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A company that has leaped into the news recently is the newcomer MonaVie. It is based around a juice made from a blend of fruits and also comes in a gel version. It was founded in 2005 by Dallin Larsen, a BYU grad with a Finance degree.

The Ingredients: 1) Blend of Acai 2) Fruit Juice Mix 3) Fruit Puree Mix 4) D-Glucosamine Hydrochloride 5) Fatty Acids The Celebrities who Endorse it: 1) Houston Dynamo Soccer Team 2) Boston Red Sox Pitcher Jonathan Papelbon 3) Toronto Blue Jays First Baseman Lyle Overbay 4) Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone The Houston We May Have A Problem The company's fortune is based on an MLM scheme that allows distributors to earn commissions. The catch is, that they only qualify if they drink $130 worth of juice every month. Since personal retail sales only make up a small percentage, some people are calling this company a glorified pyramid scheme. The ingredients listed also have a big question mark surrounding them. MonaVie was sued by another company, Imagenetix, for over $2.75 billion regarding an ingredient dispute.

The Basics Prepaid legal is essentially an Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) opportunity that allows the independant distributor to sell pre packaged legal services. The company also markets identity theft programs along with packages for businesses. The company has been around since 1969 and is traded on the NYSE under the ticker symbol PPD. Watch the Pre-Paid Legal Video on Becoming a Distributor How to Make Money Although some distributors just sell the services, the true money is in building a network of people that are building more networks of people. At that point you will make overrides and you can easily make 6 figures. There is a large group of distributors that make over one million dollars a year from their residuals. Another way to make money is in the straight sale. When a cusomter signs up for a one month membership, the distributor gets an advance that is as much as 6 times the monthly fee. Then each year the distributor is given another residual for existing customers that stay on. If you sale 50 memberships a month, then you can be making up to $200 per $29 membership. For business memberships you can make almost $500 for each one sold. Getting Paid Distributors can choose to get paid by check or direct deposit. The best quirk of this program is the daily direct deposit. If someone signs up through your online portal that comes with your membership, then you get the full commission in your bank the next day. Summary Being a lawyer myself, I think the business opportunity is pretty sound since I used to bill out at over $450 an hour.

The 8 Key Ingredients to a Great Thank You Note 1) The note needs to be addressed to the person who helped you 2) Use his or her formal name and title in the address line 3) If you are on a familiar basis, then use an informal greeting like "Dear Jason" 4) Etiquette and thank you notes requires you to state who you are in the first two lines 5) Draw reference to the favor that caused you to write the note 6) Always use professional language throughout 7) Keep it brief 8) Use your formal name and title in closing More Resources on Thank You Notes: Bereavement and Sample Sympathy Thank You Notes - go here Examples of Thank You Notes - go here

What is a tax shelter? Any way to reduce the tax you pay, typically through reducing your taxable income. There are more techical definitions, but what is important to those investigating tax shelters is this: What are some options for legally reducing the amount of tax I pay? Here are some legal tax shelters: 1) Tax loss carryforwards through a corporation, or even easier, an LLC which has elected to be taxed as a corporation. 2) Internal Revenue Code Section 1031 exchanges for property/real estate. 3) Certain transactions involving mining or oil drilling companies. 4) Retirement plans like 401(k)s, IRAs, etc. 5) Homeownership: mortgage interest and property taxes are deductible. You might even be able to write off PMI insurance premiums. And when you sell, a homeowner can keep $250K of the profit tax-free ($500K for married couples who jointly own the home). 6) Children. Kids counted as an exemption of $3,400 per child in 2007, and came with a child tax credit of $1,000 per child. Then there’s the Child and Dependent Care Credit and Hope and Lifetime Learning credits…small but they add up. Unfortunately, as you can see, the list is short. Attorneys and accountants create new tax shelters, but soon after they become widely available, they run the risk of being targeted by the IRS. Questionable tax shelters to be leery of: 1) Offshore companies/offshore bank accounts/offshore credit cards. 2) Certain financing arrangements where one party pays an unusually high rate of interest to an affiliated party, which initially reduces income, then ultimately reduces the tax bracket that any capital gain is taxed on. It’s important not to give away what you don’t have to, but you don’t want to face criminal charges either. It’s always best to consult with widely respected professionals, and not be tempted to get “creative.”