"SHOW ME THE MONEY" VIEWS on HOW to make MONEY GR

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I was just thinking about efficient ways to purchase cars today.

How do you guys feel about buying a three year old car, keeping it three years, selling it, repeat?

It seems like a good idea because you'll avoid maintenance costs, always getting newer technology as gas efficiency improves, avoiding the mark-up of a new car, etc.

It seems like a good plan. What do you older, more experienced folk thing?

[MJZiggy]

Getting cars used is a very good idea. You do have to know what to look for in a used car though. I would start with Consumer Reports and see how the cars you're interested in tested out. With today's technology though, unless there is a significant improvement, there is no real need to trade it in after three years. Many cars these days are built to last longer than you'd expect, so unless there's some great advance like when second generation air bags were introduced, there's no reason to trade. There are also articles and such that will tell you that they really haven't made that many advances in mileage, etc. and diesels and hybrids have their own concerns. You have to research it and find the balance you're comfortable with.

I bought my car used, and not only did I save a bundle of cash on it, I also don't have to park my car at the far end of every parking lot.

[Bretsky]

I was just thinking about efficient ways to purchase cars today.

How do you guys feel about buying a three year old car, keeping it three years, selling it, repeat?

It seems like a good idea because you'll avoid maintenance costs, always getting newer technology as gas efficiency improves, avoiding the mark-up of a new car, etc.

It seems like a good plan. What do you older, more experienced folk thing?

I don't consider myself an expert at all here, but I always buy used. Remember that dealers typically take a huge markup for used auto's if you do not do your homework. Markups can be 3G to 8G; these are money makers for dealers. So personally I don't like the every three year plan; but I could be wrong.

I try to get a bang for your buck auto, and then drive it to it's grave or until I start seeing major issues.

My best car up to this point was a 95 GEO Prizm. Bought it from a friend for 8500 when it was one year old; Kelly Blue book indicated that wholesale price should have been a full grand more. But the dealer offered them that price for a trade in and they offered it to us for exact same.

It had 42,000 miles. Was a bright green car; wife and normally everybody hated the color. Called it the Green Bean. The Bean lasted to 235,000 miles with nothing but normal upkeep. Then it died hard 10 years later (last year). Those Honda engines are awesome. I wish all my cars could perform like the Bean.

Great Auto, and I could only hope to have the same longevity out of other auto's.

Going back to RG or SC, the value of cars go down. So go cost effective. Too many have to get that glory car with that $500-$600 monthly payment. Worst decision one can make IMO.

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I was just thinking about efficient ways to purchase cars today.

How do you guys feel about buying a three year old car, keeping it three years, selling it, repeat?

It seems like a good idea because you'll avoid maintenance costs, always getting newer technology as gas efficiency improves, avoiding the mark-up of a new car, etc.

It seems like a good plan. What do you older, more experienced folk thing?

I don't consider myself an expert at all here, but I always buy used. Remember that dealers typically take a huge markup for used auto's if you do not do your homework. Markups can be 3G to 8G; these are money makers for dealers. So personally I don't like the every three year plan; but I could be wrong.

I try to get a bang for your buck auto, and then drive it to it's grave or until I start seeing major issues.

My best car up to this point was a 95 GEO Prizm. Bought it from a friend for 8500 when it was one year old; Kelly Blue book indicated that wholesale price should have been a full grand more. But the dealer offered them that price for a trade in and they offered it to us for exact same.

It had 42,000 miles. Was a bright green car; wife and normally everybody hated the color. Called it the Green Bean. The Bean lasted to 235,000 miles with nothing but normal upkeep. Then it died hard 10 years later (last year). Those Honda engines are awesome. I wish all my cars could perform like the Bean.

Great Auto, and I could only hope to have the same longevity out of other auto's.

Going back to RG or SC, the value of cars go down. So go cost effective. Too many have to get that glory car with that $500-$600 monthly payment. Worst decision one can make IMO.

See I would love to do that with the civic because it is definitely the type of car that will run forever.

Problem is I need more storage space. I am always taking my bike places which is a pain without a bigger vehicle, and impossible when I keep my hopper of tennis balls in the car.

I wish someone would make a fuel efficient SUV. I really don't need any towing power or anything like that(I would get an out beater pick-up for that off craigslist), I just want something that gets decent gas mileage and is 3-4 years old.

[MJZiggy]

bike rack? My neighbor drives a Civic and takes his bike all over on a rear mounted rack.

[retailguy]

I was just thinking about efficient ways to purchase cars today.

How do you guys feel about buying a three year old car, keeping it three years, selling it, repeat?

It seems like a good idea because you'll avoid maintenance costs, always getting newer technology as gas efficiency improves, avoiding the mark-up of a new car, etc.

It seems like a good plan. What do you older, more experienced folk thing?

The typical car loses 60% of it's value in the first 4 years. That means a 28000 car becomes an 11000 car.

I don't understand what you're trying to achieve by "cycling" cars every 3 years, but that civic you have will run for the next 10 years virtually free. At the end of that time, if you've done what we've told you to do, you can pay cash for whatever you want....

As to the bike, you can get a hitch for the car you've got for a couple hundred dollars, then get a hitch mounted removable bike rack and take your bike wherever you want. We do it with my Mercedes all the time.

[oregonpackfan]

I was just thinking about efficient ways to purchase cars today.

How do you guys feel about buying a three year old car, keeping it three years, selling it, repeat?

It seems like a good idea because you'll avoid maintenance costs, always getting newer technology as gas efficiency improves, avoiding the mark-up of a new car, etc.

It seems like a good plan. What do you older, more experienced folk thing?

Consumer advocate Clark Howard recommends buying a good used car that is 2-3 years old, maintaining it well, and driving it until the wheels fall off.

Of course, as other posters have mentioned, research the car type thoroughly through Consumer Reports, etc. before you buy it.

I am a BIG believer in Honda Civics. They just last and last with little financial upkeep. We did buy our '93 Honda Civic new but the thing still runs great 14 years later with 168,000 miles on it. It still gets 32 mpg around town and has NEVER needed a repair except for scheduled maintenance.

My 19 year old now drives it. Having her drive that car gives me a fatherly, protective, feeling of confidence as I know it will perform well and safely for an economy car.

Get the bike rack for the rear of the Civic and drive that thing until it croaks.

[GrnBay007]

I was reading some articles on real estate. Came across this...pretty shocking....


NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Home foreclosures in May jumped 90 percent from a year earlier, reflecting a poor spring housing market and foreshadowing even higher levels later in 2007, real estate data firm RealtyTrac said Tuesday.

The May foreclosures -- a sum of default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions -- totaled 176,137, up 19 percent from April, the firm said in its May 2007 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.


Now, for those with lots of cash laying around and interested in rental properties, it would seem this would be the time to buy, right?

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I don't understand what you're trying to achieve by "cycling" cars every 3 years, but that civic you have will run for the next 10 years virtually free. At the end of that time, if you've done what we've told you to do, you can pay cash for whatever you want.....

Well, being the type of person who gets bored of things relatively quickly, I would probably cycle purely for my own enjoyment of driving different vehicles.

Anna's parents took away her Pathfinder and replaced it with a Ford Ranger, which has now been replaced with a year old Mazda 6. So, I've lost out on the big vehicle borrowing of hers, so I was eyeing up the Honda element as well as a few other smaller suvs.

[retailguy]

I was reading some articles on real estate. Came across this...pretty shocking....


NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Home foreclosures in May jumped 90 percent from a year earlier, reflecting a poor spring housing market and foreshadowing even higher levels later in 2007, real estate data firm RealtyTrac said Tuesday.

The May foreclosures -- a sum of default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions -- totaled 176,137, up 19 percent from April, the firm said in its May 2007 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.


Now, for those with lots of cash laying around and interested in rental properties, it would seem this would be the time to buy, right?

Exactly. It is a good time for cash buyers when it is a bad time for everyone else.

'course it's a good time for cash buyers all the time.

if buying with "no money" down is not a bad thing, why are foreclosures up? Maybe because prices are down while interest rates are up, and these fools have little to no equity to ride out the storm? makes you think, huh?

[MJZiggy]

I don't understand that part. What does the equity have anything to do with the foreclosures? I would think that would have more to do with increasing arms and funky terms that cause the payment to explode unexpectedly.

[Bretsky]

On the subject of credit cards, I read somewhere about signing up for those 0% APR for a year type of deals and then when the year is almost up transferring all your balance to another offer for 0% interest. Does anyone do this?

I have a number of clients who do this; I'm not overly bias one way or the other. It's a good idea in principal as long as you have a plan with the end result to get them to a zero balance.

Sometimes people do this, their credit gets damaged, and they can't transfer the money to another card. If that occurs then the CC company whacks you with all the back interest from the months you were paying zero percent.

My wife has did this a few times with a Menards card; with her side biz she pays it off before the offer expires. That's the good way to use it.

Flipping from card to card; as long as you do do responsibly with a plan I'm OK with it.

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If you had a small company that sells insurance in Milwaukee right now, what would could be done to improve business and get more customers? With all the advertising progressive and geico do(despite them being terrible insurance companies), it is tough to gain and keep clients these days. What are some good ways to increase traffic?

[Bretsky]

If you had a small company that sells insurance in Milwaukee right now, what would could be done to improve business and get more customers? With all the advertising progressive and geico do(despite them being terrible insurance companies), it is tough to gain and keep clients these days. What are some good ways to increase traffic?

Cold calls; more cold calls. And more cold calls. It's not fun, but that's the way to build an insurance company......well that..along with being reliable and getting people to trust in you

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If you had a small company that sells insurance in Milwaukee right now, what would could be done to improve business and get more customers? With all the advertising progressive and geico do(despite them being terrible insurance companies), it is tough to gain and keep clients these days. What are some good ways to increase traffic?

Cold calls; more cold calls. And more cold calls. It's not fun, but that's the way to build an insurance company......well that..along with being reliable and getting people to trust in you

What is a cold call? How did you build your client base for mortgages? I would imagine in sales you would want to start as young as you can to get as many clients as you can.