Your Ike Silver Dollar - How Much Is It Worth?

So, you've stumbled across an Ike Dollar, and now you want to find out how much it's worth. Well, you've come to the right place. Identifying the value of any coin is very important. By doing so, you can be assured that the coin you are selling is worth the amount paid. It can also help you when you're buying coins, as knowing the value will assure you that you are getting your money's worth, and are not paying for overpriced coins.

But before going into that, here are some facts about the Ike Silver Dollar.

During the years 1971-1978, the U.S. government issued out the Eisenhower Dollar. It was the first U.S. dollar that did not make use of a precious metal. In fact, it was composed of 100% copper, with its outer layer composed of 75% copper and 25% nickel.

But, there were also silver-copper issues released by the U.S. government. These silver-copper issues, or what we call the Ike Silver Dollar coins, were especially minted for the purpose of selling to collectors. They were minted at San Francisco, at years 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, and 1976. These coins were either proof (Brown Ikes) or uncirculated (Blue Ikes).

What are Ike Silver Dollar specifications?

The coin's diameter is 38.1 mm, and weighs 24.59 grams. It's composed of .800 silver, .200 copper bonded to .209 silver. Aggregate 60% copper and 40% silver. Its Net Weight is .3161 ounce pure silver, or 9.841 grams. It has a reeded edge.

Why it's worth collecting

The Ike Silver Dollar will always hold a special place in the heart of any American coin collector. The Ike Dollar of 1971-1976 holds the largest portrait of a president, or any real person for that matter, to ever appear on a regular-issue American coin. It is also considered very unique, since it is the last of the great traditional size 38 mm silver dollar series.

How to tell its worth

Identifying the value of your Ike Silver Dollar is not as easy as you think it is. You have to consider factors like year of minting, exactly what variety it is, and also the condition.

Most of the Ike silver dollars are in banged up or worn condition. In this case, it could be worth just the face value or maybe a bit more basing on the silver content. But even with that, it isn't much since the coin is really not made up of 90% silver.

Those Ike silver dollars that are in mint state condition will have a higher value, probably around $50+, again depending on its date, exact grade, and grading company.

Those with lower grades but are uncirculated can still cost you about $10 or more. Those that are circulated are probably worth $1, unless you have the rare ones that command a premium. These rare coins include 1972 type 2, type 3, and 1976 type 1. These coins sell for a little over its face value.

So, although the Ike dollar is really not worth much, it can still be a fun coin to collect. Remember, they are the last of the big and heavy dollar coins produced in the U.S., so you can keep it as a treasured memento.

Learn more about the Eisenhower Silver Dollar, as well as all of the earlier silver dollars and those currently being minted in the United States at: http://www.SilverDollarCoins.Info

Exchange Traded Funds - Today's Alternative to Mutual Funds

Exchange traded funds are becoming more popular every day. Many of the large investing web sites have whole sections dedicated to the topic of exchange traded funds (or ETFs as they are commonly labelled.) Why all the attention to this new class of investments.

Some Advantages of ETFs

The most widely touted advantage of ETFs is that they generally are not actively managed, and so they tend to have extremely low expenses, since they don't need to compensate a fund manager. For those looking to invest in a fund that primarily tracks on of the major indices, this is a great way to get the same returns with no lost performance from paying fees.

Exchange traded funds are not offered through a mutual fund company, but instead are traded on the stock exchanges. This has some advantages and disadvantages. One advantage is that they can be traded any time during the trading sessions of the stock exchanges, so you don't have to wait for the market close to get in or out of a fund. One disadvantage to this is that you get a bid/ ask spread on a trade, that is the price to buy or the price to sell are not exactly the same. This is known as slippage, and can have noticeably negative impact on your returns if you are trading in and out of the market frequently.

Finally, there is a large variety of fund investments. You can invest in the major indices, or you can pick a smaller, more targeted sector, like the financial stocks or real estate stocks. You can target a region of the world, or a specific country like Germany or China. For a truly diversified portfolio, you can even allocate some of your funds to commodities like gold or silver, as there are funds that track the prices of these as well.

We provide information on the best ways to manage your exchange traded fund investments, including finding the best ETFs. Get more information regarding exchange traded funds.

How Financial Advisors Can Stop Striking Out - One Financial Advisor At a Time

The financial industry must continue to ask itself, "Why does the public needs us?"

I know this question makes many financial advisors feel uncomfortable. But if we do not continue to ask ourselves this question, we could find ourselves out of a job. Why?

Whether we ask ourselves this question or not, others are asking it.

This perennial question of, "Why does the public need stockbrokers and financial advisors" has been raised again by three professors in their paper, "Assessing the Costs and Benefits of Brokers in the Mutual Fund Industry."

In this paper, professors Bergstresser, Tufano, and Chalmers uncovered why consumers pay advisors to choose mutual funds for them. What they found does not reflect well upon the financial advisor community.

Do Financial Advisors Help Clients Choose Better or Better Performing Mutual Funds?

Most financial advisors tell clients that their chosen funds will perform better than direct purchase mutual funds. Unfortunately, Bergstresser, Tufano and Chalmers found the reverse to be true.

They found that investors suffer by paying on average 3.6 percentage points in front-end load fees, as well as higher annual marketing costs in the form of 12b-1 fees. They also found that the financial advisor recommended funds underachieved as compared to the direct purchase mutual funds.

In a recent year, not only did investors pay about $15 billion in sales charges and 12b-1 fees, but they spent an additional $24 billion on management fees. Think about this, these investors spent nearly as much paying advisors to find the funds as they did to the money managers to manage the funds. With this being the case, financial advisors had better do a great job finding funds for their clients.

Did they?

Investors who bought directly from the mutual funds earned almost a half a percent higher than those that had advisor recommended funds. If you took out index funds, the gap was almost two thirds of a point.

But wait there's more!

These differences were calculated before accounting for 12b-1 fees. When included, funds bought directly beat advisor recommended funds by almost a full one point.

So Why Do Investors Use Financial Advisors to Pick Their Mutual Funds and Investments?

The average mutual fund investor is higher educated and wealthier than the average consumer. So it can't be because they don't think they're capable of doing it themselves.

I believe one of the authors of the study to be charitable when he hypothesized that advisors bring a service to their clients by taking the emotion out of investing. Though when you look at the data, it appears that investors using advisors chase short-term returns as much a self-directed investors. And yes, it was found that advisors are as likely to chase short-term returns as anyone.

This study uncovered yet more unflattering details. It found evidence that brokers usually recommend funds with higher loads. So not only do advisors generally not pick the best mutual funds, they also recommend underperforming funds with a preference to higher sales loads. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why too many advisors do this.

The question is, what as an industry are we going to do about it?

What You Can Do as a Financial Advisor to Change How People Perceive You

Every change starts with one person.

How much research are you doing for your clients? Whether consciously or unconsciously, are you recommending funds with higher fees? Are you providing service equal to the amount of extra fees a client pays for the funds you recommend?

Only you can answer these questions

We are in the information age.

Studies like "Why does the public need stockbrokers and financial advisors" are going to come around, become distributed and get publicized more often. You might as well get used to it.

As financial advisors we need to step up to the plate and start doing the right thing by our clients or we're going to find ourselves out of business, one advisor at a time.

The public does not mind paying fees. What they do mind is an advisor not disclosing the fees. If we think we are worth the fees, then as financial advisors we should feel no need to hide the fees. Instead, we should fully disclose them and explain to our clients why our advice is worth it.

The public knows that we do not have a crystal ball that enables us to find the best performing mutual funds going forward. But the public does become suspicious when all the funds we choose have higher than average expense and sales charges.

There is an ever so slowly growing trend toward full disclosure vs. casual disclosure by advisors in the financial industry. Another movement gaining speed is that of formal fiduciary relationships with clients. Both these movements assure a long and profitable partnership between advisors and their investor clients.

I hope you join me as part of this trend of full disclosure and fiduciary responsibility, for everybody's sake.

About the Author:
By becoming an expert, Top Financial Advisor Coach, Jim Dew MBA, ChFC made over $3MM last year helping financial advisors just like you grow their businesses exponentially. Now, you can take his free quiz and receive an individualized report back within 24 hours detailing your strengths and weaknesses. Then use this report to boost your marketing and profitability to the next level. Take the quiz now at 300financial.com

Purchase Order Financing - Easy Money

According to Dictionary.com, the word easy has about 17 definitions. The most relevant definitions are:

"1. Not hard or difficult; 6. Not burdensome or oppressive; 7. Not difficult to influence or overcome; 11. Not tight or constricting; 14. In commerce it means not difficult to obtain." As used in this article, easy money is meant to convey the idea that, notwithstanding these very difficult times in 2008 where money is tight and difficult to obtain, under certain circumstances a business that sells products to other businesses can easily obtain money to grow exponentially.

On our planet earth, man did not invent money for thousands of years. As civilizations and nation states developed, man learned how to trade and barter for goods that they needed. Money was invented to solve the problems of bartering. There basically was a timing issue between, for instance, farmers having a crop to trade for what they wanted when they needed it. The invention and acceptance of gold and silver coins helped to overcome this timing mismatch. The farmer could sell crops for gold and trade gold, when needed, for the other things they required.

Paper money was invented for many reasons, not the least of which is to avoid the inconvenience of carrying around a large amount of gold or silver. Paper money is easier to hide. Until the early 1900's in the United States paper money could actually be redeemed for gold. During the Great Depression, President Roosevelt in 1933 passed laws outlawing the ownership of more that $100 of gold by individuals. By the turn of the century, the U.S. government discovered easy money. No longer restricted by the need for physical gold reserves, the government printing presses churned out however much money as they needed; and the politicians invented schemes such as the sale of government bonds, government loans of various kinds, and control of the money supply through twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks to manage the nation's economy and money supply.

Our government's easy money in fact is causing every American a very steep price. As the world economy realizes our money has less worth, we are charged more for imports such as gas, clothes, and food; if we travel abroad, in Europe for instance, we find that it takes about one and a half U.S. dollars to purchase a single Euro, the currency of Europe. In effect, European hotels, restaurants, goods and services cost fifty percent more for Americans because of the weakness in our dollar. Ironically, U.S. musicians make more money in Europe than they can make in America because it costs less to pay them "in dollars". In spite of this economic situation, many U.S. businesses are innovative, creative and ready to grow at a very rapid pace. Purchase Order Financing can be the easy money solution to rapid growth requirements.

Why does it work? Purchase order financing solves the timing problem to pay a manufacturer for goods before the buyer pays the seller for the product just like paper money and gold solved the barter timing mismatch problem. One real world example is the case of a company that developed popular products for dogs and cats. Most of their customers were small stores. One day they received a huge order from a big box store that would virtually double their business on a monthly basis. The business did not have the cash to fulfill the order. Purchase order financing provided the solution to their cash flow shortage to pay for the manufacture of the products and get the goods shipped to the big box customer.

How does it work? A letter of credit is issued to the manufacturer to guarantee payment. The costs of goods are paid to the manufacturer as soon as the goods are delivered, in the example above, to the big box store. An account receivable financing arrangement is created to pay for the purchase order and letter of credit side of the transaction. When the buyer pays the accounts receivable, the lender, generally a finance company or bank subsidiary, is paid pursuant to the contract and the profits are rebated to the seller.

Why is it easy money? Because the credit of the seller is not the main criteria to secure the financing; the credit of the buyer is used to support the financing. Nevertheless, good character and experience are important to lenders. During the due diligence process lenders need to determine that no prior UCC-1 liens exist with respect to the company. If there are serious credit issues such as bankruptcy, the approval of a bankruptcy court for the debtor in possession would be required. These types of situations would not typically be approved by a Bank, but the financing is still relatively easy to obtain considering the circumstances. And it is available if virtually unlimited amounts of capital. As the business grows so to will the finance facility grow so long as the purchase orders are from solid, creditworthy entities.

In 1959 Barry Gordy, the founder of Motown Records, and Janie Bradford wrote a song called "Money" (That's What I Want). The song was the first big hit for the record label. It was covered by the Beatles in 1963. Everyone wants easy money. Here are the lyrics:

The best things in life are free
But you can keep 'em for the birds and bees
Now give me money (that's what I want)
That's what I want (that's what I want)
That's what I want (that's what I want), yeah
That's what I want

Your lovin' gives me a thrill
But your lovin' don't pay my bills
Now give me money (that's what I want)
That's what I want (that's what I want)
That's what I want (that's what I want), yeah
That's what I want

Money don't get everything, it's true
What it don't get, I can't use
Now give me money (that's what I want)
That's what I want (that's what I want)
That's what I want (that's what I want), yeah
That's what I want

Well, now give me money (that's what I want)
A lot of money (that's what I want)
Whoa, yeah, you owe me money (that's what I want)
Oh, now give me money (that's what I want)
That's what I want (that's what I want), yeah
That's what I want.

The bottom line: Purchase Order Financing is easy money compared to traditional bank financing. Similar to the government printing presses for paper money, purchase order financing combined with accounts receivable financing, or factoring, can be a source of virtually unlimited cash for your business. Is that what you want?

Copyright © 2008 Gregg Financial Services

Mr. Elberg is a licensed attorney and licensed real estate broker. Gregg Financial Services is a full service brokerage for commercial finance companies and banks that fund B2B businesses. Mr. Elberg arranges funding from $25,000 to $50 million per month at competitive pricing, and works to reduce your financing costs as your company grows. For more information about GFS, please visit our website: http:http://www.greggfinancialservices.com

5 Reasons Why You're Better Off With A Joint Mortgage

House prices today have been described as being extortionate. In fact the average house price is about £180,000 which is about 8 times an average persons salary. Whilst those that have been lucky enough to get onto the property ladder in the early days when it was possible to get a mortgage and still have money in your account, nowadays many people are struggling to save up enough of a deposit to put down on a mortgage, let alone borrow the large amount of money that will actually allow them to buy a house or flat.

All mortgage lenders are happy to provide a joint mortgage. The incomes of each applicant are combined and then multiplied by a figure to come to the total amount they are willing to offer you. Most lenders will times this total figure by two and a half times the amount, but some will often multiply it by three and a half times the amount. If a married couple have a combined salary of £40,000 they could borrow anywhere between £100,000 and £140,000 for a property.

Deposit

Having more people save up for a deposit towards their mortgage can be so much easier than one person trying desperately to save by themselves. Having 2 people saving £2500 each is much easier than one person trying to save up £5000 for a deposit on a property. The bigger the deposit you can put on a mortgage, the more money you could borrow to buy a better house.

Borrow more money

By combining the incomes of 2 or more people, the mortgage lender will be able to offer you a larger amount of money. Joint mortgages could help you buy a larger property with 3 or 4 bedrooms which could even give you the opportunity to rent out an extra room to help cover mortgage costs. One person with an income of £25,000 won't be able to borrow much more than £87,000 and may struggle to find a property for this price, whereas 3 people with a combined salary of £70,000 could borrow anywhere up to £245,000 between them all.

Joint ownership

Having a mortgage is a big financial responsibility and for some the burden may feel too much. It can feel more comfortable sharing such a large commitment with someone you know and trust.

Location, Location

By joining forces with your partner, husband, wife or friend you can open up the opportunities of house buying. Lots of people now even buy with brothers, sisters and other family members to raise more finance. The benefit of this is you are more likely to be able to buy a better house in your favoured location than if you tried to buy alone.

Investing in property

There has been an increase in the number of people who want to start property development and getting a joint mortgage is a great way to enable this to happen. Although most people applying for joint mortgages are happy for it to be their home as well as an investment.

Any joint financial commitment needs to be taken seriously though and should be thought out thoroughly beforehand. Because each person named on the joint mortgage will have equal responsibility and liability for the property, it is important to have a joint agreement legally drawn up to cover for any eventualities such as separation, job losses or a change in your personal situation.

Kim M. Clarke writes for http://www.joint-mortgages.co.uk where you can get information about joint mortgages and other types of loan options available.