Still losing your auctions in the final seconds? Try this snip tool for FREE.
Win And Make Money At Roulette The Easy Way. More>
-
Learn How You Can End The Fear And Worry Created By Bad Credit And Debt Collectors...Get Out Of Debt Quickly And Easily, Right Now! More>
-
Property Secrets From The Top Property Experts In The UK. More>
-
The No. 1 Casino Product -
-
Learn How To Rob The Online Casinos With This Guaranteed Bulletproof Strategy! More>
-
-
Revealing The Secret To Eliminating Bad Credit Once And For All. More>
-
UK's Fastest-
-
Complete 9 Hour Video & Audio Course For Day Traders And Swing Traders. More>
-
"Discover The *
-
Investing advice: how to deal with rising interest rates
Tips on maintaining financial health in the face of increasing interest rates.
You’ve listened to the sage words of Alan Greenspan and you’ve read the Money and Investing section of the Wall Street Journal. You think that interest rates are heading up. The question is: what can you do to prepare your finances for higher rates? And, once you’ve minimized risks to your financial health, how can you actually capitalize on the high interest rates to come?
-
Congratulations if you already have a mortgage with a low, fixed interest rate. But
if you don’t have a fixed-
Locking in lower mortgage rates has a corollary: stay in your current home. Mortgages
and mortgage rates don’t move with you. As a result, if you move, you may be forced
to pay a much higher interest rate on your new home. Furthermore, high interest rates
will reduce the amount of money you can borrow to finance your home, because lenders
will take increased interest expense into account when determining how much you can
borrow. This makes “trading-
-
In terms of credit risk, the individual investor is a far cry from the UK Treasury.
That’s why individual investors pay interest rates of 20% or more on their personal
credit card debt. You may think this is the highest rates can go, but in fact your
personal interest rates will likely increase along with increases in rates on Treasury
securities. To avoid the specter of ever-
-
Advice to avoid long-
The problem with this logic is that you’re expecting interest rates to continue to
rise beyond current levels. When interest rates rise, the price of bonds falls. Let’s
illustrate with a concrete example. Let’s say you buy a bond that pays interest of
3% per year. Then, interest rates rise so that a bond with similar maturity and credit
characteristics will yield 5%. Who would want to buy your bond at face value when
they could buy a bond with a 5% yield? The answer is – no one. If you want to sell
your bond, you will have to sell it for less than you paid in order to attract buyers.
And with a longer-
-
Your finances will be reasonably safe in an increasing rate environment if you have
a fixed-
Nation-
5 ways to identify stress
Some people show their anxiety outwardly, while others are able to repress it from the outside world.
Stress affects everyone in different ways. Some people show their anxiety outwardly, while others are able to repress it from the outside world—for a while at least. While it is true that people have varying thresholds for stress and that it manifests itself differently for each person, there are certain telltale signs of anxiety. Some of these signs are behavioural and some are physical. Here are five of the ways stress typical manifests itself on the human body and soul.
One of the chief indicators of a stressed out person is the inability to make decisions—particularly
trivial ones that normally would not be met with hesitation. Stress attacks a person’s
confidence and assertiveness, and as a result, a normally decisive person may waiver
on choices, insignificant and significant alike. If you find yourself in a store
having a mini-
Another prime indicator of high anxiety is a change in appetite. Usually a stressful situation will result in a loss of appetite; however, some people will seek solace and refuge in food.
Fatigue is another physical symptom of stress. Fatigue can be the result of being spread too thin at work or with personal problems. Insomnia, which can also be the byproduct of stress, will lead to fatigue during the day. The fatigue can be so pervasive that it affects the person both physically and mentally. Mental fatigue is tied in with the inability to make decisions and a person’s vulnerability to talking trivial matters way too seriously.
Changes in your body’s normal functions or appearance are signs of over-
Under great stress a loss of appetite may be accompanied by a loss of humor. When
a person is stressed out it can sometimes be difficult for him or her to see the
lightness of an event or appreciate the humor in someone. Anxiety can stymie a person’s
ability to see things in perspective and to distinguish between the serious and non-
How can you combat these stressed-
Keeping a journal of your feelings can be helpful in identifying the stress-
Unless you have decided to take a vacation on a Caribbean island for a week,(which you should do if you can) it is a good idea to stay away from depressants like alcohol when you are stressed. Cracking open a beer after work may seem like a good idea when you are under great pressure but it can have a snowball effect that may send you deeper into your frenzied or depressed mood.
The last, and perhaps most important piece of advice is to get some sleep. Studies
show that stress levels are typically higher people who do not get enough sleep.
Buy a new down-
Capital Gains Tax Trap
Given the property boom over recent years, a huge number of investors have quickly and successfully grown portfolios by using a very simple investment strategy. This strategy involves withdrawing equity from an existing property to fund the next purchase.
Though this strategy has been successfully used to quickly grow portfolios and increase the number of millionaires in the country, it is has already caused and continues to cause severe CGT implications for a growing number of investors.
Consider the following case study:
She buys her first two-
This is funded by a £12,000 deposit and a £48,000 buy-
Her mortgage lender allows her to increase her mortgage borrowing to £80,000 (i.e. 80% of the property value) and therefore she is able to buy a £150,000 three bedroom detached property with the 20% deposit funded by the equity release.
Now there is one very important point to note about the above case study. This is that there is no capital gains tax (CGT) liability due when the property is re mortgaged. CGT is only due when the property is sold or transferred. So what this effectively means is that she is able to extract large sums of money from her property without paying a single penny in tax. In fact, even if she had used the equity release proceeds for a cruise around the world then still no CGT liability would have been triggered.
However, this is a very risky strategy as we are about to realise.
She continues her portfolio growth
In 2002, her first property is worth £150,000 and the second property is worth £200,000. Again she decides to grow her property portfolio and re mortgages the existing properties. She again releases equity to fund FIVE new apartment purchases at £125,000 in the North of England.
Due to the competitive buy-
So she now has FIVE properties with a market value of £125,000, one at £150,000 and another at £200,000. Her total portfolio is worth £975,000 – almost a property millionaire!
She becomes a property millionaire!
By 2004, the north has had two years of excellent property capital growth and the apartments purchased at £125,000 are now worth £175,000 each, her two bed terraced property is now valued at £175,000 and three bed detached property is valued at £250,000.
She is now a property millionaire!
Again, is keen to continue the growth of her property portfolio and once again takes advantage of the 85% equity release available and remortgages all the properties to 85% loan to value and invests in three Villas one in each of Spain, France and Cyprus for £250,000 each.
So to summarise this is the current state of her property portfolio:
Two bed terraced property: Purchased for £60,000. Current value of £175,000 with outstanding mortgage of £148,750
Three bed detached property: Purchased for £150,000. Current value of £250,000 with outstanding mortgage of £212,500
FIVE Apartments: Purchased for £125,000 each. Current value of £175,000 each with an outstanding mortgage of £148,750.
THREE villas in non-
So in total here portfolio is now worth over £2 million and she has become a multi-
So what does all this mean?
Well, firstly it means that she, has grown a very sizeable portfolio in a few years and has indeed become a property millionaire (well on paper anyway!).
However, she has never considered her capital gains tax position during her continued investment, and this means that on each of her UK owned properties she actually now owes more than what she originally paid for the property.
This in turn means that unless she has a considerable amount of savings she is unlikely to be able to pay the CGT bill on the sale of the property from the actual sales proceeds.
Lets take the example of her very first investment property, which she purchased in 1996 for £60,000. If she sells at the current market value of £175,000 then she has made a £115,000 capital gain (minus her annual CGT exemption of £8,200) and could be liable to pay tax of 40% (i.e. £42,720) of this amount (ignoring the deductions for indexation and taper relief and costs).
However, given that she only has £26,500 of equity in the property she will be required to find an extra £16,220 just to pay the taxman, thus meaning she has made no actual profit and could incur additional debt paying the taxman. She may think that she can sell another of her properties to fund the required £16,220, but again she will face the same problem, where the sale of the property will not cover its own CGT liability.
Now, if for some reason she needed to sell all her properties then you could see how she could end up paying the taxman quite a considerable amount of money, and have nothing to show for it herself at the end of it.
So, although Aleesha is a millionaire property investor, she could up without a penny to her name and with significant debts if she decides to sell.
Her foreign properties do not help her either, as there is local CGT (often a compulsory withholding of a percentage of the sale proceeds) and the balance due to the taxman here after deducting the foreign tax she has had to pay.
How to overcome the problem?
There are a number of ways to tackle this tax problem and these are outlined below:
Firstly, she could decide not to purchase anymore properties and continue to just hold the properties and wait till they have increased in value, or if purchased with repayment mortgages, enough of the loans have been repaid; that the sales proceeds could cover any tax liability quite comfortably. However this may take 5, 10, or 20 more years! One tax advantage of waiting is that after 10 years of ownership of each property; by virtue of taper relief the CGT rate will reduce from 40% to 24%.
Secondly, she could leave the UK for 5 complete tax years and then sell the properties
in either the tax year following her year of departure and any of the next 4 tax
years. By doing this she would wipe-
Thirdly, she could avoid CGT, if her properties taken together were considered to be a “Business”. She could then transfer them into a Company and claim Incorporation Relief. This would have the effect of enabling the Company to sell the properties with little or no CGT liability.
Investing advice: how to deal with rising interest rates
Tips on maintaining financial health in the face of increasing interest rates.
You’ve listened to the sage words of Alan Greenspan and you’ve read the Money and Investing section of the Wall Street Journal. You think that interest rates are heading up. The question is: what can you do to prepare your finances for higher rates? And, once you’ve minimized risks to your financial health, how can you actually capitalize on the high interest rates to come?
-
Congratulations if you already have a mortgage with a low, fixed interest rate. But
if you don’t have a fixed-
Locking in lower mortgage rates has a corollary: stay in your current home. Mortgages
and mortgage rates don’t move with you. As a result, if you move, you may be forced
to pay a much higher interest rate on your new home. Furthermore, high interest rates
will reduce the amount of money you can borrow to finance your home, because lenders
will take increased interest expense into account when determining how much you can
borrow. This makes “trading-
-
In terms of credit risk, the individual investor is a far cry from the UK Treasury.
That’s why individual investors pay interest rates of 20% or more on their personal
credit card debt. You may think this is the highest rates can go, but in fact your
personal interest rates will likely increase along with increases in rates on Treasury
securities. To avoid the specter of ever-
-
Advice to avoid long-
The problem with this logic is that you’re expecting interest rates to continue to
rise beyond current levels. When interest rates rise, the price of bonds falls. Let’s
illustrate with a concrete example. Let’s say you buy a bond that pays interest of
3% per year. Then, interest rates rise so that a bond with similar maturity and credit
characteristics will yield 5%. Who would want to buy your bond at face value when
they could buy a bond with a 5% yield? The answer is – no one. If you want to sell
your bond, you will have to sell it for less than you paid in order to attract buyers.
And with a longer-
-
Your finances will be reasonably safe in an increasing rate environment if you have
a fixed-
Nation-
Scarface is a 1983 film directed by Brian De Palma, written by Oliver Stone and starring Al Pacino as Antonio "Tony" Montana. A loose remake of the 1932 Howard Hawks gangster film of the same title, it tells the story of a fictional Cuban refugee who comes to Florida in 1980 as a result of the Mariel Boatlift.
Tony becomes a gangster against the backdrop of the 1980's cocaine boom. The film chronicles his rise to the top of Miami's criminal underworld and subsequent downfall in Greek tragedy fashion.
The film is dedicated to Howard Hawks and Ben Hecht, who were the writers of the original Scarface.
Plot
In July 1980, Cuban Hitman Tony Montana (Al Pacino) claims political asylum in Florida in the United States after departing Cuba in the Mariel boat lift of 1980. At first Montana is held at a detention camp called 'Freedomtown' with other Cubans. To be released and given a green card Montana and his best friend Manny Ray (Steven Bauer) kill a former aide to Fidel Castro who has tortured to death the brother of a wealthy politically connected car dealer, Frank Lopez, who is also heavily involved in the cocaine trade. After getting their cards Montana and his friend Manny are set up to work at a corner sandwich shop when a Lopez henchman, Omar Suarez (F. Murray Abraham), offers Tony and Manny a job unloading marijuana.
Tony insults Omar by turning down the job so Omar sets him up to pick up a sample
of coke from a Colombian dealer, Hector. Tony, Manny, and two other Marielitos in
his crew, Angel Fernández (Pepe Serna), and Chi Chi (Angel Salazar) then set out
to meet Hector (Al Israel) at a seedy motel on the beach. The meeting does not go
smoothly, as Tony grows irritated with Hector, who is slow to give him the cocaine
in exchange for money. Suddenly, Montana and Angel are double-
While on business in Bolivia to help Omar set up a new distribution deal for Lopez, Montana, feeling that Frank is "soft," begins to show his defiance to López's authority when he negotiates a deal with Alejandro Sosa (Paul Shenar), the ruthless and powerful Bolivian drug lord. Sosa finds out that Omar is an informant during the trip and has him murdered to show Tony his intolerance for disloyalty. Upon his return to Florida Tony gets into trouble with Frank over the deal, who accuses him of "stealing" it. Montana then leaves López to strikes out on his own. This allows him to seek out Elvira to whom he makes an unexpected marriage proposal. Lopez is none too happy and decides to take out Tony.
But his move to assassinate Tony fails as two hitmen, hired by Lopez to kill Tony at the Babylon Club, cannot get it done. A vengeful Montana decides to take over Frank's business. That same night he and Manny kill both Frank and the cop on his payroll, Miami Chief of Narcotics Mel Bernstein, who had already shaken down Tony for a hefty monthly payment and airline tickets to London. His problems apparently solved, Tony begins a profitable relationship with Sosa, marries Elvira, buys a new mansion, and sets his sister Gina (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) up in business with her own beauty salon.
But as Montana's business grows, so does his cocaine addiction and paranoia. It is the beginning of the end. His wife, now hopelessly addicted herself, becomes distant. His banker informs him that he will be charging higher fees for washing the increasing flow of drug money. After Manny convinces him that he has a way to save money on the laundering of the coke cash, Montana is arrested in a sting operation by Manny's contact, an undercover cop. He is charged with tax evasion.
Sosa, not wanting to lose his main distributor, steps in to intervene by offering Tony a way out of going to prison. He introduces Montana to his cocaine "board of directors" a group that includes Bolivia's military chief and a mysterious American, known only as being "from Washington." We assume he is a CIA officer because Sosa guarantees that the IRS will not be able to send Tony to jail. In exchange, Montana must assist in the assassination of a journalist attempting to expose Sosa, his partners, and the ongoing corruption in the Bolivian government. Montana agrees but later has second thoughts backs when the journalist, now in New York to expose the cartel at the UN, unexpectedly picks up his wife and children. Tony, saying that the team was only supposed to kill the journalist, instead then shoots the assassin to prevent the journalist's family from being killed. Thus he seals his fate with Sosa.
Returning to Miami, Tony discovers that both his sister Gina and right-
In revenge for the missed opportunity to kill the journalist, who has now exposed him to the world as a drug lord, Sosa sends an assassination team to Montana's mansion to kill him. Sitting at his desk snorting from an enormous pile of cocaine, Tony realizes and regrets what he has done to his best friend. Suddenly Gina enters his office armed with a pistol to confront him with the truth about his feelings for her. She now realizes that Tony loves her in an unnatural way and demands, at gun point, that he make love to her. She begins to shoot at him while demanding he take her. A Sosa assassin hiding on the balcony, thinking Gina is shooting at him, leaps in and riddles her with bullets. Tony, enraged, throws the man off the balcony and kills him.
As his men are being killed in a gunfight inside the mansion, Tony kneels over Gina's
dead body and begs forgiveness. With the assassins just outside his door, he then
arms himself with an M16 assault rifle and an M203 grenade launcher, shouts the often
imitated quote "Say hello to my little friend!" and single-
Production and controversy
Scarface was directed by Brian De Palma, produced by Martin Bregman, and written
by now famed director Oliver Stone while he battled a cocaine addiction. Stone consulted
the Miami police and the Drug Enforcement Agency while writing the film, incorporating
many true crimes into the film, including using crime scene photos to inspire the
infamous chainsaw scene. Stone also admitted in an interview, first featured on the
Collector's Edition DVD release, that he took the character's last name from his
favorite football player at the time -
The film was originally to be filmed in Florida but it received criticism from the
Cuban community, which objected to the film's representation of Cubans as drug dealers.
Also, leaders in the Cuban community wanted additions to the script which would have
made Tony a Castro spy and depict subsequent Anti-
When the film was submitted to the MPAA, it was rated X for its extreme violence
and graphic language, with the chainsaw scene the primary object of concern. DePalma
cut the film twice, but it still received an X-
The word "fuck" was used 207 times in the film
Music
Main article: Scarface (soundtrack)
The music in Scarface was produced by Academy Award winning Italian record producer, Giorgio Moroder. Like Moroder's style, the soundtrack consists mostly of synthesized new wave, electronic music.
Video games
Main article: Scarface: The World Is Yours
Scarface The World is Yours, a video game based on the movie Scarface was released
on different platforms in 2006 and 2007.A licensed video game, Scarface: The World
Is Yours was released in September and October 2006 as well as an update in June
2007, developed by Radical Entertainment and published by Vivendi Universal Games.
The game is a pseudo-
Books and comics
Dark Horse Comics' imprint, DH Press, released a novel called Scarface: The Beginning by L. A. Banks.
In 2007, IDW Publishing released a new series called Scarface: Scarred for Life,
which picks up where the film ends; as in the video game, it depicts Tony Montana
barely surviving the film's climactic shotgun blast and, with the aid of two corrupt
DEA agents, recovering to rebuild his empire and seek revenge on Sosa. This series
was written by John Layman, with art by Dave Crosland. IDW followed it in July 2007
with a prequel comic mini-
Scarface
Scarface Al Pachino Tony Montana Movie Art drink driving
Scarface Gangster King Movie Art
Scarface Revenge Movie Art
Scarface Vengeance Movie Art car at wholesale
Scarface Al Pacino The beginning Movie Art Water As Fuel
Scarface Al Pachino Boss Movie Art
Scarface Say hello to my little friend ! Movie Art Casino
Scarface Cuban Hitman Movie Art
