Cash Car Convert

To start this episode, I want people to take a reality check. Most of us are too optimistic when it comes to our futures. I'm all for positive thinking, but we most often expect the future to be better than our pasts. This isn't always the case. This concept is illustrated by a Prudential Insurance ad where they ask people to place magnets, one each, for something that happened to them in the past and, one each, for something they expected to happen in the future. Good things were represented with yellow magnates and bad things were represented with blue magnates. For the past it was pretty even good and bad, but when looking into the future, people anticipated much more good than bad coming their way. Click here to view the Prudential commercial. What does this have to do with cars. Well, most people buy cars on credit and base the payment on at worst their life not getting any worse and at best getting a promotion, raise, or some other type of monetary increase. This leads to all manner of problems  and people over extend their income. Be realistic about your future. Expect the best, but plan for the worst. That way, you will always be prepared. Click to Listen: [powerpress] My friend Ellory Wells, has been telling me for a long time I should recommend specific vehicles to my listeners. I have resisted because I want to teach the car buying process. I want to teach someone how to fish, not give them a fish. Having said all that, I have come across two articles that help me point my listeners in the direction of some vehicles that will with the best chance to go over 200,000 miles. Ever wonder what vehicles can go 200,000 miles most often? If you are like me you have. I want to know that my vehicle has the oomph to last. No car is cheap and we all work too hard for our money to just throw it away. Luckily, there are a couple of articles that share some of the vehicles which most often make it past 200,000 miles. One is from our friends at Consumer Reports, Best cars for making it to 200,000 miles, 10 models most likely to run for the long haul. Consumer Reports' Top 10:Toyota PriusToyota CamryHonda OdysseyHonda PilotToyota CorollaHonda Accord sedan (4-cyl.)Honda CR-VToyota SiennaToyota Highlander (V6)Honda Civic (non-hybrid) The next article is from I See Cars. Their article, Top 10 Longest-Lasting Vehicles in iSeeCars.com Study Are All Trucks and SUVs. I didn't know much about I See Cars, but they are a site that allows one to search and compare cars. They also have a research tab. Top 20 Longest Lasting Vehicles:Ford F-250 Super DutyChevrolet Silverado 2500HDChevrolet SuburbanToyota 4RunnerFord ExpeditionGMC Sierra 2500HDChevrolet TahoeGMC Yukon XLToyota SequoiaGMC Sierra 1500GMC YukonHonda AccordDodge DurangoSubaru LegacyToyota TacomaToyota AvalonFord ExplorerFord F-150Lincoln NavigatorChevrolet Silverado 1500 I See Cars also had lists that excluded trucks and another that was only listed with cars. These two studies came at the information from very different points of view. I would recommend checking out both articles for all the details. Give this episode a listen! Links: Ellory Wells: http://ellorywells.com Consumer Report - Best cars for making it to 200,000 miles 10 models most likely to run for the long haul: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2015/03/ten-for-the-long-haul/index.htm I See Cars Article - Top 10 Longest-Lasting Vehicles in iSeeCars.com Study Are All Trucks and SUVs http://blog.iseecars.com/2014/02/24/top-10-longest-lasting-vehicles-in-iseecars-com-study-are-all-trucks-and-suvs/ Prudential Commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3pFHPgH3oU Did you enjoy the show? If you liked this episode, please consider going to iTunes and subscribing. On iTunes once you subscribe, you can leave a rating and review. Taking this action will help this podcast move up and be more easily found in iTunes. Thank you for an honest rating and review. Here is a link to subscribe or rate and review the show: http://cashcarconvert.com/itunes Alternatively, you can let me know your thoughts about the show on Twitter at @CashCarConvert. Want to connect on Facebook? http://facebook.com/cashcarconvert Check out my new private Facebook community. http://cashcarconvert.com/cccc Want to shoot me an e-mail? Click: james@cashcarconvert.com. Looking for something on Amazon? Please use my affiliate link: http://cashcarconvert.com/amazon Looking for a back episode of the Cash Car Convert? Click: http://cashcarconvert.com/cash-car-convert/ I’m also posting my audio podcasts on youtube. The first 20 episodes are up with the rest to follow. I’m looking at this as just one more platform to be found. http://cashcarconvert.com/youtube Do you have a comment about this interview or about the podcast itself? Please leave a comment below. I appreciate every listener.

Steve Stewart back on the Cash Car Convert show to tell his Cash Car Story. Okay, Steve agreed to be on to get me back behind the microphone. The things some people will do to help a friend. He continues to be a great supporter of this show. I'm humbled and appreciate his support. Let's just say he has "bought" into the cash car lifestyle. It was great to see Steve at the Podcast Movement 2015 in Fort Worth, Texas.  We didn't get to hang out too much, but it was great to see him and his cash car. He does have a great cash car story and we will get to it now. Steve bought a cash car in Dallas Texas in April this year. This wasn't a typical transaction. Steve lives in St. Louis! Why did Steve come to Dallas to buy his cash car? Click to Listen: [powerpress] It all started when I posted a Craigslist ad on the Cash Car community page on Facebook on April 2nd. Steve's response to my post was the following, "an I send you a check and a little extra for your trouble to look at it for me? I'm 75% serious here (and it's no longer April Fools Day)." Steve and I spoke on the phone and agreed I would look at the car for him. I went to look at the car and liked what I saw. I also spent about an hour plus at Christian Brother's Automotive having the car looked over by professional mechanics. This is a service Christian Bother's offers for about ninety dollars. While they did find a few things that long term needed attention, their overall assessment was this is a sound vehicle. The mechanic went out of his way to tell me the late 90's Honda Civics have historically been great cars. He called a Civic sweet spot. I called Steve and after a lengthy conversation, he agreed to buy the car if we could get some price relief. The car was originally priced at $3,800. Steve finally purchased it for $3,400. A little more than a 10% discount. To be fair Steve had to buy a plane ticket to travel to Dallas and had other expenses. When all was said and done, Steve was out $4,000. Steve is on today's show to talk about how the car has been performing since April. I won't steal Steve's thunder, but he has had this car on the highway traveling between Dallas and St. Louis, St. Louis and Fort Worth and back, and St. Louis to Philadelphia and back. He has had this car on the highway for an estimated total of over 40 hours. That's a lot of time on the road. To me, this is important because most people are happy to drive their $4,000 car around town, but would be afraid to take a 10 hour one way trip. This car has held up to the demands put on it. 1998 Honda Civic EX as advertised on Craigslist.     Steve Stewart's cash car parked in Fort Worth at Podcast Movement 2015. Note the Cash Car Convert bumper sticker. Give this episode a listen, I know you'll enjoy Steve Stewart's Cash Car Story!  

What a great show we have today! Today, we have a young lady, Lauren Bowling, on who was a theater major and graduated with no student loan debt. Her parents made sure she had no student loans. The foe of most every college student got her though, credit cards. She finished college with thousands in debt and a dream. Lauren Bowling dreamed of being an actor in New York city. With $300 and her dream, she left home for New York. Soon after she arrived between the debt and lack of acting jobs, Lauren was forced to take an administrative job at a hedge fund company. Lauren spent her time there paying down her debt and learning from the fiscally responsible people working at the hedge fund. After Lauren paid off her debt, she started to pursue her acting, only to find she didn't really enjoy it. She didn't really love the audition process. She said her nerves would often get the best of her. She often didn't perform at her best. Lauren decided to head back home and take up residence with her parents. Lauren didn't stay with her parents' house too long. She received a bonus from the hedge fund and decided to put it towards a house. Lauren's dream house quickly turned to a house of horrors when her home repairs outstripped her home repair loan and she found herself in $8,000 in debt. Reeling from a recent breakup and in debt Lauren spent a year finding her equilibrium. In 2015, Lauren regained her footing, she got serious about her. Lauren set up a plan to pay off $8,000 in 90 days. Lauren hit her goal of paying off $8,000 in 90 days. How you might ask did she do this? It turns out Lauren had started a blog, L Bee and the Money Tree to discuss money and her journey with it back in 2012. She also started doing some free lance writing. She over the next two years and 2,000 blog posts, she built her reputation. She also built a know like and trust factor with her audience. It was the free lance writing that allowed her to  accelerate the pay off of her debt. She also discovered something else. She discovered she could make enough hustling as a free lance writer to leave her day job. What started off as a problem, a house with excessive repair bills, resulted in an opportunity to leave her day job and pursue a new life. Lauren also shared a personal story of a shopping addiction. She spoke of how shopping was comfort for what she felt lacking. She attended therapy sessions to get control of her addiction. I thought it was brave of her to tell this personal story on my show. I believe her bravery in sharing this story, will touch someone out there who needed to hear her story. Give this episode a listen, I know you'll enjoy! Links: L Bee and the Money Tree: http://www.lbeeandthemoneytree.com Lauren Bowling YouTube Channel (Awkward Money Chat: https://www.youtube.com/user/LBeeMoneyTree  Start with Why - Simon Senik: http://www.amazon.com/Start-Why-Leaders-Inspire-Everyone/dp/1591846447/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1434770697&sr=8-1&keywords=start+with+why Did you enjoy the show? If you liked this episode, please consider going to iTunes and subscribing. On iTunes once you subscribe, you can leave a rating and review. Taking this action will help this podcast move up and be more easily found in iTunes. Thank you for an honest rating and review. Here is a link to subscribe or rate and review the show: http://cashcarconvert.com/itunes Alternatively, you can let me know your thoughts about the show on Twitter at @CashCarConvert. Want to connect on Facebook? http://facebook.com/cashcarconvert Check out my new private Facebook community. http://cashcarconvert.com/cccc Want to shoot me an e-mail? Click: james@cashcarconvert.com. Looking for something on Amazon? Please use my affiliate link: http://cashcarconvert.com/amazon Looking for a back episode of the Cash Car Convert? Click: http://cashcarconvert.com/cash-car-convert/ I’m also posting my audio podcasts on youtube. The first 20 episodes are up with the rest to follow. I’m looking at this as just one more platform to be found. http://cashcarconvert.com/youtube Do you have a comment about this interview or about the podcast itself? Please leave a comment below. I appreciate every listener.

Hey converts! It feels good to be back behind the mic! April was a busy month! Taxes were due to be filed and I had and audit for the previous year's taxes. Yikes! My wife and I Bought two houses using the 1031 exchange program to defer taxes on a house we sold in March. We rented both houses in just a couple of weeks. It feels good to have an additional source of revenue. I also helped Steve Stewart from MoneyPlanSOS.com buy a cash car. I recently read a book called The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. There was a great quote in the book. It really resonated with me. "What's the ONE Thing you can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?" What if I told you if you did this one thing you could retire wealthy? Would you want to know what it is? This one thing. If you knew what this one thing was, would you do something about it? For most people, the answer is no. Shocked? You shouldn’t be. After all, millions of people smoke, eat unhealthy, or engage in other risky or unhealthy behaviors. These are life and death matters. If one won’t change to extend their own life, why would you or I think one would change simply to ensure a better retirement? Well, if you’ve been listening to this show, I’ve been telling. If fact I’ve been telling you since December of 2013. It may or may not shock you, but for most of you listening the one thing is the car payment. Really, the car payment? Doesn’t everyone have a car payment? Isn’t that just normal? Yes it is and there in lies the insidiousness of it. People quietly pay their lives away to drive a newer, sexier, faster, cooler, and whatever other er you can think of. Every day someone agrees to pay away their future for a car. Why is the car payment the one thing? Well, your mortgage is going to something that actually can help you build wealth. We found out in 2008, it doesn’t always, but for most of us and for most of history, this is true. What about student loan debt? It’s all over the news, isn’t that the worst debt? No, a bachelor degree is still worth about $800,000 in additional income over the course of a lifetime of employment. While I’m not encouraging anyone to take on this debt, the average student loan debt of $28,000 seems like a pretty good trade for that average return of $800,000. Do you still have a car payment? Why? Haven’t you been paying attention? Haven’t your heard? Auto debt is dangerous to your financial future! This is not a throw away line I just like to say on my show. This is what I believe! I know, I know. You can’t make that change right now because..…because… you know just pick your excuse. 1. You just “need” a new car.2. You drive a lot, so reliability is important to you.3. You don’t want your spouse, kids, or any other loved one to be stranded.4. You don’t have the cash to buy that first cash car. For some who would be honest it would be all about ego. Maybe I “need” to look successful. Or my favorite, I work hard so I deserve to drive something nice. What can getting rid of your indebted car do for you?You can take a big bite out of your current debt.You can increase your available cash by the amount of your car payment.Save your first $1,000 emergency fundPay off your other debts at an accelerated pace.Start saving for your next cash car, retirement, or child’s education. 4Q 2014:Average new car payment - $482Average new car price - $33,000Average new car loan amount - $28,381Average new car loan duration - 66 months Today, I want you to make a commitment to me and yourself. Today, I want you to do one thing to start on your journey to dump your auto debt. It doesn’t have to be a big step, but it has to be a step, a start, a move in the right direction. Maybe it’s a plan to sell everything in that storage building you’re renting for over $100 a month. Who knows how much you might get? Maybe it’s looking on edmunds.com or kbb.com to see how much your current car is worth. Maybe it is finding out what the pay off is on your current car loan. Whatever it is do it today. Start the journey today, don’t wait. We can all speak of yesterday’s regrets, but don’t live to regret today. Today is the day! Now is the time! Take action! Links: Steve Stewart - 1998 - Honda Civic: http://moneyplansos.com/ynab-vs-everydollar-comparison/ Dan Miller - Why do the rich get richer and poor get poorer?: http://www.48days.com/why-do-the-rich-get-richer-and-poor-get-poorer/ NY Federal Report on Consumer Spending Fourth Quarter 2014: http://www.newyorkfed.org/microeconomics/hhdc.html#/2014/q4 State of the Automotive Finance Market Fourth Quarter 2014: http://www.experian.com/assets/automotive/white-papers/experian-auto-2014-q4-presentation.pdf?WT.srch=Auto_Q42014FinanceTrends_PDF The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan: http://www.amazon.com/The-ONE-Thing-Surprisingly-Extraordinary-ebook/dp/B00C1BHQXK/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1 The Hamilton Project - Major Decisions: What Graduates Earn Over Their Lifetimes: http://www.hamiltonproject.org/papers/major_decisions_what_graduates_earn_over_their_lifetimes/ Did you enjoy the show? If you liked this episode, please consider going to iTunes and subscribing. On iTunes once you subscribe, you can leave a rating and review. Taking this action will help this podcast move up and be more easily found in iTunes. Thank you for an honest rating and review. Here is a link to subscribe or rate and review the show: http://cashcarconvert.com/itunes Alternatively, you can let me know your thoughts about the show on Twitter at @CashCarConvert. Want to connect on Facebook? http://facebook.com/cashcarconvert Check out my new private Facebook community. http://cashcarconvert.com/cccc Want to shoot me an e-mail? Click: james@cashcarconvert.com. Looking for something on Amazon? Please use my affiliate link: http://cashcarconvert.com/amazon Looking for a back episode of the Cash Car Convert? Click: http://cashcarconvert.com/cash-car-convert/ I’m also posting my audio podcasts on youtube. The first 20 episodes are up with the rest to follow. I’m looking at this as just one more platform to be found. http://cashcarconvert.com/youtube Do you have a comment about this interview or about the podcast itself? Please leave a comment below. I appreciate every listener.

Hey converts! Today's guest is on due to a Facebook post. Wild, right? Well, I was so impressed with the post that I knew I had to have this person on. Lucky for me, she was kind enough to agree to be on the show. She has an awesome story and I know you will be inspired and blessed by her story. We are blessed today to have Amy Robles from Woman Enriched. Amy and her husband wanted to pay off their debt. Things got off to a slow start, but they then discovered Dave Ramsy's show and his Financial Peace University education. That changed their trajectory. They wound up paying off $25,000 of credit car debt in 2014. She continues to work on her student loan debt, but I know with the way she is willing to sacrifice combined with her creative mind, she will succeed. All of that is amazing, but now to why she is on my show.   You know what to find out, you just have to listen.   Enjoy!  

My wife and I finally bought our third used car, after thinking about it for a couple of months, and just in time. My mother-in-law arrived tonight. So, we won't have to do the car shuffle. After thinking of something sporty or maybe small and super economical, we finally decided on something in the middle. Really practical. We bought a 2010 Ford Fusion SEL for $9,500.The owner had already bought a new Ford Edge and was ready, though not desperate, to sell. Here are the details from the ad that caught my attention. Can you tell why it did? 2010 Ford Fusion SEL:- Sangria Red- Beige leather interior- 2.5L V4 engine, has good power and gas mileage- 80,736 milesFeatures:- Microsoft SYNC voice-activated communications- power windows/locks/mirrors- keyless remote entry- cruise control- tilt/telescoping steering column- AM/FM/CD/MP3 audio system- 60/40 split/folding rear seat- AdvanceTrac stability/traction control- anti-lock brakes- front/front-side/side-curtain airbags- SIRIUS satellite radio- redundant steering wheel controls and fog lamps- dual-zone auto climate control- full-power and heated front seats- leather wrapped steering wheelOptional Features:- Moon and Tune Package ($1525 MSRP) - power moon roof and a Sony audio system with surround sound, AM/FM stereo/multi(6)-CD player, Sirius satellite and MP3 capability, 12 speakers and 390 watts- Add-on pin-striping This is a one-owner, non-smoker, well cared for vehicle in very good condition inside and out as demonstrated by the accompanying pictures. No accidents, always garaged at home and office, serviced at all scheduled maintenance intervals with supporting records. Please refer to the free CARFAX report I provided an url to above as it backs up the quality of this vehicle. Recent maintenance includes new brake pads and resurfaced rotors in September 2014 and 2 new premium Michelin tires in October 2014. The vehicle is in perfect working order and is truly in drive away and enjoy condition. This particular vehicle has been very dependable, carries high safety ratings, and the 2010 Ford Fusion was the 2010 Motor Trend Car of the Year. It would make a great first car for someone. Car is being sold only because it is being replaced by a new SUV. Original MSRP was $25,595 (please reference included window sticker image), asking $10,000. I will not be accepting any trades or offering financing, full payment only at time of purchase. Did you enjoy the show? If you liked this episode, please consider going to iTunes and subscribing. On iTunes once you subscribe, you can leave a rating and review. Taking this action will help this podcast move up and be more easily found in iTunes. Thank you for an honest rating and review. Here is a link to subscribe or rate and review the show: http://cashcarconvert.com/itunes Alternatively, you can let me know your thoughts about the show on Twitter at @CashCarConvert. Want to connect on Facebook? http://facebook.com/cashcarconvert Check out my new private Facebook community. http://cashcarconvert.com/cccc Want to shoot me an e-mail? Click: james@cashcarconvert.com. Looking for something on Amazon? Please use my affiliate link: http://cashcarconvert.com/amazon Looking for a back episode of the Cash Car Convert? Click: http://cashcarconvert.com/cash-car-convert/ I’m also posting my audio podcasts on youtube. The first 20 episodes are up with the rest to follow. I’m looking at this as just one more platform to be found. http://cashcarconvert.com/youtube Do you have a comment about this interview or about the podcast itself? Please leave a comment below. I appreciate every listener.

Today, I will go through articles I found on the web to help listeners determine the best way to get out of an auto lease. US News and World Report: Buying vs. Leasing Benefits of Leasing a Car Leasing a car is similar to financing the purchase of the car in many ways, but there are some key differences. You might be able to get more car for less money by leasing. That’s because a car loan is based on the full price of a new car, while a lease is based on only a percentage of the car’s price. For example, on a $30,000 car, you’d finance the entire $30,000 purchase price with a car loan. With a car lease, you only pay the difference between the car’s price and what it’s expected to be worth at the end of the lease, which is a car’s residual value. So if the car’s residual value is 55 percent after three years, for example, that means the $30,000 car would be worth $16,500 at the end of the lease. You’d make lease payments on the remaining $13,500 and not the full $30,000.http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/Buying_vs_Leasing/ New York Times: Auto Leases Entice, but They’re Still Costly Which is best new purchase, new lease, or used? So let’s start with the hard numbers. Mr. Reed looked at three ways you could acquire a four-door Honda Accord EX: buying a new 2014 model, leasing the same 2014 car, or buying a used 2011 Accord with 36,000 miles. (Many people in the New York area are paying about $28,211 for the new car, including tax, title and registration.) The analysis looked at the cost over six years, since the average person owns a car for that long, and it incorporated typical buying patterns: the new Accord is purchased with a five-year loan, the used car is financed with a four-year loan, and the person who is leasing must take out two consecutive 36-month leases. (The rest of the assumptions are detailed on the accompanying chart.http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/09/21/your-money/To-Buy-or-to-Lease.html?ref=your-money ) Click to Listen [powerpress] Leasing initially seems to be the cheapest route when you look at total out-of-pocket expenses: It costs $5,244 less than buying new. (Buying a used car is still the most economical. You save $5,277 compared with leasing, and it’s about a whopping $10,500 less than buying new.) But when you account for the teensy fact that you don’t own anything at the end of those six years, the calculus changes. If you had bought the car new, it would still be worth about $11,000, according to Edmunds.com’s calculators. The used Accord would be worth around $5,000. So after you factor in that equity, leasing costs $5,756 more than buying a new car and $10,277 more than buying used. (Buying new costs $4,521 more than buying used.) Leasing is the loser across the board. Leases Most Costly? “If you asked me what is the most expensive way to get a car, the answer would be: You only want to own it during its period of greatest depreciation and then move to another new vehicle,” said Jeff Bartlett, deputy automotive editor at Consumer Reports. “Well, that’s what leasing is.”http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/21/your-money/car-leases-grow-more-enticing-but-no-less-expensive.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 Auto Finance News: Average Auto Loans and Leasing on the Rise in 3Q, Experian Says How Popular is leasing in Q3 2014? Experian also found that leasing accounted for 29.1% of all new vehicle financing in 3Q, up 7.1% from a year ago, while 73-to-84 month new vehicle loans grew by 23.7% last quarter, compared with 3Q 2013. Used loans in the same range also grew, up 18% from a year ago.51.8% of all new auto saleshttp://www.autofinancenews.net/average-auto-loans-and-leasing-on-the-rise-in-3q-experian-says/ JD Power: How To End Your Lease Early 1) Return the vehicle to the dealership. This is a traditional lease termination, and it is an expensive option. When you return the vehicle to the dealership, you will be required to pay all penalties. In some cases, you may be required to make all outstanding payments, and pay additional penalties on top of any other fees. This should be a last-resort option. 2) Trade in your vehicle for another vehicle. It may be possible to lease another vehicle at the same dealership. The penalties and fees from your original lease will be rolled in (included) with the new vehicle contract, making your payments higher. This option is also expensive, but it allows you to absorb the penalties from the old lease over an extended period. 3) Find someone to take over your lease. You may be able to find a family member, friend, or co-worker to assume the balance of your lease payments. Several online companies offer this type of service for customers looking to sell their leases. Each leasing company has its own set of requirements, which often include a credit check and transfer fees, and there may be out-of-state restrictions to consider. Use caution when exercising this option: though you are no longer responsible for monthly payments, many leasing companies hold the original lessee liable in the event of a default. 4) Purchase the vehicle from the leasing company. Every lease has a buyout or payoff. This is the amount due to the leasing company if you wish to purchase the vehicle outright at any point during the lease. Depending on the resale value of the vehicle, the payoff may be at or above market value, potentially requiring you to pay more for the vehicle than it is actually worth. 5) Sell the vehicle. Using the payoff amount from the leasing company as a guide, sell the vehicle to another private party. Again, if your vehicle has a high payoff it may be very difficult to sell without incurring a loss. Even if you are forced to take a financial loss, it may be a less expensive option than continuing the outstanding monthly payments on the lease contract. Selling the vehicle is also an excellent option if you want to avoid penalties for excess wear and tear and having exceeded the allocated lease mileage.http://autos.jdpower.com/content/buying-tip/u5xpbCz/how-to-end-your-lease-early.htm edmunds.com: How to Get Out of Your Car Lease the Cheap and Easy Way Can Everyone Swap Leases?  According to Swapalease's executive vice president, Scot Hall, it is possible to transfer about 80 percent of leases with no strings attached. But even after a person transfers the lease, approximately 20 percent of leasing companies require the original leaseholder to retain some "post-transfer liability " for the vehicle, said Hall. This means that the name of the person who originated the lease remains on the contract and the original lease holder can be held financially responsible for unpaid balances. These could result from excess mileage charges or lease-end fees. The person who signed the original lease is essentially a co-signer on a loan, Hall noted. If the second person defaults, the bank will try to recover the money from anyone else named on the contract. Nissan , Infiniti and BMW are manufacturers that require post-transfer liability, Hall said. Acura and Honda sometimes require it depending on the state in which you live. However, Hall said that the trend in the secondary leasing market is moving away from post-transfer liability. A small percentage of leasing companies don't permit transfers at all. These are usually banks such as Chase Auto Finance and Huntington Bank Leasing, or credit unions . Before signing a new lease, consider this important factor. If your leasing company allows transfers, you will have more flexibility if you need to end the lease early.http://www.edmunds.com/car-leasing/get-out-of-your-lease-the-cheap-and-easy-way.html Other linsk Swap a Lease: http://www.swapalease.com   Did you enjoy the show? If you liked this episode, please consider going to iTunes and subscribing. On iTunes once you subscribe, you can leave a rating and review. Taking this action will help this podcast move up and be more easily found in iTunes. Thank you for an honest rating and review. Here is a link to subscribe or rate and review the show: http://cashcarconvert.com/itunes Alternatively, you can let me know your thoughts about the show on Twitter at @CashCarConvert. Want to connect on Facebook? http://facebook.com/cashcarconvert Check out my new private Facebook community. http://cashcarconvert.com/cccc Want to shoot me an e-mail? Click: james@cashcarconvert.com. Looking for something on Amazon? Please use my affiliate link: http://cashcarconvert.com/amazon Looking for a back episode of the Cash Car Convert? Click: http://cashcarconvert.com/cash-car-convert/ I’m also posting my audio podcasts on youtube. The first 20 episodes are up with the rest to follow. I’m looking at this as just one more platform to be found. http://cashcarconvert.com/youtube Do you have a comment about this interview or about the podcast itself? Please leave a comment below. Lastly, I would appreciate your vote for my podcast in the podcast awards. Podcast Awards: http://cashcarconvert.com/podcastawards I appreciate every listener.

This is a special episode for me! I'm getting to interview a friend I've know for about 10 years. He and I have played tennis with and against each other. His name is Ron Whitson. Ron is a class guy, and it is my honor to call him friend. A while back, I was on Facebook posting about my show. Ron was online and saw the post. He quizzed me about what I was doing. I explained my passion for helping people drive cash cars. Ron informed me he too was a cash car convert. He further explained he was driving a 2001 Honda CRV with 196,000 miles he had purchased for $2200 cash. I knew right then, I wanted to have him on my show to share his story. Being on the ball as I am, he is joining me about 6 months later. On the show today, Ron is going to share with us his journey that started in September of 2013 with he and his new bride having 17 credit cards to a couple living on a budget and using a cash envelope system. What a metamorphosis! How did he get started? He went to Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. One night after Dave was speaking about auto debt and its dangers, Ron felt compelled to sell his 2010 Mercedes ML350. By doing so, he eliminated $30,000 of debt. What a nice quick win! Selling the Mercedes also  allowed him to redirect the $493 car payment associated with this car toward paying off more of his debt. What happened to the 17 credit cards you may be wondering? They were shredded and put in a jar as a reminder of where he came from. When he starts to feel like he is giving up too much or can't have something he wants, he looks at the jar. Very smart! Ron has estimated by driving his Honda CRV he has saved almost $9,000 in car payments. Oh, and you will be glad to know he only had two repairs in the roughly 14,0000 he drove the car. He replaced a radiator himself for under $100 and had a clock in the interior repaired for about $40. This doesn't include oil changes and other maintenance items any car would require. Ron being on a mission to get his debt paid off as soon as possible was looking for a new way to make some extra money. The challenge is he has to travel a great deal for work. He needed to find a job where he could set his own hours. After quite a bit of searching, he checked out Uber. It looked like a good fit save one problem, his car had to be a 2005 or newer. Obviously his 2001 Honda wasn't going to work. He started to look on Craigslist just to see what he could find. He found a 2005 Mazda Tribute with 176,000 miles. The purchase price was $3,500. Ron was able to scrape together the cash and buy the newer car. Next he had to sell his Honda. He sold it in four days and for a $500 profit. It is amazing what you can do when you buy a cash car that has had most of its depreciation already taken. Ron is just getting started with Uber and has been out about five times driving for them. He has made about $50 each time. This is a great deal for Ron. He turns on his app telling Uber he is looking for a fare and they match him with someone looking for a ride. When he has down time, he watches Netflix with the car turned off. This way he burns no extra gas. I'm proud of Ron and the progress he is making. I look forward to having him on in the future as he eliminates even more debt from his life. If you want to  contact Ron to either congratulate him on his journey or ask a question, please reach out to him at ron@ronwhitson.com. God Bless You! Did you enjoy the show? If you liked this episode, please consider going to iTunes and subscribing. On iTunes once you subscribe, you can leave a rating and review. Taking this action will help this podcast move up and be more easily found in iTunes. Thank you for an honest rating and review. Here is a link to subscribe or rate and review the show: http://cashcarconvert.com/itunes Alternatively, you can let me know your thoughts about the show on Twitter at @CashCarConvert. Want to connect on Facebook? http://facebook.com/cashcarconvert Check out my new private Facebook community. http://cashcarconvert.com/cccc Want to shoot me an e-mail? Click: james@cashcarconvert.com. Looking for something on Amazon? Please use my affiliate link: http://cashcarconvert.com/amazon Looking for a back episode of the Cash Car Convert? Click: http://cashcarconvert.com/cash-car-convert/ I’m also posting my audio podcasts on youtube. The first 20 episodes are up with the rest to follow. I’m looking at this as just one more platform to be found. http://cashcarconvert.com/youtube Do you have a comment about this interview or about the podcast itself? Please leave a comment below. Lastly, I would appreciate your vote for my podcast in the podcast awards. Podcast Awards: http://cashcarconvert.com/podcastawards I appreciate every listener.

I want to start off the show talking about my pastor's current series at Gateway Church, the Blessed Life. It is an awesome series and I would recommend anyone give it a listen. It will change your life. It is based on Pastor Robert Morris' best selling book of the same name. The Blessed Life: http://gatewaypeople.com/articles/blessed-life As part of this series, we as a church body are being challenged to "Bless a Life". I speak to ideas we were given for blessing others. I would encourage you as a listener to this show to bless a life this week. It can be something small. Sometime the small things have have the greatest impact. Bless a Life: http://cashcarconvert.com/blessalife If you bless a life this week, let me know. Drop me an e-mail at  james@cashcarconvert.com. My wife and I were driving back from Dallas last weekend, January 17, and we have been kicking around the idea of buying a third car for quite sometime. We had a third car for about 6 years between 2004 and 2010. It is handy even for just keeping up with auto maintenance of one's two everyday cars. My wife pulled up AutoTrader and started searching for cars that might be a good fit for our families third car. I have been leaning toward either something really practical or something that would be fun to drive. My wife by comparison does like the idea of a fun car, but would really like to get maybe some kind of minivan or SUV with a third seat to make our long drives from DFW to Atlanta be a little more comfortable. Currently, we drive my truck on all our long distance trips, which is fairly comfortable, but all our luggage is inaccessible while moving due to being in the back of the truck. My wife went through a number of "fun" car searches looking for something we might both like to drive. We kept playing with the search terms until we were happy with the results. As she searched, she found a car that sounded great. A 1999 Mercedes SLK230. This car was just exactly what someone like me would be looking for. Positives: One owner AutoCheck showed this car to be a much better than average condition All records Never wrecked New Tires (Michelin) New interior ($3,000) Low miles for age (106,000) Reasons for selling (bought a newer version of the same car) Depreciation from this point forward will be very slow if any at all. This car will hold its value for a long time to come. Negatives: No backseat Manual 5 speed transmission Purchased new in another state Maintenance/repairs costlier than an average car since this is a Mercedes Despite all the good things about his car, we ultimately decided not to buy due to our 4 year old daughter. We didn't feel good about her being in this car even in her car seat. The car is so small and the car seat would have to be in the front seat, as that is no back seat. She wouldn't be as safe as we would want. We further thought we wouldn't use this car enough given this limitation. I'm sure this car will serve someone very well. Lastly, I would appreciate your vote for my podcast in the podcast awards. Podcast Awards: http://cashcarconvert.com/podcastawards God Bless You! Links: AutoTrader Mercedes SLK230: http://bit.ly/1C4rBoG AutoCheck Mercedes SLK230: http://bit.ly/1yjo4uZ Did you enjoy the show? If you liked this episode, please consider going to iTunes and subscribing. On iTunes once you subscribe, you can leave a rating and review. Taking this action will help this podcast move up and be more easily found in iTunes. Thank you for an honest rating and review. Here is a link to subscribe or rate and review the show: http://cashcarconvert.com/itunes Alternatively, you can let me know your thoughts about the show on Twitter at @CashCarConvert. Want to connect on Facebook? http://facebook.com/cashcarconvert Check out my new private Facebook community. http://cashcarconvert.com/cccc Want to shoot me an e-mail? Click: james@cashcarconvert.com. Looking for something on Amazon? Please use my affiliate link: http://cashcarconvert.com/amazon Looking for a back episode of the Cash Car Convert? Click: http://cashcarconvert.com/cash-car-convert/ I’m also posting my audio podcasts on youtube. The first 20 episodes are up with the rest to follow. I’m looking at this as just one more platform to be found. http://cashcarconvert.com/youtube Do you have a comment about this interview or about the podcast itself? Please leave a comment below. I appreciate every listener.

Let's explain the dangers of auto leasing! Jeff Bartlett, deputy automotive editor at Consumer Reports“If you asked me what is the most expensive way to get a car, the answer would be: You only want to own it during its period of greatest depreciation and then move to another new vehicle.” “Well, that’s what leasing is.” lease noun ˈlēs: a legal agreement that lets someone use a car, house, etc., for a period of time in return for payment Click to Listen [powerpress] How is the payment calculated? Purchase price - how much you pay, you should negotiate just as hard as if you were buying Cost of money - interest rate Lease term - number of months of the lease Residual value - estimated value of what the car will be worth at lease end Sales tax - You will only pay taxes on the sum of your payments, which is the difference between the purchase price and residual value. What is the average lease payment? Avg auto loan in Q4 2013 $471Avg auto lease in Q4 2013 $420 What are the gotchas with leasing? Paying too much upfront Forgetting to buy gap insurance Underestimating you miles driven Not maintaining the car Leasing for too long What types of auto leases are there? Closed-end Leases which are mostly consumer leasesOpen-end Leases Open-end leases are primarily for commercial business leasing.  How do I know if I’m getting a good lease? Leasify - App to confirm you are getting the best lease. 99 cents. Leasify is a car lease advisor in your pocket. Leasify levels the automotive playing field by giving you the information you need to get the best deal on your new car lease.  X-rays lease quotes to extract hidden fees and areas where you can improve your deal  Serves as a financial decison-making tool with a sophisticated algorithm that generates a deal score Displays what the dealer paid, as well as the average price paid, for any car in your zip code Next week, I'll be talking about how to get out of a lease if you find yourself in one and want out. God Bless You! Links: Auto Leases Entice, but They’re Still Costly: http://nyti.ms/1wfmUju Merriam-Webster Online: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lease Types of Car Leases – Explained: http://www.leaseguide.com/lease06/ Lease Payment Formula Explained: http://www.leaseguide.com/lease08/ Calculate Your Own Car Lease Payment: http://edmu.in/1x8lzwr 5 dumb car leasing mistakes to avoid: http://bit.ly/1CdUwmq Experian Automotive report shows auto loans are still first choice in financing, but leasing has become more popular than ever: http://bit.ly/1CtQW8k Depreciation Infographic: How Fast Does My New Car Lose Value?:  http://edmu.in/WELal0 Leasify App: https://itunes.apple.com/US/app/id912884639 Did you enjoy the show? If you liked this episode, please consider going to iTunes and subscribing. On iTunes once you subscribe, you can leave a rating and review. Taking this action will help this podcast move up and be more easily found in iTunes. Thank you for an honest rating and review. Here is a link to subscribe or rate and review the show: http://cashcarconvert.com/itunes Alternatively, you can let me know your thoughts about the show on Twitter at @CashCarConvert. Want to connect on Facebook? http://facebook.com/cashcarconvert Check out my new private Facebook community. http://cashcarconvert.com/cccc Want to shoot me an e-mail? Click: james@cashcarconvert.com. Looking for something on Amazon? Please use my affiliate link: http://cashcarconvert.com/amazon Looking for a back episode of the Cash Car Convert? Click: http://cashcarconvert.com/cash-car-convert/ I’m also posting my audio podcasts on youtube. The first 15 episodes are up with the rest to follow. I’m looking at this as just one more platform to be found. http://cashcarconvert.com/youtube Do you have a comment about this interview or about the podcast itself? Please leave a comment below. I appreciate every listener. Thank you for listening to the Cash Car Convert show.

I'm going to be talking about a few things today. I'm going to speak about a woman who paid off her debt and what her budget looked like before and after paying off the debt. Budgets can be a wonderful tool to tell a story. I'm also going to speak about an article I found comparing 401K saving levels by age and income level. This will be enlightening to many. Lastly, I want to pose a question. How can something be good for the economy and yet be bad for the individual? I hear people television speaking all the time about how great it is that people are taking on more debt. Spending money on cars, clothes, really anything to stimulate the economy. Now, I'm all for pumping up the economy, but if people are spending all their earning and more on things and aren't saving enough for retirement and they aren't, how can it be good for the economy long term? It can't be! The population is aging and fast. In 2012 there were 43.1 million people age 65+. By 2020 that number will be 56M, 2040 it will be 79.1M and by 2060 it will be 92M. So what I see is a celebration of overspending by the economists making these broader economy statements. The same economists must realize social security can't support the rapidly aging population. They aren't sounding much of a warning bell as far as I can tell. If these people don't plan and save for their own retirement how many people will enter their "golden" years with little to no money saved. So, we may see a short term increase in new car sales and therefore create jobs in the hard hit city of Detroit among others. Is this the old saying "Live drink and be merry for tomorrow we die?" Maybe so, but the problem is we aren't dying. In fact we are living longer than ever. MONDAY, Jan. 6, 2014 -- Americans are living longer than ever and their life expectancy is increasing every year, federal health officials reported Monday. People born in 2009 can expect to live 78.5 years. That's an increase from just a year earlier -- when life expectancy at birth was 78.1 years. Since these latest statistics were collected, life expectancy has increased even more, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, and now stands at 78.7 years. Much of the continued increase in life expectancy owes to better treatment of cardiovascular disease, a CDC researcher said. As the population ages and lives longer, the bill for all this spending, borrowing, and lack of savings will come due. My question is how can something that is so bad for the individual be considered good for the economy. By what metic can this be true!?! The next time you hear someone say we need to spend our money to kick start the economy or that lower gas prices are good for consumers, but bad for the economy, please challenge this thinking. Take responsibility for your own life, do it now! Do it with urgency! The government or American business isn't coming to save you, me, or our children. We, the individuals, must do what's best for us, and that doesn't include a new car. God Bless You! Links: Here's the budget one woman used before and after paying off $32,000 of debt: http://yhoo.it/1xNcYmY The Average American Has This Much Saved in a 401(k) -- How Do You Compare?:  http://bit.ly/1Fx6X2X Administration on Aging (AoA) Future Growth: http://bit.ly/1HYvY4E Average American can no longer afford “average-priced” new car or truck (and why it's getting worse): http://yhoo.it/1tRVea2 Americans Living Longer Than Ever: CDC: http://bit.ly/17oml2g Did you enjoy the show? If you liked this episode, please consider going to iTunes and subscribing. On iTunes once you subscribe, you can leave a rating and review. Taking this action will help this podcast move up and be more easily found in iTunes. Thank you for an honest rating and review. Here is a link to subscribe or rate and review the show: http://cashcarconvert.com/itunes Alternatively, you can let me know your thoughts about the show on Twitter at @CashCarConvert. Want to connect on Facebook? http://facebook.com/cashcarconvert Check out my new private Facebook community. https://www.facebook.com/groups/340391522815734/ Want to shoot me an e-mail? Click: james@cashcarconvert.com. Looking for something on Amazon? Please use my affiliate link: http://cashcarconvert.com/amazon Looking for a back episode of the Cash Car Convert? Click here: http://cashcarconvert.com/cash-car-convert/ Do you have a comment about this interview or about the podcast itself? Please leave a comment below. I appreciate every listener. Thank you for listening to the Cash Car Convert show.

The Cash Car Convert show 2014 in review. What a blessed year! What has happened with the podcast? Great guests Pat Flynn John Lee Dumas Rachel Cruze Tom Corley Larry Winget Jaime Tardy Dan Miller Jared Easley Steve Stewart Break throughs: Speaking Podcast Dallas Meetup Podcast South Florida Meetup North Austin Entrepreneur Meetup Podcast Movement 2014 FinCon 2014 Podcast Interviews: Empowered Podcast Cash Flow Apprentice Living on the Rock Your Life Detective Make Your Money Count Starve the Doubts MoneyPlan SOS Stacking Benjamin’s Surprises The Plutus Award Finalist Being on the cover of Podertainment magazine Downloads December my best month in 2014 Reviews 70 in 2014 2015 Goals More speaking (self created  opportunities - local speaking universities/libraries) More speaking at conferences and meetups Local TV/Radio interviews Completion of the much delayed book a priority for 1Q 2015 I would love to hear your stories from 2014 and goals for 2015! Have a great new year and prosperous 2015!!  

HO HO HO! Merry Christmas! I want to talk to you about a best selling book. In fact it is the best selling book of all time. It is such a best seller, they don’t even list it on the best seller lists. I thought with it being Christmas time, it would be a good time for me to provide some of my thoughts on this book. Yes, you likely have already guessed I’m speaking of the Bible. After all, Jesus is the reason for the season Why am I talking about this book on my podcast? A podcast about cars and debt? These are fair questions. I believe the answer is because I believe the Bible is a rule book for how to live one’s life with the least suffering and pain. I didn’t always believe this was true, but the older I get and the more I see of the world, the more I believe this is true. If you truly want to find wisdom read a Proverb a day for 31 days. Since there are 31 Proverbs, reading one a day for a month is a great move. Read two on the last day of a 30 day month. I think you will see the benefit quickly. I know I did. If one follows the principles of this book, the Bible, does it mean there will be no pain or suffering in your life? No, we live in a broken world and there will always be pain and suffering here. The question is can following the principles in the book, minimize the self inflicted pain and suffering? Yes, I believe it can! The 10 commandments First Commmandment "You shall have no other gods before me. Second Commmandment "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. Third Commmandment "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. Fourth Commmandment "Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. 15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. Fifth Commmandment "Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD your God is giving you. Sixth Commmandment "You shall not murder. Seventh Commmandment "You shall not commit adultery. Eighth Commmandment "You shall not steal. Ninth Commmandment "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. Tenth Commmandment "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor?s house or land, his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." The truth about sin in Matthew 5: 21-48 (New International Version): Murder 21“ You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder,a and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. 23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift. 25 “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny. Adultery 27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’e 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. Divorce 31 “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’f 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Oaths 33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ 34 But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.g Eye for Eye 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’h 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 4 1If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 42Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. Love for Enemies 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Jesus set the bar so high only he could achieve it meaning the rest of us, yes all of us - even the most perfect person you know, are imperfect and need Him. The Greatest Commandment Matthew 22:34-40 (New International Version): 34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’c 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’d 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Tithing Malachi 3:8–10 (New International Version): 8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. I hope this episode will help you with the self inflicted wounds we all tend to inflict on our on lives. Merry Christmas!  

Steve Stewart has a great story about the way his journey to financial started. It started with the Rippingtons. Steve was driving in his car and heard the Rippintons being played on a radio station. Being a jazz guy, he decided to hang on through he break and see what else they had to offer. Much to his surprise, they came back and started playing Heart. This only lated a few seconds and then a guy came on and stared speaking. He heard this cranky guy talking about cutting up credit cards and this debt is dumb stuff. He thought this sounded pretty radical and impossible. Steve challenged everything he said. It didn’t take long for him to find out the truth: Dave Ramsey was right.From that day forward he vowed to learn more about how money REALLY worked and spread the message of freedom, Debt Freedom! In 2007 he earned the rare certification for teaching Financial Peace University’s Workplace Edition (now called Smart Dollar) and completed Dave Ramsey’s Counselor Training in 2009. I first spoke to Steve a couple of days after I launched this podcast. He was telling me it was his favorite new show. He has been instrumental to the success of my show. I have had many listeners tell me they learned about my show from Steve. That is why I wanted to have him on my 50th episode. It is a special episode for me and I wanted a special guest to be on the show. Lastly, I want to thank Steve for being a champion of my show!  

On this episode of the Cash Car Convert, I have the pleasure of having the one and only Cliff Ravenscraft. The Podcast Answerman. What a journey Cliff has had.  In December 2005, Cliff Ravenscraft, together with his wife, Stephanie, founded the Generally Speaking Production Network (gspn.tv). Since then, he has produced over 3,200 of his very own podcast episodes devoted to Entertainment, Family, Faith, Business and Technology. In December 2006, Cliff launched PodcastAnswerMan.com where he has since helped thousands of individuals and organizations launch succesful podcasts through one-on-one consulting/coaching and through his Podcasting A to Z online training course (http://PodcastingAtoZ.com). If you were to look at the top 100 podcasts in the business category of iTunes, more than 50 of these shows were created by clients who worked with Cliff. If you enjoyed this interview, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on itunes. Please go to http://cashcarconvert.com/itunes

If you turn on the news on any given day, you have a good chance of hearing about the epidemic of student loan debt. You will hear about a generation losing their ability to borrow for cars, homes, or furnishings. I share the concern over student loan debt, it is a problem. I see a larger problem. A problem which I seem to be one of only a few people to be sounding the alarm. What might I be concerned about you ask? It's auto debt. You may still be asking why. Everyone has auto debt after all. That is mostly true, as most people learn at an early age they will always have auto debt. Turns out that's not quite true. Currently, seven out of ten cars are purchased using debt. Now, you may be wondering how auto debt stacks up to the student loan debt that seems to have everyone so concerned. Let me share some numbers with you. You may be surprised as you find the numbers are closer than you might expect. Facts About Auto Debt and Student Loan Debt Number of Auto Loans > 90M                 Number of Student Loans > 40M Total auto debt $0.93T                              Total student loan debt $1.13T 70% of new cars have a auto loan            69% of students have a student loan debt 8% of household debt is auto debt          10% household debt is student loan debt Auto debt up $29B in Q3 2014                Student loan debt up $8B in Q3 2014 Auto debt up $89B since Q3 2013           Student loan debt up $99B since Q3 2013 Auto debt 90+ days delinquent 3.1%       Student loan debt 90+ days delinquent 11.1% Avg new car loan amount - $27,799       Avg student loan amount - $28,400 - 2013 Student Loan Debt Percentages by Dollar Amount 64.2% of all student loans are under $25,00017.1% of all student loans are between $25,000 and $50,00081.3% under $50,00018.8% of all student loans are over $50, 000.5.6% of all student loans are over $100,000. Forbes Online: Student Debt vs. Car Loans by Lucie Lapovsky  "Surely $28,200 is not inconsequential, but you don’t need an MBA to recognize that the payoff from that debt is enormous: over their lifetime, college graduates will earn on average $800,000 more than those without a college degree according to the Federal Reserve Board. Over 10 years, a typical term for a student loan, the average debt of $28,200 will require a monthly payment of $284 a month at the current federal loan rate of 3.86% According to Experian, the average new car loan today has a monthly payment of $471." While student loan debt is up, 24% of millennials expect to have their loans forgiven based on a study by Junior Achievement and PwC US. As we look at the average auto loan debt per borrower being $17,352 in Q3 2014, 3.9% higher than a year ago. It is worth remembering that 57% of all households have 2 or more cars. Meaning that 57% of households have an average of two times this auto debt which works out to be $34,704. I hope this podcast episode will help start a conversation in this country about the coming auto debt bubble and potential crisis. Here are a few closing thoughts. Auto debt impacts more people than student loan debt and further will impact those individuals over a longer time period as well. Student loan debt will most often be paid off in 10 years. Auto debt may only be 68 months on average, but it will be repeated by borrowers an average of 9.5 times before the age of 65.  

Rey Brown was kind enough to join the Cash Car Convert show for an interview. Rey has worked in the wireless industry for about 10 years. He has extensive knowledge of the workings of all the major carriers. He also has spent a great deal of time exploring the apps that exist for both the iPhone and the Android ecosystems. He will share this extensive knowledge with us today. I met Rey early this year when I spoke at the Podcast Dallas meet up in February. I had interacted with him on social media such as Facebook and Twitter due to us both being members of Dan Miller's 48Days.net and John Lee Dumas’ Podcaster’s Paradise. Rey is one of the most helpful people I know in the online marketing space. He is so quick to offer help. He even helped me move back in May. That is taking online relationships offline to the extreme. As good a guy as Rey is, that's not why I wanted to have him on my show. The reason I wanted him on my show is we all have SmartPhones and they will cost us a great deal over the course of our lives. We need to make sure we are extracting maximum benefit for the money spent. Rey’s Smartphone’s Made Easy tag line is Syncing Life with Technology. We all use technology everyday. Wouldn’t it be great to have this technology actually help us in our daily lives rather than distract us from our lives? Rey can help. I enjoyed interviewing Rey and I know the information he provides will be of great benefit to those who put it into action.  

One of the people I planned to meet at FinCon14 was Todd Tresidder. Mission accomplished! Todd has an amazing story. He went from being a high school entrepreneur and mechanic to hedge fund manager. He found himself "retired" at age 35 after selling the hedge fund business he was a partner in. This was in 1998. Todd has remained retired while riding the ups and downs of the market. Including the tech bubble and great recession. Todd is deliberate and intentional with his decisions. He has used statistical analysis models he developed to make market decisions. Todd makes car buying decisions largely based on the numbers. He can afford to by new. He can afford the depreciation. Yet, most often he has bought used. He doesn't like the idea of wasting money. He also doesn't have his ego tied up in his car. I think you should consider being like this millionaire next door! Lastly, congratulations to Frank Manzella (@Frank_Manzella)as the winner of the autographed copy of Smart Money Smart Kids by Dave Ramsay and Rachel Cruze. Links: Financial Mentor: http://financialmentor.com Todd Tresidder's Books: http://amzn.to/1sUK5Ex  FinCon14: http://finconexpo.com Plutus Awards Finalists Announced: http://www.plutusawards.com/finalists/ Did you enjoy the show? If you liked this episode, please consider going to iTunes and subscribing. On iTunes once you subscribe, you can leave a rating and review. Taking this action will help this podcast move up and be more easily found in iTunes. Thank you for an honest rating and review. Here is a link to subscribe or rate and review the show: http://cashcarconvert.com/itunes Alternatively, you can let me know your thoughts about the show on Twitter at @CashCarConvert. My Facebook page can be found at http://facebook.com/cashcarconvert Want to shoot me an e-mail, james@cashcarconvert.com. Do you have a comment about this interview or about the podcast itself? Please leave a comment below. I appreciate every listener. Thank you for listening to the Cash Car Convert podcast.

After my road trip to FinCon14. I recorded this episode, interviewing my friend Jared Easley, at FinCon 14 in New Orleans. FinCon14 is a financial bloggers conference. This is my first trip to FinCon. At this conference, bloggers and podcasters get together to socialize and build a community around helping people with their personal finance. All financial points of view are represented. I'm looking forward to making new friends in New Orleans at FinCon14. My interview with Jared focused on his rise from new podcaster, creating Starve the Doubts, to co-founder of the Podcast Movement, the only conference specifically for podcasters. Jared is also a #1 best selling Amazon author in multiple categories with his book Podcasting Good to Great. I also want to thank my friends Steve Stewart and Phillip Taylor for helping feel at home at my first FinCon. Lastly, congratulations to Frank Manzella (@Frank_Manzella)as the winner of the autographed copy of Smart Money Smart Kids by Dave Ramsay and Rachel Cruze. Did you enjoy the show? If you liked this episode, please consider going to iTunes and subscribing. On iTunes once you subscribe, you can leave a rating and review. Taking this action will help this podcast move up and be more easily found in iTunes. Thank you for an honest rating and review. Here is a link to subscribe or rate and review the show: http://cashcarconvert.com/itunes Alternatively, you can let me know your thoughts about the show on Twitter at @CashCarConvert. My Facebook page can be found at http://facebook.com/cashcarconvert Want to shoot me an e-mail, james@cashcarconvert.com. Do you have a comment about this interview or about the podcast itself? Please leave a comment below. I appreciate every listener. Thank you for listening to the Cash Car Convert podcast.

I'm recording from the road to FinCon14 for this episode. I will be talking about my new and old tires purchased from Discount Tire. I also talk about a Wall Street Journal article about people making 6 figures filing for bankrupcy. I did into what money will and own't do for you. I also cover happiness from a money perspective. Enjoy!

John G. Miller is the author of QBQ! The Question Behind the Question, Flipping the Switch: Unleash the Power of Personal Accountability, Outstanding! 47 Ways to Make Your Organization Exceptional and co-author of Parenting the QBQ Way. He is founder of QBQ, Inc., an organizational development firm based in Colorado dedicated to “Helping Organizations Make Personal Accountability a Core Value.” A 1980 graduate of Cornell University, John has been involved in the training and speaking industry since 1986. He lives in Denver, Colorado with his wife, Karen. They have seven children and three grandchildren. What is “QBQ!”? Ever heard lousy questions like these? “Why do we have to go through all this change?”“When is someone going to train me?”“Why can’t we find good people?”“When will that department do its job right?”“Who dropped the ball?”“Why don’t they communicate better?”“Who’s going to solve the problem?” If so, then “Personal Accountability and the QBQ!” is right for your organization. The Question Behind the Question (QBQ) method of practicing personal accountability came about as a result of many years of research by author John G. Miller in the organizational development field. QBQ! provides the “how to” of personal accountability. People at every organizational level have found QBQ! life changing! QBQ! eliminates the dangerous questions listed above and thus the common traps of complaining, victim-thinking, procrastination, and blame. When this occurs, productivity, teamwork, morale, creativity, safety, communication, and problem-solving are enhanced. Employing QBQ!, people adapt to change faster, which is critical for competing in today’s global economy. Designed for and practiced by the individual, but of high value to the team, QBQ! material is practical, universal, and timeless. It applies to organizations in every industry and to people at every level, from the grassroots to the “executive suite.” The QBQ! message of personal accountability is foundational. Before training on customer service, management, sales, change, leadership—or any other topic—personal accountability is needed! For all other training to succeed, accountability must be established as a core value within the organization. Otherwise, time and training dollars are wasted. I will be speaking at FinCon 2014. FinCon 2014 runs from September 18-20 in New Orleans at the New Orleans Marriott. Please come by and say hi if you live in the area or will be attending FinCon. I want to thank everyone who voted for my podcast in the Best Personal Finance category of the Plutus awards. The Cash Car Convert podcast is a finalist for the award. The award will be announced on September 20 at FinCon 2014. It is an honor to stand with these shows!

In this episode of the Cash Car Convert podcast I will recount a conversation I had with a business hardware leasing representative, review an instance commercial, and discuss the Stanford Marshmallow Test. I spoke to a leasing representative this week and talked to him about how he bought cars. It was an interesting discussion and I was surprised to find how he bought his cars. No, it wasn't leasing. He buys his cars by allowing dealers to respond to bid request. He started with 40 dealers. He finally got his car after much time and effort. He bought a $52,000 dollar car for $38,000. Saving him $14,000 in the process. The amount of work involved to do this leads me to believe it isn't something everyone can do or would do, but it worked for him. I was watching the Velocity Channel this past week and saw an interesting commercial. It was for Liberty Mutual Insurance. The car commercial started with a guy taking about buying a $40,000 car and it being t-boned by a minivan. He was $37,000 offered by insurance company. Depreciation they said. How can my car depreciate that quickly before its first oil change he asks? He then says maybe a better question is why am I with this insurance company? What!?! Really, that is the better question? I think not! The $3,000 loss is just the depreciation being realized. It was already gone, he just hadn’t financially realized the loss until the accident. People know this is how it works, but then seem to be surprised when it is reality. The Stanford Marshmallow Test is a series of test involving children between the ages of three and six. Dr. Walter Mischel a psychologist led the tests. In them, he would put a child in a room. A person would come in and offer the child a marshmallow, cookie, pretzel, or other item they could eat immediately. Or they could wait 15 minutes and get two treats. Most children couldn't wait. You don't fail the test. About 14 years later, Dr. Mischel revisited the children to see how they had progressed. What he found was that the children who had waited for the second marshmallow were getting a long better. They had better SAT scores, better grades, were more healthy, and generally happier. Joachim De Pasado gave a TED talk on the topic entitled "Don't Eat The Marshmallow."  In this talk, Mr. De Pasado discussed Dr. Mischel's findings and encouraged people not to eat the marshmallow. He also performed the same test on children in latin america to see how they could react. The video is priceless. There is also a Business Week article that discusses what the Stanford Marshmallow Test really tests. It cites a study done by University of Rochester. In this study, children were first shown the reliability of the care giver before the marshmallow test. This resulted in many more children delaying gratification when the care giver was reliable and many more eating the marshmallow when the care giver was unreliable. This would seem to indicate the security of the environment a child comes from is also a determinate in whether they are willing to delay gratification. The implications for you and me are we should make sure our children have a safe, secure, and reliable environment to allow them to achieve their best.  Make sure your child is growing up in such an environment. I will be speaking at FinCon 2014. FinCon 2014 runs from September 18-20 in New Orleans at the New Orleans Marriott. Please come by and say hi if you live in the area or will be attending FinCon. I want to thank everyone who voted for my podcast in the Best Personal Finance category of the Plutus awards. The Cash Car Convert podcast is a finalist for the award. The award will be announced on September 20 at FinCon 2014. It is an honor to stand with these shows! Best Personal Finance PodcastCash Car ConvertDough RollerListen Money MattersMoney Plan SOSStacking Benjamins I also want to thank my friend Steve Stewart for letting me know about the Plutus Awards and actually voting for my show. Steve has been a great friend to the show from the very beginning. Lastly, I was having a bad day the other day when I received a note in the mail. It was from a young lady I sponsored to the Gauntlet youth camp at Newspring church. Her note was a thank you. Letting me know that because of my scholarship she was able to attend The Gauntlet and she invited her best friend. Both of whom were saved and baptized at the event. I was blown away by this note and it turned my whole day around. It made my day, week, and year. I should say that this was a relatively small dollar amount, $100. At the Gauntlet there were over 240 salvations, 742 baptisms, and thousands of lives changed forever!

Life happens to all of us. Two weeks ago I attend a funeral for my wife's grandfather. This week, I became a grandfather. It can all happen fast. Many people live their lives as though nothing in their life was going to change. They have an expectation of perfection in their lives that just doesn't exist. A major life event will happen to all of us at some point in the future. Will it be in the next six months or 10 years. I don't know and neither do you. That is why it is so important for you to be prepared. Live on less than you make. Make sure you are putting money away for the future and not spending your future earnings on things you buy today. Prepare yourself for the future. You can't be prepared for everything, but to be prepared for nothing is asking for trouble. If you don't have an emergency fund, you will turn to credit cards, family and friends, and if those run out to pay day or title loan companies. This is happening to far too many people. Thousands lose their cars due to these types of loans. They don't pay attention to the fact that they are being charged somewhere in the neighborhood of 400% interest. The average loan of $941 has interest of $2142. Shocking! Don't be one of these unfortunate souls. Plan for the future, because life happens.

Last week, I attended my wife's grandfather's funeral. Next week, I'm expecting my first grandson. It put me in mind to think about my legacy. I hope my legacy is that I will have created a cash car revolution. That my audience will grow. I will be covered by local and national media and my message spreads. I will give a TED talk, because I have an idea worth spreading. It also made me think about the legacy of my listeners. Are you leaving the legacy you want to? If not, what would you change? I would encourage you to dump debt and leave a legacy of living responsibly and the freedom that it brings. I took the ALS Ice Bucket challenge this past week. I challenged three of my friends to the challenge as well. Ellory Wells, Steve Stewart, and Jared Easly. I would entourage you to check out the cause and make your own donation big or small. Whatever you can afford. I also moderated a great panel on how to land amazing guests on your podcast at the Podcast Movement conference  this past weekend. The other panelist were amazing. They shared some great tips with the audience and we received great feedback. The other panelist were Ellory Wells, Christina Canters, Chris Cerrone, and Veron Ross. Tremendous people. Lastly in this episode, I detail my 3 year cost to own my 2006 Ford F-150 truck. I have put 44,000 miles on this truck in the last 3 years. Total acquisition cost tax and fees included: $14,957 Total gasoline purchased: $9,826 Total repairs, maintenance, and fees: $2,944 (Includes $800 for tires and $400 for brakes. I hope this will show you can drive a used car and not spend a lot on maintenance and repairs.

I want you to be the hero of your own story. Why you ask? No one is coming to rescue you, that's why. Not the lottery, not a millionaire, not a family member, and not the government. In the last 5 years the economic down turn has caused most american families to feel less certain about their future. No only their future, but also that of their children. With the majority believing that their children will not have the same or better lifestyle then them. I encourage listeners to come and meet me at the Podcast Movement and Fincon 14. I also share information about Podertainment Podcast Magazine and my feature resulting in my being on the cover. Last but not least, I encourage listeners to vote for the Cash Car Convert podcast as the best personal finance podcast in 2014.

So many topics to cover this week. I apologize for missing a week on my podcast. A friend who lost their job had their car repossessed. The Urban Institute publishes a report on Debt in America. This report shows that 91 percent of the population in the United States has a credit score. Of those 35% have at least one account in collection. Seriously! Also discussed is the really unemployment number for the United States based on an article by Peter Morici in the Washington Times. While unemployment stands at 6.1% according to the Labor Department, based number of factors a case could be made for real unemployment being at least 18%. A relay the story of how proper savings has led one friend to smile continuously while discussion her retirement. I discuss how making a small change in your life can have a major impact. I encourage listeners to come and meet me at the Podcast Movement and Fincon 14. I also share information about Podertainment Podcast Magazine and my feature resulting in my being on the cover. Last but not least, I encourage listeners to vote for the Cash Car Convert podcast as the best personal finance podcast in 2014.

This episode will be about being a person of excellence. Back in February on Cash Car Convert episode 12, I had some friends who were going to buy a newer car to get one that would have better gas milage and have a nice long warranty. I don’t know what the car payments would have been, but they decided not to buy the newer car after I offered to buy their old car for a little over the trade in amount they had been offered. Instead, they had their car repaired and have been driving it with no problem that I know of. Recently, the husband was laid off. I was very sad to hear of this happening, but I was thankful they hadn’t purchased that newer car and incurred the car payments that would have come with it. I’m pleased to know they have one less headache as he finds another job. Each week, I listen to lots of Podcasts. Some of these are sermons. I attend a local church, so I hear one sermon in person and the others via podcasts. I listen to Robert Morris in person at Gateway Church in Southlake, TX. Pastor Morris is an incredible teacher of God’s word. He makes the complexities of the bible simple. Andy Stanley from Northpoint Church in Atlanta, GA Wisdom from a church for non-church people Perry Noble from Newspring Church in SC not your typical pastor, but someone passionate about helping people and leading them to God. Joel Osteen from Lakewood church in Houston, TX up lifting. Always helping me remember I may be going through something bad at any given moment, but it is only for a season and brighter days will come. I get something different from each of the sermons. Each one a blessing to my life. Today, I want to discuss a sermon I heard from Joel Osteen. It was about having a spirit of excellence and being a person of excellent. He told stories of what this means and what it looks like. For Christens, it means we should always remember we are representatives of God. If you don’t believe in God, this still applies to you, as you represent yourself, your family, city, state, and country. All good reasons to try to always put your best self forward. How do you live your life? How do you look when you leave your house? How does your house look, is it neat and in good repair? What about your car? What do you do to make your small o large corner of the world better? What do you do with shopping carts? Do you liter? Do you pick up liter? I always put my shopping cart away and will often take a few strays as well. I tend to walk along a street that gets a fair about of traffic. I’m always amazed that for such a nice neighborhood I find trash along my walking route. When I’m out for a walk, I will often pick up liter on the street. Some of these things I have done for a long time, but some of it I have started doing after listening to Joel’s sermon on having a spirit of excellent. You don’t do these things not because someone is watching, but because you are a person of excellence. Joel tells the story of cleaning a 5 gallon water bottle not because he thought it needed it, but because he had promised his wife he would. So, even when he is alone, he does it because he wants to be a person of excellence. H also told the story of how he had trash blowing out of his car and  out into the parking lot. He chose to chase it down and was glad he did when he found he was being watch by people who watch his services on television. It pays to be a person of excellence all the time, as you never know who will be watching. What if you don't feel like you are a person of excellence? I talk about how using positive mental imagery can help you envision a new you and a new future. I speak about Dr. Maxwell Maltz book Psyco-Cybernetics published in 1960. I also reference The Way of the SEAL a book by Mark Divine. I was amazed how much the use of positive mental imagery played a part in the life of a Navy SEAL. It can help you to. Links below will help you understand why.

In this episode, I provide an update on a listener question, how growth happens in uncomfortable moments, my new podcast logo and why it is changing, my new book coming at the end of July, my current speaking schedule, and a PDF gift for subscribing to my website.

In this episode, I discuss a listener question, Craigslist, CARFAX, my current speaking schedule, my new book coming at the end of July, and a PDF gift for subscribing to my website.

Rachel Cruze is  a NY Times & Wall Street #1 bestselling author. Someone who has spent a great deal of the last 5 years touring college campuses large and small all around this great country of ours teaching the youth how to handle money. Rachel was only 6 months old when her dad Dave Ramsey lost everything in bankruptcy and started building back from the ground up. For years, she saw the sacrifices her parents made. It wasn’t always easy, but she learned early on how to save for the future, spend wisely, avoid debt, and give generously. They gave her a gift, and it’s one she can’t keep to herself. She wants to help you do the same for yourself and your family. It’s her passion to teach others what she has learned. That’s why she travels the country speaking to audiences large and small. It may seem overwhelming at times, but you really can put yourself in a position to win with money and teach your kids along the way! Smart Money Smart Kids In Smart Money Smart Kids, Rachel Cruze and her father best-selling author Dave Ramsey equip parents to teach their children how to win with money. Starting with the basics like working, spending, saving, and giving then moving into more challenging issues like avoiding debt, paying cash for college, and battling discontentment, Rachel and Dave present a no-nonsense, common-sense approach to changing your family tree.  

Derek and Carrie Olsen between engagement and “I do,” had all the tough conversations about money that most couples avoid for decades. If they ever have them! The first year of their marriage, financially speaking, was rough. They planned a wedding, a honeymoon, and a short sale on their house, all at the same time.  They had to hold on for dear life just to make it through the first few years. They came together and created a plan for their marriage and their money. Not so much because they wanted to, but because they had to. They grew and learned so much in the process as a result. This allowed them to grow from insecurity and discomfort to an awesome, healthy place in their relationship – and their finances. Now, they help others have better conversations, and let you in on theirs. They believe, you too can get on the same page with your money, marriage, and life.  

Larry Winget is a 6 times New York Times/Wall Street Journal bestselling author who has been translated into 20 languages. He is a member of the International Speaker Hall Of Fame. He has starred in his own television series and appeared in national television commercials. Larry is also regular contributor on many news shows on the topics of money, personal success, parenting and business. Larry is also the trademarked Pitbull of Personal Development®.

Gunnar Johnson is a gentleman who has served as the Executive Pastor of Financial Stewardship at Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas since 2006. He is a fan of cycling and an avid skate-boarder. His book, Generous Life Journey is the culmination of over 10 years of faith, struggles, and obedience to carry out a very clear and precise vision God gave him on how to build a stewardship ministry. It's the story of how his encounter with God forever changed his life course and taught him how you handle finances is an issue of your heart.  

Todays guest is host of the wildly successful podcast the Eventual Millionaire. She has been featured in a number of news outlets such as CNNMoney, CNN Newsroom, and Fox Business. She has also been feature on or in Kiplinger’s, Yahoo! finance, Time, and Success. She has also authored, The Eventual Millionaire: How Anyone Can Be an Entrepreneur and Successfully Grow Their Startup. I have my work cut for me in this episode, as I’m turning the tables on one of the best interviewers in the podcasting business, Jaime Tardy.

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald said "Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me." He went on to say some unkind things about the rich. The author I interviewed on this episode has a much different view of the rich. In his book, Rich Habits, Tom Corley shares a story of how 10 rich habits can change a persons life. Tom doesn't just speculate about the rich or the poor for that matter. Tom did 5 years of research to find out how the rich and poor differ, and they do. Tom explores differences that exist in our everyday lives that either bring us closer to being rich or keep us poor.

My life has been a whirlwind the last 4 months and I wanted to take this episode to catch up on a few of the major things going on in my life.   Expanded job roll leading to more travel.   Spouse taking on new job.   Moving into a new home at the end of May.   Long weekend vacation.   Being interviewed on several podcasts.   Speaking at a couple of Podcast meetups.   What's changed in your life the last 4 months?   Please let me know!!  

I was going to speak on something else this week, but I wanted to speak on an article that just made me shake my head. The article was published back in November of 2013 and is titled “Five Reasons to Buy a New Car” by Ravi Kumarr at groundreport.com. I am concerned for the people who read this article and over 13,544 have, up from about 3,000 when I first discovered it. I am concerned because some will take its advice. Enough people already have the misguided notion that they “need” a new car without an article like this that does not serve up any verifiable facts. Everyday more and more people find themselves in car trouble. And, I don’t mean mechanical car problems either. They are underwater on their new car. I see articles indicating this more and more.   Articles like this are doing little more than leading animals to the slaughter.  

My sister, Beverly Vaughan, was diagnosed with uterine cancer in 1988 when she was 28 years old. She was given 6 months to live. She thought she would never see her daughter be married or have children, but she did. How did she do it? Listen to today's show and find out.  I believe Beverly's story will let you know you can always fight back, you have that choice. You don't have to accept your current reality as your permeant reality. Changer your reality, Beverly did!

Four year ago, Jen McDonough found her family hitting rock bottom when their son was diagnosed with a lifetime medical condition. They were devastated both financially and emotionally. During this very painful, embarrassing, and difficult time, They went through many obstacles in not only in their finances, but also in their relationships, health, and jobs. Using the strategies learned from being an athletic champion, they were able to create incredible outcomes. Their story would go on to reach people through local, national, and international media (including being featured in a German documentary film) Today, she assists in building stronger organizations, communities, and families by helping people learn how to leverage their advertises to become their strongest selves using her 20+ year experiences of becoming an: • Ironman triathlete after not being able to run, bike, or swim.• Eight-time national Olympic-style weightlifter after starting off with a broomstick.• Author of three Amazon Top 100 books in one year after being ridiculed as a child and an adult for her grammar skills (one of those books has been in Amazon’s Kindle Top 100 for over two years while another one hit number one in Amazon’s budgeting category).• Paid off over $212,000 worth of debt & medical expenses in 4 years after not being able to pay their monthly expenses.• She is an empowered parent of a child who was diagnosed with an incurable lifetime medical condition after being emotionally & financially devastated. Through her roles as a motivational storyteller, engaging author, and internet radio show host, she gives hope, encouragement, inspiration, and motivation to people to create the life they desire by removing some of the “clutter” in life that we all pile up from time to time. Audiences relate to her stories as they can see it isn’t from some flashy Ken or Barbie doll type person, but rather through an ordinary and authentic working mom of four.  

Dan Miller is the author of the New York Times best selling 48days to the Work You Love, No More Dreaded Mondays, and Wisdom meets Passion. He has been a guest on CBS’s The Early Show, MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Mathews, Moody MidDay Connection, and the Dave Ramsey Show. He has spoken at the White House Christian Fellowship, and is in high demand at national conferences on changes in the workplace, and at universities and business conferences. Over 130,000 people have subscribed to his weekly newsletter, his 48DaysPodcast consistently ranks in the top 3 under Careers on iTunes, and the 48Days.net business community is viewed as an example around the world for those seeking to find - or create - work they love.  

The largest purchase most people make is their house. The second is their cars.    Dealers know that, but they won’t share it with you. However, they will show you how they can “get you into this car for the low monthly payment of fill-in-the-blank.”    Monthly payments are the biggest distractions salesmen use against us - and we eat it up!   The future wealth of middle and lower income America is sapped by the “you gotta have a car payment” mentality, but it’s not too late to change.   It’s time to get out of the car payment business.    First: Identify how much car is too much   Use this formula to decide if you have too much car: Compare how much you spend on gas to your monthly car payment.   If you are spending more on your monthly car payment than on gasoline, you have too much car.    Stop reading this and go look at your car right now. Where is it? It is likely to be parked in a garage, driveway, parking lot or on the street.    You are paying a premium for parking and should seriously consider selling the car or paying off the debt. Period.   Keep the car using the “2x Rule”   If you are so completely enthralled with your car that you can’t bear to part with it then swear to abide by the “2x Rule”:   Raise your right hand in the air Place your left hand on a stack of Bibles Swear to keep the car for twice as long as it takes to pay off the loan   Yep. If you signed up for a 5 year ride with Ford Financial then you need to keep that car/SUV/truck for 10 years - no excuses!   Think about that for a minute. Do you love this car enough to commit to driving it for a decade?   Maybe this will give you some motivation to pay off the loan early. It should also prevent you from rolling any negative equity into your next purchase.   Kill the debt in under 2 years   Look at your monthly budget to see how much money you can throw at the debt:   Multiply the extra money by 24 Multiply your normal monthly car payment by 24 Add the two totals together and compare it to your payoff balance.   Keep the car if you can realistically pay it off in less than 2 years. If you can’t then it’s time to sell.   This goes for both new and used cars. Don’t let payments on a depreciating asset keep you in the middle class forever.   If you can’t pay cash   James Kinson encourages you to pay cash for your cars. It’s an economically sound solution for the biggest financial drain your budget. It’s also very hard to do when you are just getting started.   What can you do if money is really tight and you can’t pay cash? Use the same 2x Rule for every car you buy on payments:   Buy a used car and pay off the loan as quickly as possible Once the debt is gone, save for your next downpayment Repeat the process until you can pay for a cash car     Purchasing quality used vehicles will keep you from paying a premium for parking. Getting rid of the debt will help you to save up for your next car. Continuing to purchase wisely while saving downpayment will get you to your destination - you’ll become a Cash Car Convert!  

On today’s podcast I interview a Jim Munchbach, who is a real renaissance man. He has worked as a master mechanic, now has his own State Farm Agency, he is a Certified Financial Planner, he is college professor at the Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston, he hosts multiple podcasts, he is a speaker, he is the author of multiple books, and he is just an all around nice guy. He is going to discuss with us today how he came to do so much with his life and how we can find a good mechanic.

If you have been listening to my podcast, you understand the quality used car buying process. Now, I am going to take you through the steps I use when selling my own car. I have sold many cars over the years and I have had a great deal of success. The last three cars I sold  were gone in less than two days and two of them sold the first day. Many of the selling tips are just taking the buying tips and thinking about them for the car you are selling. The goal is to make your car one someone like you would want to buy. A key point to remember when selling is you never get a second chance to make a first impression. So, make it count.

How much does mindset matter? This week we will explore how much mindset has impacted my life. I hope by me sharing my journey, a journey I have only shared with just a handful of people. Some of this journey may resonate with what you are going through or have gone through. I want to give you hope that no matter your circumstances you can make decisions to change your life at any point along the way. It is never too early or too late to start changing your life! My life has turned out so much better than I ever dreamed and so can yours. I hope you enjoy this very open and raw episode of the Cash Car Convert.

This is my favorite time in the used car purchasing process. Finally getting to purchase a “new” car after all the work and getting to drive a quality used car home. If you have followed my previous episodes in your used car search, you have done your research and found a car that makes sense for you. You have eliminated cars that were too expensive to maintain or too unreliable to depend on. You have eliminated cars that just didn’t feel right or that the seller hadn’t maintained properly. You have qualified the car’s value and know what it is worth. You have screened both the seller and car by phone. You reviewed the owner’s personal records on the car. The car has passed your personal onsite inspection and a thorough inspection by your mechanic. You are finally ready to negotiate with the seller and purchase the car.

The Millionaire Next Doorprobably paid cash for her car. You already knew that but did you know she bought it used? Learn how to buy your next car – listen now and again when you head out the door to test drive your next potential used car.  

As we are now nearly 2 months into 2014 many of us reflect to take stock of how we are faring in our New Year’s Resolutions. Are we still on course? Are we better or worse off than we were in December?Many of us tend to lose focus quickly in the new year. The gym start to get back to their normal levels of activity. The resolution to get up early falls by the wayside and we spend more time with our pillow. Likewise the desire to be financially fit may slip away as well. I want to help you stay the course with by giving you 4 reasons not to be an average American.  

When I leave my home to look at a car after all the research and screening, I feel pretty confident I will be looking at a quality used car.  Even so, I still have to do an inspection and so will you.The goal of my inspection is to minimize the risk of buying a car that might become more of a problem than a blessing to me and my family.When I arrive to look at a car there are a number of things I do to either eliminate the car from consideration or determine it is worth pursuing further.

I interview a person who is the Social Media Manager at Indiana Wesleyan University a Podcaster at Beyond the To Do List and Social Media Correspondent for Podcast Answer Man. He is also the co-author of Beyond the To Do List: Goals. He is also the master of all things bacon. He is Mr. Erik J. Fisher.

In this episode of the Cash Car Convert Podcast I will cover 10 questions you should ask before going to see a used car. Do spend your time or gas needlessly. Prequalify each car before you drive to inspect.  

Tips I lay out in this episode are especially relevant for inexpensive cars being bought for 5000 or less. I believe the lower the target price a car buyer has the more homework needs to be done to ensure finding a quality car. Those in debt with no savings need to get their cash car buy right the first time, as they have little financial margin in their lives.