Buying a new car is exciting. Often a new vehicle is the first purchase made by young adults moving out on their own and establishing their own careers. Unfortunately, the heady smell of new car upholstery often clouds the mind of the buyer and leaves him with the car he wants and a payment he didn’t.

If you are considering buying a new car, take heed of the following to ensure you get the best deal possible and arrange a price you can live with.

Do Your Research
The average car buyer pays 11% or more less than the sticker price on a new vehicle. Of course the dealer is not going to simply offer a reduced price to every person who walks though the door. Only those who have done their homework and planned ahead can walk out of a dealership with the kind of deal that makes others envious.

Car prices shown by dealers are the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP.) MSRP is considerably higher than what the dealer paid for the car, or the invoice price. Even with the inflated fees for shipping and upgrades, car dealers stand to make a lot of money from those who are uneducated enough to pay MSRP.

Now, in certain situations, it is impossible to get a vehicle for less than MSRP. If you are ordering a specialty item or preordering a new model to try and be the first to have it, you’ll pay a pretty penny. To each his own, but if waiting a few months or a year can save you thousands, do you really have to be the first on your street with the new whatever in your driveway? (more…)

Americans have always been hard workers. The Puritan work ethic and the American dream mesh to fuel our dreams and desires with solid hard work. Despite those who get plenty of press for wanting to live off the government or wait around to strike it rich via lottery or lawsuit, most Americans know full well that the prizes in life are awarded to those who work to get them.

Office Hours
Recent studies and comparisons have shown that Americans spend far more time in the workplace than other developed nations. The average American spent 1,804 hours at work – be it an office, shop or farm. This breaks down to about 35 hours a week, assuming no holidays or time off, which we know is not the case. By comparison, Norwegians worked 1,401 hours and the French worked 1,564.

Not only are Americans putting in extra time, they are actually producing more while they are there. Americans generate $35.63 for every hour working. This is beaten only by Norway which is not part of the Untied Nations which created the study. (more…)

The Economic Policy Institute released a study recently that found the economy in the United States has been steadily growing since 2000, but workers aren’t being paid any more than they were a few years ago. In fact, since 2003, the salaries and wages of 95% of workers have actually fallen a slight amount.

It doesn’t make sense. The economy is growing. There is less unemployment. Workers have increased productivity by over twenty percent in the last few years, and they aren’t being compensated? Inquiring minds want to know why.

Growing Economy?
One possibility is that the economy isn’t growing as much as we might think. Unemployment numbers are down, but does that reflect new job growth or simply more people dropping out of the rat race? The baby boomers are retiring, which leaves plenty of open positions for up and coming employees, so the low unemployment numbers might be an illusion rather than fact.

Biased Opinions
It should be mentioned that the Economic Policy Institute is well-known for its liberal bias. Economy growth is subject to many factors and making large assumptions based on samples can always be misleading – take a look at exit polls! It could easily be that paychecks are climbing a bit, but the growth was buried, either accidentally or deliberately by competing statistics. (more…)