better investing

How to build a successful buy to let portfolio

Would you like to use property to fund your retirement instead of relying on a company or personal pension? I spoke to someone who has done just that to find out what budding investors need to do to retire as a property tycoon. Madeleine Smith is a lady who has taken her retirement finances into her own hands, investing in a portfolio of one, two and three bedroom properties. Here Madeleine explains why she chose property as the way to save for a comfortable retirement.Madeleine comments: I invested in properties not far from my home, so can drive past and check on them regularly. I have tried to stick with properties under 130,000 and also properties that fall under the stamp duty barrier to maximise my future returns. When I retire, I intend to keep my portfolio and hope to benefit from rising rental incomes, as well as obtaining further equity releases built up over time.

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New online Missourian sheds light on the city鈥檚 darker deeds

Imagine being able to do the same thing with restaurant inspections, business licenses, or dozens of other pieces of information.

The process has been slower than I hoped. There were several negotiations with police over providing specific street addresses. Technical issues prevented one database from talking to another; instead, Missourian reporters write down each incident report at the police station and type it in later.

Still, City Manager Bill Watkins has responded favorably to the idea of more documents electronically delivered to citizens.

It's our information, after all.

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Jefferson National Expands Industry鈥檚 Largest Tax-Deferred ...

NEW YORK & LOUISVILLE, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jefferson National's Monument Advisor, the first and only variable annuity with a flat-insurance fee, has now added institutional class funds to its supermarket of more than 170 tax-deferred funds—the industry's largest, with four times more funds than the typical VA1. With the addition of these ultra-low cost funds, Monument Advisor is now uniquely positioned to better serve the growing market of fee-based and fee-only advisors, a segment which has increased more than 41% in four years to reach $2.2 trillion in assets under management as of 20062.

"Jefferson National does for tax-deferred investing what Charles Schwab has done on the taxable side. We now provide access to institutional class funds on a transaction-fee basis, in addition to the industry's broadest selection of no-load funds without a transaction fee," said Laurence Greenberg, president and CEO of Jefferson National Life Insurance Company.

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NAR Survey Shows Realtors(R) Investing in and Demanding More ...

WASHINGTON, May 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Realtors(R) invest heavily in technology with more than half of brokers, sales agents, associate brokers and managers saying they spent more than $1,000 last year, according to a new survey by the National Association of Realtors(R).

The 2007 Realtor(R) Technology Survey, conducted by NAR's Center for REALTOR(R) Technology, also found that 25 percent of respondents spent more than $2,000 on technology in 2006. In addition, approximately two-thirds of those surveyed have a real estate business Web site, and a quarter spends more than $1,000 annually to maintain their site. Nearly all of these sites -- 93 percent -- provide listing search capabilities. Other than their own Web site, the most popular sites for Realtors(R) to display their listings include the local MLS, their broker's Web site and REALTOR.com(R).