Buying a new car always involves more than simply choosing a make and model, signing on the dotted line and driving away. Every salesperson is going to try to press options and upgrade packages onto the sale. With technology constantly advancing, there are literally dozens of possibilities to add to a car, from the frivolous to the safety-imperative. These are some of the better choices based on resale value and safety.
Resale Value
A brand new car begins losing value the moment you drive it off the lot. A car is not considered a good investment due to steady depreciation, unless it has the rare luck of lasting long enough to become a collectible. However, there are some features that can help raise the value if you trade in or sell your car before it’s an antique. Some of the top options include:
- Cruise Control. Most people who buy late model cars will expect cruise control, and a car without it will immediately seem dated and lose some of its value.
- Air Conditioning. Depending on where you live, air conditioning may not truly be an option. Driving in extremely hot climates during the summertime, for example, makes it a necessity. AC is also one of the options in a car that is slowest to depreciate in value.
- Automatic Transmission. Since automatic transmission has become all but standard equipment, stick shifts have a depreciating effect on resale value.
by Dexter Damien Chan on December 19, 2011
Yeah! It’s the time of the year where people have already planned (and went) their holidays, made out a long list of items to buy (to pamper themselves or just anybody in mind) and collecting their well deserved bonus!
And in the usual Financial Planning sense - if you are one of those who are fond of spending away your bonuses (without even thinking and planning), here are a few tips that you may wish to consider to do so first before happily spending (or wasting) it away…
Note: the tips here are meant for your own good and really to help you with your future. Tips mentioned here are not in order of priority as well.
Five Good Tips To Help You With Your Year-End Bonuses
#1 Think Of Your Previous Purchases (Pampering)
Throughout the year, there have been many various types of sales events and the ease of buying things online has even became easier. If you have made your purchases during those times – it’s time to hold your expenses and think twice before spending your bonuses away. You may wish to consider saving a major bulk of it. If you find it hard to do so, just tell yourself you may get to spend a bit more from this saved amount in next year’s sales events.
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by Dexter Damien Chan on November 21, 2011
If you are one of those who need to relax and pamper with a bit of holiday towards the end of the year but keen to save a bit of money especially from hotels – have you checked out AirBNB, an online resource for you to check out apartments to rent?
A New Concept Of Saving While Enjoying
I personally like the new concept behind AirBNB because they help most people to save (especially on expensive hotel charges or hotel meals) while still being able to enjoy the holiday.
And there are quite a number of benefits should this concept become popular as well as a norm:
1. You get to make real friends while overseas. Most of the time if you are staying in a hotel, you get to make friends with the Hotel Staffs (and it’s more of business relationship) whereas staying in an rented apartment (especially if the owner is staying there as well) – you get to create a better friendship. Should you decide to go back to the same country to re-create the same memories, you know who you can go to when you are there.
2. You get to save more of everything. The best thing about going on a holiday is the ability to enjoy lots more activities but without having to spend so much. If you are a sociable person and can make friends with anybody, especially the owner of the rented apartment, you can really get more things done and save more money. Once you know how the locals live their daily lifestyle without having to spend so much, this is one good benefit that you need to have.
A New Concept Of Supplementing Your Retirement Lifestyle With Your Own Apartment
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by Dexter Damien Chan on November 7, 2011
If given a choice to properly plan for yourself, would you trust a Book that touches on the topic of what you need to know about Insurance Products or a Financial Planner who is not a newbie in the industry and qualified to give proper advice? Or would you have the combination of both?
And if you are amazed by what is being asked above, it’s not something new as there are people who plan for themselves with the help of a book. Though there’s nothing wrong with that because there are some good books that give you proper advice and even proper steps to work through your budget to sorting out your priorities to knowing what’s the order of importance in terms of getting an insurance plan.
The only concern that one may have is grabbing hold of a book that do not really guide the reader much but only list down on what’s the highly recommended insurance plan(s) in that author’s point of view and penalizes the other types. For example, I came across an author who only endorses Term Insurance, penalizes Whole Life Insurance and favors a particular type of Stock Investment in the book.
A Client Who Followed That Book And Did Changes
I have the real-case experience of having a Client who contacted me to request for a termination of the child’s Whole Life Insurance after it has been in-force for the past five years and another five more years to go before that client stops paying for that policy for the child – just because that client has read that book that says Whole Life Insurance has high expenses and fees built-in and the client is expected to face heavy losses should the policy continues…
I advised that should the client really decide to terminate that policy, the client would expect to suffer heavy surrendering charges which can amount to 60 – 70% of what was being paid till date. The client says it would be best to follow that book and confirmed that it would be best to terminate it and suffer the initial bit of losses.
Another colleague did helped to persuade that client but seemed like the client has really made up the mind and that policy was terminated on that date.
What Can You Learn From This Particular Incident
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