Live Real, Now

The no-pants guide to spending, saving, and thriving in the real world.

Search Results for: three-alternatives-to-a-budget/budget-lesson-part-5/debt-burnout/subscribe-by-email/budget-lesson-part-2/573/budget-lesson-part-3/4-ways-we-keep-wasting-money/5-steps-to-save/mistakes-made/selling-your-home-the-real-estate-agent

Selling Your Car

Finance

English: Jalopy car in Joshua Tree National Pa...

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

 

Enhanced by Zemanta

Sunday Roundup: Varsity Punk

Misc

Löwenmaul
Image by stee via Flickr

I moved this roundup to Sunday to give myself a bit more time to track my weight-loss and push-up goals, since I weigh in on Saturdays.   Yesterday, however was super busy.  It was all good, but full.

Starting Friday:  After work, I rushed my oldest to the B-squad wrestling tournament, where he took first place in his weight bracket.  When I got home, I fell asleep almost immediately.

Saturday, we woke up and rushed to the varsity tournament.   It was his first time wrestling varsity.   Now, he wrestles for a youth league.  Participants vary from 3rd to 8th grades.    My son is 11, 5′ 7″, and 150 pounds.  Guess who he wrestles?  Almost exclusively eighth graders.  He lost both of his matches, but he put in a great showing.  He lasted a round and a half against the top-rated kid in his bracket and managed to get quite a few points.

After that, we rushed home, made dinner for some friends and went to a movie.   Red Riding Hood is worth seeing.   We got home at 1 and immediately fell asleep.   This is the first time I’ve had the computer on at home since Thursday night, other than to check movie times and prices.

30 Day Project Update

This month, I am trying to do 100 perfect push-ups in a single set.  I’m recording each session in a spreadsheet.  I am currently up to 91 in a set and 261 in a session, spread across 5 sets.  I’m expecting to be down in my next session, since I’ve totally slacked off the few days.

Weight Loss Update

I am on the Slow Carb Diet.   At the end of the month, I’ll see what the results were and decide if it’s worth continuing.   For those who don’t know, the Slow Carb Diet involves cutting out potatoes, rice, flour, sugar, and dairy in all their forms.   My meals consist of 40% proteins, 30% vegetables, and 30% legumes(beans or lentils).    There is no calorie counting, just some specific rules, accompanied by a timed supplement regimen and some timed exercises to manipulate my metabolism.   The supplements are NOT effedrin-based diet pills, or, in fact, uppers of any kind.  There is also a weekly cheat day, to cut the impulse to cheat and to avoid letting my body go into famine mode.

I’m measuring two metrics, my weight and the total inches of my waist , hips, biceps, and thighs.   Between the two, I should have an accurate assessment of my progress.

Weight: I have lost 40 pounds since January 2nd.   That’s 2 pound since last week.   I’ve dropped 7 pounds in March, while doing an insane amount of push-ups and packing on a few pounds of muscle.

Total Inches: I have lost  24 inches in the same time frame, down 1.5 inches since last week.   I’ve lost 7 inches each off of my waist and hips.   It’s time to go clothes shopping, which sucks.  I manage to avoid doing that for a year or more at a time, but now, my pants have stopped fitting.   When I cinch my belt to where it actually fits, my jeans have pleats.

Best Posts

The recording industry has sued Limewire for damages totaling more than the economic value of…Earth.

Making money line is easier when you’re not bing conned.  PT has a list of legit paying survey sites.

I’d love to raise chickens.  It’s technically allowed in my city, but only with a permit that the city refuses to issue.

LRN Timewarp

This is where I review the posts I wrote a year ago.  Did you miss them then?

I wrote Fall from Grace, a post about how and why I got into debt.

There was also a post on credit repair.

Carnivals I’ve Rocked and Guest Posts I’ve Rolled

You’re Gonna Die, Part 1 was included in the Totally Money Carnival.

Getting Out of Debt: The Prime Rule as included in Carnival of Personal Finance.

Financial Pet Peeve: Fees To Receive Paper Bank Statements was included in the Festival of Frugality.

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

Get More Out of Live Real, Now

There are so many ways you can read and interact with this site.

You can subscribe by RSS and get the posts in your favorite news reader.  I prefer Google Reader.

You can subscribe by email and get, not only the posts delivered to your inbox, but occasional giveaways and tidbits not available elsewhere.

You can ‘Like’ LRN on Facebook.   Facebook gets more use than Google.  It can’t hurt to see what you want where you want.

You can follow LRN on Twitter.   This comes with some nearly-instant interaction.

You can send me an email, telling me what you liked, what you didn’t like, or what you’d like to see more(or less) of.   I promise to reply to any email that isn’t purely spam.

Have a great week!

 

Enhanced by Zemanta

Carnivals

Finance

I’ve been a bit of a slacker when it comes to posting the carnivals I’ve been included in.   This is me playing catch-up.

Live Real, Now was included in five carnivals last week:

Prior to last week, I was included in:
Thanks to all of the hosts for including my posts and my apologies for not posting the links sooner.  If I missed you, please let me know.

Get More Out of Live Real, Now

There are so many ways you can read and interact with this site.

You can subscribe by RSS and get the posts in your favorite news reader.  I prefer Google Reader.

You can subscribe by email and get, not only the posts delivered to your inbox, but occasional giveaways and tidbits not available elsewhere.

You can ‘Like’ LRN on Facebook.   Facebook gets more use than Google.  It can’t hurt to see what you want where you want.

You can follow LRN on Twitter.   This comes with some nearly-instant interaction.

You can send me an email, telling me what you liked, what you didn’t like, or what you’d like to see more(or less) of.   I promise to reply to any email that isn’t purely spam.

Have a great week!

Carnival Roundup

Finance

 

Live Real, Now was included in the following carnivals recently:

 

Yakezie Carnival hosted by Growing Money Smart

Lifestyle Carnival hosted by KNS Financial

Carnival of Retirement #73 hosted by Hurricanes, Panties, Dollars

Carnival of Financial Independence #13 hosted by Reach Financial Independence

Yakezie Carnival hosted by See Debt Run

Carnival of Money Pros hosted by This, That and the MBA

Carnival of Money Pros hosted by Master the Art of Saving

Carnival of Financial Camaraderie #85 hosted by Master the Art of Saving

Carnival of Financial Independence #14 hosted by Reach Financial Independence

Yakezie Carnival hosted by Financial Conflict Coach

Lifestyle Carnival hosted by Master the Art of Saving

Carnival of Financial Independence #15 hosted by Reach Financial Independence

Yakezie Carnival hosted by Master the Art of Saving

Lifestyle Carnival hosted by Fat Guy, Skinny Wallet

Carnival of Money Pros hosted by The Money Mail

Carnival of Financial Camaraderie #87 hosted by Free at 33

Carnival of Financial Planning hosted by Hurricanes, Panties, Dollars

Yakezie Carnival hosted by Mo’ Money Mo’ Houses

Carnival of Money Pros hosted by Mo’ Money Mo’ Houses

Finance Carnival for Young Adults hosted by Master the Art of Saving

 

Thanks for including my posts.

Get More Out of Live Real, Now

There are so many ways you can read and interact with this site.

You can subscribe by RSS and get the posts in your favorite news reader.  I prefer Google Reader.

You can subscribe by email and get, not only the posts delivered to your inbox, but occasional giveaways and tidbits not available elsewhere.

You can ‘Like’ LRN on Facebook.   Facebook gets more use than Google.  It can’t hurt to see what you want where you want.

You can follow LRN on Twitter.   This comes with some nearly-instant interaction.

You can send me an email, telling me what you liked, what you didn’t like, or what you’d like to see more(or less) of.   I promise to reply to any email that isn’t purely spam.

Have a great weekend!

Living in Debt: How I Sacrificed My Future

Finance, Life

DSC_0428
Image by lazybone83 via Flickr

For those of you who haven’t been following along, I’m in debt.   Starting 13 years ago, when I was 19, I managed to bury myself in debt, until I decided I’d had enough of that…almost 2 years ago.

Why?

It wasn’t because of college expenses, though they contributed to my debt level.  I was in debt before I went to college.  Heck, I was a daddy before I went to college.

It wasn’t because of  major medical procedures.  The only major medical procedures we’ve ever had were the births of our children, and we had two of them well after we built our shackles.

It wasn’t because we bought more house than we could afford.  We own a modest house that we bought before the bubble started.

Then what was it?  Why did we do the things we did that have financially crippled us for so long?

It was a combination of things, crowned by a glorious lack of financial sophistication.  As I wrote in No Brakes, neither of us had the early training to really understand our financial decisions.  We knew bills need to be paid, but what was the difference if the money came from a credit card versus our checking account?   Why did it matter if we carried a balance on the cards, as long as we could make the payments?  What’s wrong with just making the minimum payment?

Naïve.  Unsophisticated.

That day-to-day lack of sophistication was only part of the problem, and it wasn’t the biggest part.  We made a lot mistakes, but they were all small.  Before 2001, I think our total was about $5000.  Too much, but not painful.

Between the fall of 2001 and the winter of 2002, we took our naïve decision-making process and ran with it.  It was a full-scale mistake marathon.

That year, we built an addition on our house, because a full dining room and a bigger kitchen would make our house so much more livable and it was cheaper than buying a home, new.  Oh, and since the difference between the mandatory crawlspace and a full basement room was just a few rows of concrete blocks, let’s expand it.  Wait, don’t bedrooms require walls, sheetrock, windows, closets, paint, furniture, and electricity?

That was also the year that the car companies all jumped on the 0% loan fad.   In case you don’t remember, that was the program that meant you could get a 0% loan on a new car if you picked up a 3 year term on your loan.  At 22, making maybe $45,000 combined, we decided that buying a $35,000 truck was a good idea.  To save money.   Rationalization is wonderful.  Or at least, effective.

That summer, we got married.   We did a phenomenal job getting married on the cheap.  We had about 100 guests, a  park to get married in, flowers, food,  and a hall to eat and dance in, for about $3000.   The problem was, we didn’t have $3000.   We didn’t have the $1500 + activities for our 10 day honeymoon on a Caribbean cruise, either, though I still plan on returning to St. Thomas.

None of those individual payments were terrible.  The biggest problem was that we piled them all so close together that we never had time to absorb their impact before taking on the next obligation.   When we did realize how much we had to pay, we made up for it by only buying big things that came with a “0% for a year” deal, like our living room set, our carpet, and our dining room table.

Then, when we finally did pay something off, or came into more money, we’d immediately expand our lifestyle to fill the void.  The month we paid off our truck, I got a significant raise.  Did we use it to pay off some other debt?  Of course not, we bought a new car on a six year term.

We had so many opportunities to make bad decisions with our money, and I think we took them all and have suffered for it, since.

If you’re in debt, what made you decide to get that way?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Money Problems – Day 3: What’s Coming In?

Finance

Husquarna automower, taken by me 2007-06-02
Image via Wikipedia

Today, I continuing the  series, Money Problems: 30 Days to Perfect Finances.   The series will consist of 30 things you can do in one setting to perfect your finances.  It’s not a system to magically make your debt disappear.  Instead, it is a path to understanding where you are, where you want to be, and–most importantly–how to bridge the gap.

I’m not running the series in 30 consecutive days.  That’s not my schedule.  Also, I think that talking about the same thing for 30 days straight will bore both of us.   Instead, it will run roughly once a week.  To make sure you don’t miss a post, please take a moment to subscribe, either by email or rss.

This is day 3 and today, you are going to take a look at your income.

We are only interested your take-home pay, because that is what you have to base a budget on.  If you base your budget on your gross pay, you’re going to be in trouble when you try to spend the roughly 35% of your check that gets taken for taxes and benefits.

Income is a pretty straight-forward topic.  It is—simply—how much money you make in a month.  If you are like most people, the easiest way to tell how much money you make is to look at your last paycheck.  Then, multiply it by the number of pay periods in a year and divide the total by 12.

Here’s the formula:  Cash x Yearly Pay Periods / 12.  Yay, math!

If you get paid every 2 weeks, multiply your take-home pay by 26, then divide by 12 to figure your monthly pay.   For example, if you make $1000 every two weeks, your annual take-home pay is $26,000.  Divide that by 12 to get your monthly pay of $2166.66.  If you get paid semi-monthly, you’ll take that same $1000 x 24 / 12, for a total of $2000 per month.

Now you know how much you make each month.  Woo!

Is it enough?  Who knows?  We’ll get into that later.  In the meantime, spend some time thinking about ways you can make more money.  Do you have a talent or a hobby that you can turn into cash?

  • If you’re a craftsy type, make stuff and sell it on eBay or Etsy.
  • If you’re a writer, start a blog, sell articles on oDesk, or start writing for paid article directories.  Squidoo has a revenue sharing plan for your articles.
  • Facebook maven?  Start making Pages for companies.  They will pay for it.
  • Are you mechanically inclined?  Watch your local free market sites for lawn mowers and snowblowers that don’t run.  You can fix them up and sell them.
  • If you’re a clean freak, start a home-cleaning service on evenings and weekends.

There are always ways to make some extra money, if you are willing.  Sit down with a friend or loved one and brainstorm what you can do.  Write down anything you can do, you enjoy, or you are good at.  Remember, there are no stupid ideas when you are brainstorming.  The bad ideas will get filtered out later.

How could you make some (more) side cash?

Enhanced by Zemanta