What to do at gun point

The first thing that came to my mind when I was asked this question is that I froze. And quite possibly I’ll freeze at gun point as well if I was alone, but as a parent almost all the time accompanied with my daughter I might just through myself on her for protection. But how effective is that? And how is she going to do at the age of 8 without me if the attacker decides to shoot? And how is my body going to keep the bullets away from her at a close distance?

An even worse question for me would be: what to do when a your kid is at a gun point? Knowing me I would just comply with the attackers and give them all what they want to buy my daughter’s safety.

Money and valuables don’t represent any real value to me. However, this situation is not going to pass without a scar in my daughter’s mind. As a parent it is my responsibility to ensure my daughter’s growth is on the right track, whether it is psychological, physical, cognitive … etc.

I started searching around the Internet for answers. I found some videos but they don’t really teach anything. They only show some Krav Maga experts doing some stuff. I even searched for Krav Maga classes near me. Too expensive, but my daughter’s well being is priceless. But still I kept searching.

I have some military training and some Karate under my belt, but I know it’s worthless now given the fact that I am not young and fast anymore, besides my fragile bones, arthritis, and many other diseases that make me a weakling rather than a self defender. Besides, I know first hand that all of what I learned in the military school has little application in a street fight when you are unarmed and attacked by an armed gang.

So I continued to search for something I could learn that doesn’t involve using hurting my bones in the process of learning how to defend myself and my family.

I listened to this presentation by Frank Bell. It sounded like the man is ready my thoughts and just saying them back to me. I decided to give it a try. I placed my order and will come back to write more about what I found inside to let you know whether it is worth your investment or not. But it costs less than one Krav Maga lesson in a local place.

You can have a look at the presentation yourself by clicking here.

 

Used Car Buying Strategy That Works

The One Car Buying Strategy That Works

You are about to learn about the best car buying strategy that works. It actually beats up all other strategies. It is true that timing is important, as well as having control on the process. But the one car buying strategy that works, and by that I mean getting the best price on a used car, is what you are going to learn in this lens.

I work from home. And it happened that one of the companies that I am promoting is rewarding its affiliates with a CAR. So now I am not planning on using my own strategy for buying a car because someone else is paying for it :-). Just kidding. But still, I don’t need my strategy because it only works with used cars.

For new cars I do recommend reading this car-buying guide:

 

 

Connections

Make a deal with an insider

 
Don’t jump to conclusions yet, everything is ethical and legit. If you know a car dealer or an autosalesman who can work the deal for you it will be better. If not, approach more than one autodealership with the request that I’ll reveal to you in a minute and compare their responses, then negotiate with them based on the lowest offer to get an even lower one.

This is not the only kind of help you will need. Also approach a bunch of mechanics to come with you in a mission of choosing a car from thousands of cars. They should be able to evaluate the car by examining it and tell you about any repairs it might need and how much this will cost.

Again, compare their charges per hour and negotiate with them based on the lowest estimate to get an even lower one.

Find Government Auctions in your Area

Be open to drive to a nearby town, it’s worth it

If you have been to an auto auction before you’ll know that it is the best place to find the car of your dream for a dirt cheap price. I have a friend with an autodealer’s license and he is the one who introduced this strategy to me. He is also an expert in evaluating cars, so I didn’t need a mechanic to come with us.

Here is the deal that you need to work out with the dealer: You’ll go out with him to the auction (because they are going anyway, this is where they get most of their cars). You’ll pick the car of your choice, let the mechanic check it for you, test drive it yourself, and once you are comfortable with it let your dealer know that you want this car.

Tip: Pick a bunch of cars to bid one, if you chose just one car and someone outbids you you’ll need to pick another one in a hurry and you don’t want to do this. Trust me.

The dealer will bid on this car within the maximum you’re prepared to pay for it. After successfully getting the car he will pay an auction fee (around $60) and will ask you to drive the car to the dealership with him to finish the paper work. As a dealer he will issue you on the spot a temporary plate (just a piece of paper to stick on the back of the car) until you get permanent plate and car insurance.

How Much to Pay for The Car

It’s a simple calculation

Before you go to the auction do your research. Kelly blue book will give you a precise estimate for the car price based on the model year and conditions. If you have a black berry it will be better because you might see a car in the auction that you like but you didn’t search for in advance.

Your costs will be as follows:

– The auction fee: about $60
– The dealer’s fee: It really varies, but from my personal experience it could range between $200 and $400 based on the location of the auction, the number of cars you’ll be chosing to bid on, the price of the car itself … etc.
– The mechanic fee (they usually charge between $45 and $80 per hour)
– Any repairs the car might need as esimated by the mechanic (subtract this from the kelly blue book price)

As mentioned above, you’ll be negotiating those fees with the dealers and the mechanics until you get the lowest fee possible.

Add those to one another, and based on the price estimate you’ve got from your research you’ll decide your maximum bid on every car you chose.

Why Do you Need a Dealer

To get admitted into the acution location you’ll need a dealer’s license. So without the dealer you can forget about the auction. If you are a car expert, meaning that you can estimate the value of a car by checking the body, the engine, test driving … etc, you can omit the mechanic, but for most people it is not wise to depend on your own opinion when it comes to evaluating a car in a police auction.

The other reason you need the dealer is that you cannot drive the car out of the auction without the paper work that he will do for you until you get plates and auto insurance.

In addition, if you have been into an auto auction before you’ll know this. There is a language they speak in the auctions that I never understood. I always keep asking my dealer friend “what did he say” and he translates that jargon into English for me.

OK, What’s in it for the Dealer?

You need to know this in order to work your negotiations out

In the current economy, with thousands of autodealerships running out of business, any deal will be appreciated by the autodealers. They will go to the auction anyway. If you go with them, pick your car, and pay them for their efforts … they can’t say no.

Of course they would have made more money if they bought the car, brought it to the dealership lot and priced it as they will. But in this economy they will hesitate to buy the car or go the auction in the first place. With your deal they guarantee a sale from the auction.

Tip: If you are a group of friends buying cars at the same time you can work out a better deal and the dealer will be happier to work it out for you. Or better, if you know people who are interested to go out with you you can work out a better deal for yourself and get a lower fee because you are bringing business to the dealer.

In a Nutshell

Find the auction, do your reasearch about the car of your dreams, negotiate with dealers on going with you, or you going out with them to the auction, get a mechanic to evaluate the car for you, decide what is your maximum bid, and let the dealer do his job. This is the best strategy to get a used car for the lowest price ever.

First Car Tips

First Car Tips

Buying a car for the first time is so exciting. You just got your license, or you moved out of home to start your own life at school or work. Or you just immigrated from where you never needed a car before. Everything is so exciting. But don’t get too excited and ignore doing your research. I assume you didn’t ignore it as you are already here.

This first car tips lens is to show you some obstacles that you’ll face trying to buy your first car and how to get around them. Everything in life looks either too hard or too easy until you start doing it, only then you’ll realize its reality.

New vs. Used

Can you afford a new car?

Even if you do, my recommendation is not to. A new car loses at least $3000 in value once you drive it out of the auto dealer’s lot. A two-year-old car will lose 30-40% of its value, assuming you took good care of it and had no accidents.

As a first time car owner you still don’t know a lot about different cars and advantages and disadvantages of certain car makes. You’ll probably want to change your car frequently until you are comfortable with a certain car to stick with for the next 5-7 years.

You see, in the first two years of the car’s life it loses a lot of it’s value. Why would you pay for that loss in your first car? Let someone else pay for it and get your car two years later.

How to Pay for your First Car

First car financing obstacles

If you are a youth or a new immigrant to North America, in both cases you have no credit history. Without credit history you can’t get any good deal on car loans. Not only car loans. You’ll get the same response when you apply for any financial aid.

There are two steps for getting your car financed for you:

1. Fix or build a credit history. Without one you can’t get any loans. You’ll see some ads for financing cars for bad or no credit, DON’T GET FOOLED by those ads or you’ll end up paying up to double the real value of the car. Use this guide to fix your credit yourself or use this service to fix your credit issues first if you have any. But it will take you at least 6 months from starting to build your credit history before you might be approved for any auto loans.

2. Choose a car you can afford paying in full in 36-48 months and put 20% of its value down (pay 20% of the price as a down payment). Here is why: As mentioned above, the first car doesn’t last long with you and you’ll probably want to change it frequently. If the car is too expensive to be paid in full in 48 months and you didn’t pay 20% down you’ll owe your bank or lending institution more than what the car is worth (they take the interest first). You’ll either have to pay that out of your pocket or you’ll have to add it to the next car’s loan.

Consider Other Expenses

Car ownership costs more than just the car itself. Be aware of other expenses. The list includes gas, oil change, tire change, regular maintenance, parking, car insurance, and winter service in snow areas.

Gas and oil, together with regular maintenance are beyond your control as they are a must. Of course you can control your gas consumption by driving less, but you can’t avoid the ever-changing prices of gas. If you are renting (most probably) make sure you have a parcking spot included in the rent.

The one thing that needs a lot of research is the car insurance. So many factors will make your auto insurance high, and all of those factors apply to you. As a teenager your car insurance will be the highest. The type of car will affect your car insurance. Generally a full size sedan gets a lower insurance than a 3 or 2 door car. So keep that in mind before choosing the car.

Also, make sure you get auto insurance quotes before you buy the car, and compare different cars and different insurance companies until you get the best combination. This website offers some help with this issue.

IN A NUTSHELL

You need to plan to buy your car at least 6 months ahead. Start with your credit history, compare cars, and get insurance quota for the car(s) of your choice before you go out shopping for your first car.

The worst time to buy a car

 


 The worst time to buy a car is just as important to know as the best time to buy a car. Buying a car is a big investment. You worked, and maybe will still work, hard for that money. So you want to make sure that you get the best value for your dollar. There are several factors that will affect the value of the car, one of them is the timing. If you chose the right time to buy your car you are more likely to get the best value for your dollars than if you pick your car in one of the bad times described in this lens.

It is really an advantage to have an insider (an auto salesman) with you while buying a car. If not possible you can still have questions this guide written by an ex-auto sales manager. It’s as if you have the insider walking with you into the auto dealer’s lot.

And You Can Have One … Click Here

Also …
==> Click here for more car buying tips

 

 

 

New Car Models Release

“Beware the Ides of … Fall!”

The end of the summer and the beginning of the fall is the time of releasing the new car models for the new year. Whether you are going to buy the current year model or you are after the new release … BEWARE!

If you buy the current model today and the new year’s model is released a week later your vehicle’s value will drop significantly. Besides, your new car’s model will be out of date while you haven’t got the chance to enjoy it yet.

On the other hand if you are going to buy the new year’s model once it is released, it means you’ll be among the first group of drivers who will test it on the road for the first time.

If you recall early this century there was a debate between Ford and Goodyear tires for who is responsible for the lack of safety of the newest Ford Explorer at that time. It was discovered to be unsafe on the road after drivers had serious accidents. And the Toyota massive recalls for safety issues are still current news.

How did the manufacturer know about the safety issues? It was after being tested on the road by buyers who lost their lives in the test.

Still some people love to be the first to drive the new years model in their community. Why not let them test it for you?

From another perspective, here in Canada and in the Northern United States the road conditions in winter all work against your car. If you buy your car in the fall you’ll be heading to the worst conditions to drive in. Your car will be exposed to salty roads and freezing temperatures that will favor the erosion of the car body, especially from the bottom. You certainly can have your car winter-serviced (get the bottom painted with a water proof film) but this will only delay the erosion for a little while.

Another source of erosion is accidents, which are more likely to happen in winter because of the prolonged bad weather periods. Any bodywork your car needs must be done without a delay, or your car’s body will get rusty where the paint is scratched.

In my opinion the best time to buy a car is in the spring. Whether it is a used or a new car, spring is the best timing. A used car that survive the winter without rust or accidents is a good buy. New cars will be already tested on the road, and you have three seasons to enjoy it before the winter. Also, if for any reason you need to sell your car after 6 months (moving or expecting a baby and will need a bigger car) you will get a better value for the car that you never drove in winter than a car that ran on salty and icy roads.

If you want the best price for a new car, wait until the new models are released and buy the last year’s model. You’ll run through winter through.

The First Day in the Month

If you are buying a new car you don’t want to do it the first day of the month. Auto dealers will be starting a fresh sales cycle and are ready to squeeze you out of your last penny (even if you don’t even have it). By that I mean that they are relaxed and have no pressure of meeting a sales volume before a deadline.The only exception is when the first day in the month is Friday. Find out why below.

Weekdays?

It depends

The rule of thumb here is to avoid crowds. Some dealers are open in the weekends, you don’t want to buy your car when they have more customers than salesmen. It makes your purchase not as significant as when you are the only customer in the lot.

In Mondays the auto dealers are starting fresh and will be ready for you. Try to walk in the same dealership on Mondays and Fridays and see how differently you’ll be treated. If you happen to shop for your car on Mondays you’ll treated with respect and everything but the salesperson is not under a lot of pressure, if you don’t buy from him he still has the time to make it up.

On the contrary, if you walk in a dealership Friday afternoon you’ll be treated with more respect and they will do every thing possible to get you to buy on the spot. Here is why: The sales people have to meet a certain sales volume each week, and any sales that will be closed on Fridays will show on their next pay check. You can use this fact to practice some pressure to get the deal you want.

Another reason Fridays are the best is that if you walk out without buying you have the whole weekend to think and talk to friends and family, and you’re very likely to get your car somewhere else, maybe from a dealership open on weekends. Mondays, on the other hand, if you walk out without buying you only have overnight for the above factors to affect your decision.

How to make money online without investment

Back in 2006 I started my journey looking for a way to make money online without investment. It wasn’t because I was broke or something, but I couldn’t risk my family savings without knowing what I am doing. It would be kind of gambling and I don’t gamble. So I kept searching on forums and blogs, that turned out to be mostly biased due to a commission promise from some guru.

Anyway, long story short, I had to spend some money and time learning until I had a system. It was not a no cost system or anything. I had to invest in tracking software and paid advertising to make the kind of money I wished for. It was really nice while it lasted.

And like all good things that come to an end, Google closed my Adwords account, and a few months later they closed my Adsense account as well. Here goes at least $3000 of my monthly income. Other things also happened at the same time like losing my father and other family issues that led to me ending up broke and with $24,000 debt. So to come back I needed to figure out how to make money without investment for real this time.

I did one week marketing. At the time it was working well. A few squidoo lenses were responsible for around $1000 of my income that year. I also did forum marketing, door to door sales, and to pay the rent I had to do some one-on-one tutoring for some of my friends’ kids. But still I wasn’t able to pay that growing debt and the longer it took to pay it the more the interest accumulated.

A breakthrough happened when I started selling my own products online, and I discovered how I was being ripped off as an affiliate. Only then I started to pay my debt and restore my life back.

Since I don’t need those methods anymore I will share one of them in this post. So if you are interested in learning how to make money online without investment keep reading. This one method that works like charm and have been working for me for the last 8 years.

It’s one form of affiliate marketing that requires $0 investment, but in return you’ll have to invest a lot of working hours in the preparation and the actual marketing efforts.

In this method I do the following:

1. Find a hungry crowd

This “hungry crowd” term I learned from Travis Sago, the author of “Bum Marketing”. A hungry crowd is a group of people who have a real problem that’s urgent enough for them to be willing to pay any amount of money to get it solved.

I’ll give you an example that’s not necessarily a good one for marketing, just to let you know what I mean with a hungry crowd.

Imagine that your smoke detector is peeping all night. What’s the first thing you’ll do in the morning? You might take the day off just to fix this annoying thing. Right?

Or if you wake up in the morning with full bladder but unable to pee. Are you going to ignore this problem and go to work or you’ll rush to the emergency room?

You got the idea of the urgency and being willing to do anything to get it fixed. Now let’s move on.

2. Find a solution

Your second step is to find a solution that can fix this problem and at the same time pays you commission per sale. To simplify this post I will stick to the best affiliate network out there, which is ClickBank. I have my reasons to believe so, but that’s a story for another post.

In ClickBank’s market place you can search for products by keyword. So if you have the problem already from step 1 search for the same term in ClickBank’s market place search engine. If you find results check their sales pages to make sure they are still current and are functional. Then contact the vendors for a review copy.

After the new changes in the marketplace it’s the vendors’ best interest to give you the review copy instead of letting you buy it and refunding your purchase the next day. Compare the products to make sure that you have a real solution to reduce the refund rate. After all the work you’ll put in this method you don’t want to end up with all your sales refunded because the vendor is selling a crappy product that doesn’t work.

Also use those review copies to educate yourself about the problem and the solution. You will need that for the promotion part.

3. Be the expert

Go to the forums where you found your hungry crowd and sign up for an account. Start participating and giving advice based on the knowledge you gained from your research and the reviews you did in step 2.

Some will advice you to start new threads, my advice would be not to. Just answer the questions the other members have. Keep building your reputation as the expert in this problem until you have enough posts to get you ranked in the forum (some forums have ranking for the members, if not don’t worry about it).

4. Build your site

You can build a free blog on wordpress.com, weebly.com, but my preferred platform is Google’s blogger. Again I have my reasons but for now just trust me on it. You will need to stay away from anything that looks, feels, or even smells spammy.

First post about yourself and your life briefly. Then start picking up questions from the forums you participated in and answer them on your blog.

Now go back to your forums accounts and add a signature that includes a link to your blog.

5. Get your affiliate link

Go to ClickBank and get your affiliate link to the product you think is the best in terms of solving the problem. Add this link to the end of your blog posts when appropriate (like when you answer a question related to the problem at the end link to the product using the short link and instruct your visitors to click it for more information on how to deal with this issue).

6. Keep promoting

Your participation in the forums is already doing some marketing for you. Every time someone searches for the answer of one of the questions you answered they’ll find your answer and a link to your blog in your signature. A percentage of those will visit your link to get more of your wisdom.

But this is not going to be enough. So you’ll continue participating in those forums and building reputation, and joining new forums and helping people with their problem.

And from the questions you answered you can start writing articles and publishing them on article directories like ezinearticles.com and link to your blog in your bio section.

7. Socialize

The most important social medium to use in your promotions is not Facebook, although it’s the biggest. Your time is more well spent on google +. I’ll leave the details out because this post is getting really long, just trust me on that. Make sure your google + profile includes links to where you are participating (forums, articles, blog … etc) and a nice face picture of you.

8. Expand

After you start seeing sales start investing in your real estate and build your own website on your own domain. The cheapest is Web Hosting by iPage – $1.99/month only. Don’t copy your old posts from your old blog yet. Start with new posts and newly written material, and link to them from your old blog.

If something goes wrong with the free blog (like if out of the blues Google decides to delete it for you) start moving your posts to the new blog, then go to the articles you published on article directories and change the link to your new blog.

That will be the first step on expanding.

The second step of expanding your source of income is to use the knowledge and the experience you gained from your engagement with your market to build your own product that solves the problem and start selling it on ClickBank. You already have a website to sell it on, and the authority that you’ve built over the time helping people find the solution to their urgent problem.

I hope you can make money without investment using this method. If you think it’s a good one wait until you see the other 5 no cost income systems I prepared for you.

Click here to get 89 videos explaining in details 5 different no cost income streams you can build right now.