Today, there are all kinds of mortgage refinancing available to meet the requirements of borrowers with different needs and backgrounds. After all, not every borrower and the homebuyer are the same. With so many things to choose from, it can be hard to find the perfect mortgage for you and your family. In this article, we will help you understand the basics you should know so you can quickly look for the deals that are the right deal for you.
It is essential to choose the type of mortgage very carefully, make sure you have lien protection for your mortgage. You have to understand all of your options before selecting since the right kind of mortgage can help you in the future.
Often, when you are looking for a mortgage, you will see the ‘LTV’ acronym mentioned a lot of times with a percentage just shown below. What LTV stands for is ‘loan-to-value.’ It refers to the amount of value of a property that you can borrow. The rest is the amount you should put down. This is how the average down payment on a house is computed.
Let’s have an example. A 90% LTV mortgage means that you can only borrow 90% of the property’s value. So, you just have to put down 10% as a deposit. If a mortgage has around 60%, you will need to put in a 40% deposit to qualify for a mortgage. As such, the higher percentage of LTV that’s shown, the higher rate of mortgage it is.
Variable and Fixed-Rate Mortgages
When it comes to mortgages, you usually have two types to choose from – fixed or variable rate. A fixed-rate is one that will not move during the length of the deals so your monthly mortgage repayments will stay the same. As a result, this is one of the most popular arrangements for people who are on a strict budget and those who usually can’t afford a rise in the payments. Most often, this is availed by first-time buyers.
On the other hand, a variable rate mortgage has a varying rate. So, your mortgage payments will rise if your interest rate increases.
Fixed-Rate Mortgages
Fixed-Rate mortgages are probably the most popular type of mortgage. After all, you can lock the interest rate, and throughout your mortgage, the price will not change.
Fixed-rate mortgages are very popular with first-time buyers since people like to know how much money they’ll be paying every month. You won’t even have to worry about any price fluctuations.
Extensive lockdown, closings, as well as social distancing steps, have actually made it challenging for those seeking counsel and also therapy for substance abuse concerns to safeguard resources. Currently, The United States is experiencing a surge in liquor sales and treatment relapse as the substance abuse issues become noticeable.
According to the expert research “Epidemic amid a Pandemic- Opioid Use Disorder and COVID-19,” researchers have cited that “The Coronavirus pandemic is a serious threat to the millions of Americans who are dealing with opioid usage disorder. ” – already at risk as well as marginalized– are heavily reliant on face-to-face health and wellness care delivery.
Before COVID-19, we were already experiencing a discreet pandemic and that’s with people’s mental wellness, opiate addiction, and substance abuse. What COVID-19 did was sustain this ongoing pandemic. People who just started recovery programs and help therapies (short-term or long-term) like counseling sessions, step-by-step approach and meetings, Christian and other religious fellowships and smart approach recovery are now on the brink of going back to square one. Currently, many of them have some substantial fears like: “What if I lose my job?”, “How can I pay my rent?”, “Whom am I going to talk to?”, “Who would help me right now? everyone’s struggling”. Relapses have now been above the ceiling.
Plus, there’s still a lot who are struggling with their mental health that is not getting the support and help. The current pandemic fueled some underlying mental health issues like stress, depression, anxiety, and other disorders that before, people were able to hide. We can also see a lot being more dependent on alcohol due to the influx of alcohol sales of up to 250%.
Humans need purpose as well as connection, without that, it’s easy to enter into a distracted state of mind. A person in early recovery can’t go obtain their six-month soberness coin or celebrate their victory of being sober. Then, the littlest things to worst can enter their thoughts like “A few shots won’t hurt, I can have a little drink”, or “I can’t sleep, maybe I can puff a little weed to chill.”, “I am having an anxiety attack, let me can my doctor to have Xanax prescribed.” The Coronavirus has not only taken the lives of people because of the illness itself but it opened Pandora’s box directly affecting people with mental health conditions. If we look at the data, the Suicide toll went up to 1000% globally, and mental helplines are taking 800% more calls.
What can family members do to identify the symptoms and also to help this individual with recovery during this moment?
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Immunity can be described as the capability of multicellular organisms to resist harmful microorganisms. It refers to the body’s ability to prevent the invasion of pathogens. With a rapidly increasing global population and the life expectancy of people increasing as well, the need to boost our immunity has also increased simultaneously. This is due to certain changes in the living environment and general lifestyles.
With the periodic occurrence of respiratory diseases like SAARs and the present situation of the Corona Virus, it has become imperative that we start taking better care of our health and well-being to improve our immunity systems.
Even though our body is continuously generating immune cells, a disease-causing microorganism can invade your immune system, which in turn makes you sick.
But is that the be it and end-all? No! Definitely not.
There are plenty of ways to boost your immunity that are easy and can be done on a regular basis in the comfort of your home.
Maintaining a healthy sleep schedule and minimizing stress
Today’s generation strives to binge-watching their favorite shows on various OTT platforms. This may lead to not getting an adequate amount of sleep as they may be hooked on their screens throughout the night, amongst other things. The recommended amount of sleep is a good 7-8 hours on a daily basis.
There are numerous factors that lead to stress and scientists have come to appreciate the link between the mind and the body. Stress can cause a plethora of physical illnesses as well. Therefore, it is important to try to minimize stress. Few ways of doing so are by practicing yoga, going for a walk. Oh, and laughing! Laughing is definitely a great way to lessen stress and improve immunity.
Regular exercise and maintaining a healthy diet.
Regular exercise doesn’t necessarily mean you need to become a fitness freak. Exercise in a moderated amount on a daily or frequent basis will help improve your immunity. How? According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, exercise flushes the bacteria out of our lungs. Regular exercise also increases the rapid circulation of White blood cells.
A good diet is also vital in order to boost immunity. Different foods that have a good amount of natural nutrition should be consumed on a regular basis. There are plenty of foods and other sources of nutrition like tea, which has a naturally occurring chemical called alkylamines which help strengthen the immune system. Similarly, easily available other sources of natural nutrients are ginger, honey, lemon, honey etc. All of these put together with help in maintaining a healthier lifestyle and boosting immunity.
Have you ever watched Richie Rich? The animated series which screened the rich rendezvous of little Richie Rich with his butler Cadbury, pet dog Dollar, and Irona, a robot maid, always by his side to save the day. While all the adventures of Master Richie were exciting, what fascinated the younger me more was the robot maid, Irona.
What seemed like science fiction years ago has become a reality, thanks to the advanced technology and innovation giving rise to Artificial Intelligence (AI). From smart camera vision systems at factories and warehouses to smartphones with Face ID lock screens, AI has long been a part of our daily life.
But how did Artificial Intelligence come into the picture and what does the future look like? Let’s find out.
The AI Evolution
AI is nothing new for sci-fi writers – the fantasy roots can be traced back to Greek antiquity. However, bringing AI, in reality, was thought to be possible in the 1950s when British Mathematician Alan Turing introduced the idea of a machine that thinks. He then created the Turing Test which is still a benchmark test to determine a machine’s thinking ability.
In 1959, Marvin Minsky, an American Cognitive scientist further carried the thought and founded co-founded the AI laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. By that time, thinkers outside the AI labs have started picking up the idea and incorporating it into their field of work, movies, for example. Do you remember 2001: A Space Odyssey that was released in 1968? Marvin had advised director Stanley Kubrick while making the film, which represented AI closer to reality in the form of HAL 9000.
From AI algorithms in the 1950s to symbolical algorithms and the development of expert systems in the 1970s and introducing Machine Learning in the 1990s, AI has evolved and spanned across sectors over time. However, it’s only now in the 21st century that people are realizing the true power of AI.
AI in its true power
Have you ever thought of going to Mars? Well, the question might sound delusional for a common man now, but with rocket science and space technology taking big strides in the 21st century, this might come true in near future. NASA’s Mars robotic helicopter completing its first powered controlled flight is the first step towards bringing common man’s fantasy of going into space into reality.
Well, at least Elon Musk desires to land on Mars. He has once said so, “I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact.” Maybe this dream has encouraged him to invest in OpenAI, non-profit research company. The tech-tycoon IBM received 9100 patents in 2018, 1600 of which are AI-related.
These are only two massive examples of how far and deep AI research and development is going. There are plenty of investors and researchers across the world who have been ambitiously working on bringing AI’s future to reality.
The future of AI is now.
The speed at which the business world has adopted the data collection analysis in the past decade has fast-forwarded the world into the future of AI. Today, there hardly exists any industry that is devoid of data-driven models for product analysis, decision-making, and brand marketing.
Some have just boarded others are veteran travelers in the AI journey, but all these businesses have a long way to go. However, seeing the impact of AI in our daily lives, it would be an injustice to ignore other sectors other than businesses.
Here’s what the Future of AI would be in our lives.
Transportation In a decade or more autonomous cars will fill the roads taking us from place to place.
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
The journey of Steve Jobs has and will always inspire entrepreneurs across the world. His expedition as a college dropout of making the ends meet to getting considerable exposure to the world of computer while working on game software in Atari and letter co-founding Apple with his partners Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne is known to many young aspirants by heart.
While Apple’s Steve Jobs is a role model for many, these wacky entrepreneurs such as Howard Schultz and Emily Weiss have considerably impacted society and the young minds through their inspiring journey. So, without further ado, let’s go behind the scenes and seek much-needed inspiration from the successful entrepreneurs’ stories during the COVID crisis.
#1 John Paul DeJoria
John Paul DeJoria is as much of a household name as Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. And his struggles are an inspiration for the young aspirants today. John started as a newspaper carrier and worked many jobs as a janitor and tow truck driver during his struggling days to make ends meet. After shifting jobs, he eventually joined a haircare company, where he met Paul Mitchell.
The duo started a business together with a loan of $700.Years later that business has turned into the conglomerate under the name of John Paul Mitchell Systems. You might recognize the names Patron Spirits and House of Chains which were also co-founded by DeJoria making him worth more than $3.1 billion.
#2 Pierre Omidyar
Along with personal care grooming, technology has become an inevitable part of our lives, especially online shopping. Did you know how eBay, the popular e-commerce site came into the picture? In 1995, Pierre Omidyar, a computer programmer started a website by the AuctionWeb to auction his stuff.
However, after receiving the huge response and website traffic Pierre upgraded to a business internet account and started charging people for auctioning their stuff on his website, which later turned into e-commerce giant eBay.
Things seemed to be falling apart during the Covid-19 pandemic with humans running helter-skelter to save their lives. In hindsight, a year under lockdowns, we are sure to have figured out that things weren’t falling apart but falling in place for the advent of a new order, especially in the world of employment, enterprise, and working.
Remote working or work from home. It was always there on the horizon with humanity paying scant heed. Until the day came when going to an office was nothing short of entering hell. In the ensuing year under lockdown worldwide of varying durations, humanity discovered its most prized secret that was always there in plain sight of everyone to see, admire and use.
Working from a remote location(s). Work from home. Remote location. And so on. It’s got as many names as it has advantages, some pretty solid ones which from the looks of it, would surely see it being used for quite some time in the future. We tell you of all the reasons remoting working could just be the new normal.
Reverse migration, and the even spread of employment. Jobs were always the greatest magnates to get folks from villages and smaller towns to the big, bad cities. Good money and ready employment meant cities, especially in developing countries became overcrowded, filthy, pollution-ridden, but rife with employment. Remote working has taken the air out of this un-necessarily enlarged balloon of employability. And with that thankfully, the stresses on a city’s infrastructure. Smaller cities may still be short on jobs but with some semblance of internet speeds, there is every indication of the same jobs being taken away to smaller and more remote locations. Within the cities themselves, remote working is said to be reducing pressures of dedicated office spaces and industrial areas. In times to come, this could flatten and spread the idea of employment to the farthest corners of a country, reverse migration, and spread the good times!
A famed Arabic saying goes that “if Muhammad won’t go to the mountains, the mountains go to Muhammad”.
E-commerce and its clientele are an apt example of this saying. There was a time when shoppers had to go to specific shops and shopping areas to buy their needs- which included business-houses and enterprise. The best examples of this phenomenon are traditional bazaars in most towns which are the hubs of most whole sellers who while being big, carry the maximum variety of any product. For most buyers, it was left to buying from local vendors or coming to these biggies. The latter i.e., buying in the physical world, was quite an exercise given that users could be miles away from the dealers. Everything from travel to vehicle parking were a chore.
About a decade back things changed with the advent of e-commerce companies. What initially started for books (Amazon and Flip-Kart, the latter is today the former’s biggest acquisition in India) is today omnipresent in practically every product one can think of. Along the way, established companies including amazon, Alibaba, and global source started to provide the same level of service to businesses for their procurements, be it office-related equipment or parts of machines and industrial equipment.
What they did was to make the buyer the KING who needn’t step out of their office yet get what they want right there- with all the attached bells and whistles! The Covid-19 pandemic just added to the feeling of security behind one’s own doors due to which e-commerce has ONLY GROWN in the last two years!
A famed Arabic saying goes that “if Muhammad won’t go to the mountains, the mountains go to Muhammad”.
E-commerce and its clientele are an apt example of this saying. There was a time when shoppers had to go to specific shops and shopping areas to buy their needs- which included business-houses and enterprise. The best examples of this phenomenon are traditional bazaars in most towns which are the hubs of most whole sellers who while being big, carry the maximum variety of any product. For most buyers, it was left to buying from local vendors or coming to these biggies. The latter i.e., buying in the physical world, was quite an exercise given that users could be miles away from the dealers. Everything from travel to vehicle parking were a chore.
About a decade back things changed with the advent of e-commerce companies. What initially started for books (Amazon and Flip-Kart, the latter is today the former’s biggest acquisition in India) is today omnipresent in practically every product one can think of. Along the way, established companies including amazon, Alibaba, and global source started to provide the same level of service to businesses for their procurements, be it office-related equipment or parts of machines and industrial equipment.
What they did was to make the buyer the KING who needn’t step out of their office yet get what they want right there- with all the attached bells and whistles! The Covid-19 pandemic just added to the feeling of security behind one’s own doors due to which e-commerce has ONLY GROWN in the last two years!
According to http://www.digitalcommerce360.com, consumers spent $861.12 billion online with U.S. retailers in 2020, up 44.0% from $598.02 billion in 2019. Online spending represented 21.3% of total retail sales last year, compared with 15.8% the year prior. COVID-19-related boosts in online shopping resulted in an additional $174.87 billion in eCommerce revenue in 2020. If it weren’t for the bump in online sales from the pandemic, the $861.12 billion in eCommerce sales wouldn’t have been reached until 2022.
If you thought the pandemic in the recent past, effects of which continue to singe us, was all bad, be informed that in for certain industries and groups, this has come as a god-send. While the more obvious ones are the medical fraternity, PPE kit and mask makers, there still are those whose case doesn’t stand out so obviously but who nevertheless, benefitted immensely.
One such group were the investors on NASDAQ and other stock-exchanges in the US including NYSE. With humanity hunkered down into their homes for months on end, it was assumed that boredom and the strict ban on movement anywhere would get the better of them and make them go back to the ultimate pastime; videogames, and benefit one entity in particular whose shares on the stock markets at that point in time (around October 2020) was in the range of USD 2 to 4 per share.
Discussions, arguments and war-cries on reddit’s board r/wallstreetbets ensued for months. All this got the crowds of small investors into a frenzy to buy. Adding to the fervour was GameStop’s ex-CEO and Investor Ryn Cohen & others buying 9 million shares (for USD 76 mn taking the value per share to USD 8). Taking this as a signal for good times to come (though the latter’s reasons for buying were entirely different), individual investors using trading forums such as Robinhood, Webull, M1 and other bought heavily into the shares.
While the above was going on, Hedge Funds which till then held substantial number of shares of Gamestop sold short given that the company’s results were singularly unimpressive and looked like it would collapse anytime soon.
A mix of rumours/ wrongly placed convictions, larger number of shares available at very low prices meant that the buyers, most from reddit’s board r/wallstreetbets bought large number of shares at throwaway prices. With such large buying, everyone including hedge-funds like Melvin Capital were caught aware. In a matter of weeks, frenzied demands sent share prices of GameStop soaring from a low of USD 4 to 8 per share to a high as USD 480.00 on 29 January 2021- a climb of 12000% in a matter of weeks.
With most American exchanges not having the facility to cut trading in overheated shares, the share prices are still hovering in the range.
As for hedge-funds, the darling of the bourses, they lost in billions with Melvin Capital itself losing up to anywhere in the range of USD 5.00 billion!
That in short is what happened with GameStop whose game refuses to stop, at least in the near future!
Literature has been enhancing our lives since dawn of time, and so has reading culture. With a view to promoting the culture of reading and the richness of stories in all their forms, the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature was launched in 2009 with 65 authors. It has grown continually, and in 2020 it hosted 205 authors from countries around the world to entertain and educate tens of thousands of visitors. The artistic vision and its development are taken care by its Director, Ahlam Bolooki. With her love for books, Ahlam has taken this festival to the next level.
In an interview with CIO Look, Ahlam shares a glimpse of her journey and how this festival is captivating its visitors from different corners of the world.
Below are the highlights of the interview:
Kindly take us through your journey.
Before joining the Festival, I spent many years working with Dubai Tourism, most recently as Head of Regional Campaigns. There is a lot of synergy between the two roles, and I learned a lot that I bring with me to this role.
I can’t emphasize enough the importance of having a role model. A mentor is even better. Everybody needs someone to learn from no matter how high up the ladder we reach.
Look around you and see if there is anyone who is demonstrating the values you want to stay true to. If you don’t have someone in your organisation, then look further afield. Read books by successful women. Watch TED talks, listen to podcasts and continue feeding your mind.
How do you diversify your organization’s offerings to entice the target audience?
We know our audience, but to make sure we are on the right track, we ask for their opinion on a continuous basis. As a Foundation, we balance the desires of the audience with the needs of our community, which is how we have arrived where we are today: with the biggest literature Festival in the Middle East, a plethora of competitions, a wide-ranging Education Programme, celebration of and professional development for librarians, and courses, talks, and special initiatives that all build the foundations for a reading society.
For the Festival specifically, we have a theme every year, so we always look at how an author and their works fit with our theme. But we are also an organisation full of readers, so we have our own personal wish lists as well as those our community sends us.
Every year we aim to have the perfect combination of well-known and new, best-selling and niche, across non-fiction, fiction, adults and children’s books in both Arabic and English.
How do you strategize your game plans to tackle the competition in the market?
We are the biggest and best loved celebration of the written and spoken word in the Middle East. While we don’t rest on our laurels, we do see our biggest challenge as pulling in those who don’t see themselves as readers. Those are the people we need to convert, so in a sense we are competing with cinemas, restaurants, and every other activity available at that time.
To address this, we use creative and often surprising programming and marketing, which has worked well in the past.
What, according to you, are the vital traits that every businesswoman should possess?
Our CEO and founder, Isobel Abuhoul OBE, is someone I look up to in business. She leads by example, treating each member of staff and the community with the same level of respect regardless of gender, age, or nationality.
Thirteen years ago, she saw a gap in the market and set out to create the festival to fill it. She could see the tremendous impact reading for pleasure has on individuals, and on society as a whole. She knew that if she could bring to Dubai a celebration of literature that was fun and would engage a wider section of the community than the regular readers, it would take hold and have a real and lasting impact.
She then did what any entrepreneur does: put in a lot of incredibly hard work. There are no shortcuts. Success takes grit and determination.
What roadblocks or challenges were faced by you in a corporate business? And how did you overcome them?
I think in our role, pleasing so many different audiences in Dubai’s remarkably diverse community is always a challenge, but one that I enjoy very much. Always keeping on top of the local and global conversation when it comes to trends, behaviours, interests, politics, businesses, popular genres etc. becomes necessary.
Work life balance has always been a challenge for me, but the more I immersed myself in jobs which give me purpose and become a lifestyle, the more balanced my life has been feeling.
Have you in any ways contributed towards the cause of women empowerment?
Championing gender equality is a core value at Emirates Literature Foundation. This is apparent in our team culture, as well as our Festival Programme. Each year, we welcome some of the most powerful female voices from around the world.
Within our organization, we offer flexibility to all our employees because we know this allows us access to a wider candidate pool of talented, experienced people, including working mothers. We believe in the importance of healthy family life and appreciate the vital roles of women within their families. We see worklife balance as a necessity for a hopeful future for our society. In our experience, this flexibility and work-life balance allows women to contribute more effectively and wholeheartedly to their roles.
How do you cope up with capricious technological trends to boost your personal growth?
My favorite tools for personal growth are books, audiobooks, and podcasts. The most important technological trends are talked and written about, and the publishing process has the quality control and review process in place to ensure that the information you receive is verified.
What are your future endeavors/objectives and where do you see yourself in the near future?
My objective and ambition are always to connect as many people as possible with books and authors. We know reading creates empathy, and that is what we need most of all in the world today. Empathy and empathetic action towards others, towards our planet and to ourselves.
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