Once it goes on sale on Wednesday, Facebook will make around ten billion dollars, valuing the business somewhere between seventy-five and one hundred billion dollars.  To put this in perspective, consider Google’s public launch in 2004.  At that time, Google made a little over one and a half billion dollars.  Today, Google is getting closer and closer to a worth of two hundred billion dollars.

It is possible that a third of Facebook’s employees could reach the millionaire status after it goes public.  The catch is, of course, that a public Facebook will have investors, whom the company will have to consider in its decisions.  These investors will be paying around forty dollars per share in Facebook.  Stocks are expected to become available within a few months from the IPO.

The initial public offering could also result in some money for the state of California.  In the case of Google, the company had to pay California three hundred eighty million dollars in state taxes.  As with any company the IPO is meant to raise profits significantly.  Facebook’s IPO makes other companies’ look nearly insignificant.

Companies like Pandora and LinkedIn went public earlier in 2012, but their current trading is relatively low.  Facebook rivals Google and Yahoo in terms of number of hits each day.  Advertisers and investors are looking more and more toward Facebook as the hottest—and most profitable—Internet investment.  As it stands on the eve of its going public, Facebook seems like a solid current and future investment.

Some employers view workers comp insurance as a kind of necessary evil. However, it primarily protects the employee in case of an on-the-job accident or injury, and it protects the employer from violating state regulations. Small businesses can face heavy fines (again, based on the state you do business in) and they will have to pay large out of pocket expenses to the injured worker, if they neglect to get the necessary insurance. Worker’s compensation insurance is designed to provide for medical expenses, death benefits, loss of wages, and potentially vocational rehabilitation in event of a workplace injury.

Administered by the US Department of Labor, and managed by the separate states, worker’s compensation law varies from state to state. Currently, there are five states that require that you purchase worker’s comp through the state itself (North Dakota, Ohio, West Virginia, Washington and Wyoming). Thirteen other states give businesses the option of purchasing insurance through the state, or they allow the business to set up their own private insurance (Utah, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Oklahoma, New York, Montana, Minnesota, Michigan, Maryland, Idaho, Colorado, California, and Arizona.)

The US Department of Labor administers the program for workers compensation through the National Counsel on Compensation Insurance (NCCI). This body sets the national standards for worker’s comp, provides policy, and general forms for making claims. Each state is free to set their own compensation policies, however the policies set by the states must fit within the overall national guidelines.

Worker’s compensation insurance is a good thing for a small business to have, whether a company has 10 employees, or 10,000 employees. It provides security for the employee in case of a workplace accident, and it also provides peace of mind for the employer.

There are some benefits to be gained from shopping for insurance directly through the insurance brokers.  For instance, the personal attention that you receive from the broker is very helpful.  You can make the specifications that you want and need, and the broker can apply these needs to a very specific policy.  You are more effectively able to get individual attention, and to tailor your policy in the way you want.

Shopping around for insurance online also has advantages.  For example, you can find out insurance quotes straight from your couch you don’t have to leave and go shop around in person. For busy people, online quotes are a great option. You will have the results of the rate comparison in minutes.

One way to receive the benefits of both of these options is to go through an individual insurance broker online.  The company should have a website with access to its quotes, and information about its policies, as well as direct access to its insurance brokers online.

Many people who use public liability insurance will take this last option, due to the ease of the online option, combined with the advantages of working directly with an insurance broker. Also, you are more guaranteed that the company is legitimate and has a good reputation. Make sure you know the sort of insurance you or your company will need, how much you would like to cover, and how much you would like to spend on the policy.

Since this is a big decision, you want to make sure that you evaluate all of your options carefully. With the economy in its current state, you want to make sure that you have some money left in that hard-earned 401K account. But then again, with the economy the way it is, you might be hesitant to leave your money in that account any more!

The best thing to do is act carefully and thoughtfully.  It might seem tempting to simply take the money out immediately and put it into a retirement plan. However, make sure you consider the fees that often come along with early withdrawal from these accounts.  A more prudent decision is that of the roll-over into another account.

If you have recently gotten a new job, you might consider rolling your current 401K money into your new job’s 401K.  When you do this, you will not have any minimums or limits; this is helpful for those of us with smaller 401K balances.

There are a few cons with the roll-over choice, however. When you roll over your money, you are going with the new company’s option you have no choices in terms of investments. Also, you do not have much of a choice regarding your withdrawal time; you pretty much have to stick it out for the long haul.

Hopefully, this article will shed some light on these questions.  These three main types of life insurance (term life insurance, whole life insurance, and universal life insurance) have subtle, but important, differences.  Know these differences before you start shopping for your own life insurance to make sure that you choose the best option for you.

Term life insurance represents the least expensive of the three.  You might consider this as more of a ‘short-term’ insurance, as your policy will only last for up to thirty years.  The thinking behind this type of insurance is that you will die before those thirty years are up.  If this happens, the insurance does what it is supposed to do it pays off after your death.  If, however, you live longer than those thirty years, it does not work so well.  You can usually re-enroll in a new policy, but might have to pay more this time around.

Whole life insurance is similar to term life insurance.  You will pay for a specified term and in this case, that term may be greater than thirty years.  However, whole life insurance presents more risks and more loopholes than term life insurance.  Essentially, you are taking the risks of a stock market investor when you invest in whole life insurance.

Universal life insurance is similar to whole life insurance, but in this case, you are putting your money into something like a savings account.  With whole life insurance, you are putting your money into more of a risk-based stock account.  This type of insurance will take longer to accumulate, but it can result in a pretty nice amount saved up, as you are essentially putting money into your retirement savings account.

We are working with a bunch of hypotheses here, the first being the hypothesis that you have a rate of return that will grow.  With mutual funds, which are the typical investments for variable life insurance, the increase is contingent upon the performance of that particular area of the market.

Also, you need to be aware of fees, which the insuring agency can manipulate quite a bit.  Thus, even in the best scenario (that in which your stocks do return 10%) you will generate less than 10%.  And the best scenario is highly unlikely, given the recent rates.

And if the insurer talks about the idea of tax sheltering, he is correct; your profits from the policy are not taxed.  There’s another benefit, too, that he will probably dangle in front of you:  the returns on low-interest loans that get paid back once you die.

But what if the policy lapses and you are left with huge loans and a huge tax bill?  The risks seem pretty high.  And the picture that the insurer paints seems to be pretty complex.  The idea of pairing investments and life insurance presents too many unknowns and too many difficulties to unravel.

Stick with 401(k) and IRA options.  If you use these up, you might consider tax-managed mutual funds instead.  If, after all of this, you find yourself still seriously interested, you should talk to a financial adviser, and have him investigate the possibility in detail for you.

We too have battles to fight. We all have great dreams and aspirations for the future. We all want to leave a legacy for our children and our grandchildren. Yet, sometimes we sacrifice what is best for what is easier, or what is merely “enough.” We put our dreams on the “back burner” for someday…then that someday never comes.

Self-defeating thoughts, self-fulfilling prophecies and glass ceilings limit your dreams and your upward progress, and this is especially true in the financial arena. If you don’t have confidence in yourself, no one else will have confidence in you either. You cannot continually allow negative thoughts and attitudes to determine your future and expect to succeed. If you indulge negativity, you will forever limit your potential.

Self-confidence is contagious. Once you start believing in yourself, others will too. If you allow yourself to dream big, then see yourself achieving wealth beyond your dreams, and reaching your goals in life. Catch a vision and don’t let go of it.

Here is the secret: There is a huge difference between wanting to change, and making a change. If you start right now, not procrastinate until tomorrow, but get up right now and start to change little things, eventually you will win.”The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

Your mind is like a tape player, and your memories are the movies on the tape. Determine in yourself right now to start re-recording over that old tape with positive, successful thoughts and attitudes. Begin to unlearn bad habits and replace them with good habits, which will in time become good character, good decisions and positive actions. But you have to take the first step of faith in yourself if you are going to succeed in life, and succeed financially. You have to be the one to burn the ships of the past, and declare that “Financial Failure is NOT an Option!”