The things you should buy second hand

Living is expensive these days and we’d all like to find ways to reduce costs. This could mean either cutting down on items entirely or finding better value-for-money on specific items. One obvious way is to consider used items, instead of buying things entirely new.

The most obvious used items that is popularly bought to reduce costs are cars. Even in 2014, Moneyweb noted: “Car buyers are increasingly turning to the used-car market to find value as new-car prices have outpaced consumer price inflation in recent months.”

iAfrica confirmed that this pattern continued into 2015:

“Used car price inflation showed an increase of 2.41 percent in Q2 2015, up from 0.58 percent on a year-on-year basis, while new car price inflation has softened from 7.01 percent to 5.35 percent in Q2 2015. This trend highlights the increasing demand for used cars and is further evidenced by the ratio of new to use vehicles financed. “

There are numerous advantages to buying second hand cars – whether from dealerships or private car sales –  but primarily, it has to do with the fact that second-hand cars are, almost always, cheaper. This is what the reports have been showing for the last two years.

But it’s not just cars.

With South African universities recently in the spotlight about the expenses involved in education, it’s wise to consider second-hand textbooks. Of course, the issue is that textbooks could be outdated by the time you acquire it. This is why there is pressure to go digital, as Investors Chronicle in the UK highlights:

“Publishers can also charge annual licensing fees for digital textbooks – that can’t be resold or shared – and producing an additional copy costs them next to nothing. They can also regularly update the content of their textbooks, and adjust their prices to remain competitive with the used-book market. “

This means students have up-to-date information that everyone shares, but at a cheaper price. But until that happens, second-hand textbooks is advisable as long as you stay aware of what information might be updated or outdated.

Another important category we could all use is furniture and appliances: washing machines, dishwashers, couches and all manner of items can all be used second-hand. Just because they’re not brand new doesn’t mean they’re useless. In fact, many well-crafted items could last longer than many new ones. Knowing the right brands can make all the difference.

Second-hand items can be beneficial, especially as more of us are watching our wallets in these trying economic climates.

Why now is the time to improve your chances for a home loan

As we begin closing the current year and entering a new one, new information and data is being tracked and considered about all matters of financial relevance. South Africa in particular is encountering some financial problems – but this just means consumers need to be smart about how they respond, not in throwing their hands up and doing nothing at all.

For example, as BusinessTech reports:

“Nominal house price growth is forecast to remain in single digits in 2015 and 2016, with real price growth set to be under pressure for the rest of the year and during next year, in view of inflation expected to average near the 6% level during this period, said Absa.”

Almost everyone wants to be able to have a home to call their own and this means that examining how the markets are fluctuating matters a great deal. This will impact how we get homes and also how we consider obtaining finances. Since we can do little to change up the markets and do almost nothing to affect the national, let alone global, economy, we’re better off focusing on ourselves as individuals.

Consider how we’re not obtaining a home loan. We don’t want to apply in a case of hasty desperation, seeking to obtain funds just as recourse to stability due to a difficult situation that, in fact, everyone is facing.

While it might sound paradoxical, even during the tumultuous time of 2013, experts were advising that consumers put down large deposits to increase their chances of obtaining a loan. Speaking to Property24, Rhys Dyer, COO at ooba, South Africa’s biggest bond originator, said:

“From over a decade’s experience in originating home loans, it has been proven time and again that having a decent deposit to put down on a property significantly improves your chances of having your offer accepted… It also significantly improves your chances of getting your bond approved in the current economic climate.”

Elsewhere, it is recommended you display job security, be transparent as possible and try show you’re good at managing debt: savings can help here but clarity and transparency are key to increasing your chances of being looked on favourably by lenders.

Managing finances shouldn’t be for any one particular project, since almost all the big responses tend to look favourably on the same attitudes: that you’re managing your finances smartly, that you have nothing to hide, and that you have displayed in the past the ability to repay debt or manage debt effectively. These are behaviours we should all want anyway and it is to our benefit to begin these as soon as possible.

Business ideas to avoid in the internet age

Recently, the internet was set ablaze by the announcement of Peeple, an app that let’s you, basically, rate people. As The Washington Post pointed out: “you will be able to assign reviews and one- to five-star ratings to everyone you know: your exes, your co-workers, the old guy who lives next door. You can’t opt out — once someone puts your name in the Peeple system, it’s there unless you violate the site’s terms of service. And you can’t delete bad or biased reviews — that would defeat the whole purpose.”

After enormous backlash, the app was completely reworked, to address the two features most criticised: the inability to opt out and leaving abusive messages. There are other details about the app, too, but it now need not concern anyone who doesn’t want to participate in the app itself; we no longer have to concern ourselves with having pages written about us where anyone could find and see abusive things directed at us during Google searches.

So what does this tell us about how businesses should approach today’s world? From Peeple’s failure, we see that what the company overlooked was people’s privacy and, importantly, consent. In this age when people are more concerned than ever about privacy and spying (see the Edward Snowden situation), we want control over who can see what of our digital selves.

Business must be aware of this when making strides into the digital domain, or else they will be rejected and the business will flop. You need to tap into needs people require – not into fears people are hyper aware of.

For example, the Uber app enables convenience. Without having to concern yourself with having cash on hand, the taxi service allows you to travel and know that your fair is being taken care of because it is linked to your bank account.

This manages to solve the problem of transportation, as well as minimise inconvenience – both in getting the cab to you and getting your money to the cab.

But to make these kinds of ventures you can’t start off from nothing. You need a vision, you need business finance to help you acquire those tools and resources you’ll need to make that vision a reality, and you need to know how that vision fits into a world that has constantly changing fears and inconveniences that, hopefully, you can solve. We want to be an Uber, not a Peeple.