SECURITY CENTER
COLUMNIST / BLOGS
TOOLS
PODCASTS/VIDEOS
How To Invest and Save Money
Britt Erica Tunick is an award winning financial journalist who has spent the past 17 years writing about virtually every aspect of finance. She has mastered the art of boiling down complicated financial topics for readers to understand. |
There is an old saying that timing is everything. That is quite true when it comes to many big ticket items you are considering purchasing. Timing Matters for Big Ticket Purchases By Britt Erica Tunick If you’re like most people, odds are when you want something, you want it right away. And it doesn’t change just because the object of your desires is a big ticket item. But, perhaps it should. When it comes to purchasing big ticket items, the time of year you purchase something may ultimately determine the price you pay. One of the best examples of how timing impacts the pricing of major purchases is cars. Just as department stores begin flooding their clothing racks with bathing suits in mid-winter, car manufacturers begin rolling out the next year’s models long before Jan. 1st, usually by early October. Bringing in new models means the need for dealerships to free up space, so this is the time of year they begin to lower prices on current year vehicles and when buyers have a much greater ability to negotiate. But while it makes sense to wait until as late in the model year as possible to buy a new car, the opposite is true of booking travel or accommodations, which tend to get more expensive closer to the time of travel. Similarly, the beginning of a new year when everyone is still gung ho about resolutions is the absolute worst time to buy a new gym membership. But if you can wait to buy a new gym membership until summer, when people are more interested in hitting the beach, you’ll find this is the time of year that pricing on many gym memberships is traditionally lowered. There will always be big ticket items you can’t time such as the need to replace a broken hot water heater or furnace. But in cases where a purchase isn’t time sensitive, taking the time to hit the Internet and research the best time of year to buy the item you are considering can truly pay off in the end. |
Archive |