Finance Tips

Donating a car to charity is one of your best options when you wish to help a charitable organization that is dedicated to providing the needs of the less fortunate. It is a noble gesture when you give a little of what you have to support one of these worthy organizations. To make your decision to donate even easier, the process of car donation has been made very simple, giving you a hassle-free option for helping those in need.

The process of donating a car to charity is not at all difficult. Most charities will accept your car in any shape or form. They won’t care whether the car is in good condition or not. There are forms available online that you can simply fill out at your convenience when you decide you’re ready to donate.

Getting started

Once you’ve filled out one of these forms, a representative from the charity you’ve chosen will come to you to start the process.

You will get a reference number, giving you the ability to track the status of your car all the way through the donation process. This way, you will have the full details about the car donation process and, in particular, the way that your car was used in the charity’s efforts.

Getting a tax deduction

You can get your tax deduction once you have completed the car donation registration. Legal documents must be provided by the charity in order for you to get your tax deduction. The amount of the deduction will depend on how much your donated car was worth when they sold it.

Free pick-up

A free pick-up service for your car is usually provided by the charity.

They will personally knock on your door for the valuation as well. The whole process is completely hassle-free, since you do not even have to transport the car yourself. The charity takes the responsibility of picking up your donated vehicle.

A way of making a difference

Car donations have been very popular recently in the U.S., since charities have discovered that they are a great way of raising funds. However, selecting the right charity can be difficult. Look for a charity that doesn’t use a middleman. That way the money from your donated car will go directly to the charity. And that way, you will be able to truly make a difference in the lives of those people who really need your help. For more details visit http://hftb.org/

Are you trying to set yourself up on a budget so that your financial life is easier for you to manage? Do you want to know where your money needs to go each month so that you can plan correctly and take care of all your expenses? There are a few different theories when it comes to how to write a budget, but there is only one way to make sure you are not surprised by expenses you do not think about. Here is the correct way to write your budget.

You need to start with all of your expenses. This means you need to get a list of everything from your utility bills, mortgage or rent, car payment, insurance, to your license fees, car registration, oil changes, Christmas spending, birthday spending, and everything else in between. Anything that you spend money on in a years time needs to be included in your budget. If you forget about the quarterly or annual expenses you will be surprised by them and it will throw your budget off.

Next, you need to weigh your expenses against your income. Break any expenses that are not monthly down into monthly expenses to make it easier to work with. Then, you need to add them all up and subtract them from your income. The amount you have left is what you are allowed for savings, entertainment, and other things that are not necessities for your survival.

If you are not happy with the amount that is left over, then it is time to look at your expenses closely and figure out what you can live without. You might have cable television just so you can watch one show a week. Maybe that show is offered on the internet for free. Maybe you barely ever watch your television and that is an expense you can throw out. There are many other needless expenses that are usually in our budgets. Take a close look and eliminate anything that is not necessary for you.

Last, you need to figure out how much you are willing to waste on entertainment each month. This is your nights out, your movie rentals, and other things we do for enjoyment. There are many ways to make cuts here and still have a great time. You also need to figure out how much to save for general savings, vacations, emergencies, and other things you might be saving money for. This is how to write a budget the correct way and make sure you do not leave anything out.

Working out a budget for your bills is easy. Working out a budget for everything else seems nearly impossible. I mean, how can you say that you will only spend $30 on fruit and vegetables when they are sold by weights? To do this, you would have to carry a calculator with you when you went shopping and weigh everything before you bought it. This is beside the fact that the price of food seems to be continually on the rise. The same can be said for petrol. If you use 20 litres a week, what do you do when the price changes? You would need to rearrange your whole budget.

The solution to this problem is to budget for the most you think you would spend on these items. This way, if you don’t spend as much, you will have saved money that you can then put away for emergencies.

So how do you create your budget in the first place? Many people will tell you to start by writing down everything you spend money on for the next month. What if you want to start your budget now, instead of in a month’s time? Also if you have bills that only come every three or six months or even yearly, they won’t be included if you work out your budget from just one month of spending.

Let’s look at it from a different perspective. The first thing I look at is my regular bills. Things like rent, electricity, phone, insurance, car registration, loan repayments etc. These are all regular bills that need to be paid on time and are generally about the same amount each bill cycle. Therefore, the first step is to write down all of these bills and how much you will have to pay. The next step is to work out a yearly figure for each bill. For those bills that come monthly, you multiply the amount by 12. For three monthly bills, multiply by four and six monthly bills are multiplied by two. Then we need to work out how much these bills will cost us each pay period. If you are paid weekly, you would divide the yearly amount by 52. If you are paid fortnightly, you would divide by 26 and if you are paid monthly, you would divide by 12. This gives you the amount you need to budget for each pay period. The remainder of your pay is then used for food, petrol, normal living expenses and savings. Most people have a general idea on how much they pay each week for these items so that amount is used for your budget.

Now that we have our budget, how do we make sure that we stick to it? The first step is to make sure that our bill money that we are budgeting for is not left in our everyday bank account. The temptation to spend can be too great if the money is easily accessed. I heard about a system a few years ago where you get yourself a folder with plastic sheet protectors in it and have one for each of your bills. Then each week you put your budgeted amount of money into the relevant pockets so that when the bill comes in you just pull out the cash and pay it. The one big flaw with this system is that you end up with a lot of cash in your house. There is nothing to stop you from “borrowing” from your bill money and there is also the risk of having it stolen.

I recommend that you set up a separate bank account for your bill money. This account would ideally not come with an eftpos card but be accessed by telephone and internet banking. Most bills can be paid by bpay so when your bills come in you can pay them directly out of your bill saving account.

Do you need help creating a monthly budget that works? Just follow the seven tips below and you will be well on your way to creating a working monthly budget.

Tip #1 – Know Where You Are – It is important to know where you are financially before you create a month budget. This process includes documenting all your income sources, what you think you spend on expenses each month, and listing all your creditors and the debt that is owed to them. By doing these three things you will get a better understanding of where your finances stand.

Tip #2 – Track you spending – Tracking your spending for 30 days before creating a budget will give you the concrete numbers of how much you spend in each expense category every month. Many people are surprised to see how all the little purchases at up at the end of the month. By knowing how much you typically spend in each expense category you can now plan those expenses for the next month in your budget.

Tip #3 – Plan for periodic expenses – When creating a monthly budget that actually works you will need to plan ahead for periodic expenses such as car insurance (if not paid monthly), yearly car registration, gift giving, school shopping, and insurance deductibles just to name a few. If you estimate these expenses for the year and then divide by 12 you will get an amount that you can save each month for these expenses.

Tip #4 – Allow for Savings – It is always a great idea to plan to save a certain amount of money each month. This can be the beginning of an emergency fund so when unexpected expenses come your way you don’t have to reach for your credit card. This is an important step to getting and keeping yourself out of debt.

Tip #5 – Write Needs/Wants on a Special Worksheet – As members of your family express certain needs and wants, it is helpful to record them on a needs and wants worksheet. This will help to spend money wisely as it becomes available instead of make impulse buys and forgetting what you really wanted or needed.

Tip #6 – Use the Right Worksheets – When creating a budget it is helpful to use the worksheets that will have all the information you need to make a working budget. These worksheets should include a way to track spending, your repayment of debt, a monthly financial report and a monthly budget worksheet. These worksheets will make it easy for you to see all the information you need to create a working budget and show you expense categories you can adjust to make a balanced budget.

Tip #7 – Allow Yourself Some Mad Money – The best tip you can have when creating a monthly budget is to allow some mad money for yourself and spouse in the budget. This is the number one reason most budgets fail and people do not continue using a monthly budget. The resentment of not being able to spend any money makes people frustrated and then they stop tracking their spending all together. If you allow yourself and your spouse even a small amount of money to be spent on anything you wish without having to confer with the other person, your budget will have a much better chance of being successful. If money is tight just allowing a very small amount will help keep the resentment at bay.

So you are thinking of buying a car from either a dealer or from a private individual. How do you know the car you are looking to buy is legit? Every year in the UK tens of thousands of cars are sold with a previous history that ends up costing the new owner a lot of money, stress and even the loss of their new car.

When you first look at a car you can find out a lot of information as long as you know what you are looking for. You have to know the right questions to ask and how to check certain things which could be an indicator of a car with previous history.

Unfortunately just checking a car is not always enough, even the most seasoned motorist can be fooled into thinking that they are buying a legitimate car. The only sure way to confirm if there is something suspect about a car is if you do a car registration check.

A car reg check can provide you will all the information you need to be able to make an informed decision about a car that you want to buy.

There is no way you can know certain things about a cars history by just looking at it. Even the person selling the car to you may not be aware of its previous history and maybe selling the car in all innocence.

Did you know for example that almost 1 in 7 of all cars that are registration checked are reported to have a different VIN number or vehicle identification number. You do not want to risk buying one of the half a million cars that are insurance write offs every year in the UK. As many as 4 in every 100 cars that the HPI check turn out to have previously been written off.

It is hard to believe that cars are brought and sold unknowingly by the buyer and sometimes the seller where the car is stolen or has outstanding finance.

A registration check on the car will prevent you from having to lose your money as stolen cars have to legally be returned to their legitimate owners.

Buying a car has become a minefield and you do not know whether the car has been cloned or clocked or cut and shut. There is believed to be as many as 1 in 12 vehicles that have some sort of discrepancy. If you buy one of these vehicles it could end up costing you thousands to fix or you could even end up losing your new vehicle or even end up being unwittingly entangled with the police if you are stopped with a suspect car.