Precious Geological Commodities

Once you are out of debt, a good place to start investing is in the companies that have bought up Iraq's hydrocarbons. A good reason is that many of the resources have been untapped, and therefore will be of great number once the drilling begins.

Some more information on these oil deals in Iraq can be read here.

The new draft law calls for reviewing and renegotiating these contracts. They include a contract signed by what is now Lukoil Holdings (LKOH.RS) in 1997 to develop the West Qurna oil field but subsequently canceled by Iraq. China National Petroleum Corp signed in the same year a contract to develop al-Ahdab field and Russia`s Stroitransgaz won the right to explore for oil at blocks in Iraq`s Western Desert.

The Kurdish government signed five contracts with foreign oil companies before 2005, including oil and gas companies such as Norway`s Det Norske Oljeselskap (DNO.OS) and Canada`s Addax Petroleum Corp. (AXC.T).

According to the new draft law these contracts would be reviewed by the Kurdish authorities and they need to be approved by an independent consultant appointed by the federal oil and gas council, to be established by the draft law.

Don't worry, our Navy is in the region to protect these precious geological commodities.

Selling Your Business

You may have sweat long hours to start up your business, however, if you are in debt, it might just be time to sell it off. It will be hard to decide, and only you know if you are able to do this without putting yourself in greater debt. As always, know yourself, and consider this article as a helpful starting point.

The value of an operating business depends on the future profits and cash flow, says Farley Cohen, a chartered business valuator and managing director of Navigant Consulting in Toronto.

But a business could be worth more than its operations if it has valuable assets, such as a building in downtown Toronto. Owners need to find experts, such as real estate appraisers, to prepare for a sale.

There are three conditions, says Hood:

The owner must have owned the shares for the previous 24 months before the sale.

The company must have 90 per cent of its assets invested in active business operations at the time of sale.

The company must have 50 per cent of its assets in active business operations for the 24 months preceding the sale.

Identity Theft

Some of the good readers were probably always good at spending money, abut also at saving money. However, with the rise of new dangers such as identity theft, you may have been taken for a ride by someone, and had your credit rating trashed. It is hard to get out of this special kind of debt, which we will call identity theft debt. We will make an effort to try and make readers aware of the various ways that someone can be victimized by identity thieves.

The main way to avoid identity theft is to be paranoid. DONT SHRED, BURN everything. You don't need to buy a shredder, and matches are free at the 7-11. Just burn all your personal info.

One example of an identity theft scam is when you get a an email with a link in it that takes you to a site that will LOOK like the site of your legitimate bacnk, but in fact, is used by hackers to steal your identity, banking information, and therefore, your money.

Be careful out there, folks.

The Market Drops

Our analysts have just come back from their research rooms and provided a report of high importance. The market dropping last week, caused by computer glitch, is just one indication of why nothing is certain in the American economy. The view that the market reacted in an exxagerated way to the drop in the Chinese bourse is to some extent inaccurate. China is a big deal in economic terms. It holds a lot of clout over the American economy, and last week was just one example of why it does.

We will remind you that China's relevance to the America economy is deeper than just the cause and effect relationship that we all witnessed last week.


Recall the fact that America is in debt to China, and in a great degree as well. The whole article is here, but an excerpt is below:

In the meantime, Asian countries are accumulating hundreds of billions in dollar assets, making them America’s bankers. Industrially developed countries such as Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea have little need to use the dollars that they earn from their trade surpluses with the U.S. to import American capital goods to fuel their further development. They use the dollars that we pay them for their goods to purchase U.S. government bonds and American companies, real estate, and corporate bonds.

As for those that might have been in debt, and held on to their stocks...well, you should have sold them the minute you wanted to get out of debt to help yourself.

Knowing yourself includes knowing what you should keep and not keep. If you are in debt, sell your stocks and get some cash to pay off the debt.

Hopefully, there will be new investment opportunities available for you once you are out of debt.

Saving with Coupons

So, since you are in debt, you are probably looking for ways to save some cash. Coupons are a great way to start! One of the greatest things about America is that we are a coupon culture. Where else can you sit down on a Sunday morning, flip through the paper and find that good old coupon booklet that will save you money the next time you go and get just about anything.

Today, it is possible to avoid the hassles of getting your hands black with ink. Instead of flipping though the newspaper, you can now go online to http://www.couponchief.com! Believe us, there are deals out there for just about any American merchant. This is no joke.

Since you do have to spend money anyway, why not combine the coupons with good deals found on the internet to maximize the money you save.

Overstock.com us is one such bargain bin. You can redeem coupons fitting various descriptions, however, the best appears to be an offer of seven percent off all orders until March 31, 2007.

Now consider why this is significant for you, the person who is struggling to make ends meet. Overstock.com offers:

Brand names at clearance prices... [and they help] you shop smarter by offering top-quality brand-name merchandise at 40-80% off, every day of the week.

Now, you can find something that is 40-80% off at this site, and in addition to that you can get extra savings by using the 7% discount coupons. But wait, it gets even better. The 7% off (in addition to the 40-80% discount) is not the only coupon offer available. If you are a new customer, you can get 8% off of your order!

Now, this does not mean go off and get back into debt because you think that if you save 8% you can go off an buy the whole store. You know your financial situation the best, so if you think that you can get away with spending a little cash within your means, then by all means do take advantage of the coupon offers available through Coupon Chief.