K Cup Innovation

With the explosion of single cup coffee makers out on the market, there are now various ways to customize them to fit any individual personality. One of the most sought after would be the red coffee maker by Keurig. This vivid red coffee maker allows for both style and class to accompany the high quality and low cost you are already receiving. Red is definitely an attention stealer and an instant conversation starter. Red will denote a hue of luxury and sophistication beyond that of just traditional blacks, grays, and whites. Using your new red coffee maker, you can add a sense of color to brighten your morning while brewing your k cups coffee.

The Keurig coffee maker can also be referred to as the K cup coffee maker. The K, in K cup, stands for Keurig. The small plastic containers included with your purchase are the actual K cups and have filters on the inside along with already ground gourmet coffee. The K cups are sealed with a foil lid to protect the freshness. Making your cup of coffee is a breeze. Once the water is heated, which takes approximately 4 minutes, simply place the k cup into the coffee maker, it punches a hole into the foil lid, and your coffee starts brewing instantly without even needing a paper filter; not to mention it will be piping hot ready in only three minutes. The gourmet coffee has undergone several tests to make sure that you will only receive the finest quality ground coffee in each k cup. There are hundreds of flavors to choose from so you won't spend time or money on large bags of coffee. You are also not only limited to making gourmet coffee, but hot cocoa, tea, cider and many more beverages. New to the market are Iced Tea K cups and Travel Mug size K cups for those of us who like to brew and go! And, if you're anything like me, you're excited that Dunkin Donuts will soon be offering K cups in several different flavors.

Life is ultimately more peaceful and relaxing when the kitchen is the only stop to make for premium coffee. I enjoy having that freedom and choose from many different blends to satisfy the moment, whether it be coffee in the morning, or tea in the afternoon. Not requiring constant filter changes and scrubbing pots means you can have coffee any time of the day and enjoy every drop without hassle. Imagine having dinner parties where your guests can choose from a variety of different flavors? Whatever their choice, you can always be sure your party will flow smooth and worry free. Simplicity and elegance is what your coffee maker will say about you after purchasing your Keurig. With many styles and sizes and even colors to choose from, there's surely one that will strike your fancy.

Protein For the Special K Diet

Many people are turning to the Special K Diet and the Special K Challenge to help them with their weight loss needs. Special K has a whole line of high-protein products for those who are looking for a diet with protein-rich foods. Their protein products include cereal, shakes, meal bars, and flavored powder to add to your water.

Special K Protein Plus Cereal is low in carbohydrates and high in protein with ten grams of protein per serving. This sweetened cereal tastes great and is the perfect way to start another day. Having protein in the morning can help you feel fuller longer.

The protein shakes made by Special K come in three delicious flavors: chocolate, strawberry, and French vanilla. Each shake has ten grams of protein and five grams of fiber. A Special K protein shake makes a great meal or a healthy, tasty snack.

Special K protein meal bars have several flavors to choose from. Whether you are looking for something chocolaty or something fruity, there is a meal bar to satisfy you. There is chocolate peanut butter, strawberry, double chocolate, chocolate chip, and honey almond. These meal bars also each have ten grams of protein and five grams of fiber, as well as several vitamins and minerals.

There are three deliciously flavored protein packets to add to your water for an extra protein boost. The strawberry-kiwi, iced tea, and pink lemonade flavors each have five grams of protein and five grams of fiber. All you have to do is add a packet to a bottle of water and shake it for a refreshing treat on a warm day.

Protein and fiber are two very important ingredients for healthy eating habits and to help you lose weight. Try the Special K Diet Challenge with Special K protein products and see the difference for yourself.

K-1 Visa Interview Issues

The climax of the US visa process is the K1 visa interview. This phase of the process may be the most anticipated, second only to the approval phase. In many ways, a US visa lawyer can be helpful in assisting a Thai with the fiance visa interview.

Many Thai Fiancees approach an impending visa interview with a sense of foreboding and fear. Many are afraid that they will do or say something that will cause their visa to be denied. Some are confused about what they need to bring to the interview. In a few cases, visa applicants are concerned about a sensitive issue in their past and hope to avoid discussing it or seek to conceal it.

For those who contemplate lying to the consular officers at the US Embassy be advised: consular officers are trained to be on the lookout for those wishing to use deceptive techniques in order to obtain a visa. If one is caught lying to a consular officer it could result in not only rejection of the present application, but a bar on entry to the United States for years. It is always a good decision to provide truthful answers to any of the consular officer's questions.

For those simply nervous about the K1 visa interview itself, it may be reassuring to point out that the consular officers are not in the habit of using the visa interview as a method of brow beating a Thai fiancee. Instead, the visa interview is a means of conducting due diligence in an effort to determine whether a couple's relationship is bona fide and the Thai fiancee is not legally inadmissible to the USA.

Often, K1 visas will be denied under 221 (g) of the Immigration and Nationality act. The word, "denial," is somewhat misleading in the context of a 221 g in the sense that it is not so much a denial as it is a request for more information. When a 221 g request is presented to the Thai fiancee it usually means that the petition was deficient in some way, usually some document is missing. The consular officer will remit a form to the Thai fiancee that stipulates what is missing and what needs to be presented in order for the consular section to process the K1 visa.

Should a fiancee receive an outright denial because the consular officer made the decision that the relationship was not bona fide, then that decision is unlikely to be subject to an appeal. However, should the consular officer deem the K1 visa applicant legally inadmissible to the USA, then there may be a waiver available for that ground of inadmissibility.

(Please note that the content contained herein is to be utilized for informational purposes only and should not be inferred as creating an attorney-client relationship between the author and any subsequent reader. One should always obtain legal advice from a competent licensed attorney.)

401(k) Rollover to Your Retirement Wealth

401(k) rollover opportunities are becoming a common event in today's economy. Current layoffs, early retirement, and changing jobs are all times when contemplation of what to do with your 401(k) comes to the forefront. Any of these qualifying events are an opportunity to rollover your 401(k) to an IRA. Even if you are still with your current employer, you may still be able to do an in-service rollover.

First, congratulate yourself for saving through your 401(k). If your employer matched your savings, your account probably grew at a nice pace and your nest egg may give you a sense of security.  As social security benefits are in doubt, saving for retirement has become a significant goal. Your retirement plan is your financial destiny.
 
One of the most important things is to keep the tax-deferred status of your account. If you take a distribution out of your 401(k) you will be required to pay federal income tax according to your income tax bracket and possibly even a 10% IRS penalty for early withdrawal. The 10% IRS penalty is primarily dependent on your age and when the distribution is taken. You ARE allowed to rollover your 401(k) to an IRA with no taxable event or IRS penalty if structured properly and done within the proper timeframe.
 
IRAs almost always have more investment options than 401(k)s. The freedom of an IRA allows you to diversify and invest in traditional assets such as individual stocks, mutual funds and bonds. The IRS even permits you to invest in non-traditional assets such as real estate, tax liens, promissory notes, oil and gas, mortgage notes, deeds of trust and more.
 
You have two options when it comes to moving your monies to a new custodian:
1) You can also "transfer" the money directly to the new custodian and this transaction is not reported to the IRS and less paperwork will be required at tax time.
2) You may rollover your 401(k) to an IRA, the current custodian will report the transaction to the IRS to maintain its tax advantaged status. If you receive the money directly, you will have 60 days to deposit it into another custodial account. If you deposit it after the 60 day period, you may be subject to penalties. 
 
Your IRA must be housed with a custodian at all times. The custodian will direct your money to the investment of your choosing.. It is important to choose a custodian with excellent customer service. You should check to see if they have on-line account access, a toll-free number and specialists who will answer your questions in a knowledgeable manner.
 
All in all the rollover process is a simple one that will help you save for your retirement. Your decisions and your direction will determine your future.

K-Cup Holder - How to Organize Your Coffee Storage Area

K-Cups Holders come in many sizes ranging from 18 to 35 cup, all the way to 80 K- Cups and beyond. Whatever your K-Cup Storage needs, there's a one that will help you find that little bit of extra organization you're looking for.

Most K-Cup Holders are fundamentally the same. The common styles are tower, rack, basket, and carousel. A carousel holder has two or more levels and suspends K-Cups in a circle. It is also sometimes referred to as a K-Cup Tree.They allow for up to 35 plus cups to be held at a time depending on which model you choose. Tower Holders have a rectangular shape and stand vertically. Racks are mainly found in businesses and have a K-Cup capacity ranging from 48 to 244 K-Cups and beyond. Baskets are usually two level holders. They're pretty much self explanatory otherwise. Regardless of which type you prefer, it will help you keep your coffee area more organized.

K-Cup holders can be more than just K-Cup Stroage though, they can be stylish too. Their finishes range from bamboo, to paint, to powder coating, all the way to completely chrome and more. If space is not an issue, take it as an opportunity to reflect your style, but don't forget about capacity. A large family or business may need to forgo style a bit to meet demand.

Before you decide which K-Cup holder will work best for your needs, here are some things to consider.

How many K-Cups are used a day at home or work? If you're at home, multiply this number times 7. If you're at work, multiply this number by the amount of days in your work week?
How many different flavors do you keep in stock? This is a factor to consider when you're trying to decide what size holder to purchase.
How much available counter space do you have? After figuring out how many K-Cups you use in a week, you may be a little shocked! If you're a little cramped on counter space, a tower or mini carousel may be the best choice for you. If you're not cramped for space, it's going to be more of a style decision for you.
Whose task will it be to keep the K-Cups stocked? If it's mainly you, how much time do you have to devote to filling your holder each week? Obviously the smaller it is, the more attention it will need.
How much money do you want to spend? A K-Cup Holder can range in price from twenty dollars to around fifty for basic home use Keurig K-Cup Holders. Business size, large capacity holders range from fifty to several hundred dollars.

Listed below are some of the most commonly purchased home holders on the web. As you begin your own research, we recommend looking up these models first.

Breville Silver & Black 30 K-Cup Carousel
Get Organized Brand 27 K-Cup Coffee Pod Carousel
Keurig 27 K-Cup Chrome Holder
Keurig 30 K-Cup Carousel Holder
Keurig 35 K-Cup Holder
Keurig Black K-Cup Basket
Lipper Brand Revolving Chrome K-Cup Basket
Nifty Brand 35 K-Cup Holder
Nifty Brand Mini 18 K-Cup Holder
RCS Plastics Brand Large Capacity 80 K-cup Tower Holder
Two Bad Cats Brand Office Ready 114 K-Cup Large Capacity Holder

Use Charts to Invest Confidently Within Your 401(K)

Do you feel confident in your ability to invest wisely within your 401(k) plan? When you choose particular funds to go into your portfolio, do you feel good about the decision-making process that you used to make those choices? Do you keep in touch with the markets enough to be able to recognize different economic cycles and how they affect stock prices? If you answered "No" to any or all of these questions, take heart in the fact that you are definitely not alone.

Almost 49% of 401(k) plans provided by U.S. companies offer no investment guidance to their participants. Of the 51% that do, only 24% of those employees understand and implement the guidelines provided. More and more companies are offering 401(k) plans instead of defined benefit pension plans for their employees' retirement accounts. Cash-strapped states and municipalities are beginning to change over to 401(k) plans as well. This means that every day more and more people are being put into this investment vehicle, handed the keys and told to have a nice day!

For people with some investing background and some free time for research, this should be a welcome development. Though much maligned, a 401(k) plan can be a great investment vehicle when driven properly. For many working people with families, however, finding time for this "driver's ed" can be tough. Reading four or five fund prospectuses can be a challenge in between loads of laundry and cleaning up supper dishes. Keeping up with a company's latest quarterly and 10k reports has to take a back seat when there are school projects to finish and leaky faucets to fix. Spare time is non-existent to most working people.

There is a way to help the whole process go a little smoother. Whether you are just opening a new 401(k) account or rebalancing an existing one, incorporating the use of charts into your investment research will help save time and boost your confidence level. Market technicians believe that one glance at a stock's price chart can provide more information about that company than hours of reading its reports and prospectuses. They believe that a picture is truly worth a thousand words.

What is a price chart? Though they come in various configurations, price charts are basically graphs of the past prices of a security or market. They are backward-looking roadmaps that investors use to gauge possible future price movements. Is IBM in an up-trend? Look at its chart. Is the Dow in a bear market cycle? Look at its chart. You will know from looking at prices printed on the charts from the last few days, weeks or months. While past price movements do not predict future movements, being able to determine where a stock or fund is in relation to the current market cycle can provide some insight as to where prices are likely to move next.

Charts provide this insight by showing reference points you can use in your decision-making process. Is your fund or stock at an all-time high in price? Is your fund trending lower? Are the overall markets moving sideways? Once you learn to read charts and identify the reference points, you can answer these types of questions easily and quickly. Using charts as one of your market research tools will make you a more confident investor. You will not have to rely on hope, luck or some guy on television shouting out his market opinion.

Although there are many different methods for using price charts in your research, there are three very important uses that can have an immediate impact on your portfolio:

Recognizing overall market direction can directly affect your investment decisions. Investing during bull or bear cycles require different approaches (unless your account can stand another "lost decade"). Charts will show you where the market is trading in a cycle.
The performance of an individual investment is crystal clear when viewed on a chart. You do not have to rely on analysts' opinions, company CEOs' comments or questionable financial statements to know if a particular investment choice is the right one.
Comparing investment choices within your plan's list of stocks or funds can be done simply and quickly. Do you need a mid-cap fund in your portfolio and have three to choose from? Put the charts up side-by-side and compare their performance to each other. Pull up a chart of the S&P 500 and see which of the three performed better compared to the overall market. Some charting services even give you the ability to layer one chart atop another to make the comparisons really easy.

Perhaps the real beauty of using charts in your research is this: if you make an investment mistake, you will know it pretty quickly. Charts, like all other investment tools, are not 100% accurate in forecasting market direction. So if you make a wrong choice and one of your investments turns south when your others are moving higher, it will be clear to see on the charts. You will be able to take action instead of being caught off guard.

Basic chart reading skills, which are really all long-term investors need to know, can be learned and put to use in a reasonably short amount of time. There are many places you can find information on charts and how to use them:

your 401(k) plan provider: a few of the providers who do offer investment guidance to their participants include some basic charting education
your brokerage: if you do some investing outside your 401(k) account, the brokerage you use should have excellent charting tools and charting guides on their website
print and ebooks: you will be amazed at the number of books you can find related to this subject, many written just for beginners
charting services: just Google "stock charts" and you will find dozens of great websites that offer free charts and instruction to investors at any knowledge level

Once you understand and begin to use charts in your investment research, you will wonder how you ever got by without them. So grab the wheel and take off, but keep a roadmap in your glove box. You might make a wrong turn on occasion, but you will never get lost again.

Good Sources Of Vitamin K

There are many good sources of Vitamin K, including both plants and animals. However, the quality of the Vitamin K differs substantially between them, since plants produce mainly the K1 (phylloquinone) form while animals produce the K2 form (menaquinone).

It is important to know that Vitamin K1 is not nearly as bio available as Vitamin K2. First, it is not absorbed nearly as well, and second it is not as effective in the cells of the body at doing its primary function, which is activating certain proteins and enabling them to bind calcium.

The plant form, Vitamin K1, can be obtained through many different sources. However, the best ones are green leafy vegetables, including kale, spinach, Swiss chard, broccoli and parsley. It is possible to get all the Vitamin K you need by eating plants, but you would have to eat a significant amount, and 1000mcg of Vitamin K1 have been found necessary to maximize amounts of functional osteocalcin, which is one of the main proteins affected by Vitamin K.

The animal form, K2, is the form that human cells prefer. This is found in a Japanese dish of fermented soybeans called Natto. Other than Natto, K2 is found exclusively in animal products.

The types of animal food that are rich in K2 include meats, eggs and organs. These contain a much higher amount if the animals are grass fed, therefore it is always better to get grass fed meat if it is available and isn't more expensive than what you are comfortable with.

The best out of all the sources of vitamin K is high fat dairy. This is where us western humans get the majority of our Vitamin K from, and this is the superior animal form (K2). High fat dairy includes cheese, cream and butter, where grass fed butter or butter oil is the richest source.

There was a study done on people, comparing their consumption of high fat dairy (among other things). What the researchers found was that those who ate the most had a 69% less chance of developing heart disease than those eating the least. To put this into context, heart disease is the worlds number one killer.

If you eat a lot of gluten grains, then they may interfere with fat soluble vitamin absorption and therefore it might be best to minimize them. It is also important to eat fat in order to be able to absorb Vitamin K and other fat soluble nutrients.

One of the sources of Vitamin K that we never run out of is the bacteria in the intestine. They actually produce so much that an actual Vitamin K deficiency is extremely rare, and it is pretty much unheard of except in infants who haven't had their large intestine colonized yet. This is the reason newborns are sometimes given Vitamin K shots at birth.