Friday, October 15, 2010

personal finance budgets



One of the reasons Aaron Patzer founded personal finance site Mint.com was because of his frustrations with Intuit’s financial management software Quicken. Quicken, says Patzer wasn’t user-friendly, and in Patzer’s own words “felt like a product from 1996.” Flash forward two years, and Patzer’s Mint.com (which was also a TechCrunch50 winner) was bought by Intuit for $170 million in the Fall of 2009. Clearly, Intuit perhaps agreed with Patzer, who is now vice president and general manager of Intuit’s personal finance group, that its own financial products needed a a makeover. Today, Quicken 2011 is debuting its software for Windows that includes more features from Mint.com.


This is the first version of Quicken to reflect the collaboration of the Quicken Desktop and Mint.com product and engineering teams since last fall. The new version for Windows users includes 360-degree financial view that brings together all accounts, including bank, credit card, investment and retirement. Intuit has also added support for 7,000 more banks and now lists 12,000 banks and credit union in the U.S.


Quicken’s new automated engine categorizes transactions (i.e. business, clothes, groceries, etc.) Credit card payments are automatically matched to transfers from checking or savings, to ensure they’re not double-counted. You can also create budgets within the software based on an individual’s historical spending and the software will include expense alerts and a graph to project cash flow help users avoid late fees and penalties. Pricing for Quicken 2011 ranges from $29.99 to $89.99.


Patzer says of the new version: “It combines the best of Quicken with what we built into Mint.com to help ease the burden on people trying to manage their money…The product is customizable and intuitive, two things that people have come to expect from modern software.”


One feature that is clearly lacking between Quicken and Mint is the ability to sync your Quicken desktop software with your Mint.com web account, and integrate the data (Quicken Online users are being merged to Mint.com). But Patzer says that this will soon be added to the suite of products. His goal is for Quicken and Mint to work seamlessly across all platforms, including mobile.


On another note, the Intuit acquisition doesn’t seem to have stunted Mint.com’s growth. Patzer says that the platform has grown from 1.7 million users in September of 2009 to 4.2 million users currently.




It's almost impossible to have good saving habits without first having good spending habits. That's the problem that Burning Money, a new program from FoolProof aimed at teens, hopes to solve. Like the rest of the FoolProof series, Burning Money is an engaging series of real life issues that teens face, challenging them to complete a spending journal that will help them identify poor spending habits.



The free program is designed to be used in classrooms by teachers tasked with teaching personal finance, but Burning Money can also teach adults a thing or two about being a better spender – so that you can be a better saver. The program is distributed nationwide through credit unions and provides teachers with free tools and resources to teach students about personal finance in a real world manner.



Here's a look at one of the videos you'll find in Burning Money that helps teens understand how spending smarter translates into having more fun and doing more with their money.







As students work through Burning Money they'll be introduced to potential ways that they will "burn money" while making bad decisions that can come back to hurt them later in life. In the first section students get a first hand look at how late payments can hurt their credit score and what that means when they want to buy a job, get an apartment and more.



The program quickly jumps off into a reality game which tasks students with living on their own for one month complete with budgeting, writing checks and buying a car. The program walks students through the decisions and provides tips about how to write a check correctly as well as showing them the affect of their decisions on their bank account.



The first lesson students learn is that their car payment is $15 more a month because they have a bad credit score -- and so is their insurance premium; all because they didn't pay their bills on time. At the end of just the first month students are shown how their credit score, combined with some bad decisions have already cost them over $2,000 for the year in higher payments.



Since it's not just the big items that go into making smart spending decisions students will also face everyday choices like buying new jeans, that can be a money burning experience. The video below shows one way that Burning Money uses humor and video to get the point across.







FoolProof continues to be one of the most engaging and honest methods for teaching teens about money and best of all it is completely free. For the past several years we have seen a focus on preparing our kids for the new economy and as a college professor who speaks to graduates about personal finance the importance of learning good money habits early is illustrated to me every year.



I've seen everything from a student who had already been sent to collections numerous times for bad credit decisions which stemmed from the fact that all she knew about credit cards came from the companies offering them to her. On the other end of the spectrum I have three students right now who are some of the smartest spenders I have encountered with more in their investment portfolios than I do! These aren't "rich" kids, just students who know how to spend and how to save.



The best part about Burning Money and the FoolProof series is that it enables teachers and parents to teach teens how to make the right money decisions and good personal finance habits even if they aren't an expert. If you want to help your teens make smarter money choices, send this article to your teachers and let them know about this free resource for teaching teens about money.
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<b>News</b> - Angelina Jolie to Critics: &quot;Hold Judgment&quot; Until You Have <b>...</b>

She fires back at reports that her directorial debut centers on a rape victim who falls for her captor.

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 10/15 - Arrowhead Pride

Welcome to Friday boys and girls. Enjoy today's Kansas City Chiefs news!

Mine Coverage Taxes BBC <b>News</b> Budget - NYTimes.com

The BBC will cut back on some of its coverage plans for the rest of the year because of the high cost of covering the mine rescue in Chile.


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One of the reasons Aaron Patzer founded personal finance site Mint.com was because of his frustrations with Intuit’s financial management software Quicken. Quicken, says Patzer wasn’t user-friendly, and in Patzer’s own words “felt like a product from 1996.” Flash forward two years, and Patzer’s Mint.com (which was also a TechCrunch50 winner) was bought by Intuit for $170 million in the Fall of 2009. Clearly, Intuit perhaps agreed with Patzer, who is now vice president and general manager of Intuit’s personal finance group, that its own financial products needed a a makeover. Today, Quicken 2011 is debuting its software for Windows that includes more features from Mint.com.


This is the first version of Quicken to reflect the collaboration of the Quicken Desktop and Mint.com product and engineering teams since last fall. The new version for Windows users includes 360-degree financial view that brings together all accounts, including bank, credit card, investment and retirement. Intuit has also added support for 7,000 more banks and now lists 12,000 banks and credit union in the U.S.


Quicken’s new automated engine categorizes transactions (i.e. business, clothes, groceries, etc.) Credit card payments are automatically matched to transfers from checking or savings, to ensure they’re not double-counted. You can also create budgets within the software based on an individual’s historical spending and the software will include expense alerts and a graph to project cash flow help users avoid late fees and penalties. Pricing for Quicken 2011 ranges from $29.99 to $89.99.


Patzer says of the new version: “It combines the best of Quicken with what we built into Mint.com to help ease the burden on people trying to manage their money…The product is customizable and intuitive, two things that people have come to expect from modern software.”


One feature that is clearly lacking between Quicken and Mint is the ability to sync your Quicken desktop software with your Mint.com web account, and integrate the data (Quicken Online users are being merged to Mint.com). But Patzer says that this will soon be added to the suite of products. His goal is for Quicken and Mint to work seamlessly across all platforms, including mobile.


On another note, the Intuit acquisition doesn’t seem to have stunted Mint.com’s growth. Patzer says that the platform has grown from 1.7 million users in September of 2009 to 4.2 million users currently.




It's almost impossible to have good saving habits without first having good spending habits. That's the problem that Burning Money, a new program from FoolProof aimed at teens, hopes to solve. Like the rest of the FoolProof series, Burning Money is an engaging series of real life issues that teens face, challenging them to complete a spending journal that will help them identify poor spending habits.



The free program is designed to be used in classrooms by teachers tasked with teaching personal finance, but Burning Money can also teach adults a thing or two about being a better spender – so that you can be a better saver. The program is distributed nationwide through credit unions and provides teachers with free tools and resources to teach students about personal finance in a real world manner.



Here's a look at one of the videos you'll find in Burning Money that helps teens understand how spending smarter translates into having more fun and doing more with their money.







As students work through Burning Money they'll be introduced to potential ways that they will "burn money" while making bad decisions that can come back to hurt them later in life. In the first section students get a first hand look at how late payments can hurt their credit score and what that means when they want to buy a job, get an apartment and more.



The program quickly jumps off into a reality game which tasks students with living on their own for one month complete with budgeting, writing checks and buying a car. The program walks students through the decisions and provides tips about how to write a check correctly as well as showing them the affect of their decisions on their bank account.



The first lesson students learn is that their car payment is $15 more a month because they have a bad credit score -- and so is their insurance premium; all because they didn't pay their bills on time. At the end of just the first month students are shown how their credit score, combined with some bad decisions have already cost them over $2,000 for the year in higher payments.



Since it's not just the big items that go into making smart spending decisions students will also face everyday choices like buying new jeans, that can be a money burning experience. The video below shows one way that Burning Money uses humor and video to get the point across.







FoolProof continues to be one of the most engaging and honest methods for teaching teens about money and best of all it is completely free. For the past several years we have seen a focus on preparing our kids for the new economy and as a college professor who speaks to graduates about personal finance the importance of learning good money habits early is illustrated to me every year.



I've seen everything from a student who had already been sent to collections numerous times for bad credit decisions which stemmed from the fact that all she knew about credit cards came from the companies offering them to her. On the other end of the spectrum I have three students right now who are some of the smartest spenders I have encountered with more in their investment portfolios than I do! These aren't "rich" kids, just students who know how to spend and how to save.



The best part about Burning Money and the FoolProof series is that it enables teachers and parents to teach teens how to make the right money decisions and good personal finance habits even if they aren't an expert. If you want to help your teens make smarter money choices, send this article to your teachers and let them know about this free resource for teaching teens about money.
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<b>News</b> - Angelina Jolie to Critics: &quot;Hold Judgment&quot; Until You Have <b>...</b>

She fires back at reports that her directorial debut centers on a rape victim who falls for her captor.

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 10/15 - Arrowhead Pride

Welcome to Friday boys and girls. Enjoy today's Kansas City Chiefs news!

Mine Coverage Taxes BBC <b>News</b> Budget - NYTimes.com

The BBC will cut back on some of its coverage plans for the rest of the year because of the high cost of covering the mine rescue in Chile.


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101809-09 by Bichu


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<b>News</b> - Angelina Jolie to Critics: &quot;Hold Judgment&quot; Until You Have <b>...</b>

She fires back at reports that her directorial debut centers on a rape victim who falls for her captor.

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 10/15 - Arrowhead Pride

Welcome to Friday boys and girls. Enjoy today's Kansas City Chiefs news!

Mine Coverage Taxes BBC <b>News</b> Budget - NYTimes.com

The BBC will cut back on some of its coverage plans for the rest of the year because of the high cost of covering the mine rescue in Chile.


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One of the reasons Aaron Patzer founded personal finance site Mint.com was because of his frustrations with Intuit’s financial management software Quicken. Quicken, says Patzer wasn’t user-friendly, and in Patzer’s own words “felt like a product from 1996.” Flash forward two years, and Patzer’s Mint.com (which was also a TechCrunch50 winner) was bought by Intuit for $170 million in the Fall of 2009. Clearly, Intuit perhaps agreed with Patzer, who is now vice president and general manager of Intuit’s personal finance group, that its own financial products needed a a makeover. Today, Quicken 2011 is debuting its software for Windows that includes more features from Mint.com.


This is the first version of Quicken to reflect the collaboration of the Quicken Desktop and Mint.com product and engineering teams since last fall. The new version for Windows users includes 360-degree financial view that brings together all accounts, including bank, credit card, investment and retirement. Intuit has also added support for 7,000 more banks and now lists 12,000 banks and credit union in the U.S.


Quicken’s new automated engine categorizes transactions (i.e. business, clothes, groceries, etc.) Credit card payments are automatically matched to transfers from checking or savings, to ensure they’re not double-counted. You can also create budgets within the software based on an individual’s historical spending and the software will include expense alerts and a graph to project cash flow help users avoid late fees and penalties. Pricing for Quicken 2011 ranges from $29.99 to $89.99.


Patzer says of the new version: “It combines the best of Quicken with what we built into Mint.com to help ease the burden on people trying to manage their money…The product is customizable and intuitive, two things that people have come to expect from modern software.”


One feature that is clearly lacking between Quicken and Mint is the ability to sync your Quicken desktop software with your Mint.com web account, and integrate the data (Quicken Online users are being merged to Mint.com). But Patzer says that this will soon be added to the suite of products. His goal is for Quicken and Mint to work seamlessly across all platforms, including mobile.


On another note, the Intuit acquisition doesn’t seem to have stunted Mint.com’s growth. Patzer says that the platform has grown from 1.7 million users in September of 2009 to 4.2 million users currently.




It's almost impossible to have good saving habits without first having good spending habits. That's the problem that Burning Money, a new program from FoolProof aimed at teens, hopes to solve. Like the rest of the FoolProof series, Burning Money is an engaging series of real life issues that teens face, challenging them to complete a spending journal that will help them identify poor spending habits.



The free program is designed to be used in classrooms by teachers tasked with teaching personal finance, but Burning Money can also teach adults a thing or two about being a better spender – so that you can be a better saver. The program is distributed nationwide through credit unions and provides teachers with free tools and resources to teach students about personal finance in a real world manner.



Here's a look at one of the videos you'll find in Burning Money that helps teens understand how spending smarter translates into having more fun and doing more with their money.







As students work through Burning Money they'll be introduced to potential ways that they will "burn money" while making bad decisions that can come back to hurt them later in life. In the first section students get a first hand look at how late payments can hurt their credit score and what that means when they want to buy a job, get an apartment and more.



The program quickly jumps off into a reality game which tasks students with living on their own for one month complete with budgeting, writing checks and buying a car. The program walks students through the decisions and provides tips about how to write a check correctly as well as showing them the affect of their decisions on their bank account.



The first lesson students learn is that their car payment is $15 more a month because they have a bad credit score -- and so is their insurance premium; all because they didn't pay their bills on time. At the end of just the first month students are shown how their credit score, combined with some bad decisions have already cost them over $2,000 for the year in higher payments.



Since it's not just the big items that go into making smart spending decisions students will also face everyday choices like buying new jeans, that can be a money burning experience. The video below shows one way that Burning Money uses humor and video to get the point across.







FoolProof continues to be one of the most engaging and honest methods for teaching teens about money and best of all it is completely free. For the past several years we have seen a focus on preparing our kids for the new economy and as a college professor who speaks to graduates about personal finance the importance of learning good money habits early is illustrated to me every year.



I've seen everything from a student who had already been sent to collections numerous times for bad credit decisions which stemmed from the fact that all she knew about credit cards came from the companies offering them to her. On the other end of the spectrum I have three students right now who are some of the smartest spenders I have encountered with more in their investment portfolios than I do! These aren't "rich" kids, just students who know how to spend and how to save.



The best part about Burning Money and the FoolProof series is that it enables teachers and parents to teach teens how to make the right money decisions and good personal finance habits even if they aren't an expert. If you want to help your teens make smarter money choices, send this article to your teachers and let them know about this free resource for teaching teens about money.
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101809-09 by Bichu


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<b>News</b> - Angelina Jolie to Critics: &quot;Hold Judgment&quot; Until You Have <b>...</b>

She fires back at reports that her directorial debut centers on a rape victim who falls for her captor.

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 10/15 - Arrowhead Pride

Welcome to Friday boys and girls. Enjoy today's Kansas City Chiefs news!

Mine Coverage Taxes BBC <b>News</b> Budget - NYTimes.com

The BBC will cut back on some of its coverage plans for the rest of the year because of the high cost of covering the mine rescue in Chile.


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101809-09 by Bichu


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<b>News</b> - Angelina Jolie to Critics: &quot;Hold Judgment&quot; Until You Have <b>...</b>

She fires back at reports that her directorial debut centers on a rape victim who falls for her captor.

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 10/15 - Arrowhead Pride

Welcome to Friday boys and girls. Enjoy today's Kansas City Chiefs news!

Mine Coverage Taxes BBC <b>News</b> Budget - NYTimes.com

The BBC will cut back on some of its coverage plans for the rest of the year because of the high cost of covering the mine rescue in Chile.


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<b>News</b> - Angelina Jolie to Critics: &quot;Hold Judgment&quot; Until You Have <b>...</b>

She fires back at reports that her directorial debut centers on a rape victim who falls for her captor.

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 10/15 - Arrowhead Pride

Welcome to Friday boys and girls. Enjoy today's Kansas City Chiefs news!

Mine Coverage Taxes BBC <b>News</b> Budget - NYTimes.com

The BBC will cut back on some of its coverage plans for the rest of the year because of the high cost of covering the mine rescue in Chile.


benchcraft company portland or

<b>News</b> - Angelina Jolie to Critics: &quot;Hold Judgment&quot; Until You Have <b>...</b>

She fires back at reports that her directorial debut centers on a rape victim who falls for her captor.

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 10/15 - Arrowhead Pride

Welcome to Friday boys and girls. Enjoy today's Kansas City Chiefs news!

Mine Coverage Taxes BBC <b>News</b> Budget - NYTimes.com

The BBC will cut back on some of its coverage plans for the rest of the year because of the high cost of covering the mine rescue in Chile.


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benchcraft company portland or

101809-09 by Bichu


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<b>News</b> - Angelina Jolie to Critics: &quot;Hold Judgment&quot; Until You Have <b>...</b>

She fires back at reports that her directorial debut centers on a rape victim who falls for her captor.

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 10/15 - Arrowhead Pride

Welcome to Friday boys and girls. Enjoy today's Kansas City Chiefs news!

Mine Coverage Taxes BBC <b>News</b> Budget - NYTimes.com

The BBC will cut back on some of its coverage plans for the rest of the year because of the high cost of covering the mine rescue in Chile.


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If you are like many people, the word budget is associated with prison and an embarrassing admission that you are irresponsible or immature when it comes to personal finance. Forget the fact that every corporation has a balance sheet and annual budget within which they operate their business. The fact that you are even entertaining the idea of setting a budget could be seen as the ultimate sign of failure.

Personal finance will make you feel that way when you are spending the last few days of every pay period waiting on your next check to arrive. Before it even arrives you have already spent half of it trying to catch checks you have written before they hit the bank or called and made post-dated checks to pay bills automatically. But you realize that something has to give. You cannot continue to nickel and dime your way through life, pinching small loans off friends and family members to meet a deadline and give the money back a few days later. At what point will you decide that getting a handle on your finances is the most important thing you can do?

In fact, if you are reading this article, chances are that you are already at that point. You have already reached the point of knowing life is not going to get any better until you handle more responsibly, what you have right now. You know that if you got a promotion and a salary increase things would not change much because your financial situation has little to do with how much money is coming in. It is all about how much and to what the money is coming in, is going out to. When you face that reality you reach the point of beginning the process of practicing budgeting in your personal finances.

There are many misconceptions when it comes to budgeting. You have some budgets that are restrictive in nature whereas others are less stern. You have some budgets that pool every nickel you spend. And then you have budgets that only try to gauge how the real money is leaving your bank account. Here is a lesson you can apply today to solve this problem. You need a budget that will help you track you. If you visit the vending machines, convenience stores and the like every day, chances are you will need to watch every dime that you spend. If on the other hand, ninety percent of your purchases are big ticket items then a broader picture is necessary.

The picture is your budget. It is how you capture what you are doing. When it comes to personal finance your budget will operate like a compass letting you know where you are in reference to where you said you want to be. A budget does not begin with the end in mind though. In financial planning as a whole, the big picture is about where you want to end up. But when it comes to budgeting, where you are is the most important piece of information you need to capture.

Where you are is an accurate depiction of how much real money you have coming in on a consistent basis and where that money is going. It is not how much you think but a real accounting of your last four or five pay stubs. Now that you see how much money you have coming in, try to gather to as certain a degree as possible, the amount of money you have spent in the same period of time. This will include bills, food, and entertainment. Try to be as honest as possible in remembering how much money you have spent.

Track Your Spending

Now, against the advice of many financial planners, the first thing you need to do is track your spending for the next two weeks. Begin with the day you receive your next paycheck and track yourself the next fourteen days, keep a receipt or accurate amount of every dollar, quarter, and penny your spend. What this does is help to get a better, more accurate picture of where your money has gone.

Software

While this is going on, take some time to find a financial software package that will help you get things under control with your budget. Microsoft with its Money package and Intuit with its Quicken program are great tools to use. If you bank at a national institution chances are they have integrated software. So when you log in they have already tracked your spending and deposits in real-time.

You may find your bank's program the one of choice. The decision is yours and based on your own preferences. Now that you have the software and have spent fourteen days tracking your spending habits, what does the picture say about you? Have your bills eaten up the lion's share of your income? Have you spent a sizable sum of money on snacks at the office? You would be surprised how much money you spend when you add up two or three dollars a day.

Prioritize

After you have completed your tracking make a priority list of all your expenditures. Your expenditures are every store or vending machine you used to spend money. Each of these should have a dedicated line item attached to them so that you can assign them monies in your budget. Your priorities are somewhat of an inexact science. Of course, your mortgage and car loans are important, as are your light bills and if you are like me, wireless bills as well. These should be the highest on your priority list. This says if nothing else gets paid, these get paid. And scale it down all the way to the vending machine.

Discipline

What you must now do is make some decisions based on the information you have available. Budgeting is all about discipline. If you commit to doing something, following through on it becomes your top job. Now that you have prioritized how much money you need to spend versus how much you have been spending you may see that things are not as bad as they have been but you may be guilty of a lot of careless spending or bad personal financial decisions.

Identify Your Waste

Now that you have this snapshot of your finances what do you see about your spending habits? Do you see a lot of wasteful spending? Are late fees and penalties, stopping every day at Wal-Mart or Target, making a difficult situation a lot worse. No financial planner would allow you to put a plan in place and not force you to rid yourself of your poorest habits. The absolute worst of which is wasteful spending. When you buy what you do not need you dig your hole a little deeper for yourself. When you send money out on late fees and penalties you are losing money that could have paid for a romantic dinner for your spouse.

Now comes the plan, the budget. Your budget will include everything you have already read. Your budget is your analysis of where your money is doing. It also tells you how much is coming. Lastly, it helps you spend your money more effectively. Your budget is your commitment to discipline and your departure from excess. Keep the picture in mind and do not stray away from it. It is worth it in the end when you have bought the house you want and live in the area that you want to live in. For most, that only happens because of a budget, a disciplined approach to personal finance.


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<b>News</b> - Angelina Jolie to Critics: &quot;Hold Judgment&quot; Until You Have <b>...</b>

She fires back at reports that her directorial debut centers on a rape victim who falls for her captor.

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 10/15 - Arrowhead Pride

Welcome to Friday boys and girls. Enjoy today's Kansas City Chiefs news!

Mine Coverage Taxes BBC <b>News</b> Budget - NYTimes.com

The BBC will cut back on some of its coverage plans for the rest of the year because of the high cost of covering the mine rescue in Chile.


big seminar 14

<b>News</b> - Angelina Jolie to Critics: &quot;Hold Judgment&quot; Until You Have <b>...</b>

She fires back at reports that her directorial debut centers on a rape victim who falls for her captor.

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 10/15 - Arrowhead Pride

Welcome to Friday boys and girls. Enjoy today's Kansas City Chiefs news!

Mine Coverage Taxes BBC <b>News</b> Budget - NYTimes.com

The BBC will cut back on some of its coverage plans for the rest of the year because of the high cost of covering the mine rescue in Chile.


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