Arrange Your Car Loan Before Going to The Dealer

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Many people believe the best place to get your car loan is where you buy your car. It sounds right, because the dealer finances so many cars they must be giving the best deals. This seems to make sense but you probably will find better financing deals off the car dealers lot.

Just like when you are shopping around for the best deals on things you normally buy, why not shop around for car financing? How to get car finance means seeking out competitive loan vendors who will often give you the lowest interest rate. Competition between companies will give you the best results. But some people may be worried that multiple applications and credit inquires will damage your credit score. This is not true because the credit reporting agencies know this kind of multiple inquiry is not abnormal and they only count the inquiry as one. 

Car dealerships are trying to squeeze the maximum profit out of every car sale so a few points of interest on your car loan helps their bottom line. Margins are tight these days on car profitability so you may find out that you are going to pay a little higher interest rate when financing through your car dealer.

When you walk into your car dealers office and you already have arranged financing your car dealer looks at your deal as a cash purchase. You know the car dealer prefers getting a cash payment for the car purchase. This is your leverage in negotiating. A salesman will have to give you a better deal because they don't want a five figure amount of money to walk out the door into someone else car dealership. 

Knowledge is your advantage in car purchasing. Knowing the product well and its appropriate purchase price will make your car purchase a positive one. Also having payment options on a firm foundation will only increase your chances of getting the best value in your car purchase.

Save Money for College with Upromise Shopping

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Upromise is rewards program you sign up for that allows you to save money for college or pay off student loan debt. It's not a 529 College savings plan.

Upromise has its own website where you can earn rewards by making purchases through its portal. They have a list of over 600 online retailers who are partnering with Upromise shopping deals to save you money and add to your college savings. The cash back rewards range from 1% to 25% depending on the purchase and the store. Large stores like eBay, Target, Walmart, and JC Penny all have joined with Upromise. Also the Home Depot, The Apple Store, Dell, Verizon Wireless, and Macy’s are all on board with UPromise.

You an also register your credit and debit cards to earn cash rewards. Some restaurants that participate can earn you rewards of up to 8%. If you use your registered debit or credit card at Upromise program restaurants your earning a high percentage reward. Imagine over the years by just dining out 8% of the total is going into your account.

You can also use your Upromise at your grocery store, supermarket, and drug store. You can even just register your grocery or drug loyalty cards with Upromise and even use cash on purchases.

The best yet, you can register your friends to your account and earn rewards on their purchases.

How can I redeem my my earned rewards?

• Deposit your cash back into a 529 education investment account for you or a family member.
• Transfer your cash back to your student loan to help pay off your debt.
• Move your rewards to a Sallie Mae high-yield savings account.
• Request your rewards to be sent to you in the form of a check.

Upromise offers you a way to save money for college and get some pretty good discounts on everyday purchases you already make.

Would You Choose to Not Grow Your Business?

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It's the reverse of all we were ever taught. Start a business, with a lot of hard work build it up, expand and then one day stop the growth. Surprisingly some businesses make the choice to stop growth and maintain a certain size.

The Small Business Administration reports that there are 22.9 million small businesses in the United States. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) states that 90 percent of all net job creation from 1996-2007 came from small businesses. There is of little question that if the US is to recover from this recession and if unemployment is to be driven down, small business will lead the way.

Any business school you can attend will teach you that the cornerstone of our capitalist system is to build a companies value and have an ever increasing shareholder value.

Why would anyone ever put the brakes on a viable growing company. Surprisingly there are 3 good reasons to do this.

1. To maintain lifestyle and avoid risk. I know a building contractor who has reach a level of $3 million dollars per year income. My friend takes out of this income enough money to live a very nice lifestyle for himself and family. At the level his company is operating at he has plenty of time for a personal life. He spends his time going on vacation and tending to hobbies he loves.

He is a well respected local business man who could easily double his companies income. He has decide not to go that route. He is comfortable and any expansion would put to a halt the lifestyle he now enjoys. He has a business he can handle and doesn't want to take on anymore responsibility.

2. To avoid regulation. Another building services company in the area has chosen to cut back on expansion plans because of complex and expensive regulation that will kick in when the number of employees reaches 50. After gaining a thorough understanding of the complexity of complying with the "FMLA" (the Family Medical Leave Act), the President of the company made a conscious decision to stop the growth of his company. Job creation came to a screeching halt. The president wasn’t opposed to extending the benefits of FMLA to his employees. Rather, he made an informed decision to avoid the considerable cost associated with the complexity of maintaining records and making judgments about what qualified for FMLA.

It was determined that his company could not absorb the costs of this regulation. Naturally, larger company's with thousands of employees and millions of dollars of revenue could integrate these costs into their spreadsheets.

I know many companies that do not want any employees because of complicated and expensive regulations. Companies like this chose to outsource and hire sub-contractors for all necessary personal needed.

3. Keeping a one man band effect on the company. There was a company that was in manufacturing and it had 35 employees. The owner of the company kept the entire business in his head. He daily told everyone what to do. There was no office staff. The host of employees did the manufacturing, ordering , billing, and customer installation. The owner would not hire any help to staff an office. All office duties were put on the manufacturing employees.

The company lacked a complete organizational section. Not having any office employees and having everyone doing everything was chaos. This owner by his own lack of business knowledge kept his company from growing.

Whether it’s satisfaction with the status quo, a desire to avoid the burden of regulation or not understanding how to delegate, many small business owners have implicitly or explicitly made a decision not to grow their businesses.

It’s completely reasonable for business owners to make an explicit decision not to grow because they are satisfied with the current size of their enterprise. That’s their choice.

Inside Travel Tips From a Reservation Agent

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Over at Reddit.com they are having a Q & A with a airline travel booking agent. Lots of questions are being asked and the answers are interesting and informative. Lots of questions like working for an airline, the flight benefits, using miles, earning miles, avoiding stupid airline fees, low fares, partner airlines, Skyteam vs Oneworld vs Star Alliance and a slew of other things.

Here are a few of the best ones:

Can you help me figure out the best way to get a seat with legroom?
Go with Economy Comfort or Exit Row. That may cost you a bit though. Also take a look on Seatguru.com to determine with seats have the most leg room. Unethically, you could call the reservations agents and say you have a medical disability that requires a bulkhead seat (you don't have to state exactly what it is and Delta agents are forbidden to ask).

Any tips on how to get any freebies/upgrades/benefits?
Yes, after your flight you should call or email (preferably the later) and let them know about every single thing you didn't enjoy about your flight (food, movie selection, rude flight attendant, tray table didn't work, wifi didn't work etc). The airlines have a specific department to deal with complaints and they'll give you tens of thousands of miles, free business lounge passes, travel vouchers, drink tickets etc.

Is there any way I can get an upgrade or something?
A doctor on my flight to Japan got upgraded mid-flight for helping out. that's not an official policy but I've seen nice flight attendants do it.

What are some of the best airlines to fly within the United States?
You mean best as in service quality? I haven't flown any other airlines within the US in years because Delta flies just about everywhere and it's free for me. However, I've heard great things about Alaska Airlines, Jetblue, and Virgin.

What is the fastest way to rack up miles? Credit Cards? Special promos or secret deals?
Credit Cards are the best. Some people run their businesses off their credit cards and rack up millions of miles pretty easily. Suntrust Bank also has a checking account with a Skymiles debit card. that account is nice because the electronic bill pay also earns miles. So you can pay your rent/mortgage via bill pay and get miles for it. And if the person or org you're paying doesn't accept electronic payments it mails them a check.

This is only a small sample of the questions being asked. Also the discussion and war stories the commentors are posting are very interesting. If you have a travel related question go over to Reddit.com and ask it. Also search on Reddit for other subjects your interested in. You will find liked minded people having an intelligent discussion.