Tampa Bay Devilrays Handicapping: 2006 Season Preview

When people think about slum teams in baseball, they think of the Devil Rays. They average about 65 wins a season over the past 7 seasons. This is 97 losses. So you can imagine always betting against them, right?

I would beg to differ. The past two seasons at home, these Devil Rays were 81-80 (+15 units). They are so bad on the road that their decent home record is masked to bettors to the point that they are actually a decent bet.

The Devil Rays are pitted up against the elite division in all of baseball. The Yankees and Red Sox sit atop the throne every year. Then you have teams expected to be competitive in 2006 like the Orioles and Bluejays. Against non-division rivals at home, these Rays are 47-40 (+11 units) over the past 2 years.

When they were a favorite at home against non-division rivals, these Devil Rays were 20-10 (+8 units). Sometimes when you are a bad team and you have a rare chance to win, you will! These Devil Rays showed that they can.

Like many bad teams, we are going to pick our spots betting on the Devilrays at home and against them on the road.

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Thanks for the Memories Coach Alvarez

As someone who never cared much about college football growing up, when Barry Alvarez was hired to coach my state's largest (only) Division I football program in 1990, I was only mildly interested. After 116 victories, and 3 Rose Bowl victories, I am now a convert: I love Badgers football!

As of yesterday, things will be different at UW-Madison: Head Coach Barry Alvarez coached his las college football game at Camp Randall stadium. Sure there is 1 more game, at Hawaii, and 1 more bowl game to play and win. And yes, Coach Alvarez is thankfully staying on as athletic director to help recruit and run our programs to ensure we stay top notch in all we do, but things will be different, that's for sure.

I just wanted to say thanks for being such a great leader, Coach Alvarez. You innovated your way into my heart with a new brand of college football, and you made your way into the hearts of so many others in the state of Wisconsin. Thanks for bringing respectability back to 'Sconsin Football! It's been a great ride, what with a Heisman trophy winner (Ron Dayne), 3 Rose Bowl victories, and a beautifully remodeled Camp Randall to watch the games at. I went to Camp Randall this year to watch the Badgers defeat Michigan, and the place was electric!

Thanks for all of that, and so much more Coach Alvarez! Making it great never looked so easy as when you coached, so thanks for inspiring so many Wisconsin kids to believe that our little state college is so much more than just a place to learn!

Now let's go win at Hawaii and win your last bowl game! On Wisconsin!

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2006 Mid-Season NBA Breakdown of the Boston Celtics

What has changed: Danny Ainge was not thrilled with the one-man team Boston was becoming and traded away Blount, Banks, Reed and Davis to Minnesota for Szczerbiak, Olowokandi and Dwayne Jones. Since then the team hasnt played much better. Szczerbiak isnt leaps and bounds better than Ricky Davis was, but he is more prone to have a breakout game than Davis did.

This team is mainly where they are because of Paul Pierce, who is having a career year. Pierce gets to the hoop more than any other scoring SG and doesnt need to dunk it to go in. The other Boston players arent score-minded at all but do find their ways. The Celtics are just 5-11 when someone other than Pierce leads the team in scoring.

The Celtics are 4th in the League in field-goal% mainly since the majority of their shots are inside the foul line. But guys like Al Jefferson and Ryan Gomes arent efficient enough converting easy layups. And while Kendrick Perkins has outperformed expectations Boston is still severely undersized. They are 26th in the NBA in rebounds and Centers like LaFrentz and Olowokandi dont help.

When Dan Dickau went out for the year due to an injury, Delonte West stepped up and became the primary PG. West is a very good shooter in the mold of Derek Fisher but doesnt enough for the Point Guard position. For instance 4.4 APG from the PG spot isnt getting it down. Also, West tends to wander offensively and doesnt lead it for a good deal of time. As such the Celtics are 29th in the NBA in tunronvers.

Boston plays a ton of close games, which is good because it shows that they can compete, particularly at home. However they are awful closing out games and have lost 14 games this year by 5 or less points. When they arent losing squeakers they get blown out frequently too, so how they perform is often like flipping a coin.

Ainge has said that he is not done making transactions. Boston is 5 games back of 8-seeded Philadelphia but do not have anywhere near the firepower. Antoine Walker helped them last year since he was the score-first guy they desperately needed. Expect players like Brian Scalabrine, Ryan Gomes and Tony Allen to possibly be shipped out within the next few weeks.

Their chances arent tremendous but they are alive. Both Washington and Phili have a pair of stars compared to the one that Boston has. What Ainge will do before the trading deadline could determine their fate. Look for them to make a move at the final playoff spot when Szczerbiak blends in a little more.

Foreclosure Investing Lifestyle

So why should you invest in foreclosures? In the long-term, its for lifestyle and financial freedom.

I do not define success in terms of winning or losing, but rather by whether I am challenging myself to be the best that I can be. One of the reasons I left my 9-5 corporate job, besides getting laid off, was because I wanted MY OWN lifestyle. I wanted to create my own lifestyle for me, my family, and my friends. I wanted to become a champion, the best at what I did. I believe that anything I set my mind to, I would be successful at that endeavor.

However, my biggest problem in working for a company where I was not the boss, the president, or the owner, was that I could not set my own schedule. I would not be able to go skiing when I wanted, play golf, or travel when I wanted. I was a terrible employee because I wanted to do things when I wanted to do them. And today I dont want to be accountable to anybody, except myself and my family, and the people that are counting on me to create real estate transactions.

Dont get me wrong. I was pleasant at my jobs, and I showed up, and I produced revenue. But the reason that I think I was a terrible employee was that I only wanted to work just 2 to 3 weeks a year. To me, a JOB means Just Over Broke and my time was not my own time, it was my boss time.

When I first started in the real estate investing business I had to ask my wife to give me a chance to make this work. I had a severance package, so I had three months to move forward. When we cashed the first check of $8,000, I took $4,000 and took my wife to Paris, a place she always dreamed of going. That helped tremendously in my pursuit of this business.

Now that I have established my business I take off one week for every six weeks of work. This gives me five to eight weeks of vacation per year depending on how my deals are going. I use this time to connect with my family, vacation, work on other projects, and just go out and enjoy life because isnt that what it's all about? If you're working so hard that you're not enjoying life then you need, in my opinion, to rethink your priorities.

My 15-yr-old son Nick and I go to hockey games, football games and other things that a 15-year-old and his dad can do together. My 6 year old daughter Chloe and I go skiing in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado where we live and we do it 10-15 times a year. We go camping, take motor home trips, fly to Maui to go to the beach and much more. This is truly a life that I am designing.

My belief is we should constantly have to better ourselves, to acquire new skills, to refuse to be bogged down with the feeling of failure, inadequacy, or that L word--loser. In my opinion, the losers of the world are those that never try. I would rather work with somebody who has tried 10 different businesses and failed than somebody who has worked 30 years successfully for one company and achieved moderate success.

When are you finally a financial success? Only you can answer that question for yourself and your family but to me the answer is when you can totally financially support yourself without having to show up for work. When you can do whatever you want, whenever you want, with whomever you want, anywhere you want, anytime you want to do it, as much as you want to do it, then you have reached financial success. That is the time that passive income is really working for you and your dreams are becoming a reality.

6 Internet Marketing Myths

Every day thousands of people go online to make money but most of them fail miserably because they either truly believe one of the 6 Internet Marketing Myths or or all of them. You can read them below and discover the grain of salt in all of them.

Myth #1: Internet Marketing is EASY

This is probably the biggest myth of all, and let me tell you Internet marketing is hard, takes time, effort not mention money and anyone who suggests otherwise is trying to sell you a bunch of horse hockey. Granted that it's comparatively easier to brick and mortar in that there's no inventory to carry, no shipping of goods no sales staff and virtually no overhead, but a lot of work is still involved.

Myth #2: ANYONE Can Make Money Online

Folks, this is simply not true. Unless someone gets off their lazy boy recliner and download/read everything they can about internet marketing, and put an action plan in motion, they will never make a dime on the internet. DO NOTHING, MAKE NOTHING.

Myth #3: You Can "GET RICH QUICK" On the Net!

This is the trap that a lot of newbie internet marketers falls into including myself when I first started, why? because scammers make it sounds so easy and let me tell you, chasing "get rich quick scheme" is a WASTE OF TIME!, money and energy. It just won't happen overnight, instead do some research and find out what people really want and need then give it to them especially a sense of reality.

Myth #4: It's FREE to Do Business Online

This is one of my favorite myths because I believed it during my first year of internet marketing and it just wasn't true then, it isn't true today. Compared to opening your first coffee shop or gift shop in downtown Los Angeles, internet business start-up cost and maintenance cost is pretty low. Once you have your domain set up, you only pay for internet connection, advertising and ongoing educations, that's it. You can't expect to make money selling free stuff and ask others to do the same. Folks! it takes money to make money.

Myth #5: It's TOO LATE to Start an Internet Business

Most super affiliate marketers would love to hear people say "It's too late now, too many competitions, I should just pack my bags and go home, the internet is too complicated, etc...". You know why? the less people they have to compete with the better which in turn will make them more money.

The fact is, it's never ever too late to start anything and that includes internet business. I firmly believe that the internet is not going anywhere and you should too. Every year the stats will show you the number of people shoppingonline are increasing, their spending dollars are growing and the number of people going online is increasing also.

Myth #6: The BIG Money Talk is JUST HYPE

As I've told you before, "it takes money to make money?" Well it's true, although you will be hard pressed to find experienced internet marketers to tell how much they spend on promoting and advertising. Sometimes, you have to dig a little deeper to find the truth in every hype you read. It's a fact that the people that makes alot of money online also spends alot of money on advertising, tools, resources and know how to get the job done.

If you are willing to take the necessary action to make 'big money' happen for you - it will. It takes time. You can criticize, be skeptical and sure that 'big money' can't happen for you - and it won't. Sit down and write a financial and a sound business plan. Local Chamber of Commerce can give all the info you need to get started.

If you believe that you will succeed you're right, if you believe that it won't work, you're right also.

To summarize, you have heard people's story how they're making a fortune on the internet and how easy it is but the reality is some stories are NOT out of this world or unrealistic but it just doesn't happen overnight. You just have to apply a bit of common sense into it, find what you love to do, have a game plan, stay focus and you my friend might find the right opportunity to make all your dreams come true.

Bad News For The Boys

Hey boys, stop watching the hockey game: I have got news for you. In fact I have got a good news and a bad news. The good news is that you are still classified as the family breadwinners. The bad news is that you dont get to eat any bread no more. And there is a really, really bad news boys but I am going to tell you last, because I am packing up

A recent study conducted by Canada Housing Mortgage Corporation indicates that women across Canada have now more purchasing power than ever. Canadian women, although not paid quite at par as their male counterparts, nevertheless make more money than ever before and are closing the income-gender gap very fast. They also show more remarked entrepreneurial skills and are more likely than men to sign an offer to purchase, especially one involving residential real estate. They also make more responsible property owners and are three times less likely to be foreclosed upon than men. Overall, Canadian women represent an increasingly powerful key market group and are a major force in the Canadian housing market.

More specifically, Canada Housing Mortgage Corporation details the following trait characteristics of ladies buyers:

[ ] Single women are now twice as likely to buy a home as men and they have an expensive taste too. Women are the largest condo buyers by dollar volume in downtown sections of large metropolitan centers, typically Toronto and Vancouver. They love luxury condominiums and, in any event, women will stretch their purchasing capacity to the limit. They believe that, when it comes to real estate, more expensive is a better investment in the long run.

[ ] Women are buying at a faster rate than the general population and are more likely to hold on their capital assets than men. Moreover, Canada Housing Mortgage Corporation reports that young ladies, whether married or not, believe in long term investments, thus proving outmoded the previous finding that the typical Canadian household changes home every seven years.

[ ] In total, all women (single, married, divorced and widowed) control a whopping eighty-five percent of all residential purchase decisions. This includes not only decision making as it relates to cosmetics such as the style of a home, colors and location, but it involves such factors as important financial decisions the likes of type and length of financing, amounts of down-payment and terms of contract of purchase and sale previously the almost exclusive domain of men.

[ ] Canadian women are twice as likely as men to have a credit rating from good to excellent and will go the extra length to keep it that way. For this reason, women are beginning to replace men as the preferred customers of bankers and mortgage brokers alike.

And there is also a fifth trait characteristic of ladies purchasers, a real bad news, boys but I am going to tell you last because I am packing up

At the roots of this substantial change in the real estate landscape is the fact that in the period from 1994 to 2004 the number of males earning more than CAD $75,000 gross per year has increased twenty-five percent, but the number of women earning more than CAD $75,000 has increased sixty-two percent over the same period. This is the main reason why, according to the report, women want to get the best possible investment. They want to build up equity rather than paying rent and a landlords mortgage a concept that men seem to begin to underestimate.

But wait to hear the real bad news, boys I will tell you in a second, because I am pretty much finished packing up

Furthermore, men are increasingly losing score in a field that has been their own exclusive domain for ages. As Home Depot (Canada) knows very well, fully fifty percent of purchases made there are from women. Canadian women appear to be more and more skilled at such typical manly tasks as sheet-rocking, plastering, fixing plumbing and electrical and even window-framing. Overall, they are no longer intimidated by repairs and maintenance.

There it is. I am finished packing, now. Before I go to the airport to catch my flight, here is the fifth news, boys:

[ ] There are 32,764 single women in Canada who own more than two properties, thirty-eight percent of which are lawyers.

Thats it. Im moving to South America. Hasta la vista, baby

Luigi Frascati