Posted by Richard on March 14, 2019
To start a small business, most entrepreneurs tap into their funds first, even when they also plan to procure debt financing in the form of a small business loan, equity financing from angel investors, or a venture capitalist. Otherwise, virtually every lender expects the person seeking a business loan or equity investment to make a […]
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Data breaches, hacking, and skimming — all of it poses a threat to consumers and business during 2019. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), data breaches increased sharply in 2018 with 1,027 breaches reported and 57,667,911 records compromised. Today’s hackers are very deft at outsmarting security measures, said Michael Bruemmer, Experian Vice President […]
Read More →Posted by Richard on February 12, 2019
Eleven years after the real estate crash that triggered a recession, there’s good news: the market appears to have normalized in recent years. Sales prices have rebounded but are not extreme, and loans are more readily available than in those first few panic-stricken years. Meanwhile, the Millennial generation (ages 22 to 36), are aging into […]
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According to ConsumerCredit.com, people thinking about consolidating debts often have one question: Is debt consolidation wise or not? The answer is maybe. As one might expect, the wisdom of debt consolidation depends on several factors: – The interest rate on the new loan. – The consumer’s goal in taking out the new loan. – The […]
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Ransomware has mostly faded from the headlines since WannaCry and NotPetya wreaked havoc across the globe in 2017. The attacks sparked so much alarm that more people than ever are backing up their files, which effectively deadens a ransomware attack. Even so, too many of us have short memories and, as WannaCry’s sobbing fades into […]
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In recent years, ransomware has become one of the most treacherous security challenges on the web. A form of malicious software (malware), ransomware is used by cybercriminals to encrypt documents on a PC, then demand a person like you or a company of any dimension to pay a few hundred or hundreds of thousands of […]
Read More →Posted by Richard on January 15, 2019
Let’s talk emergency funds. Most money management experts say one of the first things you have to do is build an emergency fund. Usually the number they come up with is astronomical. You might think if you really tried to save that much, everything else in your budget would be an emergency. But, of course, […]
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One of the trickiest distinctions for homeowners and would-be buyers alike is the difference between a property’s assessed value and its appraised value. It likely doesn’t help that the two words are so similar, but don’t be fooled — they are two very different values. One (assessment) is the amount that’s used by a municipality […]
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The world’s leading research and advisory company, Gartner, Inc., declared in 2011 that by 2020 customers will manage 85 percent of their buying without interacting with a human. That leaves us one year. Is it happening? According to the sales experts at Accent Technologies, it hasn’t happened quite yet, but it’s on the way, especially […]
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A scary-sounding headline in the Washington Post declared: Your password has probably been stolen. Here’s what to do about it. As much as we become numb to the latest data breaches, the reality is that it has quite likely affected every one of us in some way. One effective way to combat that threat is […]
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