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Understanding how to calculate your monthly lease payment makes it easier
for you to make an informed decision. Yet, most of us shy away from the
complicated math on our lease contract, leaving it up to the dealer to
do the payment formula.

Actually, its not that difficult! Once you understand all the figures
involved in calculating your monthly payments, everything else falls into
place. These key figures are:

MSRP (short for Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price): This is the list
price of the vehicle or the window sticker price.
Money Factor: This determines the interest rate on your lease. Insist on
your dealer to disclose this rate before entering into a lease.
Lease Term: The number of months the dealer rents the vehicle.
Residual Value: The value of the vehicle at the end of the lease. Again,
you can get this figure from the dealer.

Now, let us calculate a sample lease payment based on a vehicle with an
MSRP (sticker price) value of $25,000 and a money factor of 0.0034 (this is
usually quoted as 3.4%). The scheduled-lease is over 3 years and the
estimated residual percentage is 55%.

The first step is to calculate the residual value of the car. You multiply
the MSRP by the residual percentage:

$20,000 X .55 = $11,000.

The car will be worth $13,750 at the end of the lease, so you’ll be using:

$20,000 $11,000 = $9,000

This amount of $9,000 will be used over a 36 month lease period giving us a
monthly payment of:

$9,000 / 36 = $250.

This is the first part of the monthly payment, called the monthly
depreciation charge.
The second part of the monthly payment, called the money factor payment,
factors the interest charge. It is calculated by adding the MSRP figure to
the residual value and multiplying this by the money factor:

($20,000 + $11,000) * 0.0034 = $105.4

Finally, we get the approximate monthly payment by adding the two figures
together:

$250 + $105.4 = $355.4

To recapitulate, the sample formula looks like this:

1- Monthly Depreciation Charge:

MSRP X Depreciation Percentage = Residual Value
MSRP Residual Value = Depreciation over lease term
Depreciation over lease term / lease term (number of months in the lease) =
monthly depreciation charge

2- Monthly factor money charge

(MSRP + Residual value) X Money factor = money factor payment

3- Sample Monthly Payment:

depreciation charge + money factor payment = monthly payment

Keep in mind that this is a simplified calculation that does not take into
account taxes, fees, rebates or any other incentives. The calculation gives
you a ballpark figure or a rough idea of what your lease payments for the
vehicle in question should be.

How to avoid extra costs at the end of your lease

$250 to dispose of your vehicle, $1000 for extra miles you put on the clock
and $200 to replace the light bulb and the worn tyreslease agents
constantly nickel-and-dime consumers when their lease runs out.
Heres a rundown of what can trigger those fees, and some steps to take in
self-defense.
Disposition fee: leasing companies charge you if you choose not to buy the
vehicle at the end of your lease. This fee is set as compensation for the
expenses of selling, or otherwise disposing of the vehicle. It typically
includes administrative charges; the dealers cost to prepare the car for
resale and any other penalties. Make sure this fee is stated clearly in the
contract and is agreeable by you before signing on the dotted line. At
lease-end, you are left in no position to negotiate as the dealer can apply
your refundable security deposit towards this fee.

Excess mileage charges: Almost all leasing companies will charge a premium
for each mile over the agreed upon mileage stated in your contract. This
penalty can be as high as 25 cents per mile and can add up quickly. To
avoid the risk of running thousands of dollars in excess mileage penalties
at the end of your lease, always check the per mile charges in your
contract and be realistic about your mileage before you sign any contract.
If you think the limit is unrealistic given your commutation needs, then
negotiate with the dealer to get a higher mileage or contract for
additional miles.

Excess tear-and-wear charges: Another potential cost at the end of the
lease is any incidental damage done to the car during the lease. This is
deemed any excessive damage done to the normal tear and wear of the vehicle.
Notice the use of the terms deemed, excessive and normal. There is no
standard formula to define whats excessive and normal and its up to
the leasing company to assess or deem the damage and determine what
they are going to charge. This leaves you at the mercy of unscrupulous
leasing agents who set stringent tear-and-wear standards. Make sure you
read the description of these standards, understand them and agree to them.
If your leased vehicle is damaged prior to the end of the lease, you may
find it cheaper to repair the damage yourself than pay the excessive charges
of the leasing agent. In the event of a dispute over the charges at the end
of your lease, get an independent third party to do a professional appraisal
detailing the amount required to repair any damaged parts or the amount by
which tear-and-wear reduces the value of the vehicle.

Hybrid vehicles popularity has sharply grown from a couple of thousands
in early 2000 to close to 300, 000 by the end of 2005. The trend is
rapidly catching with the auto-leasing industry with generous tax credits
and incentives on offer if you go green.

Beginning in 2006, businesses and taxpayers who lease, or purchase, an
environmentally-friendly and fuel-efficient vehicle will be eligible to
claim federal income tax credits worth thousands of dollars. Individual
states also offer generous incentives, including hybrid state tax credits,
new High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes access and discounted thruway tolls
for alternative-fuelled vehicles.
And thats not all you can save from going green! You can now save on your
parking fees at a number of universities and some auto-insurance companies
are offering insurance discounts for hybrid-vehicle owners nationwide.

If you want to take advantage of these incentives and contribute to energy
conservation then visit HybridCenter.org and complete a personal profile
about your driving needs and habits. You will get in-depth advice on hybrid
models that would make economic sense to you and local, state and federal
incentives available where you live.

Mention auto-leasing and most people will automatically assume a low-
monthly payment. There is actually more than what meets the eye, and a
number of fees are involved at various stages of the lease process.

At the beginning of the lease, you have to pay a refundable security
deposit, typically equivalent to one monthly payment, to safeguard against
non-payment and any incidental damage done to the car at the end of the
lease. You are also required to pay an administrative charge, called
acquisition fee. Other fees include licenses, registration, title and any
state or local taxes.

During your lease, and you expected to honour your monthly payment
obligations. Any failure to do so will result in late-payment charges.
You have to pay any traffic tickets, emission and safety inspections and
ongoing maintenance costs. Ending your lease early will result in
substantial early termination charges.

At the end of the lease, expect to pay any excess mileage costs, charged
at 10 to 20 p a mile. Any incidental damage done to the car, and deemed to
be above normal, will result in excess tear-and-wear charges. Finally, if
you choose not to purchase the vehicle, then you have to pay a disposition
fee.

Too often when it comes to auto-leasing, people get so dazzled by the
myriad terms and the jargon thrown their way that they end-up paying
through the nose, relying on a dealers help than their own informed
decision.

Here is a look at some of the tricks dealers use to pad their profits and
leave the customers shelling hundreds of dollars more than the deal should
be worth.

Trick 1: Leasing always a better deal than buying

Dealers use the lure of lower-monthly payments to entice customers to sign
for long-term loans, with terms stretching for five years or more, making
the payments even lower. There are two catches with such lengthy contracts:
higher mileage, exceeding the prescribed limit, and hefty repair costs.
With
leases charging on average 10 to 20 cents a mile for any extra mile over
the agreed amount in the contract, and warranties only covering three
years, you leave yourself wide open for hefty charges for excessive
mileage and wear and tear.

Trick 2: Cheap 2-3% APR rate on your lease

The dealer is not quoting the interest rate you would be paying on your
lease; hes rather giving you the lease money factor. Whilst similar to an
interest rate and important in determining your monthly payment, a more
accurate rate is calculated by multiplying the money factor by 24. For
example a cheap 3% money factor is 24 X 0.003 = 7.2%. This gives you a
better sense of what your annual interest rate on your lease contract is.

Trick 3: Stress-free early lease termination

Dealers know consumer driving needs change and they would like to have the
option of getting out of a lease commitment sometime down the road, before
their lease ends. Truth of the matter is, when you sign for a lease, you
are effectively saddled with monthly payments for the remainder of the
lease term and there is little-choice of getting out early. Lease contracts
carry hefty financial penalties for either defaulting on monthly payments
or terminating the lease earlier than the scheduled term.

To avoid being on the receiving end of such tried-and-true tricks, educate
yourself about leasing. Get down to the nitty-gritty and understand what
the leasing terms used by dealers mean. Crunch the numbers along with him
and understand how they arrived at the monthly payment figure. Dont sign
anything until youve understood all the terms and your numbers much those
of the dealer. Do not let the dealer pressure you into signing; you are the
one to determine whether the agreement is right for you.

Its the classic dilemma that faces every auto-consumer out there: Pay
cash upfront or forego the ownership and pay monthly settlements instead?
Buy or lease for a new set of wheels?

As is the case with every other common dilemma, there is no slam-dunk
answer. Each option has its own benefits and drawbacks, and it all depends
on a set of financial and personal considerations.

First, your finances. Affordability is clearly key, and you need to ask the
question of how stable is your job and how healthy is your general
financial situation. The short-term monthly-cost of leasing is
significantly lower than the monthly payments when buying: you only pay for
the portion of the vehicles cost that you use up during the time you
drive it.
If you have a lot of cash upfront, then you can opt to pay the down
payment, sales taxes – in cash or rolled into a loan – and the interest
rate determined by your loan company. Buying effectively gives you
ownership of the car and that feeling of free driving that goes on
providing transportation.
If, say, you want to get into luxury models but cant afford the upfront
cash of purchasing the vehicle than youre a good candidate for leasing.
Unlike buying, it gives you the option of not having to fork out the down
payment upfront, leaving you to pay a lower money factor that is generally
similar to the interest rate on a financing loan. However, these benefits
have a price: terminating a lease early or defaulting on your monthly lease
payments will result in stiff financial penalties and can ruin your credit.
You need to make sure you carve out the monthly lease payment in your
budget for the foreseeable future, at least for the duration of the lease.

Besides the financial aspect, making a buy or lease decision depends on
your own particular lifestyle choices and preferences. Think about what the
car means to you: are you the sort of person to bond with the car or would
you rather have the excitement of something new? If you want to drive a
car for more than fives years, negotiate carefully and buy the car you
like. If, on the other hand, you dont like the idea of ownership and
prefer to drive a new car every two to three years then you should lease.
Next, factor your transportation needs: How many miles do you drive a year?
How properly do you maintain your cars? If you answer is: I drive 40,000
miles a year and I dont really care much about my cars as I dont mind
dealing with repair bills, then youre probably better off buying. Leasing
is based on the assumption of limited-mileage, usually no more than 12,000
to 15,000 miles a year, and wear-and-tear considerations. Unless you can
keep within the prescribed mileage limits and keep the car in a good
condition at the end of your lease, you might incur hefty end-of-lease
costs.

In a car accident between two vehicles, one driver is deemed to be at fault whether through negligence or accidental causes. No fault auto insurance covers the person who took out the policy regardless of fault in the accident and typically place a limit on the ability of the insured to sue the other driver for damages. Some states mandate no fault insurance to cut down on high dollar settlement lawsuits resulting from auto accidents.

The pros and cons of no fault insurance include pros like you, as the insured driver, not being sued for damages like pain and suffering you may have caused another driver. The cons include you not being able to sue another driver who hit you.

Some people who have been in an accident that was not their fault do not like no fault auto insurance because they cannot sue the driver who caused the accident. Not everyone is lawsuit happy but if a driver who was drunk or extremely careless hit you and caused you great emotional suffering, like you are afraid to drive now, you have little recourse. Some people believe a large settlement award for pain and suffering punishes the careless driver. If you live in a state where no fault auto insurance is an option, you’ll want to think carefully about what rights you lose by accepting a no fault policy.

Starting a small business ranks close to having a child in the major life event category. This can be one of the most stressful times, but if done right, it can also be one of the most rewarding things in your life. Some might think that to start your own business, you have to know everything. One thing that you can have something help you with is marketing and advertising. This is a very complicated part of any business and if the average business owner thinks they know everything they need to know about this, they are kidding themselves. When someone has a heart problem, they go to a specialist. This is how you should treat your small business marketing. Using an Ad Agency could be one of the smartest things you could do to help ensure your business doesnt fail. It is well known that 80% of all businesses fail within the first 5 years. How many of those millions of heartbroken owners could have been part of the 20% only if they would have not been a know it all and asked the experts for help in areas they didnt have an idea in. Throughout the years of running an Ad Agency, we have never had a client spend more money with us than if they would have done it alone. In a majority of cases, they actually have saved thousands of dollars with us. This is for a few reasons. One is the enormous buying power good Ad Agencies have. We can buy in bulk and pass the savings to all of our clients. Ad Agencies also have more negotiating power. Going into a buying process with 5-10 clients at one time can give us a huge advantage in negotiating power. One thing that new and existing business owners fail to do is create an actual advertising marketing plan for the year. This can be done at any time during the year and not just January first. Create a plan for the next 12 months based on your target audience and your budget. We never come to a client and tell them how much they should spend for the year. We take your budget and create a plan for you, at a price you can afford. We handle over $38 million in advertising dollars every year, but we service the $5000 startup or the $100k budgets. Any and all are welcome to participate in our programs.

A major challenge for all fleet operators, whatever industry sector they operate in, is how to manage drivers, vehicles and other mobile assets when they are ?out on the road? and effectively out of sight.

Telematics-based vehicle tracking and fleet management solutions, that utilise GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite technology, give vehicle and equipment operators control over their assets and employees, in a way never thought possible only a few years ago. Maximum optimisation isn?t the impossible dream that it once was, and businesses can now see at a glance exactly where their assets are and co-ordinate and protect them far more effectively.

MAKING IT WORK FOR YOU

Despite what some might tell you, vehicle tracking technology cannot be all things to all people, and installing a system won?t immediately solve all transport-related problems or optimise a vehicle operation overnight. Promises of data on every aspect of your fleet won?t help you either unless there is an effective means to transfer this into knowledge.

Not many companies in the telematics field are making money today ? a major proportion of service providers go bust within the first two years of business. The field is overdue a shakeout and we will definitely see some consolidation in this sector. Make sure when you are selecting a supplier that it has a good track record, an excellent reputation and, not least, a sound balance sheet

Choosing a vehicle tracking system takes careful consideration. It is about businesses knowing what they really want, not just now, but also in the future. Focusing on what realistically can be achieved is essential, but businesses need to understand that their requirements will change, so any telematics solutions has to possess the flexibility to evolve and adapt to these changing needs.

Furthermore, no two businesses possess the same needs, so it is critical to select a solution that can be tailored to specific requirements. Imagine the varying needs amongst electrical contractors with every single one having individual requirements and operating with different working practises.

For example, protecting vehicles and assets against theft requires different functionality than a work flow management and job scheduling solution, but a vehicle tracking system needs to possess the flexibility to handle both should this be needed. It is worth considering the benefits of selecting a partner that can develop a bespoke tracking solution rather than procuring an off-the-shelf device that may lack sufficient adaptability and expandability.

To best utilise a vehicle tracking solution, there needs to be substantial levels of commitment from both the telematics service provider and the fleet operator itself. This doesn?t just mean financially, company?s need to also set aside some resource to develop and manage the process. A company also needs to communicate openly with all its stakeholders ? whether this is directors, employees, drivers, customers or suppliers ? to ensure everyone understands the reasoning for the solution and the potential benefits.

Vehicle tracking and telematics systems can fundamentally change the way companies do business, and if it doesn?t then the solution is not working. What is needed is clearer thinking to define what will add value to a business and how companies can work smarter using the knowledge that this technology offers.

Tom O’Connor Published 08/18/2008 Autos General Unrated

As technology for voice telecommunications continues to advance, every new breakthrough presents the potential for both a serious challenge and an exciting opportunity for businesses. While many people may prefer to avoid changing technology that the office is familiar and comfortable with, those that adapt to new products may be able to increase the efficiency of their operations, as well as cut overhead costs.

Resistance to Change

The majority of us tend to avoid major change of any type, and the business world is no different. It’s not difficult to understand why many businesses resist new technologies that can affect their operations-if not their infrastructure. When a new voice telecom product hits the market, there are many steps involved before a company can simply going sign up. Someone in the business must first research the product, understand its function, features, options and capabilities, and assess whether it makes sense for the office. If the new product is a good fit for their infrastructure with the potential to boost productivity and/or save money, then there’s the work involved in incorporating it: investing in the technology, getting it set up, training the employees to use it, and so on. Businesses that have strong IT support will have a big advantage with each of these steps.

Gaining the Competitive Advantage

Not every new voice telecom product is going to be a game changer. Some mark only minor improvements over their predecessors, some are using different technology to roughly the same result. However, for businesses for which connectivity and reliable service are paramount, investing in cutting edge voice telecom can be the difference that gives a competitive advantage – even if the benefits do not appear dramatic at first glance.

What’s Next for Voice Telecom?

For roughly a century and a half, the telephone was the method for voice telecommunications. With the invention of voice over IP (VoIP) technology, the industry of voice telecom has undergone a noticeable shift. Now, more and more businesses are finding that by using VoIP – which offers phone calls over the internet – they can cut costs and experience an improved quality of voice and reliable connectivity. Furthermore, VoIP allows users to integrate computer applications such as efax, web conferencing, and email. These days, deciding which voice telecom to use for your business is often a choice between integrated voice and data services over internet, Ethernet, and other methods of delivery. The abundance of options can be intimidating, but the opportunities to improve business efficiency make voice telecommunications an industry to keep a close eye on. By S Mike Lewis