Black Friday best day to buy a car
Historic day-by-day car pricing data and found the average discount on a new car bought on Black Friday is 7.5%, up from the daily average of 4.7%.
Everyone’s talking about all the great sales deals you can get on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. While the masses will be at the mall buying flat-screen TVs and the latest gaming consoles, you could really score at the auto dealership. That’s because, according to Truecar.com, Black Friday is the best day to buy a car.
The car-pricing website looked at historic day-by-day car pricing data and found the average discount on a new car bought on Black Friday is 7.5 percent, up from the daily average of 4.7 percent.
Adding to the sales pressure, Black Friday this year happens to fall very close to the end of the month. Car deals typically sweeten as the month goes on because many dealerships are approaching quotas they must meet in order to get additional manufacturer incentives.
Besides monthly deadlines, dealers are also under pressure to clear out 2009 model year cars and trucks before the end of the calendar year. Those cars will be much harder to sell after Dec. 31, when they become “last year’s” models.
These are some awesome factors working in your favor.
And, you could save even more with the right car loan! Check out Tech CU—the credit union has lowered its auto rates. Combine that with a Fuel$mart loan and other Tech CU discounts, and you could get a rate as low as 4.40% APR* on a new vehicle with a 66-month term. (Learn more here.)
So if you’re in the market for a new car, try to buy it this Friday. With the combination of low car prices and sweet auto loan rates, you could shave thousands of dollars off the price of your next ride.
*Restrictions apply. Please speak with a Tech CU representative for complete details. ‘As low as’ rate of 4.40% APR assumes a new vehicle loan with a term of 66 months at 5.200% APR. Rates as of November 16, 2009 and subject to credit approval and change without notice. Discounts on this rate include a .30% Fuel$mart discount, .25% discount for purchasing from The Car Store and a .25% discount for Relationship Rewards, with a Relationship Rewards level of Premier, requiring an aggregate loan/deposit balance of at least $100,000.
Protect yourself (and save money)
We’ve probably all seen the TV commercials with a guy singing about how he should have gotten his free credit report. Of course, that particular site may eventually cost you some money if you end up signing up for their service, but there are a number of other free sites that will provide you with the copies of the information various financial institutions have stored in their databases on you. All of the sites mentioned in this post are governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and thus allow you to get a copy of your report once a year. You can also dispute incorrect data within your report by following the process specified on each site.
And correcting these reports can save you money, since adverse information may cause insurance companies to charge you higher rates (or not offer you coverage at all), could stop a landlord from renting you an apartment, or could even cause you to not be offered a job.
Here are some of the various organizations that are covered by FCRA and the websites or phone numbers that you can access to get a copy of your information (including financial, banking, public records, medical related, and insurance).
- www.annualcreditreport.com or 877-322-8228 – The authorized site and phone number for obtaining one copy per year of your credit report from each of the big three credit bureaus. One suggestion, get one copy of your report from a single one of the three bureaus every 4 months. That way you can always keep relatively current tabs on your credit report.
- www.choicetrust.com – Information on how to obtain a CLUE (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange) report from ChoicePoint. Contains claims information reported by insurers. Too many claims, and your homeowners insurance may be more expensive or even difficult to get. If you are considering buying a home, ask the seller to obtain the property’s loss-history report for you.
- 800-627-3487 – A-PLUS report, sold by the Insurance Services Office, contains information reported by most insurerers to the Automobile Property Loss Underwriting Service.
- 866-692-6901 – Order your MIB report, which contains information from about 470 US and Canadian life, health, disability income, critical illness, and long term care insurers, including medical conditions reported on individual (not group) insurance applications, as well as test results from medical underwriting exams. You actual medical records are not reported.
- 877-211-4816 – Order your IntelliScript report which contains information about the perscription drugs you’ve used over the last five years, including dosage, refills, and prescribing doctors.
- 888-206-0335 – Order your MedPoint report which contains information about the perscription drugs you’ve used over the last five years, including dosage, refills, and prescribing doctors.
- www.consumerdebit.com – Click on “Order Consumer Report” to obtain your Chex Systems report, which contains information on mishandled checking accounts, including information about overdrafts and accounts closed by a bank, including information including your driver’s license number, unpaid amounts, and who wasn’t paid, plus information concerning if the party was finally paid back.
- www.firstdata.com/support/telecheck_home.htm – Click on “TeleCheck Consumer Assistance” to get your TeleCheck report, which contains information on mishandled checking accounts, including information about overdrafts and accounts closed by a bank, including information including your driver’s license number, unpaid amounts, and who wasn’t paid, plus information concerning if the party was finally paid back.
- www.choicepoint.com – Click on “Access to Your Personal Information” to see the information this database has on you, including auto and homeowner CLUE reports, pre-employment background checks, an “Esteem” report if you ever admitted to or were convicting of shoplifting, eviction and public-records search results, as well as national criminal search results.
- www.lexisnexis.com/privacy/for-consumers/request-personal-information.aspx – LexisNexis Person reports, which includes non-public and publicly availalable information on all sorts of things.
- www.fadvsaferent.com/consumer_relations/index.php or 800-815-8664 – To obtain your First Advantage SafeRent report, containing information about your rent payment history, references, credit ratings, criminal records, etc.
- www.rentbureau.com – Click on “For consumers” to obtain information about your rent payment history, references, credit ratings, criminal records, etc.
Take a free college course
Expand your knowledge and save money at the same time!
Here is yet another way to expand your horizons, while saving your green. Several universities–including U.C. Berkeley, Stanford, and MIT–offer free courses online in several subjects.
These are not-for-credit courses, and you may have to buy textbooks to get the most out of the course, but a wide variety of subjects is available. A comprehensive list of offerings can be found here.
Check out some of these well-known universities:
Protect yourself from scams
Take Charge! California has tips to help you protect yourself.
As we approach the end of the year, we have all worked hard to save some green. The next step is to make sure we all hold on to those savings, and part of that involves not falling for scams. The state of California has set up a website at TakeChargeCA.ca.gov with information about various scams and how to report them.
So, as they used to say on the TV show Hill Street Blues, “Be careful out there!”
Learn a language for free
You could learn a new language and expand your horizons--for free!
If you want to broaden your horizons, but don’t have a lot of money, there are ways to do this. For example, you can learn a foreign language for free at some websites:
- The BBC posts free lessons in seven languages (Chinese, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish) at http://www,bbc.co.uk/languages. This site also includes essential phrases and/or other mini-lessons in at least 36 languages.
- More exotic languages (including Farsi, Swahili, and Tagalog) are available at www.freelanguage.org.
Q&A with Steve – GYG $100 winner, October
What are you saving for?
We’re just setting money aside for emergencies, anything that comes up. We have several accounts–one for emergencies, one for savings, one for retirement.
What steps are you taking to save each month?
Any time we get a large bonus or amount from, say, a stock cash-out, it goes straight into our savings account. Anything left over goes to bills.
What is your biggest obstacle when you’re trying to keep a consistent savings plan?
Right now we have two houses. We’re in the process of selling one of them so that’s our biggest obstacle when it comes to saving. There are a lot of expenses and the rent isn’t covering the mortgage. Once it’s sold, hopefully we can save more.
Has the current economy affected your savings plan at all?
I think we’ve been good about saving so right now, thankfully, we’re OK.
Do you have any savings tips for other ‘Grow Your Green’ savers?
Put a little away each day, even if it’s just a few dollars. It may not seem like a lot but that money really does add up pretty quickly.
Fee-free investing in U.S. bonds
You can invest in United States federal government savings bonds, notes, and bills without paying a maintenance fee or commission. Information is at www.treasurydirect.gov This website also has all sorts of information about the various investment vehicles issued by the government, including notes (longer maturities), bills (shorter maturities), TIPS (inflation protected securities), and savings bonds (including series H, E/EE, and I). If you have lots of savings bonds, there are ways to input the information on these investments, and get a value of all of your holdings.
For normal small accounts, the government does not charge a maintenance fee for an account nor a transaction fee for each investment. Money is pulled right out of your checking account to invest, and deposited back into your checking account when they pay interest or the bill or note matures. You can invest along with the big investors by placing bids or can just submit orders that will be placed at the going rate.
There is also information about upcoming actions of securities.
ARM loans: Are they right for you?
An ARM allows you to receive more money at a lower interest rate than a fixed-rate mortgage loan.
If you’re waiting to buy the home of your dreams, don’t wait too long or you may miss your chance. Home prices and loan rates are at historic lows and a lot of buyers are taking note.
According to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s latest survey, applications for mortgages rebounded last week, rising a seasonally adjusted 8.2 percent as borrowers seek to take advantage of the combination of low home prices and attractive interest rates on home loans.
And, with an ARM loan, you could finally get into that dream home—the one that, just a few years ago, you thought you might never be able to afford.
What is an ARM loan?
An adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) loan is a mortgage with an interest rate that is linked to an economic index. The interest rate and your monthly payments are periodically adjusted as the index changes. (An index is what lenders use to measure interest rate changes.)
The adjustment period is the time between potential interest rate adjustments. Here’s an example:
5/1 ARM
- The first number refers to the initial period of the loan
- The second number refers to how often adjustments can be made after the initial period has ended.
- So in our example of the “5/1 ARM,” the initial period of the loan is 5 years. After that, there could be an interest rate adjustment once a year.
You can learn all the important basic features of an ARM at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adjustable-rate_mortgage.
How can an ARM loan work for you?
The initial interest rate for an ARM is lower than that of a fixed-rate mortgage. Because a lower rate means a lower payment, it might help you get a larger loan.
“Finding a loan that’s right for you depends on your plans for the next 3 to 5, even 20 years,” says Steve Donahue, assistant vice president of Tech CU Mortgage Origination.
Donahue suggests you ask yourself these questions:
- How long do you plan to own the house?
- Do you expect your income to increase in the coming years?
- Will it be enough to cover your mortgage once the interest rate increases?
He says that if you only plan to stay in the home for 3-5 years, or you do expect an increase in income following the introductory period, you should strongly consider an ARM.
Getting a big loan can be tough
With this housing crisis and foreclosure rates through the roof, ARMs have gotten a bad rap. That doesn’t mean an ARM isn’t right for you.
According to a Boston Globe article titled “What So Bad About Adjustable-Rate Mortgages?”:
Indeed, today’s adjustable-rate mortgage is serving a far different market than it was a year or so ago. Gone are the days when lower-income buyers could reach for an ARM to make a home purchase affordable. These days, tighter underwriting standards often requiring a 20 percent down payment have transformed the adjustable loan into a high-end product best suited for people with sterling credit and significant resources. The people who are taking out ARMs today aren’t looking for affordability; they’re looking for ways to best manage their money…. the savings from a jumbo ARM can run into the tens of thousands of dollars in the five-year period before adjusting.
Unfortunately, in today’s tight credit market, getting ARM financing can be difficult–but it may boost your buying power because you get the loan you need for the home you want. Luckily, if you’re considering an ARM loan, Tech CU currently offers 3/1 and 5/1 ARM loans up to $1 million. Whether you choose Tech CU or another financial institution for your mortgage needs, you should speak with a loan specialist to learn more about how you can benefit from a jumbo loan.
“It’s a great time to take advantage of this type of loan, if you can get it,” Donahue says. “When home prices and loan rates are at historic lows, you could end up getting a lot more home for your money, and keep a whole lot of money in your pocket too.”
Top-down drawer approach to savings
The "drawer" system could spur your savings, and give you visible progress toward your money goals.
Now that all of us are saving more, how are we going to put that money towards its best use?
An article not long ago in the Wall Street Journal (the article is by Karen Blumenthal and was published Sept. 23, 2009) suggested a bedroom dresser drawer approach. Just as you have drawers for socks, underwear, etc., design your savings with drawers in mind.
The most important drawer is your emergency fund drawer. Have a minimum of 6 to 9 months of spending in that drawer. If your job is in immediate danger of disappearing, you may want to increase this to a year or more of spending. Then, just don’t touch it.
Other drawers you may want identify and fill are things like retirement (make sure you are saving the maximum towards any company patch), home repair, car replacement, college fund, vacation fund, and even a splurge drawer. As you fill these “drawers”, only pull money out for the identified purpose of that drawer. You may want to create a priority system of how you fund each of these drawers (put the most in the retirement or college drawer and only a little in the splurge drawer).
This system will hopefully spur your savings, and give you visible progress towards your goals. And if you only spend from the account on the identified goal (and put off buying something until you have the required amount of money in the drawer), you might be able to avoid using the credit card for things like vacations or other splurges.
One way to create these savings drawers is to open separate savings accounts at Technology Credit Union. Just like the Challenge Savings account you have hopefully been contributing to, you can create secondary savings accounts with particular goals in mind. And when you have accumulated enough, you can take that money and put it into a CD to earn a higher rate of return on your savings.
So identify your goals, and start stuffing those savings away in your own saving drawers!
Free music and video on the Web
Sites like Amazon.com and Hulu.com offer free music and shows.
You can save some money on music by finding free, legal versions of music on the Web. While this may seem like a scam, two of the biggest music sites offer just that. Both Amazon.com and Apple iTunes have free music available.
Amazon.com
To find the free music on Amazon.com, use the website http://mp3.amazon.com, which will take you to their download store.
Click on the left side where it says “Free Songs and Special Deals.” Amazon.com currently shows a list to the top 25 free songs, and a link to over 500 more free songs.
One hint when viewing lists of music that includes both free and paid music; sort the music by price, and the free songs will appear first in the list. The music you download is yours to keep.
Amazon also offers a larger number of free videos on demand by going to http://vod.amazon.com.
Clicking on the “Free Videos” on the left side of the screen (this is in the “Deals & Freebies” section). The majority of video is streamed, so it is not yours to keep.
iTunes
Apple’s iTunes store also has some free music, as well as some video content. On the iTune Store home page, scroll down to the “Free on iTunes” portion, and click on “Show All”.
iTunes usually offers at least 2 free songs per week (starting on Tuesdays each week). You can download the video content, and it is yours to keep.
As mentioned, iTunes also offers other free content including a few videos, some behind the scene content, some children’s content, some selected scenes from popular movies, as well as some pilot episodes of TV shows, although the content is often a bit limited.
Hulu.com
Another website that offers free TV shows and other video content on demand is Hulu.com. Again, since this is streamed video, you cannot keep it.
ABC, CBS and NBC
And don’t forget to check out the individual networks (abc.com, cbs.com, nbc.com). Many of your favorite shows can be viewed over the Internet for free within a few weeks of airing. Don’t wait too long though, the network sometimes remove them after some period of time.
So save your money and make use of the music and video that is legally available on the Web.
