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Two Main But Very Different Places Where To Buy Stocks

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There are a few different places where to buy stocks. You must buy your stocks and other securities through a registered broker who works for a registered brokerage house. Stock trading is really easy. Making money with stock trading is not.

While stock trading is the main focus of this site, know that you dont have to limit yourself to simply stocks. You can also buy such things as options, ETFs and currencies. If this sounds good to you, you may want to check out the other markets.

But, for now, back to what we’re all here for, stock trading.

I hope by the end of this you understand the difference between a full service broker and an online discount broker. Those are the two places where to buy stocks. I use a online discount broker, Scottrade. I use them because I prefer to do all the research myself. But if you are someone who isn’t familiar with which stocks to buy, you may want to opt for a…

Full Service Broker

The place where to buy stocks if you would rather trust your money with a professional is with a full service broker. They are the most costly of the two, with a fee based on the amount of stock you buy instead of a fixed fee. They will give you advice and talk with you on a one-on-one basis. Online discount brokers don’t offer this.Hundred dollar bills

My grandma uses a full service broker. I often talk to her about technical analysis and choosing stocks since I am more of a hands-on guy. I like to know exactly when and why I’m buying a stock. I do it for the knowledge. I don’t mind losing a few hundred bucks, as long as I learn from my mistakes, which I usually do.

She is happy for me but prefers to trust her money to the professionals, like many Americans who prefer not to be bothered with all the work. Full service brokers generally focus on long-term gains, and diversifying your portfolio. They employ a whole department focused on research to find the best stocks for you and to monitor your current investment. Where to buy stocks would be a full service broker if you are like my grandma and feel safer dealing with a professional.

Online Discount Brokers

Another place where to buy stocks is from an online discount broker. Scottrade has a minimum opening account balance of $500. This is one of the reasons why I chose Scottrade. Soon, I may be changing over to another online discount broker that doesn’t charge as much. But, Price is not the only important thing for me. With Scottrade, you get the benefits of a larger company, with still the low trading price. Scottrade also has many offices around the country.

The lowest charging brokerage as far as I can tell, charges only 2.50 per trade. But, since I will be only doing between two to five trades per month, I might stick with the same broker.

The small minimum opening balance is a big seller for Scottrade. they also provide other benefits such as $0 account closing fee, and 444 branches nationwide, which are more offices than the other leading brokers.

This is a big difference from the not so well known online discount brokers, which many have only a few or no offices.

Now You Know The Difference

So, if your going to get a full service broker, good luck. I’m not familiar which one is the best. But, they do compete often with one another. So, try to find a good deal with the top players.

For me, I prefer an online discount broker and to do all the research myself. If your in the same boat, I look forward to teaching and hearing back from you as I continue to write this site, as this site is focused around technical analysis.

Do you need a seasoned tax attorney? It’s almost tax season!

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Shopping for a tax attorney is almost like shopping for shoes. You have to try on a few pairs before you decide on what looks good and what does not. There are different kinds of tax attorneys. So you really need to do your homework.

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Get Your Taxes Started

First, you must decide on whether you are having your personal taxes prepared, your business taxes prepared, or both. Then, you look around to see who is nice and cordial, and who is not. You also look around to see who the expert is and what you need to have done, so there will not be any mistakes.

A couple of useful keywords come to mind when shopping for an attorney: compassion, empathy and honesty. At taxattorney.com they seem to take these into serious consideration when dealing with you and your tax sensitivities.

Sure, you could go to your nearest tax office and get your taxes prepared there, but why not do your taxes online to save your money on gas, time and energy? It takes time to browse around online, but your searching online will be greatly reduced because you will not be wasting time sitting at stop lights or waiting behind slow drivers because the speed limit is only 35mph on the streets.

Back Taxes Owed

What if you need special tax help, like an IRS tax audit or unpaid taxes from years ago that you are now ready to pay? Shopping online at taxattorney.com can help you find that specialist to help you get over the financial slump, as a local tax shop may not be able to handle a larger issue.

The taxattorney.com website has a very convenient tool called the “Back Taxes Owed” area where you can select the amount of back taxes owed from a drop-down list. After making your monetary selection of the amount of taxes owed, you would then enter your name, phone number, the best time to call, your email address and any comments you might care to put in.

Website Overview: Tax Attorney dot com

I like the fact that taxattorney.com has a wealth of informational links right on its home page. You can easily find what you are looking for without having to click on several pages down just to get to where you want to go.

The main information is easily visible. This website also tells you up front what types of services it offers, it tells you that they give expert legal advice, and finally, that they have a strict price guarantee. At taxattorney.com the price that they quote you is the price that they will charge you.

If you need additional services from a tax attorney, they will only charge you for those additional services quoted. They will not try to sell you anything else such as tax problems related to the IRS or tax debt. They will only charge you what you came there for.

Another great thing I like about this website is that it reveals untrue myths regarding tax issues, such as do you believe that you don’t earn enough to have to pay tax, or do you think that if you need to apply for your tax refund that the IRS will audit your returns? These are just a couple of myths that many people believe, but are not true. Visit the website to see more untrue myths.

One of the special features of taxattorney.com is that they offer assistance from an IRS lawyer. Sometimes we cannot foresee unexpected pitfalls, curve balls and hidden challenges that lie in tax problems, but a very trained and knowledgeable IRS attorney will be familiar with surprising issues and will know how to handle them.

It might be wise to tell your tax attorney everything. That way you will have complete peace of mind knowing that everything will be resolved because you have told them everything and you have chosen the right attorney. Go with taxattorney.com. You may have a great night’s sleep awaiting you.

Project Management Tools: Does Zoho really make things easier?

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I was recently asked to review a website that is well known for its cloud software, and cloud productivity tools. In fact, their software in many ways predates the online efforts of both Google & Microsoft. Enter Zoho, well known for its online productivity tools that started production in 2005.

I’ve never used Zoho, so I thought I would ask a colleague to do a review of the site for you. In fact, Zoho has so many applications that it is hard to focus on one thing, and one thing. But this overview will just look Zoho Project Management tools, in the context of Zoho.

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The first thing I noticed when I loaded the company’s page was the great layout. It is a very simple design that is eye catching, and it is easy to find important information. There are several links right away to sign up for free, which is usually the first thing I look for on such a site, so having them readily available on the front page is excellent.

Getting Started

The site gives a good introduction to its service on the front page, so I know what I’m getting into. If the front page is designed to make a case for using the service, it does it very well, by its use of attractive, detailed icons and small simple sentences explaining in plain English exactly what it is that the service does. I followed several of the links to read client testimonials, and they each specifically outlined reasons to use the service.

What is Project Management

Project management online is a growing industry, and I have used it a number of times in the past, with some of the older PHP tools. While conventional face to face management may seem simple, project management online is designed to take these complicated tasks and make them even more simple.

With online project management, everyone sees the documents shared in the collaboration, and all changes are recorded instantly across the whole team. This prevents anyone from accidentally doubling over another team member’s work, and also works hard to make sure that everyone on the team is in the loop on the project itself.

How well does it work

The service works from the top down to make it simple, and it does this the only way possible: It takes control of everything. The service does calendaring, which makes it simple to set milestones, deadlines and more, as well as scheduling meetings.

There are also shared folders, so files for the project can easily be made available. There is a function for an online discussion board and group chat (group chat costs a bit extra) so communication becomes simple.

The project even will have integrated time sheets, so keeping track of who does what and for how long is easy and already integrated into the solution. The site even integrates directly into Google Apps, which is a wonderful solution if Google Apps is already used for a project, company or website.

Looks Do Matter

The site’s good design and layout both contribute to my perception of its reliability. If a company does not care how its website looks, how can I know it cares about its customers at all?

All the information I could possibly want is easy to access from the main page, and the layout makes sense, with all the categories on top divided in ways that are perfectly logical. They even have a contact form to use in case something is not covered.

All in all, it seems this company is dedicated to their customer experience, and the website is an excellent example of that. I’d be tempted to sign up for the paid version of the service. With all the different features available for project management, it seems like it would make the workflow of any group project much more efficient.

Mark Thompson

What project management tools have you tried? What did you like? What did you hate?