Rants and Raves of a Bum

Millions of Filipino students, their parents, and teachers will welcome the new school year with continued support in distance education as curriculum-based video lessons developed by Knowledge Channel Foundation Inc. begin airing on A2Z and Knowledge Channel on SKYcable, Cignal, GSat, SatLite, PCTA cable affiliates, and soon on Beam DTT. The videos cover subjects taught to students from Kinder to Grade 10 and of the Alternative Learning System (ALS).

Lessons for Grade 1 students start at 6 AM on Knowledge Channel and at 7 AM on A2Z from Monday to Friday. Among the subjects taught are Filipino and English with Knowledge Channel shows "Wikaharian" and "Ready, Set, Read." Produced under the foundation's "Basa Bilang" advocacy, these programs aim to help young students to improve their foundational skills in literacy. Other show schedules are available on Knowledge Channel's official Facebook page (facebook.com/KnowledgeChannel).

Knowledge Channel also prepared shows for its School at Home programming on agriculture and the environment for the second quarter of the school year. Among the slated programs for these subjects are "AgriKids," an animated series on teaching students basic agricultural concepts, courtesy of the Agricultural Training Institute, and "Puno ng Buhay," a show co-sponsored by Forest Foundation Philippines in emphasizing the importance of caring for our environment, hosted by Maymay Entrata and Khalil Ramos.

Meanwhile, students and teachers alike can also join School at Home's interactive livestream lessons on kumu's SeenZone channel and Knowledge Channel's Facebook Page every Friday at 11 AM. The weekly lineup includes "Wikaharian Online World" every Monday, "Team Lyqa" every Tuesday, Kuya Kim Atienza's "Knowledge on the Go" and Robi Domingo's "MathDali Math Talks" every Wednesday, "Money Lessons with FQ Mom and Sons" every Thursday, and "Art Smart with Teacher Precious" every Friday.

Teachers may visit knowledgechannel.org to access video lesson guides the first quarter.

For updates and more educational materials from Knowledge Channel, visit its official website or follow its Facebook page and YouTube channel (youtube.com/knowledgechannelorg).

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The easiest way to buy a house would be to pay for it in cash, which as some of the latest figures show, make up about 36 percent of the market. If you already own a home that's increased significantly in value and plan to move to an area where homes are much less expensive, you've received a windfall, or have the money available for any other reason, that might be possible, but for most you'll need to secure a home loan and finance the purchase.

If you don't have much cash and are trying to come up with the answer to the question, "Should I rent or buy a house?" when you need to move quickly, you may have to rent. That's one of the main reasons most buyers can't purchase a home: money. And, the process of buying, including obtaining a home loan, is going to take longer no matter how you look at it. Purchasing a home isn't cheap, but the better news is that you might be able to get the keys to your very own home without having to come up with a lot of cash. In fact it can be done with very little money with multiple types of loans, grants, and incentives available.

If you have an excellent credit score of 740 or higher but little money available, it's going to be even easier. These options can make your dream of becoming a homeowner possible without taking months or even years to save up.

VA Home Loan

The Veterans Administration (VA) sets the rules for home loans to veterans. While the VA doesn't issue loans, it gives authority to mortgage lenders, credit unions, and banks to offer them. If you're a veteran who meets the qualifications, the amount you can be loaned may be as much as the full appraised value of the home. And, the seller might pay as much as 6 percent of the home price in closing costs. If your credit isn't stellar, the VA is a good option as its credit guidelines aren't as strict. The guidelines for a VA loan simply require that the veteran earns enough money to make the monthly payments, expected living expenses, and any current debt.

FHA Mortgage

FHA Mortgages have long-been popular for obtaining home loans among those who don't have the cash, or have very little, for the down payment. The Federal Housing Authority (FHA) works like the VA when it comes to mortgage, in that it doesn't issue loans but grants permission to banks and other lenders according to particular guidelines. The downside is that a 3.5 percent down payment of the home's sale price is required, but the money doesn't have to come from the borrower like others require. It can be gifted from parents or other relatives. FHA mortgages also have more lenient credit standards and allow the seller to pay closing costs.

Conventional Mortgages

Originally, when banks began offering mortgage loans, they required 20 percent of the home's price as the down payment. That's a very large chunk of money with today's home prices, but thankfully, that requirement has been lowered to just 5 percent. While they can still be a significant amount of money, for a $250,000 property, that means $12,500 instead of $50,000, which is a lot easier for most to come up with.

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It is that time of the year again: cough and colds season. With hot, humid spells alternating with cold, rainy days, you, your loved ones, and practically everyone are at risk of acquiring respiratory illnesses. The most common of these diseases are cough and the common cold, both of which afflict most of Filipinos every year.

The increased risk of catching cough, the common cold and other respiratory illnesses are few of the reasons you need to take even greater care of your health, especially your nose, mouth, throat, lungs, and airways – or respiratory tract, in short. When this usual pair (Cough + Cold) strike, Ambroxyl and Salinase, respectively, may be your right remedies to ease the symptoms.

Knock Off Cough with Ambroxyl

Ambroxyl (Ambroxol Hydrochloride) helps soften and reduce the phlegm, thus, eases breathing by lessened coughing and unblocked airways.

Ambroxyl may be your comforting relief against tough phlegm that eases and clears the lungs to restore cough free comfort to children and adult. It also helps alleviate acute and chronic respiratory tract disorders, notably bronchitis, bronchial asthma, and bronchiectasis. It also is available in both tablet and syrup, which makes it convenient to any of your preferred form of relief.

Soothe the Common Cold with Salinase

Salinase, available in drops, spray, or nebulizing solution; is a natural moisturizer that contains saline, a purified gentle salt solution. It works by moistening thickened mucus, whose buildup causes most of the discomfort associated with the common cold such as runny nose, nasal congestion, headache, and even coughing. In addition, Salinase solution is typically mixed with anti-asthma medication for nebulization, thus helping the mixture clear mucus buildup and ease off breathing problems associated with bronchitis and bronchial asthma.

As a result, you will be able to breathe more comfortably and feel much better in no time. Salinase may be used both by adult and children and it neither suppresses appetite nor causes rebound congestion and hyper-irritability as observed with oral decongestants.

Prevention Is Better Than Cure

While Ambroxyl and Salinase may be your right remedies for cough and colds, respectively, prevention is still better than cure. It is best to keep your respiratory tract as healthy as possible. You can do that by eating a balanced diet, getting plenty of exercise and sufficient sleep, avoiding smoking and secondhand smoke, and performing breathing exercises regularly. That said, make sure you have both Ambroxyl and Salinase on-hand and ready for use. You may get them online at www.mypharma.ph — especially now that cough and colds season is here.

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Affiliate marketing is a great way to direct traffic from other sources to your website. By using it you can boost your chances of success and increase sales from your business. In this article, we will look at five options for your business, or if you would like to get into the world of affiliate marketing, these are some great options. Here are our top five affiliate marketing tools for your business.

TUNE

TUNE is a piece of affiliate marketing software that describes itself as ‘the world’s best platform for marketing partnerships’. Founded in 2009 they were one of the first SaaS platforms that supported affiliate marketing. They also offer partner marketing which includes influencers, content publishers and other networks. TUNE brings partnerships together and wants to create a network for businesses that stretches beyond what they can achieve themselves. Creating a community within its interface.

They strive to create a customizable experience for all their clients. They work closely with clients and try to address any problems they might be experiencing with other models which can be of great benefit. They are a ‘technology-first’ company, creating programs that are optimized and modern.

Affise

Affise is a partner marketing program based on the cloud. They offer a very user-friendly interface and 24/7 support which is extremely beneficial for customers. It is designed so that brands, influencers, agencies and networks can interact and build their prospects. Affise is at the costly end of the spectrum at just over £365 per month. However, they do offer a free trial and customizable sales options.

Affise is fully customizable. They offer a wide selection of design templates and various options. You can add your company logo to the site to brand it directly to your business with a free app like: https://logocreator.io/.

Flippa

Flippa advertises itself as ‘the number one marketplace to sell domains’. Using their site, you can browse thousands of live domain listings for online businesses. They speak of it as ‘investing in digital real estate’. The way it works is to search for a keyword in the search box. Flippa will then give you a list of results, the price and details on each site. These details include the name, age and amount of traffic that is directed to the site. This can be great for when you are trying to sell on a business or buy one.

ShareASale

ShareASale offers help with affiliate marketers comprehensive plans and innovative solutions to support their performance marketing requirements. It offers solutions for agents, merchants and agencies. They offer real-time performance data and specialized diagnostics for clients. They offer a one-time merchant set up fee of £400 as long as you deposit a minimum of £72 into the account. They then charge 20% commission on top of this as you make sales.

Everflow

Everflow is a great piece of affiliate tracking software. They advertise themselves as super-modern and up to date. Everflow offers a range of services to their clients including some interesting options like direct linking enabling you to track people when they visit your site, QR codes, coupon codes and drill down analytics. This means you can be sure that whatever your needs are they are likely to be met with this tool.

By using affiliate marketing tools, you can gain access to a far broader demographic of people – potential customers. It will allow you to automate the hard work of marketing and watch as your traffic alerts increase. Once your sales start hitting their targets, or beating them, you might wonder why you didn’t start using affiliate marketing tools sooner.

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If you have ever come into financial trouble due to a lack of security, then you will likely be looking at ways of improving your financial safety and getting your finances back on track. If so, you have come to the right place. This post will share everything you need to know about how to make your money safe, the smart way.

Image by pasja1000 from Pixabay

Use digital transactions

You can send money to the Philippines online through digital transactions. These will allow the receiver to attain the money within minutes and the payment process will incur no extra fees. Plus, the payments will be much safer. The banks will have control over data breaches and you can be alerted as soon as your account is compromised.

Instead of worrying about the cheque getting to the receiver in the post, you can transfer the money directly and shorten the timeframe that it takes to be received.

Use protected services

When you do use online transfers or purchase goods online, make sure that you use protected services.

Most services will declare whether or not your money is protected. It will state how much of it is protected too. For instance, if you are purchasing something from a website, the payment system might declare that anything in excess of $100 is protected.

Keep your receipts

When you use online payments, ensure to keep the digital receipts. If you lose these, then you might not be able to make a claim if your money is lost or stolen.

Likewise, you should always check that the payment taken from your bank account matches your receipt. A business may accidentally (on purposefully) take more money than you expected. When you keep receipts, you can prove your payments and not be taken advantage of.

Use unique passwords

You will likely require passwords to use online payment services. Thus, you must ensure that the password is secure and not easy to compromise.

Using a unique password that is unlike any other that you use for accounts will ensure that your data is less likely to be compromised.

Avoid allowing your computer to remember login details

When you do log in to your financial services online, your computer might ask if you’d like it to remember your details. Although it might seem like a good idea, it is actually a better idea to avoid it.

Allowing your computers to remember your passwords means that if your computer is compromised, the virus or hacker will easily be able to access your account.

Use official apps

There are several apps that allow you to manage your money and make payments. These include banks and financial services. When you download the apps, ensure that they are official and directly managed by the company.

If you download a dodgy app and hand over your details, your finances can easily become compromised. Ensure to check who made the app and that the company has an official app. It could save you a lot of money insecurity.