By: Larry MacDonald

Many personal finance books talk about cutting out unnecessary expenditures from one’s budget — like the daily latte at Starbucks — as a way of accumulating savings. Others talk about spending smart, clipping coupons and whatnot.

Another approach involves becoming more skilled at responding to situations that arise from time to time as life goes on. Take fighting traffic tickets. Many people may resort to hiring one of those ticket-fighting services at $500 a pop to represent them in traffic court when they could get the same result doing it themselves. At least that is what I found from my own experience, as described in a previous blog post, Go to court (and save).

That post had the kind of impact that keep some bloggers going (heavens knows it’s not the money). It prompted at least one person to fight their own ticket to a successful conclusion (and to write a nice thank-you note at Thanks, Larry!)

To that end, I thought I might pass on an account of my recent experience shopping for a new car. Perhaps there are a few pointers that may help some readers save a few bucks.

For many people, including myself, it is somewhat daunting to visit a car dealership and haggle with a salesperson. I got into the right frame of mind by reviewing a handy little buyer’s guide, Beat the Car Salesman.

It’s a great little booklet, in my opinion. The author is Michael Royce, an experienced car salesperson turned consumer advocate. It helps level the playing field by disclosing the tricks and techniques of the car salesperson’s trade. After selling a million copies, Royce made it available for free on his website.

To be continued…