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[ad_1] The post How to Do a SWOT Analysis Like a Pro appeared first on Millennial Money. A SWOT analysis is a common tool for creating a business plan. It’s a way to evaluate your business’s strengths and weaknesses and discover how to leverage them to your advantage. But you don’t have to be a business owner to benefit from a SWOT analysis. If you’re a big-picture thinker, you can apply this strategy to your personal finances to check in on your goals and prepare for your next big life event. What Is a SWOT Analysis?  Here’s a simple definition of a SWOT analysis: It’s a four-part analysis that looks at your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (i.e., your SWOT).  Using this model allows you to analyze internal and external factors to see what you’re best at, what your competitor is best at, where you can improve, and what you need to guard yourself against. You can conduct a SWOT analysis to evaluate your small-business ideas and look for strengths and weaknesses before you make any change to your long-term strategy. It’s also great when tracking large money goals to see what areas you need to improve in. And it highlights the best aspects of big-picture thinking — especially since its primary objective is to help organizations or individuals develop a full awareness of all the factors involved in making a decision.  It also makes you self-aware of who you are in relation to your work and your money goals.  How Does a SWOT Analysis Work? Conducting a SWOT analysis is easy. First, create a SWOT diagram. Take a piece of paper and divide it into four equal sections, each labeled with a different part of the SWOT analysis. Let’s break those down for you. Strengths The first part of the analysis is to determine what works well in your work or organization. This is key to strategic planning. Think about what you have to offer that’s better than your competitors’ offerings or skills.  You want to ask questions like:  What do you excel at? What do you do better than anyone else? What unique resources do you draw on? What do other people see as your strengths? What values drive your business or work?  What lowest-cost resources can you draw upon that others can’t? You really want to focus only on things that give you the edge against everybody else.  If you’re applying a SWOT analysis to your personal finance, you’ll want to retool the questions a bit. The idea is to pen down all of the internal strengths that you have that might give you a competitive advantage.  Weaknesses During this part of the analysis, you really want to focus on the internal weakness of your organization or self in relation to those surrounding you.  So make sure the way you’re answering the following questions is following that framework: What could you improve? Where do you have fewer resources than others? What are things others are likely to see as weaknesses? What do you and your company lack? What characteristics do you have that might make you or your company disadvantageous to pursue in the market? Are there things that your business needs to be competitive? Really focus on your weaknesses in relation to some external point.  For example, if your restaurant doesn’t serve brownies — but your competitors don’t, either — that’s not really a weakness. But if you don’t know how to code and someone who is up for the same promotion does, that is a weakness.  If you’re using a SWOT analysis as a way to check in with your money, this is a great time to pull out that budget. See which areas of your budget you tend to blow through.  It’s OK to mark your page up and be honest with yourself. Now is the time to get real. And if you need to, pour yourself a glass of wine to help you suffer through this step.  Opportunities Opportunities are external chances that contribute to your success. Things like network meetings, new government grants, or conferences all count as opportunities.  This also includes promotions you’re up for and any money-making opportunities you may have.  Your opportunities don’t need to be game-changers to make it into your SWOT analysis. Just list anything that can propel you or your company toward success.  You want to ask questions like:  What changing regulations might affect you positively? What is the market doing, and what trends might be encouraging people to buy your product? What industry events are coming up that you should be taking advantage of? Do your customers or coworkers think highly of you?  Are there ways you can use your network to expand a project? Think about good things that are in the immediate future. Checking out classes or certification programs or attending an industry event are some great ways to find opportunities.  You want to highlight a path to growth. Employers especially like to see employees take a vested interest in making sure the company is succeeding in the long term. And you also want to see a path forward.  You might consider taking a freelancing course to up your game, or learn about investing to help your money do the work for you. Even asking friends what they think you should do will give you some external perspective.  Anything that contributes to you being your best self goes in this category.  Threats Threats are another important thing to consider. Threats are anything that could harm your position or affect your growth.  It’s important to plan for these types of hurdles in order to have a good business or financial plan and to utilize big-picture thinking.  Here are some questions to consider when creating your list of threats: What new regulations threaten operations? What do your competitors do well? What consumer trends threaten your business? How do you self-sabotage your work and set yourself up for failure, instead of success? Overall, looking at

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[ad_1] The stage is set. In a few hours from now, Samsung will take the wraps off the Galaxy S22 Ultra, alongside the S22+ and S22 (and probably as many Galaxy Tab S8 tablets). It’s a good time to revisit the Galaxy S21 Ultra and hope for even better things. The fact of the matter is, the S22 Ultra doesn’t really have to best the S21 Ultra. It just has to be as good. Not only was the S21 Ultra the best premium flagship Android phone of 2021 in India, but it was also Samsung’s redemption song. Coming after a rather lacklustre (but feature heavy) S20 Ultra, the S21 Ultra was the first “ultra” phone from Samsung worthy of the title. Also Read | Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: Dark knight rises A year later, the song remains the same. In fact, a slew of updates that have since followed, have only made it more desirable. (And, if rumours are to be believed, Samsung is set to announce extended support for up to 5 years with 4 major OS updates in the pipeline, giving Google something to think about while putting other OEMs from OnePlus to Xiaomi, on notice.) I have only good things to say about the S21 Ultra. A lot of really exciting phones have launched in the last one year. Samsung itself upped its “foldable” game to a point where it’s a lot easier to recommend a Fold 3 or Flip 3 to those who find the genre appealing. But regardless of all the innovation, the S21 Ultra remains to be my favourite Android phone—a phone I keep coming back to, despite testing so many phones, so very frequently. The secret sauce is balance. The S21 Ultra is a perfectly balanced phone. Before you call out, it’s supposed to be because it costs a bomb, I’d like to tell you—not all expensive phones are worth buying. At the same time, I’d also like to point out that the S21 Ultra is not perfect. It could use faster charging. Samsung could have bundled a charger in the box. Storage expansion would have been highly appreciated, too, considering how it used to hype this feature big time once upon a time. Chunky phones like this could fit a headphone jack also (if you could find space to stash a stylus). But none of these imperfections are deal-breakers. What could have been a deal-breaker, was performance. Stellar performance, battery life (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express) Samsung—not to anyone’s surprise—chose to launch the S21 Ultra in India with the Exynos 2100 chip (while in markets like the US, it sells a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888-based version). A decision like this is always polarising. But this was a blessing in disguise. The Snapdragon 888 is known to be a major resource hog and it’s very hard to cool. After having used the S21 Ultra, for over a year now, it has become abundantly clear that the Exynos 2100—though not as powerful—offers more value with a fine mix of performance and thermal efficiency. All this bodes well for battery life, too. The phone feels buttery smooth, plays demanding games with ease, and does not get toasty (though it does get warm when stressed)—even after such extended use. There is some throttling, when you push it, but it’s not alarming so as to hamper experience. This was a very fast phone out-of-the-box. It’s very fast, even today. It won’t be wrong to say, the Exynos 2100 chip was a gamble that paid off well. I am hoping, the Exynos 2200 chip with AMD’s ray tracing GPU will build on this further, so keeping my fingers crossed there. The alternate version of this will be the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, that’s again—as far as preliminary reports are concerned—turning out to be, too hot to handle. Whatever chipset that Samsung chooses to launch the S22 Ultra with, in India, must be up to the task. Not beat the S21 Ultra at benchmark scores but be as good—if not better—in the real world. Picture-perfect cameras (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express) Despite being a year-old, the S21 Ultra’s camera system still packs quite a punch. There have been quite a few phones from Vivo and Xiaomi (and others), that have shown great potential, but none comes close to the S21 Ultra’s picture quality and versatility. The output is hallmark Samsung, which is to say, photos are bright and contrasty with wide dynamic range, plenty of detail and sharpness. Using the S21 Ultra extensively has also made me realise how underrated—and underappreciated—a good telephoto camera is in smartphones. The 40MP front camera clicks great selfies, too. Premium design, great display (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express) There are some things that Samsung does well like clockwork. Design is one. Display, another. With its sharp, understated look and satin matte finish, the S21 Ultra is also a very desirable piece of hardware you would absolutely want to have if money is not a constraint. Its contour-cut aesthetic is probably the most original and striking workaround I have seen any brand pull off to embrace its camera bump. The method is sheer genius. The 6.8-inch Quad HD+ dynamic AMOLED 120Hz display is nice and tall without being overbearing. Brightness can go all the way up to 1500nits. Samsung gives you enough options to fine tune colours as per your liking. Viewing angles are excellent. Rest of the ensemble is again, textbook Samsung. There is IP68 dust and water resistance, dual stereo speakers, and a dual-SIM slot along with support for 5G, Wi-Fi 6E and ultra-wideband (UWB). There is optional support for the S-Pen as well. What’s not to like? The complete package Very few phones—even premium phones such as this one—manage to give you the complete package, which is why I mentioned earlier, not every expensive phone is worth buying. But this one totally is which is why, the S22 Ultra will have some big shoes to fill. Also Read |

[ad_1] Larry Goldstone is tired of being ghosted. He is used to it by now, but the problem has only gotten worse since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Goldstone has tried contact via phone calls and emails consistently. If necessary, he even knocks on doors — without success. He has talked openly about it but is still trying to understand the reasons and potential solutions. Goldstone’s case is not related to the world of bad Tinder dates, where the colloquial term “ghosting” is popularly used when someone cuts off contact without warning or explanation. Goldstone is an executive at a mortgage servicer company trying to reach out to homeowners. “We know who the borrowers are. We service their loans. We have their email addresses. We have their phone numbers. We know where they live. But we’re having a hard time reaching out to them,” he said during a panel at the annual Residential Mortgage Servicing Rights Forum held in New York City in October. Servicers, lenders and investors dealt with a tsunami of 7.7 million forbearance programs throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching 1.5% of the U.S. population. Most homeowners who stopped their mortgage payments have successfully arranged a graceful exit from forbearance. In general, servicing executives are relieved not to have to re-live another foreclosure crisis. But there will be some fallout. And for the hardest cases, the biggest problem for servicers right now is simply establishing communication with them. Over the course of three months, HousingWire interviewed about a dozen servicers, housing counselors, academics and lawyers to drill down on how big the ghosting problem is, why it happens, and what the consequences could be for both borrower and servicer. An army of door-knockers Goldstone, who is president of Capital Markets & Lending at BSI Financial Services, estimates that between 20% to 25% of borrowers in BSI’s servicing portfolio have been non-communicative, he told HousingWire. Consequently, they built an additional foreclosure and loss mitigation capability, added staff and rethought processes to contact borrowers. The company serves a $50 billion loan portfolio. Investment firms that purchase mortgage loans in default also face the same challenge. Bill Bymel, managing director at Spurs Capital, an investment manager specializing in distressed mortgages, said that about 15% of the overall portfolio during the pandemic contained non-communicative borrowers, up 50% compared to the same pool of borrowers pre-COVID. One reason homeowners have not responded to the company was the foreclosure moratorium that went into effect in March 2020. “Without any enforcement action on the foreclosure side, it has opened up a new level of borrowers’ belief that they can just kick the can down the road and ignore the problem,” Bymel said. According to Bymel, the situation began to change as a key Dec. 31 deadline neared, the date by which the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rules stipulate that servicers redouble their efforts to work with borrowers to prevent avoidable foreclosures. Borrowers started to reach out knowing that foreclosure processes would soon resume, said Bymel. Another Bymel business, First Lien Capital, a mortgage and real estate investment platform, is increasing the number of workers who knock on doors and negotiate with homeowners due to the lack of communication via phone or email. “We would normally have about 150 people nationwide, and we are probably going to have about 200 people knocking on doors looking for solutions,” Bymel said. The reasons for the lack of communication between borrowers and servicers are numerous. Ellie Pepper, deputy director at the National Housing Resource Center (NHRC), an advocate for the nonprofit housing counseling industry, said the past still looms large for many borrowers. Some are especially haunted by the Great Recession between 2008 and 2011. “Borrowers had different interactions with their servicers, and some ended up not really trusting their servicers,” she said. “Servicers are under different rules and are trying to be more open to interacting with borrowers in a better way. But the bottom line is that homeowners are scarred.” Besides fear and lack of trust, Pepper said it may sometimes be difficult for homeowners to understand mortgage terms, particularly if English is not their native language, so they avoid contacting their servicers. To Dana Dillard, principal advisor at Housing Finance Strategies and a 25-year mortgage industry veteran, the ghosting problem happens, among other reasons, because homeowners deny the reality or feel overwhelmed with their debts — especially if they lost a relative or friend due to COVID-19 or are unemployed for a while. Jackie Boies, senior director in partner relations at credit counseling consultancy firm Money Management International, said that people fear talking with their mortgage servicers because they have never had to speak to them before in many cases. “When the pandemic hit, and they put their loan into forbearance, it was quite easy. Most servicers allow you to go online and just sign up for a plan. And now to exit it, if you are not somebody who is just returning and paying it all in full, it is a little scary.” The latest Black Knight data show that there were still about 1 million active forbearance plans in October. Among over 6 million borrowers who exited the plans, 76% performed or paid off their debt. Another 7% were in loss mitigation plans, 3% were delinquent and less than 1% were in foreclosure — the three categories accounted for 854,000 homeowners in aggregate. “That’s what you’re seeing: a huge drop in forbearances as people are being forced off, but some borrowers are not responding to their servicers,” said Matthew Tully, vice president of agency affairs and compliance at servicing SaaS Sagent. Tully said that homeowners are “putting their heads in the sand,” not realizing that the foreclosure moratorium went away, and servicers can begin foreclosure operations throughout the country. The situation is more delicate for servicers focused on loans with Ginnie Mae guarantees. In this case, the share of borrowers in loss mitigation plans, delinquent or foreclosure increased to 16% in

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[ad_1] BP records highest profit in eight years in 2021 [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] The vaccine-induced protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection wanes within a few months, but protection against severe COVID-19 appears to be better maintained, according to a study published in The Lancet journal. Researchers noted that the protection wanes at different speeds depending on the type of vaccine used. “The bad news is that the protection against infection seems to be diminished by seven months after the second dose of vaccine,” said Peter Nordstrom, a professor at Umea University in Sweden. “The good news, however, is that the protection against a severe infection that leads to hospitalisation or death seems to be better maintained. Vaccination is therefore very wise and important,” Nordstrom said. The study is a nationwide, observational study based on registry-data from the Public Health Agency of Sweden, the National Board of Health and Welfare, and Statistics Sweden. The main analysis included almost 1.7 million individuals, and the results were confirmed in an even larger population of almost 4 million individuals. The results showed that protection against infection of any severity waned progressively following the peak which occurred a month after the second dose. Six months after vaccination, the remaining protection against infection was 29 per cent from two doses of Pfizer, and 59 per cent from two doses of Moderna vaccine. There was no remaining protection from a month and onwards for AstraZeneca, the researchers said. With respect to infections that were severe enough to warrant a hospital stay, or where the individual died within 30 days of confirmed infection, the protection was better maintained, they said. The study found that protection against severe disease was 89 per cent after one month and 64 per cent from four months and onwards during the rest of the maximum follow-up of nine months. “The results underscore and support the decision to offer a third dose,” said Marcel Ballin, doctoral student at Umea University and co-author of the study. “In particular, the results show that it was correct to prioritise the oldest and frailest individuals,” Ballin said. Prior to this study, a few observational studies and follow-up studies of the clinical trials have investigated waning vaccine protection in other countries. However, these have mostly covered the initial four to six months, and for the Pfizer vaccine. “What this study contributes with is the longer follow-up time and the fact that we were able to explore how well the protection is maintained according to different types of vaccines,” said Anna Nordstrom, adjunct professor at Umea University, and co-author of the study. “The strengths are that we have been able to do this in a real-world setting based on a population-based sample of the total population of Sweden. This increases the possibility to generalise the results to other countries with similar population structure as in Sweden,” Nordstrom added. [ad_2] Source link

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