by John Darer CLU ChFC MSSC RSP CLTC
The gas gauge was just about empty as I set off for home today after enjoying Monday Night Football live in Foxboro , MA. Heading towards I-95 South there is only one gas station that charges $3.80 for regular and it doesn’t take the credit card I prefer to use. Relying on the sage advice of Strategic Capital’s Cam Mears who yesterday, at a critical juncture, advised me to go directly to the stadium(instead of stopping to fill up at the end of my 3 hour journey) to avoid traffic and “don’t worry, on empty” means another 20 miles”, I set out to find the next station. The next station, a Mobil, was considerably farther (I’m talking miles not the yards described by the woman who would not take AMEX) down the road, but lo and behold, my “thirsty” car enjoyed a fill up with gas that cost $3.35 per gallon. A savings of almost 12%.
Ironically, for his day job Mears regularly saves money for structured settlement sellers who comparison shop.
When it comes to factoring, I’ve used the lemonade stand analogy for the shopping process that sellers of structured settlements should be mindful of. Essentially there is nothing wrong with setting up a lemonade stand on one corner and charging $1.00 per cup while someone else can set up another one on another corner that charges 50 cents (assume for the purpose of this example that we’re not talking about Midway Georgia, or RIverside Park , New York City, and that the appropriate permits have been obtained). If someone is REALLY thirsty and passes by the $1 stand , will he or she walk an extra block to save 50 cents? What if they don’t know there is a lemonade stand down the block that is 50% cheaper? If someone is ignorant or doesn’t shop around, is it tough luck? Conceivably some could perceive a value for the extra money spent because for example, they were REALLY thirsty, or the higher priced lemonade carries a designer label, a certain cachet or is organic.
But you can navigate through the opportunists by shopping around. You can help yourself a bit with this free structured settlement factoring discount rate calculator. When you are calculating an effective discount rate make sure that you use an offer amount that includes ALL charges,expenses or add-ons.
Shop Around With Structured Settlement Factoring Discount Rate Calculator If You’re “Thirsty” Structured Settlements 4Real Blog July 22, 2011
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