4 Considerations to Make Before Financing Your Car

Buying your first car is a scary thing, actually buying any car is scary regardless of what number it is. Dealerships and lenders can also use jargon that you don't know. Consider these 4 factors before financing your car to make sure you get a good deal on a vehicle that meets your needs.

Know How Much Money You Can Spend

As a recent retiree or if your career is coming to an end, you probably have a lot of money for a down payment but don’t want to put your lifestyle at risk. That means you'll have the money for the down payment while leaving your investments in tact.

It's essential that you make a budget that tells you exactly how much money you can afford to spend on your vehicle. A good budget will include expenses and savings. Some items to put in your budget include your: 

• rent or mortgage payment 
• auto insurance 
• health insurance 
• food 
• entertainment 

You should also set aside at least ten percent of your earnings for retirement savings.

Once you have made your budget, you should know how much room you have for your monthly car payment. Don't exceed this amount. If you do, you'll have to reduce your spending in another area. That can make life difficult and less enjoyable.

Understand How Interest Increases Your Overall Car Payment

If you don't have an extensive credit history, then you might only qualify for a sub-prime loan. That means you'll pay higher interest than someone with a good credit score. This should influence how you see car prices.

Let's say you don't want to spend more than $15,000 on your car. If you qualify for a 5 percent loan with five-year term, then you should include the interest when comparing prices. A car priced at $15,000 will actually cost you close to $17,000 after you calculate interest.

That means you should look at cars with lower sticker prices or find a better interest rate. If you buy a car worth $13,500 with 4 percent interest, then you will spend a little under $15,000 over five years.

Explore Your Financing Options

Just because one dealership wants to give you a sub-prime loan doesn't mean that you can't get a better deal elsewhere. Your education and income prospects could qualify you for Lexus financing with an excellent interest rate. Then you can buy the car of your dreams without going over your budget.

Think About How Long You Plan to Keep the Car

$15,000 might fit into your five-year budget, but what if you plan to drive the car longer than that? Even pre-owned cars should last longer than five years.

Some people decide to budget more money to their car purchases because they know that they will eventually pay off the loan. If you drive the car for 10 years, then you could probably afford to spend $20,000 instead of $15,000.

If you know that you'll want to buy another car in five years, though, you should stick to what you know you can afford during the foreseeable future.

What other factors should buyers consider when they look into their financing options?

5 Marketing Tactics Your Business Hasn't Utilized

When your business wants to stand out, having a unique marketing strategy can help. Appealing to your niche of customers in untapped forums is essential for selling more products and services. By thinking outside of the box and using promotional products to enhance your business's image, you can connect with a large audience of customers. Here are some marketing tactics that any business can consider to improve the way that it connects with customers on a daily basis.

1. Give out promotional products at trade shows.

Trade shows are an excellent way to promote a business because they attract a targeted audience who may become clients because they’re interested in what you have to offer. Clients will typically go to trade shows to learn more about a business's products before they make the leap into investing in its products. By handing out promotional products with your contact information at trade shows, a business can distinguish itself from the hundreds of other businesses featured at trade shows and encourage prospects to hold onto their “business cards.”

2. Use Pinterest to host promotions.

Pinterest has already taken the business world by storm as a new social media marketing tool, but few businesses are using it apart from placing images of products online. A business can use Pinterest to actually host promotions and give away promotional products. Using Pinterest in this way can cause a spiral effect amongst customers and encourage them to also re-pin images for a business.

3. Host a Twitter feed contest.

Any business should also try hosting a Twitter feed contest with promotional products. The individual who tweets the most about a business can receive promotional rally towels, pens, totes or whatever is most appropriate for your audience. There is an endless list of promotional products that a business can use as a reward for the winner of a Twitter feed contest.

4. Post updates on Facebook.

It is also important for businesses to keep in touch with customers through a forum like Facebook. Facebook gives businesses the opportunity to post news updates about the latest products that a business has to offer. Businesses can take advantage of an excellent opportunity to get to know a customer base on Facebook.

5. Sending e-mail newsletters to clients.

In an e-mail newsletter, a business can inform customers about the latest promotions being hosted by a company. Businesses can inform customers about promo items, new products, or special sales on products and services.

Any business can improve the way that it markets itself to customers. With these marketing tactics, a business can easily get in touch with clients and develop a favorable reputation in the community.

Ways You Can Save Some Extra Pennies Monthly Around The Home

The country's financial situation is an accurate reflection of the kind of position the average American is in. Jobs are scarce, money is tight, and the expenses just keep rolling in. As a result, people have begun reaching for any possible way to save a few extra dollars every month. This can be hard at first, but the more you do it, the easier it becomes to find other ways to cut costs. Bills like utilities and insurance are pretty inflexible, so it's not wise to start looking here. It's better to analyze the budget you've set for more variable aspects like groceries and household supplies. Here are some tips that can save you some extra pennies around the house.

Re-Use It

During the course of their day, people throw out many potentially useful things. By identifying these and diverting them to other purposes, you could save a lot of money. The bags you put your produce in at the store can usually be re-used for anything else that requires a bag, such as snacks and leftovers. Plastic and paper grocery sacks make excellent liners for small trash cans and are completely free. Even wet paper towels can be left to dry and used again. The more substitutes you can make and the further you can stretch the products you buy, the greater your savings will be.

Be Your Own Salon

Going to a barber or stylist means you get the benefits of the skill without having to invest the time, but it can cost hundreds of dollars each month to maintain. You're much better off if you opt to do your own hair and shave. All you need is a good pair of scissors, a hair trimmer and a quality shaving kit from The Art of Shaving. Once you develop skill, there's even potential to sell your services to others.

Have A Vegetarian Day

Nobody can deny that meat is expensive. Taking one day each week where you restrict your animal protein intake to eggs and dairy will shave a tidy sum off of your grocery bill. It's even better if you can do this with one meal each day in addition to an all-vegetarian day.

Cook From Scratch

Heat-and-eat foods are convenient, but they're also phenomenally expensive. When you compare an equal serving of the same food made from scratch, you actually end up paying several times more for the pre-packaged one. Besides being cheaper, meals made from scratch also be healthier and more nutritious, which makes you feel better overall. With the right utensils and recipes, cooking wholesome and inexpensive meals is something even the busiest people can do.

Use Rags

Paper towels are another expense that can hit your wallet hard. They're great for mopping up messes, but you end up feeling like you're cleaning with dollar bills. An effective alternative is to use rags for anything that doesn't absolutely require a paper towel. Since they can be rinsed and washed, there's no waste. Plus, you can use either your worn-out washcloths or bits cut from old t-shirts to make effective and free cleaning rags. This also works as a replacement for disposable dish sponges.

Travel Nurses A Unique Specialty In A Medical Career

Travel nursing is a concept in the field of nursing that came about as a remedy to the shortage of nurses across various health institutions. What happens is that some segments of the medical sector sometimes provide nurses who are able to travel and work in various places that require them to fill temporary nursing positions. The nurses charged with these kinds of duties are the ones referred to as travel nurses. The nursing positions they go to fill are mostly in hospitals that are outside the area in which they work or reside. Despite the fact that the term travel nursing is regularly associated specifically with the nursing profession, the term is also used to refer to a wide range of healthcare positions, which could include physical therapy, speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, dentists or even doctors.

The requirements for travel nurses to meet include; they must have a minimum of 1 year of experience with a year being preferred in their particular specialty. They must also have a license in the state of which they have employment in. The states board of nursing usually grants this.

Travel nurses may at times receive some level of orientation when they reach the new hospitals that they are to work in, it is however minimal and in most cases, they receive no orientation at all. Travel nurses are required to have a high level of experience and knowledge. They are required to have the mental and physical capability to deal and adapt with their new environments while still being able to perform their duties.

Travel nurses play a crucial role and especially in hospitals where their expertises are in need. They help to offer services to patients who would have to wait in long queues or even days if they were not there. Their need and role cannot be underestimated in the medical sector.

Wine Market Tracker Liv-ex: Why is Wine Considered a Golden Investment?

For centuries, pure gold was considered the finest and most secure investment asset. Nevertheless, things are slowly changing, and today’s most fierce competitor of gold investments is fine wine. Wines are an extremely popular investment option, and giving the current market situation and selling prices, they make a fabulous asset, nearly as profitable as gold. 

Liv-ex - the wine market tracker, has analyzed the selling and buying prices from the last decade, and discovered that the costs of fine wines have doubled during the last five years. What’s even more surprising is that they’ve not been affected at all by the economic crisis. Because of this, investing in fine wines is an extremely smart move, this being one of the steadiest, most secure, and profitable forms of investment.

People seem to be enthusiastic about investing in fine wines, are we’re not talking here about business people or experts in the business; we’re talking about ordinary people, seniors and retired persons who want to invest and stay busy. 

Fine wine is the new gold

Fine wine investments have managed to invade the market. Their prices are continuously rising, they taste deliciously, and there’s even more to come. The Wine Investment Fund assumes that the Liv-ex figures will continue to rise by the end of the year. Giving all these things, you may be wondering what makes wine such a profitable investment, and such a highly-demanded asset. Wine becomes more appealing when people are found in a relatively uncertain economic situation, and when they’re reluctant to investing their money in something that may be doomed to failure.

Government officials are putting cash into the economy from all over the world, in an attempt to boost inflation which has been rising for quite a while now, and it seems to be the main reason why worldwide investors are eager to put their funds in fine wine. The best part is that this trend is global, and it does not involve just a small group of countries. For instance, exports of Wines of South Africa, or WOSA, increased with 25%, in comparison with the previous year, counting as much as 469 liters at the end of April. 

Furthermore, if you’re curious to know from where the demand is coming from, you should know that the answer is Asia. According to Investor Ideas, Asian demand is so huge that the Treasury Wines Estates Ltd expects China to exceed the United States in the near future, and turn into the biggest and most important wine manufacturer on the globe.

Considering all these things, you’ll probably understand what determined wines to become such a precious asset. What’s even more interesting is that over the years there have appeared all sorts of permutations from the basic model of wine investment, and among the most fascinating alternatives is the fund that invests in wine-related estates, instead of classic fine wines. For instance, a notorious example in this case is the Blue Chip Winery Fund, settled in the Bahamas, and which makes use of its investment to acquire stakes in a myriad of wineries, and vineyards in various places from Canada and Europe. This is a really interesting alternative, suitable for all those who are attracted by the profitability of wine investments, but not by the liquor itself.

Investing in win should be done cautiously

In spite of the fact that the wine investment industry is doing extremely well, you should not assume that there are no pitfalls, and that everything is perfect. In reality, there are some areas where the market has cooled down lately, and the perfect example is the Vintage Wine Fund, which used to possess over $100 million in assets, and is now preparing to go bankrupt, because of a disappointing performance.

Investors must not be let down because wine investments, just like any other industry, has its ups and downs. The good news is that fine wines are considered one of the most secure and profitable investments that come along with a plethora of options to choose from. Retired persons should looking to invest should spend some more time to know the business. With the help of a wine expert, you should be able to succeed in the business and reap great benefits.

Author Bio: Jason Phillips is an investment advisor at wineinvestment.com. He advises people about the latest trends and how to invest in wine market. He is a skillful content writer as well with hobbies like playing soccer and rugby.

Five Reasons Pet Insurance Isn't as Silly as it Sounds

Photo by Shannon Richards on Unsplash

According to The Humane Society of the United States, there are 164 million in-house pets in the United States. Keep in mind that this number may be underestimated. The Associated Press tells us, through information gathered via a survey, that 41 percent of pet owners are at least somewhat worried that they wouldn't be able to afford medical bills for a sick or injured animal. 

Learn More: Adopt A Pet Ultimate Guide

Are you one of those pet owners? For you, pet insurance may not be as silly as it sounds. Here are just five reasons to consider taking out an insurance policy for your furry companion:

1.Vets are Expensive

Unfortunately, there's no getting around the fact that vet care is expensive. Many people, in fact, think it's too expensive. Before you balk at your next vet bill, take a moment to consider how much that bill would have been if a human had been treated. 



Veterinarians receive more training than their human physician counterparts, and are required to have a wider range of knowledge. When is the last time you walked out of your doctor's office for less than a few hundred dollars?

A routine appointment that includes vaccinations will cost you between $100 and $250 on average, depending on where you live. Paying this for one pet, once a year is not a deal breaker. But what if your pet is involved in an accident are falls seriously ill? Your vet bill can easily climb into the thousands.

2.Policies Start Immediately

Photo by Álvaro Niño on Unsplash

Most pet insurance policies kick in immediately. Some have a waiting period of five to ten days. It's not uncommon for people to tell you to put the money that you would pay for your premiums into a savings account for your pet. 

This makes sense on the surface but what if your pet is hit by a car next week and needs life-saving care? That savings account you started isn't going to pay for you to walk through your vet's door. On the other hand, if you had purchased a policy, you would have the money to pay for the care your pet needs.

3.Veterinary Medicine is Changing

Even a decade ago, veterinarians had limited tools in their belt with which to treat your pet. Today, veterinarian's can perform laser surgery, endoscopy, alternative therapies, physical therapies, and chemotherapy. Your grandparents, and even your parents, had very limited options when it came to treating their pets for major illnesses and serious injuries. 

Unlike the previous generations, we have an incredible array of options when it comes to the care of our animals. It's no longer necessary to automatically have your pet euthanized after a traumatic event. 

4.A Pet's Life is Dangerous

Every pet owner thinks that they take fantastic care of their pets, and most do. No matter how well pets are taken care of, life is wrought with dangers for curious pets. Dogs get out of gates, cats push through screens, and pets wander into the road. 

Dogs eat underpants, cats eat thread, and your pet could easily break a leg running down the steps. Don't let the excellent care that you provide for your pet prevent you from purchasing pet insurance. Accidents happen and pets can surprise us. 

Photo by Adam Grabek on Unsplash

The dog that hasn't done anything "bad" for seven years could all of a sudden swallow a tennis ball. Your cat that has urinated without issue for many years can suddenly become blocked. With pet insurance, you can be certain that you'll have the means to save your pet's life.

5.You Have Choices

The first pet insurance policy in the United States was issued in the 80's to the popular television dog Lassie. Since then, pet insurance has turned into a fierce competition. That competition translates into a variety of choices for the consumer. 

You can find a company that provides the type of coverages and deductibles that are right for you and your financial situation. Do you want a policy that includes routine care and dental cleanings? 

You can find it. Do you only want coverage for accidents and major illnesses? You can find that, too. Thousands of people have been able to bring their pets home from the vet thanks to their insurance policy. 

Don't put yourself in the situation of having to decide whether to treat your dog or cat or have it humanely euthanized. Pet insurance guarantees that you have the funds available to provide life-saving treatment for your beloved animal.