Now, this may seem like a strange topic to cover in a finance class, but it was covered nonetheless.  The thing is, the Internet has become such a part of our lives that it is a resource that applies to finance as well.

The Internet functions both as a tool and a resource for financial products.  Some classic examples can include finding the best credit cards, comparing bank accounts, and even a way to find cheap car insurance.  In these cases, it is used as a comparison shopping tool.

As a future financial advisor, I need to know about what the Internet can offer my clients.  Also, it would be a good tool for me in terms of learning and finding investments for my clients.  At the same time, it will be my biggest competition.  Now with essentially self serve financial products, service is even more important as they can get what I will be selling at home.

So, even though the class was informative, it has also scared me a bit: by the time I am done school, there may be little demand for my job.  I will just have to keep track of the changes in the industry and take it from there.

I haven’t had a loan for a long time.  You see, I have been paying cash for things and trying to stick to a budget.  I had some problems with credit cards in the past and didn’t want to risk running into money problems.

That being said, it has been so long since I have had a loan, I have been feeling scared that my credit rating may take a beating because of it.  So, I have decided to get a loan – as for what I am buying, I haven’t decided yet.

I really wanted to see how much money I qualified for – if it was a large amount, it would definitely be an ego boost.  I went online to compare loans from many different financial institutions – and found one that looked promising.  I don’t really have any large assets to speak of so looking at a secured personal loan was kind of out of my league.

Instead I looked at personal loans where all they do is look at my paycheck and my credit rating to see if I am approved.  Using an online calculator, I found I could get around $15,000 for a loan.

Honestly, I was thinking something a little smaller.  Maybe I will use the money to upgrade my computer since it is time it retired.  I guess I should go find a computer to buy then…

Well, I have a job interview today.  I could use a few extra dollars and I was thinking that I would benefit from something temporary.  So, I looked in the paper to find something that might catch my eye and fit my needs.

I found something that would work for me.

You see, I have been taking finance classes in school and I am thinking that I might want to be a financial advisor.  So, when I saw an ad for a loan officer at a local car dealership, I needed to take a look.

I visited their website to look up the job description.  Seems that I would be setting up car loans for clients (big surprise).  They would be unsecured loans supporting the efforts of the car salesmen selling the vehicles.

At the same time, we were to make the customer feel that they were getting a cheap loan – and to be honest looking at their rates it shouldn’t be a problem.

Now that I have the background information I need to get ready.  My interview is at 1:00 PM, so I don’t have much time.  Gotta go!

I went to my night class last night (I know Friday night is a little weird for a night class, but it just happened this way) which is a finance class.   I am in my second year of commerce and Finance is one of the required courses.  I don’t mind taking it as I didn’t have a very good example on what to do with my money as a child, so I try to soak up as much as possible.  If you can guess by the title, the class last night was about mortgages.

I was pretty interested in this subject for in a few years when I am done college, I will probably want to buy a house.  The class was focused on calculating the various ratios needed to see if a client were to qualify for a mortgage such as the debt ratio.

We also touched on people that would need a bad credit remortgage.  There were some special considerations discussed for these types of lenders and what extra hoops they have to go through to successfully remortgage their property.

In closing they left us with a project to go talk to a lender (whether it be a bank or a mortgage broker) and get some more information regarding the steps people take to get a mortgage.  I will have to wait till Monday to make calls to arrange appointments to do this.

Going to the doctor is not a new thing for me.  I have been seeing the same doctor on a semi-regular basis for annual check-ups and minor illnesses for the past fifteen years.  He is a wonderful physician and has always been very thorough in his diagnoses.

So, last year when my husband and I found out we were expecting our fist child, I didn’t worry about a thing.  And at that time I didn’t need to because my doctor gave me a wonderful care throughout the pregnancy.  I figured that my child would get the same great treatment I had been receiving with our current doctor.

But that was not meant to be.

Our daughter was born with a condition called Atrial Septal Defect, which meant there was a hole in her heart and she also had a heart murmur. 

As caring as our doctor was, at his suggestion we decided that the baby should see a pediatrician.  We were given a list of Ridgefield Pediatricians from our doctor and we were given the task of finding one to take care of our daughters’ ASD. 

I am happy to report that we had success finding a doctor for our child and that the hole in her heart has completely closed on its’ own.

If you are like me, you like to visit your Facebook and MySpace account a few times a day.  You might just be checking on how your friends are doing, updating your profile or maybe just uploading some new pictures.

Usually it is a simple ordeal, but when you go to school sometimes it isn’t.  Quite a few schools now have filters in place to stop you from visiting your favorite sites.  It is especially frustrating when you pay money to use the computer labs and they don’t let you do what you want to do with your time – besides who wants to do school work all the time anyways?

Need a solution?

I have one for you.  There are sites that are called free proxy servers that allow you to bypass school filters.  Basically, you go to one of these proxy websites, and browse using their site.  It loads the web pages on a different computer then shows them to you effectively bypassing the filter your school setup.

So there you go.  Visit the sites you want, when you want to, using one of the proxy websites on the web.