Power Profile: Lisa and Edward Grant

"Since we began our business, we have purchased an airplane for my husband and a waterfront vacation home. We have also been able to diversify and own more real estate properties."

From thepowerprofiles.com

lisa and edward grant
Field Vice President

Since I began my Market America UnFranchise® Business, I have had some of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I am more excited about this company today than when I started.

My first year, I was pregnant and working full time for our family-owned power equipment business. It was challenging, but after three years and having another child, I became a full-time mom to Michael and Stephen and a successful UnFranchise® Owner.

Since we began our business, we have purchased an airplane for my husband and a waterfront vacation home. We have also been able to diversify and own more real estate properties.

The combination of time, freedom and money is rare. By leveraging and implementing the Market America Business System, you can create a wonderful lifestyle. Being home with my children and helping so many others to do the same has been a priceless gift!

I am more excited about this company today than when I started. Attend all the events and understand "we will be a Fortune 500 company," as JR says. It's bigger than anyone realizes at this point.

We will be a leader in One-to-One Marketing as Ford and General Motors once led in automobiles, Microsoft in software, McDonald's in fast food or IBM in the pioneering of computer hardware. My thanks goes out to JR Ridinger. He has "a beautiful mind," and of course the entire corporate team.

Currently doing business in: the United States of America.

Financial Feature: Retirement Becoming the Unattainable Goal

From blog.marketamerica.com

on April 29, 2013

Trivia time: define the ‘American Dream.’ In a past life, the right answer would be something along the lines of the privilege of combining hard work and perseverance to create a life for yourself, a family, and assets for next generations, earning you the chance to spend your final years in complete leisure. Today, the American Dream is defined simply: a dream.

As much as we hate to face the music, the numbers do not lie. Some of us will be lucky to live as long as we need to work to earn sufficient retirement funds. In an article featured on the Wall Street Journal, data outlines a bleak future for today and the next generation’s workers.

Read more.

Nutritional Alternatives for Allergy Season

Allergy season is in full swing. It is that time of the year when runny noses are common with all the sneezing due to allergens. The article below from ExploreSupplements.com list various nutritional support that can help alleviate allergy suffering.


From Explore Supplements

Posted on April 20, 2013 by admin
By Ryan Saba

With winter quickly coming to an end and spring right around the corner, many people are looking forward to time in the great outdoors.  Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to feel upbeat about spring weather if you suffer from seasonal allergies.  An allergy commonly occurs when the immune system wrongly identifies a nontoxic substance as harmful and responds by launching an attack against it.  Basically, allergies are your body’s way of telling you that it does not like something you ate, drank, touched or inhaled. Basic symptoms include wheezing, skin rashes, runny nose, fatigue, hives, itching, coughing and congestion.  The challenging component of allergies is that almost any substance can potentially cause an allergic reaction.

Read more.

Retirement Gamble

Retirement is big business in America.

"My plan B is to continue working."

"401(K) is the only product people buy into without knowing much about it."

Quotes above taken from the documentary "Retirement Gamble."

More Proof Soft Drinks Tied to Diabetes

More Proof Soft Drinks Tied to Diabetes

By Cole Petrochko, Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Published: April 24, 2013
Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco


One can -- or one more can -- of soda daily significantly increased the risk of diabetes in a European population, researchers found.

Consuming an additional 12 ounces of sugar-sweetened beverages -- a standard size can of soda -- daily was associated with a 22% (95% CI 1.09 to 1.38) increased risk for diabetes, and an extra can of artificially-sweetened beverage put the risk 52% higher (95% CI 1.26 to 1.83), according to Dora Romaguera-Bosch, PhD, MSc, of Imperial College London in England, and colleagues at the InterAct consortium.

Read more.

Will it always be this way......the One Percent at the top?

Riding on the subway, during the peak hours this morning, into Manhattan, I could not help but think about what all these people (where do they come from?) are doing, jamming into the subway, on their way to work. Every morning, religiously, they would do this day after day - almost like lemmings.

It is quite surreal because I was in that position once. I remember it distinctly - sick or well, happy or sad, depressed or delirious, rain, shine or snow, I would  hop on the subway to work. I would bust my chops to do what it takes to be recognized and get promoter for a better paying position. It worked but at what cost?

While reflecting, I realized there will always be people, the majority ninety five percent of the people  sweating it out for a paycheck. It is almost like we are addicted to it, working to make the top five percent of the population wealthy.

Knowing what I know now, I would never go back to such a life!

I now work for myself as an IT consultant. My work schedule is more flexible and I also have an online business, with a global presence, as a shop consultant. It is this business that is giving me tremendous hope for a future free from financial worries and complete time independence.

It is a future I look forward to sharing with  family and friends.

Will 401(k) plans keep getting worse?

We all have 2 safety nets to retirement. One is Social Security and the other is our 401(K). Social security, as we all know, is on everyone's radar - what will happen in 2030? Will it be under funded? What happens if it does?

Our other safety net is the 401(K). How are you doing with it? Are you properly asset allocated to maximize  its gains? If you have no clue how and what funds to invest your money in....what will happen when the time comes for you to retire?

And what are the ramifications of IBM, one of the leaders in retirement, changing the rules of matching its 401(K) once a year in December instead of each pay period match?

Below is a CNN special on IBM's move:


Will 401(k) plans keep getting worse?
By Teresa Ghilarducci, Special to CNN
updated 5:22 PM EST, Wed December 12, 2012


Editor's note: Teresa Ghilarducci is a professor of economics and director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at The New School.

(CNN) -- IBM, one of America's largest companies, shook the employee compensation world when it announced recently that it would contribute only once every December to its employees' 401(k) accounts. Any employee who leaves before December would not be able to collect the company's match.

Workers at IBM aren't marching to the picket line like Walmart workers and longshoreman who protest pay and working conditions, but you just never know.

Read more.

Heart Vulnerable to State of Mind

By Crystal Phend, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Published: April 19, 2013
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Dorothy Caputo, MA, BSN, RN, Nurse Planner


ROME -- Easily distressed individuals may be at higher risk of heart disease, a Danish population-based study showed.

People who scored high for "mental vulnerability" were 37% more likely to develop fatal or nonfatal cardiovascular disease during a mean 15 years of follow-up after adjustment for top risk factors, Anders Borglykke, MSc, PhD, of the Research Center for Prevention and Health at Denmark's Glostrup University Hospital, and colleagues found.

Intermediate scores on the scale also significantly raised the risk by 23%, the group reported here at the European Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation's EuroPRevent meeting.

Read more.

Stop Living and Start Designing Your Life

From HuffingtonPost.com

Stop Living and Start Designing Your Life
Loren Ridinger
Senior Vice President, Marketamerica.com and SHOP.COM

Posted: 12/10/2012 5:50 pm


Every year around this time, I find myself reflecting on the things I have accomplished and the many more goals that I still have in my heart. It could be all the lights in New York City, the general spirit in the winter air or even just the sense of hustle and bustle -- the holiday season always makes me feel proud and energized to reach for the stars. Regardless of the time of year or where you find your inspiration, going after your dreams should always be at the forefront of your mind.

Great ideas or wishes, both personal and business, start as dreams. By using a plan, a timeline and goals, turning those dreams into reality is completely possible. Sometimes taking that first step is the toughest part, but once you make an initial leap, the rest is all about finding your stride. Have you ever looked back and remembered the big dreams you once had? The ones you put on hold for all the emergencies and the daily to-dos that stood between you and your dreams? We have all been there -- putting our passions on the back burner while we take care of life's little must-dos -- but during this inspirational time of year and on the brink of 2013, it's time to make those old dreams a reality.

Read more.

Gold Buying Frenzy Continues: China, Japan, And Australia Scramble For Physical

From zerohedge.com
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/17/2013 08:47 -0400

We noted here that the plunge in the paper price of gold (and silver) had prompted considerable renewed demand for physical and now it seems the scramble among the "more stable investor base" is increasing. The shake out of ETFs and futures has left the Australian mint short of deliverables and Japanese and Chinese gold retailers seeing a "frenzied" surge in demand.

Read more.


You have probably read or heard, ad nauseam, that gold price had plunged by all media outlets. But did they also print or broadcast that there is a scramble to buy gold bullions in India, China and Australia to take advantage of this plunging gold price? This ramped up gold buying is also witnessed in other countries in the global market. Did you also hear such news?

Of course not! Main stream media is only interested in causing panic, not balanced news!


"In China, customers are lining up to buy gold bullion. According to the director of sales and operations at Chow Sang Sang Holdings International Limited, the number of gold bullion products sold in the Hong Kong and Macau area during the weekend of April 13 soared 150%."
                             - http://yhoo.it/15pq1NA

Andres Lozano: Parkinson's, depression and the switch that might turn them off

This is wonderful news that switches can be implanted in the brain to lessen human brain afflictions.

Question now is, what can be done to prevent them in the first place?

Biderman's Daily Edge: Wage Growth Slowing, But Stock Prices Should Keep Rising

Guess Who Else Is Stealing Money From Bank Depositors?

From FORBES.COM

Halah Touryalai, Forbes Staff
I stalk Wall Street. Stopping short of phone hacking, of course.


The following is a guest post by George Schultze, founder of Schultze Asset Management, an alternative investment firm managing approximately $230 million with a specialty in distressed securities investing.

We’ve seen lots of press recently about a proposed plan to tax savings account depositors in Cyprus.  This plan, initially proposed as a tax on depositors based on a sliding scale of between 6-10% of the value of their savings deposits, was floated as a solution to bail out the country’s insolvent banking system.  News of this plan was poorly-received by the market this week – to wit, we saw an early market sell off Monday morning as rumors circulated around the world that other European nations, such as Greece, Spain and Italy, might not be far behind Cyprus.

Read more.

Global currency race to the bottom....

Who will win - this global currency race to the bottom of the fiat money hill?

The US, Japan, Switzerland, Eurozone, UK, China and India are all working their printing presses to the max - racing to produce freshly minted currencies. See charts: http://politicalmetals.com/who-else-is-printing-money/

"Meanwhile, the global debasement race to the bottom has produced some absurdities. Late Friday, the U.S. Treasury said that it is monitoring Japan's monetary expansion and would press Abe to refrain from competitive devaluation. With the Fed's printing press operating in overdrive, it's truly a case of the pot calling the kettle black." - Barron's

How will all this end?

Comments?

Eric Dishman: Health care should be a team sport

The most incredible job on earth is...

From BeingJRRindinger.com
BY JR RIDINGER


Being an entrepreneur is an adventure and a lifestyle that is utterly unique. It’s an experience that provides time and financial freedom unlike any typical career. Being an entrepreneur has changed my life, and had also given me a platform to help other people unlock their potential and make their dreams a reality. Being an entrepreneur is an amazing job - but to me, it is without question the second most incredible job on earth.

The most incredible job on earth is being a parent. Raising a child and helping them develop into a successful, happy adult is an experience and an adventure that changes your life and enriches it beyond words. Having the chance to watch your children grow up, and to guide them to help them find their place in the world is an experience that you will always treasure – and Loren and I have been truly blessed in that regard.

Read more.

How Antioxidants work!

Revisiting Turmeric

From The World's Healthiest Foods - whfoods.com

Turmeric has a peppery, warm and bitter flavor and a mild fragrance slightly reminiscent of orange and ginger, and while it is best known as one of the ingredients used to make curry, it also gives ballpark mustard its bright yellow color.

Turmeric comes from the root of the Curcuma longa plant and has a tough brown skin and a deep orange flesh. Turmeric has long been used as a powerful anti-inflammatory in both the Chinese and Indian systems of medicine. Turmeric was traditionally called "Indian saffron" because of its deep yellow-orange color and has been used throughout history as a condiment, healing remedy and textile dye.

Read more.

Employers Adopt Stricter Health Care Policies In Face Of Surging Costs

The Huffington Post  |  By Harry Bradford
Posted: 04/06/2013 5:21 pm EDT

Faced with rising health care costs, employers are adopting stricter policies to keep workers healthy. Failure to comply with those measures could hurt employees' wallets.

Workers at tire manufacturer company Michelin could miss out on reducing their deductibles by up to $1,000 if they show unhealthy signs like high blood pressure or waistlines over 40 inches, The Wall Street Journal reports. Companies such as Walmart and Home Depot have similar policies, designed to reduce surging health care costs. But often these new policies require employees to share personal health information, something critics say is both unfair and an invasion of privacy.

Read more from The Huffington Post

To cut insurance costs, companies help workers get healthy

By Kelly Kennedy, USA TODAY Updated 9/29/2011 7:07 AM

WASHINGTON – Companies nationwide are looking to trim their health insurance costs by combating chronic diseases — such as diabetes, obesity and depression — in their employees, corporate and government officials say.

The need for such steps was amplified again Tuesday as a new survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation showed that health insurance premiums for families of four increased 9% this year.

"Just in the past six months to a year, we've seen a much bigger push toward addressing health issues," said Joe Miller, managing director of CHC Wellness, which helps companies assess the health needs of their employees. "What we're doing now is not working."

Read more from USA TODAY

When Opportunity knocks....

Opportunities do not knock at your door too often. But when it does, would you seize and run with it?

Look at the map below. It is the map of seven countries where Market America (MA) is currently doing business - US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and UK. MA celebrated its 20th anniversary in the US last year, 2012.

Market America countries in red

And MA is opening for business in the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Columbia, Ecuador and Spain, and adding additional countries such as New Zealand, Singapore, and Philippines within months.

The CEO of MA, JR Ridinger, led a corporate team to Puerto Rico on April 4th, to do a special business building discussion which was broadcasted live on MA's own streaming media MeetOn.com. It was certainly heart warming to watch the CEO of the company doing the same thing he teaches. Like he says, "You cannot lead where you do not go!"

JR and his corporate team will soon land in Columbia to begin his next leg of travel teaching!

If you have not considered owning your own business - your own road to time and financial freedom - now is as good as any time! Go now and enjoy a lifetime of freedom from the alarm clock!

The whole world is waiting for your business!

Leave a comment, if you have an interest.

Obese Kids at Risk for Kidney Disease as Adults

From MedpageToday.com
By Charlene Laino, Senior Writer, Gupta Guide
Published: April 04, 2013
Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco

Avoiding excess weight gain in childhood and young adulthood could prevent many cases of chronic kidney disease later in life, researchers reported.

"A study of over 5,000 children born in 1946 found that more than one-third of chronic kidney disease cases at age 60 to 64 years in the U.S. could be avoided if nobody became overweight until at least that age," reported Richard Silverwood, PhD, of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and colleagues.

Read more.

Dementia Care Cost Is Projected to Double by 2040

The article from the NYTimes below regarding dementia is quite sobering. With projected cost as well as the number of people with dementia doubling within 30 years, one would think there would be more public education to prevent this from occurring.

Dr. Mercola wrote in his website, Mercola.com:
"In the United States, someone develops Alzheimer's disease every 69 seconds, and by 2050 this is expected to increase to a new case every 33 seconds, according to the Alzheimer's Association's 2011 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures."
Granted dementia is not Alzheimer's disease, AD, but the most common cause of dementia is AD accounting for 70%-80% of all dementia cases. (Source: http://bit.ly/bHWFPs)

In his article, Dr. Mercola wrote about Astaxanthin as a Rising Star in Alzheimer's Prevention.
Might you consider using Astaxanthin as prevention?

Dementia Care Cost Is Projected to Double by 2040
By PAM BELLUCK
Published: April 3, 2013 NYTimes

The most rigorous study to date of how much it costs to care for Americans with dementia found that the financial burden is at least as high as that of heart disease or cancer, and is probably higher. And both the costs and the number of people with dementia will more than double within 30 years, skyrocketing at a rate that rarely occurs with a chronic disease.

Read more.

Power Profile: John & Sue Parnell

Obama administration pushes banks to make home loans to people with weaker credit

Is this for real? Forcing banks to lend to people with weak credit?
Wasn't this the cause of the financial melt down we had in 2008?

Obama administration pushes banks to make home loans to people with weaker credit

By Zachary A. Goldfarb, Published: April 2 The Washington Post

The Obama administration is engaged in a broad push to make more home loans available to people with weaker credit, an effort that officials say will help power the economic recovery but that skeptics say could open the door to the risky lending that caused the housing crash in the first place.

President Obama’s economic advisers and outside experts say the nation’s much-celebrated housing rebound is leaving too many people behind, including young people looking to buy their first homes and individuals with credit records weakened by the recession.

Read more.

Cholesterol: Bad for Heart and Eyes

Cholesterol: Bad for Heart and Eyes
By John Gever, Deputy Managing Editor, MedPage Today
Published: April 03, 2013

Excess cholesterol in macrophages within ocular blood vessels may help trigger neovascular, or "wet," age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a laboratory study suggested.

A series of experiments in mice showed that cholesterol levels in macrophages from older mice were higher than in younger animals, apparently because of impairments in the ABCA1 cholesterol efflux mechanism, according to Rajendra Apte, MD, PhD, of Washington University in St. Louis, and colleagues.

Topical as well as systemic treatment of older mice with a liver X receptor (LXR) agonist known as T0-901317, which boosts cholesterol efflux from cells, reduced the degree of choroidal neovascularization in a laser-induced model of the human disease, the researchers also reported in the April 2 issue of Cell Metabolism.

Read more.

Power Profile: Ray Mathis

Don't Worry, Be Bullish

From Barron's

"Not only did large depositors in Cyprus have to take a haircut, but Cyprus became a roach motel where cash could come in but couldn't get out."

Up and Down Wall Street | SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 2013

Don't Worry, Be Bullish
By RANDALL W. FORSYTH 

The broad market was up 11% this quarter, brushing off fears of the fiscal cliff, sequestration, crisis in Europe or a myriad of other threats. And the biggest winners may surprise you.

It can't get much better than this. Even dear old Dr. Pangloss scarcely could have written a better script for the stock market than what actually occurred in the first quarter.

In true melodramatic fashion, 2013 got off to a scary start as we seemed about to hurtle over the fiscal cliff -- only to avoid crashing into the abyss in the wee hours of New Year's Day. Then came sequestration on March 1, a term few could define let alone understand before that date. The dreaded Ides of March this time brought a crisis in the tiny Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus, which appeared to subside by the quarter's end.

Read more.

Student Debt Goes Against the Grain in Q1

Student Debt Goes Against the Grain in Q1
The economy roars / but don't tell that to students / knee-high in school loans
By Alyssa Oursler, InvestorPlace Editorial Assistant  |  Apr 1, 2013, 1:26 pm EDT
 
Look left and right, and you’ll see plenty of evidence that the worst for the economy might just be over.

Today’s manufacturing data, for one, might have been disappointing, but activity in the sector is still expanding. Retail sales remained strong even in the face of the payroll tax hike, higher gas prices and the dreaded sequester, and the stock market burst out of the gate in 2013. During the past three months, the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 both hit all-time highs despite over-the-pond debt woes and other headwinds.

But those are just the headlines. And besides the fact that a spring selloff seems likely, there’s another reality we must face: Things sure aren’t getting better for all Americans. There’s at least one area where an improving economy can’t seem to make a dent: student debt — the only kind of household debt that continued to rise through the Great Recession.

Read more.