Source: http://i.kinja-img.com

As most people know, many items cannot be bought during certain seasons, Many people like to get specialty drinks, holiday clothes, and even day to day items. Why do many retailers only sell them at specific times, or lower the price only during a few months? I have dug a little more into the topic to figure out what the best items are to purchase during seasons and why. The first article I found on the topic was, The Best Time to Buy Anything During The Year, published on LifeHacker.com. They list many informational sources that go further into depth on specific products and list the best months to buy products. I found out that if I wanted to buy an extra computer monitor, I should get it during January-March or if I were to buy a new set of golf clubs, then I should wait until March. I did some further research on Proquest, and found an article by Robert J. Bruss of the Chicago Tribune, He pretty much explains the same thing as LifeHacker, but his article was more of a Q&A where he answered questions and listed out the explanation. Many others just give a list of items and their seasons to buy them during, but they don't go into the details. Megan Elliot on CheetSheet.com, posted an article and just lists a few items, but she sort of goes into an explanation on what the stores do.

The Price is Right

Source: http://topnotchmakeovers.com/

So I did some more research since the 2nd blog post and I found out many interesting things on buys products. While browsing Imgur.com, I came across a post that included many “Life Hacks”, and one of them applied to buying airline tickets. When searching for tickets, you should browse in Incognito mode because the airlines use your history to check on what you are looking for and spike up the prices, while in Incognito mode, they can’t. Many times, people see items that they want, but they don’t know if they should buy it now or later. There are many factors that go into when or when not to buy the product you want. I’m going to list out what I usually do when I try to purchase a product. I generally like to stay away from online purchases because there are so many things that can go wrong, but I use online sites to compare prices. First, I compare prices on online sites and try to find the cheapest place. I also see if stores match price to online stores to try and find even cheaper prices. Second, I go to both stores to see if they actually have the price that's on the website and make sure i'm getting one that isn't used or in bad shape. Those are mainly the things you can do when looking for a product, but the biggest part is really up to you to decide whether you want it or not.

Blog Post 6

Synthesis

http://www.dividenddiplomats.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/REIT-Investing-Up.jpg

During my time researching how to invest prosperously, I obtained information about success stories from model investors such as Warren Buffett and Chris Camillo as well as tactics that have failed such as not diversifying and letting emotions dictate decisions. When asked how to invest prosperously, using the knowledge I’ve gained, I would respond that the best tactics are to diversify your portfolio, think rationally, and ultimately use as many resources as available to make well-informed decisions.                  

According to the article, “Investing disasters - when bad investments go even more bad!,” one up-and-coming investor, John, made the rookie mistake of not diversifying his portfolio. He put all of his investments into 3 small company’s stocks which is  the equivalent of a cardinal sin in investing. This was the first mistake that led to a downhill spiral of John’s capital. On the contrary, Warren Buffett, the most successful investor of all time, has one of the most diverse investment portfolios. Not only does he have a diversity of stocks, he also has holdings in many other companies not sold on the stock market. It is these outside of the box tactics that investors must use in order to invest prosperously.

According to the article, “Five Minute Investing: Things to Avoid,” falling in love with a stock is one of the most important things to avoid when investing because this has to do with emotion and nothing else. Investing is not a business of emotion, but instead strategy and rationality. Even if a stock has done so well for you for so many years, most of the time, this will come to an end. Investors often believe that “bull markets” will go on forever. By thinking irrationally like this, investors are setting themselves back. Another irrational way to invest would be the common practice of buying a stock in a downward trend. Although this may seem like a high risk high reward situation, which it is, the risk is usually far too high to be a smart investment. In order to yield a profit on these types of stocks, two things must go right. First, the investor must be able to predict which stocks will actually end their downward trend before going all the way to zero. Second, the timing of this must be impeccable, the investor must know exactly when it will turn around and buy the stock at the right price to yield a profit. The chances of being able to predict both of these is very slim, therefore, not a good investing decision. If investors practice more rational thinking, they will not be put in those sticky situations.

The last and possibly most important skill to invest prosperously is the ability to use your resources to make well-informed decisions. Successful investor, Chris Camillo, perfected this strategy. According to the article, “How One Amateur Investor Spots Stocks Before Wall Street,” Camillo used being an amateur as an advantage over the professionals by using his “more diversified set of friends and colleagues throughout the country that know more things than those on Wall Street”. He used people close to him to provide him with useful information about companies. For example, when his wife informed him that Target was going to do the Missoni line, he immediately went to Target to try and judge whether it was going to be successful or not. Once he realized it was a hit, he immediately invested. Within 48 hours, he had already tripled his investment. Warren Buffett, another successful investors was resourceful by reading about every aspect of the company he was investing in by studying their company records and researching their management.

There is no magic method that can guarantee success when investing, however, the only way to truly ensure safety when investing is to diversify your portfolio, think rationally, and ultimately use as many resources as available to make well-informed decisions. These tried and true investing tactics have been tested by some of the most successful investors such as Warren Buffet and Chris Camillo. Investing comes with a risk but there are ways to ensure some level of security.

A Women's Experience as a Medical Professional

Source:www.hopkinsmedicine.org

While women have made many significant gains as medical professionals in the past century, women continue to have completely different experiences than their male counterparts as physicians. From academic medicine to practicing medicine it is a recurring trend that women are underrepresented in many fields of medicine and may face unfair bias in regards to their gender. However, despite the chronic underrepresentation and trends of discrimination, a significant amount of women have had astounding careers as physicians. The hardships and setbacks that women face as physicians appear not to be debilitating to the careers of most women in the medical field.

According to the article “Medical Professions: The Status of Women and Men”, the Center for Research on Gender in Professions illustrates how women have chronically been underrepresented in academic medicine. While women do face underrepresentation in other facets of the medical profession such as high paying specialities, women's underrepresentation in the academic facet seems to be the most detrimental. As the vast majority of medical school deans and professors are men, there is a scarcity for change to be made. Women are predominantly taught by male professors which means that the women in medical school are not experiencing the perspectives of women teachers. Similarly, as men in medical school are being taught by male professors, they are not experiencing the perspectives of women in medicine either. This is detrimental to the advancement of women in medicine as it is essential that women teach the younger generations of both male and female physicians that changes need to be made in regards to gender advantages and disadvantages.

Female physicians also face underrepresentation in specialties which pay more. While it is unclear as to if the specialties that women are drawn to pay less naturally, or if they pay less because women are working in them, it is clear that there is a pay gap between women and men. Accordingly, the article “Gender in Medicine-- an Issue For Only Women? A Survey of Physician Teachers’ Gender Attitudes” illustrated a study done by Gunilla Risberg, Eva E Johansson, Goran Westman and Katarina Hamberg which indicated that female physicians tend to have different types of relationships with their patients.  On average, female physicians tend to spend more time with patients building relationships and emotional support. Childbearing also plays a role in the opportunities that female physicians receive, often times affecting females negatively. According to the article “ Balancing it All: Women and Medicine” The National Women’s Health Network female physicians often face harassment from peers as well as superiors for choosing to become mothers. However, despite many setbacks in the careers of female physicians, there have been many females who have had extremely successful careers in medicine.

Celebrities Are Just Like Us

Source:www.commencementbank.com

Throughout all of my research, I have focused really focused on celebrities and how exactly some of them have financial troubles. Why exactly are some celebrities prosperous and some fall into such deep financial trouble that they are forced to file for bankruptcy? As simple as it may seem, it all depends on what the specifically does with their money. If they take measures to ensure that at least some of their money is saved, they won’t go bankrupt. But, if they are careless with their money and don’t do anything to save it, they will end up bankrupt.

For the first part of my research, I decided to look into exactly what kind of celebrities go bankrupt and if there is a correlation between a certain profession in the “celebrity realm” and going bankrupt. Based on the article “13 Celebrities Who Went Bankrupt”, the majority of the celebrities that were profiled were in fact in the music industry. People such as MC Hammer, Toni Braxton, and Marvin Gaye had at one point gotten into extreme debt and had to file for bankruptcy. After reading this article, one might think that all celebrities have a greater chance at becoming bankrupt. But, after synthesizing all of my evidence, I believe that this is in fact just a coincidence. The profession that one is in does not determine if you will go bankrupt or not; it is based off how how one manages their money and saves.

In the second part of my research, I decided to look specifically at one individual and the events that occurred to make them lose so much money. In the article “Everything MC Hammer Blew His Fortune On”, it zeros in on MC Hammer and his rise (and fall) to fame. It describes Hammer spending millions of dollars on cars, houses, helicopter, entourages; pretty much anything that you can imagine, MC Hammer spent money on. The one thing I learned about this is that Hammer was just stupid with his money and didn’t save any of it. He was making of millions of dollars, so he thought he could just buy whatever he wanted and it wouldn’t matter because his income was so high. Even though one’s income can be extremely large, that doesn’t mean you just stop saving money. You need to make sure that you preserve at least some of your money so you can sustain a great life forever.

In the third portion of my research, I decided to look at the celebrities that actually save and the measures they take to ensure that their money will last them their entire lifetime. The article “Stars Who Save: What We Can Learn From These Modest Celebrities”, the reader learns that there are in fact numerous celebs that actually save their money in great ways. Countless celebrities do things such as save a majority of their income and put it in bank accounts, have their kids wear hand me downs, spend a conservative amount of money even though they make millions; some of them even cut coupons. Most would think that celebs would never do things such as this, but in actuality, they are just like us. Just because they make more money than Americans doesn’t mean that they are any different. A majority of celebs take drastic measures to ensure that their money is saved.

In the final section of my research, I decided to take a different direction and focus more on the high taxes celebs have to pay and how they then try to conceal their money from the government, getting them into even more trouble. In the article “5 Lessons From Celebrities Who Cheat on Their Taxes”, it describes celebrities such as Nicholas Cage who fell into deep trouble with the IRS because they did things such as concealing money, falsely filing for bankruptcies, and many other things. This article calls into question:is having more money more of a burden than people who don’t have as much money? There really is no way for celebrities to get out of paying such high taxes because they make so much money, but even with taxes they still have a greater amount of money than most people in the US. As long as they save and are honest, they will not fall into troubles such as issues with the IRS and bankruptcies.

Overall, I learned a lot about celebrities and why some go bankrupt and some do not. The key is for us all to remember that celebrities are just like us. They need to make good choices and save their money in order to ensure that they will have a prosperous life forever. The people that go bankrupt are also just like us; they due to the fact that they spent their money carelessly, they wound up in deep debt and had to file for bankruptcy. If everyone is the US saves money and uses their money wisely, we will not fall into such troubles.

I really enjoyed learning about this topic and I am positive that I will continue to research in the future because I truly find it interesting.

The Mechanics

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eucnb7Qf08U

For the most part, almost all new car dealerships will pay the same price for a particular make and model new car. Theoretically the invoice price of the car is determined by all of the materials used to build the car as well as any optional features that have been put into the car. Now the reason that I say theoretically is because the car manufacturer also charges the dealership for actually putting the car together, obviously. The problem arises from the fact that manufacturers can set whatever price they want for the service of building the car. 

While all new car dealerships pay the same invoice price for new cars and trucks, they don't all pay the same to have new cars and trucks delivered to the local dealership. 

Shipping costs for new cars and trucks can vary considerably depending on the type of vehicle being shipped and the distance that delivery trucks must travel to bring new cars and trucks to your local new car dealership.

Generally speaking, you will find that new cars may be a little cheaper in areas that are very close to the manufacturing plant of the vehicle, while on the other hand they may be a little more expensive in areas that are hundreds or thousands of miles away from the manufacturer. This is based largely in part on the amount of money that it cost to ship a vehicle from one point to another. However, the differences in price caused by shipping costs are usually not so much that it will warrant purchasing your new car truck from a far-off location—as you will have to pay shipping costs as well. Even if you don't, driving a car long-distance will require some investment in time as well as fuel.

Cold War Era Boxing

Soon following the time of prosperity for the sport of boxing would come a time of hardship. From the 60s to the 80s boxing saw a gradual shift in personality, and not in a good way. Promoters and fighters brought negative connotations to the sport and would leave permanent legacies that taint the art to this day. In this brief essay, I will examine what caused the downfall of boxing and how it changed economically during this time period by using a number of articles as well as examining the tactics of fighters and their managers.

Mike Tyson

Unfortunately for the sport of Boxing, the spectators and media began to focus more on what happened outside of the ring rather than was occurred inside of the ring in the 1960s-1980s. Muhammad Ali, or formerly Cassius Clay, served as the catalyst of this new era of the sport. His loud and rambunctious personality was something the sport had not seen before, and the media loved it. He quickly gained popularity in the boxing community for this reason. Shortly after his rise in the sport came the Vietnam War. Clay was openly against the war and even served as a political figure in an effort to dissuade the US from getting involved. He even converted to the Muslim religion and changed his name in what many critics consider to be his attempt of “dodging the draft.” Because of his rebellious actions and already thriving popularity, the media augmented his popularity with these unprecedented behaviors from a fighter. Ali grew to become a global figure of peace as he traveled the world training, fighting, and expressing his views. His renowned “Rumble in the Jungle” fight against George Foreman which took place in Zaire is a prime example. Ali transformed the sport, for good or for bad, and drew attention away from the actual fights and towards the life of the fighters outside of the sport. After Ali, Mike Tyson became a prominent figure in boxing. His arduous upbringing and tenacity towards the sport caused him to rapidly gain popularity. According to the article “1980s Boxing” by distinguished boxing journalist Scott Levinson, “the emergence of Mike Tyson was a phenomenon that hasn’t been seen since in the United States. International superstars flooded the sport, keeping boxing thriving around the globe.” Tyson was loved by the media and the people. He assisted in what caused this era to be the most profitable and economically successful time periods for the sport. Levison later went on to say that “boxing enjoyed high exposure during this time. Networks threw a lot of money into the sport and fans reaped the benefits. On any  given afternoon, you could watch top boxers for free, often in high-stakes fights—many of which were absolute classics. With the proliferation of cable-TV, it was a great time to be a boxing fan. By the end of the decade, most of the big-time fights were moved to pay-per-view. The eighties were the last time where it was really easy (and cheap) to be a boxing fan.” It wasn’t long before Tyson began to spiral downhill though, which elevated his popularity even more, even if for the wrong purposes. He soon had rape charges, numerous lawsuits with promoters, and much more legal trouble that caused him to take a hiatus from the sport and which the media jumped all over. For these reasons, boxing itself was a highly popular sport, however during this time it was more related to the fighters that the sport.