Great American cars at low price.

Present economy and low auto sale have brought the price down for some great American cars. The auto sale counts are such low that car manufacturers and dealer have decided to low down the price to get the things moving again. Now you can get some great cars at really amazing prices. This is the right time to buy a car if you are planning to get one.

We are aware of the present market status and fear to invest or hesitate to purchase a new thing even if we get it for an unexpected price. As our economy is in recession, we tend to save money and spend as less as we can, however, you won't get such offers when the market go up and our economy will get back to normal again. So in my opinion it's the best time to purchase a car if you plan to buy it later. You can go for a car loan and get it now.

As per the real-world pricing data by Vincentric for AOL Autos, many American trucks and cars prices are going down below dealer's wholesale price. This includes some top most and competitive cars.

Check out few cars and their prices:


Cadillac CTS

Sticker price:
$36,560 - $40,760

Wholesale price:
$34,366 - $38,314

Market price:
$30,607 - $34,500

Ford Flex

Sticker price:
$28,550 - $36,810

Wholesale price:
$26,842 - $34,072

Market price:
$21,725 - $28,654





Pontiac G8

Sticker price:
$28,250 - $37,610

Wholesale price:
$26,979 - $35,918

Market price:
$24,028 - $33,060







GMC Acadia

Sticker price:
$31,890 - $40,490

Wholesale price:
$30,136 - $38,263

Market price:
$27,020 - $34,095

To make it work, make money management personal

A couple posts related to money and behavior stood out in this week's Carnival of Personal Finance at Four Pillars. As JT at The Smarter Wallet and NCN at No Credit Needed point out, the first step to changing poor financial habits is learning what works for you.

JT tried different budgeting software with lots of categories, which worked okay. In the end, though, he found his own three-category system more effective for living within his means.

NCN, on the other hand, realized just seeing his credit cards increased his temptation to overspend. Simply moving his cards from the front of his wallet to the back increased his willpower and curbed his spending appetite.

Our "checkbook register" system
M and I struggled to manage our money until we went "old school"--using a paper checkbook register to track expenses. The register has no connection to our checking account (which I balance using Quicken). Instead, M simply uses it to log our non-fixed expenditures (groceries, gas, eating out, etc.) each month, which were the biggest culprit in getting us off track.

The register works well because it's the same method M used to manage her money years ago as a single mom. Back then she didn't necessarily balance her checkbook, but she used her register to figure exactly how much "extra money" she had beyond her rent, utilities, etc. to spend.

To M's credit, when we got married, she had little credit card debt and had even started saving for her daughter's college. And today our non-fixed expenses are far less than we ever thought they could be, helping us as we save toward our goal of someday buying a larger home.

The right method will stick
If your previous attempts at money management have crashed and burned, don't give up hope. You just haven't found the right method yet. Keep trying. If spreadsheets or software don't work, try paper, or vice versa. Experiment with different methods. Think "out of the box." An effective money management system is as personal as you are. When you find the right one, it will stick.

Loan Modification: Get a new start and save your home

Loan modification is a revised agreement between the borrower and lender with new interest rates and terms. It's a great tool for borrowers to avoid foreclosure or bankruptcy. Banks or lenders agree for loan modification only if they believe that the borrower won't be able to repay the current loan with current terms and interest rates.

If you are able make regular payment now, but can't catch up with the past dues, you can negotiate with lender/banks for the past due amount including interest and principal. Once the lender agrees on this, you will get a new period of time to repay for the new amount.

Or if you are unable to pay with current interest rates, you can negotiate with lender to extend the time period. The loan amount can be modified to affordable level.

In few cases the banks or lender can consider reducing the loan amount that you currently owe and also can lower the interest rates. It's up to your negotiation and the lender to consider it.

Considering the present market status it is of sure to get the loan modified, as the banks and lender are aware of the financial crisis. They know that if they don't give a chance to borrower to repay the amount with their affordable level, they might not get their money at all.

A loan modification can change current mortgage and help you to get a fresh start to manage your financial status and save your home.

Scaring Wall Street straight

Wall Street is "shuddering" as Congress moves to change the tax law and "claw back" those big bonuses to AIG employees. And they're not the only ones.

"If the government decides they don't like a guy, all of sudden they are going to tax you, and, boom, and it passes, that's seems a little scary," said Jay Leno while interviewing President Obama late night on Thursday.

It is scary, Jay. That's precisely the point. If you're a CEO, trader, or broker of a bank or insurance company in the "too big to fail" category, the message is loud and clear:

You DO NOT want the government involved in your business. So mind your risk exposure.

Some pundits have called all the outrage and Washington hoopla over the AIG bonuses shameful. And to be sure, there's plenty of political grandstanding going on for the constituents back home. Don't lawmakers have bigger things to worry about right now?

But turns out it's not such a waste. Congress is doing a fair job of, as one of my financial planning colleagues put it, "scaring Wall Street straight."

A big risk of government intervention is creating what's called "moral hazard." That's when a company has no incentive to guard against risk when the company is protected against it. For "too big to fail" institutions, that's understanding the government could step in to pick up the pieces if a high-risk venture they've embarked upon leaves their balance sheet and the financial system a mess.

The drastic step of instituting a 90% tax on bonuses for individuals in companies that take taxpayer money to get above water is a good one. That should at least provide some incentive for CEOs and CFOs to look at their business risks more prudently. "Too big to fail" companies are, and should be, more responsible to the public interest, not less.

I don't want Washington running private businesses. Washington doesn't want Washington running private businesses. ("Generally, government historically hasn't done that very well," President Obama said on "Meet the Press.") Now Wall Street has realized that it really, really doesn't want that either.

Hopefully in the future, that will help financial companies executives think just as much about the extent of their risks, as the size of their potential rewards. And we can avoid getting ourselves in this mess again.

Physical and fiscal fitness: More alike than you think

I don’t like exercise. Many people get a lot of satisfaction from jogging or lifting weights. I'm not one of them. In fact, I hate exercising just to exercise. It’s boring.

I understand the importance of exercise, especially the long-term benefits. But that doesn’t motivate me much to hit the gym or the track.

You may face the same issue managing your money. You dislike budgeting. You think investing is boring. You even understand their importance and long-term benefits. Still, you haven’t been able to build your savings, reduce debt, or make much progress on your financial goals.

Habits and goals go hand-in-hand
Being physically or fiscally fit is about developing good habits that last. That’s most likely to happen if you tie those habits to a specific goal or purpose.

A couple years ago, I set my sights on summiting 14,410-foot Mt. Rainier. For six months prior to my climb, I strength-trained in the gym three times a week. I hated just about every minute of it, but I rarely missed a workout. Every leg press and stomach crunch gave me a better chance of checking Rainier off my “bucket list.”

I’ve noticed the same thing when it comes to our household budget. M and I are aggressively saving to build up a large down payment so we can move up from our townhouse to a single-family home. We’ve cut our discretionary expenses by about a third, and things feel pretty tight. But we’ve stuck to our plan—as painful as it has been. We know that every extra dollar we spend takes away from our larger goal.

“Good for you” isn’t good enough
If good money habits haven’t stuck for you, get specific. Instead of “paying off the credit cards,” for example, identify a direct, tangible benefit of reducing your debt. Maybe it will give you the cash to go on that trip to Italy you’ve always talked about. Or to get the mountain bike you’ve been eyeing. Or help get you and your spouse out of marital counseling.

Whatever the benefit, go beyond just dollars-and-cents logic. The more personal, the better. Good exercise and financial habits are tough beasts to master and maintain, even for those who do them well. If you struggle, find an emotional connection. That will turn your initial steps into ongoing habits that you’ll stick with when the going gets tough.

Global job crisis.

Union activists protest against rising unemployment in Sao Jose dos Campos

We all know about the present situation of global economy and job crisis all over the world. Let’s check the job crisis percentage of major countries. After 1930 Depression, United States is facing the worst economic crisis. Here are few facts:

• In 2008 2.6 million U.S. jobs were lost.

• Since 1980, only 5 percent wages have increased, whereas 70 percent productivity has grown up.
  

• Each worker is working extra hours or second job to maintain the financial condition. Also each family is sending more members to work.
  

• In the last week that ended on March 7, record says initial jobless applications increased by 9,000 to 654,000.
  

Now let’s check what's going on in UK. It's noted that for each vacancy advertised in UK, there are 10 job seekers. In another area of south-east, for each job 60 workers are available. This week number on unemployment expected to go beyond 2 million. In central London, there are 4,275 vacancies against almost 71,000 unemployed. The most unemployed workers are in Isle of Wight. There are almost 3,152 people going after 52 advertisements.





Job loss at Cadbury UK







Let's check Canada's report. Canada lost more than expected or can say worse than expected 83,000 jobs in February. The jobless rate is almost 2 percent high than were it was in last year. Its now stands at 7.7 percent. In last four months, there are 295,000 jobs shed by economy. Prime Minister Stephen Harper expects the number of unemployment to rise further.

What we understand by recession?

We all know that our world economy is in recession, but do we really know what recession mean? and how it is counted. I'll try to define recession in the way what I understood.

In economics, recession is described as decline of country's gross domestic product for at least two months. Experts and professionals also believe so. But in my point of view the root of recession starts from previous quarters than just last two quarter’s decline. Let go through the economic cycle and check how economic conditions changes like weather.

The Economic Cycle:

When the economic growth is positive, number of employment is maximum and and almost all are making money. Since we are making money we tend to spend it, so demand for goods such as food, vehicle, electronic products are larger. At a point of time demand gets so high that supply can not keep up.

Now this high demand cause a rise in prices of goods. With the prices, salary's need to rise to keep up with the high prices of goods. Rise in salary causes companies to rise most of the items price. When the price of most item get high, consumers either stop buying or slow down considering the prices of goods are too high. The demand gets decreased and companies start cost cutting which leads to decrease the number of workers as they don't need to produce as much goods as before.

With decreasing demand the prices also get decreased which push the economy in recession.

Again companies will come up with various offers and low prices to increase their sale. Due to which demand goes up and the economic cycle goes on.





Graph of recession & the economy over time







In Unites States the official in charge of declaring recession is NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research). Definition of recession as per NBER is “significant decline in economic activity lasting more than a few months.

Check my latest finance post here.