Aiming for a Greener Financial System

In the year 2015, being a person who likes to stay abreast of the various political and economic activities, I was often confused with the term 'Green Finance'. Moreover, the excessive use of this term in G20 pushed me to learn more about it and provide an understanding to you as well.

Green finance can be described as an umbrella term which refers to the changes in financial flows that are required to support projects that not only help the environment but also the society. Pollution, air quality, water quality, greenhouse gas emissions, energy efficiency and renewable energies are certain genres that are covered under green finance.

To meet the aspiring goal of the Paris treaty, it is important to align the green growth and financial sector. If we talk about green finance in the long-term, we should be happy to know that it has ample opportunities for profitable investments in developed and developing economies. Investing in green economy will set the course for carbon footprints. The only need at the minute is a step change in greening the financial system. There is a rising awareness in the financial system related to sustainability risks, commercial opportunities and changing customer preferences. The government has smoothened these developments through national roadmaps, sectoral guidelines and policy signaling. The economy is witnessing a competitive urge between financial centers and companies for green finance leadership.

An accepted green finance will always constitute a right proportion of policy action and market. Below are certain actions which can be helpful for an effective market action:

Connecting environmental risks analysis with core business activities





Feeding back into the policy process





Driving the environmental risk analysis





Anchoring sustainability, and





Controlling financial technology to strengthen retail demand.

The authorities should be able to shape effective policies to minimize market failures and create conditions which help in the growth of green finance. Apart from using policy packages with fiscal policy and environmental reforms, there should be an involvement to support the greening of financial markets with options such as:

Supporting data provisions and capacity building





Using the limited public means effectively, and





Creating a smart and well-organized incentive system.

After the government, multilateral development banks and international financial banks have also an important role to play, with options like:

Streamlining governance structures and portfolios according to the Paris agreement





Using methods to strengthen environmental guidelines, and





Promoting financial market development and filling project pipelines.

Since the Paris treaty, businesses have initiated that streak of competitiveness at various levels of the financial system. The global financial centers such as London, Shanghai, or Paris are preparing themselves as global green finance centers - this and many more to lure specialized companies. Designing smart market systems and policies, in order to maximize the positive effects in the long-term can be a strong approach towards scaling-up the green finance.

Developing countries encounter major investment gaps and receive a small share of the green financial flow. This is the case when these developing economies offer huge opportunities for long-term green investment in areas such as transport, agriculture, infrastructure and energy. There are a number of developing countries which are advertising green bond roadmaps, highlighting the potential for green finance. Though, the various effects of an updated version of environmental risk analysis need to be understood to manage possible development policy implications. The UN environment is developing a range of options to make the most of the combined activities of green finance and sustainable development.

2 Great Ways Of Saving Money

If you know how to manage and save money, you have a much less chance of getting into financial trouble than those who do not. Here are a few common sense ways to save money that take very little effort.

Get into the habit of paying with cash. It seems over the past twenty years or so, since credit card companies have loosened their credit rules, that people are using their cards more than ever. And while this is good for the credit card companies and merchants, it is not necessarily good for you. When you pay something with a credit card, you are actually spending borrowed money.

Now, if you have a zero percent credit card and you manage to pay your balances off at the end of the month, then how you pay does not really matter. But, most people are not like that. And, as a result, they end up carrying balances on their credit card for years. And, over the years, all of the interest that they are paying on their balances can really eat away at their savings. If you pay in cash, however, you are never under any delusions as to whether you actually can afford something or not.

Make yourself a budget. Having a budget lets you know, at all times, where you are financially. Many people get in trouble with their credit cards and finances simply because they think they have more than they actually do. For example, someone getting paid $ 10 an hour may actually feel that he has $ 400 in his pocket after a week of working. But after taxes, FICA, and various other discounts, he may actually only have a little over $ 300.

The problem is that often, subconsciously, the $ 400 is still in his mind. As a result, overspending is easy. And it's not until the end of the month where he is wondering where all of his cash went. Budgeting, while not perfect, helps to prevent scenarios like this. And, studies have consistently proven that those families who keep budgets are almost always better off financially than those earning the same amount of money, but do not keep a budget.

If the average family were to simply do these two things, and nothing more, they would be a lot better off financially than most families in the US In the age of quick gratification and lack of personal responsibility, however, the odds of most families doing this is very small indeed.

Understanding the Ins And Outs of Moodle Mobile Learning

With technology becoming an integral part of our daily life, more learners are opting to gain a quick access to websites within their organization using their mobile devices instead of using the traditional notebook or desktop computers. So, to meet the user demands, educational institutions and schools are slowly overhauling their course management system and using Moodle to create mobile applications. Since we are highly dependent on our handheld devices, we rely on them for communication, playing games and even learning, Mobile learning is increasingly gaining popularity and Moodle LMS fully supports it.

What does it mean by mobile learning?

Mobile learning can be referred to learning anything from anywhere and anytime. The mobile component refers to the device that allows the learners to gain access to the course easily even while on the go. This is possible with a few platforms like Moodle development because courseware is available only within the LMS. It has various benefits that include collaboration, communication and increased mobility. Smartphones, tablets, portable gaming devices, e-readers, media players are all supported by the Moodle platform and can be effectively used to deliver diverse components of mobile learning. Learning materials have become easily accessible nowdays and with mobile it is easy to read, learn, and engage people.

The benefits of using Moodle mobile learning

There are many students all over the world who are willing to learn various courses, but are restricted because of many problems like distance, timings and the physical stress. Today, learning is easy as many educational organizations have their courses stored online and even the assessments can be made from any location making the process comfortable. The administrators can easily access and grade the students quickly. Mobile evaluations offer the opportunity to provide detailed feedback, allowing more space for users to learn.

Communication is also enhanced as there are various new methods to reach out. You can use forums, SMS messaging, virtual classrooms, videos, real time chatting and etc. as your means to learn. Moodle development enables the administrators to tailor the learning process based on the needs of individual learners.

How to use Moodle for mobile learning:

Moodle is a viable platform for organizations to deploy mobile learning either through web based apps or through native mobile apps. The latest features of Moodle course content and buttons are now visible even on smaller mobile screens to support the users. But before you start using Moodle development for mobile screens here are some tips:

It is very important to optimize your reading materials for the mobile screens. Reading is usually not very suitable for small screens, but it can still work if the reading is brief and if the text can be zoomed according to the requirement. Slide presentations and videos can also be used for learning.

If you have a mobile app for learning, then it is very important to guide the users without assuming that they know how to operate. Share some tutorials so that the students can easily figure out the features and do not miss any crucical updates or even deadlines of your course.

While offering your courses on mobile, it is vital to supply additional links that are related to the reading materials so that the students find it easy to learn. Also make sure that the website is mobile friendly and give a short introduction of your course so that the students know what it is all about. Carefully choosing a mobile theme would also help you.

Technology is making the world easier and also a better place to live. It definitely makes the job for the teachers easier and the learning process for the students fun and engaging. They can share useful skills and competency with their friends and avail better opportunities of learning.

Ebook Internet Marketing Strategy - 5 Vital Elements Of A Successful Campaign

Are you planning your eBook Internet marketing strategy or are planning to do so soon? Planning a strategy to market your ebooks requires a lot of careful thought and decision-making to ensure that your eBook campaign is a success. Writing an eBook takes a lot of hard work, and you will want to make sure it gets into as many hands as possible, as well as making it a profitable venture for you.

Here are 5 vital elements of a successful eBook Internet marketing strategy:

1. A High-Converting Sales Page

Having your own sales page to sell your eBook is very important. The purpose of this page is to sell your ebook, nothing else. It should contain an eyeball-grabbing headline, benefits, a powerful call-to-action and the order button. Getting your own website these days is very easy, as domain registration costs and hosting costs are very low nowdays.

2. An Affiliate Program

Having your own affiliate program can help you to explode your sales exponentially. An affiliate program lets other marketers promote your eBook for a share of the profits, called an affiliate commission. For ebooks, typical commission rates are 50% up to even 75%, but this is because of the low costs involved in producing ebooks. It is worth it to give away 50% of your profits to an affiliate, because it is free advertising for you. They are doing all the hard work in marketing and advertising your ebook, and you only pay contracts when they make sales, which makes it a win-win for everyone.

3. List Building

List building can increase your sales dramatically if you do it right. You can add an opt-in form on your sales page or after your customers order your product, to build a list of subscribers and customers. You can queue up broadcasts which promote your eBook again to those who did not buy it the first time around, and you can also promote other products. The list will probably end up being the most vital asset in your business, so treat it right.

4. Free Traffic

Web traffic is the fuel for any online business. Without traffic, there is no business. Just like an offline store needs foot traffic to survive, an Internet business needs visitors coming in to the website to make sales. Thankfully, there are many methods for getting free traffic to your website online, including article marketing, free classified ads, forum marketing and social media marketing. Study these methods so you can implement your free traffic campaigns.

5. Paid Traffic

The next level of traffic is paid traffic, which allows you to expand your business even further. While free traffic can be great for getting visitors and sales, with paid traffic, you can expand your business faster. With free traffic, you are spending time to acquire that traffic, and we all only have 24 hours a day. However, with paid traffic, you are leveraging your resources to get traffic on autopilot. Some top traffic generation techniques that require funds, but are very profitable, are pay-per-click advertising, email solo advertising, offline advertising in newsletters and magazines.

Now that you have a good idea of ​​what a successful eBook internet marketing strategy looks like, it's time to make your name in the online field. Writing your eBook is just the first step. Promoting it is where the rubber meets the road. Are you ready to stand up to the challenge? Then it's time to start taking massive action!

Asus Eee PC 1215n

One of the companies that manufacture not only computers but also its parts and some of its accessories is the Asus brand. They are also one of the top companies that have made a name on the computer industry.

And up to now the Asus brand are still continuing in developing and new laptop or notebook computers for their customers and one of their computers is the Asus Eee PC 1215n. Here are some information's which might be useful for you regarding this computer under the Asus brand.

This new model of Asus laptop was just released on the summer of 2010. It is an Ion 2 notebook that's an upgrade from 120PN and is powered by a dual core processor.

It has a 12 inch screen size LED backlit display.

It has a dual 3.0 USB ports, an HDMI output and also a Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR.

It also has a built in webcam and a speaker and an audio port which you could connect a headset if you want to not disturb others when you listened to music or watch movies.

This device also has an Optimus switching capacity which allows you to switch between low-power, if you want to save your battery or the high powered Ion graphic module if you need to use this option in some of your programs.

It has a built in Ethernet port that will let you connect to the internet through your cable and an 802.11 b / g / n wireless which will let you connect on the web wirelessly.

Every computer has its disadvantage and advantage no matter what brand they are it up to the user to identify and choose which computer they want and need. So it is up to you to read online reviews compare prices.

Crypto Currencies Volatility, a Profitable Rollercoaster

This year we can observe that cryptocurrency tend to move up and down even by 15% of value on a daily basis. Such changes of price are known as a volatility. But what if ... this is totally normal and sudden changes are one of the characteristics of the cryptocurrencys allowing you to make a good profits?

First of all, the cryptocurrency made it to the mainstream very recently, therefore all the news regarding them and rumors are "hot". After each statement of government officials about possibly regulating or banning the cryptocurrency market we observe huge price movements.

Secondly the nature of cryptocurrency is more like a "store of value" (like gold had been in the past) - many investors consider these as backup investment option to stocks, physical assets like gold and fiat (traditional) currencies. The speed of transfer has as well an influence upon volatility of the cryptocurrency. With the fastest ones, the transfer takes even just a couple of seconds (up to a minute), what makes them excellent asset for short term trading, if currently there is no good trend on other types of assets.

What everyone should bear in mind - that speed goes as well for the lifespan trends on crypto currencies. While on regular markets trends might last months or even years - here it takes place within even days or hours.

This leads us to the next point - although we are speaking about a market worth hundreds of billions of US dollars, it is still very small amount in comparison with daily trading volume comparing to traditional currency market or stocks. Therefore a single investor making 100 million transaction on stock market will not cause huge price change, but on scale of crypto currency market this is a significant and noticeable transaction.

As crypto circuits are digital assets, they are subject to technical and software updates of cryptocurrency features or expanding blockchain collaboration, which make it more attractive to the potential investors (like activation of SegWit basically caused value of Bitcoin to be doubled).

These elements combined are the reasons why we are observing such huge price changes in price of cryptocurrencies within a couple of hours, days, weeks etc.

But answering the question from the first paragraph - one of the classic rules of trading is to buy cheap, sell high - there is having short but strong trends each day (instead of way weaker ones last weeks or months like on stocks) gives much more chances to make a decent profit if used properly.

Common Questions When It Comes to Real Property Tax in the Philippines

Do you own a piece of real estate property in the Philippines? Whether you have a vacant lot just waiting to have a house built on it, a townhouse in the city of Manila you're renting out, or a commercial establishment in the province, you should be paying your real property tax.

Q: What is real property tax?

It is tax levied on Philippine Real estate property. The applicable rate depends on the location. A city or municipality in Metro Manila may imposes 1 percent while cities and municipalities outside Metro Manila may levy the tax at the rate not exceeding 2 percent. The owner of the real estate property in the Philippines has the option to pay the tax in four equal installments on or before the last day of each calendar quarter.

Q: Payment of Real Property Tax

Payment is made at the Municipal hall of the area your property is located. If you have a property in Ayala Alabang, by all means, visit the beautiful Municipal hall of Muntinlupa where they have made it easy to pay your real estate tax - by way of a nice, comfortable building, and signs / directions everywhere so you won 't get lost. Add to that the friendly staff ready to assist you.

Q: Is there any discount?

Normally, cities give discounts to early payers. For example, if you plan to pay for the whole due for the following year, you can pay as early as November-december of the current year so you'll get a discount. This does not hold for all cities - so visit your municipal hall to make sure.

Q: Do I have to pay if I have no title and yet im occupying the property already?

Yes, you have to pay the real property tax from the time you moved in to-date or almost one year. With or without title.

Q: If my property is under the name of my husband who is a foreigner, does he still have to pay the real property tax?

Yes! Even if the property is under the name of your foreigner husband, real property tax is still imposed and should definitely be paid to the local government where the property is located.

Q: I just bought a real estate property from auction and found out the owner has 3 years worth of unpaid real property tax! Do I pay it?

Most properties from auction are on an "As is where is basis", which means you should have done due diligence. Investigate the background of the property before you dove in. In other words, yes, you will have to pay without you made prior arrangement with the auctioneer before bidding on the property.

Q: Yikes I did not get to pay my real property tax last year, what could happen?

The tax payer is subject to pay interest at the rate of 2 percent per month but not to exceed 36 months.

Here's a quick recap of how to pay real property tax in the Philippines:

Visit your Real Property Tax Section in the Treasurers Office located typically in the City hall. Secure an order of payment (OP) from the assessors office, proceed to the realty tax section and present the OP with the latest official receipt (OR) and new tax declaration for new transferred properties. The collection officer then computes tax and informs you, the tax payer, how much you have to pay. After payment, an official receipt is issued and payment is posted on the property tax card. After which, you just pay at the cash register upon validation of the official receipt. Finished!