Tips for teens looking to buy a car

January 5, 2009 · Filed Under Personal Finance · 1 Comment 

A teenager feels a lot of happiness when he gets his driving license. He feels like buying a car for himself right away but faces a hard time when he looks for one in the market. He is not mentally prepared about the costs and responsibilities that await him, otherwise he might choose to wait a little longer.  Here are some tips for the teenagers when they try to buy their first auto.

A teenager always feels inundated when he sees the car commercials. But he cannot buy one because he does not have the money readily available, especially when the cost of the insurance, gas and a down payment taken into consideration. If you want to get a good deal from the car loan company, always put 20 percent down on the car, and take a loan for the rest of the balance. The time period should not go beyond 48 months. If you try to push those limits any further, you will start your adult life by being in debt.

Buy a used car, but buy it wisely. If the new car is not in your budget, then it will be best to go for a pre owned vehicle. But be careful in buying a used car. Because if you buy a car with too many mechanical problems, it will cost you more than a brand new car. It is important that you show the used car to a trusted mechanic and get it thoroughly investigated.

Establish credit. A lender will always like to check the credit history of a borrower before offering any new loan. Your chances of getting the loan will be dim if you have a poor credit history because of not paying the bills in time. You must make sure that you are making timely payments on your credit cards or the store cards and the creditors are updating your payments to the credit bureaus. This will show good credit scores in front of the lenders.

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Six top traffic ticket myths

November 3, 2008 · Filed Under Personal Finance · 1 Comment 

Myth No. 1: If the officer makes a single mistake on your ticket, the case will be dropped.

Clerical mistakes such as a wrong number or wrong order of a person’s name are usually overlooked. Material mistakes, like the identity of the driver, the direction of travel, the street where the citation occurred or the description of the vehicle, can usually help a driver win the case. A mistake that involves who, where and how, can be used to beat the case in a trial. If the vehicle was described inaccurately, the officer will usually lose.

Myth 2: If the officer doesn’t show up in court, you automatically win.

There is nothing like automatically winning the case. The case will be dropped if the judges don’t see the officer appearing in the court. Every defendant has the constitutional rights to question their accusers. The case can be re-scheduled if the officer is willing to show up in the court on a later date.

Myth 3: Red car gets more tickets.

There is no official study to confirm that red cars do get more tickets. However, it has been seen that bold colors tend to attract more attention from other colors of the car. And if they are violating the rules, they are easily caught. Red cars can create an optical illusion that makes them appear to be going faster than they really are.

Myth 4: You need a lawyer to beat a ticket.

With a little time and homework, you can beat a ticket without having an attorney and paying for their fees.

Myth No. 5: If you get a ticket in another state, your home state won’t find out about it.

All information is shared between the Interstate Driver’s License Compact and the states participating in it. Reports on traffic violations and suspensions are forwarded to the home state of the nonresident. Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Michigan and Wisconsin are not members of the DLC. Besides, National Driver Register, or NDR, has information about all drivers whose licenses were revoked and suspended due to serious traffic violations.

Myth 6: You can make an excuse to get out of the ticket

If you have violated the laws, you really can’t escape the police officers who filed the case against you. Any explanation you give about why you were speeding is an admission that you were speeding. If an officer logs those explanations in his notes, the statements could later be used against you in court. That’s why, whenever an officer asks if you know why you’ve been pulled over, always answer “no” and just take the ticket.

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What will you do if you were in a situation like this?

August 6, 2008 · Filed Under Personal Finance · 1 Comment 

Would you cancel your phone service to save $63 a month?

I have been doing a serious planning with my finance. Before the New Year, I and my girlfriend sat together and tried to find out ways of some serious saving. We thought we will cancel our home phone service first because we hardly use it. We both have our own mobiles and the home phone number is just lying on the shelf. Well, sometimes, it does help to have a third phone when one of us is not at home and one of the cell got damaged. But we were seriously thinking about reducing our monthly expenses and $63 just for this home phone of no serious use sucks?

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We decided that we will wait for the school year to finish and by that time we will find out those contacts that only have the home phone numbers. We will give them our cell phone numbers to them so that this phone can be disconnected.

Well, its time now that the school year has come to an end and we both are sitting together and debating with each other. The home phone number is still there lying on the shelf. But in all honesty, we just don’t use our home phone and the savings could help expedite debt reduction. So, we both are really not sure what to do next. I guess we better have to make a decision. What would you do if you were in a situation like this?

Day care rates are going up!

Our biggest monthly expense goes towards the day care. We are shocked that this monthly expense is going up by the end of this month?!!

We have two kids, one is 4 years and the other one is 3 years old. They are soon going to start their kindergarten in the next couple of years. Today only, I got a notice from the day care that they are raising the monthly fees. It sucks!! Right now, it costs us $295/week and starting next month, it’s going to cost us $324/week. This is certainly a pretty big jump. It seems like we are dealing with some mafias with all the institution rules and additional fees.. ugh!!

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Importance of Personal finance

July 2, 2008 · Filed Under Personal Finance · Comment 

Personal finance and its management came into effect when the money could be exchanged for goods and services besides fulfilling the other basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter. People need a job to make a living and get compensated in cash. The concept of personal finance and its management came into effect when human wants increased in exchange of resources. Everyone wants to live comfortably and have all the basic amenities in life. Next important thing that a person needed to maintain is a check book, and avoid getting into debt. With the easy availability of new credit for the individuals, it has become literally mandatory to become skilled in making the right decisions for a better life.

The best way of managing money starts from childhood when a child start getting pocket money at a young age. As he grows up, he starts learning the ability to plan and budget his money. Budgeting and planning your expenses, investing for the future requirements and retirement planning broadly covers the different aspects of personal finance.

Budgeting plays a vital role in keeping your personal finance in good shape. No matter how much you earn, it’s very important that you have a perfect control over your spending habits and it is well within your income. There are so many people who can live quite a comfortable life even if they have a modest income. If you try to spend more than your income, the debt to income ratio will keep rising and it will be tough to catch up. Once you have a perfect control over your income and expenses, and create a little savings, you will know how much you have available to invest for your future. Experts say that you should keep at least half of your yearly income invested so that you can use this fund during an unexpected emergency. Create realistic plans is a big help in your budgeting while you are aware of the difference between wants and needs.

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