Financial Solution News

I just picked up the recent issue of Consumer Reports magazine and the issue is dedicated to cars: quality, reliability, performance, and safety.
Honda and Toyota are the best cars
It is little surprise to find out that Honda is number one on the list and Toyota is number two. These Japanese car companies have come to be synonymous with reliability. CR’s (Consumer Reports) rating was based on performance and reliability. They took each company’s score in these two categories to come up with the overall score. Here is how they all stacked up:

78 - Honda
75 - Toyota
72 - Subaru
71 - BMW
71 - Nissan
71 - VW
71 - Mazda
67 - Mercedes-Benz
66 - Hyundai
64 - Volvo
63 - Mitsubishi
61 - Ford
54 - GM
49 - Suzuki
49 - Chrysler

“Honda earned the top score in our analysis because it builds very reliable cars that perform very well.”

GM and Ford have improved
GM and Ford are still towards […]

Original post by bob

I just picked up the recent issue of Consumer Reports magazine and the issue is dedicated to cars: quality, reliability, performance, and safety.
Honda and Toyota are the best cars
It is little surprise to find out that Honda is number one on the list and Toyota is number two. These Japanese car companies have come to be synonymous with reliability. CR’s (Consumer Reports) rating was based on performance and reliability. They took each company’s score in these two categories to come up with the overall score. Here is how they all stacked up:

78 - Honda
75 - Toyota
72 - Subaru
71 - BMW
71 - Nissan
71 - VW
71 - Mazda
67 - Mercedes-Benz
66 - Hyundai
64 - Volvo
63 - Mitsubishi
61 - Ford
54 - GM
49 - Suzuki
49 - Chrysler

“Honda earned the top score in our analysis because it builds very reliable cars that perform very well.”

GM and Ford have improved
GM and Ford are still towards […]

Original post by bob

Gift bag recycling saves money
My wife gave me my valentines day gift in a gift bag that I think we have given back and forth to each other about 10 times. It still looks good, but I was just wondering if anyone else does this or if it is just me.
It is amazing how much money is made off of the gift giving accessories. Gift bags, tissue paper, wrapping paper, cards, ribbon, etc. I noticed that frequently when we are trying to buy the gift and accessories all at the same store (this is the result of last-minute shopping), the accessories can be 10-20% of the total amount spent.
If you go to party stores and stock up on some of these items it really can save a ton of money. Or in our case, just keep giving each other the same gift bag for about 3 decades and […]

Original post by bob

Online shoppers' have more tools than ever to find the best value for their money. Value being the highest quality item for the best price. These are a few of the tools that I use on a regular basis whether shopping online, or occasionally actually "driving to a store." If you have some of your own that you love, feel free to share them in the comments.
Shop for the best
One of the best features of online shopping is that you can find out a lot about the product before ever touching it. You have access to just as much information as the salespeople at traditional stores. You can find out what customers who were purchasing the same item bought and what they liked and didn't like. Whenever I am going to be purchasing a product that costs me more than a few bucks I check out these places […]

Original post by bob

Amazon Prime
Amazon.com offers a service called Amazon Prime that for an annual fee of $79 gives you free 2-day shipping on items that they sell. It is a great idea on Amazon’s part, because it will make me think twice about buying from anywhere else. I often find the lowest price for any given item on the Web at either eBay or Amazon, so this just tilts the scales even more towards Amazon.
Unlimited shipping for $79 a year seems like a steal to me. But, I guess it is like anything else, a few people will ship way more than $79 in a year and get more than their money’s worth, but the large majority will not - and many will never use it.
If you still think Amazon is just a bookstore, you may want to check again. From textbooks to clothing and from groceries to fitness equipment […]

Original post by bob

This was a trick I discovered late in college, that I wish I would have known about earlier, it could have saved me thousands over my college years. It shouldn’t take more than a hour and could save you hundreds each semester.
Basically, the goal is to buy and sell the textbook for the same price - making it ($75-$75=$0) FREE!!
1. Find the cheapest priced textbooks.
Check Amazon and eBay. Get the ISBN# from the barcode of the book and do a search on both for the cheapest used book. Feel free to look other places like textbooks.com or Barnes and Noble, but Amazon and eBay are likely to be the cheapest.
Make sure you are getting the right edition for the class (I had many classes that it didn’t matter, but for the purposes of reselling, the newest edition will help).
2. Use it, but don’t abuse it
Folded pages, highlighting, rounded edges […]

Original post by bob

I love books. I used to hate reading, therefore I hated books as well. But, as soon as I got out of school I began to enjoy reading - probably because I was no longer forced to do it. So now I collect good books, but I can’t remember the last time I paid full price for a book, or even half price for that matter. These are the 5 ways I save money on books:
 
1. Amazon.com
It doesn’t get much better than Amazon.com. They have just about every book imaginable, and you can buy almost all of them used. At this moment, I have books on my Amazon wish list that are selling used for 1 cent! I do have to pay shipping, which might be a couple bucks, but that sure beats the $20 retail price.
2. The local Library
I can’t speak for all libraries, but ours has a […]

Original post by bob

Yep, it is true, I just switched over to Geico and saved $330 per year on my car insurance. From what I have seen of Geico so far, they appear to be very promising. But, I don’t think the truth really comes out with insurance companies until you actually have a claim. I will let you know when/if that day comes.
I was with AAA before and I was deliberately paying more than the average for the sake of convenience. I knew my agent well enough that I could email her or call her directly, rather than talking to a random agent, like I will likely have to do with Geico.
I try to shop around once a year for insurance rates, and for whatever reason the price gap increased since last time I checked. For the same amount of coverage $330 was a bit too much to pay for my […]

Original post by bob