and denouncing the session time out feature). Of course I could manage the time out feature by changing my settings, but recently they have added a layer of security that allows the user to lock/unlock the session so there is no need to go through the entire log in process again.

Perhaps my favorite part about Office Interactive is that unlike many sites, I can use whatever browser I choose to access my data.
You can really tell that the developers know what a small business owner’s pain points are. They’ve addressed every conceivable issue. What’s more it that you don’t have to use what you don’t need. You can choose if you want to use the Billing amp; Expense feature and/or the HR feature and/or the Project Management feature.
But, you really have to try it for yourself to understand how it might help you and your small business.

Quit the Diet – Change Your Life through CoolSculpting!

Summer is here and we all know what that means: Spending time at the beach or by the pool, showing off those bodies we worked so hard for. Or rather, trying to hide what we promised ourselves we’d lose ever since the Christmas holidays. CoolSculpting is the diet help in reducing the weight of the person. Now, the question comes – how much CoolSculpting costs? It depends on the consumption of the diet everyday.

If you haven’t done so already, you are probably thinking about going on a diet right now. Which diet should you go on? Atkins? South Beach? Weight Watchers? Maybe something that only lets you eat soups, or salads? The options are endless. But which one really works?

Here is something new: Don’t go on a diet!

Yes, you probably will lose a few pounds in the beginning but at what cost? If you cut your portions in half you might be starving your body at this point, which will get you the opposite results: gaining weight.

Why? Because your body believes it is cut off, it won’t get enough food so it will hold on to everything you put in, thus making you gain weight. Or at the least you won’t lose any.

Another problem with diets is that you usually deprive yourself of something you used to like. Maybe it’s candy, maybe it’s burgers, maybe it’s beer. Whatever it is, in most cases you will end up with horrible cravings which oftentimes end up in giving up your diet and indulging in whatever it is that you gave up in the first place.

Last but not least, did you ever think about what happens when you are done with your diet? That’s where the Yo-Yo-Effect comes into play. And why wouldn’t it? It is only natural for you to gain the weight back that you lost by not eating certain things for a while and then going back to the way you always ate.

So what should you do instead?

Change your lifestyle!

Slowly but surely start adopting healthy eating habits. Don’t do it all at once or you will end up with the same horrible cravings as mentioned earlier, which will make it harder for you to stick with it. Start for example by replacing your soda with water. Too plain? Add some fruit to your water to give it some flavor. I personally like lemon or mango in my water, which makes it a lot more refreshing and also gives me a different taste than plain old water every day.

Then start to eat more often. Yes, I said eat more often. This will get your metabolism going, which will help you burn more calories and thus lose more weight. When I first started to do this I felt like I was gaining weight. I was one of those people who skipped breakfast, had some fast food for lunch and then found something unhealthy to snack on for dinner.My body thought it was starving so it held on to every bite I put in my mouth. After two to three weeks my metabolism began to speed up and and I dropped 6 pounds in one week. Keep in mind that you shouldn’t eat six huge meals a day. Try to have four small meals plus two snacks, with breakfast being your largest meal to get your metabolism going first thing in the morning.

I usually started my day with two eggs and some oatmeal, and two to three hours later I had a protein shake or protein bar as a snack. I like chicken so I didn’t have a probelm with eating a lot of it for lunch and you can even get a fast food version – grilled, with a side of mashed potatoes. Healthy food does not have to be boring.

And finally, cut out the unhealthy food choices. This is definitely the hardest part for most people so once again, don’t do it all at once. Try to substitute candy with fruit. I used to love candy, still do, but once I started eating more healthy I didn’t even want the chocolate bar anymore. I was perfectly happy with a chocolate protein shake or a protein bar. That brings us to Increasing your protein intake while lowering how many carbs you eat. But careful: If you don’t exercise on a regular basis, too much protein as well as carbs will also result in weight gain.

I also began working out at the gym while adapting to this new healthy lifestyle. In four months I lost 25 pounds. If you stick with it you will see the results!

Once your body adjusts, you will notice the increase in energy which will ultimately help you make the right choices. Let’s face it, who wants to eat fried chicken that will make you feel all sluggish, when you could have a steak with a delicious salad on the side?

Remember, this is not a diet. It’s about changing the way you look at food and ultimately changing your lifestyle. Give it a little bit of time and I promise you will see results.

Talking to Your Preschooler About an Absent Father

Many single moms don’t have the luxury of joint custody, visitation, or even child support from our children’s fathers. We are– for better or for worse– in the parenting ring all by ourselves. While this can be beneficial in many important ways, it can be hard to talk about our children’s absent fathers.

My daughter, who is preschool-age, knew her father until she was two and a half, and still remembers him and asks about him every day. Ouch! But I’ve found several ways to talk about her father in a positive, proactive and sympathetic manner.

 If your preschooler wants to know about her absent father, aside from sensory gym at our house, these tips can help you initiate a positive conversation .

1. Tell the truth. It would be easy to tell your preschooler that her absent father is dead, or that she never had a father. But dishonesty is never a good policy between a mother and daughter. Explain how you met your daughter’s father. If you were in love with him, say so. If you got married but it didn’t work out, say so. If he was there for your preschooler when she was a newborn, say so. It’s critical to keep a clear, honest and open line of communication with your child about this important topic.

2. Don’t bash him. There should be a limit to how much you divulge when it comes to your child’s absent father’s negative behaviors. It may be true that he is on drugs, homeless, or in prison. It may be true that he was selfish and immature, and didn’t own up to his responsibilities as a parent. But, if you tell your child these things, she will have to live with the guilt of knowing that his blood still flows in her own veins. There are more positive ways to express the same issues in ways that your preschooler can understand. For example, you might say: “Your father has a lot of problems to deal with, and we both agreed that it would be better for him to stay away while he copes with them.”

3. Make sure she knows it isn’t her fault. Unless you say otherwise, your preschooler will assume, by default, that her father is absent because of her. She will think that he left her because of something that she did, or didn’t do, or something that was innately wrong with her. Say it clearly and say it often: “Your father didn’t leave because of you.”

4. Share positive memories. Even if there isn’t much good to say about your preschooler’s absent father, say whatever good things you can. Swallow your pride (and you hatred of your ex) and remember the good things. Tell your preschooler about how happy he was when she was born. Tell her about how smart and funny he was, even if you have to exaggerate. Relive any happy memories that you had with him, or that your child had with him. She needs to know that her father cared about her and had good traits to pass on.

5. Make a scrapbook. This was, for me, the hardest but most important step in talking to my preschooler about her absent father. It was easier to hide any pictures that included him, and to not bring up any memories that we had together, but my daughter kept pressing to look at pictures of him and to talk about him. My solution to this was to create a “Father Book,” which explains, in preschooler-friendly terms, who he was, why he left, and what good traits he had that I can see in her. It includes about 20 pictures of her father, either alone or with her. She adores this scrapbook; I see her thumbing through it in private and telling herself, “My father went away, but this picture of him won’t go away.” It hurts, but it’s what she needs.

6. Reassure her of your love. My daughter’s Father Book ends with a picture of me and her with our pet rabbit. It was taken just a few days after my separation from her father. The text in this part of the scrapbook says, “I am sorry that you don’t have a father in your life, but you are– and always will be– the most important thing in the world to me. Every day, I do my best to make sure that we have a good life together, and I’m excited about watching you grow up. I will be here for you for the rest of my life. I will never, ever, ever leave you, no matter what.”

This message alone seems to be the most important thing that I can communicate to my daughter about her father. She asks me to read this page to her again and again, like a mantra of my unconditional love. And, of course, I oblige, even if I have trouble reading it without tears. If you communicate nothing else to your preschooler regarding her absent father, communicate this: you are not like him. You are not going to leave her. For better or for worse, you will be there for your child for the rest of your life.

Student Loan Debt and Its Negative Effect on Americans

Remember that movie with the guys in Vegas? Well this story is worse. I remember when I first began looking at prospective colleges when I was just a junior in high school. The main thing I dreaded over was how my family and I would afford to pay for college outside of scholarships and grant money. The answer was student loans. I was so excited when I chose the university I would attend and that my financial aid application was accepted. In my mind, like countless others, I rationalized my thinking on my future student loan debt by telling myself everyone does it and I’ll only borrow what I need. The promise of a great education, secure financial future, and a once in a lifetime opportunity to go away to college with the help of student loans can be a recipe for financial disaster. Unsuspecting students and society as a whole face consequences when we are not careful and diligent when it comes to investing in our future.

The total outstanding student loan debt now exceeds over $1 trillion and Americans as a whole now owe more in student loans than credit card debt and if you wish to know more than you can look up to https://zebraloans.co.nz/payday-loans/ for more information. At the time I signed my loan documents to help pay for school, I remember thinking that I was making an investment in my future and that it was for the greater good long term. I was convinced that this debt would be ‘good’ debt for me b/c once I started paying for them I’d be building my credit and I could always consolidate all the loans into one low monthly payment. One time in college when it was time to sign the documents to receive another student loan, the lady in the financial aid office told me I could get as much as I needed. To this day I can still recall an overwhelming desire to take out a lot more than I needed to have some fun with extra money even though it would all have to be paid back. After coming off of my temporary high, I began to think that this ‘free money’ should not be this easy to get for a college student. It was as if I were being given the key to a bank vault. I’ve personally known people who knowingly took out a lot more student loans than they needed simply because they could not because they needed it. Students today take out student loans for a lot more reasons other than paying for school because it’s readily available. Rent, clothes, spending money, etc are just some of those reasons.

Now that I look back on everything, Americans got drunk on student loans. The availability, deregulated interest rates, and overall need has convinced almost everyone who really wants to go to college that student loans are the best way to go to finance higher education. Society has brainwashed students into thinking that higher education is the best way to secure their future. With the average student backed into a financial wall, they turn to student loans to bridge the gap.

According to The Atlantic http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/08/chart-of-the-day-student-loans-have-grown-511-since-1999/243821/, student loan debt has risen 511 % since 1999. There are 2 main reasons that have caused student loan debt to skyrocket: 1. the continual rising cost of college tuition and 2. over inflation of other college expenses. It’s no secret that the cost to attend college has increased significantly over the last 2 decades while Americans’ income has failed to keep pace. Each year it seems the public and private schools raise their tuition and fees. College expenses (books, housing, meal plans, admin. fees etc) are also over inflated. This over inflation is due to the availability of student loans. As long as they are available, these expenses will continue to rise b/c they know students will get the money to pay for them. The only way I see the problem can be fixed is for colleges and universities to cap their costs of tuition and fees as well as for the government and/or financial lending institutions to either cut the APR on student loans in half or charge no interest at all for a specific time period of the loan. There have been rumblings that student loan forgiveness should be put into law but that will only make things worse. Our society would end up being well educated but even more financially illiterate and irresponsible.

Americans in this country got drunk on student loans. Using them to pay for any and all other expenses other than education made it seem like the right thing to do at the time. Now that the hangover has set in (down economy, lack of jobs, deferment, creditor calls, late fees, etc.) it is a harsh reality for many Americans and it’s starting to take its toll. While student loans can be considered the new 21st Century gold rush, Americans got lazy and felt like they didn’t need to work or find alternative methods to help pay for their education b/c they could always obtain a student loan. Now that the ‘high’ is over, it’s time that Americans face the facts about the importance of having financial literacy, being more entrepreneurial minded, and work on saving more as a culture and society.

Gift or a Loan: Why Dealing with Friends and Money is so difficult

Recently, a friend asked me to borrow some money, which got me thinking about friends, family and money. This is a constant issue that has so much of a gray area, it’s not fair for the person lending the money. Is a friend who constantly asks for money to pay for things you know probably aren’t necessities really a friend?

So, how to deal with this problem? Most people have trouble asking for their own money back for fear of “ruining the relationship.” Why? It was your money in the first place, and besides, YOU are the one doing a favor. Why should you be so afraid to get what was rightfully yours back into your wallet?

You have two choices of action to take when a friend asks you to borrow some money. 1) You can provide them with the money, or 2) You can deny them the favor. If you choose Option 2, you shouldn’t really feel guilty, as your money is hard earned, and for what reason should you lend it away? Even so, many people cherish the bond that they have with their friends so they will try to make every effort to help friends in a pinch. If you come across the situation in which you feel the need to lend out the money, one thing is certain. Ask for it back. Ask for it back in the firmest, politest way possible. No one is that dumb; he or she has either forgotten about it (in which case you did yourself a favor in reminding) or is trying to hide it for fear of having to pay you back.

If that person borrowing money has become a recurrent situation to the point of habitual asking, then it’s time to re-evaluate your friendship. Is this person really worth calling a friend, or are they in it just to get some free perks? It doesn’t really sound as if they care about your financial situation, let alone their own. Simply put, it’s extremely bad manners to borrow money and not repay.

Lending money is also a great way to alienate your family members and friends. Every time money comes into the situation, a strange aura permeates the relationship from then on. Remember, money and family members is a recipe for disaster. So if you feel that money is something that will potentially damage your relationship with someone, don’t hesitate to politely refuse and move on. If that person has negative feelings and lashes back or feels sour, know that you made the right decision in not letting him or her borrow the money from quick online loans instead of asking anyone else. You can see it as a test. Someone who doesn’t understand where you’re coming from shouldn’t be your friend. People understand that money is a limited resource, and that if you don’t want to lend it then you don’t have to. That is someone who you can truly consider a friend.

But if you must lend money, always remember to ask for it back. You not only are giving away your own hard earned money, you are opening up the door for even more requests that can quickly make you feel extremely sour.

One recent example really made an impression on me. A couple of friends and I were out eating, and someone forgot to bring his wallet. I ended up paying for his dinner, but he remembered the debt. The next time we ate out, he made it clear that he would be paying for my dinner in exchange. This is something that made me respect him just that much more. He understood that in order to keep our friendship alive, balance is imperative to the “money borrowing” aspect of our relationship. If I were to pay for his dinner and he decided to do something else in return (that wasn’t explicitly buying me dinner), then over time the magnitude of the exchanges would become unclear and in the end, someone would feel sour. With this defined, concrete exchange, we both realize that everything is accounted for and the money I spent on his dinner will eventually come back to me.

For bigger sums of money like starting up a business, some people decide on writing down contractual agreements. I think that this is THE very best course of action, as a contractual agreement is something that cannot be shoved into the gray area. With something cleared in writing, there will be no misunderstandings and friendship will very likely remain intact.

Remember that lending out money is different than giving it out as a gift. If I really intended my money to be considered as a gift, you wouldn’t have to really ask, would you?

AFK Arena Awaits Adventurers!

AFK Arena is an exciting game launched and developed by Lilith Games. The game characters level up really passively, which is why it is normal that you get stuck at a certain level for a few days. There are cards with different rarity and combinations that you can use in the game in order to quickly level up in the game. If you need help with card combination along with tier list you can look online on websites like https://afk.guide/afk-arena-tier-list.

However, there are certain ways with which can follow to make the gameplay much easier. This article is your guide to the game AFK Arena that will provide you with an insight into the game and the tips and tricks that you can follow.

Lets up begin with several in-game situations that you can face as you play the game along with recommendations for handling those situations.

  • Approaching Difficult Fights

The way you place your character in your game is how you influence the battle course. You just can not win a battle by placing heavy characters in the frontlines backed up by the lower level cards. This is not a sure-fire strategy which is why you should try to experiment with your cards as much as possible in order to find the best possible combination that is out there.

As a player, you might need some of your cards to survive and attack a bit longer than other cards which is why it is really important that you have a clear strategy while placing your cards.

Paying attention to the enemy’s card formation is also important while devising a strategy for the battle. As the battles are automatic so might have to try many times in order to get the desired result. It is really important for you to practice with your available cards in order to get familiar with them as well as master their placement in the battle.

As there is no negative aspect of losing battles you can easily try any combinations of the cards until you are fully satisfied with your current combination. There are several factors that come into play while the AI decides the course of the battle such as dodge chances and critical hits. This is another reason to try your card combinations before you set out for PvP battles.

The auto function is quite helpful at the earlier stage of the game. It allows you to ignore any unnecessary steps at the initial stage of your game. When you move to a higher level you can disable this feature in order to cast the special moves of your characters more effectively in your battles.

These steps will also help you in Arcane Labyrinth and Twin Peaks, as the heroes don’t heal and restore their stats automatically. This makes it harder for new players to win constantly in the long run.

  • Using Resources Wisely

As you get to level 80 you will realize that Hero’s Essence is the most valuable resource of the game. As you move forward you need 1200 hero essence to level up your cards. You can easily buy this resource from the hero store and put it to use. For a max level card, you will require 118,100 units of hero essence.

Moreover, you should not get tempted by the hero equipment that is there in the store. You should be using your diamonds to summon more heroes and ascending those heroes at the temple of Ascension also gives them an additional boost.

If you really feel like upgrading your hero equipment you should find the wandering trader in Arcane labyrinth to get a 40% discount on the desired equipment.

The same is applied to the hero and labyrinth coins. You should save them up for summoning elite heroes and hero essence. You should consider using fast rewards and consumables as quickly as possible too.

  • Upgrading Your Main Heroes

Upgrading your main heroes should be your first task in the game. This is why you should be upgrading your heroes along with their spells and boosts up to a level at which you can easily move on in the game.

There are heroes that are capable of fighting on their own as long they are at a higher level than the opponent. This is why you should consider upgrading these heroes much faster than others.

The behavior of these characters is how you decide the order as you upgrade them. You should consider upgrading the cards that have more damage so that they can stay in the back doing more damage to the opposition.

Ideally, you should have two heroes that have a very high level one in front and one in back so that they can sustain and do damage to the opposition as well.

After a certain level, you might want to get all your hero cards to a certain level so make sure that you are upgrading all your cards while focusing more on rare and elite cards.

  • Ascending Your Heroes

As there are different tiers of the cards each with different stats and power-ups. You should try to gather as many cards as possible in order to level up. As you have the same cards of the same type you can easily upgrade the level of your hero. You can just sacrifice the same cards in order to level up your hero card even more that to quickly.

Faction scrolls are also really helpful when you are leveling up your heroes. You can find these faction scrolls as you participate in the events. You can use them to summon heroes of a certain faction. You even get faction boosts that you can check at the Nobel Tavern.

  • Gearing Up

You get loot as you complete any of the stages, or you can buy it from the store or the wandering trader. There are various tiers of loots depending upon the level you cleared. The higher the level the better the loot. The tier of the equipment also determines how many times you can upgrade it.

You just have to melt down the lower level equipment in order to amass points so that you can use them to upgrade your hero and its equipment. This process required gold coins so make sure that you have enough gold to move forward in the game as you melt pieces of equipment. There are equipment that are highly compatible with a certain hero faction, so you should also consider this factor while upgrading the equipment.

There are other steps as well that you should consider as you play the game such as:

  • Join a guild as soon as possible.

  • Add the maximum number of in-game friends that you can.

  • You should collect AFK rewards at regular intervals of time.

  • If you get stuck on any level, keep trying to clear that with a different card combination.

  • Enhance your hero gears as soon as possible.

  • Never use ascended heroes as fodder for upgrading other heroes as they are quite rare.

  • Analyze the Arcane labyrinth properly.

  • You should complete all your daily and weekly quests.

  • Bounty quests are also important for getting good rewards.

You are now ready as an adventurer to start your gaming experience with AFK arena.