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 peo

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

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

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 unh

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 w

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/ca

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

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 keep

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

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

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

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 cou

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

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

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 Ra

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 e

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!