One particular item that banks are still willing to finance is owner-occupied commercial real estate. Most other types of credit for small businesses – working capital being a prime example – have become very difficult to get. But for businesses that might be doing well enough to qualify for financing and are currently renting their space, this is one of the best times in a very long time to buy a building.

The commercial real estate crash has created a large supply of buildings at prices lower than have been seen in recent memory. To a bank, a building occupied by a business owner is about as good a risk as can be found in today’s economy. Then add to that the fact that even though there may be a little more downside left in prices, there is much more upside potential as the economy continues to pull out of the recession. So add together an unusually large supply of buildings, and banks aggressively competing for this type of business, and a business owner has a real opportunity at this time to acquire space to grow their business.

Making it even more attractive for banks that are comfortable with SBA lending is the fact that banks can get 75% of their loans guaranteed, so SBA loans become even more attractive as a means to accomplish a building purchase. And for the potential business owner-borrower, the fact that SBA allows a 25-year amortization on commercial real estate usually means lower monthly payments on loans that also cannot be called. So for small business owners needing expansion, this is a very unique opportunity in recent economic history.

Everyone at sometime or the other has had a piggy bank. This method of saving money in form of coins actually came about when they made ceramic containers that looked like pigs. People used them to put their loose or spare change. The slots would be too small to fit in money in the form of notes. This kind of bank was for small children to learn how to save money at an early age and how to use the money wisely, but most kids ended up breaking the piggy bank to take cash to buy ice cream or some form of candy or sweets. Piggy banks have existed for a long time and since you were little your parents would probably give you some sort of allowance which probably started from pennies or cents and went on to accumulate to more cash as you grew older.

Piggy coin collections are still there even today with many people collecting any spare change they might have even grownups are doing it. Even today, coin collection is a hobby of mine as well as for other people who just enjoy collecting coins. Banking with the piggy taught me a lot of lessons which i still use until today. It also taught me how to use my money wisely and saving was always a good thing. Even today i do not have the nerve to break my piggy coin collection which has already housed a lot of my coins and now i even have a new one.