8A
STRICTLY BUSINESS/The Charlotte Post
August 22, 1996
Brief notes..
Helton Manor Care has
acquired the fcxiner Dogwood
Manor and reopened it as
Helton Manor-West.
An open house is planned
Sunday aftemon at the reno
vated 120-bed long term care
facility at 1700 N. 1-85 Service
Road. The open house will be
from 3-6 p.m.
Helton Manor-West was
licensed on Aug. 1 with pri
vate and semi-private rooms.
For more information, call
Bishop Charles L. Helton or
administrator Willie Ann
Helton at 393-2824.
Registrations are being
accepted for the Charlotte
Chamber’s 4th Annual
Business Spelling Bee, which
will be held Aug. 29 at
Ericsson Stadium.
The bee is sponsored by
Allstate, Duke Power, KPMG
Peat Marwick, LAW
Engineering and
NationsBank. Proceeds bene
fit business/school partnership
which provide workshop activ
ities and additional funding to
our public schools and other
Chamber education initia
tives.
The unusual competition
does not have the typical for
mat one might expect of a bee.
Teams of four will work
together on the spelling of
words. If they make a mis
take, they can buy back words
at $25 each and remain in the
competition until the third
round. 'There are easy, inter
mediate and difficult word
rounds.
More than 40 teams have
already registered for the bee.
To join in, each team pays a
tax deductible $200 entry fee.
Complimentary drinks and
hors d’oeuvres will be served.
The competition begins at 5:30
p.m. All cheerleaders must be
registered prior to the event.
Get your team signed up
today by calling Steffanie
Widener at the Chamber at
378-1323.
First Union Corp. celebrate’s
Education Week Aug. 26-30
with parenting seminars for
employees and recognition
and recruitment of volimteers.
New Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Schools Supt. Eric Smith will
keynote a breakfast honoring
volunteers on Wednesday at
7:45 a.m. in the First Union
Atrium. The volunteer of the
year, will receive a $1000
grant from First Union.
Leasing contracts will vary
Continued from page 7A
by bringing the car to the dealer
for an inspection a month or two
before the lease ends. If there
are any problems, you can get
them fixed before returning the
car instead of waiting and let
ting the company charge you for
them.
But what happens to you in
the extreme case where a leased
car is stolen or totaled? Your
insurance company should pay
the leasing company the car’s
market value, but you will owe
more than that on the lease
financing. You can probably buy
,insurance to cover this differ
ence from the finance company;
it’s call gap insurance.
Where You Drive and How
Far
Freedom. That’s what having
a car is all about, right? Your
car leasing company doesn’t
think so. A provision that’s fre
quently overlooked in contracts
sharply restricts the places you
can drive. Some may forbid you
to go out of state, or even out of
your area for more than 30 days
at a time. If you violate these
conditions, you may be consid
ered in default.
You’ll have to pay the differ
ence between the b^ance on the
lease and what the company
can get for the car at auction,
plus any mileage or wear-and-
tear penalties.
'The other thing to watch out
for is mileage. When you sign
the leasing agreement, you have
to agree to a mileage limit. If
you pick a low limit to lower
your monthly payment, be
aware that there are stiff penal
ties for exceeding the limit
which can add thousands of dol
lars to your lease.
Best ’Time to Lease
You may think that the worst
time to lease a car is at the
beginning of the model year.
when it has just hit the show
room. Surprisingly, that may be
the best time. Some manufac
turers raise prices during the
year so that they can drop them
back at the end of the year and
lure buyers with seemingly low
prices.
Here’s another surprise. Even
after your lease agreement is
signed, it may not be written in
stone. Try to negotiate with
your dealer about any penalties
or fees, especially if you decide
to begin another lease. If you’re
thinking of leasing again, many
companies will waive security
deposits and lease acquisition
fees, or even throw in a couple of
free months. Leasing a car can
be complex. Don’t sign a lease
until you read and understand
it.
Charles Ross is host of the
nationally syndicated radio pro
gram, “Your Personal Finance,”
and author of Your
CommonSense Guide to
Personal Financial Planning.
Computers 101: Write down system information
By Lisa Doggett
At the Office
If while using a computer
regularly at your office, you
find yourself relying heavily
on a "help desk," please read
on. Most of today's businesses
offer help in the form of a
technical support phone line.
You call this number when
your project is over due and
you're about to "go postal" on
your computer.
Many of you have been frus
trated with the busy signals
and "hold" times of most user-
support lines. And when you
finally do get through, you are
often told to re-boot (re-start)
your computer and lose a half
day's work. It might have
helped if you were offered ade
quate or better training at the
start. But such is the climate
in "do-it-yesterday" corporate
America.
Remember: Your computer
or workstation (as they are
often called at the office) is
nothing more than a tool.
Make it work for you, not vice-
versa! Think minor problems
through before you reach out
and touch user-support. If
you are working on a stand
alone PC, trouble-shooting can
be a little easier. Try to find
out everything about that
computer. You should know:
What type of processor it has
(286,386, 486 or Pentium);
how much RAM (Random
Access Memory) is available to
run programs and the amount
of hard-disk storage and what
programs are currently
installed there.
Don't worry, I am not asking
you to keep track of this infor
mation in your head. Don't try
to remember everything- just
write it down, and put it in a
file or on your rolodex. Keep a
record of any (hardware or
software) changes made to
your system. This will help
you avoid conflicts or figure
out the source if there are
problems in the future.
Those of you who work on a
computer network are subject
to a few more difficulties. You
not only have to worry about
what is loaded on your work
station, but also what services
and resources you share and
have access to on the file serv
er (the super-computer in that
locked room down the hall).
Don't torment yourself
thinking that I am going to
ask you to grasp all of that
information. I only want you
to be aware that you are
accessing files and printers
remotely. You will have more
to consider while you are
working. If your PC freezes
and you are at a loss, think
about the last action you took.
Are you getting error mes
sages? Write them down.
CHARLOTTE
MBA PROGRAM
W
ake Forest University offers a new evening
MBA program in Charlotte designed for
experienced managers. Join us for an
Information Session
Wednesday, September 5 • 5:30 ■ 7:30p.m.
(Formal remarks beging at 6:00p.m.)
One Morrocroft Centre, Suite 150
6805 Morrison Bird.
Information on our weekend
executive program in Winston-Salem
will also be available.
WAKE FOREST
UNIVERSITY
Babcock Graduate
School o/Management
For more information about Wake Forest's MBA programs,
call (704)365-1717 or 800-428-6012
100 Black Men tap director
Continued from 7A
spent two years with the
United Way of the Texas Gulf
Coast, where he also achieved
record fundraising results as a
campaign manager.
He graduated from Wiley
College in 1989 with a bache
lor of science degree. He
received a master's degree in
governmental administration
from the University of
Pennsylvania FeTs School of
Government. In 1993, Ashley
was named one of "50 Leaders
of the Future" by Ebony mag
azine and was listed as "40
Leaders Under 40" by the
Philadelphia Business
Journal in 1994.
Ashley has served on the
board of directors of the
Philadelphia Chapter of The
National Society of
Fundraising Executives, and
has authored a number of
fundraising and educational
articles. Ashley is an outspo
ken advocate for the nation's
youth and is a sought after
lecturer and motivational
speaker. He has addressed
professional, youth and
parental groups across the
country.
100 Black Men America, Inc.
is a confederation of 64 affili
ate chapters operating in over
250 cities across the country.
The first chapter was formed
in 1963 to marshall a force of
outstanding men whose collec
tive training, skills and expe
riences could achieve mean
ingful gains for the African
American commimity.
The mission is to improve
the lives of African American
men and women with a spe
cial emphasis on youth
through mentoring, education-
Money management jump
Continued from 7A
minus any surrender charges
Cash values vary depending on
the policy's duration.
Two popular types of whole
life insurance are universal life
and valiable life, both of which
build up cash value With vali
able life, you can choose to
invest a portion of your premi
um in vehicles such as stocks,
bonds or money market
accounts The cash value of the
policy will then vary depending
on how your investments per
form Typically, a minimum
death benefit is
guaranteed.Universal life (UL)
enables you to increase or
decrease your death benefit
annually and to increase or
decrease your premiums. This
flexibility, along with the fact
that the cost for universal life is
typically lower than that for
other whole life policies, pro
vides options' some people need.
However, unlike traditional
whole life, which offers a guar
anteed cash value accumula
tion, UL offers you a minimum
return rate, usually around 4
percent; above that it varies. As
with variable fife, the perfol-
mance ol your investments wiU
affect your return The benefits
of whole life policies come with a
hefty price tag: as much as sev
eral thousand dollars more for
some whole life policies than
similar coverage under a
term life policy. However, the
extra cost doesn't mean they
ofter greater benefits to you.
For starters, if your inonth-
to-month cash flow is not
that good, it may not be wise
to tie up money in a whole
life policy Also, CPAs say if
you're younger and haven't
socked away money in any
other investment vehicles,
like Individual Retirement
Accounts, 401(k) plans or
even mutual funds, it's wise to
do so before investing extra
money in a whole life pohcy.
How Much Is Enou^?
Remember, life insurance is
designed to protect your family
financially should you suddenly
die.
Money Management is a week
ly column on personal finance
prepared and distlibuted by the
North Carolina Association of
Certified Public Accountants.
We Poitkipote
A Customer Astitlance Progrom of
the Better Business Bureau
/40t
Air Duct Cleaning
FOR YOUR INFORMATION
■ 9 out of 10 heating, ventilating and air
conditioning system failures are caused by
dirt and dust.
■ 50% of all illnesses are either caused or
aggravated by polluted indoor air.
• 1 out of 6 people who suffer from allergies do
so as a direct result of the fungi and bacteria in
air duct systems
' Children are more likely to be affected by
polluted indoor air. They breathe faster, inhale
more air and are closer to the ground where
concentrations are higher.
Indoor air has been found to be up to 70 times
more polluted than outdoor air.
(704)
566-0363
MONEY GROWS
ON IDEAS
The wonderful thing about doing business
in our society is that ideas are colorblind. The
good ones make you money, the great ones
make you rich. At First Citizens Bank we
appreciate the value of good ideas. That's
why we make it our business to provide you
with the financial resources you need to
make your business ideas a reality.
From setting up manufacturing loans
to establishing lines of credit, First Citizens
wants to say "YES” to the plans you have
for growing your business. Because we
believe the only bad idea is not listening
to new ideas.
^ first
Citizens
You’re Always First.