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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.

I Accidentally Bought a Bus

Finance

Last weekend, I was having dinner with my friend and business partner. After our carry permit class, we try to get dinner, unwind from the class, debrief, and figure out how to improve our business.

Over the course of this discussion, the idea of owning a bus came up. It was part of an impractical-but-useful solution to one of our larger expenses. My partner mentioned that he had a friend who owned a bus, so I asked him to find out how much he was asking.

A few days later, he called me and said simply, “We bought a bus.”

Oops.

What year?

“I don’t know.”

How big?

“Huge!”

Does it run?

“It used to. It probably still does, but they lost the key.”

Crap.

So we own a bus. It’s a 1987 Ford B700. It’s 20,000 pounds empty, has a 429 motor that doesn’t leak oil, and an air horn.

Under the hood, it’s got a couple of issues. There are some melted vacuum tubes leading to a vapor box. The vapor box is used to cheat obsolete emissions standards and doesn’t do anything productive. There’s also some belts missing. The belts drive an air pump that pushes clean air into the exhaust system, again, just to cheat emissions standards that we don’t have anymore. Nothing necessary–or even useful–is broken.

Part of the $1000 we paid for the bus went to a locksmith who came and made us a key.

The interior of the beast is 3/4 converted to an RV. There are 4 folding bunks in the back, minus mattresses. There are two RV sofas that fold down to beds, plus seating for another 12 people. No kitchen or bathroom facilities.

We’ve done some research and come up with a few choices for this impulse purchase:

Flip it. We should be able to at least double our money quickly.
Finish the RV conversion already in progress. This wouldn’t turn it into a fancy motorhome, but it would make a great deer shack on wheels. I figure we could make this happen for about $500 and turn it into a $3500 toy to sell. Or take deer hunting.
Turn it into a full RV. This would be more expensive. My estimate is a $5-6000 investment to make it a $10-12000 RV. It would take most of the summer to do, which means we wouldn’t be selling it until spring. I quit wanting to do this when I saw the bus in the light. There’s not a lot of rust, but it’s more than I’d want to fix to make the outside look as good as the inside, in my head.
Party bus. What’s a better way to spend a Saturday evening that shepherding a drunken bachelorette around with her friends? It’d take about $2000 to outfit the bus, plus insurance, plus licensing, plus the fact that drunken bachelorettes are obnoxious.
Auction. We got an estimate for a $3000 sale, minus a 20% commission.
Stunt-jumping. I saw a video of a guy jumping a bus over 20 motorcycles. I could do that. I’m sure one of the race tracks around here would pay good money to have us do that one weekend. Afterward, we’ll melt the bus for scrap.
Sell the engine and scrap the body. That should bring us at least $1500.

We jumped into this with no real plan, but there are a few ways we could make our money back. I’m expecting a healthy profit on a pretty short timeline.

What would you do if you owned a bus?

I just turned 2!

Misc

Update: Over $500 in prizes!

Yesterday was my second anniversary here. For the last two years, I have shared my thoughts, feelings, and finances three times a week and you have been there to watch and share as I figure out my financial future.

I appreciate it.

To show my appreciation, I’m giving stuff away.

Here are the prizes:

1 $100 prize

1 $75 prize

6 $25 prizes, courtesy of ThirtySixMonths, Budgeting in the Fun Stuff, Maximizing Money, Personal Finance Whiz, and Broke Professionals.

1 iPod Shuffle courtesy of Prairie Eco-Thrifter.

1 $25 Amazon gift card courtesy of Beating Broke.

A copy of each of the iPhone and iPad versions of the Pay Off Debt app from The Debt Myth

1 $20 Amazon gift card, courtesy of Money Crush.

1 $25 Starbuck’s gift card, courtesy of Mom’s Plans.

I’m also giving away some books, some of which have been lightly read.

Financial Peace Revisited by Dave Ramsey

Never Pay Retail by Sid Kirchheimer

Delivering Happiness (advanced reader copy) by Tony Hsieh

I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi

The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau

CreditCards.com Book of Cartoons

Women & Money by Suze Orman

To enter:

Follow the instuctions in the widget below. Following me on Facebook, Twitter, RSS, or email will all earn entries. Following any of the sponsors on Twitter of Facebook will earn you entries. Tweeting about the giveaway as often as you like or linking to this page on your site will earn you entries.

There are lots of ways to enter and 16 prizes to win.

The drawing will be held on December 23rd, just in time to give you some cash before Christmas.

Good luck!

[Read more…] about I just turned 2!

AAA – Save Some Cash

Finance

: Image via Wikipedia

Have you ever driven off the road at 100 miles per hour into a grove of trees at midnight, only to have 2 cops and your father spend 2 hours looking for your car with high-powered spotlights? Let me tell you–from experience–that a free two will, in fact, make that night a little bit better.

Enter AAA.

At its most basic level, AAA is just a roadside assistance service. If your car breaks down, you lock your keys in, or run out of gas, you call AAA from the side of the road and they send a hero at any time of day or night. I’ve used the service to get a car pulled out of an impound lot and out of a ditch. They’ve helped move broken-down cars from my driveway to the mechanic.

We pay $85 per year for the basic service, which includes 5 miles of towing, up to 4 timers a year; lockout service; gas delivery; “stuck in a ditch” service; free maps, trip planning and trip interruption protection. Higher membership levels boost those services and include things like free passport photos, complimentary car rental when you use the tow service, concierge service and more.

I’ve been a member since I got my driver’s license at 16, and over the years, just the roadside assistance has paid for my lifetime of membership several times over.

But–as the man said–wait, there’s more!

They certify mechanics. Not for skill, but reputation. It’s harder to get screwed by a AAA mechanic.

Then there are the discounts.

Most chain hotels, some oil-change shops, and a lot of car-rental services have AAA discounts. Combined with the trip planning, the discounts can easily pay for themselves, if you travel even once a year.

There are also discounts at a ton of restaurants and attractions, sometimes adding up to savings of $50 or more. I don’t think I’ve ever had a year where AAA didn’t pay for itself, and I don’t even use the services efficiently.

For example:

10% off Target.com
Discounts on Magellen GPS units
Theater(stage and screen) discounts
Discounts on minor league baseball and college football tickets
Prescription savings plan
$3 of at our local for-profit aquarium
10-30% discounts from Dell
5% off at UPS
20% off at Sirius Satellite Radio
10% off PODS(hoarders take notice!)
10% at Amtrak
Up to $200 off at DirecTV
A crapload more

I know I sound like a salespitch, but they didn’t pay for this post. I’m just a happy customer.

Do you use a roadside assistance or a discount-from-a-million-places membership?

Mortgaging a Rental Property

Finance

Now that we’re down to the last ten grand on our mortgage, we’re starting to look into getting another rental property. The one we’ve got has worked out pretty well over the last two years, giving us about $800 extra each month. We broke even on all of the repairs we had to sometime in the spring. That’s almost $5000 in pure, almost-passive income.

With numbers like that, if we can get a similar property and keep the mortgage under $800, we should be golden for getting another property and avoiding having it as a new drain on the budget.

However…

There’s always a however.

Our current tenants are moving out at the end of the month, which means the passive part of the income is over while we either find a renter or hire a property manager to do that for us. Since that came at the same time I got the opportunity to be unemployed, there was a bit of panic at my house.

The idea of having a mortgage, no job, and no renter scared us into waiting to buy another property.

It’s not stopping us from getting ready for the next property, though.

We live in a fairly high-cost area. Our house is on an eighth of an acre and is valued at around $250,000. Our rental is on a slightly larger lot, but is a smaller house valued at around $200,000. We don’t have a quarter of a million dollars laying around waiting to hatch into a new house, so we’ll be getting a mortgage. A mortgage for a business property is a bit different than one for a home you’re planning to live in.

First major difference? You need a 20% down payment, with a 25% down payment getting you a much better rate. We don’t quite have that, but if we pushed, we could have it in 6 months, I think. And then we’d have no cushion if anything bad happened in our lives.

The next thing is that we’ll need a reserve that covers all of our expenses–personal and investment–for 6 months. That can be home equity, savings, cash, or retirement accounts. We’ve got this one covered.

We don’t qualify for a standard mortgage plan right now, but there are options:

Live poor and save hard for a year. We could make it happen in 6 months, but I will still want an emergency cushion just in case a job or tenant go away.
Buy as an owner occupant. This would mean we buy a new house, then move into it and rent out our current house. We’d have to stay there a year before we’d be allowed to rent out the new property.
Compare mortgages online. The internet is a wonderful thing, full of the complete knowledge of the human race. There is no better way to try to find an affordable mortgage than hopping on the net. Just make sure you’re looking at a reputable site and dealing with a legit mortgage company.
Live comfortably and save slower, then buy the property in 2 or 3 years.

Honestly, of all of the options, we’re probably going to do a combination of 3 and 5, but 2 is a serious consideration, since we’ve talked about moving out of the suburbs a bit anyway.

Did I miss anything? How would you fund a rental property?

Credit Card Glossary

Finance

As evil as credit cards are, most adults have one. Have you ever wondered what percentage of those people know the details of[ad name=”inlineright”] their credit card agreement, or even what all of the terms mean?

Here’s a quick list of the terms and their definitions.

Average daily balance – This is the balance most card companies use to calculate your interest. They add the balance each day and divide it by the number of days in the billing cycle. This number times the interest rate is (roughly) the interest you have to pay.
Annual Percentage Rate(APR) – This is the interest rate expressed as the interest accrued in one year. The actual calculation is much more complicated.
Balance transfer – If you’ve ever paid your VISA with your Mastercard, you’ve done a balance transfer. These often have a great introductory rate and a lousy permanent rate.
Cardholder agreement – This is the contract that defines all of the terms of your card: interest, default consequences, payment terms, and everything else. You should never sign for a card without reading and understanding this document.
Charge-back – If you dispute a charge on your card, the issuer may issue a charge-back, and take the money back from the merchant to return to you.
Credit line – This is the amount you are able to charge. You should fear this number and stay as far away from it as possible.
Default – When you stop paying your card, you become delinquent. If it goes on too long, you will be in default. Read: screwed. This is when they crank your interest rate to the sky and cut your limit to match your balance. It’s also the point that affects your credit rating.
Due date – This is the day which, if you miss it, will cause you to acquire an extra $15-39 fee for the privilege of misreading your calendar. Always pay your bill before this date.
Finance charge – This is the actual interest accrued for the billing period. This is money you are paying for the privilege of borrowing the rest of the money. Next month, you’ll pay a finance charge on this money, too. Yay!
Grace period – For most cards worth owning, you get 20-25 days before the issuer starts charging interest. The best way to manage your card is to pay it off completely twice a month. That way, you’ll never use up your grace period and never pay a cent of interest.
Introductory rate – Many cards will offer a crazy-low interest rate for six months to lure you in…like crack. They’ll get you hooked, then raise the rate and force you to charge new toys at the higher rate. Ideally, you’ll never carry a balance, so you’ll never have to worry about the introductory rate.
Minimum payment – If debt has an evil heart, this is it. If you pay nothing but the minimum required payment, you will be in debt for the rest of your life. Always pay more, even if it’s just an extra $20.
Over-the-limit fee – If you ignore your credit limit and keep spending, you’ll get hit with another $15-39 fee for the privilege of not controlling your irresponsible impulses.
Periodic rate – This is your APR expressed in relation to a specific time frame, usually as a daily periodic rate. For example, if your interest rate is 18%, your daily periodic rate is 18/365 or 0.0493%
Pre-approved – When you get a pre-approved card, you are actually just getting a notice that you have been pre-screened as not being too much of a deadbeat for that particular card. You will still have a full credit check before the card is issued.
Secured card – If you’ve got lousy credit, sometimes your only choice to repair it is to get a prepaid card. You give the company $200 and they will let you charge $200. They are almost always loaded with fees and are usually a very bad deal, but if it’s the only game in town…?
Universal default – Sometimes, if you default on one card, every other card you have decides to gang up on you, because your “risk profile” has changed. Yet more proof of the evil that is credit-card debt.
Variable interest rate – Some card tie your rate to the Prime interest rate, so when that changes, your rate does, too.

Did I miss any terms?

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