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Health & Fitness

Budget Mondays 9/23/2013

Monday – 9/23/2013

It’s Monday – a painful day for most people, yours truly included. Sometimes it is made even more painful as we remember just how much money we ended up spending over the weekend.

Budget

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It’s one word that can make people cringe, angry and sad all at the same time, a rare occurrence indeed. There are plenty of reasons for this – people are told at work that their budgets are being cut, their ideas cannot be funded because they are not in the budget, and in our personal life, our budgets don’t usually quite match up to our desires.

Buying a car is a substantial asset purchase – it is usually the second largest purchase that an individual or family makes besides their primary residence. It can be a stressful, exhausting, and time consuming purchase even if everything is planned out in advance and organized very well. Oftentimes, however, the purchase process is made even more stressful due to the obvious financial pressure that is involved when purchasing a vehicle. Let’s examine a few tips that can help make this purchase easier overall, and easier on your wallet.

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You don’t always need to get a new car. I can sympathize with the desire to purchase a brand new car – the new car smell, the shininess, and last but not least the cool factor. Let’s face it, having a brand new car is cool; you show it off to your friends, family, and drive it around merely to show it off. Buying a used car, however, can literally save you thousands of dollars.

This is a two-for-one, which I know everyone loves. First, it is important to remember that everything is negotiable when you are buying a car. Whether it is little extras that you negotiate for yourself with no additional cost, or even a lower purchase price, everything is negotiable. If you don’t try, the answer is always no. Secondly, time your purchases. When the new year model comes out, dealers often reduce prices and offer incentives to help move their old products. Food for thought.

Lastly, if parents and/or spouses have better credit than you do, and offer to co-sign on auto-financing you incur you should certainly take them up on their offer. The co-signing can help you negotiate better terms on the financing which can save you thousands of dollars in interest over the life of the loan.

As always, there are links with more ideas

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