Thomas J. Stanley’s follow-up to his well-received book The Millionaire Next Door, follows a pretty interesting premise. It basically picks the brains of millionaires to find out how they got their wealth and how they keep it. It certainly offers an interesting read and I do recommend it, but not as a book that is going to teach you how to go out and make money today. It serves its purpose as a guide to help you understand how the rich think, but if you’re looking for step-by-step advice on how to make more money right now, it falls a bit flat.

This is basically a series of interviews that cover how some people managed to get rich. Unfortunately, it really doesn’t go very in-depth into these techniques. Instead, we get a whole chapter devoted to the process of picking the right spouse. What’s love got to do with it indeed? This rather antiquated view of picking the kind of spouse that will support you and be advantageous to your career is a bit out of place in today’s society.

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Dear Credit Karma,
I am considering a short sale. My house in Ft. Lauderdale is $100,000 and underwater, and I project it’ll take me about 10 years to break even. I have an adjustable rate mortgage that recasts in September, and I have a very good credit score of 764. Though it really is against my values to do this, how much will a short sale hurt me?

A short sale will affect your credit negatively as well chew up significant time and effort to file and negotiate with your lender. There are other alternatives such as loan modification or refinancing your distressed home before you consider a short sale. The first thing you should do is check your mortgage paperwork and go through the fine print of your mortgage adjustment. If you received a prime loan and with historically low interest rates, there’s a good chance your mortgage will adjust in September with nominal changes to your payment. In fact, many mortgages are adjusting downward. Sin

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CDs pay higher yields than liquid savings accounts, but to earn that, you need to let someone else hold your money for a specific period of time.

Once you’ve grown your liquid savings account to create your emergency fund, you should consider a longer-term investment that has a higher yield. One of the most common fixed-income investments is a CD. In this chapter, we explain the different types of CDs and the various strategies you can use to earn the most income from them. We also spell out the penalties you might incur if you cash in the CD before its maturity date.

What you can expect to learn from this chapter:

• Lock up your money; get higher interest
  The basics of certificates of deposit are explained.
• Types of CDs
  A look at the advantages and disadvantages of the most common CDs: traditional, bump-up, liquid, zero-coupon, callable, brokerage and high-yield.
• Certificate of deposit investing strategies
  Savvy investors keep a portion of their savings in fixed-income instruments like CDs.

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Etihad has become the first Middle Eastern airline to operate from the Japanese capital Tokyo – with Emirates coming a close second.

The airline launched its inaugural flight between Abu Dhabi and Tokyo on March 27, the first of five regular flights between the two cities every week; 10 first class, 26 business class and 164 economy seats will be available on each flight.

On-board entertainment and food has been adapted for the route, which is expected to be popular with business travelers. For Japanese travelers, it also opens up around 60 destinations available from Etihad’s rapidly growing Abu Dhabi hub. The airline launched its first Japan service in February, with flights to Nagoya airport.

“The launch of both the Tokyo and Nagoya routes this quarter demonstrates the developing cultural ties between the Middle East and the Far East,” said Etihad’s Peter Baumgartner at a Japanese cultural event in Dubai earlier this month.

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There are now over 23 million sole proprietors filing tax returns in the U.S.  Given the low overheads and other business and lifestyle benefits, a significant number of sole proprietors also choose to operate out of their home and are generating  $102 billion in annual revenue in the process (source: SBA Office of Advocacy).

Numbers aside, sole proprietors and other home-based businesses succeed because they are able to manage their life in a way that allows them to enjoy the benefits of their entrepreneurial choices. But being a sole proprietor in a home-office environment also means you are bombarded with a myriad of conflicting work/life demands, 24 hours-a-day, 7 days-a-week.

Each of us has our own secret formula for success, but how often do you actually stop and assess what’s working and what isn’t as you do business from your home?

Here are a few tips that can help you dust off your home-based business routine and strike a balance between the demands of your business and the busy-ness of the home environment in which you operate! 

1. Le

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Deflationary pressures continue in Japan with February CPI reported to have declined by an annual rate of 1.2%. This marked the 12th consecutive month that Japan’s CPI has declined. The Japanese government has been pressuring the BOJ to take actions to combat deflationary pressures. Earlier in the month the BOJ elected to increase the size of its lending operations but decided not to increase its purchase of Japanese bonds. The expansion of the lending operation is passive and unlikely to have any significant impact on deflationary pressures in Japan. If the BOJ wanted to get more serious about combating deflation the central bank could buy Japanese bonds or set an inflation target. The purchase of bonds would increase Japans money supply. Setting an inflation target would help the central bank steer inflation towards the target and let investors more easily anticipate interest rate changes. In theory an inflation target can lead to increased economic stability.

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