banking - Monopoly and Mortgage: Playing the Game

Remember monopoly? Remember mortgages? You know, the text that's written when you flip your title deed. Flipping the title deed means your property is on mortgage and you'll get money from the bank. Sounds simple right? Wrong. There's much more to it than that. Here are the things you need to know about the game and how to get most out of your mortgages. The idea of the game is to buy and rent and sell properties so profitably that one becomes the wealthiest player and eventual "monopolist". Starting from "go" move tokens around the board according to the throw of dice. When a player's token lands on a space not yet owned, he may buy it from the bank: otherwise it is auctioned off to the highest bidder. The purpose of owning property is to collect rents from opponents landing there. Rentals are greatly increased if you put houses (those little green ones) and hotels (those dreaded red infrastructures). So your best bet in winning the game is to put the most houses or hotels in your lots. (That's assuming you don't land in your opponents' lots with houses or hotels). To raise more money, lots may be mortgaged to the bank. Here comes the tricky part. That includes deciding which lots to mortgage and how you can get the most out of your mortgaged property. Mortgages in monopoly can be done only through the bank. The mortgage value is printed on each title deed. The rate of interest is 10 percent, payable when the mortgage is lifted. If any property is transferred which is mortgaged, the new owner may lift the mortgage at once if he wishes, but must pay 10 percent interest. If he fails to lift the mortgage he still pays 10 percent interest and if he lifts the mortgage later on he pays an additional 10 per cent interest as well as the main value. Houses or hotels cannot be mortgaged. All buildings on the lot must be sold back to the bank before any property can be mortgaged. The bank will pay one-half of what was paid for them. In order to rebuild a house on mortgaged property the owner must pay the bank the amount of the mortgage, plus the 10 percent interest charge and buy the house back from the bank at its full price. When you mortgage a property, you can use the money for anything you want to, so long as it's legal under the rules of monopoly. The only restriction in this regard is that a player cannot pre-mortgage a property to finance its own purchase. For example, say a player wants to purchase Boardwalk but can't do it with his or her current assets. That player cannot say, "I'm going to buy Boardwalk by mortgaging it, and then using the money I get for the mortgage to complete the purchase." You must own a property before you can mortgage it. Playing the game is fun and it will give you an idea of how it is in the real buy and sell world. There are also the Community Chest and Chance spaces which players land on. Instructions ranging from winning $25 dollars to $500 dollars are given. Sometimes players even land in jail! This game is definitely a clever and amusing entertainment. James Monahan is the owner and Senior Editor of PresentMortgage.com and writes expert articles about mortgages. Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_Monahan banking - Fastest Growing Franchises I used to be obsessed with the idea of starting my own business. My grandfather, you see, was a successful small business man. He followed the classic American story. He came over here with nothing, worked hard, and started up his own shop. I had always dreamed of doing this. Unfortunately, starting an independent small business can be difficult. That is why I joined up with one of the fastest growing franchises. I was a little nervous about this idea at first. The fastest growing franchise this month, after all, can be old news by next month. If you start a franchise business, you are responsible for the cost of your shop, but you are not in charge of its success or failure. What the company as a whole does can affect your chance to succeed. Then I realized that every business involves risks. I figured that if I joined with one of the fastest growing franchises, I would have some advantages that I wouldn't have starting my own small business. I would have the name recognition, the reputation, and the support of the national office. That is why I started a fast food franchise instead of my own restaurant. One of the things that all of the fastest growing franchises have in common is a hands-off approach. The national office regulates quality control, advertises the product, and make sure that all of the franchises stay in line. The rest is up to you. If you run one of the fastest growing franchises, hiring decisions, pricing decisions, and even local advertising, are all up to you. You can determine your hours, determine your employees pay, and make many other business decisions. This is why the fastest growing franchises do so well. They allow personal ingenuity. Once I found this out about the fastest growing franchises, all of my doubts disappeared. One of the reasons that I didn't want to start a Jamba Juice franchise, or a Dunkin Donuts franchise, was because I felt that I would have no power as a businessman. I did not want all of my decisions dictated from the central office. I did not realize that franchises allow so much freedom. Now that I know that joining one of the fastest growing franchises allows me to be my own boss, I am much happier about the whole thing. It really is greats to own my own business.