Practical Tips To Enjoy Your Financial Success

Darren Meade
While the stock market can be quite volatile, real estate has proven to be a stable investment over the years. According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, real estate prices had an average increase of 56% over a five−year period.

Forbes reported an increase of 247% over the last 25 years. However, times are beginning to change. In fact, the national rate of real estate appreciation has had its most significant decline

since the fourth quarter of 1999. With this in mind, perhaps now is a good time to begin evaluating your financial needs for the future. If you were

already thinking about utilizing your home's equity toconsolidate debt, save for college tuitions or retirement, or even for additional real estate and other investments, contact your mortgage professional right away. Don’t let this chance to realize the full value of your home's equity

pass you by.

Holiday Travel Tips: Shop Online and Save.

While it may take several hours to get through airport security this holiday season, booking reservations online for airline tickets, rental cars, hotel rooms, and holiday packages has never been easier or cheaper. Here are a few tips to help you make the most of online opportunities:

Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays are often the cheapest days to fly.

Red−eyes and early morning flights are often the cheapest times to fly. If you can deal with the hassle, flights with one or more stops at major airports are often discounted.

Look for student, military, senior citizen, and club

discounts. By simultaneously booking hotels and car

rentals, you can also save big. Visit the official sites of airlines and search for special sales and discount packages. Once you've visited many different websites, use your quote as a bargaining chip. Call a travel agent and see if they can find an even lower fare. For international travel, consider booking flights that arrive in one city but depart from another. This is known as an open−jaw ticket and could save you on time and transportation expenses.

Buying versus Leasing: Two Sides of the Same Coin.

D e s p i t e c l a i m s t o t h e c o n t r a r y , The one−size−fits−all answer to the question of whether to buy or lease a car.


In either scenario, a portion of every payment is lost to depreciation, even with the best interest rate attached. With this in mind, consider your own lifestyle needs and priorities at the time of each transaction.

Benefits of Leasing:

Lease payments are generally between 30%−60%

lower than loan payments. Gap coverage insurance, which pays the gap between what you owe on a car loan and the car's true value in

the event of an accident or theft, is often included at no extra cost. Little or no down payment is required for a lease, freeing up cash for investments with a better return.

Benefits of Buying:

With the purchase of a car, significant trade−in or

re−sale value can accumulate. There are no surprise fees or charges for wear and tear and overuse. Once your loan is paid off, you will have something tangible to show for the money you have spent over the years. Is a Hybrid Right for You? According to recent reports, sales of hybrid vehicles increased by 26% last year. This is likely due to higher gas prices, a potential federal tax credit of up to $3,400 for new hybrid owners, and a growing sense of environmental responsibility. However, according to Consumer Reports,

while many hybrids can get up to 60 miles per gallon, they are still quite expensive. Most hybrid owners will not save a significant amount of money over the life of the vehicle. Fortunately, hybrid technology is advancing quickly and a

more affordable hybrid could soon be on the horizon. In fact, Saturn and Toyota will release new, less expensive, more efficient models in 2007. These new advancements, combined with spending less time and money at the pump, could finally flip the expense equation and make hybrids the preferred vehicle of the future.

We have developed a complimentrary, unique system to evaluate your mortgage needs based on how long you expect to have the loan, initial expense, cash flow, taxes and overall total cost. This is at no cost or obligation. It takes us seven days to complete the Mortgage Concierge Program.

Why are we offering all of this at no cost? Simple - if we do a good job helping gain knowledge on your finances, maybe we can earn your mortgage business. We are sure willing to try. Are you willing to give us a try?
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Darren Meade

To share with you a brief history, I was homeless as a teenager for two-and-half years where I lived in the streets begging for food and change. As you can imagine, my life was filled with a great deal of uncertainty.

By divine grace and guidance, I took shelter in the parking lot of a gym. The owner of the gym noticed me camping out there and after several weeks took me in. Pretty soon I had been adopted by the group of bodybuilders there and was given the nickname 'Pup'.

However, it was after the very painful experience of my father committing suicide six months after getting off the street that I began my personal journey into spiritual growth and began questioning how I could affect a greater number people in a more loving, profound and personal way.

Over the course of several years I went from being homeless to living in a condo on a golf course and representing the United States in international events culminating in winning the middleweight title of the IFBB Mr. North America bodybuilding competition. At the same time I co-founded a nutritional which exploded in the nutrition market and by age 27 I made my first million. Being young, I then squandered my first 3 million to turn around and build it again and again...slow learner at times!

Many of my lessons learned through out my spiritual path have been in the face of adversity. While "crisis" has often had its own way of waking me to the moment and reminding me of what is important to me now, it is not a requirement of this journey.

Just when I thought I had a handle on life, the handle broke.

I've learned another new lesson about life; including truly releasing and forgiving those whom hurt you. In April 2008 my aorta (main artery from your heart) ruptured in three (3) places.

I was given less than a 10% chance of survival and I was on life-support for 3 weeks. During this time the charge nurse spoke to a family friend and informed them they were going to amputate my leg, and that I was to young to die and they needed to transfer me to a new hospital (UCLA).

While I lived, my personal relationship ended within 10 days of my being discharged from the hospital. To be fair the doctors said I might never walk again, and that they believed I would be on a catheter for the rest of my life. I lost 50lbs of muscle. So she was leaving someone who might never be able to walk; make love or be able to return to work. However I've always been an over-achiever.

For instance I went off diaylisis, my bladder which had nerve damage returned to normal, the catheters out and I the leg another hospital wanted to amputate is responding and I'm learning to walk on it once again. I no longer use my wheel chair and am learning to walk without crutches.

The only suffering came from my own thoughts, believing this person would be with me to over-come these issues. I now realize that was the largest blessing of all.

EXECUTIVE BIOGRAPHY OF DARREN M. MEADE


Darren Meade, of Kairos-Meade, has a life, which exhibits the quintessential triumphant story. He was abandoned by his parents and homeless at the age of 14, weighing less than 100 pounds and today negotiates multi-million dollar agreements.

His business career developed initially from his passion for body building. As a youth, after being homeless for two-years, he was taken in by individuals who allowed him to utilize their company gym. Darren focused that passion and successfully won several awards in competitive body building, culminating in winning the Mr. North America title for the middleweight division and represented the United States in international events. His extensive exposure in competitive body building assisted in developing relationships with industry leaders in the medical device and nutritional supplement industries.

As Darren rapidly progressed in
professional endeavors, he designed a new business model not yet used in the industry for a then unknown nutritional company. The retail experiment led by Darren worked, and within two years he drove sales from $1 million to in excess of $40 million.

Moving forward to his next success, Darren proved that he could do it again and took another company to $35 million in a single year. He diligently oversaw all facets of assisting an international research organization´s quest to gain acceptance in the U.S. biotechnology sector by partnering with one of the world´s largest biotechnology companies within only five-months. This was accomplished after the organization had tried for years and used over 50 consultants and development personnel without results.

A key to Darren´s success is his passion for each new business he enters. He specializes in building profitable long-term relationships with clients, vendors and staff.
He has proven that success is contagious.

In addition to his business accomplishments, Darren has actively participated through service of time and finances to homeless shelters and civic community organizations. He is a Deputy CEO of the Invisible Youth Foundation. Darren recently volunteered on Arnold Schwarzenegger´s successful run for Governor. Due to his efforts, he was offered a position in Sacramento. He was selected by the Orange County Register to write columns regarding the process of the campaign through to the inauguration and planning for policies.

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