Criminal informants, usually called “confidential informants” which is an oxymoron if I have ever heard one are glorified criminals. How can the criminal justice system justify a means to an end by giving criminals the opportunity to commit more crimes and the credibility to accuse other people of crimes? It would appear that a criminal will subject himself and others to danger, deceit and even death in order to commit a crime. When an informant is put on the street to carry out a job for the Justice system, does he suddenly become less dangerous and less deceitful?

Deceit is a major characteristic of criminals and is detestable in the eyes of the law, however; the system allows informants to deceive people in order to obtain information that will lead to an arrest. This can be compared to teaching your children not to hit people, however, you as the authoritative figure slap your child because the child hit his sister. This teaches the child nothing, actually; this confuses the child. This calls for a little “practice what you preach.” The informant is punished for “doing a thing” that you are now praising him for. Where is the consistency?

Confidential informants are supposed to be protected by the law. They are protected because if a defendant learns who the informant is; he may want revenge. By the same token, a detective will burn a confidential informant when he is not needed any longer. There is absolutely no consistency using the informant tactic to obtain information that may lead to an arrest. This is a selfish and lazy police tactic.

We entrust law enforcement with our safety, with our lives, however; it is a huge mistake in thinking that we are safe when criminals who have not been reformed are allowed to walk the streets as menaces to society. There may be a handful of descent informants walking the streets but; a handful is not a high enough number to prove a police tactic to be effective. There is nothing effective about a criminal entrusted, credited and glorified to do a detective’s job when he is deceitful and a possible danger.

Does a means to an end include informants committing more crimes and hurting innocent people when they should be in rehabilitation? I do not think that this informant tactic has been taken into consideration thoroughly. It is not fair to society at large to let recidivists run rampant. As a citizen I have a right to say this. As a witness to an informant gone wrong; I have even more of a right to say this because I was able to see first hand, a crooked, maniacal informant at work.

This informant has committed more crimes in more crime categories than anyone I know. He has bragged about being an informant for years stating that the police department is on his payroll and that he has a detective in his pocket. He set up a family friend in front of my family member and the detectives dropped him off at my house while the person who was set up was arrested, booked and thrown in jail. This is a dangerous game.

The informant has been a family friend for approximately eleven years so I can safely say that I have seen him in action. Many people can attest to the facts that this informant is a drug addict; drug dealer who drives on a suspended license while drinking and drugging, robs people and has been arrested for violent crimes. Why is this menace allowed to walk the streets without rehabilitation?

This is not fair to the citizens of this country. In fact, this is a crime against society and if something is not done about this; we can look forward to many innocent people doing time for an informants crime. This already is a reality, however, this reality will get worse. You have to realize that this deception does not stop with the informant and detective. This is a game of deception within the system.

The game of deception within the system extends to attorneys and in fact other representatives have become questionable. I must inform you that an attorney asked me not to share this information. The attorney told me that if this type of information gets out and people know that there is foul play within the system people will panic and he said, “the public does not want to know that they are not safe.”

I am witness to three crooked cases and I have been extremely quite about them because I do not want to alarm the public. Today, you can search the web for anything you are curious about and I was curious about confidential informants so I did a search. I learned that the informant tactic is failing because too many informants are crooked and choose to lie about innocent people to law enforcement. According to some sources; this is becoming an epidemic and needs to be addressed. You should be informed that this is not just a problem with informants but with detectives as well.

According to one source in an article I read; police officers said that a man sold them drugs, however; this man that supposedly sold them drugs was in flight to Chicago at the time. This source also contends that in another case, a man approximately seventy pounds lighter and one foot shorter than the actual offender was blamed for a cocaine buy. In yet another case, a woman was picked out by using a sixth grade picture that was ten years old for selling drugs to a DEA agent (Kroll, 2008).

This same source states that Federal prosecutors did not see the signs. This is pathetic. I want to know that I trust with my life, and the lives of others, that authority figures KNOW the truth or close to it before they file charges against people (Kroll, 2008).

There are several websites available on the web for you to learn alarming information. I am not going to list them in this article. It will take an article of many pages to quote what I have found. There is a website called whosarat.com that you may be interested in reading. I have only pulled up the page and have not read the content yet and I am not suggesting you read it to find the rats. I recommend you read the content and conduct your own research in order for you to also realize that the crooked informant epidemic is a real epidemic.

We are the people and we have a right to protect ourselves and a right to say who we trust to protect us. We are all human and humans run the Criminal Justice System. As humans err, the administrators of justice do as well. Informants are criminals which makes them less than honest and always looking for a way out. It is our duty to investigate this crooked informant epidemic before it spreads world-wide and more innocent people do time for informant crimes.

When it comes for free, grab it and make the most out of it. Just like your free glycemic index – a free everyday guide to healthy eating and fabulous body.

How does it do this? Well, the GI is defined as the numerical computation of how much reaction the blood sugar level produce when a certain food is ingested by the body. Guarding the insulin level is very important to people with diseases such as diabetes and certain heart problems. So, having knowledge of what a food may cause them will be very essential.

Low GI foods contribute less in the rise of the blood sugar level as compared to the high GI foods. Therefore, it is safe to assume that foods having low GI are healthy foods. Furthermore, eating low GI foods can keep you stay in shape. The slow rate of digestion of low GI foods makes that possible because for as long as the foods are still being digested by the body, you wouldn’t be craving for anything yet. Thus, minimizing food intake and reducing risks of acquiring unnecessary fats.

The free glycemic index will guide you in your everyday meal plan. You don’t have to be doing a lot of exercise or do fasting anymore, just get a copy of free glycemic index lists or charts and depend on these for your shopping needs to know which food you should maximize. If you would like low GI meals, there are also online low GI recipes that you may follow. With the popularity of the this index diet nowadays, just a click on the mouse and you are off to a healthy and sexy body.

So go on and grab your free glycemic index. Nothing as good as this has ever come at no cost before, so better make use of it as much as you can.

Do you find it hard to take off that extra weight? Do you find yourself in constant confusion on which foods you should or should not eat? Does it feel like no matter what you do you just keep getting bigger? Or are there times when you do lose weight but gain it again as it were never gone? Don’t worry, you and millions out there suffer the same fate when it come to getting that gorgeous body and staying healthy and fit. But keep in mind that whatever you are doing maybe counter productive to your goals – that’s why it’s not working for you.

Eating is a past time for many. But having a great body does not mean letting go of this fabulous hobby. It’s a matter of eating the right kinds of food! So which ones to eat you might ask? Low glycemic food.

Glycemic index weight loss programs are suitable for almost any person wanting to get a better body. Through glycemic index research, scientists and fitness professionals have narrowed down the best foods to consume. You can get a free glycemic index chart and simply choose the foods that you want to eat. This helps you plan your meals properly and stay healthier in an easy and a hassle-free manner.

To use this free index chart, you simply refer to the list food and their glycemic value (it ranges from 0 to 100). The higher the number means it gets absorbed by the body faster. Furthermore, when glucose is rapidly absorbed by the body it raises the blood sugar level and that is what you want to avoid. The glycemic index research showed that foods with values lower than 55 is best for you. Those between 55 and 70 are relatively good while those that are 70 and above are somewhat risky choices.

Here a food trivia: a Snickers bar has lower index than a bagel! The peanuts (actually the proteins in it) in the bar lower the index number making it better to eat. So it’s not all suffering when you go on a glycemic index weight loss program. The trick is to lower the index of food by combining it with high protein ingredients. This way, it will be slowly absorbed by the body.

Going on a diet fad or some other health quick fixes will not do the trick for you – and it may even be dangerous to your health. Choose a simple and effective way of getting your desired body – use glycemic index as a guide.

Low glycemic index rice refers to product that has low amounts of simple carbohydrates. The white variety contains the highest amount of carbohydrate compare to other types. Therefore, diabetic people cannot eat white rice. White rice can increase the sugar level of the blood system at a rapid rate. When the sugar level is increased at a rapid rate, the person will feel that their appetite is not satisfied and will hunger for more food. A low glycemic index rice such, as the brown variety, is the perfect alternative to white. Besides brown, there are also other types such as short, medium and long grain. Each type of rice has a different effect on the body. Long grain rice has the lowest index ranking.

In order to maintain a balanced and healthy diet, you also need to add a variety of vegetables to your meals. There are low and high GI vegetables. Examples of vegetables with a low index value include bean sprouts, onion, garlic, cabbage, cauliflower and etc. On the internet, you can find some great websites that offer low glycemic rice recipes. You can use the recipes to cook delicious and heart healthy food for you and your family, although it is not necessary to follow recipes to cook a low glycemic meal. You can add any food such as brown rice, vegetables and fruits into your meal. To find a list of food with low carbohydrate, you can visit several helpful websites on the internet. Many websites offer free information on serving GI items and recommended serving size of the foods.

Rice, in general, has an index score of 64 – 93. Amylose rice has a lower index value compared to waxy rice. Basmati rice has low index rating and does not have a high carbohydrate content. There are two types of Basmati rice including white and brown rice. White Basmati rice has an index value of 60 while brown glycemic rice has a GI of 45. It is best to eat brown Basmati rice because it is a low glycemic index rice. The types of rice that are rich in carbohydrate and have high GI include risotto rice and other types of short grain rice. Sticky rice is high in cholesterol and carbohydrate. If you suffer from diabetes, make sure you stay away from high index rated rice. High ranked glycemic index rice can raise the sugar level in the blood and increase your appetite. You can become fat in a short time.

Communication which is a process of sending and receiving messages has a starting point. This point is not the actual sending, but deals with something which occurs in the sender before he initiates the acts of sending the message. There is the stimulation which comes first – that thing which propels or moves one to take an action. It is the reason for a communication encounter, and it takes place in the sensory nerve of an individual known as the Source.

The Source is that individual or group, which initiates a message. The source is the encoder or sender of the message – the one who receives the stimuli from inside of him and then decides on the means of transmitting the conceived message to the receiver. Because processes are involved in communication, the Source faces so many problems in achieving communication. Before information or opinion is passed to the receiver, the Source makes a move that shows that he wants to pass a message across. This move or initiative could be through speaking, gesturing, writing, or whatever means he feels is appropriate to transmit the message. In communication process, this move is known as an ACTION.

After taking an action, what follows is a REACTION, which is the result of the action taken by the sender or the communicator. It is the response to an action, which may come in form of a reply, answer, rejoinder, retort, acknowledgment or defense. The one chosen determines the next line of action by both parties, and to complete the process, the parties INTERACT. Interaction could be between two or more people showing that the message was duly communicated.

There are so many information messages going around the globe today, as well as counter behaviors of people. These show that not all messages that are sent across got to those they were meant for. So many factors are responsible for this. Skills used in communicating to people are more or less not considered by the communicator. It is his duty to however, ensure that he has a good grasp of the means he chooses to communicate. This will enable him reach his target audience effectively.

The message to be transmitted must be known to the communicator. If he does not have a good knowledge of the message, chances are that he will not be able to win the attention of his audience, appear important with the message or deliver it confidently. Effective communication can also depend on to a large extent on the knowledge of the environment in which the communication is to take place. The diversities that exist in different communities or areas help in forcing the Source approach on location and target audience. In Nigeria, for instance, consideration is given to age, status, social class, seniority, etc, quite different from what is obtainable elsewhere in the world. However, apart from this socio-cultural context, there is another important factor that bothers on attitude. The attitude of the Source of communication towards himself by way of displaying confidence in the message is very important to the successful transmission of his message. It should be noted that time after time people continuously are sending out messages to their various receivers, yet the level of ignorance exhibited by those to which these messages are meant for are alarming. Research has shown that the current method of information dissemination is not ideal hence the introduction of information repackaging.

This implies translation of the information in the language of the people; adopting the right medium familiar to the people and providing the right environment that would generate the required interest from the targeted group. Though this involves training and re-training, yet adopting the techniques of information repackaging would assist in redesigning the information meant to address the needs of the people, especially the rural dwellers. This may involve the transformation of printed information into oral form, using community information centers, Community Based Organizations (CBOs), radio jingles, television programmes, and focal group discussions, among others.

Transforming printed information into oral form: – The level of illiteracy in rural areas of does not support reading and writing. Therefore, oral information delivery is the most suitable means of reaching out to the people. Much of the existing information that people receive today appear mainly in print formats and often through medium that is not easily accessible to the rural dwellers. This is why people who are trained in the skills of information storage, retrieval and dissemination should be used in sourcing the required information and disseminating them to the rural dwellers.

Use of focal group discussions – Another good method of repackaging information is the use of focal group discussion. Information can be repackaged in form of stories, songs and drama, and presented to a particular target group.
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Translation of existing information to local languages – Another approach in information repackaging is the translation of existing information which appears in foreign languages into local languages. The intention here is to ensure that such useful information is disseminated to the target audience with ease. The information professionals and other related organizations and agencies should be involved in this translation project.

Use of posters/handbills – The technique here is to transform information on which is not accessible to the rural dwellers into posters and handbills to meet the information needs of the rural people. Such posters and handbills should be designed in such a way that it will attract the attention of the people. They should also be posted in strategic locations such as village squares, churches, hospitals and other public places. Most often information professionals may take some time to explain some of the posters and handbills for them to understand the message clearly.

Radio programmes and jingles – The radio remains a medium which permeates every location. A major advantage of repackaging information through the radio is the depth of its penetration and affordability of radios by so many families. Besides this, it is very easy and cheap to power the radios. Therefore, much of the needed information in print and online resources would be repackaged in local languages and disseminated through the radios. Programme designers in the radio stations should equally use these repackaged information in radio jingles to create more awareness. The dominance of certain strange languages like the English language in programme presentations should be de-emphasized in local radio stations so as to improve on the listening audience in the rural areas. There are many programmes in both the radio and television that are meant to educative and inform which should be repackaged and presented in local languages for wider reach. Presenters of programmes should equally consider the time of their presentation. Since rural areas are dominated by farmers, the timing should be seriously considered. Evening period is the most adequate, for many families would have come back from their farm works.

Television/home videos – The use of motion pictures creates a near real life situation and therefore, deepens the penetration of the message. The popularity of home videos and other television programmes on the people’s viewing culture is no longer in doubt. The availability of electricity in many rural areas, even though it is still very epileptic, has created opportunities for many families to enjoy films in their houses.

The use of community information centers – There are community information centers already existing in most rural communities. These centers are hospitals, churches, schools, village squares, civic centers, markets, etc, which are heavily depended on for effective information dissemination in rural areas. This makes it easier for information to be translated in local languages and disseminated through staff of these centers. For instance the teachers should be involved in enlightenment campaigns through the pupils and students. The Church, as another powerful institution in information dissemination, should be involved in the public enlightenment campaigns, using the repackaged information. In the same vane, enlightenment campaigns should be organized in markets and village square, where it is very obvious that the rural dwellers would have time to listen.

Community Based Organisations (CBOs) – Community Based Organizations (CBOs) have been recognized as very useful in reaching out to the rural dwellers with useful information. They are vital in promoting healthy living and socio-economic development of rural areas. Among these organizations are the age-grades, social clubs, women groups, town unions, co-operative societies, youth movements, etc. Since these organizations are closer to the people, information professionals armed with the repackaged information should reach out to these groups. However, the language of the people should be used and rendered orally.

Women groups – Women form one of the most formidable groups anywhere in the world. Their opinions on important issues of public interest are respected; therefore, it is imperative that focusing enlightenment campaigns on them would generate positive results. Existing information on major, but important matters should be repackaged to suit them. In most parts of the world, women groups exist. In Nigeria, for instance, women in the South Eastern areas are noted for their ability to organize themselves in groups and unions. The idea is to advice the communities on crucial matters that may bother on security, social life, family and education. The annual gathering of these women together with the mass return of those in urban areas to their various communities for this very important meeting, popularly referred to as “August Meeting” is now an integral part of Nigeria’s social life. Information professionals could as well avail themselves of such opportunities in using such meetings as a means of informing and educating these rural women on issues of public interest. In most cases, this can be done through talk shows, film-shows, seminars, etc, in their native languages.

Community leaders – Rural development activities have been usually propelled through the community leaders. This group of people include political leaders, religious leaders, village heads, school heads and other people in the community that command high degree of respect and follower-ship. Community leaders form the bedrock of information in the rural areas. Being the light of the society, they are strategically placed in obtaining the right and timely information. They often serve as intermediary between the sources of information and the people. As enlightened members of the society they are often involved in repackaging the information obtained for the general public. Information professionals should therefore, exploit the roles of these leaders to get their subjects informed on various matters of public interest. The approach here is to organize meetings with this group and then use the forum to train them on how to use the repackaged information to pass important messages across.

Some people have trouble getting their site indexed quickly by the search engines. There are a number of easy ways to make sure that your website does get indexed and quickly.

What is indexing?

It is the adding of a website or web page to the index of a search engine like Google, Bing, Yahoo! or Ask. The index of these is the collection of web pages that they have crawled and can return in a search result.

Obviously if you want to show up in search results to get free traffic it is crucial that you get as much of your site indexed.

Hypothetically search engines are happy to index a website within seconds if they see it as very important. So the key to getting indexed is making your site seem more important. There are a number of ways to do this.

Build high Page Rank backlinks

Backlinks are links from one website to another. They are seen as a vote for a website. The more votes a web page has the more important it is. Unfortunately backlinks are not made equal the more Page Rank they carry the more important the vote is to the search engines. Here are a couple of easy link build techniques:

Article marketing

Writing and submitting articles to article directories is a great way to build inbound links. This is because all article distribution sites allow you to place links at the bottom of your article to your website.

Write an eBook

Writing an eBook and giving it away for free is a fantastic way to build a profile for yourself as an expert in your field as well as build high quality backlinks. You can place as many backlinks as you want within the text of the eBook and then all you have to do is to get other sites to host it and make it available to their users. There are a number of eBook directories for free eBooks.

Video marketing

Much like article marketing, video marketing is creating videos and submitting them to the numerous video directories like YouTube. You can place a hyperlink at the start of the description of the video.

There are a couple of other ways you can make your website so that it will be indexed in days

Site architecture is very important. In general a three tier system is preferred in particular for small to medium sized websites. This entails only having any of your pages within two clicks of a button i.e. you could go from your homepage, to a second category, to any page on your website. This is ideal for a search engine robot who wants to be able to navigate a site easily. Another important part of site architecture is internal linking which is linking from one page of your site to another. The search engine robot wants to find its way around your site by following links so oblige it by placing links within the text, as well as in images and navigational bars. The use of breadcrumbs is another great way to break your site into easily accessible categories.

Create an XML sitemap, this a sitemap that is only available to the search engine. You can create one on any number of free tools. It is basically a list of all the pages you want indexed on your site and their importance. You submit the sitemap to the search engine from their webmaster section and they will prioritise their robot’s visits to your site. It will go to the high priority pages first making them the most likely to be indexed.

Don’t worry too much about indexing if you have high quality content and a website that complies with the search engine’s guidelines you will have most of your site’s pages indexed and showing up in the natural search results.

There is no such thing as a risk free investment. But there are ways of investing that can reduce the risk well below what any investor would consider to be acceptable. Investing in National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) Real Estate is arguably the lowest risk real estate strategy available in Australia today.

Reduced Risk Profile

• With rents at 20% below market value and a large pool of eligible tenants, investors can expect reduced vacancy risk.
• With rents at 20% below market value and tenants qualifying income levels at up to $100,000 investors can be more selective in their choice of tenant.
• Certainty of contributions from the Australian and State governments for a period of 10 years. Improved Rental Yields
• The $9,140 annual National Rental Incentive for each rental dwelling, combined with the actual rent will improve rental yields over conventional residential investment properties.
• The national Rental Incentive is income tax free, indexed to the rental component of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and is additional to existing taxation arrangements including depreciation.

Further Benefits

• NRAS is a Government Subsidised Property Investment
• Secured Income Stream (10 Years)
• Potentially Cash Flow Positive Investment
• $90,000 Plus Tax Credits Over 10 Years. These are tax credits, not to be confused with tax deductions. Tax credits are effectively cash in your pocket. If your tax liability is lees than the credit, the difference is paid to you tax free.

NRAS property investment can counterbalance the risk and volatility of equity markets and helps to provide a balanced portfolio. The location of the properties and the attractive rents mean a stable and reliable income stream regardless of economic fluctuations.

With more than 1.5 million households eligible to rent NRAS properties, the vacancy risk is negligible. Properties must meet strict criteria for location, available facilities including public transport, schools, shopping centres etc as well as a healthy balance of rentals to owner occupied residences. All of which means high demand from tenants and potentially strong capital growth.

Investors can pick any tenants for NRAS properties, as long as these tenants do not exceed a certain income threshold. Income levels for eligible NRAS tenants are generous and allow for tenant salary increases of 25 per cent above the entry income limit.

For example, a couple with three children, earning a gross income of $100,768 per annum, is eligible to rent an NRAS dwelling. With the income increase allowance of 25 per cent, this family could earn up to $125,960 for two years before they become ineligible to remain in an NRAS property.

So investing in a National Rental Affordability Scheme property means:

• Better rental yields
• High demand from tenants meaning more choice for owners
• Negligible vacancy rates
• Strong potential for capital gains

That may not be risk free, but it is possibly the closest thing to it.

As a financial planner, I feel like Indexed Universal Life insurance is one of the most misunderstood and underutilized tools and asset classes in the market today. I believe that this is because of the newness of the product itself. Indexed Universal Life(IUL from here on out) has only been around for a little over 15 years. Because of this, most financial advisors don’t fully understand it. IUL’s came around after they received their education and set their practices. Thus, individuals aren’t learning from experts, but rather, they rely on media pundits for any information on these programs. In an effort to further educate you, and promote a wonderful product, I give 5 reasons to buy an IUL.

The first great reason to have an IUL in your retirement portfolio is the fact that these products provide minimum guarantees. Unlike placing your funds directly into the market, these funds are protected from the market. They earn interest in a unique way. Interest is credited based on the performance of a chosen index. Rather than being invested in the actual market, you merely receive a portion of the index return. Again, the worst-case scenario is that you earn 0% in a given year. You can never lose money due to market fluctuations. Each year that you do earn interest, that interest is locked in and becomes part of the principal amount guaranteed to not be at risk to the market. What a great way to plan for retirement. This system of guarantees also removes the risk of retiring at the wrong time, when your account value is low due to market losses. It also prevents catastrophic damage to your retirement due to losses in the early years of your retirement.

In addition to the downside protection, these products can perform very well; often times outperforming the market returns seen in a typical investment portfolio. So you don’t have to give up a good return to find a safe haven for your retirement nest egg.

The second great reason for purchasing an IUL is the tax-free death benefit.

Life insurance is often used as a tool in estate planning. It is treated favorably by the IRS tax codes. Often, the funds coming from a death benefit from a life insurance policy are passed on to beneficiaries income tax free. Indexed Universal Life is no different. It becomes a wonderful tool to pass on assets tax free. Unlike other retirement options, such as a 401k, the assets held in an IUL pass on without taxes and give you immediate access to the funds, unlike assets held in real estate. It is also very typical, due to the death benefit common in all life insurance policies, that the death benefit will exceed the accumulation value of the account, meaning you not only leave more to your beneficiaries by paying less in taxes, but also because of the higher death benefit.

The third great reason for looking at an IUL is for the incredible supplemental retirement income that can be generated from it. What if you could put an unlimited amount of money into a Roth IRA, pay taxes on the principal now and have an income generated, tax free, for your retirement, and you could even access it early if you wanted? That would be an incredible deal, right? Well, it exists. It’s called an IUL. You can create a tax-free income through these IUL’s without having to worry about the timing of the market. Rather than rolling the dice of where the tax brackets fall out over your lifetime, why not draw at least part of your income through a program that allows you to fund it limitlessly, and not have to worry about paying taxes on the gains?

This is achieved through policy loans. It’s a new concept, but hear me out. Through a policy loan, you are able to draw out an income from your IUL tax free. Everyone always asks me “what if tax laws change?” Valid question. In theory, it is possible that the laws change and these funds do become taxable, but that would be odd. The government doesn’t tax our loans, only the asset by which the loan is guaranteed. Think for example of your car loan… you pay a property tax on that auto, but you don’t have to treat the loan from the bank that you used as income because it wasn’t income, you have to pay it back. These policy loans function the same way.

Diversification is the fourth reason to purchase an IUL. Since the bulk of your retirement funds are probably in taxed deferred savings accounts, like traditional IRA’s and 401k’s, IUL’s can provide a diversification, not only in asset class, but also in the tax treatment of the account. We typically believe in diversification and have been taught that since our high school years, yet we all have our retirement in the same types of vehicles. All are tax-deferred time bombs with minimum distribution ages and minimum distribution requirements or maximum contribution amounts controlled by the government and current economics in the USA. We are all typically in a blend of stocks and bonds, crossing our fingers that when that day comes to retire, we are up, not down. Hopefully we’ve picked well, though we be uneducated as can be, and yet we bank on this as our retirement program and a whole industry has built itself around it. Amazing that we’ve heard this same concept preached for over 2 decades and we’re still drinking the kool-aide. I’m not going to tell you to not drink, just try a different flavor for a minute. It should be noted that when taxes go up, and they inevitably will, you will pay taxes on those funds that are in taxed deferred accounts. This can hurt the value of the dollars you have saved in those accounts. There is also a little thing called an RMD. Required Minimum Distributions are what the federal government requires us to withdraw from our retirement accounts, based on our age, as a percentage of our account balance. There is always the possibility of these percentages increasing so the taxes can be collected on these funds. This could also cause you to withdraw funds you don’t need. An IUL gives you a great hedge against these potential tax issues.

Finally, the fifth reason to purchase an IUL is because they allow you to work towards becoming your own banker. Have you ever found it odd that you borrow money from a bank even though you have money in the bank? I have. Most IUL’s have loan provisions allowing you to borrow from and pay back your life insurance. The nice thing is, by doing this, you pay yourself the interest rather than the bank. You continue to have a retirement fund that is growing and you aren’t losing years’ worth of interest to the bank. Think of all the interest you have paid for credit cards, auto loans, your mortgage, etc. You can borrow yourself the money instead and you don’t have to worry about the approval process at the bank. Many business owners feel that term insurance is the only type of life insurance for them because they don’t want to tie up their money. This is a false assumption. The funds “tied up” in life insurance are not locked up, but rather, provide more access to funds than most investment opportunities. The funds can be borrowed and replaced with relative ease, making it a wonderful program for creating your own personal banking system.

One final little bonus is that your IUL is permanent insurance, as long as it is built correctly and you fund it properly. You’ll likely have lifetime coverage, even after stopping your premium payments and taking withdrawals. Long after your term insurance is gone, you’ll still have a death benefit to leave those you love.

For these reasons, along with many others, indexed universal life insurance is a great way to help fund your retirement. It is not perfect for all situations, and it is always wise to consult your advisor before purchasing any retirement funding program. That being said, there are five reasons you should give your advisor a call and find out if an IUL is right for you.

If you want free search engine traffic from the search engines then the first step is to get your website indexed by the search engines. As long as your site is not indexed by Google, Yahoo and MSN, these search engines won’t even know that your site exists.

You will find many SEO Services on the internet that claim to getting your site indexed by hundreds of search engines on payment of $50-$100. Most of these SEO Services are just taking the webmaster for a ride; avoid them. Many SEO services online will charge you something like $50-$100 for getting your site indexed by hundreds of search engines. The truth is most of these services are not good. Don’t waste your money. You can get your site indexed for free by the three important search engines.

In my opinion, there are only three search engines on the internet; Google, Yahoo and MSN. The other so called search engines have so little traffic that you can ignore them. Focus on Google, Yahoo and MSN. Google is the most important search engine. In fact, it is the search engine. If your website is not indexed by Google than forget about getting search engine traffic. Google gets more than 60% of the search engine traffic and its share of the global internet searches is on the rise. Ignore it at your peril!

Yahoo gets around 30% of the search traffic online. This is the second largest search engine. Getting indexed on Yahoo is also important for you. Yahoo can give you a lot of traffic for free.

MSN is the youngest search engine among the top three and is also called the Baby Search Engine. MSN share of the search engine traffic is less than 10%. Somehow MSN could not compete with Google and Yahoo in the online world and has been left behind. Most of the people who go on MSN, are not internet savvy, so you should expect very good conversions on it. Studies show that MSN converts 3 times better as compared to Google.

For getting your site indexed on Google. Open a Google Webmaster Tools account. Submit your site as well as its sitemap. Wait for a few days. Googlebot will come and crawl your site and get is indexed. It is as simple as that. People try to portray as if getting indexed by Google is difficult. But with Google Webmasters Tools, rest assured, Googlebot will index your site in a week.

Yahoo has its own Yahoo Explorer service. Open an account. Submit your site and its RSS feed. Yahoo takes a bit long in indexing a site. But once you have submitted your site, dont worry much. Your site will be in the Yahoo index in around a month’s time.

You can also get your site indexed on MSN by clicking on the Webmaster link on the bottom of each MSN search page. Submit your site. MSNbot will index your site in a few days. Just focus on these three major search engines. Rest of the search engines are not worth wasting your time.

Recap – What is a stock index?

A stock index is a statistical indicator that measures the combined value of a number of underlying stock prices. As stock indices are usually formed by a group of leading stocks in a market, they represent the overall health of an economy as well as the value of the stocks.

Although a stock index is not a tradeable product, but the rise and fall of its value can be traded on.

Methods for determining stock index prices

The price of each stock represented in a stock index affects the overall value of the index. However, there are different methods for determining how much weight each stock should be allocated. These include:

• Price-weighting
• Capitalisation weighting/ market-value weighting
• Market-share weighting
• Fundamental weighting
• Float-adjusted weighting
• Equal weighting

Price-weighted stock indices

A price-weighted stock index is an index where the fraction that a stock makes up of an index is proportionate to the price of that stock. This means that a stock trading at $500 will make up 10 times more of the total index when compared to a stock trading at $50.

Price-weighted stock indices do not accurately reflect underlying market values, as the stock trading at $500 could be that of a small company, whereas the stock trading at $50 could be that of a large company. As the stock of the smaller company makes up 10 times more of the total value of the index than the larger company, a change in its price will have a larger impact on the value of the stock index than a change in the price of the larger company. Meanwhile, the combined market values will not change to the same degree as the price of the larger company has not changed.

Also, price-weighted indices need to be constantly adjusted, as the changing prices of stocks will affect their appropriate weight in the index.

Examples of price-weighted indices include the Amex Major Market Index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the NYSE ARCA Tech 100 Index.

Capitalisation-weighted stock indices

In contrast to price-weighted stock indices, a capitalisation-weighted/market-value weighted index factors in the size of the company as well as the share price. This means the impact of a company’s price change is proportional to its overall market value, or the share price multiplied by the number of shares outstanding.

Consequently, small changes in large companies will have a greater influence on the value of the stock index than larger changes in small companies.

Some examples of capitalisation-weighted indices include the Hang Seng Index, Kuala Lumpur Composite Index, NASDAQ Composite, NASDAQ-100, NYSE Composite and the Taiwan Capitalization Weighted Stock Index.

Market-share weighted indices

A stock index that is market-share weighted is similar to a capitalisation-weighted index, but a market-share weighted index measures the price of shares relative to the number of shares, as opposed to their total value.

Fundamentally-weighted stock indices

Fundamentally-weighted stock indices weight stock indices by one of many economic fundamental factors, or by a composite of several fundamental factors.

This method of weighting argues that fundamental factors, such as sales, earnings, book value, cash flow and dividends, are a more accurate measure of its value than the share price, which can fluctuate with investor sentiment. One of the benefits of trading on these indices is that they might average out sector-specific biases.

Fundamentally-weighted stock indices are often contrasted to capitalisation-weighted indices. As the method of capitalisation-weighted stock indices focuses on company size and share prices, capitalisation-weighted indices could overweight overvalued stocks while underweighting undervalued stocks, meaning investors can’t see the true value of a company, and that the index doesn’t provide a true representation of an economy. As fundamental weighting weights industries by fundamental factors, an over- or undervalued share value will not have as large an impact.

That being said, although there isn’t a perfect correlation between fundamentals and share prices, there is some correlation, as large changes in fundamentals can result in large share-price movements. This was evidenced in the global financial crisis, when both fundamentally-weighted and capitalisation-weighted indices plummeted.

Float-adjusted weighted stock indices

Traditionally, capitalisation-weighted stock indices have had full-weighting. Full-weighting means that all shares outstanding for each company are included. Recently, many capitalisation-weighted indices have shifted to float-adjusted weighting, which takes into account the proportion of shares a company has free floated.

Both the S&P 500 and S&P 100 indices are now float-weighted.

Equal-weighted stock indices

Equal-weighted stock indices assign each stock in an index the same weight, so a movement in the share price of all companies have the same impact on the index, regardless on the size or market-share of that company.