1. What shape am I in now?

2. What shape should I be in?

3. If I need to improve the shape I am in, how do I do it?

4. How will I know if I am exercising effectively?

5. How will I know when I am in shape?

The answers to these questions are found through assessments — measurable ways to track performance and improvements. To do this, your club needs technically-valid, reliable equipment that is affordable and easy to operate in a club setting.

Accurate assessment of cardiovascular capacity and response to exercise is required to measure members’ levels of conditioning and to provide sure methods of tracking improvements. Until now, the measurement of cardiovascular function has only been available in scientific laboratories, and had to be administered and interpreted by trained scientific professionals. But new technology, which has modified complicated scientific procedures to provide easy and accurate measurement of cardiovascular function, offers clubs the opportunity to respond to members’ needs.

Things have changed, and changed fast. MP3 format has been around for a few years, but only recently has taken off in a big way. They are now extremely easy to produce once the appropriate software has been downloaded. It is the acceleration of the ‘net that has meant listening to MP3s is all too easy.

WinAmp is the most popular piece of software used to listen to MP3 files. MP3s themselves can be found all over the net, a simple search on any search engine will bring up millions of links.

The problem of course with MP3s is that most people aren’t using MP3 technology to record their own music, but are ripping music from CDs and then making this music available to anyone who wants it. This of course is illegal and has recently caught the attention of various record companies and pop stars.

Even with pressure from record companies, it seems MP3 is going from strength to strength. With large companies such as Diamond and Creative Labs producing portable MP3 players, and even companies such as Sony taking an interest, then it seems unlikely to die. MP3 will no doubt be surpassed by even better technology as time goes on, but expect music distributed over the web to become the norm in years to come.

Education Tax Deductions
1. Education IRA
2. Hope Scholarship Tax Credits
3. Lifetime Learning Tax Credit
4. IRA Withdrawals
5. Deduction of Loan Interest
6. Child Tax Credit
It begins to phase out at $80,000 AGI and disappears entirely at $100,000 ($40,000 to $50,000 for single filers).

LIFETIME LEARNING TAX CREDIT
This credit is available for any undergraduate or graduate student, including those in medical or law school. Until 2002, a maximum credit of $1,000 is available — 20% of up to $5,000 of qualifying tuition and fees (and some other college expenses). It increases to $2,000 in the year 2003 — 20% of the first $10,000 in tuition and fees. This tax credit kicked in as of June 30, 1998. That is, both the course of education and paying for it must begin after June 30, 1998.

$TIP: A family with more than one member in school can take both the Hope and Lifetime Learning tax credits but cannot take both credits for the same child in the same tax year. In other words, you can claim different credits for different kids in the same year. However, you cannot claim either credit in a year that you exclude from your gross income a distribution from the Education IRA or receive interest from redeeming EE Savings Bonds.

IRA WITHDRAWALS
You can withdraw money from your IRA before age 59 1/2 without paying a penalty if the money is used to pay higher-education expenses — for yourself, your spouse, your child or your grandchild. You’ll still have to pay regular taxes on the money you withdraw.

Education Tax Deductions
1. Education IRA
2. Hope Scholarship Tax Credits
3. Lifetime Learning Tax Credit
4. IRA Withdrawals
5. Deduction of Loan Interest
6. Child Tax Credit
DEDUCTION OF LOAN INTEREST
You can deduct interest paid on students loans — for yourself, your spouse or a child. The maximum annual deduction is $1,000 in 1998, rising to $2,500 in 2001. It applies to the first 60 months of repayment.

The deduction is phased out as modified AGI rises from $40,000 to $55,000 on single returns and from $60,000 to $75,000 on joint tax returns.

You don’t have to itemize to get this credit. The credit goes to the person who took out the loans, which, of course, is often the college student.

CHILD TAX CREDIT
Beginning in 1998, families with AGIs of $100,000 or less will receive a $400 tax credit for each child under the age of 17. This credit will rise to $500 in 1999. The amount of the tax credit is reduced by $50 for each $1,000 (or part of $1,000) of modified AGI above $100,000 for joint filers, $75,000 for single filers or heads of household, and $55,000 for marrieds filing separately.

All of this is a lot to take in. The IRS never makes it easy.

There are six new tax breaks related to education, so here’s a summary of all of them (as you read on, keep in mind that tax credits reduce your tax bill, dollar for dollar):

EDUCATION IRA
Starting in 1998, you can contribute up to $500 per year to an Education IRA for the benefit of each family member who is under age 18.
Education Tax Deductions
1. Education IRA
2. Hope Scholarship Tax Credits
3. Lifetime Learning Tax Credit
4. IRA Withdrawals
5. Deduction of Loan Interest
6. Child Tax Credit
You must name one of your children as the beneficiary (each child can have a separate Education IRA), and contributors do not have to be parents or even relatives. You can put a mutual fund, bank CD or other investments in this Education IRA. Because it is such a small amount, many mutual funds are charging low fees. One that does not charge: the Stein Roe mutual-fund family, but you must put in the $500 in a lump sum.

Although the contributions are not tax-deductible, the money grows on a tax-free basis. Distributions are tax-free when used to pay for qualified education expenses — tuition, fees, some room and board expenses — for the person for whom the account is maintained.

Any funds not spent by the time the child reaches age 30 must be rolled over into another Education IRA within the beneficiary’s family, or the money must be distributed and will be subject to regular income tax plus a 10% IRS penalty.

Contributions are phased out as your modified AGI rises from $95,000 to $110,000 on a single return, and from $150,000 to $160,000 on joint returns. If you have income near the phaseout range, you cannot make contributions. If a parent’s income level is above these thresholds but the child’s grandparents’ is not, have them make the contribution into the child’s account.

Don’t rely solely on the Education IRA to fund your child’s education because it won’t be enough. If you contribute $500 annually for 17 years, you’ll have about $18,225, assuming a pretax return of 8% each year.

CAUTION: If anyone at all has made a contribution to a qualified state tuition plan on behalf of your child, no contributions may be made to an Education IRA set up for the benefit of that same child in the same year. If you think this caution may apply to your family situation, check with your accountant.

Bravo! You’re doing absolutely the right thing by not burying your head in the sand over this one. You must pay back your loans — delinquent graduates are reported to the credit bureaus and a poor credit report will make it difficult to qualify for a mortgage or other loans in the future.

The good news: Lenders have instituted programs to make paying off student loans easier. In fact, most students have six months to a year after graduation before they must start paying off loans, so check with your lender. In some cases, teachers get interest-only forbearance or deferrals; again, check it out.

Here are some other options:

Sallie Mae (Student Loan Marketing Association) can arrange for you and your husband to consolidate your loans and significantly reduce your monthly payments. Doing so, however, will lengthen the loan time period and increase the total amount of interest you’ll end up paying. You may decide it’s worth the trade-off to free up some cash now.

Sallie Mae also has plans in which you make smaller monthly payments — between 4% and 25% of your gross monthly income — or interest-only payments for the first two or four years. In both cases, your payments increase as time passes and as you move up the pay ladder. But again, Cash Flo cautions: The overall cost of your loan will be higher.
They have excellent loan counselors, who will address your particular situation.

If you use Sallie Mae’s “Direct Repay” plan, which automatically deducts payments electronically from your savings or checking account, you will cut your loan rate by 1/4%. An even better bet: Make your first 48 payments on time through Sallie Mae’s “Smart Loan” plan and your interest rate will be reduced by 2% for the rest of the loan period.

After checking with Sallie Mae, call the new Federal Direct Loan program to ask if they have a more favorable loan consolidation or payback plan for you — by that I mean one in which your TOTAL LOAN COSTS would be less than Sallie Mae’s.

Step Three: Evaluate the Manufacturer and Reseller
It is important to choose a stable company that is going to support the product and is committed to enhancing their accounting package on a regular basis. Do some research into the backgrounds of the companies that wrote the software packages you are considering.
How long have they been in business?
Is the company financially stable?
How often is the software upgraded?
How many installations do they have?
What is their reputation for customer service and support?
Can you get access to the source code?
What about customization?

Choosing the right reseller is also very important. A reseller should be able to provide you with the software, installation, implementation, training, and on going technical support you need to maintain your system in a timely and accurate manner. Here are a few questions you should ask each reseller.
What sort of technical support do they provide and what is the average response time?
Does the reseller provide telephone and modem support?
Does the reseller provide classroom training?
Does the reseller provide on-site assistance?
How many successful installations has the reseller completed?
Can they provide you with several references from satisfied customers?
What if you don’t like the software after you purchase it?
Does the reseller have a return policy?
Are they available after or on the weekends?

Step Four: Choose the Best Package for Your Business
If you do your homework up front and evaluate your business and its processes to determine what you need in an accounting package, then thoroughly evaluate packages with good reputations and solid resellers, you should not have any trouble choosing the accounting package that best suits your needs.

It is important to remember that you will not find a package that has every thing you need and want. It is best to choose the package that best fits the majority of your needs, then learn everything possible about how that package functions and make it work for your company.

However, when it comes to making a choice, it is important to do your homework. Your accounting system is or should be the information backbone of your company. It is imperative to be able to access accurate data quickly and easily in an understandable format in order to make educated business decisions. The following steps can be used as a guideline to help you analyze your company’s needs, compare your needs against the packages under review, evaluate the manufacturers and resellers and make a selection.

Step One: Analyze Your Company’s Needs
To begin the process of selecting a new accounting software package you first need to analyze your company’s needs. Knowing what information is needed, the form of the data to be input and the basic business processes will aid in this area. You will also need to evaluate your present and desired reporting mechanisms; what reports are produced, what information is required and what data is necessary to operate your business effectively.

Flow-charting the workflow as it travels through your company and documenting procedures will help you determine the critical areas that need attention. Keep your eyes open to improvements and efficiencies that may be possible if the workflow and procedures where designed differently.

Involve as many employees as possible in the process to determine your needs.
The staff’s opinions as to what functionality and reports they need to make their jobs easier, more productive and efficient are usually more on target than management’s because they are in the trenches doing the work every day.

While interviewing key employees, keep asking which systems they use, what manual processes do they currently perform that could be incorporated into the accounting software package, what do they like or dislike about the current accounting system, and what types of data, information or reports do they need. All of this information can be filtered down into the basic “functionality requirements”.

Management also needs to address some fundamental questions, such as:
Why are you looking for an Accounting System?
What is the scope of the project?
What is your time frame to implement?
What are the future plans of management, such as opening other locations or hiring additional employees?
How many people will be using the system? Currently? Future?
What is your budget?
How fast is your company growing?
What operating system are you running your accounting system on?
What is the best system for your company’s future?
Will you need to upgrade hardware?
Once the needed features and functionalities are defined, you will want to prioritize them based upon what you absolutely must have, would prefer to have, and what would be nice to have but is not necessary. Unfortunately, no accounting software package will meet 100 percent of your needs or wants; but it should meet at least 80 percent of your requirements.

A list of standard functionalities that your system should have is in Illustration A. Use this list to help you further define the functionality you must have in an accounting system.

But as a self-described “hopeless early adopter” of new technologies and as a guy who juggles flaming torches, flies kites, and rides unicycles and hot-air balloons for fun, the advent of multimedia and then the Web closed some old doors and opened new ones. He quit Ernst & Young in 1991, threw a pile of favorite books into a backpack and took a year-long, round-the-world trek to exorcise some career angst and find a new calling.

He returned with the ponytail and a core idea around which he wanted to build an interactive design firm: When push comes to shove between form and function, he believed, creativity must win at all cost. In 1993, he dropped his savings into computer hardware and founded Red Sky. Living out of a sleeping bag on a friend’s floor in San Francisco, he landed Wells Fargo Bank as his first client, convincing it he was the right developer to usher it into the digital age. That Wells Fargo has since emerged as a leading innovator in online financial services is owed in part to Smith having shown it the way.

With a new creative partner, Joel Hladecek, a film school graduate who had been designing simulated-motion rides for amusement parks, Tim Smith’s Red Sky became one of the Web’s first professional branders in 1994. Finally out of the sleeping bag, Smith and Co. mailed a floppy disk to Nike headquarters in Oregon with a Website pitch. Nike called back the next day and signed Red Sky.

Since then, the clients and awards have come streaming in, each seeming to push the industry another creative step forward. Last year, the firm built a Shockwave-driven Pong banner ad for Hewlett-Packard, in which users click and play the beloved video game of the 1975s in a setting that Pong’s creators probably could not have imagined. Playing off the HP tag line-”Built by engineers. Used by people”-players paddle-pong in a banner with an engineer named Jerry. At a time when banner-bashing has become ever more popular in the ad industry, Smith looked on with glee as the Pong banner was copied around the Net by users who just wanted to play the game.

Following the Nike coup, Red Sky next built its 9-hole Tiger Woods online golfing site and another popular game site, Virtual Andre. Red Sky spun the idea off a Virtual Andre television spot and recast it as a Shockwave arcade game. Using a mouse-controlled rocket launcher, you fire off 150 mph serves cross-court to the digital Agassi, who launches everything back (with only his tennis racket) just as fast. Even if you find a way to win-it ain’t easy-Agassi signs off with the last words: “You suck.”

For Lynne Pollard, acting director, the creative-wins mantra drives most online branding projects as well. As the Web becomes an increasingly important medium to extend the Nike brand-particularly for young audiences-branding vehicles like Virtual Andre and other Red Sky-created athlete “vignettes” are measured “more qualitatively than quantitatively,” she says. The agency’s branding projects have been successful, she says, in “pushing the envelope, making sure they’re always about innovation and a fresh approach.” From a branding perspective, she adds, “the best thing about the Net is that it allows people to communicate to each other, and with us,” adding that it was consumer email response that drove continued online projects from Red Sky.

Today, Smith isn’t juggling just pins for fun, he’s sharing the workload with 42 employees for a host of top-notch corporate clients-Land’s End, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Sony, Procter & Gamble, and Shell Energy, to name a few. Backed by the $7 billion advertising giant Omnicom in 1995, he’s carved out some financial elbow room to develop new models.

The most heartbreaking case of all is the sweet, dim-witted security guard who spills hydrochloric acid on himself. What at first appears to be a simple burn turns out to be fatal. doctor delivers the news that in 12 hours the chemicals will enter his bloodstream and stop his heart. Compassionate Nurse Carol deals with the emotional horror of a 31-year-old man dying with no family by his side.

The only antidote to all the gloom occurs on the Benton/Corday front. Lizzie proves yet again that Benton has met his match. After their first night together, she bops off to yoga class, leaving him asleep in bed. She sends him off to his son’s baptism without any expectation of being invited. And later, she breaks through his “brooding veneer” to discover that he is jealous when her wormy boss Romano asks her out to lunch.

Lizzie fends off Romano’s advances with a little white lie — she doesn’t date her colleagues — while Benton fends off his family’s curiosity about Lizzie’s race by keeping her out of sight. With all of these obstacles, it looks like Lizzie and Benton may have a rocky road ahead. Will love conquer all?

1) Mutual Fund Automatic Savings Program

Choose a conservative stock mutual fund, such as an equity-income fund (that buys stocks paying dividends) or a Standard & Poor’s 500 index fund (that buys all the stocks in the S&P 500 index; they’re large and medium-sized U.S. public companies). Then call up the fund, or if it’s a load fund with an upfront sales charge have your broker get you the fund’s materials, and read through the prospectus and assorted info.

Once you’re sure that this is the fund for you, fill out the form that lets you create an automatic savings program. You tell the fund where you have a bank account and how much you’d like to invest in the fund every month. Then, like clockwork, once a month (or once a quarter if you prefer), the fund will automatically take that amount out of your bank account and plop it into the fund. Next thing you know, you’ll be getting a monthly statement in the mail from the fund telling you how much your fund’s account has grown (assuming the market has been good to you). By investing, say, $250 a month in the fund, you could easily wind up with a savings stash over $10,000 within a few years.

2) Automatic Savings Program

This automatic savings program requires help from your employer. If you work for an employer that offers a  savings plan or a comparable  plan, you can’t afford to pass it up. By filling out a simple piece of paper from your employer saying how much of your paycheck you’d like to save automatically and which of the plan’s investments you prefer, you’ll be an instant disciplined saver.

Each employer has its own rules about how much you can invest, what you can invest in, how much of your contributions will be matched by the employer, how often you can move money around, whether you can withdraw your cash before retirement and whether you can borrow against your plan account. You’ll want to read up on the rules before you get started, of course. But almost any plan is worth its salt because the savings program will let you put away part of your pay before taxes and then let the money grow tax-sheltered until you withdraw it.

Choose one or both of these techniques and you’ll be a saver every day of the year.