Check out this letter to the editor that was in today’s Wall Street Journal:

In your Dec. 1 editorial “Messing With Malpractice Reform,” you urge the Illinois Supreme Court to “side with the patients and the rule of law” in considering a case that could overturn the state’s cap on damage awards. Yet the editorial never mentions the patient who is at the center of that case.

She is a three-year-old little girl named Abigaile LeBron, whose life has been forever changed by the severe brain damage she suffered as a result of medical negligence. It is likely that Abigaile will have to be fed through a tube for the rest of her life. She will never develop cognitively or physically as her peers do. And she will likely never live independently. It is inarguably a very painful tragedy for Abigaile and all who know and love her.

The insurance industry and its brethren in the tort reform world have argued that Abigaile’s compensation for lifelong disability, pain and suffering should be arbitrarily limited, despite what a jury of average citizens may decide. The question before the Illinois Supreme Court is whether the Illinois Constitution allows Abigaile’s rights to be limited in this fashion to the benefit of insurance company profits. Twice before, our state’s highest court has decided in favor of patients and against the insurance companies that would limit these rights to protect their own profits. No new arguments have been offered by the insurance industry.

You argue that a reduction in malpractice premiums and the return of doctors to the state have resulted from the law containing caps. Nothing could be further from the truth. Not one case has been litigated under the new cap in Illinois. The simple fact is that those positive developments have resulted from strong, long-suppressed insurance reforms in the legislation. That law has now forced malpractice insurance companies to provide greater transparency on rate-setting and payouts that has in turn spurred competition, motivated more companies to enter the marketplace, and lowered premiums for doctors. Important to the discussion for your readers is the additional fact that Illinois’ largest malpractice insurer has reported that payouts have remained flat for the past 13 years. By the way, it’s the same insurance carrier that admitted during the run-up to this legislation in 2005 that capping awards would not guarantee lower premiums for its doctors.

The Illinois Constitution was put in place to ensure individual rights and freedoms. While corporations and profit-hungry executives often stack the decks against individuals in the marketplace and the halls of government, the courtroom can still provide all parties with a level playing field. The Illinois Supreme Court will now decide whether that standard remains in place for patients like Abigaile LeBron. You should let it do its job.

Philip Harnett Corboy Jr.
President
Illinois Trial Lawyers Association
Chicago

Here’s the problem I have with juries being able to award money damages:

They have no concept of how much money they are awarding. It’s not their money so why not be a cheerful giver?

I’m not saying that what happened to the little girl in the editorial isn’t a tragedy. It is.

I just think it would be nice for lawyers to stop hiding behind the sad stories, be honest and say, “I don’t like tort reform because it severely limits how much money I can make!” It’s silly to talk about “greedy” insurance companies when the lawyer gets a nice percentage of the winnings.

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Could the failure of the “Big 3″ cause a depression?

That’s what a Chrysler executive claims:

“We’re on the brink with the U.S. auto manufacturing industry,” Press told The Associated Press in an interview. “If we have a catastrophic failure of one of these car companies, in this tender environment for the economy, it’s a huge blow. It could trigger a depression.”

I’m not sure about that but I am sure that it’s in this executive’s best interest to paint as bleak of a picture as possible in order to get his bailout. What do you think?

I’m sure failure would not be good. But, as we’ve talked about before, we can’t just give money to the automakers and allow them to carry on business as usual. Big changes need to be made and now is as good a time as any to make those changes. These changes have needed to be made for years but the current crisis really brought them to light.

Please weigh in with your opinion.

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Here is an excerpt from an interesting article I read a few days ago:

Says Anthea Butler, an expert in Pentecostalism at the University of Rochester in New York: “The pastor’s not gonna say, ‘Go down to Wachovia and get a loan,’ but I have heard, ‘Even if you have a poor credit rating, God can still bless you ? if you put some faith out there [that is, make a big donation to the church], you’ll get that house or that car or that apartment.’ ” Adds J. Lee Grady, editor of the magazine Charisma: “It definitely goes on, that a preacher might say, ‘If you give this offering, God will give you a house.’ And if they did get the house, people did think that it was an answer to prayer, when in fact it was really bad banking policy.” If so, the situation offers a look at how a native-born faith built partially on American economic optimism entered into a toxic symbiosis with a pathological market.  …

“Narratives of how ‘God blessed me with my first house despite my credit’ were common. Sermons declaring ‘It’s your season to overflow’ supplanted messages of economic sobriety,” and “little attention was paid to … the dangers of using one’s home equity as an ATM to subsidize cars, clothes and vacations.”

Read the rest of it here.

In addition to Wall Street, it looks like the faith business also needs a little more scrutiny. Apart from that, I am always surprised at how gullible people can be when it comes to being sold out divine rhetoric.

If we keep up with this even God will need a bailout someday!

Finally, God helps those who help themselves, for everybody else there is Mastercard everybody else needs to clearly understand the meaning of the words “deliquency” and “foreclosure”.

INDYMAC IS OFFICALLY CLOSED!!!

In the past minutes newswires around the country and world are now reporting that the Federal Government has shut down IndyMac Bank and has handed it to the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.) as conservator.

Couple the shut down with the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac troubles, and we’re in for some really rocky waters next week. I’m willing to bet a lot of money that the announcement was held back from being made prior to the close of the stock market because of fears of a massive crash. Well . . . I think we’ll be seeing that happen this coming Monday!

Fasten your seat belts, people . . . we’re in for a ROCKY RIDE!

IndyMac Bank’s assets were seized by federal regulators on Friday after the mortgage lender succumbed to the pressures of tighter credit, tumbling home prices and rising foreclosures.

The bank is the largest regulated thrift to fail and the second largest financial institution to close in U.S. history, regulators said.

Yahoo Finance

In the biggest bank failure of the housing downturn to date, federal banking regulators today closed IndyMac Bank FSB, naming the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as conservator.

The FDIC said it will transfer insured deposits and “substantially all the assets” of IndyMac Bank, to a newly created successor, IndyMac Federal Bank, which will be operated by the FDIC.

Insured depositors and borrowers will automatically become customers of IndyMac Federal, FSB and will continue to have uninterrupted customer service and access to their funds by ATM, debit cards and writing checks. Depositors of IndyMac Federal Bank FSB will have no access to online and phone banking services this weekend, but will regain access to them on Monday.

Inman News

IndyMac Bancorp Inc. became the second-biggest federally insured financial company to fail today after a run by depositors left the California mortgage lender short on cash.

The Pasadena, California-based bank specialized in so-called Alt-A mortgages, which didn’t require borrowers to provide documentation on their incomes. Its home state has been among the hardest hit by foreclosures.

Bloomberg

What’s next? Anyone?

Advertisement: Payday Loans Online from the leader in online cash advances since 2003.

This Post is from the BiggerPockets Real Estate Blog. Copyright © 2008 BiggerPockets, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

BREAKING: IndyMac Bank is Shut Down and Taken Over by Feds

Tomorrow is Independence Day in the United States, a time for friends and family to gather and enjoy the early summer. I’m taking a l-o-n-g weekend, and won’t return until Monday. If I’m lucky, I’ll get a chance to play in the sprinkler.

In the meantime, I thought it would be fun to devote a thread to financial success stories. People send me e-mail all the time to say how they’ve taken control of their personal finances. I love to read these tales, and I know that other people do, too. (We even have a section of the forums devoted to them.)

For example, here’s what one long-time reader wrote a few weeks ago:

I paid off a credit card today!  At times its balance had been as high as $12K, but with the severance pay from my old job, signing bonus from new job, and various other resources, I paid it off completely today.  

The next step is to move the existing balance on my other credit card (about $8K) onto the now-zeroed card at a low balance transfer rate, and then pay down that last balance. It feels really good to have this thing off my back after so long.

Do you have a financial success story to share? Big or small, it doesn’t matter. Tell us about it! You have all weekend to do so. Have a safe and happy fourth, everybody…

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• My Paycheck is Late Again
• Win a Free Consultation with a Financial Planner
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• Daily Roundup: Contest Edition
• When the Going Gets Tough, Get Back to the Basics

One of my favorite saving techniques is the use of targeted accounts. If I want to save for something big — like a Mini Cooper, for example — I’ll open a new savings account specifically for this purpose. I first learned about this method from Robert Pagliarini’s The Six-Day Financial Makeover:

Traditionally, most people invested for various vague goals and lumped all of their savings together in a single investment account. That?s pretty boring. It?s not very inspiring or effective. Purpose-Driven Investing satisfies our need for a purpose and our need for instant gratification by thinking of each of our goals as a separate ?basket?. Each of our baskets represents a single goal with a clear purpose that we can see and grow.

What does this mean in the real world? It means that we have a single investment account for every goal. For example, if one of your goals is to take the family on a European vacation, create a separate savings account called ?Family European Vacation Fund?. This account or basket contains all of your savings toward that one goal. Every penny in the account is for the European vacation — not for retirement, a new car, your emergency fund, your kids? college tuition, or any other goal.

I like this idea, and have been using it ever since I saved for my Nintendo Wii.

Until recently, I kept my targeted savings accounts at the local credit union where they earned me a paltry 0.35%. For the past few months, Get Rich Slowly readers have been urging me to move all of my savings to ING Direct, which is where I keep my emergency fund. “It’s easy,” my readers tell me. “You can open multiple accounts, give them any name you want, and track them all from the same screen. You can even open a checking account!”

Last month, I finally overcame inertia to try this myself. My readers were right: opening multiple accounts at ING Direct is easy. (It’s probably easy at HSBC Direct and many other online banks, as well.)

Step one: Choose an account
First, I logged into my ING Direct account summary page. From there, I clicked the big “Open an Account” button.

I was directed to a page listing a variety of available accounts, including business and retirement accounts. Because I wanted to open another savings account, that’s the option I selected.

On the next screen, I was asked to further refine the account type:

Step two: Fund the account
Next came the good part: I selected how much I wanted to put into the account and where those funds would come from. I was also able to give the new account a nickname. Since I was opening these extra accounts specifically for targeted saving, it makes sense to name each one based on my goal.

Finally, I had to agree to the terms and conditions of the account.

Step three: Wait
Then the waiting began. Because ING Direct had to “pull” the money from my credit union, it took several days for the cash to transfer to my accounts. At first they appeared empty:

After the money had transferred, it was easy for me to track all of my savings goals in one place.

Next on my list? Exploring ING Direct’s certificates of deposit and business accounts.

A useful tool
Thank you to all of the readers who suggested this. I don’t know why I took so long to try it. I’m sure this technique isn’t limited to ING Direct. I was doing something similar at my local credit union (though without the pretty interface, account nicknames, or high interest rates), so I suspect that other online banks offer similar functionality.

Not everyone needs multiple accounts to save for goals. My wife, for example, is perfectly content with a single gigantic savings account for everything. But for me, being able to separate funds like this is awesome. It keeps me motivated to save. And because it doesn’t cost me a penny, I’m happy to do it.

Note: This article was originally scheduled to appear on June 12th, but Trent at The Simple Dollar posted his handy (and similar) guide to budgeting with an online bank that day, so I delayed my story for a few weeks.

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The August 2008 issue of Consumer Reports — one of my favorite personal finance magazines — features two articles that may be of interest to readers of Get Rich Slowly. The first offers tips for cutting expenses. The second gives a brief overview of budgeting.

Cut your spending by $500 per month
The Consumer Reports Money Lab looked for easy ways for the average American to save money. They came up with six suggestions and estimated potential savings for the average consumer. Here are their suggestions (with links to relevant articles at GRS).

1. Find cheaper auto insurance. By shopping around, the average person can save $65 per month. Need help? Here are 10 expert tips for saving on car insurance.
2. Optimize your life insurance. Premiums have dropped in the past ten years, the article notes. It may be worth replacing an existing policy. Also, by adopting a healthier lifestyle, you can cut costs. Average savings? $110.
3. Shop smart for food. CR cites U.S. Department of Agriculture data indicating the average family of four can drop its grocery bill by nearly $200 per month though smarter shopping. We just discussed grocery shopping tips on Monday.
4. Stop paying bank fees. The average U.S. household pays more than $25 per month in bank fees. There’s no reason to do so. Learn how to avoid overdraft fees and get yourself a high-interest bank account.
5. Call up cell phone savings. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average family spends $90 on phone-related expenses. Consumer Reports suggests checking to be sure you’re not paying for too many minutes.
6. Pay off your credit card. If you can get out of debt, you’ll not only save on finance charges, but you’ll also free up the cash that was going to pay the principal. Estimated monthly savings: $65.

Consumer Reports also encourages readers to increase contributions to their 401(k) plans. This helps prepare for the future and reduces that tax bite today. You can read the entire article at the Consumer Reports web site.

Create a spending strategy
Last autumn, I shared my notion of a spending plan, which I called a “budget for non-budgeters”. Consumer Reports likes spending plans too:

That’s what a household budget really is — a plan to track your spending and keep it within boundaries. Done right, a budget lets you spend without guilt. Here we offer ways to make your budget — oops, spending plan — simple and painless.

Their advice will be familiar to long-time GRS readers:

• Set goals. I believe that the road to wealth is paved with goals. Consumer Reports believes that long-term goals help you achieve big things, while short-term goals keep you motivated.
• Track expenses. It doesn’t matter how you do it, but track your spending. You can use a notebook, computer software, or even online tools.
• Plan for surprises. If you haven’t already, start an emergency fund. Most experts advise saving three to six months of living expenses, but CR suggests a “personal escrow” approach instead.
• Set priorities. Know which bills get paid first. For most people, this means the big things like food and home. (If you pay yourself first, it may be your retirement.) Whatever’s left after your expenses is your discretionary money.

The full article includes tips on how to create a web-based spending plan. The rest of this month’s issue includes ratings of large kitchen appliances, tips on buying tickets to shows and ballgames, and a tests of two dozen running shoes. (They didn’t test the pair I bought last month, though.)

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This is a guest post from my wife, and features a story I’ve come to look forward to updating every summer: the tale of two entrepreneurial girls.

Last weekend I explored Portland’s beautiful Eastmoreland neighborhood during its annual 140-family garage sale. In the past, I’ve come away with major bargains, but this year I had to be content with enjoying the first day of summer with a couple of friends. We admired the homes, gardens, and assorted cast-offs of the well-to-do.

Many of the adult garage-salers were raising funds for charities. Sidewalks and curbs were also strewn with young entrepreneurs selling their wares: homemade cookies (still warm from the oven), beaded jewelry, rice-krispie treats, iced bottled water, and grilled hotdogs.

Over the past two years, J.D. and I have had fun meeting one pair of entrepreneurial sisters who rise above the run-of-the-mill baked goods and soda. I was pleased to see them once again. In 2006 they were selling jokes:

Last year they were selling stock tips:

My friends and I each bought a cup of lemonade, which we downed while questioning these young businesswomen about this year's products. The elder girl was selling bottle-cap magnets — each individually created and carefully crafted — at two price points. She told to us some of her inspirations, and compared the relative strengths of the magnets. (The one dollar bottle caps had stronger magnets than the seventy-five cent magnets.) She was proud of her creations, but, like any good salesperson, she didn’t oversell. I selected one with a cancelled 26-pence Queen Elizabeth stamp and moved on to see what her younger sister was selling.

The younger girl had created two issues of a neighborhood newspaper: The Lofty Times. Typed on an actual typewriter (without correction tape!), the publications bear phonetic misspellings and creative punctuation, but are brimming with enthusiasm and real journalistic gusto. We purchased a copy of each issue, did some negotiating to arrange limited re-print rights for Get Rich Slowly, and exchanged email addresses. Here’s a sample story from The Lofty Times, reprinted by permission of 8-year-old author Grace:

the Eastmorland goroge sail

Thouthins of peaple look forwerd to this moment in Eastmorland it is the garage sale! A man named Jared Seger is selling different parts of a house, such as windows, doors, and other things.

In th past years my family has allways gone big on the garagesale. one year DAD beleave it or not bot a hool stack of inapropryite gossap maggaseens, it was hollywood gossap and lemenaid, every year it was a tradishon to have lemenaid.

Other years were forchentelling, jocks, stack priceed, and so many more things that even if I tried, I probly could not name them all! this year is going in a todaly different path. AT ages of 8 and 10, my sister and I have lerned so many things, I, as you can see am making my newspaper. Madeline is making bottlecap prodex.

I have many, many good thouts about the garagesale, I hope you do to.

The girls and their mother gave us a crash course in their annual entrepreneurial endeavors. Their parents loan them seed money for the projects, which the girls must pay back from their profits. Any profit is theirs to spend. With parental support and guidance, these sisters are well on their way to understanding the value of money and the joy of making and selling their own goods — as well as knowing how to stand out in a crowd!

I’m sure that it would be easier for these parents to just give their daughters spending money, but they know that the lessons learned here are priceless and the extra efforts worthwhile.

My friend Rhonda and I later discussed the merits of each girl’s choice:

• The magnets clearly had higher start-up costs, but broader customer appeal.
• Yet the newspapers were well-worth the cover price for entertainment value.
• Both projects showcase the imagination of the creators.

I wish I could eavesdrop on these girls as they consider, reject, and perfect ideas for each year’s merchandise. And I hope that by the end of the weekend, Grace and Madeline were both sold-out! May they return next year with their contagious entrepreneurial spirit, and Bravo, parents!

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When you get engaged, you’re not just promising to marry a person; you’re also marrying their money habits, their debt, and credit history.  If you’re not careful, unknown money issues can not only ruin a marriage but sink you deep into debt.

Hiding Credit Card Debt
Here’s a sad story of a former co-worker whose life was turned upside down by his spouse’s debt.  I met up with him for lunch yesterday to catch up and couldn’t believe the story he had to tell.

His wife had 50K of credit card debt coming into their marriage that she didn’t tell him about until several years after they were married.  She was only making minimum payments so over the years the interest mounted and the debt continued to grow.

He had owned a home prior to the marriage and they finally they decided to tap into it’s equity and take out a loan to pay off most of her debt. A few days later he comes home to find her packing her bags and on her way out the door.  Of course he didn’t share this story with anyone for quite a while since it was so painful and embarrassing but now happily he’s met someone new and is moving on. 

What’s the morale of the story?  Find out about your future spouse’s finances before you get married.  To help you do that, here are some questions to ask, courtesy of Real Simple:

Ten Romantic Debt Questions for Your Fiancé

• Do you use credit cards for everyday expenses?
• Do you pay your credit-card balance in full each month?
• Have you ever maxed out your credit cards?
• How many credit cards do you have?
• What are your debts?
• Have you looked at your credit reports in the last year?
• Did you ever require a cosigner for a loan?
• Have you ever been put into collection by a creditor?
• Are you a cosigner on anyone else’s loan?
• Do you have any tax or other liens pending?

These questions are obviously not very romantic but they’re definitely necessary things to ask.  Depending on your fiancé’s personality you might handle them in different ways.  It might be easiest to just sit down and go through them all straight up or you might have to slip in a carefully worded question here and there during the course of conversation. 

Here are some other finance questions the article suggests asking:

• Do you have a savings or checking account?
• Do you balance your checking account each month?
• Do you do research before making major purchases?
• Do you have a budget or a spending plan?
• Do you track your finances? How often?
• Are you aware of all your benefits at work?
• Do you have life insurance?
• Do you have health insurance?

Of course some of these things you might find out over the course of time as you get to know someone. However you do it, make sure you get these questions answered, I know my friend sure wishes he had.

Checking Their Credit History
If you’re worried that your fiancé is holding back information you could dig a little deeper. Not telling you everything is probably a bad sign for future marital communications but if you’re determined they might be the one you could always do some more research.

If you know their full name, social security number, date of birth, current address, and previous address you can probably pull your future spouse’s credit report to do some double checking.  Be aware checking their credit report without their permission can potentially get you into some trouble:

“Anyone who obtains a copy of someone else’s credit report under false pretenses can be fined substantially and jailed for up to a year.

Only businesses or individuals with a “permissible purpose” can access your credit report. “Permissible purpose” is defined in Section 604 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).“

Then again, if your fiancé is willing to throw you into jail for checking their credit history, probably a sign you don’t want to marry them.

How to Build Credit History
What if your future husband or wife doesn’t have any debt but they don’t have any credit history at all?  This happened to us, when we went to get a loan for our home my wife’s lack of credit history affected the interest rates we were eligible for. 

We ended up putting both our names on the title but only mine on the loan so that we could get a better interest rate but we wanted a way to help build her credit profile.

Our financial planner showed us a pretty slick way that worked wonders for my wife’s credit.  She put $1000 into a 12 month certificate of deposit at our local bank and then used the CD to get a secured loan from the same bank.

We setup our checking account to make automatic payments on the loan so she had a year’s worth of on time loan payments on her credit report. Then after 12 months we took the money out of the CD and paid off the loan.  The interest we had earned on the CD helped pay for most of the interest we had paid on the money we borrowed.

Marriage Money Summary
Get to know your fiancé’s money baggage and habits or they may come back to make you miserable, divorced, and in debt in the future.

Essentially, Leasing is just an alternative way to finance a new vehicle. We know that when purchasing a new vehicle the down payment, sales tax and license fees are required to be paid up front. However when leasing a new vehicle you are required to pay only the first monthly payment, a security deposit (usually same as monthly payment), and the license fees. The sales tax (which is based on the capitalized value of the vehicle) is actually amortized over the term of the lease in most states. In other words, the taxes are included in the monthly payments.

Capitalized Cost

Essentially the capitalized cost of a new vehicle is the actual price you have agreed to pay for the vehicle.

Gross Capitalized Cost

The gross capitalized cost of a new vehicle includes the selling price of the vehicle (which is the capitalized cost plus acquisition fees, extended warranty, accident & health insurance, dealer title fee, payoff on your trade-in, credit life insurance, gap insurance and any other fees the dealer decides to charge you). Buyer beware; that most people really don't ever know what their capitalized cost is because it is buried within the gross capitalized cost and the dealer doesn't actually reveal this number unless he has to. Most car deals made at auto dealerships are negotiated on the basis of payment rather than price. This applies to both leasing and purchasing. Don't get caught in this trap! Make the dealer reveal the selling price for every payment offer he makes you!

Adjusted Capitalized Cost

The adjusted capitalized cost of a new vehicle is the gross capitalized cost minus (-) your down payment, net trade-in amount, rebates, license fees and taxes along with any other deductions given.

Depreciation/Residual

When purchasing a new vehicle your payments are based on the full value or selling price, plus extended warranty, tax & license, minus (-) rebate, down payment and net trade-in value. However, when you lease a vehicle your payments are based only on the "depreciation or your use" of the vehicle during the entire term of the lease. The depreciation is actually only a portion of the capitalized cost of the vehicle and is determined by the term of the lease, number of miles driven and condition of the vehicle at the end of the lease. The payments on a lease are based on the deprecation money factor (which is a form of interest rate) and the amortized taxes. Therefore, you can actually drive a more expensive vehicle with a lower payment if you lease. Please note that the depreciation is actually estimated and set at the inception of the lease.

The residual is the portion or balance of the adjusted capitalized cost after the deprecation has been deducted. The residual is just put aside in limbo until the end of the lease. The higher the residual - the lower your monthly payment. At the end of the lease you have two options. You can either turn the vehicle back into the bank or leasing company, or you can buy the vehicle outright for the residual balance. You can even refinance the residual. But keep in mind if you turn in the vehicle with more mileage than allowed on your contract, you will be charged any where from .12¢ to .25¢ for each extra mile. In an auto lease you are limited to a specific number of miles in your lease contact. The average would be from 12,000 to 15,000 miles per year. You may drive any number of miles in any given year but you cannot exceed the number of allotted miles or you will be penalized. If you purchase the vehicle the charge for the extra mileage will normally be waved. Most banks and finance companies will allow you to add an extra 15,000 to 20,000 miles to your lease contract depending on the term of the lease. However, the cost of the extra miles will be added to your gross capitalization cost and your monthly payment will be increased accordingly.

Ownership

When you have entered into a lease contract you cannot terminate the lease or turn-in your vehicle prior to the ending date of the contract. If you do this the bank will report this as a voluntary repossession on your credit record. On an auto lease the vehicle is actually registered and titled to the bank or leasing company. Therefore you do not own the vehicle, the bank does. You get to use the vehicle and are legally responsible for the upkeep and maintenance. Please note, if you don't maintain the vehicle during the lease you will be penalized for all excessive wear-and-tear when you turn it in. Also, if you really needed to get out of your lease you can buy out of the lease if you can get the financing or you can get someone to take over your lease. Of course, they will have to qualify.

Vehicle Warranties

The average new car warranty is 36 months or 36000 miles, which ever comes first. It is not recommended that you enter into a 4, 5 or 6 year lease contract because they are not economical. Even with a four-year lease it is common for the residual to be higher than the actual value of the vehicle at the end of the lease which makes it very hard to refinance. If you are like a lot of people you can lease a new vehicle every 2 to 3 years and never have to buy an extended warranty. The only time it would be beneficial to buy an extended warranty is if you knew you were going to buy the vehicle outright at the end of the lease.

Gap Insurance

Gap Insurance is basically insurance coverage on the difference between the actual value of your vehicle and the balance you owe on the lease including the residual. This kind of protection is needed in case your vehicle is involved in an accident and is declared a total loss. Gap Insurance is important especially for people who lease vehicles. The lease on a vehicle is actually designed for the balance owed to be upside-down in relation to the actual value of the vehicle until approximately the end date of the lease term. At this time the residual should fall in line or be equal to the vehicle's actual value. Gap Insurance is good for purchase financing as well. The gap is not as large as in leasing, but you still stand the chance of having to put out a great deal of money.

Final Advice

Remember, there are two main factors you must consider when you are thinking about leasing an automobile. The first is how long you intend to keep the vehicle and the second is how many miles you travel annually. If you intend to keep the vehicle a maximum of three years and you only average 15,000 miles a year, then you should definitely consider leasing. If you want to keep the new vehicle for more than three years, you should consider purchasing.

When you lease a vehicle, you very rarely have to put any money down, so lease a new vehicle every two to three years and you won't owe any money on the old vehicle, plus you'll never have to buy an extended warranty. Also, you will have spent a ton of money less for each vehicle than if you had purchased them. If you want to keep a vehicle longer just buy it at the end of the lease.

Remember, don't let the dealer try to sell you on the basis of payments. Negotiate on the price only and when you have agreed on the price then tell them you have a trade-in. When you have agreed to your trade-in value then tell them you want to lease the new vehicle. Now you know what to do from here. Also, dealerships have a tendency to quote lease payments without the monthly tax. This makes a big difference in the monthly payments. If you don't control this you will be sadly surprised when you go into the finance manager to sign the paperwork. One more thing - when you are signing the lease contract, be sure to verify that the trade-in value you have agreed upon is actually deducted from the capitalized cost. Otherwise the dealer could wind up purchasing your trade for pennies and you would never know.

Visit My site http://www.autopurchasesecrets.com for more free information on the secrets the dealerships don't want you to know.

About the Author

Brad spent thirteen years in the Automobile business, specifically auto sales and worked for several Dealerships. He held positions from Retail Salesman up through New Car Manager and Fleet Manager. During this period Brad received an excellent education on what goes on inside the Automobile Dealerships. You can visit and communicate with Brad at his website http://www.autopurchasese

With a divorce rate of around 50% and many people not marrying until they are in their thirties, it is surprising to find that there are still many women who aren't financially educated. Most of this can be traced back to two factors: upbringing at home and society. In both cases, boys have often been given much more training and many more resources than girls have and the effects are damaging women financially today as they face a world in which they have to take care of monetary issues on their own but have never developed the skills to do so.

The Safe, Secure 1950's

In the 1950's most women quickly married and settled down to raise families. Very few of them worked outside the home, and finances were handled by the men. It was a financially prosperous time and women were expected to focus on the home and child-rearing. This focus on home-making was passed on to daughters while sons were groomed to the "breadwinners" of the family.

The obvious separation between girls and boys activities also managed to keep girls "sheltered" from financial concerns. They weren't expected to pay for anything on a date and parents didn't often expect them to hold down jobs. Boys, on the other hand, were expected to get a job at a young age, even if it was merely a paper route. The expectation was that a young man needed to "take on some responsibility" and "contribute."

As the generation raised in the 1950's grew up and raised families of their own, they passed on the financial biases that had been instilled in them to their own children. Many of today's parents have made the same mistakes their own mothers and fathers did, ignoring the obvious need for women to understand and learn to handle their own finances in favor of hoping that their daughters wouldn't have to face the harsh financial facts of life.

The belief that men would take care of women's financial needs was so ingrained that many of the "big picture" financial lessons were overlooked. Women tended to learn how to shop for bargains at the grocery store, stretch the budget at the holidays and that was about it. More complex lessons such as long-term investments, retirement planning and stock portfolio development were not a part of the picture.

Boys learned how to manage their money, save for a rainy day, and make smart investments and a host of other financial strategies.

Play and School Contribute to Gender Gap

Interestingly, boys more than girls tend to develop habits that are more geared toward understanding numbers and how they relate to finances from a very young age. While girls tend to be "collectors," says Joline Godfrey, founder of Independent Means, "boys develop informal economies based on relative value from the age of six on while trading cards and other items. By the time boys start trading stocks and bonds, it's just another form of the game." Independent Means is a company which promotes economic independence and growth for girls and women aged 14 to 24.

Even in school settings, boys are rewarded more consistently for being risk-takers, and investing is often perceived as a risky venture. Girls aren't encouraged to take risks and aren't rewarded for these types of behaviors and instead are likely to be cautioned to be careful. When faced with the prospect of learning about investing in the stock market or learning about retirement options, these same girls - now women - are more fearful of making decisions and less sure of themselves in making choices for themselves.

Statistics Show Gender Bias

A recent survey showed some startling discrepancies even today between teenage boys and girls and how much education they have received in the very basics of finance. Some of the findings include:

* Many more teenage boys than girls report understanding of how to write a check and how a credit card works, including accrued interest. * Teenage girls are much more likely to be in debt than boys, with almost 50% reporting credit card debt as opposed to less than a quarter of teen boys having any debt. * Girls are more likely to report that learning about investing is boring, while boys report a real interest in learning about it. When asked to elaborate, girls often pointed out that this wasn't something they would be doing in the future, while boys indicated that it was important to learn so that they could be successful.

The perception that girls shouldn't have to worry about their financial future in the long term (based upon the faulty premise that a man will take care of her or that she can hire a financial consultant to handle all of the boring stuff) is still present in many homes. Fortunately, the balance is beginning to shift as more parents realize that women who are successful in their careers must also be able to guide their own financial futures, not rely on others to do it for them.

Programs Aim at Closing the Gap

Today's girls are more likely to learn how to handle money at a young age. Cautionary tales in the news and on talk shows about women left destitute and the fear that social security can no longer support an individual in their golden years has, perhaps, contributed to this. After all, with most women outliving their spouses and more than half of women divorced, it's likely that today's girls will be supporting themselves in their retirement years - understanding Roth IRAs suddenly becomes very important.

Companies and organizations are also stepping to the forefront with programs designed to educate teens in general and girls in particular. Boys and Girls Clubs of America, in collaboration with Charles Schwab, offer Money Matters: Make It Count programs in cities across the country.

Visa works with Girl Scouts of the USA to provide two resources, the Cashin' In workbook and the Makin' Cents web game, to teach girls aged 13-17 financial responsibility. The web game specifically challenges players to find real-world solutions for characters' financial challenges.

With such programs increasingly popular and the need for women to understand finances now a hot topic, it's to be hoped that this generation of fathers will teach their daughters as much about finance as they teach their sons.

Carrie Carter: Author of: Think Your Way to Riches Kids' Style

For more information or to arrange an interview with Carrie Carter at 810.252.2281 e-mail: carrie114cr@aol.com or visit: www.ThinkYourWayToRichesKidsStyle.com

Carrie's passion is to help people on their inner journey to discover their personal road map for abundance, peace, and happiness. Her main passion is to give children worldwide the "Tools" which are lacking in the normal educational system and understanding to create the abundant lifestyle they are all worthy of. Experience Carrie's educational seminars, workshops, and private life coaching.

About the Author

Carrie's passion is to help people on their inner journey to discover their personal road map for abundance, peace, and happiness. Her main passion is to give children worldwide the "Tools" which are lacking in the normal educational system and understanding to create the abundant lifestyle they are all worthy of. Experience Carrie's educational seminars, workshops, and private life coaching.

Buy a car anytime you want, but I would tell anybody today that applying for a car offline is one of the worst and tiresome things I have done in my whole entire life. There was a man trying to explain the rates to me in a rushing manner. He even tried to force a particular car on me that I didnt even want, and the finance company that they deal with tried to push my rates close as 13 percent which is outrageous. I felt like I was being suckered into a deal so I turned towards the internet to get some information which is the best way to be successful in buying a car in todays world in my opinion.

I searched for days online looking for some great resources. There were many websites that showed you how to buy a car, but I needed to know the important points when I buy a car. Finally, I came upon some great websites that shows you everything that you need to know in order for you to apply yourself to buy a car successfully. I learned a ton of things, such as, the great loan company that I talk about on my website that you can easily apply for to buy a car anytime you want. What I liked about that loan is the rates and the time it takes for you to get a loan. It takes up to 24 hours for you to get a loan from them and the rates is the best on the net. The rates are very low. You would pay 7 percent at the most. Take out a loan because if you financed through a car dealership you probably would have to pay 9 or 10 percent interest rates to buy a car through a dealer.

When I was searching for a car, I also tried the car quote websites that, and they are great. I simply filled out the form and got quotes back to back in no time. There is four different websites for you to choose from or compare together. First I used edmunds, which is a pretty coo carl quote website, but personally, I like the other free car quote websites because it's easier to operate and quickerto obtain. You will get back some car quotes back in the same day. I used this for myself because you can make an educated decision of what price you can afford, and make or model of the cars. You can have local dealerships calling you to buy a car that fits your budget.

You can buy a car cash if you want. After I bought my car, I discovered some great auction services that allows me to buy a car from my own state and area. This is my main source when I buy a car now. The great news about buying auctioned cars is that you can get some really nice updated, running cars really cheap in your own local are. The bad news is that you have to react on these deals quickly in the process. I have posted some great car auction websites for people who want to buy a car cash instead of paying monthly rent. These are my jewels that I use here on out. I no longer have car bills to pay. I use most of my time buying 3 cars a month and selling them for a little more. Alot of the cars that are offered on the sites are in tip top shape. Many of the cars are under $1000. It's really easy to navigate your area. All you do is type in your area code and it shows you all the auctions going on in your area, contact info, etc.

***Remember before you buy a car to check and make sure mileages and price matches correctly. Check out my website and see how I calculated this for myself and do it for yourself too.***

About the Author

My name is Jay Pleas. I'm an auto mechanic and interior designer that spends most of my time buying autos and detailing them for many customers. At this time I make $100,000 a year maintaining my own car interior buisness. I live in Florida. I'm 28 years of age

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