The Punic Wars Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Punic Wars - Research Paper Example Be that as it may, the two in number adversaries in power occupied with war, explicitly in the Punic Wars, which was a progression of three wars where Carthage was crushed by Rome multiple times. Carthage was vanquished as a result of poor system as well as in view of defilement in its legislature. Then again, Rome won in light of its military and political splendor and feeling of solidarity among its kin and military gatherings. The First Punic War The primary Punic War was battled by Rome and Carthage somewhere in the range of 264 and 241 BC. It is intriguing to take note of that by 275 BC, Rome had just vanquished the entirety of Italy and its objective was to keep the neighboring nations from getting - 1William C. Morey, The First Punic War, Forum Romanum, 2013. 2Ibid. 3Ibid. 4Ibid. hold of any Roman region particularly Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica. The principal Punic War broke out in Messina, Sicily when the Mamertines, or the Roman hired fighter troopers who were utilized by t he Syracusan despot Agathocles, and who were in charge of Messana or Messina, were assaulted by the Syracusan powers under Hiero II, the Greek Sicilian ruler. Upon the append of the powers of Hiero II, the Mamertines brought in Rome for help while Hiero II spoke to Carthage and joined the powers of Hanno the Punic, who simply arrived in Sicily5. Since Rome and Carthage both had interests in Sicily, the war started and proceeded for the following 24 years. The last triumph of Rome was in the ocean on March 10, 241 BC, explicitly in the maritime fight off the western bank of Sicily. During this time, Rome picked up authority of the ocean. As a result of thrashing, Carthage surrendered Sicily and different islands to the Roman Empire. The Second Punic War Between the years 241 and 218 BC, before the subsequent Punic Wars broke out in 218 BC, the Carthaginians experienced what is known as â€Å"aggressive and unjustified†6 activities against Rome, as expressed by the Greek antiqu arian Polybius. The settlement that Rome marked with Carthage after the thrashing of the last was really penetrated by Rome as the Romans involved Sardinia. Rome compromised - 5The Punic Wars, Latin Library, 2013. 6Ibid. Carthage with war and even surrendered Sardinia and Corsica and constrained Carthage to pay a reimbursement. The encounters among Rome and the Punic powers in Italy debilitated the last mentioned, and the last had no craving of reacting to Rome with war7. As a reaction to this, the Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca involved Spain in 237 with a military to open new markets just as for making another Carthaginian base for its tasks. Hamilcar Barca mobilized Spain and this militarization was proceeded by Hasdrubal and Hannibal and Barca’s child in-law Hasdrubal. At the point when Hannibal vanquished Sagunto, Spain, which was a Roman fortification, Rome proclaimed another war against Carthage8. Hannibal was set as the leader of the military in 221. In 219, Hann ibal seized Sagunto or Saguntum. During this time, the Romans in Rome gave a final proposal requesting the Carthaginian gathering to give up Hannibal, yet Rome was not obeyed and the committee upheld Hannibal and acknowledged the proposal of war9. The subsequent Punic War broke out in 218 BC and it is considered as â€Å"one of the best military clashes of the old world†10. The arrangement of systems of the Carthaginian general Hannibal until he was crushed merit referencing. The primary triumph of Hannibal was close

Matrilineal social structure of spotted hyenas

Matrilineal social structure of spotted hyenas The spotted hyena, Crocuta crocutaâ ¸ has advanced a matrilineal society wherein the females are more predominant and forceful than guys inside the groups. Female and male practices meet up to frame a complex cultural structure that advances fluctuation and conceptive achievement. This species is an extraordinary case of matrilineal chain of command and social association rather than the customary male-predominant cultural structure present on account of most well evolved creatures. Researchers keep on reading the spotted hyena for its surprisingly modern social conduct, which might be similar to that of certain primates and potentially even individuals (Jenks et al., 1995; Drea et al., 2002; Engh et al., 2002; East et al., 2003). The spotted hyena, crocuta, is an extremely clever creature that sorts out itself into enormous groups of 50-80 individuals (Engh et al., 2002). While most well evolved creatures show a male-prevailing society where guys battle for rank and the option to duplicate, the spotted hyena has built up a matrilineal society (Jenks et al., 1995). Females are more predominant and forceful than guys and give their position to their posterity (Jenks et al., 1995; Engh et al., 2002). They are liable for regenerative decision because of their prevailing status (East et al., 2003). Guys normally travel to factions outside their natal society, regardless of the expense of access to food, for the possibility of higher regenerative achievement (Engh et al., 2002). They additionally take part in explicit great practices to lure females to decide to mate with them (East et al., 2003). These complex practices have developed to advance inconstancy and generally accomplishment for the spotted hyena. Signi ficantly more incredibly, a similar social structure and practices of predominant compliant connections rose inside a detached gathering of seen hyenas brought up in imprisonment (Jenks et al., 1995). The spotted hyena is unquestionably a one of a kind instance of cultural course of action (Engh et al., 2002). With further investigation, the advancement of this astounding instance of sex-job inversion and complex pecking order may before long be completely comprehended. It might give further understanding into comparative social game plans seen with different creatures, for example, primates (Jenks et al., 1995). The investigation of spotted hyenas may even give understanding into progressively crude phases of human cultural structure, particularly where there are matrilineal societies. Females are without question the more prevailing sexual orientation inside spotted hyena tribes and they practice this predominance with regards to multiplication (Engh et al., 2002; East et al., 2003). They are on normal bigger, progressively forceful, and more fierce than guys inside the group (Engh et al., 2002). Their extraordinary life systems an amplified clitoris through which intercourse happens gives them full authority over sexual exercises and accomplices (East et al., 2003). There is no possibility for constrained intercourse essentially in light of the fact that the male hyena needs the females full participation for legitimate copulation to happen (East et al., 2003). Speculations for the development of this physical trademark incorporate (a) counter-advancement within the sight of high paces of constrained sexual intercourse and (b) choice for generally speaking progressively predominant and forceful people bringing about masculinization (Drea et al., 2002). Since prog ressively predominant and forceful females additionally achieve a higher position inside the tribe, they will in general be increasingly fruitful in raising a bigger number of youthful. A higher position connects to more noteworthy access to food and in this manner higher odds of endurance for both mother and posterity (Engh et al., 2002). Female spotted hyenas have different measures for picking mates. They lean toward settler guys to natal guys, those conceived inside the network a potential measure for anticipation of inbreeding (Engh et al., 2002). Significantly more incredibly, females for the most part favor guys of comparable age, forestalling sexual collaborations with fathers or children (East et al., 20023). Females additionally show inclination for increasingly compliant, less forceful guys (East et al., 2003). This determination for less forceful guys further underlines the sexual dimorphism, both in conduct and physical attributes, present in this species. Females make love with a few guys when in heat, potentially to prevent guys from child murder (East et al., 2003). This conduct further builds inconstancy it is very normal to see single litters whose offspring can be followed to various dads (Engh et al., 2002). It serves to confound guys and deter them from executing offspring that might be their own a n unpredictable conduct that shows premonition and insightful idea (East et al., 2003). Female decision for less forceful guys and conduct to forestall child murder may have advanced to counter the incredibly high-chance pregnancies these creatures experience because of their life structures (Drea et al., 2002). In an examination directed by Engh and associates (2002), the regenerative slant among male hyenas was explored. One of the significant revelations was that foreigner guys had a huge preferred position over natal guys. Over the 10-year time frame that one tribe of hyenas was watched, it was discovered that migrant guys sired 97% of the fledglings, while natal guys just sired 3% (Engh et al., 2002). This clarifies the guys conduct of leaving natal factions and moving somewhere else: the expense of rank and access to food are profoundly exceeded by the regenerative advantages in a non-natal group (Engh et al., 2002). Inside the gathering of outsider guys, it was discovered that rank didn't have a measurably huge impact on a guys conceptive achievement. Actually, guys a couple of positions beneath the most noteworthy positioning outsider had the most achievement as far as offspring sired (Engh et al., 2002). When all is said in done, residency the proportion of to what extent a migrant male had been in the group was seen as a superior pointer of regenerative achievement. The outsider guys paces of creating offspring expanded altogether the more they stayed in the family, indicating a solid relationship among's residency and regenerative achievement (Engh et al., 2002). Male spotted hyenas are additionally seen to display practices to make themselves progressively appealing to females. As found in an ongoing report by East and partners (2003), there was no conceptive preferred position to irritating, shadowing, or safeguarding females from other rivalry. Truth be told, guys showing these practices were regularly assaulted or pursued away by females and other group individuals. Rather, guys discovered fundamentally progressively conceptive accomplishment by encouraging associations with females over longer timeframes a shockingly mind boggling conduct near that of people (East et al., 2003). Having these well disposed connections additionally apparently solidified the guys puts inside the faction chain of importance by and by, an exceptionally perplexing sociological conduct, particularly when seen outside the request for primates (East et al., 2003). The advanced arrangement of chain of command was even reproduced in imprisonment by a gathering of already unranked hyenas gathered at outset (Jenks et al., 1995). Incredibly, these youthful hyenas gathered themselves in a matrilineal progressive system, as saw throughout two ages (Jenks et al., 1995). This organizing happened in spite of the absence of maternal contribution for the original, indicating that social association is customized into the spotted hyenas personal conduct standards (Jenks et al., 1995). While the original had next to zero maternal association to help rank them inside the faction, they proceeded to impact their own offsprings place in the family pecking order, similarly as saw in wild groups (Jenks et al., 1995). The main noteworthy distinction between the test group and wild tribes was the speed at which the offspring positions balanced out inside the network. Test bunch fledglings hardened their place a lot quicker than those in the wild, conceivably becaus e of littler numbers and less development inside the group (Jenks et al., 1995). The spotted hyena is a wonderful creature. It shows incredibly complex conduct that prompts refined social structure something that is once in a while found in warm blooded animals outside of primates (Jenks et al., 1995). Actually, the matrilineal gathering structure of hyena tribes is fundamentally the same as that of Old World primates (Jenks et al., 1995). The feeling of association thusly is so solid inside the hyenas developed personal conduct standards that matrilineal structure is even observed to immediately rise in separated hyenas brought up in imprisonment (Jenks et al., 1995). Complex sexual practices, for example, the females decision of accomplice dependent on worker status, residency, and age, appear to advance the production of this social structure (Engh et al., 2002; East et al., 2003). Deliberately supported connections among same-and other gender people show the multifaceted collaborations between family individuals that likewise add to the advancement of matrili neal association (East et al., 2003). Female strength is even upheld by natural instruments and the modified life structures of this species (Drea et al., 2002). With further investigation, the conditions that prompted the development of this one of a kind framework may before long be revealed. This will give understanding into the spotted hyenas sociological history, yet in addition into that of Old World primates and conceivably even that of people. It is an energizing possibility that will ideally develop inside the years to come.

The 12 Worst Financial Scandals In History

The 12 Worst Financial Scandals In History The 12 Worst Financial Scandals In History The 12 Worst Financial Scandals In HistoryFrom Ponzi pranks to the infamous Eiffel pilfer, these financial scandals are as juicy as they are insane.  Updated: June 11, 2018If Olivia Pope has taught us anything, its that everyone loves a good scandal. And when it comes to managing money, theres a whole lot of room for screw-ups, cover-ups and everything in between. So lets take a stroll back in time, and revisit a dozen of the craziest financial flukes in the history of cash.1. The Panic of 1792In the early days of America, a pair of bankers named Alexander Malcomb and William Duer attempted to buy up all the U.S. debt securities offered by the First Bank of the United States. Unfortunately,  Malcomb and Duer decided the best way to pay for these securities would be to, uh, not actually pay for them. They cooked up a scheme to buy the debt securities using fake personal loans they gave to each other, and this had the effect of driving the price of securities way up.  When their fake l oans collapsed and their creditors came a’ knocking, the prices for securities fell, sparking a bank run. Luckily, Treasury Secretary (and very good rapper) Alexander Hamilton was able to stabilize the market and prevent the (still very young) U.S. economy from collapsing. Lets call it Babys First Wall Street Crash.2. The Teapot Dome Scandal  This scandal might have a silly name, but its the reason why President Warren G. Hardings is always listed high up on all those Worst Presidents Ever clickbait articles.  In 1922, Harding’s Secretary of the Interior, Albert Bacon, leased the oil reserves at Teapot Dome Oil Field in Wyoming to an oil exec named Henry F. Sinclair for much, much less than they were worth. In return, Sinclair showered Bacon with hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts, bribes, and interest-free loans. Once the scheme was exposed, Bacon became the first-ever Cabinet member to go to prison.3. The Original Ponzi SchemeCharles Ponzi was an Italian con man who ope rated throughout the U.S. and Canada in the early 20th century. In 1920, he became famous for the scheme that now bears his name. Essentially,  Ponzi would ask people to invest in his business, promising them a 50 percent profit in 45 daysâ€"kind of like a reverse payday loan. And for a while, it seemed to be working. Investors began to get back their returns as promised, and they were so jazzed about it that they reinvested their money immediately back into his business.Everything was going great until, suddenly, it wasn’t. It turns out that Ponzis crazy returns werent the result of shrewd trading. In fact, Ponzi was simply using money from new investors to pay out profit to old investors. Because so many people were reinvesting, he was able to keep the scheme going for a long time. All in all, the losses from Ponzi’s scheme totaled $20 million, and he went to prison. But while Ponzi himself stopped, his scheme continued. Lets just say this wont be the last time you see a Ponzi scheme on this list.4. Selling the Eiffel Tower“One of the greatest financial scams in history was carried out by the villain Victor Lustig, said  Sacha Ferrandi, founder and CEO of Source Capital Funding, Inc.  (@sourcecapital). Otherwise known as the man who sold the Eiffel Tower …twice.Well let  Ferrandi tell the rest of the story herself:A Hungarian immigrant to the United States, Lutstig took the country by storm and enacted a series of cons for a whopping 13 years. Of the many cons he concocted, his Eiffel Tower scheme was the greatest.In 1925, Lustig traveled to Paris and learned that the Eiffel Tower was badly dilapidated, an expensive nuisance leftover from the 1889 Paris Exposition. He decided to capitalize on this, and dubbed himself a new government official that had the rights to tear down the tower and haul away the scraps.In an intimate meeting with scrap metal dealers, he explained that the city was going to scrap the tower in secret, selling it to the highest b idder. One dealer put down a hefty cash bid to tear down the tower, and after going to government officials to secure his prize, he realized he had been duped. The poor chump was so embarrassed he didn’t report it to the authorities, allowing Lustig to head back to Austria.After a while of following Parisian news and not hearing anything about the tower scam, Lustig returned to Paris to enact his scheme once more. Unfortunately for Lustig, the second victim reported him to the authorities, and he was forced to flee Paris for refuge.Known as one of the most charming con men of all time, his name Count Victor Lustig destined him to be a villain.”5. Ivar Kreuger, the Match KingIf you bought a match in the 1920s (and who didnt??) odds were good that you were contributing to Swedish industrialist and financier Ivar Kreuger’s global fire-starting empire. In the aftermath of World War I, Kreuger amassed an international monopoly, owning around 75 percent of match producers worldwide, earning him the nickname “The Match King.” But when the stock market crashed in 1929, some of the more “innovative” accounting practices that Kreuger had invented to keep his empire float were revealed. And they extended well beyond match sales.In short: Kreuger had made the businesses seem far more profitable than it actually was. In 1932, as his vast web of financial schemes collapsed, Kreuger shot himself in a Paris hotel room. These complex accounting frauds and vast global losses would not be seen again until the 2000s. (Keep reading. We’ll get there.)6. Barry Minkow and ZZZZ Best CleanersIn the 1980s, supposed “whiz kid” Barry Minkow started a carpet cleaning business called ZZZZ Best Cleaners. The business grew quickly, mostly due to its successful “insurance restoration” work, which allowed it to secure some pretty big loans and investments. The company went public in 1986 and was in talks to purchase other large carpet cleaning companies to expand its rea ch even further, but in 1987 the whole thing came crashing down.Turns out, ZZZZ Best Cleaners was actually a massive Ponzi Scheme. While the businesss carpet cleaning service was legitimate, its “insurance restoration” division was run by the ghost of Charles Ponzi, and the investors whod put so much money into the company were left in a lurch. Minkow was arrested and sentenced to 25 years in prison but was released in 1995. (He has since gone back to jail forâ€"among other thingsâ€"defrauding his church. What a mensch.)7. Charles Keating and The Savings Loan ScandalIn the US in the late 80s and early 90s, over a thousand savings and loan associations failed, leaving massive losses and costing investors and taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. The poster child for this crisis was financier Charles Keating who acquired Lincoln Savings and Loan in 1984 and promptly had them make a bunch of risky (but potentially more profitable) bets and investments. After years of mounting losses that were kept hidden from regulators, Lincoln Savings and Loan (and the company that owned it) went bankrupt in 1989. The firm was seized by the US government and Keating was sent to jail. Bondholders lost over $250 million, and the government ended up on the hook for $3.4 billion.8.  Albanian Pyramid SchemesGenti Cici, CFP, Founder and CEO of StandUP Advisors  (@StandUPAdvisors), was born and raised in Albania, immigrating to the US in 1998. He told us the story of the Albanian Pyramid Scheme crisis:“In the early 1990s, Albania was coming out of almost 50 years of a very harsh communist regime. The country was opening up to having different political parties, freedom of speech, religion and even private property and investments, which up to then were not allowed. I was a teenager at the time and all of this was new, exciting, and of course unknown.The first time I heard about what we now know as ‘pyramid schemes’ was about a ‘system’ where you would purchase a †˜ticket’ and then you would tell more people to do the same eventually getting you to the top to be paid. In the early 90s these systems were almost underground, but in the mid-90s almost everyone I knew was involved and ‘invested’ in one or another firm that popped up everywhere across the country managed by ‘interesting’ people with really no background in investing, economics or business.At first these firms, which had no real investments to show, were paying 7-10% per month interest (very high by any standard), but in the heat of competition from one another and closer to the top of the bubble, some of the firms around 1996 were paying 3 times your money in 3 months, an almost 100% return per month â€" crazy to hear now, but then almost all were in, some even selling their homes and even their livestock to invest.These pyramid schemes affected many people deeply as they wiped out almost all of their savings and, looking back, this could have been easily detected by fin ancial experts, but almost all, including the government, were enjoying the benefits of prosperity (even if a fake one).At the end, this dark episode in financial illiteracy cost Albania way too much. Not only in lost wealth, but also in lives, as almost 2,000 people died in the anti-government protests and chaos that followed when all the pyramid schemes collapsed in 1997. The government fell, the military and police force was almost nonexistent, the military armories were looted and kids were walking down streets with AK-47s. As a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) now, I’m doing my part to promote financial literacy to all around US, as I know first-hand probably the worst experience of financial illiteracy.”9. EnronIn the year 2000, you would be hard-pressed to point to a more successful company than Enron, a Texas-based energy company that was worth an estimated $60 billion.But that all came to a swift halt by the end of 2001. Because all that success Enron was having, was a ctually just a big, fat whopper. Sure, it looked like the company was just raking in the cash, but that outstanding revenue and company growth wasnt happening because of next-level business initiatives. The company was actually losing money, but through a lot of illegal accounting gymnastics, they reported that they were profiting in the billions. What they were doing is called mark-to-market accounting, where they based the value of their securities on their current market value, and not on their actual book values.According to Investopedia, In Enrons case, the company would build an  asset,  such as a power plant, and immediately claim the projected  profit  on its books, even though it hadnt made one dime from it. If the  revenue  from the power plant was less than the projected amount, instead of taking the loss, the company would then transfer the asset to an off-the-books corporation, where the loss would go unreported. This type of accounting enabled Enron to write off unnpro fitable activities without hurting its  bottom line.When this massive coverup was brought to light, it took down everyone from Enron CEO Kenneth Lay, COO Jeffrey Skilling, countless other Enron executives and their accounting firm, Arthur Andersen. To add insult to injury, the Houston Astros had to rename their stadium  from Enron Field to Astros Field (its now the Minute Maid Park).At the time it happened, Enron’s downfall was largest corporate bankruptcy in American history. But it was quickly unseated from its perch by the next entry on our list 10. WorldcomBefore it filed for bankruptcy in 2002, Worldcom was the second-largest telecommunications company in the country. But when the company’s internal auditors discovered $3.8 billion in fraudulent revenues from 1999 to 2002, things went south in a hurry. Worldcom would eventually file for bankruptcy, costing investors $180 billion and 30,000 people their jobs.Personal finance blogger Jon Dulin of MoneySmartGuides.com (@MoneyS ma) was one of those investors:“I first bought into Worldcom back in 1999. It was my second stock investment. That summer, news started trickling out that Worldcom and Sprint would be merging. Worldcom stock was popping $5 a day. I was excited and waited for the news bump the stock got to cool off. That fall, I bought more shares as Worldcom reported good earnings.Fast forward to 2000, and news broke that the merger was called off. The stock took a hit, so I bought more shares. I never bought because of the potential merger, I bought because I thought Worldcom was a solid company. And I felt it still was even though the merger was called off. Even as the stock price continued to drop, I (now foolishly) bought more. In 2002, the news broke about the SEC investigating the company and the stock dropped to $6. At this point, the majority of my investment was wiped out and I did what many investors doâ€"I held on hoping for a miracle. That never came and the stock became worthless and I wrote the entire loss off.In all, I lost just over $6,000. Not a ton, but I was in college when I started investing and just out of college when the SEC started their investigation. So to me, it was a lot of money!”11. The Lehman Brothers BankruptcyThe financial crisis of 2008 was bad news for a lot of companies operating within the finance sphere. But no other company took it harder than Lehman Brothers, a 150-year old investment bank that filed for Chapter 11 in 2008, citing  $639 billion in assets and $619 billion in debt.Like many other institutions, Lehman Brothers had bet big on the housing marketâ€"and on subprime mortgages in particular. When the bottom fell out of the U.S. housing market, Lehman Brothers looked down and realized that they were in for a long drop. It was later revealed that, in the months before their bankruptcy filing, Lehman Brothers had tried to hide the extent of their losses by disguising $50 billion in subprime mortgage debt as $50 billion in cash. No one was ever prosecuted for this due to a lack of evidence.12. Bernie MadoffThe thing about Ponzi Schemes is that they constantly need new money coming in to sustain the illusion that they are a legitimate investment opportunity. Turn off the money spigot, and the whole thing dries up in a hurry. When the money stopped flowing during the financial crisis of 2008, it wasn’t too long before the Ponzi scheme being run by financier Bernie Madoffâ€"the largest one in U.S. historyâ€"was revealed for all to see. Madoff committed an estimated $64 billion in fraud and was sentenced to over 150 years in prison. Madoff’s scheme can still be felt today by the New York Mets, whose owners, the Wilpon Family,  invested approximately $500 million  in accounts with Madoff.Robert Siciliano,  CEO of  IDTHeftSecurity.com  (@RobertSiciliano) told us, “The best way to avoid being taken by a Ponzi Scheme is to make an effort to understand how the system is supposed to work.” He recommends that you take the following precautions recommended by The North American Securities Administrators Association:Contact your state or provincial securities regulator to see if the investment vehicle and the person selling it are registered.Contact your local Better Business Bureau to see if any complaints have been filed against the venture’s promoters or principals.Deal only with financial advisers, broker-dealers or financial institutions that have a proven track record.Ask for written information on the investment product and the business. Such information, including financial data on the company and the risks involved in the investment, is contained in a prospectus.Don’t take everything you hear or read at face value. Ask questions if you don’t understand, and do some sleuthing for yourself.Steer clear of investments touted with no downside or risk.“But these tips wouldn’t be enough to prevent someone like Bernie Madoff from making a convincing play for your money,” saID Siciliano. “Bernie Madoff was a financial adviser who got away with his fraud because he controlled his clients’ assets and falsified the documentation. If you invest with a financial advisor that generates his own statements, you are at risk.”He added: “A financial adviser or broker should only have access to your funds in order to manage them, not to control them. They shouldn’t be able to withdraw funds without your consent. And they should never have the ability to move funds without your awareness.”To learn more about historys greatest scams, and to stay safe from present-day conmen, check out these related pages and articles from OppLoans:5 Free Money Scams to AvoidLoan Scams: 6 Warning Signs You Need to Know10 Common Scams: How They Work and How to Avoid ThemYour Guide to Cash Advance ScamsThere are tons of major financial scandals that we weren’t able to include on this list. If there’s one you would like to see us write about, let us know! You can  Email us  or get in touch on  Facebook  and  Twitter.Visit OppLoans on YouTube | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedINContributorsGenti Cici,  (@genticici) born and raised in Albania, immigrated to the  US in 1998 and is now the Founder/CEO of StandUP Advisors, a company founded with the idea that financial literacy, planning, and real advice are key to living a life fulfilled, with meaning and less stress. He and his wife are on a mission traveling across the  US in an RV to promote financial literacy seminars at universities, colleges, businesses and communities and provide solutions helping all towards their path to Financial Freedom. He’s been involved in finance, investment advice, and planning for the last 15 years, and is also a Certified Financial Planner (CFP), CAIA Charter holder and has an MBA in Finance. You can reach him at Genti@StandUPadvisors.com or on the web at StandUPAdvisors.com.Jon Dulin, (@MoneySma) is a personal finance blogger at MoneySmartGuides.com. He has worked in the financial services industry for over 10 years in various roles and has been an avid investor for close to 20 years.Sacha  Ferrandi, is the Founder of Source Capital Funding, Inc. (HardMoneyFirst.com) and is an expert in finance, entrepreneurship, and real estate. Source Capital Funding, Inc., is based in San Diego and operates across the United States.Robert Siciliano, CSP  (@RobertSiciliano) is an American security analyst, author and media personality. He is the CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com and delivers presentations throughout the United States and Canada on identity theft protection and personal security, including self-defense. Siciliano is also the author of four books, has appeared on programs such as The Today Show, Anderson Cooper 360 °, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, CNBC, and has been quoted in USA Today, Forbes, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Boston Globe, among other publications.