Strut Bar - Is it Really Needed in Your Car?

Strut Bars are the evolutionary aftermarket addition to the normal McPherson Struts. Usually a favorite in car customization and an integral part of heavy trucks and SUVs, strut bars are now finding their place in the sun when it comes to normal small cars as well.

People consider additional struts especially horizontal bars as high performance additions to their cars. There is a general belief that McPherson Struts or independent suspensions can be unstable at higher speeds. As an additional feature to increase the stability, independent suspensions on either side of the vehicle are joined by a common horizontal bar called the Strut Bar.

The two suspensions on either side when connected by a common bar experience reduced flex between them and that provides much needed stability at higher speeds. This is an important feature in heavy and large vehicles and performance cars but what makes people think that strut bars can stabilize their small cars? Do smaller cars really need stability?

Well the answer is No. Unless you are traveling at really high speeds, which you anyways shouldn't do with normal cars, you definitely do not require additional struts to support your car suspension. Auto experts believe that horizontal struts have been popularized as a high performance addition to cars in the name of car customization. There is no real need for normal cars to have extra struts but in case someone wants his vehicle to have one, there is no serious harm either.

At most, additional struts will make the suspension in your car stiffer reducing the drive comfort especially over rougher terrains. Since suspensions are linked together, there may be slight vibration on rough roads because of the reduced independent movement. Also the added weight of the strut may decrease gas mileage to some extent. In case you are hell bent on having additional struts fixed in your vehicle, make sure you ask an expert mechanic to do it or else there may be serious performance problems with your car suspension.

Most sports cars, heavy and light trucks, SUVs, 4x4s and ATVs are available with strut bars as a normal fitment.

So what kind of vehicles need a strut bar if they don't have it as a standard fitment?

If you are optimizing your normal car to perform at higher speeds and exhibit greater accelerations or powering it with turbo-chargers and NOS (Nitrous Oxide Systems), then the strut bar will be a useful addition to the pack. If you own a larger vehicle and it does not have a strut bar as a standard fitment, you should invest in one. In that case, I would suggest to for used strut bars as they cost almost one-third of the cost of new ones.

To conclude, you are the best person to assess whether your car needs a strut bar or not. Although it is not a decision to ponder over but you can certainly weigh the pros and cons depending on the type of vehicle you own and the type of use you subject it to.

Wall and Stake Mounted Lockable Mailbox

A sturdy, lockable mailbox constructed in steel, wood, or a tough polyethylene material offers a perfect solution for securing mail from prying eyes or a would-be thief. These lock boxes often eliminate the threat of mail being stolen, all in a compact package that is impact resistant and weather resistant (snow or rain).

A mail hatch or slot is no different to a standard mailbox for a postal person making the daily delivery. All items of post will drop down a chute, often angled to prevent back scooping, to lie at the foot of a safe chamber. On visiting a mailbox, a homeowner just needs to unlock the lower region, with a standard key, to retrieve all postal items.

Secure mailboxes for a residential property to a small business concessions can hold up to 2000 cu inch in storage space. Often sufficient to accept a weekends worth of mail for a business to a lot longer for a private home. These mailboxes are able to accept all standard sized letters, as well as larger packages and parcels, although still being thin enough to fit in the slot.

Mounting a mail box is often a straightforward project to take on with a need to attach to a concrete wall or a secure post or stake. Once affixed outside it is often a benefit to seal all screw holes with a silicone to prevent leaks, which often results in sodden mail.

A lockable security mailbox is available in a selection of attractive designs, in a material that's rust, peel, and fade resistant, and offers an ability to stand-up to numerous actions of attack or vandalism.

The Advantages of Getting an Unsecured Business Loan for Your Business

If you simply do not have the spare money to spend, you can turn to an unsecured business loan. These type of loans are a positive alternative for people who own businesses - some companies make sure the money is available within 24 hours of applying. Take note that business loans are different than personal loans - these type of loans are only meant to be used for business reasons.

Easier to Obtain Than Secured Business Loans

An unsecured business loan will be easier to obtain than a secured business loan. This is because your business will not need to put any collateral up front.

No Collateral with Unsecured Business Loan

With a secured loan, if you do not pay the loan back, lenders will be able to take the collateral from you. However, if you default on an unsecured business loan, the lender will not be able to take your business' property, unless they get a court order.

The Court Can Discharge Unsecured Loans When Filing Bankruptcy

If for some odd reason your business has to file for bankruptcy (we hope this never happens), the court can discharge those unsecured loans. However, it's not normal for them to discharge a secured loan.

Quick Turnaround Time

With most lenders, as long as you qualify for the loan, you will have cash available in a couple of business days. With banks, on the other hand, it could take weeks before you see the money you need.

Credit Scores Don't Count

If you are a business going in for an unsecured company/business loan, your credit scores will not count. The qualification will be based on your business - if you have a strong business, you shouldn't have a problem getting money from a lender.

Payments will be Adjusted

The amount you are asked to pay back on a daily basis will all depend on the profits your business made. What this means is the amount repaid will adjust in accordance with both slow business and profitable times. This technique makes it easy to pay the money back, without going broke at the same time.

Unlimited Funding Potential

As the sales for your business increase or if you simply need more money for your business, you can apply for more money, as long as you are in good standings.


As you see, there are many factors to getting an unsecured business loan to help your business during harsh times. Almost any established business, regardless of the industry, can qualify for this form of loan. Most companies have a short application that you are required to fill out in order to determine if you are eligible for the money.

Online Investment - How to Make and Save Money Online?

Stock Exchange is the symbol of the free market economy. Here the bull and the bear does the talking for the open market and participate in the uncertain roller costar ride of buying and selling and investing in company derivatives known as shares. You can call it a gamble or you can speak the expert words and address it as place of actuarial science. Look at it at whatever way you can but stock market is now the place to make some quick bucks.

Money has two forms of use. Money can be used as a common way of transaction and be used for buying and selling things or money can be used as store value of assets. This is known as the specific use of money. Investing in stocks is like investing in the speculative value of money. Stock market allows us to invest in shares. Shares are small units of the company, which are listed in the share market. People can invest their money in the form of stocks and expect their money to appreciate along with the expansion of the company.

Investing in stock has it share of minority risk but profit is the reward of the risk. Stock market investing has become very lucrative. It is those rare forms of business where people become over night millionaire by just investing in stocks and selling them. But for stock market investing one thing that is the most important is the sound knowledge. Perfect knowledge about the volatile market can save a person from the uncertainty of the stock trading.

Stockbrokers and online stock trading has made the job of your investment easy. Online trading and investing has various advantages over conventional modes of stock trading. Online trading in stocks is much more hassle-free and cheap. Online trading should be taken care of in various senses. One should do a good profile check of the company in which they want to invest. One should keep a good know about the companies past performance and its future prospects. Before quoting any share one should keep in to account the stock quotes, trading options of shares, payment mode, commission rates, etc. one should know about the financial condition the company is in present moment. One should also take care of the broker's service, which it is using for stock market investing. Efficiency and expertise of the broker can make a big difference to the trading of stocks and also your bank balance.

Various advantages of online investing are as follows:

• Online investments are much more hassle-free than any other conventional way of investing. A click of the mouse is all that you need.
• Financial data and service of the online broker who sells certainty in this uncertain world of stock exchange is very minimal.
• Internet connotes all the major stock exchanges of the world and hence one can open their option of foreign portfolio investment.
• Getting updates and minimal establishment cost are other advantages of online investment.

Therefore, it's the right time to invest your money and get maximum profit out of it.

The Financial Crisis Explained to Joe the Plumber

When many people lose half their retirement plan, they are entitled to an explanation. Do not expect it to come from the politicians. They say 'It's a crisis' like they would say 'It's a hurricane'. We are left in the dark, grabbing any little hope we can find in the news and trying to understand, the best we can, how such a thing can happen to us.

For many centuries civilizations have used money based on gold and silver. They had one advantage. Their value was in their weight. The time could change but an once of gold was always worth an once of gold. It could also be divided into many little coins. That made it a convenient means of exchange. In the 20th century things started to change. In 1933 President Roosevelt outlawed ownership of gold by private citizens (except for jewelry). In 1971, President Nixon decided to put an end to the trading of gold at the fixed price of $ 35 / once. That was the end of the gold standard.

We needed to introduce more flexibility in the system and we got more flexibility than we could ever have dreamed of. A dollar bill became a means of exchange that was worth whatever you can get for it. The government was free to print as many dollars as necessary to satisfy the needs of the economy ... and its own. Politicians felt like a kid in a candy store. Whatever they wanted could have paid for by creating more dollars. They had a good excuse. The economy was growing. It created many more things to buy and that required many more dollars. The government was more than willing to oblige. It even created more dollars than needed by the economy. That is called inflation. It reduces the value of the dollars in your hand. We are supposed to know that. We have been told since 1971 that our currency is not a storage of value. We call it 'fiat' money. It is only a means of exchange. In other words: Use it or lose it. The system worked as long as the amount of money in circulation could be absorbed by the economy ... more or less. If you increase money faster than it can be put to use you will have inflation and prices will go up. If you increase the amount of money in circulation much faster than the economy can grow you will get to a point where the economy will get an indigestion of dollars. That seems to be our case. Our national debt has doubled in recent years. We had so much difficulty absorbing those dollars that the banks had to make loans to people who obviously could not pay them back. It was force feeding followed by throwing up.

Maybe the economy is not the beautiful machine we thought it was, with accountants making sure that what gets IN equals what gets OUT. A living organism may be closer to reality. It is made, after all, of millions of people like you and I who do not react like machines. They are driven by feelings that can not be expressed by numbers. We can abuse fiat money like we can abuse food. Kids like sugar but too many candies lead to bad teeth. Abuse it for many years and a day will come when you get a toothache. It hurts. You are going through a crisis. The government can not remove the excess dollars from the economy any more than you can remove excess candies from the child. The only solution is that somebody, somewhere will have to lose those dollars. This is what happened to your retirement plan. This living organism is trying to get rid of excess dollars in any possible way. Logic, reasoning and our sense of justice do not apply. It seems that the system will use any way at its disposal whether it is fair or not. It will make banks lose money on bad loans. It will sell businesses for 10 cents on the dollar. It will make companies and people declarable bankruptcy. A patient in a lot of pain has no morality!

You may think that adding more money to the system would be doing more of what got us in trouble in the first place. You may have a point there! Unfortunately, this is the only thing politicians know how to do. Do not expect much help from them. In October, 160 economists sent a letter to our treasury secretary to tell him that his second plan would not work any better than the first one. Our only consolation is that the dollars that we may be able to keep through the storm may be worth more in the future than the ones we are losing today.

By the time this crisis is over many ideas will be explored by people like you and I looking for an explanation. We are not experts. Our only tool is common sense. We could say, for instance, that we may have neglected a law of nature. Have you noticed that what was created by nature coming with a self limitation that you do not find in humanventions? Our stomach limits how much we can eat in one meal. Our sense of hearing is limited. We can not see outside the range between red and violet. Nature keeps us within limits. On the other hand, human technologies come without any self-limitation. Computer games are fine but nothing will prevent you from getting addedicted. Antibiotics and X rays are very useful but should not be abused. After learning how to use a cell phone, we have to learn not to abuse it. Credit cards are very convenient as long as your self control keeps you out of trouble. There is nothing to prevent a government from creating more money that the economy can absorb. Nature keeps telling us 'Use but do not abuse'. Unfortunately, we do not always pay attention.

Think of the way future historians will talk about this crisis. They will tell our grand children: 'There is some analogy between the way we learned to use fiat money and the way our ancestors learned to use fire: We got burned. We learn much faster when it hurts! For many centuries our commerce used only precious metals. It was in the 20th century that we developed the use of paper money and it was only in the 21st century that we learned not to abuse it, under the gentle but firm guidance of nature. We learned that creating, year after year, more money than the economy can use will lead to a lot of money piling up and a financial crisis. One way or another many innocent people will have to lose the excess money created. It seems to be a lot of pain and suffering to learn an idea as simple as: Use but do not abuse. '

If we learn that lesson we will say that it was well worth it. If we do not ... this crisis will only be vain suffering. The choice is ours. As you can see, there is a price to pay for everything!

Printable Play Money Helps Kids Learn

Helping kids learn the value of a dollar (or 10 or 20) is easier when they can practice hands-on using play money. With play money, including bills that can be printed for free via the Internet, children can gain many useful skills without the need to raid their parents' pocketbooks. Little Alex P. Keatons of the world can prep for a career in finance by wheeling and dealing with parents, teachers or friends using pretending cash. Playing "store" is also a fun and popular way to teach kids about monetary denominations and the value of a buck.

When selecting a fake money design to use with children, parents and teachers may opt for cartoon-style money or more realistic bills.

For older children, realistic play money is usually the best option, since it is very close to the bills they will see in everyday life. And there's no need to worry about being carted off to the slammer, because the faux cash offered by reputable Web sites is altered enough to comply with federal regulations.

Once you find a play money design you like, download and print it in color on your home printer. Cut the bills apart and start doing business! For added durability, you might want to print the bills on cardstock or even laminate them, especially in a classroom setting.

When working with very young children, start by teaching them to identify the various denominations. Print out multiple copies each of $ 1, $ 5, $ 10, $ 20, $ 50 and $ 100 bills. Kids can learn which presences are on which bills for a bonus history lesson! Toddlers and preschoolers may do best with oversized play money, as it can be easier for little hands to hold.

Children who are a little older can begin to add and subtract with the help of fake money. Consider setting up a pretend store with items priced for "sale" at prices that match simple combinations of bills. For example, a child can quickly learn that a $ 20 item can be obtained by exchanging a $ 20 bill, or two 10s, or four 5s or a 10 plus two 5s.

Printable play money can also be used as a replacement for bills that are missing from family board games, or in gaming tournaments or fund-raisers. The paper can also be used as a "currency" given for chores and redeemable at a later date for real cash.

There's really no need to pay to print play bills, as they can often be found for free on the Internet.

Copyright 2009 by Kevin Savetz

Teach Kids About Money With A Savings Account

When children see toys advertised on television, clothes in a store or candy on the shelf, they immediately want them. They have no understanding that those things cost money. And if a parent says well honey, that costs a lot of money, children think that parents have an endless supply of money that simply appears magically out of their wallets. That is why it is important to teach children early about the value of money by looking into bank accounts for children.

Teaching children about money will help them make smart buying decisions, develop strong savings habits and show them that they can not always get everything they want the minute they want it. If they get a sense of the importance of buying things that you need, instead of things you want.

Start your child's financial education by teaching them that money is earned by working for it. No one is going to just give them money when they're adults, so do not set up that expectation now. Kids can earn money by doing chores around the house - cleaning bathrooms, sweeping floors, putting dishes away. There are household chores suitable for every age.

The first step in saving money is to get a piggy bank or something similar. Kids, especially younger kids, are very literal and concrete. Seeing physical money accumulate will get the point across better than anything you could say. If they want a toy or something that costs more than one or two weeks worth of allowance, show them how they can get it. They just need to put a portion of their allowance away each week until they've saved enough to buy what they want.

Once your child has a handle on the idea of ​​saving cash at home, it's time to teach them about banking by opening a savings account. Many banks, both online and brick-and-mortar, offer savings accounts for kids. This gives them the chance to start an account without a significant minimum balance or fees that would wipe them out.

You should open the first account using both your name and the child's name, which indicates a custodial account. Make sure you provide the required forms of identification, as well as birth dates, both of your social security numbers and current address.

Go over the bankbook with your child and encourage the child to place the bankbook in a safe place. Many bank account representatives will take the time to go over all the steps with your child, such as the importance of accurately entering deposits and withdrawals, as well as dates and explanations. Of course your child will not remember this when it's time to make a deposit or withdrawal, so you'll need to walk them through the process again.

The key at this point is to keep it simple. Your child is not starting a checking account and does not need to know all the details that are involved with maintaining this type of account, at least not yet. Your child will stay encouraged about saving money once the bank statements arrive and the child can see the bank account grow. Some families also find that it discourages children from making unnecessary purchases because they want to save money. Opening a bank account for children can open their eyes to the importance of saving and managing money. All it takes is a little praise and encouragement from the parents to help build their kids financial future.