SBA Offers Free Webinar Series to Help Small-Business Owners Get Fiscally Fit; Recognizes April as National Financial Literacy Month

April is the official National Financial Literacy Month, marking the importance of financial literacy to teach how to establish and maintain healthy financial habits.

In recognition of this month's efforts to promote financial education, the U.S. Small Business Administration will host a free webinar series targeted to small-business owners. Events will be held at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. [ET] on Wednesdays -- April 7, April 14 and April 21.

Topics will highlight the importance of financial education, and offer the opportunity to learn practical money skills and financial wellness. To hone financial skills for today's business world, participants will learn basic money management and wealth-building skills from some of the industry's top leaders in financial education and entrepreneurship.

Webinar Presenters & Topics
Becky MacDicken, Financial Education Specialist
Pennsylvania Office of Financial Education
Topic: The Importance of Financial Education in the Workplace
Wednesday, April 7 at 11:00 a.m. [ET]

Luke Reynolds, Chief of the Outreach & Program Development Section
Division of Supervision and Consumer Protection
Community Affairs Branch
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation [FDIC]
Topic: Basic Banking/Financial Tips for Small Business
Wednesday, April 7 at 3:00 p.m. [ET]

Jennifer Matthews, President and CEO
Creating Financial Literacy, LLC
Topic: Spring is Here! Planting Seeds to Grow Your Own Money Tree
Wednesday, April 14 at 11:00 a.m. [ET]

Starrlese Jones, Financial Management Specialist
Division of Financial Integrity, Office of Federal Assistance Management
Health Resources and Services Administration [HRSA]
Department of Health & Human Services [HHS]
Topic: Your Money, Your Choice$, Your Future
Wednesday, April 14 at 3:00 p.m. [ET]

Jennifer Lane, Certified Financial Planner [pictured above]
Compass Planning Associates
Topic: Personal and Business Money Management
Wednesday, April 21 at 11:00 a.m. [ET]

Margo Mitchell
National Foundation for Credit Counseling
Topic: Identity Theft
Wednesday, April 21 at 3:00 p.m. [ET]

Free Webinar Access Is Yours
For free visual and audio access to each webinar event, go to http://www.readytalk.com/. Click "Join a Meeting" and enter access code 3761101.

Then, dial 866-740-1260 and enter access code 3761101 [plus the # key]. System Requirements: Windows, Mac, Linux and Solaris operating systems. Internet Explorer, Safari and Firefox Web browsers. Separate telephone line needed for the audio portion.

SOURCE: U.S. Small Business Administration
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Rest, Sleep, and Burn More Fat Fast

Editor's note: Periodically, ProsperNOW opens the editorial floor to folks who bring a unique, and proven, perspective to creating lasting prosperity in all its myriad forms.

Today, we're featuring Rob Poulos [pictured], a celebrated fitness author, fat loss expert, and the founder and CEO of Zero to Hero Fitness, LLC. Rob created the world's most efficient method for fast and permanent fat loss with his best-selling "Fat Burning Furnace" system, designed to help those men and women looking to put an end to restrictive fad diets, long and boring cardio workouts, and the need for super-human willpower, for good.

By Rob Poulos
Fat Loss & Fitness Expert
Creator of "Fat Burning Furnace"

In order to reap the benefits from the intense exercise I recommend to my Fat Burning Furnace students, you must get adequate rest. I can’t stress this fact enough. In fact, rest is just as important -- if not more important -- than the actual exercise itself.

During the high-intensity resistance exercise that my students perform, the muscles experience tiny injuries or tears. The body’s response is to adapt and repair, gaining stronger and larger muscles -- which, of course, leads to burning more fat and gaining a leaner body.

But this growth-and-repair process won’t take place if the body is not allowed the time to do its job. Too often, people rush back into the gym, as many have been inundated with the "more is better" axiom when it comes to exercise. But, if we don’t get out of the body’s way and let it do its magic, we will experience poor results. We won't burn fat like we want to, and we will just end up demotivated or, possibly, give up our efforts altogether.

If you don’t get enough rest or sleep, you’ll have a very difficult time building the fat-burning muscle that will transform your body. And you’ll also have a tough time burning fat off, too! That’s why we can’t work out too long, or too often, when using a sufficient intensity level.

When giving the body an intense stimulus, such as proper weight training, you can’t keep hammering it into the ground. If you did this, you’d quickly over-train your muscles and negate your body’s ability to recover from exercise.

[In fact, your immune system could become so worn down, that you might even get sick. This happened to me a few times in the past, when I wasn’t paying attention to getting adequate rest and sleep.]

And this repair-and-recover process doesn’t happen overnight; it usually takes two days or more. So, make sure to keep between one to three days of rest between your properly conducted resistance training workouts -- or you will be short-circuiting your chances of success to burn fat and build lean, strong, muscle.

Now that we know how important rest is to burning fat and building muscle, we also must understand the most important component of rest -- otherwise known as sleep.

Sleep is the ultimate recovery tool -- and not only for recovery from exercise. It’s a recovery tool from any stress you take in throughout the day.

Whether it’s from family pressures, work issues, finances, etc., increased stress can be dissolved by adequate sleep. And don’t think you can burn fat maximally when you’re over-stressed by other things in your life. A high stress level can shut down the effectiveness of your ability to burn fat, among other things.

So, make sure to get adequate sleep. What’s ideal? I would recommend no fewer than seven hours, nor more than nine hours. In fact, seven and-a-half hours per night might be the perfect amount!

Research has shown that we sleep in cycles of 90 minutes or so. It has been suggested that if we wake up too far before or after one of these 90-minute cycles, you will probably feel groggy for a good part of the day. So, try five 90-minute sleep cycles -- or seven and-a-half hours total. You’ll most likely wake up feeling well-rested and energized -- and your fat burning furnace will show its appreciation, allowing you to burn more fat faster.
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Suze Orman's Advice to 'Larry King Live' Viewers: Use Rebate Checks to Pay Down Debts, Invest for Retirement

"People first, then money, then things." -- Suze Orman, financial expert, New York Times best-selling author [e.g., "Women & Money" and "The Road to Wealth -- Revised Edition"], speaker, Emmy award-winning TV show host, PBS fundraising partner

In January, President Bush announced that the federal government will be sending rebate checks in the amount of $300, $600 or $1,200 to American households -- perhaps as soon as this May or June. This so-called "stimulus package," he said, would boost the U.S. economy and, thus, help steer us clear of a recession. How? By enticing people to buy more stuff.

Last evening, during her guest stint on CNN's "Larry King Live," lauded financial guru and best-selling author Suze Orman declared the economic-stimulus plan "stupid." Rather than go out and spend those checks, she advised, the viewers, callers and folks who e-mailed desperate pleas for her insights should pay down debts and invest in their retirement funds.

Here's a brief excerpt from Larry King's interview with Suze Orman:


...KING: But the government wants them to spend it. That's the point of it.

ORMAN: It's the point of it, but it's a stupid point. They never should have passed that stimulus package. They should never continue to count on saving this economy, because, again, the ordinary person out there is going to continue to spend. They can't continue to spend. They have credit card debt. They have car loan debt. They have mortgage debt.

KING: You're saying take the money and pay off bills?

ORMAN: Get out of debt. If you have -- if you get that money and you haven't yet funded your retirement account, put it in a retirement account. Do something so that little 600 dollars grows to 6,000 dollars and so forth, but don't go out and spend it. Stop it, people. Grow up already.

KING: But the government's case is: if you spend it, you stimulate the economy.

ORMAN: For a little bit. Can't they figure out another way to save this economy, except on the backs of the consumer who are so spent out it's not even funny? I mean, why would you even do that? Again, I could not be against this stimulus package more if I tried...

[BEGIN VIDEO CLIP]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, my question would be, when are they going to lower the gas prices? $3.74 a gallon is hard to make decisions on what are you going to do for the week, the weekend. I need some answers.

[END VIDEO CLIP]

ORMAN: You know, it's funny. It's hard to decide what you're going to do for the week and the weekend. It's true. You can't even drive to work anymore, and then you start hearing things like here in New York City, where they're thinking about actually raising the tolls to come into the city. How are you going to do anything?

That is the problem, ladies and gentlemen. The oil companies -- we said this last time. We were sitting right here. Record profits, yet they're charging you record prices. I don't understand it. I wish we could do something about it. It seems like we can't.

It seems like oil at 100 dollars is here to stay. So all I can say to you is you better get used to these prices, because they are here, which means you have to cut back on everything, which is why you're also upset.

Again, Larry, don't get me started on this. It makes no sense that oil should be this high. It makes no sense that -- that commodities should be this high, that wheat and milk -- doesn't make any sense, but yet it's here...


To read the entire transcript of last night's show, go to: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0803/25/lkl.01.html

ProsperNOW's take: Thank goodness for Suze Orman's keen, candid, common-sense approach to managing finances! Perhaps our nation's next president will have the good sense to enlist Suze's wide-angle expertise in getting us out of this economic mess -- ? One can only hope...

SOURCE: CNN
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James Arthur Ray Boosts Creativity to a "T"

Every week, James Arthur Ray -- CEO of James Ray International, and a teacher/cast member of the hit film/DVD, "The Secret" -- sends his "High Velocity E-Zine" subscribers tips on how to rev up their lives -- financially, relationally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. This week's lesson is on boosting creativity. Here's what he advised subscribers to do...

"First, I am going to assume you have a goal that you want to achieve. If not, that's the first step. You need to decide what you want to create in your life. Make sure it's big, bold and exciting.

"Once you have your goal, get a blank piece of paper and draw a large 'T' on it, so that it fills up the entire page. On the left side, I want you to write, 'Why I Can't.' And on the right side of the 'T,' I want you to write, 'How I Can.'

"As with anything in life, there are obviously several reasons why you can't. But the reality is that these reasons are nothing more than dream stealers and energy drainers. They will keep you from realizing your goals and dreams. So, on the left side of the paper, put a big 'X.' Once you've drawn the 'X.' there's no room for the ideas as to why you can't.

"Now, get busy... From this moment on, only allow yourself to focus on all the reasons it will work, or all the creative ways you can accomplish your goal. Get as many as you can. No idea is a bad idea, and you can edit them later. When your mind begins to wander into how it won't work or can't be done, pull out the weeds and get right back to the actions that will bring you your fruit."

Cool, huh? Now, DO IT!
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