You may have seen “bi-weekly” mortgage payments advertised as a way to pay off your home faster, while paying less interest. How bi-weekly payments work and save you money isn’t always clear though, and it is important to understand what the process is before signing up with your lender.

Traditional mortgage payments are paid once a month, with part of your payment going to the principal amount and the rest to pay interest. When you first begin making payments more of your payment goes towards interest, but as you continue to pay more is shifted towards paying of the principal. This type of loan schedule is called amortization, and is how conventional home loans are set up.

With a bi-weekly mortgage payment program, you make a half payment every two weeks instead of 12 monthly payments each year. The result is that you end up making the equivalent of 13 monthly payments, but because...

When car shoppers are researching their next car to buy, they are likely comparing things like gas mileage, standard features and safety ratings. One factor that commonly gets overlooked however is resale value. The analytics experts at ALG recently released their 15th annual Residual Value Awards to help car buyers out when making their next big purchase.

Typically, purchasing a car with a higher resale value can be more expensive at first, but you are likely to recoup that money and more when you go to sell the car. Brands like Honda, Toyota and Lexus continue to do very well with resale values though are not necessarily the best in every category.

Toyota has the most awards this year totaling six, with corporate cousin Lexus getting an additional two. Honda and Subaru tie for second with three each, and the rest of the list is filled with automakers with only one or two picks...

Now that winter is upon us, making sure you and your car are ready to brave the snow is necessary. If you are living in an area that gets lots of snow and need a vehicle that can handle the winter roads with ease, iSeeCars.com has put together their list of the 10 best used cars for the snow.

Topping their list is the Jeep Grand Cherokee, which has available four-wheel drive, paired with high ground clearance and plenty of power. Some models even include the option to adjust the ride height and traction control settings specifically for snow driving.

The Volvo XC70 with AWD is also another great choice with 8.3 inches of ground clearance and loads of winter-ready features. Options include heated front and rear seats, heated steering wheel, heated windshield and washer nozzles and headlamp washers. Another luxury wagon worth taking a look at is the Audi Allroad with the company’s...

If you are in the military and looking for an online college that suits your needs, you may want to take a look at Trident University. This week they were named a 2015 Military Friendly School by Victory Media, making it the fourth time the university has been recognized.

Active duty, reserve and National Guard service members account for 66 percent of Trident’s student population, and there are a number of veterans who are in faculty, staff and management positions. Trident’s 100 percent online curriculum makes it the perfect choice for those serving in the military.

The Military Friendly Schools designation is only awarded to the top 15 percent of colleges, universities and trade schools in the nation that actively embrace military students. Over the six years of the designation, schools have been working to improve their practices to support military students as they have become...

Nissan showed this week their completed “Project Titan” crowd-sourced custom off-road vehicle, which is ready to head out into the Alaskan terrain. Through the Nissan Trucks Facebook page, fans picked out the off-road equipment that would be fitted to the Titan. Wounded Warrior Project alumni David Guzman and Kevin McMahon will be taking the Project Titan on its Alaskan adventure.

Nissan began the build with a 2014 Nissan Titan Crew Cab with the PRO-4X package, their most capable off road truck. The PRO-4X Titan comes standard with four-wheel-drive, a 5.6 liter V8 engine with 317 horsepower and 385 lb-ft of torque, front skid plates and a locking rear differential for fantastic off-road capability. Both a NISMO cold-air intake and Borla cat-back exhaust were installed to increase performance.

To handle everything that the Alaskan wilderness could send their way, such as deep mud...

The latest industry data shows that used car prices are slowly beginning to fall as more used cars enter the market after a few years of low supply. The average amount borrowed to purchase a used car is currently about $18,000. Figuring out how much you can afford without breaking the bank is important.

The first thing you need to consider is all of your other expenses that make up your monthly budget. Your debt to income ratio shouldn’t be higher than 36 percent, which includes your mortgage, student loans, credit cards and more. Banks only offer the best rates to those with favorable debt amounts, so waiting to pay off a few more things can be very beneficial.

When applying for a loan, make sure you know what your credit score is. If it is lower than 720, you will more than likely not get the lowest rate available. There are a number of places where you can check your credit report...

A lot of engineering work has gone into the upcoming 2015 Ford F-150, including extensive use of aluminum for weight savings and more efficient EcoBoost engines. When it came to making things easier for the driver, Ford went straight to their customers for feedback on what things they wanted most.

Many Ford vehicles come with smooth capacitive touch keypad buttons on the driver door to allow for keyless entry, but for the F-150 Ford decided to use hard buttons on the keypad so those wearing gloves wouldn’t have to take them off to get in. On the inside of the front doors, Ford made the window sill wide enough with padding to be used as an armrest, and put indentations on the door handle to make it easier to hold on a windy day.

On the steering wheel and instrument panel, Ford made sure to group buttons together that had similar functions to make things easier for the driver. All...

Last week Nissan started their build of the world’s first crowd-sourced truck, with Project Titan. Nissan started asking fans on Facebook in June what they would want to see on a Nissan Titan to make it the ultimate off-road truck. This summer, the completed truck will be used by two Wounded Warrior Project alumni who will drive through the Alaskan wilderness.

The multi-day excursion will be undertaken by David Guzman and Kevin McMahon, and will put both the truck and the veterans to the test. Nissan will be documenting everything from the build of the truck to the entire adventure, and will be running a video series on YouTube starting in September.

The first of the modifications that were selected by Facebook Nissan Truck fans have already been put on the vehicle, with more to come soon. The first upgrades were a PRG suspension kit and Nitto Trail Grappler off-road tires. The base...

While many of us would love to go back to school and get our Master’s or Ph.D., the thought of having to put our lives on hold to spend a lot of time on a college campus is less than ideal. For those with children, without access to reliable transportation or at a job they can’t afford to leave, it can be even more of a challenge.

Luckily there are online universities to help ease the burden of going back to school to get your degree. Online courses have the flexibility that traditional college classes do not, as you can fit in your classes when you have time, as long as you have internet access. Trident University Ph.D. students are able to interact with fellow students and professors from anywhere, which is something a traditional college campus can’t really offer.

Like any other University, to know you are getting a quality education you want to make sure that the college is...