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Month: April 2021

  • Crazy Ways to Get a Good Scholarship

    Crazy Ways to Get a Good Scholarship

    College is expensive. There’s no two ways about this. The ballooning costs of a college education are a serious problem in the US. While there are loans available for students, they’re generally not a great idea. The interest rates and penalties on private loans are downright predatory, and government loans don’t usually cover everything. To help you out, here are some crazy ways to get a good scholarship!

    Great Websites for Finding a Good Scholarship

    Collegeboard.org

    This site has a great number of features for you to check out. The site is primarily aimed at being a college planning site, but it has a whole division set aside for scholarship. Fill out your profile as accurately as you can and it will help you sniff out great scholarships! If you’ve been in extracurricular activities, have a high GPA or were on a sports team, include that!

    Even students who didn’t do any of those things might find good scholarships. Make sure you fill out all the info about your background, your family and where you’re from. There are scholarships for all kinds of things! You never know what types of markers you might have that make you a good candidate for a scholarship. That’s why it’s so important to fill out the paperwork as accurately and thoroughly as you can!

    Scholarships.com

    It should come as no surprise that a site called Scholarships.com can help you find scholarships. Jokes aside, this is a fantastic resource for college hopefuls. The site features scholarships from a wide variety of sources, and you’re bound to find something that applies to you.

    There are a ton of search criteria you can use to try to find a scholarship for you. Everything from scholarships for academics, sports, clubs and even backgrounds can be found on Scholarships.com. That’s not to say you shouldn’t also make a detailed profile! Again, you can never know just how many great scholarships are just waiting for you!

    Chegg

    Chegg is a cool site for a few reasons. The first reason is pretty evident right away: they’re a great site for finding textbooks! While getting textbooks for your classes is going to be expensive, it’s well worth it. You’ll usually fall behind your classmates and fail the course if you try to wing it without a textbook. It can be tempting to try to find the book for free online, but that’s not always an option. Some books are hard to find, and others are far too big to parse in PDF form.

    All that being said, Chegg is a great place to buy college textbooks from. They have good prices and a great search function. Whether you’re a freshman going in or a returning upperclassman, you should check out Chegg’s bookstore. As for the scholarships, they have a wide variety you can search on their site too!

    Simply go to the homepage and select “colleges.” Then, in the drop menu, select “scholarships.” As you would expect, there are a number of criteria you can search through to find a scholarship that’s right for you. They even have a “top scholarships this week” filter to help you find some of the most popular options among other students.

    As with the other sites in this list, you can also make a detailed profile. Make sure to include all pertinent information: it can help you get the best scholarships! Every little bit helps!

    The U.S. Labor Department’s Free Search Tool

    It’s good to check with this free search tool, as well. If you’ve already applied for FAFSA, this should be your next step. The government has a number of programs in place to help you figure out good ways to pay for college. Remember: people want you to succeed. Your success is important! Government programs like this is funded by taxes and made to help the people. That’s you!

    If you still need help after checking all of these sites, consider speaking to your university’s financial aid office. It can be really difficult to find enough assistance to pay for school! Just remember that you can take government subsidized loans out relatively safely. Just be really careful that you don’t take out more loans than you’ll be able to pay back!


  • Revisit Your Cloud: It May Save You More Time and Money Than You Think

    Revisit Your Cloud: It May Save You More Time and Money Than You Think

    Has 2020 shaken your company’s Work From Home strategy?

    Cloud technology is what enables employees to work from any location, giving them access via a virtual environment to the same information that they’d have access to from the office. Collaboration and communication tools ensure that your customers’ employees can use the latest techniques and complete work at the same level as they would be able to from their office desktop.

    It also allows you to save time and money on office space while opening your recruiting to top talent anywhere in the world.

    Employees can access documents and data that they need by using specific credentials to maintain security at the same time as giving them flexibility to work from home or any other location. This can be useful when your customers have multiple office locations, such as if they have a primary central office and smaller remote offices from additional locations. Cloud technology provides a greater level of flexibility and shared access to information centrally accessible via a single server.

    Below are some of the best solutions in the business

    1. Amazon Web Services

    Creative cloud computing from one of the big names

    Highly customizableFree trialSome customer support issues
    AWS was founded in 2006. It provides on demand cloud computing to individuals and organizations.

    Amazon Web Services is a cloud-based program for building business solutions using integrated web services. AWS offers an extensive range of IaaS and PaaS services. These include Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2), Elastic Beanstalk, Simple Storage Service (S3) and Relational Database Service (RDS)

    AWS offers extensive admin controls available via their secure Web client. Users can access a number of features from here including encryption key creation and auditing.

    Aws lets you customize infrastructure requirements. This costs far less than if you were set up in your own premises.

    Users can also access EC2 we services. This permits you to run and acquire servers as necessary.

    AWS has three different pricing models; ‘Pay as you Go’, ‘Save when you reserve’ and ‘Pay less using more’. For more information about these, users must contact sale directly.

    AWS also offers a free 12-month tier. Once your trial period has expired, you must either choose a paid plan or cancel your AWS subscription.

    2. Microsoft Azure

    A wide array of services from a tech giant

    Microsoft Azure was released nearly a decade ago, in 2010. Users can run any service on the cloud or combine it with any existing applications, data centre or infrastructure.

    Microsoft Azure provides a wide array of solutions suitable for all types of industry. All your business needs will be taken into consideration. This results in a package better suited for needs.

    Azure means there is no need to have physical servers on site. This reduces the usual costs, such as an onsite server support team.

    The Azure Migration Centre makes cloud transfers faster and easier. The solution is also compatible with Linux.

    Microsoft Azure offers a 12-month free tier which includes access to all popular services, $200 (£153.74) credit and over 25 ‘Always Free’ services. All of Microsoft Azure’s prices and plans are laid out in great detail on their site. The page includes a cost calculator and a ‘Pay as you go’ service. Each plan can be tailored to your specific needs.

    Some users have noted that the price can be quite high relative to other services.

    3. Google Cloud

    Elastic and inexpensive cloud computing from the genii of Google

    User friendly 12-month free trial, although Setup can be tricky

    Google Cloud Platform is Google’s cloud service provider. The platform enables users to create business solutions using Google-provided, modular web services. It offers a wide array of services including IaaS and PaaS solutions.

    With Google Cloud’s multi layered secure infrastructure, users can rest assured that anything you build, create, code or store will be protected. This is done through a commitment to transparency and a highly trained team of engineers.

    Google Cloud has a variety of tools to ensure consistent performance and management. These include Compute Engine, App Engine, Container Engine, Cloud Storage and Big Query. Google also offers smooth migration to virtual machines with flexible pricing.

    There is a free 12-month trial, which includes $300 (£230.62) towards all services and products offered by Google Cloud Platform.

    Some online commenters have mentioned that setup can be difficult for beginners.

    4. IBM Cloud

    Reasonably priced cloud services from one of the tech masters

    IBM Cloud is a set of cloud computing services offered by the eponymous tech giant IBM. The solution offers platform as a service, software as a service and infrastructure as a service.

    IBM Cloud offers a wide range of services. Not all of them are cloud based: it covers both virtual and hardware –based servers, composed of public, private and management networks.

    As hardware and virtual-based servers are combined into one on demand cloud-platform, you have complete infrastructure control. IBM refer to their hardware servers as ‘bare metal’. These provide clients with sole access to their entire server. This reduces the ‘noisy neighbor’ effect and greatly improves performance.

    IBM Cloud is integrated and managed by a single system that can be controlled via web portal, API (Application Programming Interface) or mobile apps.

    IBM Cloud’s Bluemix developing solution has a wide range of cloud SaaS management tools.

    IBM Cloud also offers full server customization. This means that everything that is included in the server is handpicked by you. This way you do not have to pay for features that you might never use.

    IBM also offer a ‘Lite’ tier. This has no time limit, will not ask for credit card details and includes 256MB of Cloud Foundry Memory. After this you have the option of the ‘Pay as you Go’ Tier where you only pay for what you use. The website has a calculator which you can use to estimate costs. If neither of these are suitable, you can contact IBM for a subscription package tailored to suit your needs.

    5. Oracle Cloud

    Another IT behemoth cloud service

    Oracle Cloud is another cloud service from a computing behemoth, and as you’d expect it’s both a powerful and feature-packed platform. A recent Forrester review noted that Oracle’s services were especially strong at supporting different workloads, especially for IoT, OLTP, microservices, along with applications dependent on AI and machine learning. There are two main service provisions available: cloud architecture, and storage data.

    Cloud architecture includes data management, databases, and applications, while the Oracle Data Cloud is primarily for driving big data analytics for business intelligence insights. Oracle also provides a range of SaaS (Software as a Service) platforms such as HCM, EPM, SCM, and social media tools.

    As expected, there are a vast range of potential involved in using Oracle’s cloud services, but they are really designed to accommodate enterprise needs rather than small businesses or individuals.

    For those who do sign up, aside from a 30-day free trial, Oracle Cloud also offers a free service tier which includes unlimited access to two autonomous databases which comes with Oracle Application Express (APEX) and Oracle SQL

    Developer, as well as two compute VMs, block, object, and archive storage, as well as load balancing, monitoring, and notifications.


  • Create Your Own Website for Free: Get Yourself Out There

    Create Your Own Website for Free: Get Yourself Out There

    No matter what you do, having your own website can be a huge boon. There’s a lot to be said for the strength of having an online presence for your brand.

    Maybe you’re an artist, a designer, a PR firm, a small business owner or a visionary. No matter what you do, a website can help anchor your image and give you an online identity.

    Today we’re going over how you can make your own website for free and make your mark on the internet.

    When it comes to making a splash in the digital sphere, less can often be more. Here are our tips for how you can make your own website for free.

    Create Your Own Website

    Pick Your Builder

    The first thing you have to do is pick out the site you’ll use to build your website. There are a few popular options, though the top three are undisputed. We’ll go over the top three and tell you what the major pros and cons of each are.

    Wix

    Wix is a popular platform that you may have seen advertised on various YouTube videos or web ads. A lot of people like Wix due to its high-quality mobile templates and ready-to-use site building tools.

    One need not know a great deal about web design to make a good-looking website with Wix.

    The free version of the Wix website builder results in a domain name that is under the Wix banner. If you opt to pay, you can get your own URL, which is great if you’re a small business owner and want your own identity.

    The free site builder, however, does allow for a robust suite of tools to make a site that looks great.

    uKit

    uKit is a very popular pick for site building, though it’s not as well-known as Wix and WordPress. It’s preferred by business owners, due to its unique layout and ease of use. The biggest draw to uKit isn’t the free version, however, but the affordable $3/month business plan.

    WordPress

    WordPress is one of the most popular site building tools in the world. In fact, this site was built on WordPress! Text-based sites that focus on articles are a great fit for WordPress. The free version, like Wix, gives you a WordPress domain.

    Keep in mind when you’re considering WordPress for your own personal website that it’s easy to add and change images and designs. There’s a lot of flexibility with WordPress, though the focus is much more on words than on images.


  • What’s the Best Website Builder for 2021?

    What’s the Best Website Builder for 2021?

    When it comes to making websites, it’s much easier today than it was 20 years ago. If you’re looking to make a great website, look no further than these excellent resources. Below are our picks for the best web creation tools for 2021!

    The Best Website Builder tools for 2021

    Wix

    Wix is a cloud-based site building platform that is quite popular. It offers a lot of templates and tons of customization options. Their site builder is a drag-and-drop style, meaning it’s incredibly straightforward and easy-to-use. If you’re brand new to web design, it’s a great launching point. Their free version has limited bandwidth and storage, but you can use it to see if you like the style. If so, you can upgrade to premium and get to building more content for your site! The downsides are there, though: it’s unwieldy to move from Wix to another platform. That said, it’s still a good choice.

    Shopify

    A great resource for building online storefronts, Shopify is a fully-hosted site builder. All the data and backups are hosted on their servers. They’re a little on the pricey side, but they offer a great service. You can even integrate your Shopify page into WordPress! They also use a drag and drop style, meaning building your site is very straightforward. If you’re looking to open an online storefront, this is your way to do it.

    Weebly

    Weebly is another fully-hosted site, which is a pro and a con. While your data is backed up and safe, you also can’t change the site functionality. Their site builder is quick and intuitive, though, so you’ve got nothing to worry about there. They also have e-commerce integration, but they charge a 3% transaction fee. All said, they’re a good choice, but not the most popular.

    Squarespace

    Thanks in large part to aggressive advertising via YouTubers, Squarespace is a well-known name on the internet. The web-building tools are top-notch, and it’s easily one of the best out there. You don’t sacrifice a good-looking website for how easy it is to build with the platform. Many swear by the platform’s tools, and it’s rapidly gaining ground as a favorite of web-builders. The only downsides are the limited third-party integration. For instance, they only accept transactions through Apple Pay, PayPal or Stripe, so your options are limited.

    WordPress

    One of the most popular web platforms, WordPress is a fantastic resource. In fact, the site you’re currently on is powered by WordPress! It’s a relatively inexpensive service, but it has a bit of a learning curve. That said, it’s a flexible and robust tool to create any kind of site you would like to make. If you want to exert maximum control, this is a great tool for you! Consider WordPress if a small learning curve doesn’t deter you from making whatever site you have in mind.


  • 7 Ways to Fly for Cheap

    7 Ways to Fly for Cheap

    Cheap airfare, it’s something we’re all looking for. Finding decent prices on flights can be difficult though. It is human nature to want to travel, to explore your horizons and see new places, or perhaps, to return to the places you once knew.

    Whether you want to visit home or see an exotic location, airline travel is fast, but costs a lot of money. What is the best way for finding cheap airline tickets? How do you even start? Whether you are traveling for work, for vacation, or to visit family or friends, finding cheap airfare can help you save on what’s often the largest expense of your trip.

    If you’re trying to take a trip and keep finding it difficult to get a decent price, you’re probably looking for some new travel hacks to help you save some money. Well, the good news is that we’re here to help. Let’s talk about the best ways to fly for cheap! Read more below to learn about who is offering the best rates at an amazing price $73 and $39 for one-way flights!

    Best Ways to Fly for Cheap

    Compare Airfares

    Airfares vary widely, and discount airfare is out there for those who know where to look. The most important thing is that you make sure to compare airfares. The rates offered by one airline may be much higher or lower than the rates of another. If you use one of the popular travel sites, you can easily compare airfares from different airlines.

    Also, if you have any flexibility in your schedule, try putting different dates into the sites’ ticket finders to see if that makes a difference. For example, currently, Southwest Airlines is offering flights as low as $73, and Delta is offering flights as low as $39 during the holiday season.

    Use Reputable Flight Search Engines

    Some flight search engines actually get a cut from airlines when they help generate sales. That means that you could search for “budget flights” and have normal or even premium flights show up. In order to counter this, use reputable search engines that don’t mislead you. Great options are Skyscanner, Momondo, AirWander and JetRadar. Like we said previously don’t be afraid to shop around to find the best price.

    Get Tickets Early

    Get your tickets early — but not too early. You may think it would be smart to buy tickets six months in advance, but in fact, getting tickets more than five months before you need them may keep you from getting the best fares. Aim for two to four months in advance, if possible. If you can’t plan that far in advance, at least try to avoid the two-week period right before a flight, when ticket prices tend to go up.

    Specialty sites like “air fare watch dog” provide a medium for you to search for deals between two specific locations, and also can send you alerts when prices drop to a much more affordable rate. This is perfect for those who know where they want to travel, just are not too concerned about when. They can snag a great deal and plan their trip once they get that informative e-mail from the website.

    Airport Selection

    Fly in or out of airports that are not in your destination city. If you are flying into New York City, you may be able to get cheaper fares at the Newark airport than you would in New York City’s JFK Airport. If you are going to or from San Francisco, try the Oakland or San Jose airports. Many other cities also have airports that are nearby but outside of the city limits. Flying out of an alternate airport isn’t even necessarily a hardship. For example, If you are going to some parts of Manhattan, ground transportation may get you there faster from Newark than from JFK.

    You will benefit on price, though, because not as many people will think of using the other airports, so the seats won’t sell out as quickly. Always think in terms of supply and demand when trying to find cheap airfare.

    Non-Direct Flights

    Accept a little inconvenience in exchange for a cheaper price. You may be able to save money on long trips by taking routes where you change planes rather than taking a non-stop flight. If you’re not in a hurry, you don’t need to pay a premium for the faster route. Try traveling lighter to avoid the luggage fees that so many airlines are charging now. Be creative in figuring out how to get by with fewer things on your trip.

    Incognito Mode

    Lock up your search history tight and don’t look back. When you start looking at flights and trips, make sure you’re in incognito mode. When you search for flight prices, sites use cookies to track how many times you’ve looked at the flight. Each new time you look, the price goes up. Why? Well, to get you to buy as soon as possible so you “lock in the lowest price.” Yeah, it’s dirty, but you can fight back!

    By browsing incognito, you won’t have any cookies tracking you. This allows you to bypass this dirty trick and get a better price for your flight!

    Find the Cheapest Days to Book

    Try to fly on a Tuesday or a Wednesday, if possible. Those are often the cheapest days of the week. If possible, avoid Fridays and Sundays, when rates tend to go up. Flying right before a major holiday, like Thanksgiving or Christmas, is going to be very expensive. But if you are able to fly on the day of the holiday itself, you can usually pick up some very cheap fares because not many people want to fly then.


  • 4 Secrets to Save the Most $$$ on a Flight

    4 Secrets to Save the Most $$$ on a Flight

    Everyone loves traveling, and the most time-efficient way to go large distances is by flying. However, flying can be expensive, especially if you don’t fly frequently enough to rack up frequent flyer miles and earn savings that way. If you don’t fly often but want to find the best deals, where should you start? Today we’re answering just that with our guide to low-budget flights and saving money while traveling.

    Saving Money on a Flight

    Fly Coach

    This might sound like pretty obvious advice, but our first tip is that you fly coach. While it can be tempting to fly first class to make the trip plush and nice, there’s nothing wrong with saving money by buying the least expensive ticket you can find. After all, the more you save on the flight, the more you can spend when you get to your destination!

    There’s nothing wrong with hanging in the back of the plane in a smaller seat with less fancy amenities. It’s not like you’re going to have to spend more than a few hours in the plane, so why spend as much as double the ticket price just to get a bigger seat and a bit more legroom? In either case, you’re on the same plane, going to the same destination, taking the same amount of time.

    Search Incognito

    When you’re searching around to find the best deals on plane tickets, make sure you’re doing so incognito. To open an incognito window, just click in the top right of your browser’s settings and hit “open new Incognito Window.” This makes it so sites can’t track your cookies and keep up with who you are, allowing you to go under the radar.

    This is to help you get the lowest price by sidestepping a sneaky airline trick. Airlines will continually jack up the price of tickets the more you view them online, in order to get you to panic and buy them sooner rather than later. To avoid paying this extra amount, shop incognito to keep them from tracking your browsing habits.

    Stay Off Major Search Engines

    Sorry, Google, but you’re not great for airline prices. Most major search engines get a cut of ticket prices when they help generate sales, so the prices you’ll see through them are also inflated. This is another scummy upcharge that you would do well to side-step entirely in order to find the best price. Instead of going through major search engines, you can look for budget airlines through broader engine searches.

    These include options like SkyScanner, which helps you find the best deals on specifically airlines, and Momondo, a broad search engine that can sometimes fetch budget airlines even cheaper than SkyScanner. Other great options you could check out include AirFare Watchdog, JetRadar, AirWander and Cheapoair. Remember, no one search engine is ideal: you’ll likely find the best results by using a combination of all of these options.

    Find the Cheapest Booking Days/Times

    It’s no secret that the prices of airline tickets can change dramatically based on when you buy them. The time of week, the time of day, the length of time until the flight leaves, all of these factors have a role to play in the cost of the ticket. Narrowing down the best time to fly out can feel a bit more mystical than scientific, though.

    There are a few things you can do to make sure you’re getting the best price based on the date you buy your ticket. One of the best resources is actually the SkyScanner website, which can help you narrow down the best days and times to buy, showing you an easy-to-read calendar with clear indicators of prices. It’s really the best way to shop for airline tickets!


  • Need a New Ride? Top Affordable Compact Luxury Cars

    Need a New Ride? Top Affordable Compact Luxury Cars

    Everyone loves getting to drive a nice new car. There’s something about being behind the wheel of a luxury car that’s ineffable and hard to place. It’s like you become the master of your own little domain, able to zoom around corners and go where you want. Not everyone can swing the huge payments to own a nice new car though.

    So, how do you find a compromise between a nice ride but not having to take a long time to pay it off? Thankfully, you can check out our list of the top luxury cars that won’t break the bank! These are luxurious, compact and affordable, and will keep you riding in style even as you keep your car payments reasonable.

    2018 Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class

    Mercedes-Benz, a well-known name in the world of luxury cars, offers the CLA-Class as a more affordable entry option to their range of vehicles. While you’ll only pay $33,695 for base models of the 2018, you’ll get the full Mercedes-Benz luxury experience. Some of the base features are pretty high-tech and impressive. For instance, it comes stock with drowsy-driver sensors, forward collision mitigation and rain-sensing windshield wipers. If that’s not enough for you, it even sports dual-zone climate control and Bluetooth! Add-ons include LED headlights, heated seats and adaptive cruise control. You can even opt for blind spot monitoring if you’re like me and forget to check those every time!

    2018 Acura ILX

    The ILX is a great choice for those who want a luxury ride but still want to have a practical vehicle. This vehicle has some pretty sweet amenities for its low price tag. While base models cost about $29,000, they also have keyless entry and ignition and heated front seats. they also sport dual-zone climate control, for when the driver and passenger feel comfortable in two different temperatures, and automatic LED headlights to help cut through hazardous weather conditions. For those who want a bit more, they can also opt for some safety features like adaptive cruise control and front collision mitigation. The ILX can also be equipped with navigation, leather upholstery and satellite radio.

    2018 Audi A3

    The next car on our list, the elegant Audi A3, starts at around $33,000. And it does more than just look pretty: it has some stellar luxury features. The A3 comes standard with forward collision mitigation, helping make sure you keep your nice new luxury car out of trouble. It also ensures a comfortable ride, with heated front seats and leather upholstery, and even a panoramic sunroof! If you want even more, you can opt to add on blind spot monitoring to even further keep your A3 (and yourself) safe, and even parking sensors. To round it all out, you can even opt for Apple CarPlay mirroring, letting you use your phone as your car stereo!

    2018 Volvo S60

    An extremely elegant car, and a great buy for $35,095. The S60 is a looker and boasts an incredibly comfortable ride to boot. Base models have low-speed collision mitigation, which is great when driving around town. They also have xenon headlights, leather upholstery and sunroof equipped standard. Oh, and don’t forget the Wi-Fi connectivity. Pretty cool, right? You can also opt for rear parking sensors, adaptive cruise control and navigation.

    2018 BMW 3 Series

    The 3 Series is the most affordable of BMW’s luxury cars, but it feels anything but “affordable.” This decadent ride is smooth, responsive and just plain fun to drive. You can grab a base model for $35,895, and that equips you with push-button start, dual-zone climate control and rain-sensing windshield wipers. You even get Bluetooth connectivity! If you want a more upgraded experience, you can also opt for a sunroof, among other awesome options.

    Tesla Model 3

    When it comes to brand recognition, few cars are in the same boat as Tesla. The astonishing range and acceleration on display in the Model 3 make its all-electric powertrain that much more impressive. The luxurious interior, with its minimalist design and simple center screen, feels like a car from the future.
    For the price of $35,000 you can get the Standard Range Tesla, though a few thousand more bucks gets you the Long Range. It’s a difference of about a hundred miles of range, as the Standard Range allows for an impressive 240 miles, while the Long Range sports 310 miles. The Long Range will run you a steeper $49,500.
    The Model 3 makes our list, however, due to the all-electric nature of the vehicle working in conjunction with its great drive and range. This is, for all intents and purposes, a totally normal car that also happen to need neither gas nor oil. You won’t need to fill it up, get oil changes or worry about most regular maintenance. That’s all behind you once you go fully electric.


  • How to Save Money on a New Car

    How to Save Money on a New Car

    Buying a new car comes with a huge cost. You shell out tens of thousands of dollars, or take on the burden of an auto loan. Being able to afford a new car requires years of saving money, researching your options, and digging deep to find the right deal.

    Yet there’s something you should know: car manufacturers are cutting prices. A new car doesn’t cost as much as you might think. Thanks to increased competition among automakers, prices are dropping. Every car manufacturer wants your business, but they know you’re too smart to go after the first low price you see. You want the lowest possible price and the best car in the market.

    The average car on the road is about ten years old. Cars are becoming less expensive across the board to compensate as manufacturers struggle to get new cars on the road. Dealerships are even scrambling to get old cars off of their lots to make room for new models. Are you taking advantage of this advantageous climate? Here’s the insight about the auto industry you need to stay ahead of the curve and take advantage of these incredible deals.

    How to Save Money on a New Car

    Different Choices Equal Lower Prices

    Every car company is trying to stay ahead of the pack by creating more new options every year. This could work to your advantage. With so many different options, you could choose anything you want. Want an SUV or crossover? There’s one available from every car manufacturer, from affordable to luxury. Looking for a sedan or convertible? Each automaker has their own take on these types of cars. Special features, add-ons like warranties and maintenance packages, even upgrades on car interiors can all be compared too.

    Car manufacturers are at war over their prices. Facing stiffer competition across the market, car companies know they need to capture your attention. No one manufacturer wants to miss out on luring new customers, new car buyers–and when one automaker is lowering its prices, the rest of the pack follows. This trend could potentially save you thousands of dollars.

    You Can Afford a Luxury Car

    Luxury car brands are competing with each other as well, trying to offer the best features at the lowest prices. They know you have a lot of options to choose from, so they want to stay ahead of the game. Affordable automakers’ cars are catching up to luxury brands. With fancy, tech-savvy features like backup cameras, lane assist, and infotainment systems now the norm, luxury brands are starting to scramble. They know you could score a similar car from another company for less, and they don’t want to lose your business.

    Anyone can afford a luxury car thanks to this race amongst automakers. You simply need to know what a brand’s competitors are offering for a given model, and you can use that information to get a significantly reduced rate on the luxury car you’ve been eyeing for years.

    Do Your Research

    Don’t just walk onto a dealership lot looking a good sticker price. You’ll end up overspending by a lot and driving home with an outdated model you spent too much on. Car salespeople are really good at hyping up nothing at all and getting you to part with your hard-earned money. Before you get swept up by a sales pitch, do your research. You’ll want to know all of your options.

    Get a feel for what different brands and features cost. If you like features like lane assist, back-up cams and infotainment systems you’re in luck. Those features have become standard on pretty much every car. From luxury cars to affordable options, high-tech features are now the norm.

    Compare and Shop Online

    You don’t even need to head into a physical dealership. You can shop for cars entirely online if you so choose. That way you not only avoid the salespeople but you also get to shop at a slower pace. Slower paced shopping means you get to compare prices at your leisure and decide on which features you really want.

    Talk to Your Friends

    If your friends have nice cars or recently bought new ones, talk to them! They’ll be able to tell you way their shopping experience was like and how much they spent. If you’re looking to upgrade to a new vehicle this is a good way to get a feel for what people like. Your friends can even tell you which features they use a lot and enjoy and which ones aren’t really worth the money.

    Just remember that you should shop at your own pace! You’re in no rush to get a new vehicle. If you shop at your own place and avoid the typical car-buying process you’ll end up saving a lot of money.

    Local Dealerships Don’t Want You to Know About These Deals

    Visit your local car dealerships, and you won’t find these amazing deals. Why? They’ll lose money if they let you in on their secret and sell you a car at the manufacturer’s reduced rate.  If you walk into a car dealership today, they will try to sell you a new car for the highest price possible. You could spend all day at a dealership trying to convince a salesperson to lower their price.

    Why waste your precious time when there’s an easier way? Armed with the right research, you can skip settling for bank-breaking dealerships. There are other options for buying a car at significantly lower prices. If you follow the tips above and do your research, shop online for different prices and talk to friends you will be armed with everything you need to know–and they’ll show you sticker prices far less than those at the dealership.

    Stop being jealous of all the new cars on the road–you can purchase one too for the best price on the market. You simply need to keep searching the top money-saving sites. In the age of technology, there are many online resources to help you buy the car of your dreams!


  • What Should You Pay for a New Car?

    What Should You Pay for a New Car?

    Who doesn’t love the idea of driving around in a brand-new car? Not many people get to enjoy the fun of taking a new car out for a spin, let alone owning one. If you’re thinking about getting a new vehicle, maybe you’re wondering how much you should be spending for your car payment. Should you own, or should you lease? There are a lot of questions when it comes to cars and car payments, so let’s get into it.

    New Car Info

    Buy or Lease?

    Firstly, you need to think about whether or not you want to buy or lease a car. There are a few reasons why you might go with either. Buying a car ensures that you’ll have an actual piece of property when you’re done paying for it, meaning you can resell it later to recoup some of the value. Remember, however, that cars aren’t investments, and they only ever lose value over time.

    If you’re just wanting to drive a new car and don’t want very high monthly payments, you can opt for a car lease. A lease allows you to pay less than a new car payment, on average, and still drive around a brand-new vehicle. However, you have to deal with mileage caps (and fees if you go over) and you won’t own the car at the end of the lease.

    What to Spend

    If you decide to buy your car, you’re going to want to know what to spend on your car payment. Unless you’re fantastically wealthy, odds are good you’re not paying with your new ride in full when you walk into the dealership. As such, you’re going to need a loan from someone. You can go through a bank for an auto loan, or you can finance through the dealership.

    When you look at your budget, don’t just see if you can manage a car payment. Try to get your payments as low as you can while still getting a reliable vehicle. For instance, if you make an average amount of money, it’s not wise to stretch your budget in order to scrape by making $500 (or higher) payments every month for several years.

    Rule of Thumb

    A good rule of thumb to follow is the 20/4/10 rule. This rules holds that you should make the down payment at least 20 percent of the car’s cost, you should never finance for more than 4 years, and you shouldn’t let a car’s expenses exceed 10 percent of your income. That ten percent needs to include car payment, interest, principal, insurance, gas and maintenance.

    This might sound like it accounts for a very small amount of your money. That’s because it should! In general, you want to make sure you’re not exceeding this for your vehicle’s payments. Otherwise, you’re letting your car eat up too much of your monthly pay, and you’ll find it hard to save for anything or get ahead.

    Could You Go Over?

    In theory, yes, you could go over this rule of thumb. Many people who love luxury cars end up spending far in excess of ten percent of their gross income on their vehicle expenses. However, we highly recommend you make any exceptions to this rule with a very good reason. For instance, if you’re buying an electrical vehicle which will net you a tax break this year, you can include that calculation for the purchase.

    Likewise, if you’re incredibly patient and simply save up the money for as much as half of the car’s value as a down payment, you can play with the numbers a bit more. However, it can be incredibly difficult to remain that patient, especially when you might not have the best vehicle for your current daily commute.


  • Top Reasons to Buy a Used Car

    Top Reasons to Buy a Used Car

    Does anything beat that new car smell? Yes, we’d say, the smell of money in your wallet beats that new car smell. See, when you’re saving money by buying used, you’re coming out with a lot more cash in your wallet. Today we’re running down the best reasons to buy a used car when you need a new ride. Make the right call when you hit the dealership!

    Top Reasons to Buy a Used Car

    Car Values

    It’s no secret that new cars cost a lot more than they have any business costing. That’s why a new car depreciates by 50% in the first three years after it rolls off of the lot. This really stinks when you buy a new car and go to trade it in a few years later. The thousands of dollars it’s lost in value is essentially gone, and you’re about to sink the excess value into another new car.

    Stretch your Money

    It doesn’t have to be that way, though. If you go to a used car dealership and look for a 3-year-old vehicle, you can get a nice, modern car for half the price of a new car. Beyond that, once a car is three years old, it’s stopped depreciating at such a dramatic rate.

    That means, after you’ve driven your used car around for a few years, it’s unlikely that you’ll have a hard time selling it for a similar amount that you spent on it. This goes double if you’re buying used cars with lots of options, like infotainment systems, safety features and the like.

    Insurance

    Driving a new car is expensive for a lot of reasons. One of those reasons, on top of the sheer cost of a new car, is the insurance. Insurance on a new car can be as much as double the price for the same vehicle that’s three years old.

    Here’s the thing: you won’t feel the difference driving a three-year-old car around the road unless you’re a professional driver. Your insurance company, however, marks that difference in cold, hard cash. Cash that you could save for fun stuff like going on vacation or just for putting in your savings account.

    Choices

    Most dealerships have much wider varieties of cars that are used. After all, the newest cars have to appeal to a very specific kind of driver. If you’re looking for the right car for you, your best bet is going to be looking at a used car. Make your budget go farther for you by buying used for your next car.