Fortune Watch

The cost of air tickets are expected to start coming down soon because of the world financial crisis, experts are predicting.

Experts are ruling are ruling out a plunge that would endanger the health of airlines.

“If you keep prices too high you’re going to lose more passengers,”

A forecast of reduction in an average ticket of between 15 and 20 per cent by the end of March is predicted, to be attracting passengers from more conventional companies like British Airways.

Most airlines nowadays use the yield management system, whereby prices are adjusted by computer on an almost daily basis in line with demand, starting relatively low then rising if a particular flight fills up, or falling if it does not.

“However, company profit margins are narrow, and they cannot really engage in a price war.”

Few airlines have yet adopted an aggressive pricing strategy, as they try to recover from the massive cost of fuel which neared $150 a barrel in mid-July, forcing them to slap surcharges on tickets.

While oil has now fallen to a third of this level, companies have held back from price-cutting at the same rate, while announcing a reduction in the surcharges since September.

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The billionaire Saudi prince, who invested in Citicorp in 1991 when it was in financial straits, said he would raise his stake from 4 per cent to 5 per cent. At Citi’s current market value of just over $25bn, the new investment would cost about $350m.

The 26.4 per cent fall in the shares, which closed at $4.71 in New York, prompted Citi’s directors and executives to look at strategic options, includes selling part or whole of the company.

A $350m vote of confidence from Saudi prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal could not halt the rapid decline in the fortunes of Citigroup yesterday, with fears mounting that what was once the world’s biggest bank will lack adequate capital to withstand the billions of dollars of losses expected in the months to come.

The £236m investment came before the market opened yesterday, and reversed the nose-dive in the ailing bank’s share price for only 20 minutes before the sellers returned. It had been hoped that the boost in sentiment from Al-Waleed’s vote of confidence would end a two-year selloff that has wiped more than $200bn from Citigroup’s market value.

But as quickly as the share price had improved, it declined again. At one point it plunged by more than 25% to less than $4, its lowest since 1994. By the close on Wall Street it was off by more than 26% at $4.71, giving the bank a puny market value of $25bn.

In January 2007, Citigroup shares were worth more than $54 each and the company was valued at more than $250bn.

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With living costs rising at a seemingly constant rate, simple, everyday expenses are getting more and more difficult to accommodate, and many people are finding their budgets getting tighter than ever.

While there are plenty of areas people can trim their budgets, such as spending on entertainment or shoe shopping, the rising costs of necessary items like food and gasoline make it harder and harder for people to cut enough spending elsewhere in their budgets to accommodate the increased expense of these everyday necessities. And despite the need, it’s simply unrealistic to eliminate all extraneous spending in order to make room for the ever-increasing expense of groceries and gasoline.

Thankfully, with a little budgetary reorganization, some planning, and a dash of creativity, you can maximize your food budget to make sure you get the best value for your dollar. Here are a few tips to help you spend wisely at the grocery store, and stretch your food budget as far as possible.

Plan ahead All too often, people approach grocery shopping with an impulse-buy mentality. “I’ll just go see what’s on sale,” is an extremely ineffective approach to grocery shopping. Sit down with a cookbook and plan your meals at least a week in advance. Scheduling meals out in advance will allow you to maximize your food spending, as you can organize meals by primary ingredients, using them from one day to the next. Also, planning ahead will help you avoid impulse buys when you get to the store. Make a list and stick to it.
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Investment risk is the chance that money can be made or lost on any investment. It is important to know how risk and reward interact and to understand what investments might suits different risk appetites.

“No pain, no gain.” You heard that cliché to describe something you really didn’t want to do? Unfortunately, investing carries a certain amount of risk and with that risk can come some pain, but also some gain.

You must weigh the potential reward against the risk of an investment to decide if the pain is worth taking for thethe potential gain.” Understanding the relationship between risk and reward is a key piece in building your personal investment philosophy.

What is Risk?
Risk can be thought of as the uncertainity of something happening. In investing this is often seen as the variability in the returns of an investment. This variability can be measured in many ways, one common yardstick beingvolatility. Volatility is a measure of the speed and magnitude of price changes in an investment over a period of time. If the price moves up and down rapidly over short time periods, it has high volatility. If the price almost never changes, it has low volatility.

Investors need to be aware of the various investment risks and to realise what effects they might have on their investments. Although risks pose a threat, they also pose an opportunity and investors need to know the best way of mitigating risk so that they can also benefit from the potential rewards.

What about reward?
Risk and reward go hand in hand. Generally speaking the greater the risk the greater the potential chance of reward, or loss. An investors financial goals and attitude to risk will be a guide to what type of investment will best suit them. Different asset classes have different risk/reward profiles.
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Our schools teach the fundamentals we all love; reading, writing, math, science and history. What concerns me is our school system lacks some of the ‘street smart’ skills that kids will need to be those successful leaders, healers and entrepreneurs.

As parents, we must take teach our children ‘money smarts’.

Can you imagine how empowered you would be if your parents taught you how to balance a checkbook, invest in the stock market, manage credit card debt, start a business, or the power of compounding interest?

If you were one of the lucky few whose parents did teach you money skills, consider yourself blessed. The present economic situation is a perfect time to teach our kids the importance of money management and the need to respect money for what it is, and isn’t.

So, where do we start? With the basics. Depending upon your child’s age, you can start with talking about money. Most of us don’t discuss the family’s financial situation at the dinner table. I propose you do. I think it’s important that children understand what is happening, good or bad, with the money being earned.

Don’t get me wrong here; I’m not suggesting you tell your kids your annual income or the balance of your investment portfolio. What I am suggesting is to bring the kids into conversations regarding ways to save, creative ways to earn additional money and what to spend that money on. Involve them with decisions on vacations, donating to a charity or cause, or how they plan to buy their first car.
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Great investors surely have investing secrets that they use to build wealth, but they are open secrets. Anyone can find out what the greats do and copy them to have success in wealth creation. And many of the so-called secrets are simply common sense principles.

For instance, investing in a company with consistent earnings is the sensible thing to do and one that has helped Warren Buffet earn his millions. Taking care to invest in old and well-established companies is another. Many investors run into trouble by jumping on the bandwagon of some new company that sparkles for a while then quickly dies out leaving a pile of rubble rather than money.

Another common sense principle that is applied to both real estate and shares by the great investors is to never pay too much for an investment. Generally the more you pay, the less you get back as many real estate investors have found out to their cost. Warren Buffet also believes in concentration rather than diversification. When he buys a company he typically buys around 80%, and keeps it.

Another secret investment principle Buffet favours that has helped him with his wealth creation is to buy companies with experienced managers and keep them on to do what they do best – run the company. Buffet rarely interferes with the running of the companies he buys. He simply compliments the managers on the job they are doing. Buffet’s talent is to see where good investments are and buy them, not run the company.

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The Internet is full of wonderful information, and much of this information can be found in ebooks. Whether you’re looking for guidance on feng shui, or just want to know how to save money, there’s an ebook out there for you. Here you’ll find a great collection of ebooks available online for free.

Learn about a wide variety of financial issues and advice in these ebooks.

1. 66 Ways to Save Money: Learn about practical ways to cut costs in your daily life with this ebook.
2. Estate Planning: Find out why a will is so important and how you can prepare one, plus plenty of other helpful details for estate planning.
3. Ten Questions to Ask When Choosing a Financial Planner: Read this ebook to know what you should ask when looking for a professional to help you with your money.
4. 7 Steps to Eliminate Debt: Take control of and eliminate your debt by following the steps outlined in this ebook.
5. Living Trust Offers: The FTC commision’s pamphlet explains the details of living trusts and how you can protect yourself from estate planning scams.
6. Get the Facts on Saving and Investing: This SEC document will help you learn how to save and invest properly.
7. Simple Strategies for Managing Your Money: This FDIC ebook’s checklists will help you get financially fit and avoid scams.
8. Building a Better Credit Report: In this ebook, you’ll learn about methods for legally improving your credit score, spotting scams, and dealing with debt.
9. What You Should Know About Buying Life Insurance: In this pamphlet, you’ll find out about all of the types of life insurance, plus tips for choosing the right policy.
10. How SIPC Protects You: Read this document to see how the Securities Investor Protection Corproration will help return your assets if your brokerage firm goes under.

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During the last few years of real estate boom the prices were rising like fanatical and mortgage finance was simple to come by. However, things are now started to cool off so most banks and financial institutions have stiffened their mortgage lending practices.

Most significant, interest rates are rising very slowly for a last few months. This might actually not look like a real deal if you are new in the practice of house buying industry. But on a big home finance even a tiny interest rate boost could create a very huge difference to the payment you make. In usual cases the interest rate could further make the disparity among being established or discarded for a home mortgage proposal. That is because with the intention of qualifying for a home mortgages your capability to pay for the payment is one of the most vital criterions for getting sanction. And any higher interest rate might simply put the imbursement impractical.

Here the best option is to get in touch with experienced and trained mortgage broker who has qualified Certificate in Mortgage Advice training. No matter what you do, don’t just begin making home mortgage choices until you link up with somebody who has a great experience in the field of mortgage. Find a mortgage advisor who has dear knowledge of present real estate and home mortgage states and further also has entrée to many required alternatives. This would more often than not be your welcoming area banker. Banks effort with their own services and are not paying attention in making you conscious of other available products, which might offer a superior deal to you.

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There are many benefits in choosing a remortgage, some of which are listed below.

A remortgage is changing your mortgage without moving your home.

Remortgaging is the process of switching your mortgage to another lender that is offering a better deal than your current lender thereby saving money.

A remortgage can also be used to raise additional finances by releasing equity in your property.

When you remortgage you are ending your old mortgage deal and switching to a new one. This normally involves switching your lender although you can sometimes change deals with your current provider. If you do remortgage with your current lender it normally involves changing your existing deal.

You can borrow from $25,000 up to $500,000. Rates are variable, depending on status.

Remortgaging can allow you to get a better rate of interest and reduce your monthly mortgage payments.

A remortgage allows you to consolidate existing loans to one manageable monthly payment or raise money to buy a new car or home improvements.

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