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Financial Skills - How to Budget & Balance Accounts By  Stu Schaefer I was surprised when I asked parents to tell me the life skills they wish their kids knew, and there was a resounding request for a few topics: How to open a bank account How to budget & balance accounts How to write checks and pay bills And how to start saving for retirement It seems some of the things we take for granted are, as a result, missing from what we teach kids. In the last article, we focused on opening a bank account. This article is the second article in the four-part series and will look at how to teach kids to budget and balance their accounts. Budgeting It's not shock that budgeting can be boring and tedious. I've personally never been excited to sit down and create my budgets, but it's something that creates wealth and pays off down the road. So how do you get kids excited about it? How can you add a little glamour to something so dull and bori
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Financial Skills - Opening a Bank Account By  Stu Schaefer I was surprised when I asked parents to tell me the life skills they wish their kids knew, and there was a resounding request for kids to learn how to open a bank account. Similarly, there was a huge call out for: How to budget & balance accounts How to write checks and pay bills And how to start saving for retirement It seems some of the things we take for granted are, as a result, missing from what we teach kids. This article is the first article in the four-part series and will discuss the best and simplest way to get started with opening a bank account. It seems easy, but there are several questions many people never think of that we'll address in this article: Which bank? Checking or savings account? Are there fees or minimum balances? Should I get a Debit Card too? Should I have my name on the account with my kid? 1. Choosing a Bank When you choose a bank, there
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Dirty Money and Religious Compliance? By  Norma Holt It's everywhere and in every life because money rules the world. It is at the heart of the World Order and it began because of a desperate need for power and control. It continues along the same path as those seeking more than others are caught in a web of deceit that waylays anything standing above them. So who is to blame and why is religion its best friend? Like anything that threatens life on earth money was meant to create giants. It was done under the guidance and direction of the Great Creator. While seemingly contradictory one should consider how the world changed because of it and that there is no other conclusion. Primitive hominids may appear as little more than animals and that only by a freak of nature did we emerge as a superior species. There is more to it, however, as it was the will of God? Evolution shows that homo sapiens existed 400,000 to 600,000 years ago, which is debatable as evide
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Opportunities for Africa to Deepen Financial Inclusion and Development By  Mark Yama Tampuri Jnr When people can participate in the financial systems, they are better able to start and expand businesses, invest in their children's education, and absorb financial shocks. Sub-Saharan Africa has a population with most lives being at the economic downstream, and most likely underdeveloped. The financial inclusion gender gap and income gap persisting just like in other continents, though higher in Sub-Saharan Africa. World Population estimates based on the latest estimates released on June 21, 2017, by the United Nations, shows Africa continues as the second largest continent with a population of 1,256,268,025 (16% of the population of the world) and by the end of January 2018, 40.2% living in urban areas. The continent has the highest fertility rate of 4.7% (Oceania 2.4%, Asia 2.2%, Latin American and Caribbean 2.1%, Northern America 1.9% and Europe 1.6%) c
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Top Financial Tips for Millennials By  Patrick Redo Are you a millennial who feels overwhelmed trying to manage your finances? Are you getting the most out of your money? Financial literacy is not often taught in schools and they don't do a great job preparing their graduates to manage their finances. So when you're out of college and start real life, it can be a little overwhelming and it is easy to get yourselves into debt and other financial trouble. Most millennials are currently in their 20s and 30s - a time when many young people are ready to make major financial decisions in their lives, like home ownership, long-term investment activity, etc. If you're currently a part of this generation here's your crash course on what you should do to improve your financial wellness: Take online financial courses Since most young adults have the propensity for technology it is suggested you take a few basic online courses in economics, accounting, and

An Overview of Initial Coin Offering (ICO)

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ICO is a means of raising funds in unregulated means for different cryptocurrency ventures. It is something that startups use so as to bypass the regulated and rigorous capital raising process that banks and venture capitalists require. In such a campaign, a given percentage of the cryptocurrency is sold to the project backers very early for other cryptocurrencies or legal tender. How it is done When a firm wants to raise money using the initial coin offering, there needs to be a plan on white paper stating the details of the project. It should outline what the project is about, what the project needs, what it aims at fulfilling completion. It should also state the money that will be needed so as to undertake the whole venture and how much pioneers will get to keep. The plan also has to mention the kind of currency accepted and how long it intends to run the campaign. During such a campaign, the supporters and enthusiasts of the initiative will buy the cryptocoins using virtu

Central Banks, Financial System and the Creation of Money (and Deficit)

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By Fotini Mastroianni In the market economy, the financial system gives money from the positive savers (i.e. depositors) to the negative savers (i.e. people with shortage of funds which need loans to buy property etc.). Furthermore, the financial systems facilitate non-cash payments. from individuals or legal entities. The financial system has by law a monopoly of services. Only banks can accept deposits, only insurance companies can provide insurance services and mutual funds management can be done better by a large bank rather than by an individual investor. How money is created In the past, one of the reasons the ancient Greek states were strong was the ability to create their own currency. In the times of Pericles, the silver Drachma was the reserve currency of that era. The same applied for the golden currency of Philippe from Macedonia. Each of these currencies could have been exchanged with a certain amount of gold. Nowadays, Fed creates USD and ECB Euro which bot