Trade or Sell Your Car

The much hotter topics usually being about whether to finance or pay cash and to lease or buy are always being discussed, but the topic of whether to sell your car on the private market or trade it in is usually not as popular. Mostly because people automatically assume selling private means more money, but that's not always the case. Based on my experience, I have found that trading in your car has a number of benefits usually forgotten: 1. Convenience. No hassle and worries about advertising and letting people test drive your car. 2. Since the value of the trade in gets deducted pre-tax from the final value of your new car purchase, you save on taxes. This can be substantial especially if your trade in is worth more. On a $10,000.00 trade in, in a state with a 5% tax rate, that means $500.00 in additional saving off taxes. Plus you can finance less, if you choose financing. 3. You don't have to worry about someone coming back to your house demanding money if something goes wrong with the car. Even if you are completely honest and disclose everything, there are occassions where problems do arise. It's nice to know you don't have to worry about it. I should also add one more note, if you sell your car on the private market, some states require you to pay sales tax. I'm not sure how that works, but I believe California might be one of those. CORRECTION: If you buy a car from a private seller, you are responsible to pay tax, in California at least. So disregard that last statement...that's from a buyer's perspective and shouldn't concern your decision to trade or sell.

Free Smart Money Magazine

Better check this one out quick...don't know when it'll end. Free subscription to Electronic Gaming Monthly, Popular Mechanics or Smart Money Magazines. Smart Money being the probable selection. :) Thanks to SlickDeals.net: Free Magazine Subscription

USPS and Cheap{er} Shipping - Flate Rate

Did you know that USPS now has a "flat-rate" box? It doesn't matter how much you put in it as long as it fits in the box...It costs $8.10 and includes shipping confirmation if you print online. If you ship over 2lbs, then this is worth it! You can even order free supplies, although they have to be in minimums of 25 boxes. The boxes are free, and there are no shipping charges to the US. Flat rate boxes Tape, stickers, and other envelopes and boxes

PFBlogs.org - The Mother Blog

If you're looking for a one stop source of blogging info, check out pfblogs.org. It's simple and contains a link to tons of personal finance, real estate, and investing blogs. It is updated every 30 minutes when this post was written. Imagine if they had live updates, it would be crazy hitting refresh on that site. Well, it is the mother blog. Let's help keep pfblogs.org ad-free! Spread the word, it's a great site, and go check it out!

Housing Bubble Bursting in Hawaii?

A recent article in the Honolulu Advertiser caught my attention. The main reason was because for the first time since March of 2002, the number of days houses sat on the market reached 40. But the second point of interest was that no matter what the market seems to indicate, optimism is prevalent. For example:

Despite the sales slowdown, local economists and real estate experts say sale prices should continue to rise this year but at a more moderate rate of 5 percent to 15 percent, compared with 30 percent last year.

Now if the housing market is slowing down, why would housing prices continue to go up? If the market slows, doesn't that mean a decline in prices come along with it? Just doesn't make sense to me.

My Puppy Gets Bit...

This past Saturday, as I took my dog to puppy training class, he got bit by a golden retriever. My dog was on a leash and there were 2 goldens tied down on the grass. They were just laying there...figured they must be friendly since all the dogs coming were for obedience school. Well, even then they are still dogs. No growl or warning from the golden, just a quick strike to the face of my dog. 2 stitches to the upper eye lid, and 1 below...he's okay though. No damage to the eyeball, which is good. He's doing much better now, just hates that cone on his head. Their owner was near the street out of view. He said sorry, but didn't mention anything about reimbursement for the vet bills. Luckily the instructor knows who the owner is...he's the director of the dog program. Anyway, my instructor asked me to give him the bill and a letter, and he'll give it to the owner. The total cost for this incident: $320.00. Lessons learned: 1. Never let you dog get close to another dog s/he doesn't know when owner is not near. 2. Never leave any dog unattended in an area where other dogs and people may come close. They grow so fast! He was a crazy, peeing, pooping machine! Now he's much better...Still crazy at times :). Okay, and still a peeing, pooping machine, but at least he knows where to go now.

Free USB Drive

Thanks to slickdeals.org, if you're interested...a free USB drive from Microsoft. I'll try to post the good stuff here...especially free, because free is always good!

Free Credit Report

Once a year, you are eligible for a free credit report provided by all 3 major credit bureaus, Experian, TranUnion, and Equifax. If you haven't already, go get one! I usually do one report at a time, because you can do each individually during the report process. So, I do one in January, then in May, then in September. I don't really have a system for choosing which first, but then at least you can get a glance throughout the year at how your credit is doing.

Poll: 2006 better or worse than 2005?

Considering your current financial situation, are things getting better in 2006? Please vote how you feel. Maybe you saved more than all last year? Maybe you have more debt? Maybe you just feel like everything is the same...Thanks for your input!

02.2006 - Net Worth Update

Net Worth for February Assets (Type - Amount - % of total assets): Cash - $88,813.74 - 44.24% Stocks - $21,411.86 - 10.67% Retirement - $90,528.51 - 45.09% Liabilities: Credit Cards - $6,964.97 (Mostly 0% interest) Car Loan - $16,606.39 @ 4.25% Current net worth: $177,182.75 Analysis Net change vs last update: $20,607.36 Percent increase vs last update: 13.16% My net worth increased significantly this month because I am now fully vested in my pension fund. Looking at my assets, I think I have too much money allocated in cash accounts. I would like to target 30% allocation to stocks. Any opinions on what percentage of your overall net worth should be in retirement? One of my friends once said that he doesn't believe in putting away money for retirement, just the minimum if anything, because he doesn't even know if he's going to be around to spend it. That kind of made me think about it too...but the tax advantage of putting it away makes me continue.