Answer For Wilvan Wee - @sk Sean Toh - Investing In Index Funds?

Question For Sean Toh? Investing In Index Fund?

Hi Sean,

Do you have experience putting your money in ETF(Exchange Traded Funds)? I was thinking of investing some money in index funds and/or EFT (local or US). Do you have any recommendations or views on that? What is your view with regards to today's investment market? Is it on the high side (highest STI(Strait Times Index of Singapore) or do you feel that there is still market for increment, i.e. STI(Strait Times Index of Singapore) to reach 3000??.

From
Wilvan Wee

Here Is The Answers Specially For Your Questions, Wilvan! Sincerely From Sean Toh.

Dear Wilvan,

I'm glad that you are asking questions because this is where your financial education begins. First, I would like to define for you what is the purpose of an index.

An Index is derived from a selected number of underlying assets.

These Indices may be formulated to reflect the general movement of the value of the underlying assets. The composition and weight-age of the underlying assets may be formulated to reflect the movement of the value of an industry, a country or any collection of a class of assets. Hence, STI ( The Strait Times Index of Singapore ) is composed of 50 Singapore Stocks from various sectors.

Second, let me define for you what is an ETF(Exchange Traded Funds)

Exchange Traded Funds are Collective Investment schemes. Collective investment schemes are ways of investing money with other people in order to participate in a wider range of investments. Collective investments schemes are usually referred to as Mutual Funds, Managed Funds or simply Funds. These funds account for a large portion of the trading on most stock exchanges.

While the structure of ETF's vary around the world, major common features include:
An exchange listing and ability to trade continually.

They are often index linked instead of being actively managed.

These qualities give ETF's some advantages over Mutual Funds. ETF's allow for a diversified portfolio at a low cost. They can be used in both long term buy and hold and for selling short and hedging strategies.

Typically ETF's replicate a stock market index, such as Standard and Poor's 500, or the Hang Seng index, or STI(Strait Times Index of Singapore). They may also contain stocks from a specific market sector such as energy, or a commodity such as gold. They often have amusing or catchy, upbeat names like, "Diamond" and "Spider". ETF's are most commonly found on the AME or American Stock Exchange but it is starting to emerge in the Singapore Stock Exchange too.

ETF's present an alternative to the traditional open ended Mutual Funds( Units Trust in Singapore ). The Open ended index funds are particularly good for this type of use.

Having defined for you the two terms. I like to tell you that even I do not know if the market is high or low but the market is actually a reflection of lots of contributing factors like economical performance of a country, the psychology of the investors in the markets, politics in the countries, current affairs around the world, geography in the regions, etc. If everything is well, investors has more confident with the markets. They will throw in more capital for investment to cause the index to rise. If the conditions warrant that investors dump their investments because of fears, they will sell their stocks or investment which can sometimes cause the market to crash when the index drop too fast that is beyond governor's control.

Four Step To Financial Freedom's Program



In my book - 'Fours Steps To Financial Freedom' which will be launched early Christmas 2006, I have a chapter which is Chapter 9 - Zero Financial Education explaining the theory of - The fundamentals of winning and losing money equilibrium equation. The whole market is about 'selling' and 'buying'. When to enter the market depends on a person's mix of characteristics which cause him to make a rational or irrational decision to invest. If his decision is irrational, he will enter the market buying at a high. If his decision is rational, he might not enter the market if he intends to buy at a low but master investor will see this an opportunities and start building their positions to short the market as it might start to crash rapidly. What I'm trying to tell you is that your financial education will guide you to make rational investment decisions whereas ignorance will cause you to lose money. Start your financial education now. Find the answers to those questions that are in your head and answer them everyday. When 3 years have passed, you will be more financially confident. I afraid I'm don't collect clients to help them invest but the advices that I'm giving will be at a neutral standing point to let you decide what to do next. You have to be responsible for your decisions not somebody else.

Most master investor has a system for investing that has been tested rigorously for successful profit reaping. Do you have one? You have to sit down to design and experiment with yours to see if yours could stand the test. How could I devise one? Sean, you must be joking! You will if you start your financial education. A system or technique to beat the market if the market is fluctuating used by novice, or even mature investors is called -
' The Dollars Cost Averaging '- A Technique that Drastically Reduces Market Risk.

Dollar cost averaging is a technique designed to reduce market risk through the systematic purchase of securities at predetermined intervals and set amounts. Many successful investors already practice without realizing it. Many others could save themselves a lot of time, effort and money by beginning a plan. You will learn the three steps to beginning a dollar cost averaging plan, look at concrete examples of how it can lower an investor’s cost basis, and discover how it reduces risk.

Dollars Cost Averaging: What is It?Instead of investing assets in a lump sum, the investor works his way into a position by slowly buying smaller amounts over a longer period of time.

This spreads the cost basis out over several years, providing insulation against changes in market price.

Setting Up Your Own Dollar Cost Averaging PlanIn order to begin a dollar cost averaging plan, you must do three things:

1. Decide exactly how much money you can invest each month. Make certain that you are financially capable of keeping the amount consistent; otherwise the plan will not be as effective.

2. Select an investment (index funds are particularly appropriate, but we will get to that in a moment) that you want to hold for the long term, preferably five to ten years or longer.

3. At regular intervals (weekly, monthly or quarterly works best), invest that money into the security you’ve chosen. If your broker offers it, set up an automatic withdrawal plan so the process becomes automated.

An Example of a Dollar Cost Averaging PlanYou have $15,000 you want to invest in XYZ common stock. The date is January 1, 2007. You have two options: you can invest the money as a lump sum now, walk away and forget about it, or you can set up a dollar cost averaging plan and ease your way into the stock. You opt for the latter and decide to invest $1,250 each quarter for three years. (See chart for math of dollar cost averaging plan.)

Had you invested your $15,000 in January 2007, you would have purchased 264.46 shares at $56.72 each. When the stock closed for the year in December of 2007 at $13.69, your holdings would only be worth $3,620!

Had you dollar cost averaged into the stock over the past three years, however, you would own 746.21 shares; at the closing price, this gives your holdings a market value of $10,216. Although still a loss, XYZ stock must only go up to $20.10 for you to break even, not $56.72, which would have been required without the dollar cost averaging.

To go a step further, without dollars cost averaging you would break even at $56.72. With dollar cost averaging, you would have turned a profit of $27,326 when the stock hit that price thanks to your lower cost basis ($56.72 sell price - $20.10 average cost basis = $36.62 profit x 746.21 shares = $27,326 total profit.)

Combining the Power of Dollar Cost Averaging with the Diversification of a Mutual FundIndex funds are passively managed mutual funds that are designed to mimic the returns of benchmarks such as the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, STI-ETF, etc. An investor that puts money into a fund designed to mimic the Wilshire 5000, for example, is literally going to own a fractional interest in every one of the five thousand stocks that make up that index. This instant diversification comes with the added bonus. Traditionally, management fees of passive funds are less than one-tenth those of their actively managed counterparts. Over the course of a decade, for example, this can add up to tens of thousands of dollars the investor would have paid in fees to the mutual fund company that, instead, are accruing to his or her benefit.

The dollar cost averaging component reduces market risk, while the index fund investment reduces company-specific risk. This combination can be among the best investment options for individuals looking to build up their long term wealth by having a portion of their portfolio in equities.

Table 1: XYZ with Dollars Cost Averaging



Well, I hope this education will allow you to decide what you should do next, Wilvan. That will be $200 dollars for this 2 hours of consultation because my rate is $100 per hours, Wilvan. I will charge you nothing as this is first consultation. For subsequent consultation, the rate will be $100 per hour....The best financial advisor that you could find is in front of your mirror at home.

Although I have recommended and advise you on lots of matters, it takes more than education, resources and advice for you to be successful. You need to be patience and committed to your plan to achieve a bit of success. It’s that bit of success that will motivate you even more to learn and apply what you learned in life for your future success. Just in case, if you have been waiting the whole day for all the answers. I will like to apologize for the delay to your answers because I believe in giving my best advice to you personally and sincerely from my heart. I needed the time to understand the problems you faced, understanding them and finding the right resources for your education so that you have a higher success rate when you implement your plan.

Last but not least, may I wish you all the success implementing the plan and achieving some results that you can see for yourself. Do consult a proper financial planner or advisor if you are really in doubts. It's you that make the decision to decide if you want to be successful? Enjoy creating wealth with health. It’s has been my pleasure providing consultancy service to you, Wilvan!

Your Sincerely
Sean Toh

P.S. If you find that Credit Plus Health By Sean Toh has empowered you to learn a lots more to take control of your financial & health matters, please share this website with the world, your friends and family members. Click here to Tell Your Friends Now!

P.P.S. Feel free to ask Sean Toh your single most important question about personal investing and health matters that will help you get started on this journey to create wealth for yourself? Ask Sean Toh Now!

Answers For Joseph Smith - @sk Sean Toh - How To Get Rich Before 30 Years Old?

Question For Sean Toh? How Can I Get Rich Before 30?

Hi Sean,

I would like to ask you something. If a person tells himself that he is going to get rich before 30. How does he plan his journey. Does he tell himself that he can do it, work for it or tell himself he can do it and uses some methods to achieve his goals? Hope to hear from you soon. Thank you.

From
Joseph Smith

Here Is The Answers Specially For Your Questions, Joseph! Sincerely From Sean Toh.

Dear Joseph,
It's my pleasure meeting you, Joseph. Hope you have a great day? This simple question can have two answers. Positive people will say that they have a great day whereas negative people will say that they have a bad day. You see positive people see problems and challenges as possibilities and opportunities. They are not afraid of hard works and will overcome difficulties and solve them one at a time and eventually solve the most difficult situation which looked impossible to overcome or solve initially. Ask yourself are you a positive person? If you are not a positive person, you must try to overcome negative attitude. Instant Positive Attitude can help you change your negative attitude if you are ready to listen to what I'm going to share with you.
Are you ready for your first lesson to be rich before 30 years old? You have the answers and biggest control if you could become rich before 30 years old. Rich people normally has very powerful mindset that allows them to achieve their objectives. Here are

6 Secrets For A Successful Open And Powerful Mindset

Secret No.1 – The open mindset always ready to be a life long learner!

Secret No. 2 – The Discipline mindset that is patient!

Secret No. 3 – The leveraging mindset allows you to be super powerful!

Secret No. 4 – The creative mindset think differently from the rest!

Secret No. 5 – A changing mindset will help you overcome adversities and challenges!

Secret No. 6 – A networking mindset that partner for success!

There are other powerful mindsets in The Millionaire Mindset that you can learn to influence yourself to be positive and powerful before taking actions to achieve your goal of being rich before 30 years old.

Having the right mindset, you are now ready for your second lesson to reach your goal of being rich before 30 years old. In order to reach your goal before 30 years old, you have to calculate back from 30 years old and outline a realistic, achievable plan to execute so that you can start making your first dollar and compound it to the amount of wealth you desire. Four Steps To Financial Freedom contains my plans on how I could achieve financial freedom. Four Steps To Financial Freedom will be launched by the end of December 2006 as I'm still fine tuning the website for this powerful self-empowering program and the physical copies are currently under production and will reach Singapore bookstore by year end.

Here are the four steps :

Step1 - The road to financial freedom is to have great health so that you are in good shape to learn.

Step 2 - An open mindset to start learning and practicing what you have learned.

Step 3 - Investing your time in your financial & health education so that you are in control of your life to create wealth to enjoy a better life.

Step 4 - Enjoy the wealth that you have created because you have been taking care of your health.

Secrets Of The Self-Made Millionaires & Multiple Streams Of Income will show you how ordinary people designed an achievable plan to reach their financial success. Start designing a plan that allows you to execute it your goal now!

At this point, ask yourself are you hungry to reach your goal? If the your 'Why' is big enough, then you will find the 'How' to achieve your desired goal. You have a choice to decide if you want to go for it? Most people tends to procrastinate their actions till later and will never start at all and they forever will never be successful. You have to decide what actions you want to take now, Joseph?

Although I have recommended and advise you on lots of matters, it takes more than education, resources and advice for you to be successful. You need to be patience and committed to your plan to achieve a bit of success. It’s that bit of success that will motivate you even more to learn and apply what you learned in life for your future success. Just in case, if you have been waiting the whole day for all the answers. I will like to apologize for the delay to your answers because I believe in giving my best advice to you personally and sincerely from my heart. I needed the time to understand the problems you faced, understanding them and finding the right resources for your education so that you have a higher success rate when you implement your plan.

Last but not least, may I wish you all the success implementing the plan and achieving some results that you can see for yourself. Do consult a proper financial planner or advisor if you are really in doubts. It's you that make the decision to decide if you want to be successful? Enjoy creating wealth with health. It’s has been my pleasure providing consultancy service to you, Joseph!

Your Sincerely



P.S. If you find that Credit Plus Health By Sean Toh has empowered you to learn a lots more to take control of your financial & health matters, please share this website with the world, your friends and family members. Click here to Tell Your Friends Now!

P.P.S. Feel free to ask Sean Toh your single most important question about personal investing and health matters that will help you get started on this journey to create wealth for yourself? Ask Sean Toh Now!

Answers For Stanley Soon - @sk Sean Toh - How To Get Muscular?

Sean's Answers For Stanley Soon

Question For Sean Toh? How To Get Muscular?

Hi Mr. Sean Toh,

I heard about you b4 from the news, you have a great body. I'm 34 yrs old 172cm and 64kg, this year Aug I started to pick up gym. I tried to go gym 2 per wk and gym for 1 hour but until now I hardly can see the result. I'm not sure is it 1 hour too short or is it due to my age and having long time to see the result. I’m not sure which type of supplement is suitable for me. Do I need to increase the hour in gym and how long do I gym per each time? What are the supplements and how do I do to burn my fat at my stomach and build up my shoulder, chest and 6 packs. Hope to hear from you. Please advice. Thank you

Regards
Stanley Soon

Here Is The Answers Specially For Your Questions, Stanley! Sincerely From Sean Toh.

Dear Stanley,

It's my pleasure meeting you. Thanks for disclosing your problems to me. After reading your e-mail and trying to understand the problems that you face. I understand your difficulties in trying to build some muscles and seeing some results after going through all the sessions in the gym.

First of all, I must say that you are a very hardworking person compared to most people. You are actually training well, you are training twice a week and working out for an hour for each gym session.

What I'm going to do is to advise you and guide you to a total approach to your problems by changing the different elements in your training routine and approach it with a solid total approach to achieve a healthier and a better body through proper eating habits of choosing the right food. I'm also going to guide you to the process of building muscles as well as how you can use proper supplementation to aid your muscular growth.

You are the same age as me and I can tell you I share the same experience as I age. I build up fat easily as I age because my metabolism becomes slower when I hit 30 years old. Before 30 years old, I can eat all I want and I will never put on the weight. My first lesson for you is as we age, our metabolism will slow down. Hence, how are we going to boost up our metabolism rate in our body?

Hence, you have to increase your metabolism rate by doing your cardiovascular training. What is cardiovascular training? My second lesson for you is to understand cardiovascular training.
Cardiovascular training is a key piece of the puzzle in achieving the body of your dreams. It is the catalyst in our fitness programs that helps melt away that fat, and at the same time strengthens the most important muscle of them all THE HEART! Improved moods and stress relief are some emotional benefits that can be added to the list. Now gyms are equipped with every cardio machine you can think of, treadmills, stair climbers, gauntlets, rowing machines, bikes, elliptical machines, the list goes on.

Benefits Of A Sound Cardiovascular Routine:

You will burn off excess calories.

Increases the body's ability to burn fat efficiently

Lowers your body fat set point. ( ex. Going from 12% to 9%)

Allows you to increase your present caloric intake to allow the body to BURN FAT while at the same time have enough food and nutrients to BUILD MUSCLE! (Big plus!)

Increases the mitochondria (Energy Factories in our cells) to allow greater endurance and blood flow in our weight training sessions.

Helps improve overall circulation to the whole body

Will increase recuperation by help ridding the body of the waste products of exercise (lactic acid) and allowing for the proper blood flow of vital nutrients and building materials to repair the muscles.

How Many Times & How Long? How many times a week? How long?

This is where, depending on your fitness goals, people will differ. For the person looking to get all the unwanted body fat off, 4-6 days a week at 30-60 minutes will do wonders. If you are not used to cardio, start off slowly with maybe 20 minutes 3 times a week and then slowly build up the frequency and the duration at your own pace.

What Intensity Do I Use?

The best way to burn fat through cardiovascular exercise it to do it at a moderate intensity in your fat burning heart rate zone (60%-75% of Target Heart Rate), for a longer duration (30-60 min).

I do my cardiovascular exercise on my treadmill at home for 45 minutes every day to keep myself lean. Hence, you can plan your at least 3-4 times a week. After dealing with your fat level, I am going to recommend some supplements for aiding your fat burning process as you mentioned that you like to get rid of your fat around your stomach area. These are products use by me, competitive bodybuilders and fitness models to get them in top shape for showing those sexy and beautiful abdominal muscles for cover shot for magazines.

Click here to see my recommended Products For Fat Loss!

Now, I'm going to guide you to the process of building muscles. Weight training and bodybuilding is a totally different form of training. Bodybuilding is different from cardiovascular training, bodybuilding is a form of anabolic training. However, a lots of people overdo it. They are training all the body parts everyday. My third lesson for you is to understand the process of building muscles.

I'm sure that most people who have performed some form of resistance training have wanted to increase their muscle mass at one time or another. But the body is just naturally lazy and will only develop enough muscle to deal with the loads placed upon it. So, if you want to develop more muscle, then you better get ready to do some hard work and prepare for slow gains, for the body will only respond to a combination of resistance training, diet and rest.

The process of muscle growth is based on the idea that lifting breaks down the muscle, and growth results from over-compensating to protect the body from future stress. The human body breaks down and rebuilds all of the muscles every 15 to 30 days. Lifting speeds up the process due to an increased need for fuel. Rebuilding peaks 24 to 36 hours after training and continues at increased rates for as much as 72 hours. Hence, the muscle has a certain amount of energy at any given time, for growth, repair, and movement. The mistakes most people made are they are training too often in the gym. Stanley, you may increase your frequency to 3 times for week for weight training and that is the maximum for you. However, you can do your cardiovascular training 5 times per week. You must break down the muscles cells by training and the next process the muscles will go through is recovering from your workout. Before you make the mistakes most people made is to hit the gym again, you have to give that muscles a time to grow. Understanding muscle growth is the key knowledge to building your muscles.

Click here to see my recommended resources for Understanding Muscles Growth!

The Importance Of Stress On The Body & How Much To Do For Your Weight Training?
Research has shown that in order to increase muscle mass, stress must be put on the body, leading to increased hormone release, and increased flow of nutrients into the muscle, and with rest, muscles will grow. If someone asked me what they should do to add some serious amounts of muscle, I would recommend three sets of 8 to 12 reps with all the weight that you can handle.
Having understood the process of building your muscles. Now, my fourth lesson is to guide you to plan a training program for yourself so that you have a total systematic approach to training your body.

Sean's Training Plan Specially For Stanley!


Those in green are the body parts that you ask me to guide you in your e-mail !

Monday:

Body Parts To be Trained : Chest, Shoulder, Triceps

Exercises for Chest : ( 3 sets of 12 repetitions for each exercise )

1. Incline Bench Press
2. Dumbbell Flye
3. Bench Press

Exercises for Shoulder : ( 3 sets of 12 repetitions for each exercise )

1. Dumbbell Side Raise
2. Barbell Press

Exercises for Triceps : ( 3 sets of 12 repetitions for each exercise )

1. Triceps Pushdown
2. Dipping


Tuesday:

Cardiovascular Training For Keeping Body lean ( 45 mins)

Wednesday:

Body Parts To be Trained : Legs (Quadriceps & Hamstring), Abdominal
Exercises for Legs : ( 3 sets of 12 repetitions for each exercise )

1. Leg Extension
2. Lunges
3. Lying Leg Curls


Exercises for Abdominal : ( 3 sets of 12 repetitions for each exercise )

1. Crunches
2. Lying Leg Raises
3. Twisting With Stick


Thursday:

Cardiovascular Training For Keeping Body lean ( 45 mins)


Friday:

Body Parts To be Trained : Back, Biceps

Exercises for Back : ( 3 sets of 12 repetitions for each exercise )

1. Lat Machine Pulldown
2. Seated Machine Row
3. Upright Row

Exercises for Biceps : ( 3 sets of 12 repetitions for each exercise )

1. Alternating Dumbbell Curl
2. Hammer Curl

Saturday:

Cardiovascular Training For Keeping Body lean ( 45 mins)

Sunday:

Rest & Enjoy Your Favorite food

Stanley, this is a very comprehensive training plan that I planned for you if you want to have an overall beautiful body that is nice to look at as you train every single body parts. This might be just a sample plan that you can follow through. I do not know if you know all the exercises that I have planned for you in this plan? You have to know how to execute all the different exercises before you can get started. Just in case, you do not know the exercises and need to see more training plans.

Click here to see my recommended list of resources for Executing All The Exercises!

As for supplements, I don’t recommend using all the supplements in the market. What is the purpose of supplements? My fifth lesson for you is to educate you how you can use supplements to help you gain and maintain those muscles.

I am often asked the following two questions: a) What do you take and how is it working? and b) But can't you build a better physique from whole food? These two questions go hand in hand. Right now I'm taking protein powder, meal replacement powders and multi vitamins. The answer to both questions is yes. You can build a better body on a real good diet just like the guys back in the 50's did, but to do so can take so much time, energy, and trips to the supermarket.
Supplements make it much easier to get the necessary nutrients to build muscle and can even give you an advantage and enhance your training when taken right and combined with a good diet. In this following article, I'm going to talk about the importance of supplements, their rank of importance (in my opinion), and supplements that can be added to give you the advantage over the guy who refuses to use creatine, but thinks he'll get big from eating frosted flakes after he works out.

Ok, let me first say that the most important aspect of diet is whole foods. You must eat 6 - 7 meals per day and each one should contain protein and carbs. 3 - 4 of these meals should consist of whole foods like chicken, rice and salad. The other 3 - 4 should consist of liquid protein like protein shakes and mrp's. Usually when I pick out an mrp, I try to get the most inexpensive, as most contain about the same ratio of macro-nutrients (carbs/pro/fat) 24/42/2, but still one that is from a reputable company. Right now I am taking EAS Myoplex ($1.60/serving when bought from Bodybuilding.com, $2.74 per serving when bought elsewhere), but I will probably switch to Nutriforce by Sportpharma ($1.44/serving from Bodybuilding.com). As you can easily see it is much cheaper and much better for you than eating at a fast food restaraunt and about the same price as 10 eggwhites and a serving of oatmeal, but much easier to eat and better tasting. Usually I take a packet between classes (I eat breakfast at 7:30, and lunch at 2:30).
Equally important are whey protein powders as they are absorbed faster than mrp's and therefore desirable after working out and before bed. This is exactly when I take them. A scoop after working out, then a scoop and a half before bed. Like mrp's, I try to find one that is inexpensive, has low sodium (under 100mg), low-carbs (under 5-6gm), and from a reputable company. Right now I am taking Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey, but Prolab's 5 lb. Pure Whey and EAS's 100% Whey Protein 5 lb. are high quality and inexpensive also.

I believe that along with the top two, multi-vitamins rank in the top 3 (between protein and multi's it is impossible to distinguish which is more important... they are both essential). Currently I take a generic one-a-day multi four times per day (2 with breakfast and 2 before bed). Make sure you are getting at least 500 mg's of vitamin c and 400 iu's from vitamin E. The other nutrients should be over 100%, remember people that exercise intensely need more nutrients than those who don't. EAS and Prolab make good multi blends.

When you're diet is good and the above three are being used properly, then and only then (considering you have the money, that's why I gave what I thought to be the most inexpensive solutions) should you move on to the next set of supplements. I think the next most important supplement is creatine. While it has never really worked well for me (I'm in the unlucky 10 percentile), almost everyone else I know has gotten phenominal results from this supplement.
When buying creatine it is important to find a reputable brand. This means no GNC blowout sale creatine as it can be very low quality. Personally I think the best creatine products out there (pure creatine, flavored ones are a waste of money in my opinion, as you are paying for dextrose which costs about 30 cents a pound) are Prolab's, AST's, and EAS's.

Stanley, I hope you have a better education on the purpose of supplements for bodybuilding. Learning how to eat properly is also a key contributing factor to how successful you build your body. From my many years of experience of bodybuilding, I advocate you eat 6-7 regular smalls meals spread throughout an interval of 3 hours to supply the body with the essential nutrients for optimum growth. If you find that you need further education on how to plan a proper nutrition for building your body, do not hesitate to find out more information from the library or you can

Click here for my recommended list of resources for Understanding How To Eat Well For Bodybuilding!

Although I have recommended and advise you on lots of matters, it takes more than education, resources and advice for you to be successful. You need to be patience and committed to your plan to achieve a bit of results. When you see your body changing. It’s that bit of results that will motivate you even more to train harder. Just in case, if you have been waiting the whole day for all the answers. I will like to apologize for the delay to your answers because I believe in giving my best advice to you personally and sincerely from my heart. I needed the time to understand the problems you faced, understanding them and finding the right resources for your education so that you have a higher success rate when you implement your plan.

Last but not least, may I wish you all the success implementing the plan and achieving some results that you can see for yourself. Do consult a proper physician before consuming any supplements that you are not sure. It’s has been my pleasure providing consultancy service to you, Stanley!



Your Sincerely



P.S. If you find that Credit Plus Health By Sean Toh has empowered you to learn a lots more to take control of your financial & health matters, please share this website with the world, your friends and family members. Click here to Tell Your Friends Now!



P.P.S. Feel free to ask Sean Toh your single most important question about personal investing and health matters that will help you get started on this journey to create wealth for yourself? Ask Sean Toh Now!

Higher Returns With Entrepreneurial Investing

How To Get Better Return?

Long-term investing in the stock market can offer a passive return around 5-8% if you remain invested for 30 years; but, unfortunately, that return is before taxes and inflation. This is so low because the company founders, backers, early investors, investment bankers, etc., have removed all foreseeable profit from the company before it is ever offered to the public market. There is a spectrum of investments available to you that is dependent on how much effort you are willing to put into educating yourself, networking, and performing your own investment due diligence. If you don't want to do any work, you are going to receive the tiny return of a CD or mutual fund in exchange for supporting many people (in expensive suits) in between you and the actual business that is making money. For people willing to educate themselves and put forth added effort, they will be sitting across the table from business owners and managers; investing directly into a business that pays monthly or quarterly cash returns from 10 to over 20%.

For example, let's suppose that there is a great single-family rehabber in your area. This rehabber buys homes in bad condition, fixes them up, and then quickly sells them for a profit. If he or she were very good, they will begin taking on several simultaneous or larger projects until they run out of money to buy any more homes. Once they run out of money, they start using their credit until that is used up as well. Once a successful entrepreneur is out of cash and credit, the only way to grow is to partner with investors. And to entice these investors, they offer higher than average returns. [I want to make a very important distinction between what I define as a start-up and an on-going business. A start-up is a few people that only have a business idea who want to spend your money instead of theirs ,“ never invest in them! Leave these to the professional evaluation of a venture capital firm. An on-going business is already being run by someone professional who has current customers, suppliers, location, products, or services", these are the types of businesses you want to invest in.

You may be simultaneously networking with local business owners, educating yourself about their industries and the local economy, and checking the reputation of those with whom you are interested in becoming a partner. Introduce yourself as someone that has been watching their success, and indicate that might want to invest in one of their future projects. It could be a business owner who has four retail stores and that you will like to invest with them to open their fifth store; or the owner of a local manufacturer needs some capital to startup selling products overseas; or invest in a developer that splits large plots of land into residential lots; or an investor that packages privately held mortgages. There are many local investing opportunities that offer the investor greater control than buying public stock, along with higher investment returns.

Direct ownership requires a few skills that buying a CD or mutual fund doesn't require, but you will be well compensated for developing these skills. The first skill to learn is some basic accounting because financial numbers is the language of every business. You need the basics to start reading financial statements in order to evaluate potential deals. If your desire is to invest in car dealerships, you need to know the difference between a well-run or a poorly-run dealership from reviewing their financial statements. The next skill is networking to locate deals that will get your phone ringing, business card circulating, and e-mail account filling with potential deals. Private equity and debt financing is normally offered to family and friends, then acquaintances; and this will only happen if you are meeting people and talking about what you are looking for. The third skill is performing due diligence; which means independently verifying as much as possible about the individual, the company, and the transaction so that you can be reasonably confident in getting paid in full. Few local private offerings will have a prospectus written by teams of lawyers and accountants who have dissected the offer, so you, personally, have to do the work. No matter if this is a relative or a friend, there are people who will steal your money and disappear or people that mean well but are unable to follow-through and build a successful business. In either case, your hard earned money is long gone so you should take great pains to get independent third-party verification of all the facts and history that you can.

I personally know a few people that have built their wealth with the high returns from private placement offerings, and wouldn't invest in the stock market due to the lack of control and lower average return. If you have the willingness to put forth the effort, great returns can be yours as well.

By Credit Plus Health

Credit Plus Health's Forum - For Users To Interact As Well As Advertise Your Link, Articles, Products & Services

A Forum For You To Voice Your Opinions

Finally, a forum for users to interact, post your comments about a certain topics about Financial & Health matters. If you have a story to share with other people, come on to this forum and share your stories with other people to make this commnity a better place for all the people.

The forum has two sections, one for Financial topics and one for Health topics. Financial topics - include mutual funds investing, stock investing, real estate investing, saving habits, bond investing, debt consolidation, risk management, diversification, portfolio management, etc. Hence, if you have something to share with others, feel free to post an articles and have a back link to your sites. If you have great products and services, announce to others about your products. This is a forum unlike other forum that restrict how the forum is being used. An open forum is what I would love to encourage so that unlimited opportunities can be created and ideas can be shared with others. As for health topics - include aromatherapy, de-stress techniques, bodybuilding, execises, diet, slimming, recipes, general health, diseases & illnesses, medicines, vitamins, supplements, etc. Share your thoghts and advertise your services here today.

In addition, a topic about books has been created for people to share with others. Your books or E-books or books that are enriching to read, post it here.

Last but not this, it's you that create a better community, come on now and register now! Enjoy creating wealth with health.

Sean Toh

The Idea Behind Dieting - Real Facts

Know The Facts About Dieting

Let’s imagine that you are overweight and you would like to lose several excess pounds. To lose 1 pound of fat, what you have to do is burn off …3,500 calories. That is, over a period of time, you have to consume 3,500 calories less than your body needs. There are several ways you can create that deficit. If you assume that you weigh 150 pounds and that your body at rest needs 1,800 calories per day (150 * 12 = 1,800) to live, here are several examples (some realistic, some not):

You could lie in bed and starve yourself. Since you are lying in bed, you are consuming 1,800 calories per day. Since you are starving yourself, you are taking in no calories. That means that, every day, you create a deficit of 1,800 calories and, approximately every two days, you will lose 1 pound of body weight.

You could consume fewer calories than your body needs. For example, you might choose to consume 1,500 calories per day rather than the required 1,800 by controlling what you eat. That creates a 300-calorie deficit every day. That means that approximately every 12 days, you will lose 1 pound of weight (12 days x 300 calories = 3,600 calories).

You could consume 1,800 calories per day and then choose to jog 2 miles (3.2 km) every day. The jogging would burn about 200 calories per day, and over the course of 18 days you would burn about 1 pound of body weight (18 days x 200 calories = 3,600 calories).

You could consume 2,500 calories per day and run 10 miles per day. You will burn 1,800 calories per day at rest and then 1,000 calories per day running, for a total of 2,800 calories. You are consuming 300 calories fewer than you need, so you would lose a pound every 12 days or so (300 calories x 12 days = 3,600 calories).

As you can see from these examples, the only way to lose fat is to consume fewer calories per day than your body needs. For every 3,500 calories that your body takes from its fat reserves, you lose 1 pound (0.45 kg) of body fat. You can create the deficit either by monitoring and restricting your intake of calories, or by exercising, or both.

The idea behind most diets —everything from Weight Watchers to the grapefruit diet—is simply to help you somehow lower the number of calories that you consume each day. That’s all they do.

By Credit Plus Health

Why High Risk Lead To High Gain?

Are you willing to Take Risk?

There are many myths and facts about investing. Some pseudo facts are that, high return investments are risky and low risk investments are safe. The truth is, there isn't any exact curve that'll give risks as a function of return. Low return investments can be very risky too when fraud happens, for example.

However, the pseudo fact that risk correlates with return have some truth in it. You need to understand what causes it.

Money doesn't make money. People make money. Someone else will have to work on that money so the money can produce more money. Let's call those people workers. Workers here include CEOs, Entrepreneurs, all the way to blue collar workers. Those workers organize various resources, including your money and themselves to maximize their yield.

How much each worker gets depend on supply and demand. Currently, due to centuries of prosecution and genocide, people that are risk taking enough to be entrepreneurs, or love to learn enough to be CEOs are under represented in the gene pool.

The market values the rare. So entrepreneurs and CEOs tend to get paid way higher salary than blue collar workers, which are often investors. The commies, realizing that, switches side by supporting the interests of capital owners against workers' interest by demanding lower CEOs salary.

Here, investors are those who just put their money and do nothing else for the business. If you invest in your business then you are both investors and workers. Your return as an investor is the amount of profit that the workers are willing to share you. For simplicity sake, let's just say that the business is already established with constant revenue.

Say the business earns $100,000.00 a year. Now, the total assets of the business might only be worth $100,000.00. So in a sense, the workers in that business just get 100% ROI per year right? However, even though the total assets of the business are only $100,000.00, the business isn't worth $100,000.00. Any business that yields $100,000.00 per year must be worth $500,000.00 at least.

Here's the catch. Why in the earth are workers willing to sell their businesses to you for a mere $100,000.00? Just like workers have market value, money's salary has market value too. We call it interest rate. The workers know that it's good enough for you to get 20% ROI per year.

Hence, he's not going to sell the business to you for $100,000.00. He's going to sell the business to you for $500,000.00. If you pay $100,000.00 he'll only agree to give you 20% of his business. You see. In a sense, business ventures do not follow the pseudo fact mantra of "High risk high gain low risk low gain". The risk and the gain depend on the skills of the entrepreneurs and not on those curves.

However, when offers come to potential investors, that mantra is used by workers to decide the ROI they feel the investor deserves. If the entrepreneurs realize that they their business is quite safe, he'll simply give investors low ROI. And that's how the low risk low gain high risk high gain mantra becomes a reality in the point of view of investors.

Exceptions to the Norm

If a woman works as a stripper, and gets paid, what's her ROI? Given that she's working on a job that absolutely needs no capital and she gets some money then the ROI is infinite right? I would disagree. You need to take into account her beauty, her boobs size, her sexiness, and her young age as assets too. We can think of the value of the assets as how much we're willing to pay her as a slave. In that case, the ROI is not really infinite. I think it's not much higher than typical ROI. You'll see more of it when discussing ones' worth.

Ones' own business can be thought of as an investment. You can buy a product for $10,000 and sell it for $16,000 and get 60% return within a month for example. Is it risky? No. many people do it every month. However, in a sense, it's not really an investment. If it is, we would have been a billionaire by just keeping on reinvesting. It's business. It's investment that we have to work for. In a sense, the real ROI is not really 60% per month because the business it self has a market value. Just to let you know that with some work, you can indeed get 60% return on some of your money.

However, you got to work on that money rather than just fire and forget. Hence, it's not an investment. It's more of a job like that of a stripper.

Savvy businessmen get huge return and do no work. In that sense, you simply need to recompute the real value of his business. So in a sense, that's not investments either because he can't simply enlarge his earning by infusing more money. The market value of his business is so huge. If you take into account the fair market value of his business as capital and profit as interest, you can get the ROI by dividing the profit with the fair market value. In that case, the ROI will usually drop to the standard amount again.

And then there are risks that's inherent not in the investment but in you. For example, investing offshore tends to be less risky than investing in your own country. Why? Well, you'll never know when the next time you bump into some frivolous lawsuits, or have some religious fanatic committing sweeping against your shops. The places where you live are the places you often end up fighting others. We'll talk about it more when we talk about offshore investing.

Some investing is quite bad. Putting money in the bank can often yield so little return that the return is actually less than the inflation rate. That means you actually lost money every year. In a sense that's risky too because you're guaranteed to lose your money every year. How's that for low risk low yield. However, people do put their money in the bank for the liquidity and to balance the risks on other investments.

Manipulating Yield and Risk

Risk and yield can be manipulated. For the same yield, investors can get less risk by diversifying his money. However, the process is cumbersome. Such processes turn investing into another business again. For the same risk, or for a very low risk, investor can increase yield by leveraging his money with borrowed money. This is usually done in real estate industry. Banks realized that land value are quite stable and hence are usually willing to lend money to land banking industry than most others.

By Credit Plus Health

Ingrown Hairs

What is an ingrown hair?

An ingrown hair is a hair that curls and penetrates the skin with its tip, causing inflammation. Ingrown hairs are more common among people with very curly hair. Most ingrown hairs occur in the beard area.

What are the symptoms of an ingrown hair?

The most common symptom of an ingrown hair is inflammation of the skin, followed by pus formation. However, each individual may experience symptoms differently. The symptoms of an ingrown hair may resemble other skin conditions. Always consult your physician for a diagnosis.

How is an ingrown hair diagnosed?

Diagnosis of an ingrown hair can be confirmed with a medical history and a physical examination.

Treatment for an ingrown hair:

An ingrown hair often heals on its own. However, in the case of chronic ingrown hairs, treatment may include:

allow the hair to grow longer
depilatory (to remove the hair)
electrolysis (to remove the hair)

By Health Fitness InfoCentre

Your MIND and Its SUPER-Powers Hidden Within

All About The Super Power Mind

The human mind is an Infinite wonder. It has the power to transmute your Inner desires into their physical counterparts once focused. What the mind can conceive, You can achieve, just as long as you have the inner Belief and Will Power to back it. For example, take the case of where cancer patients were given 'Placebo Pills'.

These pills were just plain old pills that have absolutely NO healing capabilities what-so-ever.So what, how did they get well? The healing power came from their thoughts. They were told that these pills contained the highest amounts of cancer-fighting ingredients which can effectively cure them in just a matter of months. So the point here is, they naturally assumed in their mind that if they took this pill it would make them better and that their health will be restored.

Do you see how powerful your mind can be?

They simply registered it in their minds that these pills would cure them of their illnesses and in the process, the belief embedded within their subconscious mind became a reality. This is just one example of the SUPER-Powers hidden within your mind. So... now that I have your attention your probably asking yourself this question, "How can I use my mind to achieve my dreams?Well, one of the most effective ways is to use the "as if" principle. And what I mean by that is, act "as if" YOU are the person you want to be. Act "as if" You are already possess whatever it is you have longed for. Simply put, Think, Act and Feel like you've already accomplished what you have dreamed about all your life. This principle is a very Powerful principle if you simply believe. And you'll be much closer to your goal if you're constantly intact with your objective(s).

It's okay to be obsessed with your dreams.

It doesn't mean that if you want to be Superman you'll be able to fly out of a window and into outer space. That would be Crazy! I'm simply saying, "Do what needs to be done". Take ACTION on your dreams.

Let your visions Encourage and Motivate you.

The problem with people in todays world is that they are too pre-occupied with Worries, Anxieties and Negative Emotions. As a resultof this, people are adversely affecting their state of health. White lies unfortunately have become prevalent nowadays in order to ease the burdens or to persuade others to do things that they thought are unattainable.

A famous person once said, "Whenever you think you can or you can't, you're right!"

If you think you are poor, then you are; unless you properly condition your thoughts to a 'Positive Mindset'. I know it's hard to think "Rich" if your environment is not conducive to such way of thinking. Use your imagination and 'Visualize' in your head that your house is a mansion and your old car is a Porsche,...

Well, I think you get the picture.

There is absolutely NO limit to what the mind can achieve but You have to combine Belief, Will Power, and ACTION with positive thinking in order to achieve your inner desires.

By Credit Plus Health

Stress In The Workplace

Manage Your Stress

According to the Australian Council of Trade Unions’ (A.C.T.U.) 1997 survey, fifty per cent of workers had suffered some form of stress at work in a 12-month period. The statistics in care professions were even higher, with the Department of Education and Training in Western Australia reporting in its 2002 Attitudes To Teaching Survey that seventy per cent of teachers identified workplace stress as a cause for concern in their teaching positions.

Stress in the workplace is becoming a major concern for employers, managers and government agencies, owing to the Occupational Health and Safety legislations requiring employers to practice ‘duty of care’ by providing employees with safe working environments which also cover the psychological wellbeing of their staff.

One of the costs, for employers, of work place stress is absenteeism, with the A.C.T.U. reporting that owing to stress, nearly fifty per cent of employees surveyed had taken time off work. Other negative effects were reductions in productivity, reduced profits, accidents, high rates of sickness, increased workers’ compensation claims and high staff turnover, requiring recruiting and training of replacement staff.

While a certain amount of stress is needed to motivate individuals into action, prolonged stress can have a huge impact on overall health. More than two-thirds of visits to doctors’ surgeries are for stress-related illnesses. Stress has been linked to headaches, backaches, insomnia, anger, cramps, elevated blood pressure, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and lowered resistance to infection. For women, stress is a key factor in hormonal imbalances resulting in menstrual irregularities, PMS, fibroids, endometriosis and fertility problems. Stress can also be a factor in the development of almost all disease states including cancer and heart disease.

Each profession has its own unique factors that may cause stress; below are some causes of stress that cross many professions:

· Increased workload
· Organizational changes
· Lack of recognition
· High demands
· Lack of support
· Personal and family issues
· Poor work organization
· Lack of training
· Long or difficult hours
· Inadequate staff numbers and resources
· Poor management communication
· Lack of control or input

So what can be done to effectively manage workplace stress?

Organizations can:

· Educate their employees to recognise the signs of stress.
· Where possible, give their employees the chance to be involved in decisions and actions that affect their jobs.
· Improve employer-employee communications.
· Provide employees with opportunities to socialise together.
· Be understanding of employees’ personal and family responsibilities.
· Ensure employee workloads suit their capabilities and resources (provide more training and resources if not).
· Provide support (internally or externally) for employees who have complex stress issues.
Employees can reduce their overall stress by:
· Regularly exercising, as this releases ‘happy hormones’.
· Eating a healthy diet, as stress depletes vital nutrients.
· Getting adequate rest.
· Using tea and lunch breaks to read, listen to a relaxation CD or have a five-minute power-nap.
· If appropriate, playing relaxing music at work and burning aromatherapy oils.
· Being more organized. Get up earlier to have more time.
· Delegating responsibility where possible. Say no!
· Taking time out to laugh by telling someone a joke. Start a laughter group: by standing in a circle and all forcing a big laugh, it will soon become real!
· Avoiding caffeine and sugar. Although this may provide an instant lift it later depletes the body of energy and nutrients.
· Taking time to do things that bring enjoyment and pleasure.
· Making the work environment pleasurable. Have relaxing sounds in the form of music or a water fountain. Have enjoyable smells by burning candles or aromatherapy oils. Hang beautiful pictures or posters on the walls; have photos or flowers on the desk.
· Taking care of their overall health and wellbeing by practising good self-care.
· Keep a journal that monitors dates and times of stress to detect re-occurring patterns and to help you discover changes you may need to make.

Sometimes trying to implement change (even for the better) can itself cause stress and prevent a person remaining motivated. In this case it’s important to get support for your stress from a counsellor, doctor, naturopath, friend, peer or life coach who specializes in stress issues.

The benefits of a systematic and joint approach to reducing work stress are:

· Increased productivity
· Decrease in absenteeism
· Improved morale
· Decrease in workers’ compensation claims
· Reduction in workplace accidents

The most important benefit in reducing workplace stress is that it will promote a pleasant work environment for all.

By Credit Plus Health

PRO Bodybuilding Website Listing

Looking For Your Favorite Bodybuilders?

Here you can find the web site of your favorite bodybuilder or fitness athlete. There you can find more information and contact them!

Go to the bottom of the link of Sean's Recommemdation For Successful Bodybuilding Success, " Network Of World Professional Bodybuilders Websites" and you find websites of top professional male and female bodybuilders like Ronnie Coleman, Jay Culter, Shawn Ray, Kevin Levrone, Cory Everson, Lenda Murray and other bodybuilder stars!

Look for your favorite Bodybuilders now!

Sean Toh
Credit Plus Health

China Property Investment - Where there's Noise, there's Money!

Information For Those Interested To Invest Real Estate In China

Experienced overseas property buyers all know the positive benefits a new airport can have on a region. Some analysts state that property prices can rise by as much as 25% when a location becomes more accessible. Imagine as an investor how you would feel buying property in an emerging market that has poor communications. The news of the construction or expansion of the airports would have you jumping for joy. That is exactly what is taking place in China today.

China is about to make property investors very happy people. According to the China Aviation Administration China (CAAC) Chinese airports handled 240 million passengers in 2004. This is a rise of 38.8% from the previous year. The CAAC estimate that by 2010 Chinas airports will handle 500 million passengers. China airports are set to handle this rise in capacity with a series of expansion projects already underway. Beijing Capital International Airport is expanding with a third passenger terminal. The brand new terminal will be finished before the 2008 Olympics and will be able to handle 60 million passengers. Baiyun International Airport has already received the Chinese expansion treatment. Shanghai's Pudong airport is receiving a second terminal with more planned in the future. The Xianyang International Airport in Shaanxi has ambitious plans for a new runway and terminal.

China investment property

Those who are considering investment in the region must surely view these infrastructure improvements in a positive light. The Chinese real estate industry is about to boom. Foreign investors are encouraged to invest in China and are protected by law. The costs associated with buying property in China are low at only 4.5%, much lower than many European countries. Personal assets and properties are recognised and protected by new Chinese law.
So where's there is noise there is money!

By Credit Plus Health

Ladies: Guys Like This Hairstyle Best

How To Get Your Guys To Like You?

It took a bunch of serious researchers from Florida State University to figure this out, so listen up. When it comes to women's hair, men like this the best: long, thick, and brown.

Why? It's biological. Men are programmed to find a fertile mate, and lead researcher Dr. Kelley Kline thinks long, thick hair is a signal that a woman is strong, young, and healthy. This is the first research to look solely at hair length--and no other facial features--to measure female sex appeal.

The study: Fifty men and 76 women whose average age was 27 rated the attractiveness of women who were depicted in six different photographs. Three of the photos were of the same young, Caucasian woman who had the same facial expression, but her hair was altered by computer to short, medium, and long lengths. Short was really short--cut close to the head and above the ears. Medium length was just a bit below the ears. Long was at least eight inches below the shoulders.

The results: Both men and women found the long hair to be "overwhelmingly" more attractive than the short or medium-length hair. When women were asked to rate the length of men's hair, the vast majority preferred short or very short haircuts. Kline says men with long hair may be perceived by women as being less virile.

There was one other interesting finding: Men preferred brunettes over blondes. "At least in our study, gentlemen do not prefer blondes. They prefer brunettes," Kline told Reuters. "Its kind of an interesting finding, considering that in our society we concentrate on the blonde. It's so pervasive.

"The study findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Society in Atlanta, Ga.

By Health Fitness InfoCentre

Hedge Fund 101 - Make Money With Hedge Funds

Include Hedge Fund In Your Investment Portfolio

Investors are always looking for the best investments that will yield the most profit. Any investor who can afford the extra cost should consider investing in Hedge Funds. Hedge Funds were started in 1949 by Alfred Winslow Jones, who pioneered non-traditional investment strategies. Jones innovated this new investment strategy by selling short stocks, while buying other stocks (long stocks).

Hedge Funds are very similar to Mutual Funds, except that there are fewer regulations on Hedge Funds. As a result, Hedge Funds usually require a much larger investment.

What Are Hedge Funds?

Hedge Funds can help investors make more money with higher-risk investments. Other techniques used in Hedge Funds include “leverage,” which is borrowed money to trade in addition to the capital provided one’s investors. The usage of Hedge Funds also requires an incentive fee. An incentive fee is a fee based on a portion of the client’s profits as opposed to a fixed percentage of assets. This fee is then invested and ideally will gain the investor more money.

Generally, companies are the owners of Hedge Funds because most people do not have enough money to meet the minimum investment required to have a Hedge Fund. In 2004, Hedge Fund investments passed the $1 trillion dollar mark. In mid-2004 about 39 companies shared the total Hedge Fund values of 1.1 trillion dollars.

Common Techniques for Investing

There are also other techniques for investing with Hedge Funds. One way is to invest in a company just before a major merger. If one gains knowledge of a merger, and buys large amounts of share in a company that is about to merge, the shares go up greatly once the merger occurs. This is, unfortunately, a very high-risk investment strategy because some mergers may not occur.

Other techniques include selling short, which is where one invests in seemingly undervalued securities, trading commodity and FX contracts, and taking advantage of the separation between the current market price and the highest purchase price in events such as mergers.

Why are Hedge Funds Beneficial?

Hedge Funds are also beneficial because of their high level of security. Hedge Funds are private, between individuals, and do not have to be made known to the government or other companies. Currently, Hedge Funds do not need to be registered with the SEC. Hedge Funds are also based in places with less regulations (I.E. The Cayman Islands, The Virgin Islands, etc). However, one drawback of Hedge Fund security is the fact that it looks suspicious to have secretive investments. For this reason, many companies and investors are criticized for being involved with Hedge Funds.

Conclusion

Hedge Funds are a very risky investment, with a large payoff. In order to invest in Hedge Funds, one must be prepared to make a very large investment. Hedge Funds are similar to Mutual Funds, except there are less regulations on Hedge Funds. Less regulations lead many people to be suspicious of investors who invest in Hedge Funds. However, if one is willing to take the risk, Hedge Funds can certainly pay off!

By Credit Plus Health

How To: Whiten Your Teeth

"Say cheese. Now, smile just a bit more... that's it... click ."

You'd probably be able to smile much more if you weren't so insecure about your teeth, which are beginning to look more like eggs yolks than whites.

With these tips on how to make your not-so-pearly whites, whiter, and how to ensure they don't turn yellow to begin with, you'll be smiling bright in no time.

say ahhh...Before trying any kind of tooth whitening procedure, it's strongly suggested that you visit your dentist for a consultation.

Your dentist can recommend what is referred to as a chair-side treatment, which is an expensive but effective way to have your teeth professionally bleached. This "power bleach" requires one sitting at the dentist's office and lasts from 30 to 120 minutes (depending on the technique), and comes with a hefty price tag (from $390 - $1,200 USD), but assures that you leave the dentist with white teeth, once and for all.

This is the safest method, but may cause your teeth to be more sensitive after the treatment.
over-the-counterThere are at-home bleaching kits that are available over-the-counter, but the American Dental Association (ADA) does not recommend these. Although they are less expensive than the chair-side treatment, they are not as effective and must be used daily for approximately 2 weeks.

While this method is less expensive, there are costs associated with its use: side-effects include irritation of the gums, due to the gel, and whitening of the gums.

custom-made kit

If you don't want to spend the price of professional bleaching, you can still use the method at home, but rather than an over-the-counter kit, you can have your dentist prepare a custom-made tray for your mouth and provide you with the tooth whitener.

This is as safe as the first option, but while it is less expensive (at $300 - $500 USD), it takes longer. At the end of the treatment, you are required to visit the dentist again for a follow-up appointment.

porcelain veneers

Another option altogether is having your dentist custom-make porcelain laminate veneers to cover your teeth. These will be permanently bonded to your teeth, and enable you to eat the same foods as before (except for excessive sugar, of course). This option is expensive ($700 - $1200 USD per tooth!), and requires several visits to the dentist (might not be too bad if the assistant is cute).

Now you're probably guessing that tooth-whitening pastes can bleach your teeth... well, they don't exactly bleach your teeth, they only prevent your teeth from becoming more stained.
the pastiesWhile every whitening toothpaste on the market drills us with commercials on how sparkling our teeth become with these products, they do not actually whiten teeth -- they only prevent teeth from becoming yellow, especially when faced with uncontrollable factors such as aging.

This is an inexpensive and effective way to prevent your teeth from needing other tooth whitening methods in the first place.

Thanks to the baking soda found in whitening toothpastes, this is an effective prevention method, which brings us to another one altogether.

bake that soda

This may not be the most effective method, but rumor has it that brushing with a mixture of baking soda and water, in addition to brushing with regular minty toothpaste, can help prevent teeth from becoming stained.

coke is it

While you may need your daily fix of cola, coffee, tea, and a cigarette in the morning, these products tarnish your teeth horrendously. Red wine may be great at the end of the day (along with coffee, cola and a cigarette), but it also stains your teeth.

you are what you eat

Maintaining a healthy, balanced diet has many advantages in the way of keeping your body in good shape and strong -- and this includes your teeth. Refrain from eating too much candy, chocolate and other sugar-based products, as these cause tooth decay.

antibiotics

Some forms of antibiotics can cause your teeth to become yellow; since you can't avoid taking these if they are prescribed to you, consult your dentist if staining does occur.

Taking care of your teeth is essential in your fight to keep them white, especially against aging and uncontrollable dental problems. Floss daily, and brush your teeth at least twice a day. This will remove the plaque from building up and will keep your smile healthy.

see your dentist

And finally, make sure to visit your dentist twice a year, to get your full cleaning, cavity-check, and whatever professional dental care you may need.

It's very important to visit your dentist before taking any actual tooth whitening measures yourself.

A final note: As frustrating as it may be to have stained, yellowish teeth, never try to scrape the stains off yourself.

With these helpful tooth-whitening tips, you'll be smiling all the way to... well, everywhere.

By Health Fitness InfoCentre

Does Masturbation Protect Men’s Health?

Question

What’s your take on masturbation?-- Richard

Answer

Masturbation is a normal sexual behavior that just about everybody engages in - 95 percent of males and 89 percent of females, according to current statistics. For many people, however, it remains a taboo subject and a practice that is still regarded as perverse or immoral. As recently as the late 19th century, medical doctors condemned masturbation as destructive to mental health, even recommending amputation of the penis as a way to cure the habit in compulsive males.

Now it appears that masturbation is not only normal, it may be healthy and protective, especially for young men. A team of scientists in Australia found that men who ejaculate more frequently between the ages of 20 and 50 are less likely to develop prostate cancer. The protective effect seems greatest for those in their 20s. Results from the study, published in the August 2003 issue of BJU International showed that men who ejaculated more than five times per week were one-third less likely to develop aggressive prostate cancer in their later years. The result contradicts an older belief that high frequency of sexual activity increases the incidence of prostate cancer. The key difference is that earlier research defined sexual activity as sexual intercourse alone rather than focusing on the number of ejaculations.

The Australian team speculated that potential infections associated with intercourse might raise the risk of prostate cancer, whereas masturbation allows the prostate, together with the seminal vesicles, to discharge secretions and prevent the buildup of any carcinogens that may be concentrated in them. (Canine studies have demonstrated that certain cancer-causing compounds found in cigarette smoke do concentrate in prostatic fluid.)

In my view, masturbation can be a normal expression of sexuality in both men and women. When done compulsively or addictively it can be irritating or exhausting, but in moderation it is medically harmless and may even be healthy. If the Australian findings are confirmed, they should become part of the advice doctors give men for protecting their reproductive systems.

By Andrew Weil, M.D.
Credit Plus Health

Model Of The Week - Anna Kournikova

One of The Most Searched People In The World

Why We Like Her?

Why do we like her? More like why do we love her? This Russian tennis player is only a backhand away from making us drool when seeing her do virtually anything.

Why Is She Famous?

Aside from single-handedly making women's tennis popular again, Anna Kournikova is one of the most searched people on the Internet, thanks to her amazing looks. She proves that you don't need to be a star tennis player to be one of the most highly-endorsed athletes, nor do you need killer tennis skills to have a deadly Internet virus named after you.

Overall Rating At AskMen.com - 87

Anna Kournikova isn't just a tennis player or a pretty blonde. Anna is an icon; a symbol of modern society's values; a tool used to draw otherwise indifferent men (and women too, surprisingly enough) to women's tennis -- the "lite" version of the testosterone-driven men's tennis tour.

Anna's Quote

"I'm like a menu at an expensive restaurant, you can look at me, but you can't afford me."-Anna Kournikova

Bio Data Of Anna

Anna Kournikova (née Anya Kournikova) was born on June 7, 1981, in Moscow, Russia, to Sergei and Alla. Her father, a lecturer at the sports university in Moscow and a part-time tennis coach, and mother, did not encourage Anna to play tennis for the fame, but rather for the health benefits of the sport.

By Credit Plus Health

8 Penny Stocks to Avoid

What You Should Know About Penny Stock

There are many good penny stock investments available, which could turn a small amount of capital into a small fortune very quickly. However, to discover these you need to know what to look for and what to avoid. When searching for that one big payoff, steer clear of the following examples.

The Phone Salesman - Anyone who is attempting to sell you investments over the phone should be considered an enemy. They have high-pressure sales tactics, and effective, believable arguments. However, they are not doing you any favors, no matter how good they make an investment sound.They are operating in their best interest to dump over-the-counter stock on you, and the money you pay in will go into their own pockets, or the pockets of their company.There has never been a need for good companies that are going places to resort to these type of tactics, but there has always been a need for poor, sinking, or shady companies to do so. If you choose to ignore this advice you deserve what happens to your investment.You may also run into difficulty trying to find a buyer for your shares once you decide it is time to sell.

Very Low Volume Stocks - Without much trading activity it becomes increasingly difficult to buy or sell for the prices you want. As well, it becomes nearly impossible to get an understanding of where the stock price is heading, or to calculate fair valuations for the company’s stock price.Not only that, but companies subject to low trading volume generally do not have a lot of positive interest.

The Hot Tip Stock - There are actually professional promoters who make a very good living generating and nurturing rumors about some penny stock that’s guaranteed to go through the roof. The entire concept hinges on the rumor being spread from person to person, at the office, over the phone, or at social venues.The promotional ploys can be very costly for investors who get involved without special knowledge about the company or the actions of the promoter. In most cases if a stock really is going through the roof you won’t hear a word about it, because a select few individuals will be very intent on keeping the information to themselves.

Guaranteed Performance - If a stock is guaranteed to go up, it will almost always go down. Nothing is ever certain, especially on the stock market. When someone guarantees certain performance out of a stock, they may be a promoter, naive investor, self-serving broker, or have heard the guarantee from another source. In any case, don't believe them. Instead check into the company yourself and if you feel it is a good investment, you may want to proceed.

Sinking Ships - When a stock has dropped a lot you may think that, "it can’t go any lower," or that it is "a good bargain." Especially with penny stocks, you need to avoid this type of thinking because many sinking ships don’t ever rebound, and they can go lower, and they aren’t good bargains just because they cost less than before.

Commission Free - If you are interested in getting stock commission free you may think you are saving money, but it generally means that you are buying over the counter stock directly from a promoter or the company.Either way, they take their own invisible ‘commission’ from you, either by selling to you for an arbitrary amount which is unfairly high, or selling to you for the asking price rather than the bid price based on their own current valuations.

International Penny Stock - We’re not talking about living in the U.S. and steering clear of Canadian stock, or vice versa. We are talking about penny stock issues from Africa, Australia, European, Russian, or South American penny stock markets. First of all, you won’t be too impressed with the level of investor protection and exchange honesty in some of these regions, and you most certainly won’t be too impressed with the broker fees you incur when trying to purchase internationally.Besides, if you can’t find good penny stock investments in North America, you won’t be able to find them anywhere else either.

Warrants and Rights - These are not technically stocks, but instead are derivative investments based on an underlying company's shares. However, they often appear like penny stocks because they sometimes get listed in the stock pages, and often trade for pennies.It is unlikely that you will accidentally purchase derivatives, but make sure you know what you are trying to buy by understanding the listing criteria of the paper you are reading, or verifying your purchase with your broker.

By Credit Plus Health