Desteni I Process: Life Skills & Self-Mastery Online Courses Three Alternatives to Big-Bank Borrowing If you haven't had luck landing a business loan or credit line from the big banks you've approached, don't expect your odds to improve any time soon. The Basel III guidelines, intended to prevent further financial crisis, will require lenders such as Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), and Wells Fargo (WFC) to substantially increase the capital they hold against risk-bearing assets—up to five times what they are required to maintain today. In anticipation of the changes, which will start to go into effect in 2013, big banks are making changes to lending practices now. They're increasingly "terming out" small business lines of credit as they reach maturity, according to several lenders and intermediaries with whom I've spoken recently. 1. To locate an SBA-certified nonbank lender in your area, visit the SBA's website or contact your SBA district office and ask for a list of active lenders. 2. 3.
Equal Life Evolution Personal Finance Travel Budget World Finances Save Money Some of the most common questions emailed to me are about paying for or funding long bicycle tours and backpacking trips: How did you save enough money to travel and bicycle tour for several years? What is your daily, weekly or monthly travel budget while living on the road? How do you make money while living internationally and traveling abroad? While I find this type of question a little personal, I can understand why people are asking. The Short Answer: Before my ex-wife and I quit our jobs and left in March 2002, we both worked and lived well below our means. We also avoided debt. In five years we saved enough money for what we thought would be a seven year trip. My secret: The trick to surviving on the road financially has two parts. More information Finding gear and equipment sponsors This page explains what I have learned about attracting sponsors, dispels some myths about sponsorship and provides advice for those seeking gear sponsors. Coming Soon: Saving up before the trip
Destonian Wiki Le faircoin, une monnaie en ligne équitable au service des coopératives Le Monde.fr | • Mis à jour le | Par Yves Eudes Le rêve d’une « coopérative mondiale », qui hante les militants libertaires depuis des décennies, a refait surface début 2014 en Catalogne, au sein de la Cooperativa catalana integral (CCI), un réseau regroupant des coopératives de production, des squats et des associations écologistes et altermondialistes. L’objectif, ambitieux, est de « créer un outil révolutionnaire pour construire une autre économie mondiale » en s’inspirant des principes « des communautés peer-to-peer, du coopérativisme ouvert et l’éthique des hackers ». Pour parvenir à un tel résultat fonctionnant sur le plan mondial, le fondateur du mouvement, Enric Duran, 38 ans, incite les associations alternatives d’autres régions d’Europe à se regrouper sur le modèle de la CCI, puis à se fédérer au sein d’un réseau d’échange et d’entraide baptisé Fair Coop. Il emprunte 492 000 euros et refuse de rembourser La quête d’une monnaie éthique Récupérer une monnaie effondrée
The LETSystem Design Manual 1.1 Money and Community "Give someone a fish and they'll eat for a day, teach them how to fish and they'll eat forever." The problem with money Many of us are active in creating and maintaining a sense of community amongst our friends and neighbours. Every modern community depends on the flow of national currency through its internal economy. When local industry loses an export market, when fewer visitors arrive or when governments cut spending, the money that leaves is not replaced. As the amount of money circulating in the community falls, so does the level of trading. In the contest for a share of this limited supply, people work in ways that damage their own health, the environment and the well-being of the community. People are prepared to do almost anything for money because they need it to take part in the game. There are three reasons for this: there is only so much in circulation; it can go virtually anywhere, and so it does; you can't issue it yourself. Personal Money
LETSystems - the Home Page In One Month, Everyone In Iceland Will Own Cryptocurrency The cryptocurrency craze spun into a new realm of ridiculous with Kanyecoin, Dogecoin, Ron Paul Coin and the bounty of other clone-coins that sprung up to ride the Bitcoin wave. But the latest altcoin to enter the market, Auroracoin, wants to take the futurist trend back to its cryptoanarchist roots. The altcoin was designed specifically for Iceland, and the creator plans to give every citizen of the Nordic country a digital handful of Auroracoins to kickstart their use. Auroracoin is the brainchild of cryptocurrency enthusiast Baldur Friggjar Odinsson, and he'll be the one distributing pre-mined coins to the entire population of Iceland at midnight on March 25 in a countrywide "airdrop." Each Icelandic citizen—all 330,000 of them—will receive 31.8 AUC through a digital transaction. Citizens all have a national ID number available through a public database, which will be used to verify their identity. Why would someone want to give away over 10 million digital coins? So can it work?
Bitcoin 2.0: Can Ripple Make Digital Currency Mainstream? It has been a nail-biting year for people who hold Bitcoins, an open-source digital currency that has quickly gained traction in the tech community. Last June, Bitcoins were worth $5. By April 2013, they were up to $266. Then they dropped to $70 in April. But here’s the thing about open-source currencies: they’re open to improvement. Bitcoiners could have reason to be suspicious of Ripple right off the bat. OpenCoin co-founder Chris Larsen believes that having a central company behind the currency is to its users’ benefit. The Mechanics of Ripple The Ripple platform serves two purposes: it’s a distributed open-source payment network, and it’s the home of the newly minted XRP currency. Participants can exchange dollars, yen, Euros, and even completely made-up currencies, all of which are entered into the system via "gateways." If one gateway is taken out by a hacker, users can move on to the next. While Bitcoin relies on anonymous exchange, Ripple supports an IOU system. Distribution
Communities print their own currency to keep cash flowing By Marisol Bello, USA TODAY A small but growing number of cash-strapped communities are printing their own money. Borrowing from a Depression-era idea, they are aiming to help consumers make ends meet and support struggling local businesses. The systems generally work like this: Businesses and individuals form a network to print currency. Workers with dwindling wages are paying for groceries, yoga classes and fuel with Detroit Cheers, Ithaca Hours in New York, Plenty in North Carolina or BerkShares in Massachusetts. Ed Collom, a University of Southern Maine sociologist who has studied local currencies, says they encourage people to buy locally. "We wanted to make new options available," says Jackie Smith of South Bend, Ind., who is working to launch a local currency. About a dozen communities have local currencies, says Susan Witt, founder of BerkShares in the Berkshires region of western Massachusetts. "We print the real thing," she says. The IRS gets its share.
Best Credit Cards for 2014 Updated: September 2, 2014 There are many, many credit cards out there, all vying for your business. The problem is it can be a little overwhelming – not to mention time consuming – to determine which ones are the best. Luckily we've done the research for you, comparing the offers, rewards, bonuses and interest rates of popular credit cards. After much in-depth, independent, investigation we've come up with our Best Credit Cards of 2014 list shown below. Want to know what we thought of other cards? Best Low APR Card:Citi Simplicity® Card | APPLY NOWAnyone interested in a credit card that lets them pay 0% interest for 18 months should take a serious look at the Citi Simplicity Card. 18 months is the longest interest-free period for both purchases and balance transfers that we've seen in a card, making Citi Simplicity a great choice for anyone who wants to make a big purchase and carry a balance for a while or anyone looking to transfer a balance from another card. Credit Cards