Financial Resource Center
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Washing your car seems pretty straight forward: Water. Soap. Water. Dry. Most of us just run through the automatic car wash from time to time and call it good. Some of us don’t ever bother to wash our vehicles. Over the last few months, washing what is likely the most or second-most expensive thing we own has been spotty. Car washes were closed across the country. The supplies to wash vehicles by hand at home were not the easiest to find. Some folks got stressed out. Others looked at the dirt as a sign of solidarity. Others didn’t even notice. Here is why you should wash your vehicle, and how you can get the most bang for your buck at home.
First off, washing your car is crucial to normal maintenance. Dirt is abrasive. No matter where you live, there is going to be dirt that collects on your car as you drive around. If you live in a colder climate, you’re going to get salt mixed in, too. Even in the warmer months, there is still residual salt getting mixed in with the rest of the dirt that gets kicked up and clings to your car.
All that dirt acts like fine sandpaper. But it’s not just hard on the paint. The underside of your vehicle is taking the brunt of the attack. And that just happens to be where all the important parts of your vehicle are located. When things move, there is room for dirt to get in. That dirt will cause premature wear.
So how do you properly clean your vehicle? First, use the right soap. Dish soap is formulated to clean dishes. It can damage automotive paint and other areas of your vehicle. And that is exactly the opposite of what you’re trying to do.
Use different buckets and sponges. One bucket should be soap and water. The other should be just water. Get your sponge wet and soapy. Clean part of the car, rinse in the clean water. You can use the hose to rinse the sponge between dips too. An alternative is a soap gun, but that’s an expense you can forgo unless you plan to regularly wash your own vehicle.
You’re going to want to use a different sponge on the wheels and tires. Brakes and tires make their own dirt that acts differently than regular dirt. Rubbing that on your car isn’t good. You don’t necessarily need a whole line of other products for the wheels and tires, but a dedicated sponge is a good idea. Also, never move the sponge in a circular motion, long wipes the length of the car work best to preserve the paint.
Start with the bottom. And then finish there too. Clean the wheels and tires first, then the body. Then the underbody. A brush on a stick is going to make getting the underside easiest. Or the aforementioned soap gun works well, too.
Wax might seem like something that is just an extra step, but it does help protect your car and extends the time between needed washes. Unless you’re planning to show your car, a simple spray wax or soap/wax combo will do the job well enough.
Drying should never be left to nature. A few soft terry cloth towels should be fine. Only use them to dry the car, though. Be sure to wash them when you’re done. You can get a chamois if you want, but it isn’t necessary for your daily driver. The soap should help the water run off, so there shouldn’t be much water to dry up, but you may still need a few towels, so be ready.
There are some cleaning things you just don’t need for most cars: clay blocks, special waxes, buffing compounds, and specialized polish are all intended to make a car look showroom ready. Unless your car is in collector condition, that level of care is a bit excessive. -
When you have a number of different debts, attempting to pay them all off on time or early can seem overwhelming. However, if you stay organized, motivated, and focused, you can work your way to freedom from debt. The “snowball” and “avalanche” methods of debt repayment are well-known and well-tested strategies you can use to keep yourself on track.
Your debt budget
The first step to ridding yourself of debt is to make sure you aren’t living beyond your means and adding to the problem. Before you can pay off any balances, you need to make sure your monthly budget covers your bills, basic living expenses, and minimum debt payments. The amount of your income left over every month is your “debt budget,” or the additional money beyond minimum payments you can put toward paying off your debt balance.
Regardless of which strategy you choose, cutting any extra expenses out of your lifestyle will allow you to get out of debt faster. Don’t worry, you don’t have to give up luxuries forever, just until your debt is paid off. The goal is to maximize your debt budget by minimizing the number of bills you have to pay. Remember, the faster you pay down debt, the less you pay in interest charges over time—which means more money for those luxuries!
The snowball strategy
The snowball strategy focuses on psychology and motivation to help you pay off your debts and loans. You pay your monthly minimums across all credit cards and any loans (student loans, car loan, etc.), then, you apply your debt budget to the smallest debt or loan amount. Since you’re starting with the smallest debt, it won’t be long before you have your first taste of victory by eliminating an account balance! This success will give you confidence to stay motivated about tackling the next debt (which should be your new smallest debt or loan). Each time you pay off a loan, you get to apply that debt budget to the next one in line, slowly growing the amount — kind of like a snowball that starts small and slowly grows into a snow-boulder.
If you have many different types of debt—store credit cards, smaller loans, or money owed to family or friends—this strategy can work better.
The avalanche strategy
While the snowball strategy can be successful in keeping you motivated, it may not make the most financial sense for you. Accounts with high interest rates will grow and compound faster while you’re focused on paying off smaller debts. If this is true for you, the snowball method could cost you thousands of dollars more and require much more time to pay off than if you had employed the avalanche strategy.
In the avalanche strategy, you arrange your debts from the highest interest rate to the lowest, regardless of balance, and concentrate all your debt budget towards paying down the highest interest debt first. However, if your debt with the highest rate also has the largest balance, it could be a long time until your first clear “success.” This might demotivate you.
Which strategy is best for you?
If you’re worried that your lifestyle could creep up on you if you don’t experience some early emotional rewards, the snowball method is probably the way to go. However, if your largest debts are on high-rate credit cards, you should probably prepare for a disciplined avalanche approach.
For some people, the two methods will be essentially the same: the highest rate debt will also be the smallest. In this case, you’re lucky enough to get the best of both worlds. Your debt will be gone in no time! -
Being a cash-only business has its pros and cons, and some business ventures are better suited to purely cash payments. The decision of which consumer payment methods to accept shouldn’t be taken lightly—your choice could inhibit your business’s growth or trim your margins too thin.
In general, businesses that do well as cash-only are very small (or are a seasonal or part-time side-hustle), provide services or sell merchandise in person that are smaller in value, and don’t process many merchandise returns. They’re also more likely to be single-person operations and not require a physical address.
Here is a short list of some businesses best-suited to all-cash cash-flow:- Coffee/food cart or food truck
- Bakery, deli, or lunch stand
- Lawn mowing service
- Personal chef
- Errand service
- Transportation service
- Farmer’s market vendor
- Arts and crafts show vendor
- Street artist
- Babysitting service
- Pet services (pet sitting, pet grooming, pet training, dog walking, etc.)
- Personal trainer or fitness instructor
- Handyman service
- Music teacher/tutor
- Hair/nail salon or barbershop
Lower costs and overhead (i.e. no processing fees)
You can save money by only accepting cash payments. In order to process credit card transactions, you’d need to buy or lease card-reader equipment, maintain that equipment, and pay a percentage of your sales for each swipe of a card. Some processors also charge additional monthly or per incidence fees. All these costs can really affect your profitability.
With cash, all you should need is a cash register and perhaps a calculator if the register doesn’t come with one. It’s easier to calculate and maintain your profit margins.
No funding holds
With plastic payments, your business account won’t receive the funds for 24 to 72 hours later. And, even after that time, you could receive a chargeback if a customer demands a refund, even months after a purchase is made.
Cash doesn’t involve any of these delays, unless you decide to offer a customer a refund, but even then, you’d work in-person with the customer and may be able to offer another solution instead.
Avoid fraud and bounced checks
If you don’t accept plastic or personal checks as payment, you can completely avoid bounced or NSF checks and bogus credit or debit cards. You won’t need to spend the time and hassle of trying to get money from shifty customers whose payments didn’t clear the bank.
Accessible to more customers
You’ll be well-positioned to reach customers who don’t have access to credit or a smart device for mobile payments. These “underbanked” in the community may feel more comfortable doing business with you.
Disadvantages
Lost customers and/or smaller-dollar sales
In general, fewer customers are carrying much, if any, cash on them these days. New customers who don’t know you’re a cash-only business may be forced to walk away without giving you their business because they didn’t have cash on them at the moment. Or they may be forced to make a smaller purchase based on the amount of cash they have on hand. Limited growth opportunities
Cash-only means in-person only business and limits expansion of your business to include online sales. In-person sales also limit your customer base to your immediate local community—which can be just fine—but you’ll reach your maximum business capacity much faster.
Stringent cash-handling policies
You might avoid check and credit card fraud with cash, but you’ll be vulnerable to counterfeits. You and any employees will need to know how to spot fake money. Speaking of employees, if anyone but yourself handles cash register drawers full of cash, you could lose money to theft and unscrupulous employees. You’ll need strict cash handling policies that are enforced regularly and stringently.
Even if your employees are all trustworthy, they’re still prone to human error and miscounting, including when taking the right amount from customers, making change, and counting totals at the end of the day. Having cash on-hand is also a security risk for robbery.
Potential for IRS audits
The IRS knows it’s easier for cash-only businesses to underreport earnings and avoid paying taxes, and for that reason, the IRS audits cash businesses more often. You must carefully document all your transactions to be able to establish a pattern of honesty, should you be audited.
Difficulty obtaining a business loan
If you decide you’d like to expand your business, you’ll most likely need a business loan. Your local credit union is a great place to start, as they are known for helping local small businesses. However, you will need excellent accounting records if you’ve been operating on cash-only to show you have adequate cash flow to repay the loan.
If you think you’d like to start out as a cash-only business and expand later to accept card payments, there are ways of easing into that transition. You could accept card payments at first only for purchase totals above a certain dollar amount. You could also invest in a mobile card processor (like Square) to quickly set up a card process account without having to pay for expensive equipment. From there, you can see if expanding payment options is good for business and if you should invest in a more complete card processing system! -
Before COVID-19 threw the world into a tailspin and put everyone’s life on hold, the travel industry was preparing for an important and long-awaited event on October 1, 2020—the REAL ID card deadline, which would affect U.S. citizens taking domestic flights. However, due to the pandemic, the Department of Homeland Security announced on March 26 that the deadline would be extended to October 1, 2021.
Whew!
Now’s your chance to read up on this travel requirement and understand how and when it applies to you.
What is a REAL ID?
This is probably the first question you have. It might surprise you that Congress passed the REAL ID act in 2005 in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. It’s intended to provide an extra layer of security for state-issued identification cards by applicants providing multiple forms of identification in order to receive their REAL ID compliant card.
For most U.S. citizens, their REAL ID compliant card will be their driver’s license. Because states have been slowly rolling out their REAL ID compliant cards over the past 15 years, there’s a good chance your driver’s license (or other state ID card) is already compliant! If it is, there will either be a gold or black star in the upper right-hand corner of the ID (California has a gold bear with an inset white star).
The Enhanced Driver’s Licenses (EDLs) issued by Washington, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, and Vermont are considered acceptable alternatives. Most EDLs do not contain the star marking, but that’s OK, they’re still REAL ID–compliant.
A passport also meets REAL ID travel requirements.
When you’ll need it
If you traveled by plane in the year leading up to March 2020, there’s a good chance you saw information about REAL IDs as you moved through TSA checkpoints. This is because of the three instances when you’ll need a REAL ID the most common one will be when you want to take a U.S. domestic flight and don’t want to carry your passport. The other two scenarios are: visiting a secure federal facility without a military ID and entering a nuclear power plant—two trips you might never need to take in your life!
If you’re traveling to Canada, Mexico, or any other foreign country, you will still need to carry a passport. Children under 18 traveling with an adult companion within the U.S. do not need to have a REAL ID, although their companion will need to have one.
How to get a REAL ID
It’s pretty simple: visit your local department of motor vehicles (DMV) office or Secretary of State office and provide proper documentation—when those offices are opened back up to the public, of course.
You’ll need to check exactly which documents are accepted by your state, but at a minimum, you’ll need to provide:- Proof of identity – Have a document that includes your full legal name and date of birth (like a birth certificate or unexpired passport). If your name, date of birth, or gender has changed, you may be required to provide legal proof of the change (e.g. a marriage license, adoption papers, divorce decree, etc.).
- Proof of lawful status – Bring a document proving you’re legally allowed entry to the U.S. (birth certificate, unexpired passport, or foreign passport with visa and I-94 forms).
- Proof of social security – You’ll need your Social Security card or another type of documentation that will satisfy this requirement. Your state might accept a W-2 form, an SSA-1099 form, a non-SSA-1099 form, or a pay stub with your name and SSN.
- Proof of address (x2) – Bring two documents that have both your name and principal address listed (utility bills, credit card bills, doctor bills, current bank statements, current paycheck stubs).