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Selling Your Car

: English: Jalopy car in Joshua Tree National Park in Hidden Valley Campground (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When it’s time to replace your car, most people focus on the new car, instead of the old, but that is ignoring real money. Your old car–unless it has disintegrated–still has value. Sometimes, it’s just time to ask yourself, “When should I sell my car?”

When you’re looking to sell your car (like with We Will Buy Your Car), you generally have several options:

Tow & crush. If your car has been wrecked, doesn’t run, or is just old and beat up, you may be stuck with calling a junkyard and accepting $50 for them to pick up your car and crush it for scrap.
Trade it in. This is probably the least hassle, but–other than #1–doesn’t pay well. Dealerships are willing to pay something under what they will get at a wholesale auction, which is quite a bit less than the blue book value.
Sell it yourself. Now you’re thinking, “He’s going to buy my car! Oh, bother.” It can be a pain, but it’s also the best way to get a decent price for your wheels.

When you sell your car, there are a few things to keep in mind, much like when you sell something on Craigslist.

Don’t be alone. There are bad people in the world, but they don’t like witnesses. Bad things are much less likely to happen if you have company.
Know your price. Specifically, know three price: your dream price, the price that would make you happy, and the absolute lowest price you are willing to accept. Make sure you figure these numbers out ahead of time. Know what you are comfortable with before it comes time to close the deal.
Check IDs. The buyer is going to want to test-drive your car. That’s fine, but you want to make sure you know who is driving off in your car. “Officer, Sumdood took my car. He was wearing jeans.” That won’t get your car back.
Clean it up. Get the car detailed before you show it to a potential buyer. A sparkling-clean car will almost always bring in a few hundred extra dollars. It’s well worth the expense.

Following this plan should make the sale go as smoothly as possible and bring you the most possible money.

Readers, what have you done to dispose of an old car?

This is a sponsored post written to provide some insight into the world of used car retail.

The Story of Sammy

Business

As I’ve mentioned, we’re cleaning out my mother-in-law’s house. She was a hoarder who passed away a couple of months ago. As of yesterday, we’ve filled two 30-yard dumpsters. For perspective, that’s big enough to park our F150.

I’m not here to talk about that, or the 20 year old can of green beans that burst and ran down my leg on Saturday.

Last month, we put a recliner out on the curb with a free sign. A few minutes later, a couple of guys stopped by and grabbed it.

Last week, one of the guys–I’ll call him Sammy–stopped by and left a note on the windshield of one of our inherited cars, asking about buying it.

Long story short, we sold him two cars. One hadn’t been run in a year or two, and one had been parked for almost 20 years. We signed this titles and let him take the cars while he was still $50 short of the purchase price. This isn’t a story about the cars.

It’s a story about Sammy.

Sammy doesn’t have a lot of money. He’s living off of a monthly check from an old injury, and his fiancee works part-time. They’re living in Section 8 housing, and consistently have more month than money. When he was younger, he made some decisions that make some forms of employment difficult now.

On Friday, Sammy stopped by. He was supposed to give us $50, but said that getting one of the cars running had cost more than expected, and it still had a problem that was keeping it from being safe on the road. He asked about an extension.

No problem.

Then, he looked around my mother-in-law’s overgrown yard and asked if he could help. After we negotiated the price, he asked if he could a) borrow our tools for the work, and b) get a ride Saturday morning.

I am a nice guy.

Saturday, I was planning to pick him up, then drive downtown to pick up a friend who has been living at the Salvation Army since moving to the area. His friend was so excited about the work, he hopped on a bus at 6am and got to Sammy’s house.

When I got there, Sammy also had a teenager he was mentoring. He told me that his dream was to start a lawn-care business with his friend, so they can put kids to work and help them turn into productive citizens. Idle, broke, and bored teenagers are a recipe for disaster. Teenagers who grow into men not believing they have a chance to change their future are worse.

I dropped them off and went to have a chat with my wife.

We’re far from rich but, at the moment, we are fairly flush. We’ve found some cash, and a there is a bit of life insurance money. Most of that will be going into remodeling the house, but we have a bit extra. If we can take a few hundred dollars, and help launch Sammy into a business that will help him, his family, and a circle of kids with few prospects, I think it’s the right thing to do.

When I told Sammy what we were considering, he started to break down. It was a truly emotional experience for him to know that somebody was willing to take a chance on him.

I told him to put together plan. I want to know what it would take for him to get started. Hopefully, he’s serious enough to do that. I’d like to help.

Living On Credit Cards

Finance

About 2 months ago, Linda and I decided to go back on the envelope system for all of the parts of our budget that we aren’t able to automate.

English: Money seized during "Project Cor... — English: Money seized during “Project Coronado” by the DEA. Going in “La Familia Michoacana” article. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The reason we’re doing this is because we’ve been consistently over budget when we do all of our spending on our credit cards.

The reason we switched back to using our credit cards is because it’s a royal pain in the butt to always make sure we’re carrying enough cash for groceries and gas and date night and fundraisers and cover charges, etc.

It’s still a royal pain in the butt, and we still suck at it.

But one of our envelopes is labeled “This went on a credit card” and is used for those times we forgot to grab cash before heading to the store.

In the last two weeks, that’s $500 that we forgot to bring with us.

Cash sucks.

I’m tempted to go back to using the credit card for our primary spending. Yes, we are consistently over budget, but it’s not terrible….for some odd definition of “not terrible”.

We generally seem to have about $1000 left on the card after making our last monthly payment every month. Every month. The overall balance never grows, it’s just hanging out $1000 over what we have budgeted to be paid automatically on the card.

That’s a bad thing, but….

Since I make a payment every couple of weeks, the interest is never assessed on that balance. In the last year, we’ve paid exactly $0 in interest, without any funny balance transfer deals.

By my calculations, that means our credit card has given us $1000 for free.

If we pay that off and get strict about using cash, won’t that mean our free $1000 would have to evaporate?

I like free money.

That also means that the total interest we paid in 2014 is $672.91, all to our mortgage. Even if we have a small balance we carry, we’re not paying interest on that debt, and–worst case–we could raid our savings to make it vanish tomorrow. I’m tempted to make that happen, but our savings goals are more important to me that paying back the free money.

Sunday Roundup

Misc

My girls have been riding in horse shows lately. Sometimes, it seems like that’s all we’ve been doing on the weekends, but they love it. My wife’s favorite hobby now matches my daughters’ favorite pastime. As a bonus, we’ll never have to paint their room again, with the way they are accumulating ribbons.

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It is possible to be entirely too connected.

My life is now complete. It’s possible to buy 95 pounds of cereal marshmallows for just $399. Breakfast at my house just got perfect.

I wholeheartedly agree with Tam, “You don’t need to make any excuses for crashing things into each other at the speed of light in an underground tunnel longer than Manhattan that’s had the air pumped out and been chilled to a couple degrees above absolute zero. That doesn’t need a reason. “

Carnivals I’ve Rocked

Credit Cards: My Failed Experiment was included in the Best of Money Carnival, the Carnival of Wealth, and the Totally Money Blog Carnival.

My niche site article on how to Make Extra Money with Keyword Research was included in the Totally Money Blog Carnival.

Thank you! If I missed anyone, please let me know.

This Year’s Richest Kids

Celebrities

For teenagers in Hollywood, life is good if you are one of the top paid actors in the industry. While some people work their entire lives to become financially stable and have a life of luxury and glamor, it comes young for these actors and can be a whirlwind of opportunity. Here is a list of some of the richest and most famed teenage celebrities of 2013.

Elle and Dakota Fanning
It’s hard to believe that Dakota Fanning is still in her teen years considering she’s been working in Hollywood for nearly a decade now. However the teen actress still continues to demand big bucks for the big roles that she plays. This helped pave the path for her little sister, Ellie, who has been in a handful of scary movies like “I Am Sam” and “Super 8”. Together the sister’s net worth is over $20 million. And while most of that is accredited to Dakota, Ellie is starting to pull her own weight as she becomes more popular.Willow and Jaden Smith
Another set of siblings makes the list with Willow and Jaden Smith. Granted these two have had a lot of help and opportunity from their Fresh Prince father, but they are sure to keep the ball rolling on their own. The two have both already made their debut on the big screen, have had popular top-radio songs, and continue to diversify with their ventures. With the knowledge they get from their father, the Smith siblings are sure to continue to rack in the paychecks for the remainder of their teen years and beyond.Angus T. Jones
Everyone’s favorite “half-man” from the TV series Two And A Half Men makes the list of highest paid teens, even after he left the TV show in 2013. In 2010, Jones became the highest paid child actor at the ripe age of 17, as he penned a contracted that would earn him nearly $8 million over two years of work. No longer apart of the show, Angus T. Jones looks to find another break that will continue the success he found at such a young age.

Selena Gomez
The last year and a half has been huge for the former Disney Star. While some actors and actresses have a hard time shedding the Disney persona, Gomez has now branched out to more mature film roles and has become a legitimate player in the music industry as well, picking up Choice Break-Up Song and the Choice Music Star and the Choice Hottie Teen Choice awards. As her fame continues to grow, she also works closely with UNICEF and other non-profit organizations, proving that it doesn’t matter how much money you have, you can always do the right thing.

Miley Cyrus
This is the last year that Miley will be able to make the list of wealthy teens, but she is sure to continue to rack in the paychecks even as she enters her 20’s and beyond. A dual threat in singing and acting, she’s another Disney star that has shed the child–star persona and has developed her own new edgy look and identity. And even though she may no longer be the innocent Hanna Montana that she once was, she still keeps her fans entertained and interested with everything she works on. She picked up three Teen Choice Awards this year.

Justin Bieber
You better believe that the Beebs is on this list. Possibly the most loved/hated teenager in Hollywood, Justin Bieber continues to rake in the money that his ‘Beliebers’ shell out to see him in concert, listen to his music and buy his merchandise. You may love him, you may hate him, but either way he’s probably making more money than you and he’s having a great time doing it.

Some teens stars make more money in a year than majority of people will make in their entire lifetimes. This affords them opportunities of a lifetime to enjoy things other people only dream of. But as quickly as they become part of the limelight, new faces appear and take their place. These are some of the hottest faces of 2013, but who will be here next year?

Homeland: What does it cost to make a hit TV show?

Celebrities

When you are producing your own TV show, you can do whatever you want to cut costs. However, you must realize that making a hit TV show is something that is very expensive to do. You must pay your actors handsomely because they are usually Hollywood A-listers, but your actors are only the beginning of the payroll.

You have a very large staff that works on the show to make sure everything works. If you have ever watched the credits at the end of a TV episode, you know that there are many people working on the show. You must remember that every single person on the credits was paid a salary to work on the episode. You must now imagine looking at your balance sheet and deciding how to pay all these people for each episode.

There are many people who wonder why their TV shows do not look as well produced as others. This is something that is left up solely to money. Homeland has Showtime behind them, and Showtime can afford to pay for the exotic locations and all the effects that are needed. However, there are other shows that have to shoot on a much smaller budget. They use a smaller amount of locations, and they use a smaller amount of effects. This does not hurt the show in all cases, but a lack of money would make a show like Homeland impossible.

When Hollywood was equal parts television and movies, Homeland would have become a movie because of the budget. The budget that is spent on just one episode of this show could be used to make a decent movie. In today’s Hollywood, there are many TV shows that would have been movies 20 or 30 years ago.

When you watch Homeland, you need to remember that there is a ton of money behind every episode. You may not like every episode, but you must remember that the producers and studio paid handsomely to have that episode produced. The money that fuels Hollywood today is off the charts, and we must respect that when every new episode come on the television.

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