Criminal Justice System of the Philippines - 3958 Words

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 53 THE ROLE AND FUNCTION OF THE PROSECUTION IN THE PHILIPPINE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM Menrado Valle-Corpuz* INTRODUCTION The criminal justice system, essentially, is the system or process in the community by which crimes are investigated, and the persons suspected thereof are taken into custody, prosecuted in court and punished, if found guilty, provisions being made for their correction and rehabilitation. Prior to the advent of American sovereignty in the country, we had the Spanish law on criminal procedure. The Royal Decree of September 4, 1884, by virtue of which the Penal Code in force in the archipelago, as amended in accordance with the recommendations of the Code Committee, and its accompanying law—†¦show more content†¦Any person who—while in custody or otherwise deprived of liberty—is under investigation for the commission of an offense, has the following constitutional rights, among others: 1) He must be informed of his right to remain silent and to have competent and independent counsel preferably of his own choice. If the person cannot afford the services of counsel, he must be provided with one. These rights cannot be waived except in writing and in the presence of counsel; 2) No torture, force, violence, threat, indimidation or any other means which vitiate the free will shall be used against him; secret detention places, solitary, in communicado or other similar forms of detention are prohibited; and 3) Any confession or admission obtained in violation of the foregoing shall be inadmissible in evidence against him. c. Refer the case and the suspects to the Office of the Public Prosecutor or Municipal Trial Court for preliminary investigation or directly to the Municipal Trial Court for trial and judgment. II. PROSECUTION PROCESS The investigation and prosecution of all cases involving violations of penal laws are lodged with the Department of Justice (DOJ) through its National Prosecution Service (NAPROSS). The DOJ is headed by the Secretary of Justice with three Undersecretaries assisting him. Aside from being the prosecution arm of the government, the DOJ shall have the following powers and functions: a. Act as principal law agencyShow MoreRelatedPersons Deprived of Liberty1523 Words   |  7 Pages2010 National Summit Declaration on Persons Deprived of Liberty Manila, Philippines â€Å"Collaborative Partnership in Enhancing the Dignity of Persons Deprived of Liberty† The participants, representing the Executive Branch, the Legislature, the Judiciary, other public institutions, civil society organizations, faith-based organizations and other partners, AFFIRMING the State’s constitutional obligation and adherence with international laws and covenants to protect and uphold fundamental rightsRead MoreCrime and Youth Care Facility1116 Words   |  5 PagesAMENDMENTS IN THE JUVENILE JUSTICE amp; WELFARE ACT OF 2006 (AFFIRMATIVE SIDE/ PRO – FOR DEBATE) Few days ago, the Senate approved on final reading a bill amending Republic Act No. 9344, otherwise known as the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006, in order to improve its implementation. I AM IN FAVOR OF THIS GREAT ACT BY OUR LAWMAKERS. We all know that Republic Act No. 9344 has been intended to protect the welfare of children in conflict with the law, majority of who are guilty of pettyRead MoreManagement and National Service Training1620 Words   |  7 Pages| 3 |    |    | Cs 123 s1 | File processing and database system | 3 |    |    | Cs 124 s1 | Computer programming i | 3 |    |    | Phys 121 l1 | College physics i | 4 |    |    | P.e 122 | Dance with music | 2 |    |    | Nstp 122 | National service training program ii | 3 |    |    |    | Semester 3 |    |    |    | Eng 213 | Research and technical writing | 3 |    |    | Nat sc 211 | Biological science | 3 |    |    | Soc sc 213 | Philippine history, constitution and government | 3 |    |    | PhysRead MoreHomelessness Thesis9065 Words   |  37 PagesHES Republic of the Philippines Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Muntinlupa COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE NBP Reservation Poblacion, Muntinlupa City INTRODUCTION Homelessness is a critical issue that requires everyone’s attention. Hundreds of thousands of homeless people live on the streets as their shelter. Historically, homelessness has always been a problem in society. Homeless people were known as â€Å"the wondering poor†, â€Å"sturdy beggars†, and as â€Å"vagrants,† but it was not until the lateRead MoreHomelessness Thesis9057 Words   |  37 PagesHES Republic of the Philippines Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Muntinlupa COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE NBP Reservation Poblacion, Muntinlupa City INTRODUCTION Homelessness is a critical issue that requires everyone’s attention. Hundreds of thousands of homeless people live on the streets as their shelter. Historically, homelessness has always been a problem in society. Homeless people were known as â€Å"the wondering poor†, â€Å"sturdy beggars†, and as â€Å"vagrants,† but it was not until theRead MoreA Study on the Effectivity of the Philippine Prison System10770 Words   |  44 PagesEFFECTIVITY OF THE PHILIPPINE PRISON SYSTEM ABELARDO ELEANDRO B. ALB IS, JR. F. 11ADRONA ALICE P. 11ARINO LEONIDES S. RESPICIO To the builders of this nightmare Though you may never get to read these words I pity you; For the cruelty of your minds have designed the bel!; If mens buildings are a reflection of what they are, this one portraits tbe ugliness of all humanity. If you only had some compassion! -grafitti written 011 the wall of American State Prison I. INTROD UCTION A system is said to beRead MoreEssay on The International Military Tribunal for the Far East849 Words   |  4 PagesThe International Military Tribunal for the Far East Before assembling here today the Members of the Tribunal signed a joint affirmation to administer justice according to law, without fear, favor or affection. We fully appreciate the great responsibility resting upon us. There has been no more important criminal trial in all history. Certainly we are not a Senate or a House of Peers met for the impeachment of a Verrus or a Hastings, but a court of our respective countries. On the otherRead MoreSocial Justice Society (Sjs), Petitioner, vs. Dangerous Drugs Board and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (Pdea), Respondents. Facts: in Its Petition for Prohibition Under Rule 65, Petitioner Social Justice Society (Sjs)1441 Words   |  6 PagesEN BAEN BANC [G.R. No. 157870, November 03, 2008] SOCIAL JUSTICE SOCIETY (SJS), PETITIONER, VS. DANGEROUS DRUGS BOARD AND PHILIPPINE DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENCY (PDEA), RESPONDENTS. Facts: In its Petition for Prohibition under Rule 65, petitioner Social Justice Society (SJS), a registered political party, seeks to prohibit the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) from enforcing paragraphs (c), (d), (f), and (g) of Sec. 36 of RA 9165 on the ground that they areRead MoreJuvenile Justice in the Philippines3079 Words   |  13 PagesJUVENILE JUSTICE IN THE PHILIPPINES -   A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE (ABSTRACT) Marianne Murdoch-Verwijs, LLM (Free University, Amsterdam)    BACKGROUND ON JUVENILE CRIME AND THE LEGAL SITUATION IN THE PHILIPPINES IN THE EARLY 1990s    The problems of street children and juvenile delinquents are much related social problems. To survive in the street you almost have to become delinquent. Exposed to criminal elements these children are vulnerable to prostitution, drug addiction and pushing and commission ofRead MoreVictims Rights and Restorative Justice3090 Words   |  13 Pagesdefinition of restorative justice has proved difficult. One definition is a theory of justice that focuses mostly on repairing the harm caused by criminal behaviour. The reparation is done through a cooperative process that includes all the stakeholders. Restorative justice can also be explained as an approach of justice that aims to satisfy the needs of the victims and offenders, as well as the entire community. The most broadly accepted definition for restorative justice, however, is a process whereby

The Effects Of Sports Violence On Athletes - 1491 Words

When we talk about violence in athletics, we are referring to any form of physical act that is committed by or against the athletes at the time of athletic events. These acts go against the regulations of the athletics bodies that govern the sport. Such acts of violence in athletics involve both deliberate schemes to injure fellow athletes and actual harm or threats directed towards the athletes by the spectators. The act of engaging in violence by some athletes is an attempt to intimidate or injure the opponents. A number of players and coaches have for a number of years been accused of such plots as a way of trying to outdo their opponents. Many of such cases have been welcomed by strict legal measures such as bans from participating in a future sporting activities. Reinforcement is one of the root cause of violence in athletics. Athletes are reinforced to be highly aggressive while competing either in the field or the track by the coach and captain. Their desire to be successful athletes also contribute to the aggressiveness. Sometimes, this aggressiveness may spill over into their social lives. When these athletes exaggerate their aggressiveness and direct into to their opponents, this leads to violence. The aggressive behavior in the filed or tack might sometimes be carried into other areas outside the sports arena. This can be a public place, the place of work or the domestic environment. When the athletes transfer their hostile behavior into these avenues, it isShow MoreRelatedThe Damaging Effect Of Sports On Women924 Words   |  4 PagesThe Damaging Effect of Sports on Women When it comes to the topic of sports, many people would assert that sports are a tool that can be used to bring people together. However, in her essay, â€Å"We Don’t Like Football, Do We?† Mariah Burton Nelson argues that sports have created a platform where men can be brought together to diminish the ideas and worth of women. Nelson argues that with the idea that men are meant to play sports that require more strength and force, women are beginning to increasinglyRead MoreSports And Its Effects On Sports1397 Words   |  6 PagesConcussions in Sports Sports have been a major source of entertainment since the Romans and Greek times, when the Greeks had the earliest version of the Olympic games, and the Romans had gladiator fights and chariot races. In the United States sports, still plays a significant role as one of the leading entertainment industries in the country. In 2010, the big four US professional sports leagues, NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, generated $22 billion in gross revenue, with the whole US sports industry generatingRead MoreYouth Sports Should Not Be A Challenge For Children1361 Words   |  6 PagesGrowing up as a young adult is hard enough as it is, playing sports should not be a challenge for them, but a fun environment filled with growth and learning. Unfortunately the youth today have to deal with more than just competing at sports. Youth sports should be focusing on challenging their strengths and building character, but this is not the case. The challenges that the youth in sports today are going through deals wit h three different categories. The first is parents that are out of controlRead MoreSports Violence Must Be Abolished963 Words   |  4 Pagesthese sports. I am indeed referring to the intense physicality that all three of these sports strongly value. As a devoted hockey fan, I am a witness to a great part of the physicality that takes place. Therefore, I am well aware and understand that physicality is crucial in order to compete in most sports, but we have to draw the line somewhere. When there is primary intent to injure and physically hurt someone this is considered â€Å"violence†. Violence is becoming increasingly prevalent in sports, andRead MoreEssay on Pro Athletes and Violent Crimes1382 Words   |  6 Pagescompetitive nature of todays sports associations calls for athletes to be aggressive and forceful , both physically and mentally. This aggressive mentality stays with some athletes off the field, and may explain why so many athletes are committing violent crimes . Society calls for athletes to give flawless performances in the stadiums and arenas. The fans have grown accustomed to high flying, hard hitting shows of athleticism and finesse, and oftentimes an athletes success gains them a elevatedRead MoreEssay on Violence in Sports1396 Words   |  6 PagesViolence in Sports With the increase in society taking a stance against violence, sports has become an area where some feel that the violent acts such as the hitting and fighting that occurs should be eliminated. It is very difficult to change the way that a game is played because people have been playing it that way for years. The violence in sports needs to be eliminated because of the extreme cases that continue to haunt many of the leagues and the players themselves. There are many theoriesRead MoreEssay on The Influence of Violence in Sports1553 Words   |  7 PagesInfluence of Violence in Sports Sports are an important part of our world. Take a look at any newspaper, listen to any radio, or watch TV for any length of time and there will surely be some sports information that is being passed along. The fact that sports figures get paid salaries that teachers can only dream about lets us know where our priorities lie in this society. Sports consume a lot of our time and energy, and because of this, they have great influence in our culture. Because sports newsRead MoreHegemonic Masculinity And Domestic Violence963 Words   |  4 PagesThe media produces double standards by representing the act of domestic violence among athletes differently based on the gender of the perpetrator or person committing the crime. Hegemonic masculinity can best be described as the dominant, privileged, and often invisible category of men at any point in history. In gender studies, hegemonic masculinity refers to the belief in the existence of a culturally normative ideal of male behavior. Hegemonic masculinity posits that society strongly encouragesRead MoreBoxing and Violent Sporting Events1631 Words   |  7 Pagesviolent-physical-sports-should-be-banned Should violent sports be banned? Contact this writer Should violent sport be banned? YES There should be nothing violent about sporting, yet today violent sports has so dominated   the entertainment arena, that some people seems to live by it, and cant get enough of it. These kinds of sports however, should be banned for several reasons.   Violence begets violence, and once there are  limited restrictions, generations after generations will be caught in aRead MoreAggression Of The Field : Aggression1720 Words   |  7 Pages Aggression in the NFL When it comes to aggression in sports there are many different factors that play a role in causing it. Athletes may get themselves involved many situations because of on the field aggression, and bring their problems home and take it out on their wife. Another reason that athletes are involved with aggression is because the use of alcohol and drugs. Last but not least, some of these pro athletes are used to being physical all the time and they sometimes forget how strong they

Multiple Regression Analysis Free Essays

Multiple regression analysis was used to measure the relationship between the cost of equity capital and the independent and control variables. It was found that the cost of equity capital is relatively lower when the index of CSR disclosure is higher, reason being immense CSR implementation minimizes the general risk of a company. It was concluded that CSR disclosure in the company’s annual reports reduces the cost of capital by reducing information asymmetry and subsequently reducing company’s risk which benefits both the investors and speculators. We will write a custom essay sample on Multiple Regression Analysis or any similar topic only for you Order Now According to Baimukhamedova and Luchaninova (2017) who examined the relationship between corporate disclosure and cost of equity capital on a sample of 37 largest and most liquid firms listed at Kazakhstan Stock Exchange for period 2008 to 2014, the study used multiple linear regression models. The findings indicated that firms with higher level of financial transparency are associated with significantly lower cost of equity capital. The results shown that firm on the Kazakhstan market reduce their cost of equity capital by increasing the level of their voluntary corporate disclosure. Moreover Stanwick (1998) studied the relationship between corporate disclosure and organizational size, financial performance and environmental performance. The objective of the study was to examine the relationship between social performance of the organization and the environmental performance of the organization. Data was collected from 1987 to 1992 and descriptive design was used. Corporate reputation index was constructed. The findings were that social performance was indeed impacted by the size of the firm, the financial performance of the firm and amount of pollution emissions released by the firms. 2.3.3 Corporate Social Responsibility Voluntary Disclosure and the Cost of Equity CapitalA study by Hossain and Hammami (2009) purported that financial results released are the foundation of an organization’s budget and performances. The analysis involves comparing a firms performance with that of the others firms in the same industry and evaluating trends over time. Financial analysis involves the use of simple mathematical techniques, an understanding and appreciation of business strategy and future prospects through and examination of financial statements. Financial ratios play a key role in financial management. The extent to which a firm’s uses debt financing is what is called financial leverage. Also Botosan and Plumlee (2002) investigated the relationship between cost of capital and annual reports disclosure, timely disclosure (quarterly or other published reports) and investors relations disclosures, they found a negative association for the annual report disclosure, their research showed that the cost of capital is positively related to timely reporting actions which could be attributed to the fact that timely disclosure increase the volatility of the share price by attracting transient investors who trade aggressively on short term earning , however they did not find association between cost of equity financing and investor relations disclosures. In evaluating the relationship between information asymmetry and financing methods (debt and equity financing) of firms listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange from year 2003 to 2010, Mahdi, Vahab and Hamin (2015), found that there no significant relationship between information and debt financing though information asymmetry is positively associated with debt financing, however there was a significant positive relationship between information asymmetry and equity financing. The study was done using secondary dataset of 61 firms were explored where debt and equity financing methods were adopted where data was extracted from financial statements of sample firms and was analyzed in excel and stata. The result of the study showed. In this study used stata and excel. Another study by Mangena, Jing and Tauringana (2016) investigated whether Intellectual capital and financial disclosure jointly affect the firms cost of capital for 125 UK firms listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) representing firms across industries from March 2004 to February 2015, data for measuring disclosure are drawn from annual reports. They used descriptive approach as their study methodology. The study found that IC disclosure is negatively related to the cost of equity, the relationship between financial disclosure and the cost of equity capital is magnified when combined with the IC disclosures. It was also observed that IC and financial disclosure interacts on the effects of the cost of equity capital, the analysis of this interactions demonstrates that the effect of financial disclosure on the cost of equity capital is augmented for firm characterized by medium level of IC disclosure. Used stataIn their study, Francis, Nanda and Olsson, (2002) investigated the relation among voluntary disclosure, earning quality and cost of capital. The study was done in Chicago, USA on 677 firms’ annual reports and 10-K filings in the fiscal year 2001 using self constructed index of coded items. It was noted that firms with good earning quality have more expansive voluntary disclosure than firms with poor earning quality, on unconditional tests, it was found that more voluntary disclosure is associated with lost cost of capital, however on complementary association between disclosure and earning quality it was noted that the disclosure effect on the cost of capital is substantially reduced or disappear completely. Additionally, Cerf (1961) investigated the relationship between voluntary disclosure of information and the level of profitability, size of the firm and its shareholders in the US market. The methodology used was descriptive approach which focused on analyzing the association between voluntary disclosure of information and the level of profitability on annual reports of 25 different companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange, he found a positive relationship between voluntary disclosure of information and the level of profitability, size of the firm and its shareholders. 2.3.4 Board Size Information voluntary disclosure and Cost of Equity CapitalIn examining the effect of board independence and voluntary disclosure on the cost of equity capital, Setiany et al. (2007) showed that there is a significant relationship between voluntary disclosure and firm’s cost of equity capital. The study employed regression analysis on secondary data from companies listed in indonesian Stock Exchange during the period of 2009 to 2012 on a sample of 104 companies in the manufacturing sector. The study concluded that there is no relationship between board independence and cost of equity capital, however the results. However Khemakhem and Naciri (2015) examined the association between board and audit characteristics and the cost of equity capital in Canadian market. The methodology used descriptive statistics on a sample of 139 firm year observation from proxy circulars, proxy statements and annual reports of Canadian companies that were part of S/P TSX for the period 2004 to 2006. The study found that the size of audit committee and non-duality of the chairman of the board are positively related to the cost of equity capital, also the study revealed that the independence and board size do not affect the cost of capital for firms in the sample. Fauzi and Locke (2012) investigated the role of board structure and the effect of ownership structure on firm performance of New Zealand listed firms. The study employed balanced panel methodology on 79 New Zealand listed firms, it also employed Generalized Linear Model (GLM) to analysis data from annual reports of listed firms for the period of 2007 to 2011.the results of the study show that the board of directors, board committee and managerial ownership have a positive and significant impact on the firm performance. While Hasan et al. (2009) examined the impact of ownership structure and corporate governance on capital structure using a sample of 58 randomly selected non-financial listed companies from Karachi Stock Exchange for the period 2002 to 2005. Data was analyzed using multivariate regression analysis under fixed model approach. The results show that board size is significantly related to capital structure. However, non executive directors on board and CEO/Chair duality have no significant relationship with capital structure. Similarly, Jaradat (2015) investigate the effect of board size, board gender, outside director and CEO duality on the capital structure in Jordanian firms. Observation was done on 129 firms for the period 2009 to 2013. Multiple regression analysis was employed to test the association of secondary data collected from yearly annual reports. The results showed a positive association between board size, board diversity and outside directors and the capital structure, however for CEO duality and capital structure there was no significant relationship. 2.4 Conceptual framework This section will deal with operationalization of variables of the study, measures of voluntary disclosure and measure of the cost of equity capital. Independent variables Dependant Variables VariableIn this study the dependent variable is the cost of equity capital while the independent variables also referred as voluntary disclosure are the general corporate and strategic disclosure, forward-looking disclosure, social and board disclosure and financial disclosure (Barako, 2007) CHAPTER THREE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Introduction This chapter discusses the methods and procedures to employ to conduct the study. This chapter presents details of the research design, population, sampling and sampling procedures data collection methods, data analysis technique data and instruments for data analysis. 3.2 Research Design Research design is the framework the research intends to follow. It describes the nature and pattern the research intends to follow (Makerere University, 2011). Ogula (2005) describe a research design as a plan, structure and strategy of investigation to obtain answers to research questions and control variance. This study will adopt descriptive research design as it describe the characteristic and association voluntary disclosure and cost of equity capital of firms listed at NSE. Based on the secondary data to be obtained from annual reports and accounts of companies quoted in the NSE and company website. The choice of descriptive is motivated by the fact that it involves gathering data, observing and describing the behavior of the data without influencing it in any way (Bryman, 2001). This will be appropriate in the study since it will establish the effect of voluntary disclosure on the cost of equity capital. 3.3 Target Population Mugenda and Mugenda (2009) define a population as sum of all the items considered under a study. According to Ngechu (2004) a population is a well defined set of people, services, elements events or households that are being investigated. The target population for this study will consist of 64 firms listed in NSE (CMA, 2017), however consideration will only be on those which have been continuously trading since 2011 without being suspension or delisting 3.4 Sample Size and Sampling Procedure A sample is sub-group of the target population chosen by the researcher to represent other members of the target population (Amin, 2004). Sampling is the process, technique and procedure of choosing a sub-group from a population to participate in the study. Oso and Onen, 2009) stated that there are two main ways of selecting study sample from the target population, probability and non-probability sampling technique. The study will apply purposive sampling technique to select companies to be included in the study. Kothari (2004) stated that in purposive sampling technique an element is selected though subjectively defined method where the researcher personal judgments play an important role. An optimum sample is one which fulfils the requirements of efficiency, representativeness, reliability and flexibility. The study will comprise of a sample of 20 firms from NSE 20 share index selected based on a weighted market performance in the year 2017 (NSE, 2017). 3.5 Instrumentation and Data Collection Creswell (2008) argues prior to research, a researcher ought to develop a data collection instruments which is meant to measure, observe data under investigation. The study will use Disclosure Check Index (DCI) as the principal instrument for data collection of voluntary disclosure information. According to Mugenda and Mugenda (2009), How to cite Multiple Regression Analysis, Papers

Finance For Business Investment Or Initial Outflow Free Sample

Question: Define about the Finance for Business for Investment or Initial Outflow. Answer: Part A Pay Back Period Payback period is used to analyze that how much time is required to recover the initial cost of investment or initial outflow. If payback period is shorter, the project is more desirable (Chandra, 2015). Whether in discounted payback period, the concept of time value of money is applicable. Pay Back period = Initial Investment / Cash flow of per period If cash flow of every year is same, then above formula will apply. For example, asset purchase costing $100000 and cash flow every year is $25000, then pay back period will be 4 years ($100000 / $25000). And if cash flow is different in every year, then discounted payback period calculated. In the given project required rate of return is 12% and cash flow is different every year, so discounted payback period will be calculated. Calculation of depreciation: Depreciation = (cost - salvage value) / life of asset = (34500000 - 5500000) / 5 = 5800000 Expenditures for adding new features and expenditures for market study both considered as initial cash outflow. Payback period of the project is 2.79 years means cost of assets can be recovered in 2.79 years. It is beneficial for the Emu electronics to investment in manufacturing equipments. Profitability Index (PI) Profitability index used to identify the relations between cost and benefits by calculated ratio. It is used for ranking projects. While calculating profitability index, time value of money is also applicable. It is a tool of finance to taking decision, whether the project will be accepted or not (Damodaran, 2010). The project will be accepted if profitability index will more than 1 (1) and the project will be rejected if profitability index falls below 1 (1). And if, profitability index is equal to 1 (=1), then it will be situation of indifferent means projected will be accepted or rejected. Profitability Index = Present Value of Inflow / Present Value of Outflow = 52205510.12 / 35,450,000 = 1.47 As per above calculation profitability index is more than 1, so the project is acceptable. Emu electronics should have accepted the project. Internal Rate of Return (IRR) It is the rate of return which is used to calculate profitability of investment. IRR is the rate of interest. The net present value should be equals to zero of all cash flows at internal rate of return (Gallagher Andrew, 2007). Calculation of Internal Rate of Return by Trial Error method: IRR = 30 + (35570884.83 - $35,450,000) / (35570884.83 - 34908659.88) = 30.18254345 Internal Rate of Return of the project is 30.18% on which net present value will be zero. Net Present Value (NPV) It refers to divergence between present value of cash inflows and present value of cash outflows. The criteria of acceptance the project is net present value (NPV) will be positive and the criteria of rejection of project is net present value (NPV) will be negative. And if, net present value (NPV) is zero, it will be condition of indifference. Formula: Net Present Value = Present Value of cash Inflows Present Value of cash Outflows Calculation of Net Present Value: While calculating present value of inflows, present value of residual value/salvage (i.e. 5500000) also included (Needles, Powers Crosson, 2010). Here, net present value of project is $16,755,510 which is positive so, project will be accepted. Sensitivity of NPV to changes in the price of the new smart phone Changes in cash flow directly impacts to NPV and cash flow changes if there is variation in price of product. Net present value changes with change in the price of the product. If price of the smart phones will be increases then net present value will increases and remains positive. And if, price of the smart phones will be decreases then net present value will decreases or falls negative. So, it can be said that net present value is highly sensitive with changes in the price of the new smart phone (Moyer, McGuigan Rao, 2014). Sensitivity of NPV to changes in the quantity sold If selling quantity of any product changes, it directly impacts to net present value. If selling quantity of smart phones will be increases, net present value will increases. And if, selling quantity of smart phones will be decreases, net present value decreases. So it can be said that sensitivity of net present value (NPV) is depends on change in number of units sold or quantity sold. Net present value is more sensitive with changes in the quantity sold (Gill, 2015). Emu Electronics should produce the new smart phone Emu Electronics should have to produce the new smart phone because it is profitable as per calculations made under net present value, payback period and profitability index. The payback period of Emu Electronics is 2.79 years. If Emu Electronics invested in manufacturing equipments of new smart phone then they can recover their investment cost in the period of 2.79 years. Profitability index of Emu Electronics is 1.47 which is more than 1, so new project is suitable for them. Net present value of Emu Electronics is positive, so new project is acceptable. If Emu Electronics loses sales on other models because of the introduction of the new model If Emu Electronics introduce new model of smart phone, it will be carried more specifications. So customers will prefer to buy it. Hence, automatically sales of other models will be decreased. It impacts the profitability and net present value of company. As per market general scenario, if any new product launched in market then it will be successful or not depends on its specifications or customers need. If such product is more useful or have special characteristics then customers will prefer to buy it because they got more satisfaction. If there is no specifications in new product then customers will not buy it. Introduction of new product always effects to the sale of other products. Same with Emu Electronics, they got loss of sales on other models because of introduction of the new model. It happens because customers divert to purchase new model and sales decreases of other models. Due to change in sale, cash flow of company changes and it effects directly to net present value, profitability index and payback period. So it affects on complete analysis of company. Part B Cost of capital for Hubbard computer ltd 1) From the ASX website annual report of Harvey Norman of 2015 downloaded. The annual report of any company shows the complete outlay of that company. As per balance sheet or statement of financial position as at 30 June 2015, on page number 59 book value of debt and book value of equity found. Book value of debt included notes payable, current portion of long term debt and long term debt. As per annual report of Harvey Norman, the book value of debt is $698,438,000 as at 30 June 2015 is: Current portion of Interest bearing loans and borrowings $408,438,000 Non-current portion of Interest bearing loans and borrowings $290,000,000 Book Value of Debt $698,438,000 Book value of equity includes share capital or contributed equity, reserves surplus and retained profits. As per annual report of Harvey Norman, the book value of equity is $2,556,860 as at 30 June 2015 is: Contributed equity $380,328 Reserves $113,290 Retained profits $ 2,043,463 Non-controlling interest $19,779 Book Value of Equity $2,556,860 (Source: Annual report of Harvey Norman, 2015) As per title Interest Rate Risk Management in annual report of Harvey Norman at page number 120, breakdown of Harvey Normans long-term debt is as follows: (Source: Annual report of Harvey Norman, 2015) Average interest rate (floating) of long-term debt is 0.47% to 5.93% provided in annual report of Harvey Norman. There is no other categorization of debts as per group of years. 2) Most recent stock price listed for Harvey Norman 5.18 Market value of equity, or market capitalization 5.76B Outstanding shares of Harvey Norman 2,066,523 Most recent annual dividend (pay date 01 Dec 2015) 11 cent As per annual report dividend per share 20.0 cent As per annual report special dividend per share 14.0 cent Dividend discount model can use in this case as all relevant information are available. Beta for Harvey Norman 0.70 Note: All the amounts given above are in Australian Dollar (AUD). (Source: aufinance.yahoo.com, 2016) Yield on government debt is 1.86% as per Bonds link at aufinance.yahoo.com. Cost of equity for Harvey Norman by Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM): Cost of equity = Risk free rate of return + Premium expected for risk Cost of equity = Risk free rate of return + Beta * (market rate of return risk free rate of return) = 1.86% + 0.70 * (3% - 1.86%) = 0.02658 = 2.658% Here, government bonds yield value taken as risk free rate of return. Cost of equity is interest rate of equity capital (Pratt Grabowski, 2010). Under capital asset pricing model, risk factor of capital invested is considered. Risk free rate of return is a rate of government bonds, which are free from market risk. Value of beta is taken from Harvey Normans site. And market rate of return is calculated, it is shown in appendix. 3) Business loan rate is 5.34% p.a. as per provided site of Westpac. Weighted average cost of debt for Harvey Norman By book value weights: Weighted average cost of debt = total of weighted rate / total of weight = 3.738 / 1 = 3.738% Here one type of debt (i.e. interest bearing loans and borrowings) available as per annual report of Harvey Norman. Cost of debt is 3.73% for both, current and non- current interest bearing loans and borrowings. So there is no dissimilarity between cost of debt and weighted average cost of debt. It can be understand by above calculation of weighted average cost of capital. Weighted average cost of debt cannot be determined by market value basis because loans and borrowings do not have market value. The market value and book value are same in case of loans and borrowings. So, cost of debt by market value weights will be same as cost of debt by book value. Cost of debt = borrowing rate * (1-tax rate) = 5.34 * (1-.30) = 5.34 * .70 = 3.738 % Cost of debt is a rate of interest, by which rate, company paid interest to money lenders. The cost of debt of Harvey Norman is 3.738%. Company will pay interest on loans and borrowings at 3.738%. Cost of debt calculated by making interest rate after tax because company got tax benefit on debts. (Source: Westpac.com, 2016) 4) Weighted average cost of capital of Harvey Norman: In weighted average cost of capital, weight provides to amount. Then multiply cost and weight to find weighted cost / rate. Under weighted average cost of capital, equity share capital, preference share capital, debentures and long term loans are included. While calculating weighted average cost of capital by book value weights, book value take given under financial statement. By book value weights Weighted average cost of capital (WACC) = total of weighted rate / total of weight * 100 = (0.0373 / 1) *100 = 3.73% By market value weights Weighted average cost of capital (WACC) = total of weighted rate / total of weight * 100 = (0.0278 / 1) *100 = 2.78% Market value of equity is taken 5.76B as per point 2. Relevancy of weighted average cost of capital liable with market value weights. Lower the cost of capital, it will be less risky for company. So 2.78% is less, hence it is more relevant for Harvey Norman. 5) Harvey Norman is a representative company of HCL to estimate the cost of capital. If both companies have same nature of work and same debt equity structure, then there will no problem in calculating cost of capital. But if, debt equity structure and nature of work is different then it will be potential problem with this approach. In that situation, cost of capital will be different and Harvey Norman will not be considered as representative company of HCL to estimate the cost of capital. Refrences Chandra, P. 2015. Financial Management: Theory and Practice. McGraw-Hill Education Needles, B. E., Powers, M. Crosson, S. V. 2010. Principles of Accounting. (Ed. 11). Cengage Learning Damodaran, A. 2010. Applied Corporate Finance. (Ed. 3). John Wiley Sons Gallagher, T. J. Andrew, J. D. 2007. Financial Management; Principles and Practice. (Ed. 4). Freeload Press, Inc. Moyer, R. C., McGuigan, J. R. Rao, R. P. 2014. Contemporary Financial Management. (e.d. 13): Cengage Learning Gill, S. 2015. Cost and Management Accounting: Fundamentals and its Applications. (e.d. 1): Vikas Publishing House Australia Government Bond 10Y. 2016. https://www.tradingeconomics.com/australia/government-bond-yield Intelligent Investor. Dividends. https://www.intelligentinvestor.com.au/company/harvey-norman-11766/dividends Pratt, S. P. Grabowski, R. J. 2010. Cost of Capital in Litigation: Applications and Examples. (e.d. 4). Volume (647 of Wiley Finance): John Wiley Sons Westpac. 2016. Business loans interest rates. Retrieved on 19 Aug 2016 from: https://www.westpac.com.au/business-banking/business-loans/business-loans-interest-rate/

The Pequods Leaders Their Differing Characteristics Essays

The Pequods Leaders: Their Differing Characteristics L.R.G. Captain Ahab, First Mate Starbuck, Second Mate Stubb, and Third Mate Flask. From the time they are first introduced, the Pequods leaders are noticeably very different from each other. Almost everything is different about these men save the fact that they are all four on a whaling ship. Why did Melville take such care to develop these four men as he did? Would the story have been as profound without these distinct character foils? Probably not. I think what Melville was trying to accomplish by having such differing personalities aboard the Pequod was to keep the reader interested on the personal level of the story as well as to put emphasis on Ahabs obsession. Captain Ahab is certainly an interesting character. He is driven mad by desire for revenge because of an injury he incurred from the gigantic white whale known as Moby Dick. He spends nights studying maps of ocean currents and reefs in an attempt to locate and slay the whale. He portrays the whale as evil and attempts to make everyone aboard believe that the quest for Moby Dick is their common destiny. Under his command, the sole purpose of the voyage is to hunt Moby Dick. While he is mad, he still realizes that his crew could defy him and stage a mutiny so to solve this, he offers a gold ounce to the man who kills the whale. Ahab even has his own private boat crew, which he seemingly smuggled on board, to help him kill Moby Dick. Right up until the bitter end he is certain of his ability to slay the whale. Unfortunately for him, fate, luck, or a combination of the two prevent him from doing so. Starbuck, the first mate, is a religious, conservative man. Unlike Ahab who is driven by his manic hate for the whale, Starbuck is a devout Christian who lets his religion dictate most aspects of his life. He is the only one aboard the Pequod who openly disputes Captain Ahabs order to solely hunt Moby Dick. Starbucks conservatism is a direct negation of Ahabs monomania. The second mate, Stubb, is described as a happy-go-lucky kind of guy. He doesnt take anything seriously enough to bother or frighten him. He is popular among the crew and always shows his good humor. Due to the large amount of time hes spent whaling, he seems to be desensitized to the dangers of the trade. Stubb, unlike Starbuck or Ahab, believes that everything happens for a reason and that theres not much he or anyone else can do to change that. Flask, the third mate, is a short, stocky man who seems to have a touch of what we call short man syndrome. He finds it very invigorating to kill a whale yet never stops to think about the greatness of the creature. Actually, unlike the other leaders of the ship, he never really stops to think about anything of much importance. His offensive attitude, paired with his physical appearance, earns him the nickname King-Post. These mens personalities are in contrast to one another mainly to draw attention to Captain Ahabs madness but also to keep us interested in the story. It is true that if all the mates had plain, unimportant personalities, Ahabs madness would still be quite noticeable. But what Melville did by giving the mates personalities that are in great contrast to that of Ahabs, is heighten our awareness of his madness.

Jump Ship To Freedom Essays - Free Essays, Term Papers

Jump Ship To Freedom Essays - Free Essays, Term Papers Jump Ship To Freedom This book was about slavery and Arabus who wanted to be free and not have to answer to his slave master Ivers who treated him like dirt. It is hard to compare Arabus and me because there is not much in common between us. One thing we have in common is that we both believe that African Americans should not be discriminated apart from white people. Something that we dont have in common is that his father is dead and mine is not. We both have determination. Arabus was trying to become free by stealing his Fathers soldiers notes and then sailing with Ivers all the way to New York and then jumping off and swimming away from Ivers so he could find his fathers old friend and trading in his dads notes for money and then he could by his freedom and then buy his mothers freedom. I have never had to fight for my freedom but I think I would have the determination to fight for my freedom. We can both swim well. He proves he is a good swimmer when he jumps off the ship and swims away to get to New York. I have never proved Im a good swimmer by swimming away. People know I can swim well because they have seen me swim at the pool. I dont think that I could swim away for as long as he did. The last thing that I will compare is the fact that he lost his dad when he was really young and I still have mine. His dad was a soldier that was fight and his ship sunk and was African American . My dad is not a soldier and he is not There are differences but I think we could be friends if we were the same age because we have the same morals. What we dont have in common are little things that dont matter as much.

Marriage tradition in Amish Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Marriage tradition in Amish - Essay Example Their language is a German dialect called Pennsylvania Dutch, and religious services are held in the homes of community members – not in churches. Farming is their preferred occupation, although they have diversified into small businesses, such as furniture and leather goods. Based on the Biblical words, ‘Be ye not conformed to the world,’ the Amish isolate themselves from mainstream society, rejecting social security, public education, technology and automobiles (Boeree, n.d.). Separation of the State and church, a literal interpretation of the Bible, non-violence, separation from the world, distinct appearance and clothing, and strict adherence to the ‘Ordnung,’ or oral tradition of rules, are characteristic, unique Amish beliefs (Robinson, 2005). Devotion to community and family is the hallmark of the Amish. The welfare of the community supersedes individual interests. As the family is the center of the Amish community, marriage is a significant st ep in life, and is governed by several rules and traditional rituals. Amish marriages demonstrate the societal functions of establishing stable relationships, regulating sexual division of labor, and providing for the needs of the children. Amish marriages are directed towards the establishment of permanent relationships between a man and a woman. This is to ensure the stability of the community. As such, marriage is linked with group identity and culture. It is a part of the need to strengthen community ties. This attempt to create stable unions, in accordance with the social regulations which govern their sect, mandates that Amish marriages are governed by various strictures. These rituals strengthen the feeling of identity and sense of belonging to the community. In order to maintain the isolation of the community from outside culture, marriages outside the faith are not permitted. Consanguineous marriage is not encouraged. In furtherance of group unity, all Amish marriages

Poland Part 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Poland Part 2 - Essay Example The new Constitution embodied the many changes in the political, economic and social structures of the government including the executive, legislative and judicial branches. Intensive efforts to turn around the country’s economy largely through liberalization and adoption of globalization measures as well as political decisions like entry into the European Union and aligning itself with the NATO were resorted to by the Polish government not only to access the wider European market but to ensure the security and integrity of its territorial jurisdiction. To some extent many of these measures worked, like for example, attracting foreign direct investments into the country. There is still however vestiges of the past that refused to go away, like corruption, which are unattended to largely because of the revolutionary way with which the country transitioned and therefore the resulting inadequacies of some of the laws that were put in place during the quick changing of the guard. President. The President of the Republic of Poland acts as its Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the country’s Armed Forces. Previously, the President was elected by the National Assembly but since 1990, this position has been electable by popular vote. The powers of the Poland President is contained in the Short Constitution which was enacted on October 17, 1992, a document which formally put into writing all the changes and reforms instituted within the years 1989 and 1990 containing, among others, the legal framework of the entire government and its responsibilities. Subsequently, the Constitution of 1997, which was approved by a majority of the people in a national referendum, divided executive power between the Council of Ministers and the President. Among the powers of the President is the prerogative to nominate the members of the Council of Ministers which is composed of the Prime Minister, the Deputy

Corporate Strategy and Competition Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Corporate Strategy and Competition Law - Essay Example This analysis shall also include an assessment of whether there are any competition law or antitrust issues which will need to be addressed in the application of this strategy in corporations. Information technology is one of the fastest technologies currently available to man. It is pervasive and it is also a diverse technology and is currently accessible to almost all individuals. The internet, cellular phones, and other digital media have all made the world a much smaller place. What used to be oceans or hours of plane ride away is now just a mouse click away through one’s computer. Transactions can now be carried out without parties having to meet personally with each other. Corporations who take advantage of information technology are likely to save on cost and are likely to reach a wider consumer base. Information technology now resolves the issues of advertising and marketing which used to limit corporations in terms of coverage and impact. With the advent of social networking, information technology is now in a higher level of coverage – its possibilities are limitless and for corporations, it also means that their reach and potential for profit and c ompetitive advantage can be limitless.

A Literature Review On Adventure Tourism Tourism Essay

A Literature Review On Adventure Tourism Tourism Essay Adventure tourism has become more popular as an outdoor recreation activity in the tourism industry (Travel Industry Association of America, cited 2005). The term adventure can actually mean differently to different tourists because things that fill up the fear of one tourist may not fill up for another tourist (Buckly, 2006). Therefore, there is no any specific way to define adventure tourism. The word adventure is described as the risky activities in nature that are taken on by the tourist or the risky destination visited by the tourist and the tourist get an exciting and unusual experience from what the tourist had did (Farlex, The Free Dictionary). Adventure also is where the participants voluntarily putting themselves in a position that the participants believe that they are taking a step into the unknown where challenges will be faced and something valuable from the experience will be discovered or gained (Swarbrooke, Beard, Leckie, and Promfret, 2003). Consequently, adventure tourism is something related to nature and it is consisting of risk taking. Muller and Cleaver (2000) (cited in Swarbrooke et al. 2003, p. 29) defined adventure tourism as the capability to provide tourists with relatively high degrees of sensory stimulation. It is usually contained some physical challenging elements with the (typically short) tourists experience. While Buckley (2006) mentioned that the term adventure tourism is used to mean as guided commercial tours where these major attraction is an outdoor activity that has natural environment features and normally needs specialized sporting or equipment. It must be exiting for the tourists also. This definition does not mean that the tourists or clients have to prepare the equipments themselves, they may purely be travellers and rely on the agents to prepare the equipments for them. For example, tandem parachute harness or white water raft, etc. Therefore, adventure tourism can refer to activities done by the tourists, which have high level of perceived or real risk like diving, hiking, mountaineering, mountain biking, caving, sky-diving, skiing, snowboarding, white water rafting, kayaking, sailing, and sea kayaking. It also refer to a specific location of place with high degree of risk such as visiting desserts, jungles or mountaintops, polar regions and safaris. All these places have strong elements of adventure. Adventure tourism can be divided into soft adventure and hard adventure. These terms are developed by researchers who devised a scale to explain the diversity of behaviour, beginning with mild adventure also known as soft adventure at one end of the scale and progress to hard adventure at the other extreme. This continuum, illustrate in Figure 1.1, involves different degrees of challenge, uncertainty, setting familiarity, personal abilities, intensity, duration and perceptions of control (Lipscombe, 1995: 42). A simpler way to describe soft and hard adventure is that soft adventure does not necessarily require past experience whereas hard adventure requires some experiences and proficiency in the activity prior to the tourism experience (Millington and Locke, 2001). Hard Adventure Refers to activities with high levels of risk, requiring intense commitment and advanced skills. Soft Adventure Refers to activities with a perceived risk but low levels of real risk, requiring minimal commitment and beginning skills; most of these activities are led by experienced guides. Figure 1: The continuum of soft and hard adventure (source: Hill, 1995, cited in Beard et al. 2003, p. 33). Tourist behaviour is an in-depth topic as the behaviour of tourist change from time to time and sometimes it can be difficult to judge because not everyone shares the same behaviour. In order to understand tourist behaviour, psychologists have found that certain concepts are useful to understand the behaviour (Bhatia, 2006). According to Bhatia (2006), tourist behaviour can be understand by determining the motive, drives, or concerns being satisfied by the action and the attitudes and information that the person use to decide what kind of response should be made in a given situation. Motivation is one ways to describe tourist behaviour. Motivation is a verb derive from motivate Motivation is factor that influence or motivate trekkers to travel to Everest Base Camp. Motivation is defined as a reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way or the desire or willingness to do something (Oxford online Dictionary). Hence, motivation of travel is why tourists travel to a place . It is important to know tourist travel motivations because motivations will affect travel decision process (Crompton and McKay, cited in Pan 2009, p. 216) and motivations are drivers that influence and affect the specific behaviour of a person or traveller. Furthermore, it also helps to develop strategies to attract tourists to a particular destination by understanding tourist behaviour. For example, travel agent or local authorities can find a way to increase the volume of tourists visiting a destination by understanding the tourist behaviour when the destination is kind of new in the tourism market or the number of tourists in the destination had decreased. Travel motivation is a wide theory where it can not be understood by looking at one part of the theory only. Figure 2: The Motivation Process (source: Holloway, Humphreys Davidson 2009, p.62). The process of translating a need into motivation to visit a specific destination or undertake a specific activity is quite complex and can be best demonstrated by means of a diagram (refer to Figure 2) (Holloway, Humphreys Davidson 2009, p.62). Potential consumers must be able to recognize their needs and wants and know what kinds of product actually satisfy their needs. Figure 2 shows that consumer perception of what will satisfy their need has to match with consumer perception of the attractions. Only when the consumer agrees on these 2 points, consumer will be motivated to visit a particular destination. For example, customer A and customer B have the same kind of need, where both of them like to do adventure activities and their think that trekking up to a mountain satisfies their need. Both customer A and B have the same interest but their perception on a particular destination may be different. Customer A may think that trekking to Mount Everest actually fulfils what he wants and his perception towards the destination is positive. While customer B may think that trekking to Mount Everest fulfil what he wants but he has a bad perception towards the destination as he think that the destination is very risky to him. Therefore, customer A will be willing to buy the package and climb up to Mount Everest because both the perception of the need and the attraction match. Customer B will not be motivated to go to Mount Everest as the perception of need and attraction do not match. According to Beerli and Martin (cited in Correia, Valle and Moco 2007, p. 46), motivation is the needs that drives and individual to act in a certain way to achieve the desire satisfaction. Therefore, people travel base on many different reasons. Motivation has also been referred as psychological / biological needs and wants including integral forces that arouse, direct, and integrate a persons behaviour and activity (Dann; Pearce; Uysal Hagan, cited in Shin 2009, p. 32). Travel motivators are the factors that create a persons desire to travel and are usually the internal psychological influences affecting individual choices (Bhatia, 2006). Travel motivations usually include a wide range of personal experiences and behaviours. Various studies have been done to find out why people wish to travel after the advent of mass tourism, especially after the Second World War. Macintosh (cited in Bhatia 2006) has group the basic travel motivators into four categories. Physical motivators, which are related to physical relaxation, refreshment of body and mind, sports, pleasure, and special medical treatment. All these are connected with individuals bodily well beings and connected to activities which help to reduce tension. Cultural motivators, which are related to individuals desire to travel in order to know more about other countries, natives of the countries and cultural heritage of the countries which expressed in art, music, dance, folklore, etc. Interpersonal motivators, which are related to individuals desire to meet new people, visit friends and relatives, and to seek new and different experiences. Travel is simply to escape from the daily routine or get away from the usual life or environment. Status and prestige motivators, which are related to the needs of personal esteem and personal development in an individual. Such motivators are more likely to be concerned with the desire for recognition and attention from others, in order to boost personal ego. Under this kind of motivations, people usually travel for business, for the purpose of education and the pursuit of hobbies. Crandall (cited in Hall Page 1999) who did a study on the motivations of the leisure travellers, outlined 17 motivational factors which derived from a synthesis of previous studies in this field. Below are the 17 motivational factors listed by Crandall. 1 ENJOYING NATURE, ESAPING FROM CIVILISATION To get away from civilisation for a while To be close to nature 10 RECOGNITION, STATUS To show other I could do it So other would think highly of me for doing it 2 ESCAPE FROM ROUTINE AND RESPONSBILITY Change from my daily routine To get away from the responsibilities of my daily life 11 SOCIAL POWER To have control over others To be in a position of authority 3 PHYSICAL EXRCISE For the exercise To keep in shape 12 ALTURISM To help others 4 CREATIVITY To be creative 13 STIMULUS SEEKING For the excitement Because of the risks involved 5 RELAXATION To relax physically So the mind can slow down for a while 14 SELF-ACTUALISATION (FEEDBACK, SELF-IMPROVEMENT, ABILITY UTILISATION) Seeing the results of your efforts Using a variety of skills and talent 6 SOCIAL CONTACT So I could do things with my companions To get away from other people 15 ACHIEVEMENT, CHALLENGE, COMPETITION To develop my skill and ability Because of the competition To learn what I am capable of 7 MEETING NEW PEOPLE To talk to new and varied people To build friendships with new people 16 KILLING TIME, AVOID BOREDOM To keep busy To avoid boredom 8 HETEROSEXUAL CONTACT To be with people of the opposite sex To meet people of the opposite sex 17 INTELLECTUAL AESTHETICISM To use my mind To think bout my personal values 9 FAMILY CONTACT To be away from the family for a while To help bring the family together more Table 1: Crandalls list of motivations. Source: Crandall 1980 (cited in Hall Page 1999). Pearce (cited in Pan 2009, p. 218) who had based and expanded on the theory of Maslows hierarchy of human needs, first developed the travel career ladder approach to travel motivation in 1988 and later made conceptual adjustment to the travel career ladder in 2005. The fundamental nature of this model connects the level of travel experiences with the hierarchy of travel needs. According to Pearce (cited in Pan 2009, p. 218), travellers who had more experiences in travel usually seek experiences that meet their higher order of travel needs such as self-esteem and self-actualization. On the other hand, inexperienced travellers will tend to seek experiences that meet their basic travel needs such as security and psychological ones. Tourism industry is a services industry and the products which offer in tourism industry are intangible. It is widely known that to travel is to experience. Consequently, tourist experience is fundamentally a service experience. The five level of travel career ladder, starting from the bottom are (1) concern with biological needs (including relaxation), (2) safety and security needs or level of stimulation, (3) relationship development and extension needs, (4) special interest and self-development needs, and (5) fulfilment of deep involvement needs which formally defined as self-actualization (Pearce cited in Marafa, Ho Chau 2007, p.8). This travel career ladder is later presented graphically by Ryan (cited in Marafa, Ho Chau 2007, p.8), refer to figure 3. It is not necessary that everyone has to start from the bottom because people change from time to time and some may try to seek for activities which satisfy high level of needs in pursuit of leisure and recreation (Marafa, Ho Chau, 2007). Figure 3: Travel Career Ladder by Ryan (cited in Marafa, Ho Chau 2007, p. 9). Another theory which often use by researchers when describing travel motivations is the push and pull theory. This theory shows that people travel because they are pushed and pulled to travel by some factors. Dann (cited in Pan 2009, p. 219) whom had combined and analyzed the relevant travel motivation literature, concluded that travel occurs due to the internal factors of indentified and unfulfilled desires (motivational push) and reinforce by external factors which is destination pull. Push factors are either internally generated or externally induced (Dann, cited in Pan 2009, p. 218). The desire to conquer a mountain by reaching the summit of the mountain is one of the examples of push factors. While pull factors are related to the attributes of the destination that serve to satisfy the needs and wants of travellers. Several authors assume that internal and external factors are factors that motivate human behaviour. For example, Kotler (cited in Correia, Valle and Moco 2007, p. 46) states that motivations can be the result of internal and external stimuli. Internal factors are factors derive from personal needs and wants such as psychological, social egocentric, self-actualization and safety. While external factors are usually result from promotion and publicity. Travel motivation can be either personal (personal training, compensation rest and knowledge) or interpersonal (resulting from social relation) (Crompton, 1979; Dann, 1977; Yoon and Uysal, 2005, cited in Corriea et al. 2007, p.47). Iso-Ahola; Ryan Glendon (cited in Pan 2009, p. 219) argued that travel motivation is closely related to leisure motivation and the former should not be studied independent of the latter. Iso-Ahola (cited in Alexandris, Kouthouris, Funk Giobani 2009, p. 482) defined tourism motivation as a meaningful set of mind which adequately disposes an actor or a group of actor to travel. Approach (seeking) and avoidance (escaping) are the two components in leisure motivation, identified by Iso-Ahola. Therefore, people travel in order to seek friendship, novelty, challenge, achievement, experience, and etc. while at the same time escape from the daily routine or personal problems. While Ryan Glendon (cited in Pan 2009, p. 219) applied an abbreviated version (14 items) of the Leisure Motivation Scale of 1,127 United Kingdom holidaymakers and identified four motivation factors from the scale which were intellectual, social, competence mastery and stimulus avoidance. The first three factors could be categorized as seek components and the last factor as escape component. Crompton (cited in Kao, Patterson, Scott, and Chung 2008, p. 18) studied travel motivation by using push and pull model and developed seven socio-psychological or push motives (escape from a perceived mundane environment, self-exploratory, relaxation, prestige and regression, enhancement of kinship relations, facilitation of social interaction) and two cultural motives or pull motives (novelty and education). This study refers to motives which are more specific and direct that can affect tourists decision on the travel decision or the type of holidays (Crompton, cited in Corriea et al. 2007, p.47). The author identify that psychological or social motives (push motives) sustain the desire to travel. While on the other hand, travel decision if affected by pull motives and pull motives are also associated to the destinations characteristic (Lundberg, cited in Corriea et al. 2007, p.47). A study was done to explore the motivations and satisfactions of Taiwanese Tourists who visit Australia (Kao, Patterson, Scott, and Chung, 2008). Push and pull approach was used to find 17 push motivations and 18 pull motivations for travel in this study. The most important push factor found in this study is Travelling around the world, while the most important pull factor is sunshine and scenery and most of the Taiwanese tourists are satisfied after visiting Australia. Study done by Chang (2007) on travel motivation of package tour travellers suggested that socio-psychological needs were an important motivation for travel, and socio-economic considerations were regarded as a crucial motivation for travel decision making. Furthermore, social relationships friends or relatives recommendations had a strong impact in the decision makings of the Taiwanese travellers (Chang, 2007). This study was done to examine travel motivations and travel decision-making of Taiwanese tourists with a g roup package tour abroad. Therefore, it can be said that tourists travel to a destination is strongly influenced by their socio-psychological needs. Tourist builds his/her perceptions based on intrinsic and extrinsic motivations (Gartner, 1993; Dann, 1996; Baloglu, 1997; cited in Corriea et al. 2007, p.47). Everyone receives and processes information differently. Therefore, individuals perception is also formed differently base on how the information is received and transformed. According to Oxford online dictionary, perception means the ability to see hear, or become aware of something through senses or the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted. Perceptions are also defined as the perceived value of product by many previous researchers (Correia and Crouch, 2004; Correia et al., 2007C; Holbrook, 1996; oh, 2000; Sheth et al., 1991; Zeithaml, 1998; cited in Correia and Pimpao 2008). This concept develops based on cognitive and behavioural perspectives which result from the learning and motivational processes rendered by the tourist. Therefore, perception is the point of views about what the tourist think ab out the destination. Perception of a destination is linked to the destination image. Based on the image of the destination, perception of the destination will be generated and each tourist will have their own perception about the destination. Destination image is described as overall perceptions of individuals regarding a place or total set of impressions about a destination (Bigne et al., 2001; Fakeye and Crompton, 1991; cited in Alvarez and Korzay 2008). Destination image is usually formed through media, either positive or negative images. This is based on how the country promotes the destination in its country and through world news, people can easily know the problems or issues in the country. Hence, the destination image will be easily affected and it changes over time because people build up the destination images and representations based on the information that they receive (Avraham, 2000; So ¨nmez and Sirakaya, 2002; cited in Alvarez and Korzay 2008). In 21st century, internet is the most powe rful media that affect customers perception and destination image. In the world of internet, people can easily source for information regarding the destination and leave comments on the blogs or travel discussion forums after visiting the destination. Therefore, people nowadays not only listen to their friends past travel experiences but also read the worldwide tourists experiences from travel blogs or travel discussion forums. It is important to know what Malaysian trekkers think about Everest Base Camp which can be risky. Corriea et al. (2007) did a research on why people travel to exotic places by combining motivations and perceptions. This is the first time and they are the first few researchers that combine motivations and perceptions in order to understand how people can be pushed to travel to exotic places and how they form their perceptions. In this research, Corriea et al. (2007) try to find the relationship between push and pull motivation, push motivation and perception, and pull motivation and perception, based on a group of Portuguese tourists who go to exotic places such as Brazil, Morocco, Egypt, Sao Tome, and Principe. This study proves that perception of tourist destinations are formed based on push and pull factors but the relationship between push factors and perceptions in not significant and this proves that tourist decides to go for travel because he/she need to solve a conflict arousal (rest, social, and intellectual rewards) (Corriea et al. 2007). After that, the tourist will dec ide where to go based on the destination attributes. Destination attributes (pull motives) are seen as the way to solve intrinsic motives (push motives) in this study, but these constructs are not directly related to the overall perceptionof the destination because they are apparently solved when the tourist turns the attention to specific attributes (Corriea et al. 2007). Gnoth (1997) reports that the perception of a destination may be analysed from a cognitive or behavioural perspective. There are several types of perceptions which are cognitive component (which results from the evaluation of the destination attributes) and personal component (which results from the evaluation of the destination attributes) that a person can have, argued by Gnoth (1997). Travel motivation is an extensive researched area in tourism (Pan, 2009). Consequently, there are many theories that describe about tourist motivation to travel suggest by several authors or researchers as different tourist have different mindset and behaviour. Furthermore, there are many forms of tourism and tourists can be clustered into various types of groups. Perceptions of travellers on a particular destination can be unlikely because everyone thinks differently. Due to different in culture and the way they receive and transform the information will affect the perception of the tourists. Conceptual Framework Figure 4: Conceptual Framework Hypothesis Trekking in Everest region is the dream of most of the Malaysians trekkers. Its part of self-fulfillment of the trekkers and they want to challenge themselves as Malaysia does not have mountains which are more than 5000m and Everest is the highest mountain in the world. Malaysians trekkers travel to Everest Base Camp but not to the summit of Mount Everest because budget and time limit them to trek to the summit of Mount Everest. Additional information Objective To know the factors that motivate them to take Everest base camp trek To understand travelers perception on Everest base camp, Nepal as a tourism destination

Queen Elizabeth I :: England Queen Elizabeth First Essays Papers

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I was born on September 7, 1533 at Greenwich Palace near London. Her father was England's King Henry VIII; her mother was the king's second wife, Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth had an older half-sister, Mary, who was the daughter of the king's first wife, Catherine of Aragon. King Henry had moved heaven and earth to marry Anne Boleyn. He had parted from the Catholic church, established the Church of England, and annulled his twenty-four year marriage to Queen Catherine - partly because he loved Anne, and partly because he wanted the male heir Catherine could not give him. Henry and Anne were convinced that their first child would be a boy. The new queen even had a document drawn up ahead of time that announced the birth of a prince. When the prince turned out to be a princess, her parents were dismayed. Over the next few years Anne had three miscarriages, and Henry - who had become disenchanted with her even before Elizabeth's birth - decided to be rid of her. In 1536 he had Anne arrested on false charges of adultery. The Archbishop of Canterbury bowed to the king's will by declaring that Henry's marriage to Anne had never been valid. Like her half-sister Mary, two-year-old Elizabeth was now considered illegitimate. Anne was executed, and two weeks later the king married Jane Seymour. In 1537 Queen Jane died after giving birth to a son, Edward. Elizabeth and Mary participated in his christening ceremony. As Edward grew older, he and Elizabeth became close; although they lived in separate households, they wrote to each other often. When Elizabeth was four, Katherine Champernowne became her governess. The well-educated Champernowne - known as Kat Ashley after her marriage in 1545 - began teaching Elizabeth astronomy, geography, history, math, French, Flemish, Italian, Spanish, and other subjects. Elizabeth was an excellent student. Her tutor Roger Ascham later wrote, "She talks French and Italian as well as she does English. When she writes Greek and Latin, nothing is more beautiful than her handwriting." In 1540 Elizabeth's father married Anne of Cleves. Repelled by what he perceived as his bride's ugliness, Henry quickly had the marriage annulled and instead married Anne Boleyn's first cousin Katherine Howard. Katherine was very young - about fifteen - and something of a featherbrain, but she was kind to Elizabeth, who was surely appalled when, in a repetition of the past, the queen was arrested and charged with adultery. This time the charges were true. Queen Katherine was beheaded in 1542, when Elizabeth was seven years old.

Zappos.Com Case Essay

1. Sources of competitive advantage lay in the field of their first offer. * First of all they provided a huge selection of styles, colors and sizes of shoes as it was one of the biggest problems of traditional retailers. * At the first stage of their entering of the market, Zappos was the first-mover, which eventually supported its success as the market for on-line order of shoes was estimated to be about $2 billion. * High level of customer satisfaction was also one of the important factors to indicate proper operations of the Zappos.Company achieved such a success due to its corporate culture and a value of extreme concentration on its customers. In the retail business on of the indicators of retailer success is the level of customer return and Zappos succeed to attain this indicator on a very high level. Corporate culture was about delivering WOW effect through service and hiring people who were passionate about service was the most important concerns of the top-managers.This WOW effect was delivering through many ways: from the speed of site loading, all-round telephone support, allowance for 365 days of return, extensive information about the products and fast site loading. That’s why customers were willing to make purchases more often. In my opinion, service is a very important part of providing sustainable sales growth for the company as it creates an image of reliable company which operates in the internet and helps people to choose between traditional shopping and e-shopping. This image while managed properly was a sustainable competitive advantage for Zappos.As it was mostly mentioned features of a corporate culture which provide this competitive advantage than we can say that corporate culture is a background for it. 2. According to the position of the company to retain loyalty of the customers and provide WOW effect through service, it became more important to use UPS as a reliable logistics provider and organize 1-day air delivery with no e xtra price. Therefore, I can assume that reducing marketing costs for gaining new customers were the right decision as long-term partnership with previous customers was able to generate profit and new customers in the long run perspective.From another side, Zappos was able to keep transportation costs on the constant level partly from the scale of the collaboration with UPS (as it was mentioned, Zappos has become one of the top three UPS shippers). And as it was estimated, UPS ground shipping was able to reach only 11% of Zappos’ customer within 1 day. Knowing the fact that consumers got used to high qualitative and fast delivery, this could significantly harm the perception of the brand by loyal customers. This is the reason why company didn’t refuse to provide one-day air shipping. . First of all, we should understand that in situation of crisis people are decreasing their spending on high-end products if they previously had opportunities for that. That’s why it can be suggested, that company should concentrate more on mass market products and decrease costs while being very careful about scalable expansion. As it was mentioned in the case, Zappos searched for opportunities to improve its supply chain without harmful effect on customer satisfaction.From this point of view, company can concentrate more on retaining loyal customers and acquiring new customers partly by providing promotional discount actions, but at the same time keep prices on the same level, otherwise it can create a sense of discounter among Zappos clients. 4. The most important concern while expanding such business as Zappos is retaining this WOW effect. There are many factors which could affect this service oriented culture negatively, so that company should understand that rapid expansion in the situation of crisis can be very risky.From the other hand, there is no need to add more product to its product range as its already sell shoes, clothing, handbag, accessories, baby products, beauty, entertainment, eyewear, home, jewelry, sporting goods, and watches. In my opinion, company can diversify its businesses by developing other e-platforms with mentioning that they are powered by Zappos. That means that company could partly avoid risks connected with brand perception and increases sales level by selling more products. 5. The environment of a more cost-conscious consumer can harm the business if it won’t be careful about its costs.The main idea here is to provide at least the same level of quality in service with constant rates. Zappos can lower transportation costs through developing closer relationships with transport companies (for ex. try to reduce shipment costs from UPS or use ground shipment when it won’t extend delivery time). Company can also provide selective discounts (for ex. providing promotion discounts for loyal customers or creating encouraging promotional events). They could also take into consideration competitorsà ¢â‚¬â„¢ activities and offers in order to make sure that they provide the best prices or better opportunities for their clients.Zappos must take advantage of its other core competencies to ensure that the customer will choose to buy from Zappos as long as they are not paying more for the product. Probably, other variant to boost sales would be testing the system when customer have an opportunity to enjoy free shipping for a bit higher price, while company could gain profitability from a scope of the shipments. 6. First thing which comes to a mind is preserving Zappos’ corporate culture and brand on the same level as these things made Zappos that successful.In my opinion, it would be better to leave Zappos as an independent entity with its charismatic top-manager and founder Tony Hsieh while his forces led company to the leading position. Another thing to concern is a cost structure. One of the ways that Amazon tries to deliver a great customer experience is by offering low pr ices, whereas Zappos wasn’t ever been concentrated on price competition. This policy also shouldn’t be excluded from the Zappos future strategy as Zappos brand is more about service, but not a lowest price.Probably, another important step would be Zappos’ access to Amazon’ resources. They could be improvements and access to supply chain expertise, warehouses, suppliers and other advantages. Finally, Amazon could use Zappos for looking upmarket towards higher-priced goods. The high touch model obviously comes with higher costs. It’s much more attractive when selling a $400 pair of boots than a $29 pair of flip-flops. Zappos has already been rapidly expanding their product offerings so greater sales of fashion items like handbags and wallets are already steps in this direction.

Mandarin Chinese Christmas Vocabulary

Mandarin Chinese Christmas Vocabulary Christmas  is not an official holiday in China, so most offices, schools, and shops remain open. Nonetheless, many  people still get into the holiday spirit during the Yuletide, and all the trappings of Christmas can be found in China,  Hong  Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.   Additionally, many people in recent years have begun celebrating Christmas in China. You can see Christmas decorations in department stores, and the custom of exchanging gifts is becoming more popular- especially with the younger generation. Many also decorate their homes with Christmas trees and ornaments. So, learning Mandarine Chinese Christmas vocabulary can be helpful if you plan to visit the region. Two Ways to Say Christmas There are two ways to say â€Å"Christmas† in Mandarin Chinese. The links provide a transliteration of the word or phrase (called  pinyin), followed the word or phrase written in  traditional Chinese  characters, followed by the same word or phrase printed in simplified Chinese characters. Click on the links to bring up an audio file and hear how to pronounce the words. The two ways to say Christmas in Mandarin Chinese are  shà ¨ng dn jià © (è â€"è ªâ€¢Ã§ ¯â‚¬ traditional Ã¥Å" £Ã¨ ¯Å¾Ã¨Å â€š simplified) or  yÄ“ dn jià © (è€ ¶Ã¨ ªâ€¢Ã§ ¯â‚¬ trad è€ ¶Ã¨ ¯Å¾Ã¨Å â€š simplified). In each of the phrases, the final two characters (dn jià ©) are the same. Dn refers to birth, and jià © means â€Å"holiday.† The first character of Christmas can be either shà ¨ng or yÄ“. Shà ¨ng translates as â€Å"saint† and yÄ“ is a phonetic, which is used for Jesus yÄ“ sÃ… « (è€ ¶Ã§ ©Å' traditional è€ ¶Ã§ ¨ £ simplified). Shà ¨ng dn jià © means â€Å"the birth of a saint holiday† and yÄ“ dn jià © means â€Å"the birth of Jesus holiday.† Shà ¨ng dn jià © is the more popular of the two phrases. Whenever you see shà ¨ng dn, though, remember that you can also use yÄ“ dn instead. Mandarin Chinese Christmas Vocabulary There are many other Christmas-related words and phrases in Mandarin Chinese, from Merry Christmas to poinsettia and even gingerbread house. In the table, the English word is given first, followed by the pinyan (transliteration), and then the traditional and simplified spellings in Chinese. Click the pinyan  listings to hear how each word or phrase is pronounced. English Pinyin Traditional Simplified Christmas shng dn ji Christmas y dn ji Christmas eve shng dn y Christmas eve ping n y Merry Christmas shng dn kui l Christmas tree shng dn sh Candy Cane gui zhng tng Christmas presents shng dn l w Stocking shng dn w Poinsettia shng dn hng Gingerbread house jing bng w Christmas card shng dn k Santa Claus shng dn lo rn Sleigh xu qio Reindeer m l Christmas carol shng dn g Caroling bo ji yn Angel tin sh Snowman xu rn Celebrating Christmas in China and the Region While most Chinese opt to overlook Christmas’s religious roots, a sizable minority do head to church for services in a variety of languages, including Chinese, English, and French. There are  approximately 70 million practicing Christians in China as of December 2017, according to  the Beijinger, a monthly entertainment guide and website based in Chinas capital. The figure represents only 5 percent of the countrys total population of 1.3 billion, but its still large enough to make an impact. Christmas services are held at an array of state-run churches in China and at houses of worship throughout Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. International schools and some embassies and consulates are also closed on Dec. 25 in China. Christmas Day (Dec. 25) and Boxing Day (Dec. 26) are public holidays in Hong Kong, so government offices and businesses are closed. Macau recognizes Christmas as a holiday and most businesses are closed. In Taiwan, Christmas coincides with Constitution Day (è ¡Å'æ† ²Ã§ ´â‚¬Ã¥ ¿ µÃ¦â€" ¥). Taiwan used to observe Dec. 25 as a day off, but currently, as of March 2018, Dec. 25 is a regular working day in Taiwan.

How Much House Can You Afford Learn to Calculate a Mortgage

How Much House Can You Afford Learn to Calculate a Mortgage SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips If you’re looking to buy a new home, then you’re likely asking yourself, how much house can I afford? How much mortgage can I afford, and what’s a reasonable monthly payment to take on? You don’t want to get in over your head, but you also don’t want to live in a shoebox in the middle of nowhere. Where does the balance lie? This guide will help you answer the question, "How much house can I afford?" based both on the numbers and your overall happiness. To begin, let's go over some general guidelines to consider when buying a home. Buying a Home: General Guidelines There’s a common misconception around buying a house, and it’s that you should buy the biggest and best house you can afford. However, the house you can buy and the house you should buy are not necessarily the same thing. Some banks will lead you right up to the precipice of spending when they offer you a mortgage. They’ll give you a loan that you can just afford to pay, but any big life changes, like getting fired or ill, could push you over the edge into bankruptcy. Not only is taking on the biggest mortgage you can financially risky, but it also may not do much for your overall life satisfaction. When it comes to house size and location, what we think we need and what actually fulfills us don't always match up. Figuring out the answer to "how much house can I afford" isn’t just about facts and figures. It also requires that you get introspective and strive to make the best financial and emotional decision based on your resources and needs. Before exploring issues of personal needs in greater depth, let’s take a look at the hard numbers. What percentage of your income should go toward housing payments? Deciding on a house is a balancing act between your financial and emotional needs. Key Rule of Thumb: Spend No More Than 30% of Your Income To figure out, how much home can I afford, the conventional wisdom tells us to spend up to 30% of our gross income on housing a year, or a little less than one-third. Gross income is what we make before taxes, not our actual take-home pay. We use gross income because the interest you pay on a mortgage is tax deductible. Regardless of whether you’re making $20k a year or $2 million a year, you should stick to this rule of thumb. You don’t want to overcommit to home ownership payments in case of an emergency, like losing your job or a costly injury. So, how can you calculate the house price that would correspond to 30% of your income? It's not just three times your income, because you have to consider total housing costs, which include the mortgage principal, mortgage interest, and general maintenance costs. Consider the example below. Remember the golden rule of real estate: spend no more than 30% of your annual income on housing costs. Estimating House Price: An Example You don't necessarily need a mortgage calculator to answer the question "how much mortgage can I afford?" When figuring out how expensive of a house you can buy, you can estimate that the lump sum house price can go up to roughly five times your total income. Why? The average person gets a 30-year mortgage and pays off 6% of the house price each year. This percentage may vary depending on your exact agreement (typically somewhere between 4% and 8% of the house price), but it's an average that applies to lots of people. This payment refers to total housing costs, which include both the mortgage and other costs. If 6% of the total housing costs equals about 30% of your income (using the 30% rule of thumb discussed above), then the total house price equates to about five times your income. We can represent this using the variable "h" for house price and "i" for income. Here’s how the math works out: 0.06h = 0.3i Divide both sides by 0.06 h = 5i Let’s say you make about $40,000 per year. Using this guideline, you can estimate that you can afford a house up to $200,000. While you can spend up to approximately five times your income on a house, you could also choose to purchase a less expensive home (then you’ll have more disposable income for golf or spontaneous trips to Paris!). Once you figure out the mortgage, or loan, you need, you’ll apply through a bank. Below are three steps you can take to qualify for your mortgage and reduce your monthly payments. Besides crunching the numbers, how else can you prepare to buy a house? Qualifying for a Mortgage: Steps You Should Take Unless you’re paying for the house with a suitcase full of cash and gold bars, you’ll need to apply for a mortgage. Most mortgages have fixed interest rates somewhere between 2.6% and 3.7%, and people commonly choose a repayment plan that spans 30 years. Once you reach this step, your next questions might be, how much mortgage can I afford and how much can I borrow? Banks look at three main factors when determining your mortgage and repayment plan. The first is how much you pay up front as a down payment. The second is your outstanding debts, and the third is your credit score. These are the three steps you can take to put yourself in the best financial position for getting a mortgage and buying a house. Step #1: Save for a Large Down Payment The more money you can pay on a house up front, the less you’ll have to pay per month. With reduced monthly payments and perhaps a shorter term, you also won’t have to pay as much on interest in the long run. Aim to pay at least 10% of the total house price as a down payment. Ideally, you can pay 20%. On a $300,000 house, for example, a 20% down payment would be $60,000. Some banks charge an extra monthly payment toward Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) if you have less than a 20% down payment. Banks want to avoid risk, and a low down payment is one sign of risk. The bigger your down payment, the better contract you’ll get with the lender. The bigger down payment you can put down up front, the better! Step #2: Pay Down Your Debts Another way that banks assess risk is by looking at your outstanding debts. These debts might include student loans, car loans, or other personal loans. The less debt you have, the better deal you’ll get. If you have a huge monthly payment toward student loans, for instance, then you may not appear to be in a good position to put money toward a mortgage. You should also strive to show a history of consistent, on-time payments. If you’ve let your loans go into default, then you may not get approved for a mortgage. If you’re planning on buying a house, then it’s important that you handle your debts responsibly and work toward reducing them. Step #3: Build Up Your Credit Score Finally, your credit score is an important factor when you apply for any kind of loan. Lenders look at your financial behavior in the past as an indication of your financial behavior in the future. The strongest credit scores fall into the upper 700s or 800s. Now that you have a sense of the numbers - paying up to 30% of your income on housing - what else should you think about as you venture down the path toward home ownership? Buying a House: Beyond the Numbers A lot of guides for first time homeowners will urge you to go out and find a house that costs about five times your annual income (or the combined incomes of you and your spouse). While this mortgage calculator estimate may work well for you, assuming no unexpected interruptions in your income, it’s not necessarily the end all and be all in real estate advice. This mindset urges people to step right up to the limits of their financial profile to get the biggest house in the best location that they can. It prompts you to answer, how much house can I afford, with the biggest possible number. Banks and realtors, of course, are motivated to keep people in this maximizing mindset. But is this way of thinking necessarily the best way to approach buying a house? How much mortgage can I get and how much mortgage should I get are two different questions. If you think you’ll be happiest with the biggest or most centrally located house you can get, you may be overestimating the importance of house size and location. Let’s consider both of these factors, amount of space and location, individually. If your realtor shows you places like this, you might remind her that you probably don't need quite this much space for a three-person family. How Big a House Do You Want? People often want to maximize the amount of space they can afford, but they may not be happier with more space in the long run. Humans have a knack for adjusting, which can have many benefits, but also means that we won’t stay satisfied with material improvements in our surroundings for long. According to UC Riverside psychology professor, Sonja Lyubomirsky, â€Å"Someone who feels elated after upgrading to a big house is likely to soon start yearning for more - an extra bedroom, a pool, whatever it may be. But ultimately, whether we drive a battered truck or a Lexus to work; whether we have hypertension or asthma, our ability to be happy and get happier doesn’t vary much.† As long as we have a certain amount of comfort and our needs our being met, we won’t get much happier from a bigger house in the long run. People tend to acclimate to the space that they have, and many report higher levels of happiness after minimizing their lifestyles. All too often, extra space just becomes storage for extra stuff. You don't need to donate all your possessions and join the tiny house movement, but you should take time to think back on your various living spaces. Were you substantially happier in larger spaces? What was the smallest space you’ve lived in and felt satisfied? Before falling prey to the McMansion mindset, think about how much space would actually make you happy and how much would be unnecessary excess. Where Should Your House Be Located? While the size of your house may not be as important as you think, its location can have a large effect on your happiness levels for one main reason: your commute to work. Several studies have shown that commute time has a big impact on personal well-being. A study conducted at the University of Waterloo concluded that long commutes link with low overall satisfaction in life, while a 20 study from Sweden connected long commutes with low energy, high stress, and more frequent absences from work due to illness. While you may not be able to afford a location with the best commute, you should avoid buying a house far away from your place of work. Finding the right house becomes a balance, then, among your finances, the size of the house, and the area where it’s located. We all want to live in Danny Tanner’s townhouse from Full House, but with the average cost of a 4-bedroom house in San Francisco going for over $1.7 million, most of us have to let this dream go. How Much House Can I Afford? Final Thoughts There are lots of steps that go into buying a house, and you have to take a close look at your finances and personal needs. Generally speaking, you should spend no more than 30% of your income on housing payments (mortgage plus the other costs of home ownership). You can use this rule of thumb to look at houses that cost five times your annual income or less. While banks might be all too eager to grant you a large mortgage - assuming you can put down a large down payment, are paying down your debts, and have a strong credit score - you shouldn’t necessarily take on the biggest mortgage you can. Taking on any kind of debt is a risk, and you should be cautious about over-committing to a 30-year mortgage if you’re concerned about things in your life, like job security. You should also consider how much of your monthly income you need for spending in other categories, like a retirement savings account or a January vacation to the Caribbean. Think about what will make you happiest, whether it’s a larger space, a short commute, a location close to restaurants and cafes, or a small monthly payment that frees up your income for leisure activities. When purchasing a home, you need to think long-term about both your finances and your overall happiness. Once you’ve figured out what you’re looking for, you can make steps to put yourself in the best position for getting a mortgage and buying your perfect house.