Cars are among the most expensive purchases we’ll make. It’s therefore understandable that consumers want to make the right choice in deciding how to pay for a new car, whether to buy or lease.
When deciding on the best option for your unique circumstances, it really depends on your lifestyle and priorities. Car buying is just one consideration that needs to fit in a much larger picture. In reality, the perfect option for one person can be totally wrong for another.
First off, let’s consider how a lease differs from financing. When you lease a vehicle, in effect you are paying for your “use” of the car. You don’t own it. Rather, you get exclusive rights to use the car, for a predetermined period of time. Basically, you are paying for the equivalent amount of the car that you “use up”. Leasing has a number of cumbersome restrictions, not the least of which is that it is very difficult to get out of or transfer a lease. Generally, once you’re in a lease, you’re in it for the entire term.
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Pam Guest Posts
If you come by some extra cash or you are frugal in your budgeting, you can pay off your mortgage faster than the lender requires and as a result you can save money in interest charges.
Focusing on paying down your mortgage debt can be beneficial, however, you need to keep a few things in mind before paying off your mortgage:
1. First of all, if you have higher interest debt such as vehicle loans and credit cards, it makes far more sense to work towards paying down that debt first. Generally mortgage interest rates are lower than other forms of debt, so once you have paid off more expensive debt, you can work towards paying down your mortgage.
2. Secondly, you want to make sure that you have enough money kept liquid and accessible in the form of an emergency fund and once you have enough saved, then you can start focusing on paying off your mortgage.
3. Third, if you are an entrepreneur at heart, you won’t want to be putting all of your excess money into your mortgage because you will probably have other plans for your money such as for funding your latest business project.
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Pam Debt
We can all come up with excuses for not doing things we find distasteful. For some people, saving money is like a dreaded chore and they make up all kinds of excuses in order to avoid saving. Here are the top ten excuses for not saving money:
1. I can’t afford to save money. Actually, instead of thinking this way, you need to understand the importance of paying yourself first. Before the bills get paid and you buy that new gadget that is being advertised on television, tuck away a small amount each month or each paycheck towards both your retirement savings and your rainy day savings.
2. I want to enjoy the here and now and not worry about tomorrow. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying the present, but you don’t want to do so at the expense of your future. You need to make sure that you are properly saving for your future and not getting yourself so deep in debt that you won’t be able to dig yourself out.
3. I’m not good with money so I just can’t seem to save it. This is a money script that is harmful. You need to change the way you think about money. After all, money is just a thing. You can be in control of your own money, it should never have control over you.
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Pam Money Saving Tips
Well, it’s been one year since I published my first post on Pennysaverblog.com. I can’t believe how fast the time has flown by. I am thoroughly enjoying writing articles and reading other great personal finance blogs on the Web. I am also enjoying reading finance books of all varieties as well as doing further research and studies into the art of finance. I am beginning to see that personal finance truly is an art as well as a science.
To those of you who have written comments or emailed me with your thoughts and ideas, thanks for your contribution to my blog. I really appreciate you taking the time to encourage me and you are the people who motivate me to keep going.
I look forward to another great year and I hope that you find something on Pennysaverblog.com that inspires you to attain your financial goals and ultimately financial freedom.
Thanks again for your support and I wish for you to have a year full of great memories and successful achievements.
All the very best!
Pam
Pam General
If you think your bank is costing you too much money, then now is the time to look at ways your bank can help you save money rather than spend it. Although there will always be bank charges and fees, there are ways to save money using banks and make the most of their services. Here are some tips about how to cut down on bank costs and save yourself money.
Savings
One way to save yourself money through your bank is to open a savings account. If you have a fair amount of money in your current account, then transferring it to a savings account with a high interest rate is a good idea. Having a savings account does more than just save you money; it earns you money. The interest generated from a savings account means that you are making money from the money that you store. However, you should remember that many banks charge a fee if you go below a minimum amount in the account, so keep track of this in order to save yourself money.
ATM charges
Another way that you can save money when banking is to use free ATM machines. Some ATM’s charge you a fee to take money out, either for the convenience of because the ATM does not belong to your bank. If at all possible you should stick to ATM’s that don’t charge you money. If you do this regularly then you could save yourself ?100 a year or more.
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Pam Guest Posts
If you take a close look at your current lifestyle, there are likely one or two habits that you have developed that have cost you a lot of money over the years. My challenge to you is to work towards breaking those expensive habits this year so that you can use that money for bigger and better things such as saving for your future, doing some home renovations, or taking a much-needed vacation.
I’ve listed below just a few of the many expensive habits out there. I’m sure you could come up with more of your own that you need to challenge yourself to overcome.
1. Unused gym memberships – There’s certainly nothing wrong with paying for a gym membership if you actually go to the gym regularly and make good use of it. Unfortunately, however, a lot of people don’t use the gym enough to merit paying for a membership. If you’re one of those people, I recommend canceling your membership and getting exercise by some other method such as jogging with a friend or family member regularly.
2. Specialty coffees – If you find yourself stopping at Starbucks every morning for your favorite specialty coffee, consider buying the mix and making a cup at home. You can bring it to work in a mug or thermos for a fraction of the cost.
3. Buying lunch everyday – Rather than throwing away your hard-earned money day after day by buying lunch at your work cafeteria, get into the habit of bringing your own lunch to work using leftovers from the night before.
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Pam Money Saving Tips
Withdrawing from an RRSP can be an extremely expensive option due to the tax consequences. So, unless you are saving for retirement within your RRSP, or you are planning on taking advantage of the Lifelong Learning Plan or the First Time Home Buyer’s Plan, I would not recommend saving within an RRSP investment vehicle.
To illustrate this, suppose you are 25 years old and you have managed to save $5000 in your RRSP. You end up spending too much money over Christmas and find it impossible to keep up with all your bills. You decide to withdraw $2000 from your RRSP.
By doing so, you have lost $2000 worth of RRSP contribution room. You can never get this contribution room back.
As well, you will be subject to a withholding tax of 10% in all provinces (except Quebec where you would have to pay 21%) that would be taken off the top and sent to the government. So, even though you are withdrawing $2000, you would only get $1800 at the end of the day or even less in Quebec.
You will also need to add the full $2000 to your income for the current tax year, and then depending on your income tax bracket, you will likely have to pay more tax at the end of the year unless you deliberately make an RRSP contribution to offset the withdrawal.
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Pam Investing
Cars are among the most expensive purchases we’ll make. It’s therefore understandable that consumers want to make the right choice in deciding how to pay for a new car, whether to buy or lease.
