The opportunities for building a top home-based business are as endless as your own imagination. While most people tend to immediately think about finding ways to sell things over the internet in order to make money at home, the reality is that there are literally thousands of ways to build a home business to suit you.Do What You LoveSome of the top home-based businesses are those that are set up around the business owner’s passions. Doing something you really enjoy can help keep you motivated and when you’re really having fun it never feels like work.You might love creating craft items, which could lead to designing your own crafty pieces and selling them for profit. You might really love animals, so offering pet-sitting or dog walking services could be ideal for you. You might have a flair for designing great websites, and there’s plenty of demand for freelance web designers on the internet.The point is to find something that you can see yourself enjoying every day and then finding a way to turn that into income.Buying a FranchiseSome people simply don’t want to go through the stress of setting up and building a new business from scratch. If this sounds like you, there are plenty of excellent home-based business models already available for sale.These might include franchise opportunities in such a wide variety of industries that you’re sure to find one to suit your needs. Franchises offer you a ready-made business model to follow and include plenty of support to help you succeed.Fulfil a NeedMost top home-based business success stories come from those who saw a need for a particular product or service and then worked out a way to fulfil that need. For example, computer repair services are in high demand simply because the average person doesn’t know how to fix many of the problems they can have. Book-keeping services are also increasing in demand due to the increase in self-employed people. These people want to run their businesses and work on increasing sales, so hiring someone to do the bookwork for them is common sense.If you can see a way that your own skills or knowledge could be put to good use, you could provide a valuable consulting service for someone.Finding a top home-based business opportunity is much easier than most people think, but it’s important you find one that really suits you.

Are you like one of the many Americans who, like me over 18 months ago, are looking towards the internet and pondering the idea of starting your own Home Based Business? I know the thoughts that are flowing through your mind, can this be for real? Is it actually possible to buy a franchise of a business, learn to operate it and have it really work and generate money for my family and I, all while I am comfortably lounging around in my own home?The simple straight-forward answer to your question is Yes. Absolutely and there is really no better time to start than now. I know you’ve heard that one before, but in all seriousness, there is no better time than now to take ACTION on anything in your life. It could be fitness or family oriented, as long as your taking action on something in life your gaining experience and knowledge. That is the key and much like all home based businesses, it takes action to make them work, and massive action to make them really work.To many people join business that they feel will earn them money right from their couch at home while they watch their favorite TV show. For some reason people think it’s the “easy” way to make money, but in all straight honesty, for most people its not easy at all. Usually big sacrifices are made, the learning curve is sharp, and putting yourself out “there” on the internet can be very intimidating for most. But…those who commit and push forward building on each failure as a learning block to the top of the stairway of success, succeed.If you are looking at a home based business that really works and generates an income that can replace your current income, do not look for the “quickest” or the “best” business out their. Don’t follow all the hype, and don’t buy into the “now is the best time,” because like I said above, it’s always the best time! If not this month maybe the next, or not this year, but maybe next year. It will always be the best time to start a home based business.I have two suggestions I recommend when investing into a home based business. I take that back…I’ll give you three.#1. If you are going to invest in your FIRST home based business, don’t invest over $1000.00 dollars UNLESS you are EXTREMELY driven, motivated and PASSIONATE about that particular business. I would recommend aiming at the $500.00 dollar area for your initial go. There is A HUGE amount to learn in the industry and using your initial start up capital for marketing education is more important than a business that you don’t even know how to sell.#2. Find someone who is selling the business (yes selling, you can also refer to them as a rep but they are getting the commission) who you TRUST and feel is a good LEADER. Also, before you invest, get the person on the phone, have a few conversations with them, find out what kind of bonuses they may include for you if you decide to join their home business. There are always bonuses in the Home based business industry.#3. Take some time, days or weeks, and really research and learn as much as you can about the company or companies you are interested in. Do your do-diligence and gain as much information as possible so you feel comfortable and begin to build a passion for the company. Because being passionate is a main driver that will make your new business really work and generate the income you desire.Now that you’ve had more information and you understand you company, started a relationship with your “Leader,” not up-line, and feel comfortable that this person will be able to show you the right tools for you to learn, NOW take ACTION and build your new home business right from your couch. Go ahead, make the investment and build the home based business that really works; make your dreams come true.

Martin, our money man and main investing partner, emailed us last night and said simply “I’ve pretty much lost it all”. We’d been shopping for a commercial property to buy to diversify our investments. Martin was once again partner with us on the deal we found, assuming he was comfortable with the numbers.

At least he was planning to before the markets crashed and Martin lost his six figure down payment! Now, sitting on pennies (o.k., not quite, but definitely not enough to make a down payment on a million dollar industrial property), Martin is probably really wondering what so many other people do, “Is real estate a much better investment than stocks?”

My answer is always a resounding “It depends” or “Diversification is best”… but if you change the question and ask me where my money is invested, 90% of my money and my net worth resides in real estate (even excluding my current home).

And yes, I am young – I’m in my early thirties! I am also a millionaire and it’s all thanks to real estate. It’s not to say that stocks won’t make you rich, Warren Buffet is one extreme example of the wealth that can be created through stocks, but I like real estate because:

You Can Kick It! Real estate is tangible. You can drive by a property and tell your friends or family that it is your property. You can also check up on how it’s doing. That is not as easy if you just own shares in a company. There’s nothing to show your friends and family, and most company’s won’t let you sit in on their meetings to see how they are doing!
Leverage: If you have $16,000 to invest (which is what I started with 7 years ago), you can buy $16,000 worth of stocks and bonds. But, if you buy real estate, you can buy a property worth $160,000 (which is exactly what I did). While some stock investors are able to buy on margin (when you only put down a portion of what the stock is worth), this is a sophisticated and high risk move that only experienced stock investors typically make. If your stocks go up in value by 5%, you’ve made $800. But if your property goes up by 5% you’ve made $8,000! This is on the same $16,000 investment. This doesn’t even take into account the other ways you can make money from real estate….which leads me to my third reason I love real estate.
There are three ways to make money from real estate: Appreciation, which we discussed above, rental income, and other people’s money (your renters) paying the mortgage down. Even if your property is decreasing in value, you are still getting paid rent and that rent is paying down the mortgage, and the surplus after expenses are paid is hitting your pocket!
Control: As a shareholder of a company, you have no control over your investment. And, you never really know what’s happening behind closed doors. I don’t need to start naming the corporate disasters of the last decade like Nortel, Enron and WorldCom for you to really understand what I am saying! But with real estate you do have control! If electrical bills are too high you can change the light bulbs to more efficient ones, seal the windows, and take other measures to reduce the costs. If you are losing money, you will know it very quickly! And you will be able to take measures to improve this situation. With shares, what can you do if your shares in Nike drop 15%? You can sell more or you can buy more… that’s it.
Creative ways to make money. A simple stock investor has two ways to make money from stocks… appreciation in their value and dividends. I owned stock with dividends once. The $30 cheque once per year was incredibly rewarding. Because you have control over your property, and there are three different ways to make money from the property, there are plenty of creative techniques to try to make more money from your asset. Some people rent out the garage separate from the house. In the right location, you could sell advertising space or just get price reductions on work done in exchange for some advertising (ever asked a painter what kind of discount you can get on their work if you put up one of their signs on your lawn??), you can add vending machines or laundry facilities, you can change the density of the property (add more units… more units means more rent), or you can change the usage of the property to sell it to someone who can make better use of it (if you are in a commercial area, an office developer might want to pay big bucks for a properly zoned property to develop on). There are dozens of ways to turn a simple house into a money making machine with creativity. The same can’t be said for stocks.
Access to the Equity without selling the asset. In the example of the $16,000 I used to buy my first investment property, I was holding most of that money in mutual funds and GIC’s. When I cashed out, I had to pay tax on the gains! So, while I actually had just under $20,000, after the government took their share, I only had $16,000. With real estate, when you need a chunk of cash, you can refinance a property or take out a secured line of credit against the equity you’ve built up in the property. This means that you get to continue making money from the rental income on that property AND someone else continues to pay down you mortgage AND if property values are appreciating, you will continue to have an appreciating asset AND you get the money you need – without taxes to pay too!
And speaking of taxes… real estate has a lot of tax advantages. Taxes vary by province and state so I won’t get into all of the different advantages… but suffice to say that there are plenty of opportunities to write off expenses against your income, write off the interest on your mortgages, and reduce capital gains taxes.
With so many reasons to love real estate, I haven’t been able to go back to the markets. It’s not to say you should do that too! Real estate isn’t a very liquid investment, and once you own it you still have work to do (unlike stocks). It’s a personal choice, but I know Martin, our money man, is wishing he’d never put his money in the hands of his trusted stock broker. Even in our absolute worst real estate investment we broke even…and in less then 2 months he lost 40% of his money…and worse for him is he lost a significant portion of the down payment he was going to use to buy the commercial property. Maybe some of the stocks will come back, but he’s afraid that a lot of his money is lost forever.

How soon would you want to know if your investment advisor wasn’t telling you about the three major investment types? If you’ve only heard of two – Variable and Fixed, then you may have a problem.

Unfortunately, many investment advisors routinely fail to present all three types: Variable, Fixed, and Indexed as valid investment choices to their clients. This is normally because they are unable to offer all three options or they have a personal dislike for one or more of these investment types.

So what is the difference in these investment types and what do the terms mean? The simplest answer is that these terms define how interest is earned on your investment. More specifically, it tells you how your money is invested and if your money is protected from market fluctuations. Let’s take a look at these various investment options.

Variable

A Variable investment is one where your money is typically invested in stocks or mutual funds. The performance of these stocks or funds varies and is not guaranteed – hence the term “variable investment.” Variable investments have many key benefits. They allow you to earn interest by investing in a single company (individual stock), multiple companies, or a specific segment of the market (mutual funds). You can even invest in an entire Index like the Dow Jones or S&P 500. Also, variable investments allow for the greatest return and historically have outpaced all other investment options.

Sounds pretty good, right? It is, as long as you have the tolerance to lose money as well. The volatility of variable investments is a major concern for many investors. The “upside” or growth potential is nearly unlimited, unfortunately so is the “downside” or risk of losing money.

One other adverse factor that Variable investments face is the cost. Most have either fees or loads associated with the underlying investments. These fees or loads can reduce the performance by as much as 3.5%, although 1-2% is more common. These fees or loads are applied even in down years so it is definitely something to consider.

Fixed

A Fixed investment offers a pre-determined or fixed interest rate for a specified period. This is most commonly seen with bonds, CD’s, annuities and universal life insurance products.

Fixed investments have three major advantages over the other options. First, they provide a guaranteed or known interest rate that is disclosed prior to making your investment. Second, fixed investments are generally designed to protect your initial or principal investment.

A Fixed investment also has two major pitfalls. First, because they provide a known or guaranteed interest rate, they generally provide a lower rate than what may be available when you’re willing to risk your principal. Second, they normally have restrictions or penalties associated with any withdrawals made during the fixed interest rates term period. This is especially true with CD’s and annuities.

Overall, Fixed investments can be a great option for those not willing to risk some or all of their money, older clients using the investment interest to provide or supplement their income, and clients looking to provide a hedge against other, more aggressive investments.

Indexed

Unlike Fixed and Variable investments, Indexed investments are somewhat unique to the insurance and annuity marketplaces. An Indexed investment shares traits of both Fixed and Variable investments, but with one major difference – how interest is earned.

With an Indexed investment the underlying funds are not directly invested in the stock market or an Index, nor are they directly invested in a bond, CD, or other fixed investment. They are however, secured by bonds or other conservative investments which provide a minimum guaranteed interest rate similar to a fixed investment.

Generally, this minimum or fixed rate is lower than what is available in a purely fixed product. This is because Indexed products offer a higher maximum interest rate over Fixed investment products. The Indexed products determine the maximum interest earned using a formula based on three factors, all part of an option purchased by the insurance or investment company. They are the participation rate, the cap rate, and the reset period.

The maximum interest earned provides “upside” potential while at the same time eliminating “downside” risk. In essence, it is like having the growth potential of a Variable investment with the “downside” protection of a Fixed investment. There is however a trade-off.

An option, sometimes referred to as a call or put option, provides investment returns (interest earned) based on the growth of a specific market Index like the S&P 500 or Dow Jones. The option allows for lower initial costs, a pre-determined strategy for establishing current and future interest crediting, and ensures that money can’t be lost due to market fluctuations. The option also caps (limits) upside potential or growth.

Many opponents of Indexed investments point to this limiting of growth, especially in years were the Index or stock market exceeds the Index (option) cap or participation rates, as the Achilles heel of these products. There is also some controversy over the way the Index rate is determined in future years.

While Indexed products do have a minimum cap and participation rate that is known for the entire term period, the current or maximum cap and participation rates normally reset on an annual basis. This makes it difficult to determine what will happen in subsequent years. Some advisors avoid these products claiming that the difference between the current and minimum rates creates client confusion.

No matter which type of investment you choose, it is important to get the facts and options available for each. Each of the investment choices outlines provides different advantages that need to be weighed against their disadvantages, however they all have different uses and can all be viable choices when planning your financial future. As always, it is important to consult your “Financial Professional” to find out which of these investment choices is right for you.