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[ad_1] Oil slips from 7-year highs ahead of more U.S.-Iran talks [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] Actor-athlete Praveen Kumar Sobti, best known for playing Bheem in the TV series “Mahabharat” and for winning an Asian Games gold medal, died following a cardiac arrest late Monday evening. He was 74. The actor breathed his last at his Ashok Vihar residence here. “He had a chronic chest infection problem. At night, when he started feeling uneasy, we called the doctor at home. He passed away between 10-10.30 PM following a cardiac arrest,” a relative of Praveen told PTI. Praveen represented the country across various athletic events in hammer and discus throw and even won four medals at the Asian Games, including two gold medals in 1966 and 1970. He also won a silver medal in Hammer Throw during the 1966 Commonwealth Games. The athlete gained further popularity after he began his acting career and featured as Bheem in BR Chopra’s classic “Mahabharat” in 1988. He is survived by wife, daughter, two younger brothers and a sister. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] Silas helped me make a batch of Chicken Tetrazinni. Kierstyn is learning the joy of licking the batter off the spoon! We served pumpkin muffins on the side. (I used this recipe and just baked in muffin tins for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees.) I’ve been eating my usual salads and toast every day for lunch. We used some of the chicken that was on sale last week to make Barbecue Chicken. With mashed potatoes on the side. Of course we did Breakfast for Dinner one night, too! This week, I used some of the marked down pumpkin to make Pumpkin Waffles. The potato deal wasn’t as good as some of the deals recently, but we were almost out of potatoes so I was excited for another deal at Kroger this week. And this wasn’t the best deal on sausage, but it was pretty good so I picked up three packages to put in the freezer. I was excited that there was another barbecue sauce deal — especially since I had just used the last bottle from the last sale! Here’s what we got for $65 at Kroger. The Stovetop stuffing was marked down to $0.25/box, so I stocked up. We love to use them for Chicken Stuffing Casserole! I also used some of the extra grocery money from being under budget the last few weeks to buy the Softsoap deal. I posted this on Instagram — some ideas of how we might use the groceries to put together meals. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] WuXi Biologics sees no impact from addition to unverified list for U.S. exports [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] Sarda Mines (SMPL) has moved the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Odisha government to execute mining lease deed in its favour for the remaining 10 years out of the 30 years renewal that it was entitled to in terms of the Orissa High Court’s earlier orders of 1991 and 1998 and the state mining authorities’ February 1999. The mining lease is sought in respect of over 947.046 hectare Thakurani B-Block Iron Ore Mines in Keonjhar district, Odisha. The company alleged that the state government had been denying and failing to comply with the central government’s and the HC’s repeated directions to renew the mining lease. A Bench led by Chief Justice NV Ramana while seeking response from the state government have asked it to maintain status quo with regard to mining auction and not to take any coercive action against the mining company till the next date of hearing. The CJI also slammed the Odisha government for its inaction, asking “it to be fair” as it took away 2,000 acre of land from the company. The state government had on January 13 asked SMPL to handover possession of the mines, including stock of minerals, plant and machineries, building structures, etc, to the mining officer. Senior counsel Kapil Sibal and counsel Ankur Saigal, appearng for SMPL, argued that there was a settlement which had received the HC’s nod in July 1998 under which its predecessor had surrended one bigger block (measuring 2,590.4 acres of Thakurani Iron Ore Mines, Keonjhar) of the two mining leases and was granted the other block for 30 years. Even the orders of the court clearly establish that Sarda had received a crystallised and firm grant of mining lease for 30 years from the date of execution of the lease deed in December 1991, they stated. According to the mining company, the state government towards the end of 20 years had started to circumvent its rights for the remaining period of 10 years on one or the other pretext. “The state government took a somersault and took a stand that the lease was only for 20 years and the HC by an erroneous interpretation has come to conclusion that the lease was for 20 years and not 30 years,” it stated, adding that the state government should be restrained from taking any coercive action or precipitative action against it during the pendency of the appeal in the apex court. “The lease was executed with an express written understanding that the mining lease shall be executed for 20 years to start with and the balance 10 years will be executed after expiry of the said period,” SMPL said in its appeal. SMPL had moved the HC seeking a direction to the state government to execute a lease deed for the remaining 10 years out of the 30 years renewal. However, the Orissa HC had rejected its plea on the grounds that the orders of HC in 1991 and 1998 do not operate as constructive res judicata, SMPL had waived its right for grant of lease of 30 years by executing a lease for 20 years  and the 2015 MMDR Act provisions operated as a bar to seek any renewal beyond 20 years. SMPL, which was a supplier of high-quality ore to the Naveen Jindal-led JSPL plant had acquired a mining lease for over 947.046 hectare for 20 years from August 2001 to 2021 for Thakurani iron ore mine in Keonjhar in Odisha, but the environment clearance was granted only in 2004. However, the mining operations were stopped for want of the environmental clearance beyond March 2014. Later in January 2020, SMPL had paid Rs 933.60 crore for excess production of iron ore and had finally resumed its mining operations. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] Yesterday, I shared about my very favorite menu-planning service here. It’s on sale for the lowest price of the year through tomorrow only — you can get it for as low as $1.13 per week with coupon code DINNERSREADY. We’ve used this over the years during busy seasons and it can be a lifesaver… especially if the thought of planning a menu and writing a grocery list is overwhelming! Best of all, the recipes are simple, inexpensive, and almost everything can be purchased at ALDI! I’ve gotten quite a few questions about it and I wanted to address them in a post for those who are wondering… What do you get when you order? When you sign up for the Eat at Home Menu-Planning Service, each month, you’ll get: An entire month of No Flour, No Sugar menu plans, including weekly grocery lists and printable recipe instructions An entire month of Traditional Menu Plans, including weekly grocery lists and printable recipe instructions An entire month of Crockpot/Instant Pot Menu Plans, including weekly grocery lists and printable recipe instructions An entire month of Plant Based Menu Plans, including weekly grocery lists and printable recipe instructions Each menu plan comes with recipes created for small family (3-4 servings) and large family (6-8 servings) Color-coded grocery lists make it easy to swap out ingredients or whole meals Printable Menus to hang on the fridge or near your calendar, so you can easily see what’s for dinner that week and your family can too Access to the entire month at once! 1 Hour Freezer Stash Plans – a new plan each month to stock your freezer with 6 meals in 1 hour! You can choose to stick with just the No Flour/No Sugar menu plans, or just the Crockpot/Instant Pot menu plans, or just the Plant-Based menu plans, or just the Traditional menu plans. Or, you can rotate different menu plans on different weeks, depending upon what you feel like cooking or how much time you have! Can I see a sample menu? Yes! You can see sample menus of all the four different menus you’ll get every week here. Are the recipes allergy-friendly? Like mentioned above, you’ll get access to 4 different menu plans — one which is Plant-Based and one which is No Flour/No Sugar. I’ve found that most recipes are quite adaptable to be allergen-friendly if they aren’t already. Is there a money-back guarantee? Yes! If you try out the service and decide it’s not a good fit for your family, just contact the helpful folks at Eat at Home within 2 weeks of signing up and they’ll give you a full refund! How do I get it for just $1.13/week? The best deal is the annual membership — with coupon code DINNERSREADY, it’s just $59 for the entire year! That breaks down to $1.13/week!!  That’s like paying a little over $1 per week to have someone plan your menu and grocery list every week for you! Talk about a steal of a deal! Best of all, when you use the coupon code, it will lock in this discounted rate for the life of your subscription!! Go sign up for the Eat at Home Menu Plan Service here. Be sure to sign up by tomorrow and use coupon code DINNERSREADY to get the lowest price of the year! P.S. Any questions on the Eat at Home Menu Plan service that I didn’t answer here? Leave a comment or send me a message and I’ll do my best to answer it promptly. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] U.S., Japan reach deal to cut tariffs on Japanese steel, fight excess output [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] A panel of experts, set up by the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA), has submitted a raft of suggestions — including a single registration for a firm intending to undertake a slew of activities relating to fund management — to bolster the regulatory framework for investment funds. It has recommended that a fund manager should be able to manage retail schemes (including exchange traded funds) and non-retail schemes (alternative investment funds), undertake portfolio management services or operate as a manager to various investment trusts (REIT and InvIT) by seeking a single unified registration from the IFSCA. Similarly, a firm wishing to manage funds or activities for non-retail investors only will have lower eligibility requirements, according to the suggestion of the panel, headed by Nilesh Shah, MD at Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Co, who is also a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. Based on the panel’s report, the IFSCA now proposes to issue the IFSCA (Fund Management) Regulations, 2022, and invites comments from public by February 28. A special registration with light-touch requirements will be accorded to a fund manager intending to invest in unlisted securities of start-ups, emerging or early-stage companies, mainly involved in new products, new services, and technology through a venture capital scheme in the IFSC. The panel has also stipulated detailed eligibility and regulatory requirements for fund managers, retail schemes, non-retail schemes, venture capital schemes, portfolio management services and investment trusts have been prescribed. It has suggested that venture capital schemes or non-retail schemes soliciting money from accredited investors alone will qualify for a green channel. It also recommended that registered fund managers in IFSC be allowed to launch not just index-based ETFs but also active ETFs and commodity-based ETFs. Fund managers for gold and silver ETFs should also be able to invest directly in bullion depository receipts with underlying bullion, thereby scuttling the need to invest in physical bullion and worrying about quality or storage. A framework has also been prescribed for special situation funds to be launched by fund managers in IFSC to address the issue of bad loans in the banking system. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] San Francisco-based fintech firm Unison plans several securitization deals to market in 2022, with private label offerings backed by home-equity assets. San Francisco-based fintech company Unison recently completed a $443 million private-label offering backed by an emerging class of home-equity assets in which investors and the homeowners share in both the upside and downside of a property’s value over time. Unison expects to bring three additional securitization deals to market in 2022, according to a company executive. The company, through its fintech platform, offers homeowners the opportunity to tap their home equity without taking out a loan — via Unison’s shared home-equity product called a residential equity agreement (REA). Unison, launched in 2004, joins another California-based fintech competitor, Point, in pursuing efforts to tap the secondary market to create more liquidity for the financing of shared home-equity contracts. This past fall, Point partnered with Redwood Trust to complete what they described as a first-of-its-kind $146 million securitization deal backed by contracts that are similar to REAs.  Bo Stern, head of portfolio strategy and risk for Mill Valley, California-based Redwood Trust, described the Point securitization deal at the time as involving “a new asset class that allows both consumers and investors to access one of the biggest markets in the world” — specifically, the massive homeowners’ equity market. “Home prices have been increasing rapidly over the past year, creating a record $24 trillion of wealth,” Unison said in announcing its new securitization transaction, which closed in late December 2021. “… This transaction offers the opportunity for investors to access residential real estate equity and increases liquidity for homeowners across the country looking to monetize the equity in one of their most valuable assets — their homes.” The joint underwriters for the Unison securitization deal, conducted through the conduit Unison 2021-1, were Nomura Securities and Barclays Capital. Matthew O’Hara, head of portfolio management and research at Unison Investment Management, which is under the Unison umbrella, confirmed that three additional securitization deals are in the works for this year. “They probably won’t be as big as the current one,” O’Hara said, “but … assuming home prices continue to appreciate as they have been historically, then the [securitization] deal side will have to grow commensurately.” Unison, through an REA contract, advances the homeowner a portion of the equity in the property in exchange for a lien position and a share of the home’s future appreciation. Unison also shares some of the downside if the property loses value over the course of the contract. Unison, through its recently announced offering, Unison 2021-1, is securitizing existing REA assets it originated and are now held in an investment fund managed by the company. O’Hara said Unison is currently in discussions with a couple of bond-rating firms to help determine the best framework for rating future REA securitizations — with the goal of having a rating-agency review Unison’s third REI securitization planned for this year. “Mortgages have existed for 2,000 years, and there’s even a reference to them in Roman writings,” O’Hara said. “So, the idea of a mortgage is well understood and it’s a huge multitrillion dollar market. “We [the shared home-equity industry] are not a multi-trillion market. We’re smaller and, as a result, they [rating agencies] have to understand what the [REI] contracts are, and how putting them into a pool, chopping them up and selling it in bonds behaves on top of those contracts.” The total value of homes Unison has invested in across some 200 metro areas exceeds $5 billion, according to its website, and those assets continue to grow. The company currently has some 8,500 residential equity agreements in place, according to O’Hara, and that number is projected to approach 12,000 by year’s end.  The total asset value of Unison’s REA assets now stands at $1.3 billion, according to the company, up from $165 million as of the first quarter of 2018 — with the annualized net return on REA assets under management since 2010 averaging 16.3%, according to the company. “So, I’m responsible for Unison Investment Management, which is part of Unison, and what we do is we raise money from institutional investors primarily,” O’Hara said. “That’s where the money comes from to fund them, [the REAs].” As part of a Unison’s REA product, the company will invest up to 17.5% of a home’s value after a 2.5% risk-adjustment haircut on the value of the property. The company and homeowner then share in any appreciation, or depreciation, of the home’s value over the course of the contract.  The homeowner has up to 30 years to pay off the initial investment, plus Unison’s appreciation cut, through a sale or refinancing of the home — or through a contract buyout after three-year lock-in period. As part of the REA, Unison’s share of the home’s appreciation can range from 20% to 70%, depending on size of the equity investment advanced. “We’re sitting in an equity position side by side with the homeowner,” O’Hara said. “So, if the price goes up, the homeowner benefits, and we benefit as well.  “If the price goes down, the homeowners are losing some of their equity, but we are also losing equity in our position at the same time.” Although each has slight variations, Unison’s REAs are similar to shared home-equity contracts offered through other companies competing in the space, including fintech Point, which describes its product as a home-equity investment contract, or HEI. The Redwood/Point HEI-backed securitization deal, which closed in late September 2021, involved issuing $146 million in securities through a conduit dubbed Point Securitization Trust 2021-1.  “We expect to be back in the market sometime next year,” Redwood’s Stern said in 2021 at the time the deal was announced. “Since this [HEI securitization] deal was the first of its kind, we are still determining the next deal size and frequency of future securitizations. The decision will be contingent on many factors, including market conditions, origination outlook, etc.”  Like the Redwood/Point offering, the bondholders in the Unison deal will get paid a monthly coupon from the cash flow generated by contract pay-offs. O’Hara

[ad_1] The post What Is the Financial Freedom Movement? appeared first on Millennial Money. This is how we are taught to live in America: You start your career and work really hard until you turn 65 and can finally retire. Work is how you define yourself. Most of your week (40-plus hours) is dedicated to your job for the majority of your time on earth.  Let’s be real. That vision for your life is becoming outdated. The grim realities of the 9-to-5 grind are becoming too difficult to ignore.  You work so hard that you don’t have time for the things you love: your hobbies, your family, your friends, yourself. You are overworked, stressed the %$#* out, and unhappy. You can’t imagine doing this until you are 65, when your life can actually be enjoyable.  This disillusionment with the American work system is the kindling for the Financial Freedom Movement. Becoming financially independent and, ultimately, financially free can mean a lot of things — but it doesn’t mean waiting until you’re 65 to experience the joy of not working.  Keep reading to learn about the Financial Freedom Movement and how a generation of people are building a life free of the stresses of overwork, money, and the 9-to-5 grind. or, skip straight to the section on how to join the financial freedom movement. What Is Financial Freedom? Picture this: When you wake up on a Monday morning, you get to do whatever the hell you want. You take your fluffy dog for a two-hour walk, grab an oat milk latte on the way, and read a riveting novel under the shade of a tree.  Or maybe you paint a masterpiece, write the next American novel, or learn how to code. Or you spend hours writing letters to your local government in protest of police brutality or volunteer as a community member at a local restorative justice circle.  Or you hop on a plane to Mexico, get yourself a margarita, and take a nap.  The freedom to choose what you do with your day, the opportunity to fill your life with your passions (creative, political, and otherwise), and the chance to spend quality time with the people you love — that’s what life looks like when you’re financially free. So What’s the Definition of Financial Freedom? Financial freedom is a dream shared by entrepreneurs, disgruntled 9-to-5ers, and anyone who doesn’t fantasize about labor.  It’s when you have earned, saved, and invested enough money that you can essentially do whatever you want with your life. It’s when money is no object and work is optional.  It’s the ability to pave a different path for you and your family so that life is no longer about work, stress, and the lack of time to do the things you love. It’s when you have learned that life is about more than success and money.   This day and age is ripe with opportunities that make it possible for anyone to achieve financial freedom if they take the right steps. Steps to Reaching Financial Freedom: Change the way you think about money. Determine your current financial situation. Set your goals for financial freedom. Make that budget and stick to it. Create additional sources of income. Invest your money! Who Is Behind the Financial Freedom Movement? While there’s no one “founder” of the Financial Freedom Movement, there are various key players in the concepts — and no, we’re not talking about YouTube celebrity Jake Paul. Side note: Jake Paul is the owner of a business with the same name, “The Financial Freedom Movement,” an online course that allegedly helps young people achieve financial freedom by becoming influencers. Don’t get this confused with the general movement of financial freedom — we know it can be confusing! Better names to know are Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez, authors of Your Money or Your Life, a New York Times bestselling financial classic.  In 1992, the book offered a new way of thinking about work: When you’re working, you’re trading your life for money. So when you buy things, you should think about it in terms of hours of your life. You can always make more money, but you can never get back your time. This way of thinking led to the Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) Movement, a precursor to financial freedom.  What’s the difference between financial independence and financial freedom? Financial independence and financial freedom are similar but different terms.  Financial independence comes before financial freedom. It is when you have enough passive income to no longer work.  Financial freedom is when you have enough money to live your absolute best life, when money can no longer hold you back from happiness. It’s when you’re truly free from the tangles of finance and can live the life of your dreams. What Will You Learn in the Financial Freedom Movement? If you join the Financial Freedom Movement, you’ll learn: How to maximize your savings How to use side hustles to increase your income How to build passive income streams How to invest your money How to budget sustainably How to live a life not controlled by work What Are the Benefits of the Financial Freedom Movement? You’ll have more time for the parts of life that you enjoy most: be it family, friends, passions, and purpose. You’ll be the master of your money, not the other way around. You’ll no longer waste money or time. You can help others escape the oppressive workplace. What are the Drawbacks of the Financial Freedom Movement? People might be jealous of you or judge you for opting out of a career. (Note that if you want to continue to have a career, you can! Financial freedom is the ability to choose.) You might be initially overwhelmed, working extremely hard in the beginning. You might be initially lost, and thoughts might arise like, “Who am I without a steady job?” You might feel lonely. You’ll be free while your companions might still be bogged