Crusade Learning

Ensuring the safety of your furry friends is obviously at the top of everyone’s list when shipping pets to a new destination. Being that we are dealing with live creatures here, your local international shipping company will have a lot more rules and regulations for you to adhere to.

First you will have to select a reliable international shipping company of good reputation to transport your precious cargo. You will find many listings through a search engine online or in your local yellow pages.

General rules for transporting animals:

•    You will need to present the original health certificate verified by your vet, stating that your pet is healthy enough to be travelling with an international shipping company. This certificate cannot be older than 10 days
•    A rabies immunization certificate will also need to be provided
•    Documents required over an above the ones mentioned here will vary from country to country, and according to what animal is being shipped, so it is best to confirm what is needed before travel
•    You will need to make an advanced reservation to transport your animal
•    Animals will need to be transported in a clean, solid, leak proof and escape proof kennel that meets stringent specifications. Confirm the specs with your international shipping company and make sure that the kennel you choose can provide enough room for your animal to move around in.
•    You will also need to provide separate food and water bowls for your pet
•    You will need to ensure that your pet is calm before transportation
•    Some transporters will not accept certain animals, like venomous snakes or aggressive animals. Sedated or tranquilised pets would also not be accepted by most international shipping companies

The above regulations also apply when transporting livestock, although might differ slightly from one shipping company to another.

The costs involved are calculated according to a few variable factors:

•    The dimensions of your animal’s kennel
•    The weight of the kennel and animal combined
•    The distance being travelled
•    What type of service you select from your international shipping company

There are a few choices that your shipping agent can provide you, with regards to service options. For example, priority service would be the quickest and thus the least uncomfortable for your animal, but probably also the most expensive. Discuss all the available options and the implications of each before making your final decision.

Quarantine restrictions apply in several countries worldwide. Again, your international shipping company will be able to furnish you with full details and requirements for your particular destination. Be prepared that you might need to leave your animal in quarantine for a few months after arriving at your destination.

Most importantly, make sure that your pet’s travel container is clearly marked with your details, and that they are wearing up to date identification tags before sending them off on their journey.

International Moving 

Having to deal with a house fire, even a small one, is something that no homeowner ever wants to have to do, but unfortunately, these are often cruel facts of life.  If you are like the majority of the rest of us, you probably do not have enough money to hire a professional to take care of the cleanup process for you, so educating yourself about how to go about it before this event takes place is a good idea.  The cosmetic damage to your home can mostly be done by you, but the structural damage will probably need to be handled by a professional.

Depending on the size of the fire, there is probably some standing water in the home from the fire hose spilling gallons upon gallons of water into it to put out the fire.  Electricity to the part of the home affected by the fire and water should be cut off so that you can clean up the standing water without fearing electrocution.  Remove the standing water as quickly as you can, since this will cause water damage to your floor and walls in addition to the fire damage that is already there. 

Pets should not be allowed back into the home until the initial cleanup is finished.

Any plants that you have need to have the soot and ash cleaned off of their leaves.  Leaving this on the leaves will kill them. 

If there is food in your kitchen that was open at the time of the fire, it should be thrown away, since it could be contaminated due to the excess heat and soot.

The smoke damage to your ceiling and walls can often not be removed by washing.  The most that you can do to this is paint over it with a primer made for this purpose and then paint over that with the color of your ceiling. 

Things like marble, stainless steel, chrome, and formica should be cleaned as soon as possible with the proper cleansers, since soot and ash can etch these items if you leave it on there too long.  This etching cannot be repaired.

Furniture that is upholstered should not be sat on until it has been vacuumed thoroughly with a hose that has no brushes on it, since a brush attachment will only work the soot further into the fabric.  This is also true for carpets.  Once these have been vacuumed, put plastic over them so you do not track soot and ash in from other areas of the house.

Flood Damage Cleanup

Many people have horror stories about how they lost anywhere between $50 and $600 on replacing a cell phone that was dropped into the toilet or the bath tub or any other liquid.  The sad fact is that most cell phone warranties do not cover water damage and unfortunately, cell phone manufacturers have begun to place what some are calling “snitch stickers” in their phones that change color if they have been exposed to even a drop of water.  While this keeps people trying to get a new free phone from saying that their old phone was not water damaged when it actually was, it is unfortunate for the consumer because these stickers have been known to change color in even just high humidity.  So, water damage to phones is a serious problem, but what do you do if your phone does become submersed?

Take it out of the water immediately.  The plastic covers on most cell phones these days are pretty tight, but water can get inside the phone.  As long as you get the phone out of the water in under around 20 seconds, it should not have that much opportunity to seep in. 

After you do that, remove the battery and do not hesitate.  This is to effectively cut the power supply off from your phone; electricity and water combined are what fries your phone, not just the water itself.

If your phone has a SIM card, remove that quickly, as well.  These cards store contact and other kinds of data from the phone and to some people, the information held on that card could be more valuable than the phone itself, even if the phone might cost them $600.  Some service providers, however, do not use SIM cards, like Verizon Wireless. 

Do not put the battery or the SIM card back into the phone.  Dry them separately.  Then, dry the phone itself from the outside and then if possible, put it in a bowl of rice and let it stay there overnight.  You might get a grain of rice or two in your phone, but this probably will not happen.  Rice will help draw out the moisture.  Wait at least two or three days before trying to turn your phone back on.  Never turn on an electronic device after it has been wet until you are sure it has completely dried out.

As long as the phone looks dry, it should be safe to try and turn the phone on.  If it doesn’t work with the battery, try plugging it into the wall outlet.  If this works, you just need to replace the battery.

Detroit Flooded Basement

A lot of us suffer from allergies due to pollen, grasses, dogs, cats, and any number of items, but mold can be the cause of allergy symptoms just as much as any of these. These symptoms are common in individuals from spring all the way into late fall and even though some molds can grow at freezing temperatures, most cannot. Any plants or animals that have been killed by the winter elements are a feeding ground for mold.

In some areas of the United States, such as the far southeast where it remains warm almost year round, mold can grow throughout the year and aggravate the allergies of anyone nearby. Molds that are allowed to grow inside the home or workplace can cause perennial allergic rhinitis.

The symptoms of mold allergies can be brought about or even made worse by eating foods that have been processed with fungi such as mushrooms or foods containing yeast such as bread or beer. Having an allergy to the mold penicillium can be held accountable for problems occurring when a person receives a dose of penicillin at the doctor’s office.

Generally only if mold spores are in large quantities do they aggravate a person’s allergies. Being easily carried by the air or being a specific kind of allergenic mold are also important factors. There are only a few dozen kinds of mold that are significantly allergenic. Alternaria and Cladosporium (Hormodendrum) are two of the frequently found molds indoors and outdoors and are allergenic. Penicillium is also a kind of mold that is allergenic and people with an allergy to the drug penicillin know this all too well.

Mold counts sometimes exist on the news or other weather reports and these exist to determine what kinds of mold and how much of it is in the air at a certain time or place. These reports aren’t always accurate because as the weather changes, the mold spores will spread out or collect in other areas. The time of day that you plan your activities is also important when it comes to planning around mold counts because research has indicated that dry mold spores tend to favor the daytime and wet spores tend to favor the night.

There are many different ways to determine if a mold health related condition exists in a person. There are x-rays that can be done, blood tests, examination of sputum, or a swab of a sore on the skin can be examined to determine if fungus exists living inside the body.

Water Damage

 Once a job offer is made, a lot of people think they have no basis for negotiating but they would be surprised, with the right approach, that they can often secure compensation packages beyond what they thought was possible. A key point to remember is that negotiating more at the start of a job can turn into a substantial amount of increased earnings over the course of several years. Once people achieve an increased level of earnings, they tend to maintain that difference over where they were for several years.

The negotiation process we recommend at ITS is easy to use. Based on our thousands of negotiations, it was carefully developed to be easy to use. It is based on common sense and the art of soft selling, so that you get what you want without offending the employer in any way.

There are five key areas you want to consider:

(1)   The initial offer, can you get it increased by 10% to 30%;

(2)   The responsibilities, can you expand them to a larger job that would pay more;

(3)   A signing bonus, which can be 10% to 30% of the salary in some cases;

(4)   The benefits, is the company willing to extend;

(5)   Stock options, whether they are available, and under what terms.

ITS gives job hunter’s guidance in each of those areas. There is also a lot of information on salary surveys to give you current information on which to base negotiations, and a cost-of-living comparison of various areas for those who are relocating. Senior level job seekers will be especially interested in the discussion of the various types of stock options and grants, exit strategies and severance agreements, and a dozen or so other benefits that can be a significant part of the total compensation package.

ITS offers Personal Marketing Services that goes far beyond Outplacement Career counseling. ITS uses its own unique technology to give job seekers access to as much as 85% of the advertised openings, including those from newspapers, recruiter openings, job boards, employer sites, and trade magazines. It also provides access to the unadvertised job market among employers, recruiters and growth companies.

For additional information: pr@changingcareers.com or contact Tom Mortenson at 800-320-1277.

Article By: ITS 

Checkbook IRA accounts, also called self-directed IRA LLC accounts, provide many options for account holders to increase their portfolio value through investing in real estate. As real estate investing is the number one way to make money in the U.S., it’s no wonder that many want to capitalize on this.

For all of the opportunity that the checkbook IRA presents, it can be a confusing, discombobulating journey for many. However, asking and answering a few questions can easily help you determine a sound investment strategy for which to use your self-direct IRA account funds.

3 Questions to That Help Formulate a Real Investment Strategy

Investor Risk Compass: We all have an inherent risk compass, especially when it comes to money. Some of us are extremely conservative, some of us are avid risk takers and many of us fall somewhere in between. Knowing your risk compass before you begin investing your checkbook IRA funds into the real estate marketing will help you to make smarter decisions.

How Far Off is Retirement? Becoming crystal clear about this question will help you decide what type of real estate deals you want to invest your checkbook IRA funds in. You might consider investing in properties to rent, for example, instead of going for the quicker return of buying, renovating and flipping properties.

Retirement Income Needs: Most focus on the big number when they think about their self-directed IRA accounts. Eg, how much do I have/want to have in there? It’s important to break this down into monthly amounts. You should run projects for 20, 25 and 30 years. As in, will how much do I have to have in my account to sustain an income of $5,000/month over 20,  25 or 30 years (maybe even more).

These are just three of the questions you will need to ask and answer before settling on an investment strategy for your checkbook IRA account. Albeit, they are three of the most important.

Moving when you work from home is a slightly more complicated – the home office is doubly hard to move – you’re moving your work place AND your house.
So what can you do to make the move easier?

Moving your home office, like any other move, is all about packing the non essentials – if you aren’t using your printer much, go ahead and box it, and some paper up – keep it handy so that you can pull it out and use it if you need it.  If you do use it, but not your USB, or other parts of your computer often, consider packing them away as soon as you can.

You can also take this chance to clear out or decide whether anything is needing renewed.  Got cartridges of ink that you want to recycle? Take them back or get them refilled as soon as you can – then pack em away – its one less job to deal with – and it will save you money if you use them to be refilled (if your cartridge supports that)

You’ll also need to consider how you’ll fulfill your duties whilst working from home – will you be able to work on your laptop?  Or will your Internet connection be completely non-existent for the next month, whilst you close down one house and settle into a new one.

You’ll also have to consider shipping issues – if you collect items regularly, you’ll need to make arrangements for them – if you’ve got stock that’s regularly sent to you, what will happen in the ‘grey’ area between your old house and new house, if there is one?

Moving your home office can be frustrating, and tiring, but well worth it in the long run – that corner you claimed in a rush when you started working from home could become a well planned nook in your new house, with a little imagination.

Article By International Auto Transport - International Shipping 

A real estate IRA is a type of self directed individual retirement account – IRA - used for the purpose of investing in real estate. Using an IRA to invest in real estate although is not widely known has been possible since the inception of the self directed IRA in 1974. The Real Estate IRA opens up a huge range of alternative investment possibilities and cash especially for investors who already comfortable in investing in real estate and for those investors who are tired of the ups and downs of the stock market.

With a real estate IRA, you can invest your retirement funds in real estate, but also in traditional options such as stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. In order for an investor to participate in real estate investments, the IRA must be transferred to an IRA custodian that will allow real estate within their planned document. But make sure to do your due diligence first.

Most real estate IRA custodians will allow investors to hold real estate in their IRA portfolio allowing them to purchase raw or vacant land, rental or residential properties, and commercial buildings. Whereas other real estate IRA custodians will allow investors to invest in additional options such as foreign property, leveraged property and tax liens. For a short list of self directed real estate IRA custodians go to Google or Yahoo and type in real estate IRA custodian.

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