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.

Learn The Five Key Debt Reduction Steps You Must Take Immediately!

Step 1. The purpose of this first step is to bring you back to reality. You must know exactly how much money you owe and to whom you owe it.

* Collect all of you unpaid bills and any other evidence of your outstanding debts.

* List each outstanding bill on the same sheet of paper. In separate columns, include the invoice or account number, amount due, name of the creditor, and the date the bill can be paid in full without incurring additional finance charges.

* Total the amount due column.

* Total the number of creditors.

* Total the number of bills.

Are you surprised or shocked? Of course, most will be shocked by the scope of their debt. Regardless of your reaction, you now (perhaps for the first time) have an exact accounting of your current debts. Debt help Considers this to be your guide, because it shows exactly how much money you currently owe, and by what date you must pay.

Step 2. This step employs a powerful visualization technique that actually enables you to visualize an end to your current debts.

* Mentally consolidate your bills. Do not think of your debt as a series of separate bills. Consider all your bills as one large bill to be repaid. As you diligently repay each component bill, your large bill becomes smaller.

* Mentally consolidate your payments. Do not consider your individual payments towards separate bills, consider them one large payment towards your one large bill.

* Debt help shows why you must continue making the same size payments regardless of how many bills are repaid. As bills are paid in full, more money is available to pay other bills, but only if your payments remain the same.

* You must pay your bills in the order of their highest monthly payments. This allows you to apply the most amount of money to the next bill and reduces your debts in the shortest amount of time.

If your large bill becomes smaller each time you make a payment while the size of your payments remains the same, the net result of this strategy is that each successive payment has a greater impact upon the size of your debt.

Debt Example: Say you have two bills, one for $250 and one for $750. Together they total $1000. You can afford to pay $500 per month. If you pay $250 towards each bill, the small bill will disappear after the first payment and the larger bill is reduced to $500. You still have $500 available for the next payment. If you maintain the same size payment, you will completely eliminate the remaining bill with the next payment.

Step 3. Now it is time for a course correction - you must alter your spending habits. Regardless of the cause, be it problem debt or chronic debt, you must be willing to change your spending habits and if necessary, seriously alter your lifestyle.

* Establish your long-term financial goals. It took months or years to reach your current level of debt. Since you cannot wish yourself out of debt nor can you count on winning the lottery, you must adopt, reasonable financial goals. The more you practice meeting even limited financial goals. The more confident and in control of your life you will feel. This in turn enables you to meet longer-term goals successfully.

* Establish credible short-term goals. Short-term means tomorrow! During the next 24 hours you are not to incur any new debt.

* just get through one day, then another. You get the idea. The impact of this - trail by fire - is to immediately boost your confidence by preventing your debt from expanding. This prepares you for the serious commitment to complete debt reduction ahead of you.

* Establish realistic intermediate term goals. These goals should find you becoming comfortable with the basics of debt reduction. Your goals are to implement the plan, grow more confident as you watch your debts grow smaller and begin to realize that you can become debt free.

* Establish, well defined, long term goals. As you master these debt reduction techniques, you will be firmly committed to effecting, permanent chance in your financial condition. Not only can you see yourself debt free sooner, but also you can realistically see yourself accumulating wealth. You are in control of your financial well being. You are no longer a debtor - with debt help you are on the road to complete debt freedom!

* Prioritize your spending. Eliminate impulse purchases. Buying on impulse addresses your wants not your needs. Seek alternative methods to pay for goods and services:

* Barter: You may be able to barter anything of value including your time, for something of value to you.

* Learn to live with less. you must learn to live with the extremely limited financial resources you have available, instead of the unlimited ones you pretended you had. Remember, a sacrifice is a trade-off. You give up something now; you are rewarded later. Denial, on the other hand, has no reward. it is punishment.

Step 4. Remove access to any credit you may still have. During this entire debt reduction program you must learn to steer clear of bad habits. You should no more try to conquer debt while you have access to credit, than you would pilot a rowboat through a hurricane.

* Lockup, return, revoke, cancel, destroy or otherwise make unavailable to you all the remaining sources of credit: credit cards, revolving lines of credit and credit extensions.

* If you feel you need to keep a credit card for identification purposes such as when you pay by check, then choose the card with the least available credit remaining on it.

* Become your own banker. Do not carry your checkbook on your person. Write yourself one check every week. This is your allowance. Cash the check and live on it.

* Every time you receive an offer of credit in the mail, immediately tear it up and throw it away. Do this even if you have to make a special trip to the incinerator or the dumpster in the middle of a blizzard!

Consumer credit is the most insidious type and the most Difficult to give up. As you know, you will be continually bombarded with new offers of easy, often pre-approved credit. You must ignore them at all cost. By this almost surgical removal of your access to credit you will come to realize the power of the word NO! And you will become more comfortable saying it.

Step 5. Use Cash Only!

* Pay cash for everything. If you do not have enough cash to pay for an item, you cannot afford it. Anticipate your expenses now, so that you will have enough cash on hand.

* Now if you do not have enough cash on hand, then cash a check at your bank or make a withdraw from your savings account. Either way, you will need to immediately deduct the amount from the remaining balance.

* If your account is overdrawn at the bank, please stop writing checks immediately. If you do not know how to balance your checkbook, do not write any checks until you learn how to do it. You must be absolutely sure there is enough money in the account to cover every check issued. Under no condition may you bounce a check. Aside from any criminal liability and negative credit reporting you may be subjected to, you will have to pay an overdraft charge. This may be as much as $50 and will be deducted automatically from the balance in your account. You also may be liable for a merchants return check fee. Which can be as high as $25 to $50 per check.

* Do not apply for overdraft protection at your bank. Because this is a line of credit with a high interest rate, you will be tempted to abuse it.

Living on cash teaches you to prioritize your spending. Since you can no longer buy anything you want whenever you want it, you must focus on what you really need. Ask Yourself: Since I am paying cash, is this something I absolutely must have? Am I really willing to forgo something else in order to pay for this item now? Learn not to feel denied. Instead, think of the sacrifices you are making to achieve your long-term debt reduction goals. In order to eliminate your debts, you must satisfy your needs not your wants. There will be time to buy what you want after you are in control of your finances.

For more information visit: How To Reduce Debt Legally!.

Must Love Dogs (DVD) Review

One of the least appreciated films of 2005 is Must Love Dogs, an upbeat romantic comedy about two recent divorcees. Directed and adapted to screen by Gary David Goldberg, veteran TV writer for such shows as MASH and Family Ties, the film offers a number of laughs and very little in the way of strained or forced moments. As usual, John Cusack's character appears on the big screen as an amicable and enigmatic personality. Cusack and Diane Lane make for a good onscreen pairing, but the script is somewhat lacking in its ability to deliver. Much like Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail, the concept and the couple are intriguing, but the unmet high expectations leave much to be desired...

Must Love Dogs follows the life of Sarah Nolan (Diane Lane), a recently divorced preschool teacher attempting to move on with her life. Sarah's sister Carol (Elizabeth Perkins) is constantly nagging her to get out and meet Mr. Right, but her prodding does nothing to animate the borderline depressed Sarah. Nevertheless, Carol's well-intentioned act of signing her sister onto PerfectMatch.com provides a handful of prospective leads. One of them is a recently divorced woodworking artist named Jake (John Cusack), and the two agree to meet in the park with their dogs. The encounter is a forgettable one, but the two develop a mild attraction to one another.

Meanwhile, Bob (Dermot Mulroney) the father of one of Sarah's students, develops his own attraction for Sarah, forming a love triangle that leaves Sarah in utter confusion. As Sarah's widowed father Bill (Christopher Plummer) plays the field with much greater success, it only seems to exacerbate Sarah's disillusioned outlook. But when one of her father's new female friends, the likeable and spunky Dolly (Stockard Channing) dispenses some of her own advice on life and relationships, it makes for a more interesting and humorous film. Caught in the lurch between two unknown outcomes, Sarah must choose the relationship that is right for her. But in the course of her hesitation, she risks losing the only relationship of the two which is truly worth her while.

Fun and oftentimes witty, Must Love Dogs has some great scenes and original one-liners. Based on the bestselling novel by Claire Cook, Must Love Dogs will never be confused with a deeply symbolic or Oscar worthy picture, and the plot itself is quite predictable. But the film manages to do the most important job a film can do: entertain. Although it suffers at moments from use of bad dialogue, it's not a total throwaway film. Like another recent Diane Lane movie, Under The Tuscan Sun, the mandatory gay friend with attractive significant other is present for relationship advice. That's just one of a variety of overused Hollywood clichés the viewer will encounter, along with the coincidence of Jake meeting Sarah's father and Sarah's end-of-the-movie race to embrace Jake, of which I must ask, why couldn't she just wait until he got ashore? Because it wouldn't make for a magical romantic movie ending, that's why. Otherwise, Must Love Dogs is a likeable picture with many funny moments most will enjoy...