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Posts Tagged ‘Tips’
A Few Good Tips for Teaching Personal Finance to Your Kids
Posted by admin in Personal Finance on January 23rd, 2010
The world of finance has changed dramatically over the course of recent decades. It wasn’t all that long ago that all that a young person really needed was an active savings account and some common sense and they were pretty much OK. Times have really changed though and now each day a persons mailbox is stuffed with glossy come-ons from predatory lenders that only point up the fact that banks are no longer the “friend” of the consumer.
Teaching Personal Finance is Important Today
So if it seems that every lending institution is determined to strip their clients bare, where does that leave todays young people who have to face an even more stark future in the world of personal finance? What this all points up to is that the first priority of every parent should be teaching personal finance to their kids no matter how young they are.
Shark Infested Waters
Where to start though? Have you taken a recent look at todays average credit card contract? Its three pages of fine print that detail every method that they are going to screw you out of every dime that they can get. The problem though, is that it is written in todays “financial language” which is incomprehensible to the average consumer.
Its Each Parents Responsibility
The good news is that there are now places to procure comprehensive teaching material such as videos and courses online. This teaching material is custom crafted for the eyes and ears of young people and it comes in beginner, all the way up to advanced levels. Teaching personal finance to your children is the best gift that that you can give them right now and it is something that they will thank you for when they get older and out on their own.
Learn the Easy Way or the Hard Way
Remember, that there are two ways to learn things in life. The first way is the easy way and the second way is the hard way. If you fail to teach personal finance to your kids the easy way when they are young then others will teach them the hard why when they are out in the world on their own.
Tips To Getting A Secured Loan For Personal Financing
Posted by admin in Personal Finance on January 8th, 2010
You could find yourself in a situation where you are unable to keep up with your monthly bills, and you need to find a way meet your financial requirements. There are times when you are unable to keep up with your credit card debts, or you may need financing for your college going son. You may also need money to pay off your mortgage installments in order o avoid foreclosure. Personal loan is a convenient way to finance your immediate needs, till you have been able to put your expense back on its track again.
Personal loans are a good way to get over your present financial crisis, and could be availed as unsecured or secured loans. The quickest way to finance your requirement is to avail a secured personal loan, where a collateral security would ensure the immediate disbursement of the loan. A secured loan would mean that you could negotiate a much lower interest rate on financing your immediate expenditures, and you may get an opportunity for a longer pay-back period.
As for unsecured loan, you may have to pay a higher interest rate, and may have to go through credit checks and other verifications before the loan is made available to you. You may surprisingly find that the interest rate charged is higher than the interest rate you are already paying for the debt that you have. In order to qualify for personal financing, at the very first instance you have to be employed at the same place for at least six months. Your pay stubs may be required when you apply for a unsecured personal loan for verification of your income and residential address. More-over, the loan amount would depend on how much your earnings are.
When you take out a secured personal loan to finance your immediate expenses, it is generally secured against your asset, such as your property. This acts as a security to the lender, where the money loaned to you is secured against the value of the property, which is generally your home. This type of personal financing, where you keep your property as security with the lender, is often termed as house owner’s loan. If you are looking for large personal financing, which you may require for some renovations done to your home, secured loans are ideal personal financing schemes for such large loan amounts. Secured loans are also a solution for home owners where unsecured personal financing has been refused.
Personal finance, secured against the assets of the borrower, carry a much lower interest rate than unsecured loan. Further, the interest rate could be negotiated, with low monthly re-payments. The amount of loan given would depend on the lender, but would essentially be determined against the value of your property. The lender may decide to have your property valued before deciding on the loan amount.
With secured personal loan, you will find the lenders are patient with you if you should default on your payments. The collateral security against the loan provides the lenders with the confidence that the money is very much secured against your assets. In case you cannot pay back the loan, your lenders will have the right to sell your property and recover the amount.
When taking out personal loan to finance your needs, you need to pay special attention to the annual percentage rate (APR) that is being charged for the loan. This is one of the important of all the other components in taking out a personal loan. You would need to negotiate and get as much advantage as you can, simply because you are providing a guarantee of payment in form of the collateral security that you are providing. The other point is that, sign over your collateral when you sign the loan documents, and make sure that everything appears in the document an nothing remains verbal.
Tips On Personal Finance And Debt Management
Posted by admin in Personal Finance on December 25th, 2009
If you are in debt, you need to reduce and eventually clear your debt first before anything else. The key to debt reduction and elimination is your own commitment and discipline. The steps for debt reduction and elimination are very simple. The challenge is to stay the course.
Stop Further Debt
Excessive borrowing is the cause of most debt problems. You should only borrow what you really need. Keeping proper records of your debt and do not lose sight of your objectives. Your debt should be for the short term and you should aim to clear them within a few months. Do not let your loans balloon into debt problem.
Reduce Your Expenditures
Make this an obsession. If you take the bus or train to work instead of driving, congratulate yourself on the money you are saving on gas and parking. If you have packed lunch instead of spending money at the cafeteria or expensive restaurant, congratulate yourself. You would have saved up to $3000 a year. Money which will go some way to reducing your debt.
Reduce Your Debt
Try to consolidate your debts and secure a lower interest rate. Start paying more than the minimum sum and set a target date to clear your debt. This is the only way to reduce your debts. To achieve this, you need a proper budget.
Make a Monthly Budget
One of the most effective and important money management tools is the budget. Coming up with a budget is fairly simple but you need to have the discipline to stick to it. A budget is simply a schedule of your earning and what you need to spend. The key words here are “what you need to spend”. Be prudent and frugal with your money, you are already in debt, what other reason do you need? The key to good personal finance management is to spend within your means. To curb impulse spending, try leaving your credit cards at home.
Get Into a Debt Settlement Program
If you a huge debt, think about getting into a debt settlement program. If you want to do it yourself, you just need to contact your creditors to inform them about your plan for debt settlement. Most financial institutions are open to debt settlement proposal so you should not hesitate to ask them for better terms. Most financial companies will allows up to 40% to 60% reduction on loans amount payable. Negotiations can be quite tricky so you can consider hiring a debt settlement company if you are not up to it.
Proper personal finance and debt management will allow you to get ahead in life. So make sure you are dedicated and motivated to do what it takes in order to provide a sound financial life for yourself and your family.
Affiliate Marketing Tips – Do I Need To Have Basic Financial Management Skill To Do This Business
Posted by admin in Financial Management on December 21st, 2009
When you are doing your own affiliate marketing business, you must be aware that you are operating a real business. There are many activities that are going on concurrently and you have to make sure that you are doing it correctly. One of the activities that you have to manage is financial management of your business. If you are operating the affiliate business, do you need to know some basic financial management skill?
The first thing that you must be aware is that you are operating a real business and there will be cash flows that you have to take care of. The advantages of this affiliate business is that there are not many things that you have to invest in and the cash flow that you will be managing is normally not big when you are first starting out. But you will still need to be aware of the money that you invest in domain, hosting and autoresponder account in order to get your website live online.
Besides the basic tools that you have to invest in, you will also have to think of the marketing budget so that you can drive visitors to your website. One of the advantages of this business is that you will still be able to drive targeted traffic to your website for free but you will have to invest your time in order to get the traffic. If you are going to focus on getting free targeted traffic, there will be not much money that you will be investing in but you will have to factor in the time.
Other activities like the outsourcing of work will also require you to invest in your business. As you will be investing your money, you will have to make sure that you are doing the correct thing so that you can get sales which will brings money into your business. You will definitely want to more cash flowing in to your business as this means that you are profitable. By having a simple cash flow plan, you will know the situation that your business is in. If you are doing things correctly, you should be seeing more cash flowing in then cash flowing out of your business.
Once you have more cash flow coming in, you will want to start to consider reinvesting part of your profits back to your business. This is to endure that you get grow your business to the next level by driving more traffics to your website or outsourcing activities that other people can do better than you which will frees up your time. Your business will definitely benefit if you have the basic knowledge of financial management.
Financial Management at Your Finger Tips
Posted by admin in Financial Management on December 12th, 2009
Earing money is just a small part of the trade. What plagues many people more is proper management of the same. I was no exception to it either. By god’s grace, I started my own venture which moved on pretty well and my bounty increased with every passing day. However, I also realized that since the money was not being invested into the proper channels the it was multiplying rather slowly. To top it all, I met a dozen more investment advisors who advised me varied things and I ended up being totally confused. It was at this point, when one of my associates told me about Browndorf Pem LLC. The organization was set up in 2002 and it is a full-service financial services provider. At Browdorf I was offered a complete package of financial management and growth products formulated for the high net-worth private client, family, office and institution.
A team of super qualified and cooperative professionals assisted me to invest my money into the prper channels so that it could reap maximum interest and multiply effectively on its own.
If you want your money to be in safe hands as well, I would suggest that you get in touch with Browndorf Pem LLC too. Its simple to contact them too. You just log on to www. browndorfpem.com and look up for your relevant advice and other contact information.
At the core of our business model is our close and fiduciary alignment with our private client investors, which are managed through our wealth advisory services and on the most trusted name in custody and clearing. Through our wealth advisory services core springs the proprietary fund offerings managed by Browndorf PEM and the custom tailored independent offerings through our network of non-affiliated and independent Investment Banking Services – all of which are synergistically focused to meet the unique attributes of a sophisticated and demanding investor base. With a high profile attorney at the helm, Matthew C. Browndorf, Esq., we have an ideal legal, ethical and compliance infrastructure to compliment our business acumen. Our management team members are highly vested in the company and our unique life settlement hedging strategy allows for insured investments along with alternative investments. We operate three divisions providing products and services:
Finance Careers, Tips On How You Can Excel
Posted by admin in Corporate Finance on December 12th, 2009
If you like working with numbers and are fascinated with what you can do with numbers, then you should consider a career in finance. Nowadays many businesses need individuals who can manage money and get profitable returns. It is not as easy as it sounds because you are expected to go through secondary school first, and then if your grades are good, you can proceed to college and acquire a degree in economics, finance, accounting, math, or even statistics. There are many options available to you where you can apply for a job.
The banking industry is one of the most popular options, with positions like corporate banking, corporate finance, financial planning, investment planning or money management you cannot go wrong. There is a growing need for people who are in the finance field. So it is a good idea to expand your horizons by constantly reading and keeping abreast of any changes that may arise in the business world.
If you get into corporate finance, you will probably work for a corporation and you will be charged with the duty of sourcing money to develop the company, make acquisitions and ensure that the company’s future is secured. You may start out as a financial officer. A career in financial planning would be mainly concerned with strategizing the financial future of the corporation. You have to understand the way the world of investments, taxes and estate planning works.
You also have the option of being a consultant and helping individuals plan their income for the future, like planning how they pay their kids college fees or retirement. If you go for a career in investment banking, you will be in charge of helping investors purchase, manage or trade financial assets.
Financial Management – Follow These Tips! Help Yourself!
Posted by admin in Financial Management on December 8th, 2009
So you think you need budgeting?
Prices you saw in the yesteryears are of very low magnitude for the current year. Rising internal inflation has made people to believe that a tactful plan is required for getting the greatest value for money. Money needs to be well-spent so that it maximizes your monetary funds.
You need to diplomatically work out to coordinate your earnings and expenditure so that you get the hold of being financially stable as a corporate entity.
What determines your budgeting?
Your earnings, way of life, expenditure habits, job profile and house site tells you how you can establish your level of budgeting. As you learn to maintain your expenses professionally, would be at your foremost sense of self-fulfillment.
Following below are some of the pointers which would assist you to administer your savings giving the latest outlook.
1) Treat Math as your Lifetime Partner- Always be smart by keeping in mind the prices of items which are regularly bought as few stores follow premature price changes on goods. It is a worthwhile decision to weigh the prices against several stores before you end up finalizing one. Limiting to a single place, whatsoever the reason is never a good idea.
Using Chinese techniques of buying in larger quantities could also add to the worth.
2) Never gamble- Gambling would frenzy your life in a mess. It would strip you off your funds making you vulnerable to economic failures
3) Classify the wants and needs- Shopping would become a nuisance when you are not aware of how to prioritize the requirements. The fundamentals of food, clothing and shelter cannot be done without. These requirements are worth throwing spend at, as they concern your health and security coming under the needs category. Wants can always wait as they are associated with luxury which can be done without.
4) Don’t spend exceeding what you earn- It is not what you earn that makes you rich, but it is what you save! At times the idiom “Rags to Riches” become vice versa. Be diplomatic with your shopping expenditure and you would be amazed to visualize your wise spending.
5) Maintain the basic list- It is advisable to agree on things that are key and imperative to you. It is good to conclude what item is required and which are the ones you only long to have.
The foremost thing that people don’t realize is the significance of buying according to one’s lifestyle. Keeping your style at the base, you can decide what is really necessary. Unless you are a frivolous customer who is abundant of resources, you have no choice but to accept the above.
Basic Tips on Personal Finance
Posted by admin in Personal Finance on November 17th, 2009
Do you ever wonder where your money goes every month? Does it sometimes seem as though you cannot afford to do things because your financial obligations are holding you back? If you find that you are asking yourself these sorts of questions, perhaps you should take a look at your financial situation and assess whether you are practicing good personal finance management or not. Good personal finance management spends within their income, plan for the future and solve financial problems as they arise. Poor personal finance management pay more, do without and fall behind. If you find yourself in the second category, you can do something about it. You can learn to take charge of your finances by planning your personal finances.
Planning your personal finances doesn’t always come naturally, and even if you’re just beginning to take your financial matters seriously, then you likely need a few personal finance tips.
Evaluate your current financial situation. One of the most important goals for most people is financial independence. Collect accurate information about your personal financial situation. Calculate your net worth which includes the real estate, saving and retirement accounts, and all other assets. This will help you decide how much money you can set aside for meeting future needs and goals.
A basic personal finance tip is to make a budget. A personal finance budget is information made up of your income and expenses and the more accurate this information is, the more likely you are be able to meet your goals and realize your dreams. A personal finance budget should be made for at most one year at a time and include a list of your monthly expenses.
All expenses must be included. To be sure of that go through all your paid bills, check register and credit card receipts to find expenditures that recure every month and expenditures that happen less frequently. Personal finance budgeting requires some small sacrifices. To be able to make good personal financial decisions and set priorities, you must know where your money is actually going. Start your budget and accomplish your goals.
Get an electronic bill pay. This is a very convenient way to pay your bills. You pay them electronically, by direct withdrawal from your bank account. The transaction is processed immediately. You can even link your bill pay service to your personal finance budget, so that your expenditures are automatically entered in the appropriate category. Personal financial management can be really easy.
Make an investment and finance plan. Now that the fundamental state of your personal financial security has been established, the time has come for the more prosperous part of your personal financial life. You need to make a personal finance plan of what you really want in life that money can buy. Your personal financial plan can be as simple or as detailed as you want it to be. Find out how to finally start to implement this plan and get the money to finance it. This is the long term part of your financial. This journey is the most interesting and exciting part of personal financing you can have toward financial freedom.
You can prepare for a secure personal financial future by following these simple tips. When you take control with your money, you don’t have to worry about debt taking control of you.
Financial Management Tips – How Setting Goals Will Help You Attain Financial Freedom
Posted by admin in Financial Management on November 13th, 2009
You may ask why it is important to have sound financial management. The benefits of managing your cash correctly is to make sure that you control your spending and also be able to save enough in order achieve financial independence in the future.
Having financial goals help you to be focused and disciplined. Set long term financial goals and put them down in writing. By setting goals you prevent yourself from squandering your income and trusting in luck. As you set these targets, make sure they are measurable and achievable. Have a specific aim that will enable you calculate what you intent to achieve, how much you will be required to save or invest monthly and where you are planning to invest what you will have saved.
Review your progress periodically so as to note where you need to make adjustments and hence chart your financial growth. This way you will be in a position to know whether you are lagging behind or moving ahead.
Once you have the long term targets in place, set short term goals that will help you move closer to financial freedom. As you do your monthly budget, make sure it is connected to your long term goals. This is necessary if you are to remain focused and disciplined in managing your finances. Checking your budget will help you adjust accordingly depending on your monthly income.
Personal financial management calls for a lot of discipline if one desires to attain financial freedom. Consulting with experts would be advisable in ensuring you set achievable goals.
Financial Management 201- Troubleshooting Tips
Posted by admin in Financial Management on November 2nd, 2009
When I was a college student, I got an ‘A’ in my Accounting 101 and 201 classes. Then I entered the “real” world and almost SUNK the family business because I had no idea what I was doing with the “real” accounting. You see, the examples in the college text book used financials that were correct. That means, the dollar amounts in the accounts could be trusted, and were assumed current and accurate.
The “Real” World…
Well, when I took a swing at entering my accounting data I made a big “Slinky knot” mess out of my Peachtree accounting file. Ooops. I didn’t learn how to FIX my accounting in college. That would have been useful! I learned what I know from falling in holes and climbing out of them.
As a business consultant, I see lots of financial reports. Most of them have a few “Slinky knots” in them…accounts that are just wrong. The data in those accounts are the result of mistakes in data entry. In my consulting work, I start by helping my clients get to KFP – a KNOWN Financial Position. Let’s get the accounting correct. That’s the first step. From there, we can see the impact of operational, marketing and sales behaviors. The good news is that you can always improve your financial situation once you know what it is. I am kind of like Super Nanny. I show up, we work together to clean up the accounting and we put simple systems, routines in place to help you stay at a KFP.
Sometimes, we clean stuff up and then it gets messy again. Just like Super Nanny, I go away after my consulting visit. It is up to my clients to maintain the systems we put in place. I can always come back and I often help over the phone. However, the key to staying at KFP is your willingness to learn enough about the accounting systems to enter data properly and to fix things when they get balled up.
If you are the owner of a very small shop, you might be the Financial Manager of your company (as well as the Service Manager and Marketing Manager and Salesperson, etc.) That’s the way it goes. If you dream of being a bigger shop, take heart that every big company was once just your size. The way out…is through. Take responsibility and do a good job as the Financial Manager. Quit looking for a magical solution (accounting fairy?) who will handle the accounting for you. Learn how to do it yourself and document your basic procedures. This will help you hand off the accounting duties successfully.
In larger shops, sometimes the accounting duties get handed to…
• The Financial Manager
• The Office Manager
• The owner’s wife, mom, daughter (other relative)
• The Bookkeeper
• The Secretary
• The “Girl in the Office”
Whatever YOUR title, if you are the one who is responsible for the financial information at your company, I am here to help you. The following are a few tips and tricks for finding and fixing the “Slinky knot” messes in your accounting program.
Financial Fix Tips and Tricks…
• It’s probably YOU. I often hear something along these lines, “That number wasn’t there yesterday. It must be a QuickBooks problem.” That weird dollar amount in your financial reports probably has a very simple explanation. Somebody, maybe you, entered that information. In every accounting software program, there are debits and credits. Sometimes the debits and credits are not visible from the data entry screen. You will have to do some digging. Follow the flow of information from the entry point to the Income Statement (aka Profit & Loss or P&L) and/or Balance Sheet. (In my lengthy career, there have been only 2 cases where the accounting program was corrupt. Chances are…YOU are the problem. J Start trouble-shooting from that assumption.)
• Stay current with your financial reporting. I recommend a WEEKLY review of the Balance Sheet and Income Statement. Some contractors I know get daily reports. That’s great! Once a year at tax time is just not going to cut it. Get to KFP and run the financial reports at least once a week. It is so much easier to find and fix a mistake that happened in the last few days than trying to track down something goofy from six months ago. Also, you can fix the mistake in the current month. That is better than having to re-open a previous month and adjust it. Once I “close” a month, I don’t like to open it again.
• Go line by line down the Balance Sheet and Income Statement and look for “weird” things. If you are just getting started with this process, I can help. Or, your accountant may help you learn what’s “weird” and what’s right. What a great opportunity for him or her to add value to your relationship. KFP means that every account is RIGHT. It reflects what you have in Assets, what you owe in Liabilities and what you own in Equity. The Sales account should equal what you have sold for that period of time. The Expenses should reflect what you have expensed for that period of time. The financial reports should be current and true. Here’s a list of “weird” things that may need some fixing…
o A dollar amount that is positive when it was negative last time (or vice versa.)
o A negative Asset. (Unless it is Accumulated Depreciation or Amortization. Those numbers are “contra” accounts and serve to reduce the value of the associated assets.)
o A negative Liability.
§ Pay particular attention to your Payroll liabilities. I recommend using a Payroll service like ADP or Paychex. The number one reason: The service handles the liability so you don’t have to. The service will tell you what the cash requirements are to pay your team and Uncle Sam. They will do the tax payments for you. The Journal Entry to enter Payroll is much easier if you don’t have to keep track of the appropriate liabilities and payments. I attached a sample JE for entering Payroll. Follow the flow of debits and credits. You could create a sample transaction for your Payroll procedure and reference it every time you enter Payroll.
o A negative Sales account (unless it is the Customer Refunds or Discounts…contra accounts.)
o A negative Expense account. Now, an account may look weird but be right. For instance, if you enter a rebate for your Insurance it will show up as a negative expense for that month. Drill down and make sure.
o An account that is very different from last week or last month. If all of a sudden your Advertising expense went from about $2,500 per month to $300,000 this month, drill down. Something may have been miscoded.
o Have your accountant help you make the weird things right with an appropriate Journal Entry or reversing entry.
o Find out how it got weird, if you can, and update the data entry procedure. Written procedures are KEY to staying at KFP.
o If you don’t know how it got weird, at least get it to right. If it is a small dollar amount, create an adjusting entry and watch to make sure it doesn’t get weird again. If it does…look through the previous week’s transactions for that account to find the entry. This is forensic accounting!
o If you do this once a week, YOU will get intimately familiar with the accounts and the dollar amounts. You will become an expert in what looks right and what looks “weird” and how to fix the weird stuff.
• Run a transaction register report and look for the debits and credits. Different accounting programs call this report by different names. Look for the detail trial balance or the General Ledger journal to find the “guts” of every transaction. Double entry accounting is based on the universal law of “what goes around comes around.” If something goes up, something else goes up or goes down by that amount. Debits and credits are the mechanics in the accounting system that cause the dollar amounts to go up and down…and the Balance Sheet to stay in balance. There are debits and credits behind every data entry screen. You can also affect accounts directly by creating a Journal Entry. I attached a “cheat sheet” of Debit and Credit rules. I reference this several times a week.
• Look for before-and-after differences. If you are not sure of what is happening at a particular data entry point, try this:
o Run the Balance Sheet and Income Statement.
o Enter ONE transaction. Run the Balance Sheet and Income Statement again and see if you can see where the dollar amounts ended up. (Make sure no one else is in the accounting system while you do this.)
o This is a street smart way to discover the “set up” behind the data entry screen.
• To recode, delete or reverse a transaction? It depends on your accounting program. With a basic off-the-shelf program like QuickBooks, MYOB or Peachtree, you can drill down to the transaction that needs to be fixed and recode it. Or, you can delete the transaction entirely and try again. With a more sophisticated industry-specific program like Successware, Ergos, etc. you may have to enter a transaction that reverses your original transaction and then re-enter the transaction properly.
• Be careful with your initial company set up. That’s where a lot of the behind the scenes accounting is created. If you are entering Service Sales and the dollar amount is showing up as Service Agreement Sales there may be an “item” or other set up instruction that is sending the information to the wrong sales account. Go to Company Set Up or the Items list and do some investigating. Figure out the default debits and credits and which accounts are affected. Update the “set up” and see if that fixes the problem.
• Get bossy with your software support team. Call for help as you need it. If you don’t understand what they are telling you to do, ask again for a clearer explanation. If they want to fix something for you, sit in as they do the correction so you can “follow the flow” of the debits and credits and learn from the experience. The more you know about your particular accounting software the less intimidated you will be by the accounting processes.
• Be assertive with your CPA or tax preparer. At the end of each quarter, take the time to make sure that your financials agree with the financial information your CPA is sending to Uncle Sam. Work together to enter the year-end Journal Entries needed to bring your accounting system up to accurate.
• Learn to trust your intuition. As your understanding of double entry accounting increases, trust your gut feeling that a dollar amount is wrong or “weird.” So often, I help someone fix a “Slinky knot” and they respond, “I thought that might be the problem!” If you have that thought, follow it and see what you uncover.
If it is your responsibility to get the financial “Slinky knot” untangled, take a deep breath and know this: You can do it. You may need some help. Contact me if you feel overwhelmed and we’ll set up a time to visit on the phone. This accounting stuff is just not that hard once you learn the lingo and accounting basics. One of the smartest Financial Managers I know is working with an 8th grade education.
Once you get a handle on them, you can delegate the accounting tasks. It is a blessing to have done the accounting yourself because you will never be held hostage by your bookkeeper (or “girl in the office.”) You can coach someone to be even better than you were at the basic accounting tasks. And you will understand the Balance Sheet and Income Statement so much better for the experience.