Do You Know How To Find The Best Car Loan?

People will spend months or even years planning to buy a car. They will work hard to build good credit. They will search for just the right make and model. They will scope out the various dealers and sales staff sometimes even comparing service departments too. Then they will sign on the dotted line for the first loan the sales person offers.

What is wrong with this picture?

It is important to remember that if you have good credit then you are a dream customer to most lenders. Even if your credit is not perfect you are still an attractive client for many lenders.

Repeat this mantra whenever a lender acts as if they are doing you a favor by lending you money: I am going to give them a lot of money. Yes, you are. They can negotiate a sweet deal (sweet for them) and then turn around and sell that loan within the year and make a quick profit. Even if they don't sell your loan they will make money off you for the next three to six years as you pay interest on your original loan. They are not giving you anything. This is a business deal and the lender stands to make a lot of money so you need to protect yourself to get the best deal you can.

While most lenders tend to make you think you should be grateful to them for taking this huge risk on you, it really is the other way around. A lender can't lose. If you honor the deal they will make a lot of money and if you don't honor the deal then they simply take your car back and keep the interest you paid in the meantime!

However there is an even bigger fallacy that lenders like to perpetuate. They don't want you to know how desperate they are for your business. Look around and you will realize the truth of this. Check out the television, radio, and print ads that abound and you will see that lenders are getting pretty competitive.

That is why you simply must shop around to find the best car loan available for you. In the end you could save yourself hundreds of dollars. Here are five ways to help you find the best deal:

~ Shop around - Get quotes from various lenders. Look at local and national lenders and don't overlook the internet.

~ Compare terms - Interest rates vary from lender to lender but lenders offer different interest rates depending on the terms of the loan. How long will it be ? How will you make payments (electronic or check)?

~ Tweak some of the optional items that you control, such as the type of insurance you will carry.

~ Adjust your down payment - Sometimes being able to increase the percentage of what you are putting down can make a difference in the lenders terms (similarly buying a less expensive car will work the same)

~ Haggle - Yes! Lenders often act as if their rates are written in stone but this is not the case. This is where shopping around can really come in handy. If you can show that you've got a slightly better deal with another lender then sometimes another lender will lower their rate to beat the competitor. Hey it's worth a try and it recently worked for me!

Just remember that you are in control of your future. You can choose whether or not to accept a lender's terms. There are a lot of lenders out there so you do not need to sign with the first offer you receive.

One last hint: It might be best to go through this process before you've found the car of your dreams! You can get preapproved for a car loan with many lenders and that removes the pressure and worry of losing the car of your dreams while you negotiate with a lender. It also puts you in the driver's seat when you are negotiating to buy that dream car when you finally find it if you already have a loan ready to go.

Cruise Vacation - Save Money on Your Next Cruise Vacation

Going on a cruise can be a great way to spend you next vacation because there is a lot of things to do and it is affordable. You will find that taking a cruise can be be both exciting and relaxing and once you book it you don't have to worry about what to do every day of your vacation.

Make sure that when choosing a cruise you look to see which cruise line you want to take. There are many options available and some are better than others. You need to first decide what you budget it because this will determine how long and which cruise line you choose.

You want to remember that most cruises include everything which means once you are on board and unpack you don't have to worry. When you are on a regular vacation you never know what it is going to cost you because food is always the unknown factor of any vacation. You know ahead of time what the room will run but food is an unknown.

On a cruise you have your meals and room included in one price. Usually it is much lower than going on any type of vacation. There is activities on board as well and those show and other things come with the price as well.

Remember that when booking your next vacation make sure that you try a cruise. If it is just you or your whole family you can be assured that going on a cruise will entertain everyone. You can not beat the price and the kids can be entertained while you relax and lounge by the pool.

Ten Heavy Weather Sailing Tips You Need to Know

If you are anything like me, heavy weather sailing can be a challenge and make you tired fast. The more you prepare ahead of time, the more energy you will save. Follow these ten "do ahead of time" sailing tips to prepare for less fatigue and more comfort the next time the rough stuff crosses your path!

1. Make Up "Zero-Prep" Energy Bags

Use small Ziplock type bags to hold high energy snacks. Combine nuts, dried fruits, tasty seeds like sesame or pumpkin, banana chips, and dried coconut for a super snack. Press the bag tight before you seal to keep air out and your energy snack will last longer when stored aboard your sailboat.

2. Top Off Your Trusty Thermos

Purchase two large thermoses. Before the rough stuff arrives, fill one thermos with a hearty soup or stew. Fill the other with coffee, tea, or hot chocolate. That way, you won't need to worry about boiling water in choppy seas for a nutritious meal or drink.

Secret Tip - Purchase a thermos with a spigot-top conversion kit and mounting brackets. Install the brackets in a spot near your boat galley. Fill the thermos, screw on the top and close the spigot. Mount the thermos "bottoms-up" in the brackets. Now you have a safe, fast, easy way to pour soup or your favorite beverage in any sailing weather!

3. Eat Before the Weather Arrives at Your Boat

Fix a light meal with pasta if you expect rough seas when sailing. Stay clear of greasy, fried foods. Concentrate on foods that you boil, broil, or bake. Pasta has a good reputation as a "tummy tamer" when it comes to sea sickness. It's economical, easy to digest, nutritious, and provides good energy for sailing in rough weather.

4. Lash and Stow Below

Check the galley for loose pots, plates, and silverware. Wrap silverware in towels to avoid clanging. Store pots in cabinets. Stuff towels or pieces of foam between stacks of dishes, glasses, or pots and pans to keep things in place and noise to a minimum.

5. Keep a Clothes Change Handy

Pull out a full change of clothes. Fold and stow in an oversized Ziplock or waterproof bag outside of your sailing duffel bag. You want this change of clothes ready in an instant so you won't need to hunt around for it. Include underwear and socks. If you get soaked when sailing, you will want to slide into a set of dry clothes right away. Do this now to save you time and effort later.

6. Clear the Decks for Clean Decks

Studies of past heavy weather sailing races show that those racing sailboats with clean, uncluttered decks had an easier time. Take a tip from the racing crowd. Check the outside decks from bow to stern. Neaten up sheets and lines. Turn cowl vents around to face astern to prevent water intrusion below; in extreme conditions, remove the cowl vents, stow them below, and screw covers in their place. Keep decks clean for safer sailing in any weather.

7. Add extra Lashings

Check all lashings on deck-stowed Jerry jugs (cans), propane bottles, life raft canister, dinghy, and anchors. Double or triple lashings with small diameter line. Seas that break aboard can break weak lashings like a knife going through butter. Make lashings strong and robust to keep deck-stowed gear in place.

8. Seal Ports and Hatches

No matter what the manufactures tell you, expect ports and hatches to leak. Heavy weather or squalls can bring high winds, seas, and horizontal driving rain that will find any nook and cranny. Use strong, waterproof duct tape to seal around ports and hatches on the inside your cabin. This will keep water out and dryness in for greater crew comfort in heavy weather sailing.

9. Set Up Sails Now

Hank on your storm jib or trysail now with sheets run, halyards cleared, and all ready to hoist. If you decide to delay on the hoist, stop off the sail along the deck with sail ties or next to the mast (in the case of a trysail). This way, your storm sails will be ready to set in a matter of seconds when you need them.

10. Rest and Hydrate Often

Heavy weather sailing saps energy like few other activities. Get as much rest as possible between watches. Remember to keep hydrated with water or non-sugar energy drinks like Gatorade or Emergen-C. These beverages replace critical electrolytes and minerals that you will use to keep your balance, hang on when heeling, or move about when changing sails or standing watch. Remind your sailing crew to rest and hydrate for greater comfort.

Follow these ten heavy weather sailing tips to get ready before the tough stuff arrives aboard your boat. These tips will help keep your sailing crew safe and sound and provide them with more comfort--wherever in the world you choose to cruise!

Vilfredo Pareto's Principle: The 80-20 Rule: 80% of Results are Produced from 20% of Efforts

Vilfredo Pareto's Principle, or The "Pareto Principle," is more commonly known as the 80-20 rule. It suggests that a ratio of approximately 20% to 80% can be found as an effective measure for most things in life. Whether revenues generated per customer or value for hours worked, it usually can be found that 80% of all of our results in business and in life come from only 20% of our efforts!

As importantly, the 80-20 ratio seems to hold true for many input/outputs, causes/consequences, or efforts/results. It also holds true across the spectrum of relationships, business, finances, time-- whatever the case may be.

Richard Koch, author of The 80/20 Principle, suggests that the key to earning more and working less is to pick the right thing to do and only those things that add the highest value. Contrary to public belief, "be intelligent and lazy" is NOT an oxymoron-- in fact, it's an important theme of this book! Discarding low value activities in all areas of your life, the true essence of the Pareto Principle, will create the time and freedom for you to enjoy a more richly endowed lifestyle.

How can you apply Pareto's Principle?

Look for the evidence of Pareto's Principle in all areas of your life. As best you can, determine where 20% of your energies, resources, time, and talents should be invested for maximum benefit (The 80-20 Rule). Then do it.

Are You Eligible to File Your Taxes As "head of Household"?

Even though you are the head of your household, you might not qualify as head of household under the income tax filing status. The requirements are somewhat more stringent than simply being the head of the house.

To qualify for head of household the taxpayer must be unmarried on the last day of the year.

To be considered unmarried for tax filing status the person must be legally divorced or separated from their spouse and filing a separate income tax return from their spouse. The person must pay for more than 50% of the cost of maintaining the home and the home must be the principal residence of that person and their qualifying child/children or relative for the past six months. The person's spouse cannot have lived in that home for any period in the last six months.

A person's principal residence status does not change in the face of absence due to vacation, hospitalization, short-term incarceration, business, education, or military service.

To determine if a person has paid more than half the costs of maintaining a home, those costs can include, but are not limited to rent, mortgage, real estate taxes, home owner's or renter's insurance, food eaten in the home, home repairs and improvements, utilities, and real estate taxes.

The person is head of household if they maintain a home for a qualifying child or any other dependent for six months. The dependent must be a daughter or son, adopted child, or an eligible foster child, and any descendant of these such as grandchildren, or nieces and nephews.

The other qualifying dependents are mother or father for whom the person has maintained the home for an entire year and can claim as a dependent on his or her income tax return.

If you have questions as to whether you qualify for a head of household filing status, you may contact the Internal Revenue Service. You might wish, however, to consult a tax professional and have them prepare your income tax return for you. Filing as head of household, as we have seen, has more complications than one might contemplate. A tax professional is competently trained to help determine the best income tax filing status for your situation. They can answer any questions you have regarding filing status and any tax credits, deductions, or exemptions for which you may qualify.

Dads In Christ - 5 Parenting Tools God Uses For Our Spiritual Formation

We choose to love our children...

During the ups,

Downs,

And everything in between.

And yet in doing so we realize how much of a challenge that commitment can be for the long haul.

But...

We seek to win the game.

As you read through my thoughts below, you will encounter a number of ways -- or tools if you please -- that Jesus uses to bring us as Christian dads closer to Himself throughout the parenting adventure.

No doubt you will identify with many of these tools -- if not all of them.

I chose to deliver share these insights with you in the form of summary statements concerning various aspects the Christian parenting odyssey.

One: The Adventure Of Caring As A Christian Dad

Caring may never end...

But in the end be ready for never-ending changes regarding the ways in which you do care.

We must bring the entire caring process to Jesus.

Two: The Reality Of Dealing With Pain As A Christian Dad

Pain management will become a familiar term for any parent who decides to make it a long-term goal to care long-term.

We must bring our pain and the pain of our children to Jesus.

Three: The Need To Practice "Releasing" As A Christian Dad

Trying to be a good Christian parent will mean trying to release more of what you don't know while striving to release your grip on all you do know.

We must release our children to Jesus: again and again. It simply does not end.

Four: "Who Is On First Base Anyway?" (The Ongoing Process Of Learning As A Christian Dad)

At age 66 I feel in some ways that I know much more than I did while on first base as a parent so-to-speak, but in other ways I feel I'm just rounding first base in terms of the learning process.

We must bring our ongoing need to learn to Jesus.

Five: My Need To Keep On Trusting Jesus As A Christian Dad

I thank the Lord for the day when after passing third I will arrive at home, but my heart cries "Help me trust!" as I reflect on the needs of my children today and the anticipated needs of my children during their tomorrows.

We must continually bring our need to trust to Jesus.

In The End My Focus As A Christian Dad Is...

In the end, however, whether I am a parent, apparently single for this phase of my life, or not visualizing becoming a parent during my stay on earth...

My focus remains on the One who brought me out of the kingdom of darkness and transferred me into the kingdom of his marvelous light.

It is before him I bow,

To him I cling,

For him I live,

And with him I journey.

--- As A Christian Dad, What Will I Take Home With Me Now? ---

Speaking of the caring, releasing, painful, learning, and trusting aspects of Christian parenting that promote our growth in Christ, what comes to mind in terms of where you need to travel with Jesus now?

1.

2.

If you were to share with a small group of Christian dads on the "parenting process tools" that the Lord uses to draw you to his side, what 5 tools would you list? Why?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Contesting a Will - Will Disputes

Due to the complexity of family relationships in society today Wills disputes are becoming more and more common place. It is no surprise when the largest asset in someone's estate is often the family home, and the value of that family home has increased significantly through the testator's lifetime, more family members are becoming more and more disappointed by their share in the estate that there is an increase in volume of challenging Wills or making applications for support from the deceased relatives estate.

There are many circumstances that could arise that would lead to a Wills disputes. It may be because close family members to the deceased has been excluded from the Will, which would mean that they could make a claim on the deceased estate. In England and Wales, the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 ensures that certain people who are financially dependent on the deceased prior to their death are subsequently provided for. The people that can make a claim are your spouse or civil partner, a former spouse or civil partner (unless they have remarried or entered into a new civil partnership), a person who has been living with the deceased as their spouse or civil partner for two years before the deceased death, the deceased children or those who you treat as your children or other dependents.

The main Wills disputes are as follows: arguments about legacies/beneficiaries; challenges to a Will based on a person's testamentary capacity to make it; challenges to a Will based on coercion or undue influence of the testator; challenges to a Will based upon a testator's knowledge and approval of his Will; claims for financial maintenance from an estate; disputes between executors and beneficiaries; removal of executors; rectification of Wills where there has been a drafting mistake; and actions to set aside a Will.

Following from these points it is very important that you hire a specialist solicitor is Wills and probate to contest the Will. A probate solicitor is generally considered to be non-contentious as the majority of their work involves drafting Wills and trusts with no real need to visit the County Court or High Court and when such events do arise that court action is required, the Wills and probate department in a firm will often transfer the more difficult cases to a litigation department to take over. Unfortunately though, a litigation department may not have very much experience in Wills disputes so it is wise to choose a firm that has litigation experience in this area.