Mutual Funds Information

Should Health Insurance really cover massage therapy in Australia?

Health Care Rebates and Health Insurance in the Massage Industry in Australia

There has been a lot of fuss made about Health Care Rebates in Australia for massage therapists over the last 5 to 8 years. Some people and some schools seem to think this is one of the most important aspects of a persons massage training criteria. We at Brandon Raynors School of Natural Therapies often get asked the question “Can I give Health Care Rebates to clients after completing your massage course?”

I would like to discuss why I have an opposing point of view to many in the industry as to the importance and relevance of these rebates.

Insurance for most things is generally to cover an unexpected event that is very costly. For example a car accident, a ship sinking, your house catching on fire. These are generally events with a low likelihood of occurring but with very costly effects when they do occur. Having insurance generally spreads the risk that these events will bankrupt a person or company out to many individuals. In other words customers of an insurance company all pay a certain amount of money to create a pool of money ( Minus the insurance companies fees) in order to pay for some unexpected costly event.

This was also the original idea behind health insurance. Pay the insurance company some money so that if you have a heart attack then you can get the best treatment without a huge sum coming out of your account all at once.

This idea does not fit with the massage industry. Massage is Preventative medicine, in its best form, and only sometimes used to treat specific injuries. What’s more, even when used in its non preventative form, massage is not a high cost treatment like many medical procedures. Even getting 50 massage treatments may only cost $3000 or less, which is the amount many people will spend on a car if it blows a head gasket or has some other problem.

Let me discuss this further. Preventative medicine is things that you do to keep you healthy. For example, eating healthy foods, exercise, relaxation, meditation, yoga, and massage. Stress is a part of everyone’s life. It only really becomes a major problem when it builds up too much. Preventative medicine techniques such as massage stop that build up happening. This is a predictable event, just as getting hungry is a predictable event. This should not be covered by insurance, as I mentioned before, as insurance covering predictable regular events is not its intended purpose. In fact, when insurance covers predictable regular events like getting a massage to keep stress levels down and prevent muscle tightness from developing then it adds an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy and cost to the transaction.

So instead of a person doing a simple financial transaction by paying a practitioner $60 for a massage, which only takes about 3 minutes or less of administrative time, a person has to get a receipt, take it to their health fund, get them to refund the money etc… Not only that but the practitioner has a lot of compliance time and money wasted by having to fulfill the criteria that the health fund want in order to get a provider number etc….

In other words something economically simple has become economically complicated but achieves nothing more. A lot more people being paid to put pens to paper, and more stress created complying with regulations but the real actual produce was still one massage treatment. Not only that but the government has gotten involved by subsidizing health funds so now we have more tax money taken out of our pockets to pay bureaucrats to keep this ludicrous system going.

Imagine if we did that for every other simple economic transaction that goes into preventative medicine. Every time I go to the health food shop I get the receipts mail them off to an insurance company and get them to pay me back some of the money ( minus fees) that I just recently sent them for my insurance coverage. Its crazy.

The way this has all come about is because the medical industry is not preventative based and some people in the natural health industry have very low self esteem about what they are doing and feel that they need to be “recognized” by the medical industry to be respectable. So we have this crazy system of a preventative medicine technique such as massage fitting into a system that is designed for acute care.

The orthodox medical profession is designed mostly to treat sudden onset problems such as heart attacks and car accidents and this of course it does better than preventative medicine and these can be very costly. However it is not as successful in keeping people healthy as a preventative medicine system.

So the major use of massage in a health system should be to keep people destressed and well but even when massage is also used for people that have injuries or chronic problems massage is not so expensive that having insurance is required. As I mentioned earlier very few people, even when really not well, would require more than 50 1 hour massage treatments. Even if they required this many it would only cost $3000 at $60 a treatment. Considering also that 50 treatments would be spread out over several months this is hardly an unbearable expense for most people. Certainly not more than the cost of many common problems that occur periodically with automobiles.

So this is why I do not subscribe to being part of this crazy system nor do I want to encourage it.

I also believe that there is a danger to this system in that many people when they choose their training options think that this is very important. The reality is its not. The most important thing for a person when they consider their training options are the quality of the massage course that they want to undertake. Actually less than 20% of people have even subscribed to the highest levels of coverage with health funds and there is not benefit to the practitioner from these patients having this coverage anyway. The only thing the practitioner has to be concerned about in his early stages of having a clinic is not to lose potential clients. What we recommend is that people can offer a discount for the first treatment to these people to get them “in the door” so to speak, and then give them such a good treatment that they will want to come back, even if they don’t get their $10 back from their health fund. So compete on the basis of giving a quality treatment rather than on whether you can fit into an insane bureaucratic system of health rebates.

If a person focuses on becoming an outstanding practitioner and having excellent customer service skills, then they will soon have more clients than they can treat. They will no longer be so desperate for clients that they need to offer discounts to get people “in the door”. They will be able to choose their clients or even raise their rates if they desire.

A course that trains people to be excellent massage therapists is what people should look for when choosing a course to undertake for their training and that’s what we aspire to in our training techniques.

See www.brandonraynor.com for more information about the author Naturopath Brandon Raynor

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Marketing is a very important part of business management. However, many business owners are not very familiar with the best practices of fund allocation for marketing. Therefore, they end up spending a major portion of their funds on marketing programs that do not bring in many returns. This article discusses the best fund allocation practices concerning marketing.

Marketing Budget

A marketing budget is the most important aspect of fund allocation for marketing. Ideally, 10% of the revenues generated by your business should be set aside for marketing. You also need to keep in mind the following while allocating a marketing budget.

Marketing Budget: Tips

While allocating funds for marketing, you must consider the following:

Measure marketing activities in dollars.

The marketing allocation needs to be 1-10 percent of total sales for B2B operations in the first year, when business is just picking up. In the second and third year, the funds allocated for marketing should be lowered.

Instead of basing your marketing budget solely on a percentage of your turnover, try to allocate as much funds as your competitors put in for their marketing programs.

If you have a startup business, then you need to spend a major share of funds for your business on marketing.

An advertising war could mean all-out business losses, so try not to overdo the competition.
Keep in mind the goals of the advertising program.

Let us go more into the details of fund allocation methods based on competition as well as revenues generated.

Kinds Of Allocation Of Funds For Marketing

Fixed Advertising Budget

Simply put, the marketing budget is a fixed percentage of revenues generated by the business. This is a safe funding method, since you need not up the ante every time your competitor decides to allocate more funds for their marketing campaign.

Competitors

You can try to match the advertising budget of your competitors. This kind of marketing benefits all players, as the market is evenly distributed among the competitors.

Objectives

Funds allocation for marketing depends on what the advertising campaign aims to accomplish. The goals could be to increase the number of queries from potential customers, increase in brand visibility, or increase in sales volumes.

Affordability

Funds for marketing are allotted only after all other aspects of the business have been considered on the budget. This approach is the least efficient way of allocating funds for marketing and can harm your business in the end by giving your competitors the edge.

The simple tips outlined above can help you allocate the right amount of funds for your marketing campaign. You should also target the right aspects of the marketing campaign, as this will enhance the effectiveness of the program.

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With modern economies and technical know how ever expending market for doing skilled based business, larger section of skilled population such as doctors, mechanics, writers, beauticians are seeking loan to start business on their own and generate employment for them. But due to limited source of income, funds from own source are harder to come. This is where self employed loan comes to the rescue of the professionals. They can put self employed loan for various purposes besides starting business including expanding the established one or paying for clearing different bills. They can buy machinery or equipments on taking the loan.

It’s very easy to avail self employed loan. The professionals should first decide if they want to take the loan in secured or unsecured form. It would benefit more if secured self employed loan is opted for provided one has property like home, vehicle, valuable papers, jewelry to take the loan against. The property is placed as collateral with the loan providers and works as security of the loan. On the strength of collateral, the professionals can avail even greater loan provided equity in the collateral is higher.

Generally lenders offer secured self employed loan in the range of

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Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York City schools Chancellor Joel Klein, together, have made sweeping changes within the New York City schools. Yet, many are questioning their intentions and spending of funds.

Creating smaller class sizes, especially in the elementary grades, has long been a priority of most parents, teachers and advocates in New York City. Many states and cities have passed laws requiring smaller classrooms, such as the state of Florida.

Studies have repeatedly shown that smaller classrooms improve student achievement, reduce teacher attrition, decrease student disciplinary problems, and increase parent involvement. They have proved especially effective for the elementary grades, but smaller classrooms in high schools are believed to reduce dropout rates, as well.

Today, the New York City schools classrooms are the largest ones in the state. The Court of Appeals ruled in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case that class sizes in the New York City schools were too large to provide students their “constitutional right to an adequate education.” The public is complaining that the mayor only plans to spend two percent of the money received from the lawsuit toward reducing class sizes within the New York City schools; yet, he plans to spend ten times as much on more school administrators and specialists.

According to the Gotham Gazette, the mayor and Klein are undermining the reduction of classroom size in six major ways:

Ignoring State Law Since 1999, over $500 million has been given to the New York City schools by the state to cut class size. According to an audit released in March by State Comptroller Alan Hevesi, only 20 extra classes in kindergarten through third grade were created as of last year, compared to the 1,586 classes the New York City schools officials said had been formed.

The audit also showed that officials had sharply cut back the number of K-3 classes by almost 900 over the last four years. Classes should now be 19.1 students per class; however, they remain with 65 percent of the students in classes with 21 students or more, and 26 percent in classes with 25 students or more.

Not Allowing Voters to Decide Over 100,000 New Yorkers signed petitions last year to put an amendment on the ballot that would require a minimum of 25 percent of funds owed the New York City schools from the lawsuit be spent on class size reduction. New York City schools officials blocked the proposal, stating it was “improper”, since the New York City schools are under the authority of the state and do not have to comply with city laws. Many voters and advocate groups are contesting.

Fewer New Classroom Seats Are Being Created Reporter Leonie Haimson believes the city is in danger of creating more seats in new stadiums than in New York City schools during Bloomberg’s administration. The following are the number of new seats added, according to the Mayor’s Management Report:

22,267 seats in fiscal year 2003,

12,921 in 2004,

8,631 in 2005,

4,287 in 2006, and

204 thus far, this year.

Yet, all five boroughs are experiencing a development boom in their neighborhoods. In other major cities across the country, developers are being required to provide schools and other community needs as part of their development projects. New York City has no such requirement. Therefore, there are fewer seats with no expectation of more being added, even though development is increasing.

No School Plans for Governors Island When the mayor was elected in 2001, he pledged to put a major high school and university on the island, which has current facilities sitting vacant that once were used as classrooms. According to Gazette sources, no one is discussing a plan for a school in that location, and the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation has been told to maximize the island’s profit-making potential. A new high school on the island would have relieved a lot of overcrowding in the other secondary New York City schools.

More Charter Schools Being Created The mayor plans to create up to 100 new charter schools, and the New York City schools capital plan calls for 74 percent of them to be put into existing New York City schools buildings. With new charter schools taking currently used New York City schools classroom space that means more overcrowding and larger classrooms for the New York City schools.

New Administrative Positions The creation of new administrative positions within the New York City schools has exploded since the mayor was elected. The city comptroller found in 2005 that the New York City schools had lost over 2,000 teachers without replacement within two years, further crowding more students into each classroom. The Educational Priorities Panel recently found that the amount of money devoted to instruction had steadily declined during the first four years of the mayor’s administration. Meanwhile, the number of new administrative positions has escalated, with only a slight decline in administrators at the district level.

The public’s concerns over classroom size are growing, as the mayor and Klein appear to be focusing on other concerns for the New York City schools.

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Let me give you an important recommendation related to the financial documents you have to prepare and attach to your visa application.

As you may know, one of the documents you must attach to your application is the “Proof of Settlement Funds”.

This document is VERY IMPORTANT, since you have to demonstrate to the Canadian government that you have enough funds to arrive and settle in Canada.

At the moment, the funds you must have to arrive and settle in Canada are reasonable. These funds are different depending on the number of family members coming with you.

I recommend using the following documents as a proof to settle in Canada:

o A current bank certification letter
o Savings balance
o Fixed or time deposit statements

It is extremely important that you attach the RIGHT documents in each part of the application process!

I recommend knowing exactly the funds you need to proove to the government! If you do not meet the criteria, your application will most likely be either refused or delayed.

Never give up! Apply for the Canadian visa and move to Canada!

Well, I hope you found my advice useful. Don

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One of the most popular Exchange Traded Funds, the NASDAQ 100 Trust, known as the cubes, may be soon having some strong competition. The cubes (QQQQ) have been the default Fund for the tech industry. This may be about to change.

A new exchange traded fund due to be introduced next year is being planned by Archipelago Holdings Inc. This ETF will cover the technology sector; however it is covering the technology sector with a twist. Current technology funds give technology companies weight in the index based on market capitalization. Companies with large market capitalizations such as Microsoft would have a larger influence on the index. For example many technology indexes give Microsoft a 10% or more weight in the index.

Archipeligos’ new index will be price weighted. Companies with the highest price will be given more weight in the index. By this method Microsoft may only have a 1% weight in this new ETF while Genentech would make up 3.3% of the index.

Another difference is this new fund will have a 25% investment in healthcare companies, which are outside the traditional tech sector. The highest priced issue in the index will be Genentech. Genentech will have the greatest weight in this index.

This new fund will be very similar to an existing index. This is the ArcaEx Tech 100 index. Over the past five years the ArchEx Tech 100 index has trounced the performance of the QQQQ. Over this period the QQQQ has shed about 10% a year, while during the same period of time the ArcaEx Tech 100 index has only shed about 2.4% a year. This is primarily due to the smaller cap stocks that make up the index and the fact it includes 25% investment in the healthcare industry. This performance alone is bound to attract a lot of attention and competition for the NASDAQ 100 Trust.

The QQQQ has about $1 Billion invested. If the new fund gets even only 5% of that it will be a billion dollar fund right out of the gate. This new fund is due to be introduced in early 2006, pending approval by the SEC.

News, articles, and performance of exchange traded funds are updated weekly at http://www.exchangetradedfundinvestments.com

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‘Sector funds are too risky.’ ‘I doubled my money with Fidelity Select Technology in 12 months!’ ‘Avoid sector funds.’ If all of this sounds confusing, you are not alone. Sector funds are among the more misused and misunderstood investments. So, how should you use sector funds?

Before looking at one of the uses of sector funds in detail, let’s review what sector funds really are: Sector funds confine their investments to a particular sector of the economy. Fidelity Select Healthcare (NDQ: FSPHX) is an example of a sector fund. By focusing on stocks of companies in the healthcare sector, the price moves of this fund are more dependent on factors that impact the healthcare sector rather than the economy as a whole. Demographic change, such as increasing age of the population, is an example of a factor that particularly drives investments in healthcare. By diversifying its assets across over 60 companies within the healthcare sector, Fidelity Select Healthcare provides investors with the opportunity to benefit from secular trends driving the demand for healthcare while mitigating company-specific risks such as failure of clinical trials conducted by a particular company.

Let’s now look at a high-potential approach of using sector funds.

Using sector funds to create a diversified mutual fund portfolio By allocating assets across a group of sector funds, investors can effectively create a diversified mutual fund portfolio using sector funds. This approach gives the investor flexibility to over-weight or under-weight certain sectors versus broadly diversified indexes such as the S&P 500

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With over 6,000 mutual funds available, it may be tempting to pick funds from a popular star or index rating system. Savvy investors, however, balance multiple factors in their selection process. Ratings represent only the historical performance of funds and cannot predict the future. Performance consistency, management skill, and expense limitations are among the many factors that influence a fund’s prospects. Each must be carefully evaluated to improve your chances of finding a fund to outperform the market.

Create a plan

Define your financial goals. Are you saving for retirement? Putting money aside for a home? Funding a child’s college education? Your answer will have significant implications on your choice of mutual funds. More time gives you flexibility to use an aggressive approach. Immediate needs call for safety and capital preservation. Take careful consideration of your tolerance for risk. If the market dips, at what point would you lose sleep? Is it a 5% drop? 10% drop? An asset allocation plan will balance your portfolio and maximize return for your level of acceptable risk.

Dismiss recent results

Past performance is no indicator of future results. No truer words could ever be spoken and they are included in every mutual fund advertisement. But it’s extremely difficult to ignore these numbers which the fund companies conveniently place in big bold letters - immediately above the fine print warning us. Nothing is more attractive than a fund with a great record, especially given the dismal performance in the market.

Past performance can provide a good starting point, but nothing more. In fact, past performance predicts losers better than the winners. A 1998 study from fund-tracking firm Morningstar, demonstrated the top fund performers rarely hold their spot on the charts. The study also concludes bottom performers rarely did anything but continue to sink. Never assume the past will repeat itself, yet, ignore a fund’s historical record at your own peril. Avoid the perennial losers.

Seek consistency

Evaluate a mutual fund’s performance beyond just the recent year. Any fund can get lucky, but it’s the rare firm that prove themselves year after year. Examining a fund’s long term performance can answer the question of consistency. If the performance was good, was it repeatable due to skill - or merely a spike due to dumb luck?

Watch for a solid record of returns, rather than funds showing spurts of great years followed by fits of lousy ones. Compare the fund’s returns to a relevant benchmark index, (large-cap vs. S&P 500, small-cap to the Russell Index, etc.) Solid funds should not only consistently beat the benchmarks, they should also beat their peers.

Seek good managers

Always review the experience and performance of the fund’s managers. When you buy a mutual fund, you are actually investing in the experience, skill, and savvy that the manager brings to the table. When the manager leaves, the fund performance generally goes with him. How many years has the manager been leading the fund? The longer (if generating strong results), the better. And keep an eye out for the gurus. The industry’s better managers are well-respected, high-regarded, and often quoted in the press. You’ll find multiple articles and even manager profiles published in the popular financial magazines and newspapers.

Think cheap

Check out the fund’s cost of ownership. While you can not predict a fund’s performance, you can control the ongoing expenses. Since expenses impact your ability to grow investments over time, select a fund with low costs. Check the expense ratio, sales fees, trading costs, and 12b-1 fees charged to cover the marketing, distribution and sales. Everything counts against your bottom line - keep it small as possible. When possible, choose funds with expenses less than their category average.

Taxes are often overlooked and can substantially reduce your after-tax gain unless investing within a tax-deferred, retirement account. Avoid funds with large distributions (capital gain payments) by searching for funds with low turnover. Since buying and selling stock incurs transaction costs, lower turnover translates to lower expenses and lower capital gains‘ taxes. Fund managers who seek to boost returns through repeatedly buying and selling securities are no friend of yours.

Putting it all together

Picking mutual funds is a challenging task. You will need to spend time learning, researching, investigating, analyzing, and comparing. The key is to develop your own methodology using some of the components listed here along with your own judgment and decision capabilities. Review your investment plan and fund selection criteria at least once a year. Make sure the plan still matches your goals and the funds match your expectations.

It’s your money. It’s your future. Take your time. Get it right.

Tim Olson

TheAssetAdvisor.com

Mr. Olson is the editor of The Asset Advisor, a financial investment service providing proven strategies for no-load mutual fund investors. He brings 26 years of education and experience from Stanford University, Ernst & Young financial consulting, personal wealth management, and venture capital investing.

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Financial market have varieties of loans which caters to particular need of the borrower such as car loan, wedding loan, home improvement loan, holiday loan and many more. Most of the loan takes long processing time to get approved. But a question arises that, “Is financial market having any sort of loan which gets approved faster”? Absolutely yes, it’s instant cash loan.

Instant cash loan, as the name itself conveys its purpose, which is to provide cash to the borrower instantly. These are basically designed in such a manner to handle cash emergencies.

Instant cash loan is used to meet all the small and day to day expenses. It can be any reason in which the borrower may need instant cash such as meeting hospital expenses, paying bills or repairing etc.

The borrower usually can borrow smaller amount as compared to other initial loan in the financial market.

Generally it is seen that the borrower is denied for loan in the financial market due to his bad credit. But this will not happen in instant cash loan. The best part of applying instant cash loans is that it doesn’t take into account the credit score of the borrower. In other words if he is tagged with bad credit, still he can apply for instant cash loan.

Instant cash loan is the short term loan which carries high interest rate. And they are also repaid within short span of time. In such type of loan, there is no need to place collateral against the loan amount. Rather certain documents and proofs are needed to submit with the lender. These documents also become a criterion for the lender, depending upon which he takes decision regarding approval of instant cash loan. These documents are:

Regular employment

Income proof

Identity proof

Bank statement

Post dated cheques.

Once the lender is satisfied with proof provided by the borrower, then in such case the amount is transferred in the borrower’s account within few hours of approval.

Instant cash loan can also be applied through online mode. It has been observed that online lenders offer more competitive rates than lenders in the physical market as online method involves no processing fees.
It is right to say that instant cash loan provide financial assistance instantly. But the borrower must resort to it as the last means as this is an expensive source of finance.

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Comparison between Mutual Funds and Stocks

Diversification

Mutual fund companies invest in a variety of stocks, bonds, and money-market investments, so mutual funds carry much lower risk than stocks.

Professional Management

Mutual funds enable investors to pool their money and place it under professional investment management. These managers have been around the industry for a long time and have the academic credentials to back it up.

Greater Upside Potential

Individual stocks have a greater upside potential than most mutual funds. Fluctuation in stocks is greater than mutual funds, so you have greater chance to earn more return.

Risk and Return

In general, Risk and return depend each other, the greater the risk, the higher the potential return; the lower the risk, the lower the expected return. Mutual funds try to reduce their risk by investing in a diversified group of individual stocks, bonds, or other securities.

Efficiency

Mutual funds have large sums of money to invest and often they trade commission-free and have personal contacts at the brokerage firms.

Conclusion

By investing in stocks you can get more return than mutual funds but, by investing in mutual funds your risk is lower. Mutual funds are great for funding retirement plans and investors that don’t have the time or energy to consider individual stocks.

It is noticeable that most expert traders in stock market invest in mutual funds too. I recommend investing in both of mutual funds and stocks but, if you have experience, time and energy you can invest most of your money in individual stocks.

By Mostafa Soleimanzadeh. Investing in the Stock Market Tips, Learn how to Invest in Mutul Funds.

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