By Kent Harlan

There are a wide range of options that healthcare providers can utilize to acquire much-needed equipment. This article summarizes these choices and offers advantages and disadvantages to each option.

Options for equipment acquisition:

1. Cash Payments
This option assumes that there is enough cash available.

Advantages:
* It’’s simple and quick.
* Everybody accepts cash
* Cash purchases minimizes paperwork and may help reduce purchase price.

Disadvantages
* It’’s generally not a good use of funds because it ties up much needed capital that can be utilized in other profitable ways.

In today’’s investment market, you can often obtain a yield on your money in excess of the interest charged for financing the equipment purchase. The only rationale for paying cash for the purchase is if your funds are in a low-paying account whose yield is less than the interest on a loan or lease. In that case, taking the funds from a low-yield account in order to avoid paying 9% or 10% is a sound financial decision. Of course, having significant funds in a 3% account is not wise cash management.

2. Financed Purchase
In this method of purchase, a lender provides funds for the purchase and generally obtains some form of lien or other encumbrance on the equipment until the funds have been repaid.

Advantages
* It does not deplete cash flow. Usually a 10% to 20% down payment of the total purchase price is required. In many cases, the income generated by the equipment can exceed the payments.)
* Funds not expended for a cash purchase can possibly earn a higher-income yield than the interest rate of the loan.

Disadvantages
* Interest rates may be high.
* The down payment may be high.
* The equipment is encumbered by a third party unless the funds are borrowed from a source other than a financial institution such as a pension fund.

3. Leasing
A lease offers an alternative to traditional financing. With a lease, the equipment is owned by the leasing company. The practice makes payments to the leasing company in exchange for being able to use the equipment (i.e., essentially rental payments). Leases can be closed-ended, in which case the leasing entity retains the equipment at the end of the lease term. There are also open-ended leases, where at the end of the lease term a predetermined amount is paid to the leasing entity, and the practice attains ownership of the equipment.

As a general rule, the higher the residual value (balance owed) at the end of the lease, the lower the monthly payments.

Advantages
* Generally little or no down payment is required.
* Leases are often supported by the equipment manufacturer, which can lower the interest rate or the residual payment (the amount required to attain ownership of the equipment at the end of the lease term).
* Leasing can give you the ability to obtain more purchasing power from a given amount of available cash.
* Sometimes equipment becomes obsolete in a relatively brief period of time. A closed-ended lease may allow you to use the equipment during its useful life and return it to the leasing entity at the end of the lease term. This arrangement could result in lower total expenditures than an outright purchase would have required.

Disadvantage
* In general, more interest is paid than in any other form of acquisition.

Other Leasing Considerations

1. Trade: An equipment manufacturer may have a lease program that makes it easy for the lessee to upgrade. The program can make sense for the lessee if the lessor grants significant credit for the older equipment. This can alter the calculation of the best option for acquisition.
2. Supported Leases or Financing: An equipment manufacturer may support the interest rate of a lease or financing plan. They may lower lease payments by increasing the residual value of a closed-ended lease. Again, these special offers may significantly alter the assessment of the best acquisition option.
3. Purchase Price: No matter what financing option you choose, do not ignore the purchase price. Negotiate your best price before you evaluate financing. Do not fall into the trap that automobile dealers have used for years. You should always start with the purchase price and then move to the terms (whether lease or purchase).
4. Beware of the lease that’’s not a lease. The Internal Revenue Service may consider an open-ended lease with a purchase option to be a purchase contract rather than a lease. The impact of this is that the lease payments may not be deducted as expenses. instead, the equipment will be capitalized and depreciated. Have your professional financial advisor evaluate the financing contract to assess your level of risk.
5. Each Transaction Is Unique: Each piece of equipment you are considering for acquisition must be evaluated in the context of the following:
a. Purchase price
b. Projected useful life of the item
c. Your current cash position and monthly cash flow
d. Your current and projected future tax position
e. Financing incentives offered by the vendor
f. Careful evaluation of the lease or financing contract to ensure that it meets the requirements for the method you plan to use to report the equipment in your tax filings
g. Any other considerations required by your expert financial and tax advisors

Discussion
In today’’s financial and tax environment, many of the factors that favored one type of financing over another have disappeared. What remain are the purchase price and financing terms, whether the transaction is called a lease or a purchase. Keep in mind that today’’s market may not be as good as it was in the past. In the final analysis, you may find that purchasing is cheaper than the interest cost on a lease.

For equipment that you anticipate retaining at the end of the lease or financing term, you must evaluate several factors. The purchase price, down payment, monthly payments, and total payments are key. These factors can be impacted by incentives from the vendor, but ultimately the same evaluation needs to be done

If you are just starting out, your current cash position may dictate that you finance the equipment. Remember to get advice from a professional lease broker to help you sort out the details of the equipment lease.

About The Author

Kent Harlan has been a CPA since 1984 and is the owner of Ozarks Capital Funding, a Missouri-based company offering financing in the areas of accounts receivable factoring, equipment leasing, asset based lending, and financing for healthcare providers.
http://ocflink.com
kenth@ocflink.com

By Andrew Bicknell

Home owner insurance is protection you buy from an insurer to protect your house in the unlikely event it is damaged or destroyed. It allows you to transfer the risk associated with owning a home to the insurance provider and give you peace of mind that your most valuable asset is, your home, is protected.

Choosing an Insurance Company

Before choosing for a specific home insurance plan or insurance company, it’’s wise for the buyer to do a little research whether on the internet or with the help of a specialist. A few cost saving hints include taking the time to conduct comparison shopping, having one insurance company that meets all your insurance needs and improving the security of your home. One of the most popular ways to find discount home owner insurance is to purchase multiple insurance policies from the same company. You may be able to purchase home insurance, as well as auto insurance and even life insurance from the same insurance company. If your current insurance company does not offer such discounts, you may want to consider shopping around for an insurance company that does.

Insurance Policy Coverage’’s

It is possible to own a home without having home owner insurance coverage if you do not have a mortgage, but many people see this as too big of a risk. Be sure to get the coverage you need, changing it after an emergency happens will not cover that emergency. For example, if an individual does not have earthquake coverage, and an earthquake strikes the area, the policy cannot be changed to include earthquake damage that has already occurred, but they can change the policy to prevent any further damage caused by earthquakes. Read through your policy carefully to see what is and isn”t covered. Remember, most policies don”t cover floods though, so if you need this type of home owner insurance, you”ll need to buy a separate policy.

Premiums for home insurance policies will vary from state to state and also depend on the coverage that is offered. Different states also have different laws on the books that affect the types of coverage’’s you are required to get which can also affect the cost. Before you decide on the amount of coverage that you need, you should know the value of your home and personal possessions.

Home Owners Insurance Quotes

Before going and accepting the 1st offer which comes around, it’’s smarter to search around for a number of different insurance coverage firms and find out which coverage policy is best for you, because the various firms will present various policy plans and variable promotions. Quotes are offered free of cost by different insurance companies, and through these quotes you can choose the policy and coverage that works best for your situation. Obviously, the best thing about getting insurance quotes from online sites is that you will get numerous quotes all by filling out one application. Not to mention the fact that when you get several home owner insurance quotes you can then compare them for the best price.

As you can see, picking home owner insurance is not as hard as you may think. The best home owner insurance is a policy that offers a wide range of coverage options. You will want to take the time to understand what home owner insurance is all about before you purchase a new policy.

About The Author

To learn more about home owner insurance visit the website Home Insurance Quotes at http://home-insurance.home-choices-net.com

By john mce

Getting a job in banking can be a drawn out process as recruitment cycles often take up to 6 months and the top banks may look at hundreds of candidates for a single post and go through 2 or more interviewing stages often in addition to a competency assessment. If you already work in banking or the finance sector you may be familiar with the recruitment process and if you”re looking for a change of career within banking this article will discuss briefly the best approach to successfully finding a new job.

Agency or direct

At the start of your journey to find a perfect banking job you will usually be faced with 2 routes (although you can take both simultaneously). Whether you should use a recruitment agency to source suitable opportunities for you or go direct to financial institutions with your applications.

Using an agency

Agencies are widely used in financial recruitment particularly for skilled banking jobs as the recruitment process is a labour intensive one often comprising of weeks of processing under qualified or inappropriate candidates before arriving at a list of high quality potential employees. The banking sector more than most appreciate the added value of dealing with an agency for some or all of their recruitment rather than managing their own extensive human resources based recruitment programme.

Recruitment agency consultants are driven to match the best candidates to the clients banking jobs, usually more so than the person to whom responsibility falls within the client institution- often the HR department or busy heads of department who may not have the required time to properly process high volumes of applications.

For the candidate, using a recruitment agency can also offer some distinct advantages over applying directly to individual companies in response to banking job vacancy advertisements. An agency will be working closely with the banks with a range of vacancies both current and upcoming available. If an advertised vacancy does not prove to be suitable your recruitment consultant will often be able to recommend an alternative position to apply for.

If you have the skills and experience that an agency is looking for they will actively seek out new opportunities for you as they become available, this can take much of the time consuming work out of applying for a new job in banking as agencies will only put candidates forward for positions they feel they are well suited for and capable of obtaining. Agencies can also deal with the initial contacting of the financial institutions and get interviews arranged on your behalf.

Going direct

Many applicants prefer to go direct to recruiters rather than going through a specialist recruitment agency as this allows them to make direct contact with the companies they are applying for and pick their applications based on job vacancies posted by the banking institutions.

The easiest way to find job vacancies if you want to apply straight to a recruiter are to search job listings on online job boards, newspapers and corporate websites. The downside of applying for jobs this way is the time it can take to find appropriate advertisements, approach the recruiter, submit applications and arrange interviews often based on limited information about the position you are applying for.

Choosing an agency

If you choose to use an agency to find you a new job in banking it is important to approach an agency who understand the unique and often specialist nature of the banking industry and have direct relationships with the banks themselves. Banks will often not deal with recruitment agencies whom they do not have a working relationship with due to their HR procedures. So make sure the agency representing you are talking to the banks or financial institutions directly and are on their preferred suppliers lists.

The main advantage of an agency is having an agent working on your behalf so make sure you get on with your agent and you feel comfortable with them representing you in front of potential employers- if an agent expects you to lie about your skills or experience on a CV its unlikely they”re working for your best interests.

Writing a CV

The CV is a critical part of successfully applying for banking jobs as its all an employer has to go on when deciding whether or not to invite you to interview. As the people up against you for banking jobs are going to have often very similar skills and experience due to the nature of the industry your CV has to not only be watertight in terms of the information it gets across but also make you stand out from a crowd of other financial experts. Banking is still a formal institution and you resume should reflect this, but some creativity will help to show your character and the effort you”ve put into your application- think about ways of presenting your CV with a unique personal touch, if you”re photogenic a picture of yourself is often a good start (don”t forget to smile!).

Again a recruitment agent should be able to help you get your CV up to a standard where they are confident it will be acceptable by the banks and financial institutions whom will be recruiting. There are lots of template CV’’s and CV writing advice available online by searching for ”banking job CV”.

The interview

Interview skills are a subject in their own right and beyond the scope of this article. There’’s a lot of things to remember you should and shouldn”t be doing in an interview but most of these are common sense things about the way you want to present yourself. The best advice ultimately is make sure you do yourself justice, listen to the interviewers and think about the sort of things they want to hear from you. They want to find out about your personality and character as much as anything else so show you are a person they”d like to work with.

Again a Google search for ”interview tips” will give you plenty of helpful advice and a recruitment agent will also help to prep you before setting you up with interviews.

Good luck finding your dream job in banking.

About The Author

John McElborough writes for Commercial Finance People, a specialist financial recruitment agency specialising in banking jobs, asset finance jobs and factoring jobs for top financial institutions across the UK and worldwide. http://www.commercialfinancepeople.co.uk

By Jim Corkern

Under most home insurance policies, mold is one of the few things (along with rust, rot, and fungi) that are generally uncovered unless it is the result of something that is covered by the homes insurance policy, such as flood damage and the water caused by a burst pipe. However, mold that has been caused by leaks, condensation, or flooding (in the case where the homeowner does not have flood insurance) is not covered.

Even though mold has been around for thousands of years and will continue to be for thousands more, the amount of mold claims that have been submitted to insurance companies have increased significantly. Insurers are beginning to insert some language into their policies that is very specific as to what is covered and what is not. Some companies may soon decide to offer to cover damages caused by mold and will raise the price of the policy and others may choose to continue to completely exclude mold from the homeowners insurance policy. In order to guard against the failings of your homeowners insurance, removing mold and preventing it from returning is essential if you wish to retain the value of your home and your health.

Anyone who owns or rents property should be aware that mold should be cleaned up as soon as it is discovered and that mold cannot grow without a decent access to moisture. Repairing water damage, the cause of excess humidity, and other leaks should be done immediately in order to minimize the amount of mold that will grow in that area of the property. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends that people take measures to safeguard not only their properties, but also their health by making swift work of the mold growing where they live and/or work and taking appropriate measures to make sure it does not return.

Your home should not be completely air tight and a home that is cannot breathe. Homes that air cannot flow freely through are breeding grounds for mold because the air is allowed to become stagnant. You should have vents installed in the bathrooms, laundry room, and kitchen in your home.

Wood and other cellulose-based debris should not be placed in any crawl spaces or against the side of the home because mold eats these and any other organic-based material.

Carpet should not be installed anywhere in the home where moisture should be a problem such as the bathroom where toilets or bath tubs can overflow or in the laundry room where the washer could leak out into the floor.

About The Author

Jim Corkern is a writer and respected contributor to the Water damage restoration and mold remediation Industry. Visit his sites for more information.
http://www.floodedbasementchicago.info and
http://www.floodct.info