Auto Loan Buying TipsWritten by Duane Lipham
Have you ever felt like you bought an auto and financed it and don't really know if you got right price or financing arrangements after it was all over? Well, don't feel alone. This is a common experience for many people who make auto purchases.Guidelines for negotiating car price can be found elsewhere, but we want to share some helpful tips on getting that vehicle financed at best rates and terms for you. The first step is to make sure that you negotiate car's price separate from vehicle financing arrangements. Most dealers want to lump it all together because they can hide quite a bit of actual price of vehicle in loan contract, and they will usually just try to meet a monthly payment figure that you can live with rather than disclose all details about loan. So your work actually should begin before you ever visit dealer lot. Try to determine beforehand what vehicle(s) you are interested in buying and become familiar with average cost for that vehicle, either online or locally. Then make sure that it will fit your budget. Most financial experts recommend that you shouldn't spend more than 10% of your monthly income on vehicle costs, including loan, gas, repairs, insurance, etc. Since you now know price that you want to pay, you need to find out what loan will cost, so visit some auto loan websites and/or local banks, and apply for an auto loan. See what rates and terms they offer you. Much of that will be determined by your credit history. If you can get pre-approved for a loan, all better. Experts also recommend that you try to put at least 20% of car price on loan as a down payment toward purchase of vehicle, either in cash or in trade equity of your current vehicle. Why? Well, so many people are being put into loans these days with longer and longer payback periods and little down payment and net result is that if they want to trade that car in within first year or so they find that they actually may owe more on car than it is even worth. So using sound financial decisions beforehand can prevent this from happening.
| | Business after the Iraqi WarWritten by Carlos T. Fernandez
The rewarding of high compensation packages to top executives who turned over weak quarterly earnings, or who were involved in corporate scandals, adversely affected short-term investing, and collectively contributed to downturn of global economy over last couple of years. Even help and expertise of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and several notable Nobel Prize winning economists in President's Council of Economic Advisers, wasn't enough to revive economy. September 11 then turned our attention towards terrorist threats against markets.Many, including Bush administration, believed that a short war was answer to both of these enormous problems. That is, if done quickly, a war would induce an increase in government spending that will be injected into economy and a multiplier effect will, in turn, create jobs for unemployed. But now that it's over and coalition forces have taken control of Iraq, should we expect to return to business as usual? Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. The facts are that underlying and axiomatic problems are still present in global economy. First and foremost, we have America's account deficit, which is increasing by second. The cost of war is certainly adding to this burden and is currently hovering at approximately $20 billion dollars. Some experts say that this cost could reach up to $95 billion dollars. We, inevitably, will have to pick up majority of this bill.
|
