When you head to a car dealership and start looking at the window sticker for cars that catch your eye, you may be confused by the many different prices you see listed. One of those, the MSRP, is an important figure for your future car purchase negotiations.

It happens every year, without fail, someone brings me a Christmas gift, and I have nothing to give them in return. So, of course, I'm immediately filled with guilt, make up a story about how I left their gift at home, and run out and buy them something last minute.

The surging real estate market shows no signs of slowing down, and that creates opportunities and challenges for buyers.

Buying your first home is an exciting time full of many emotions. You are ready to strike out on your own and become a homeowner! This time is also full of lots of important information, and sometimes you can feel a little overwhelmed.

With Christmas just a few weeks away, you've probably made your list and checked it twice to make sure that you have the perfect gifts for all of your loved ones. Or, if you're like me, you're just now starting your holiday shopping. Either way, if you still have gifts to buy, local holiday markets are the perfect place to look.

One of my favorite things about holiday markets is having all of my favorite local shops in one place. I love shopping locally and try to do it year-round. However, if I'm looking for many different items, it can be time-consuming to drive from shop to shop when a mall or department store has everything under one roof. That's the beauty of holiday markets; they're like the malls of local businesses.

Although sometimes it's easy when you're in a time crunch to load up your Amazon cart with everything you need and have it on your doorstep in two days, I would encourage you to head over to a local holiday market before you do. They may have the perfect gift that you've been searching for, and by shopping with them, you get to help a neighbor provide for their family.

Below is a list of some great holiday markets popping up in the area this season. Be sure to set a budget before you go, though, because there will be so many phenomenal goodies, and it'll be easy to overspend.

Holiday Market in Valor Park
Each Saturday in December, 12pm - 4pm
Farrow Parkway in Market Commons

Inaugural Wicked Holiday Market
Each Saturday in December, 12pm - 5pm
Wicked Tuna

You have been saving and planning, and now it is finally time to start shopping for your first home! We are thrilled for you! But before you hit the real estate listings or start interviewing agents, you have a little math to do.

At Carolina Trust, we pride ourselves in living out the motto, "Putting People Ahead of Profits." To us, this isn't just a tagline for billboards and commercials; it is a service model that we strive to implement through each and every interaction with our members.

As a not-for-profit financial cooperative, we are in business solely to serve. We treat our members like family and take care of their financial needs as if they were our own.

Recently on Living Local Carolina, we had the opportunity to sit down with Carolina Trust Members, Lance and Christy O'Connor. The O'Connors were First-Time Homebuyers who had previously experienced difficulty trying to get a mortgage with another lender. Their experience left them pretty discouraged about purchasing a home for their family. They were referred to Carolina Trust by their realtor, and were hopeful that we could help.

Connie Thompson, VP Mortgage Operations, greeted the O'Connors with open arms and welcomed them into the CTFCU family. She not only got them into their dream home but also made the process super easy with our no sweat mortgage service guarantee.

Check out the O'Connor's Living Local Carolina segment below:

It's almost time for my favorite holiday, Black Friday. Of course, I'm kidding, but as someone who loves to shop, I do look forward to Black Friday and Cyber Monday each year.

Shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday can be a great time to score deals on items that you've wanted to purchase, but you can also get easily sucked into overspending if you're not prepared. Check out the BALANCE blog post below for tips on how to avoid overspending on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Buying your first home doesn't have to be a terrifying experience. Surprisingly, however, that's how many perspective homeowners view the process. According to Nerdwallet, millennials, especially, are hesitant to enter into the home-buying arena, even though they'd like to become homeowners and see the value of buying over renting. Most feel they don't yet make enough money to foot a monthly mortgage.

Art Alexakis once said, "Living isn't a simple thing... no one said it's supposed to be."

We can all probably agree that life isn't simple; it's filled with ups and downs, stressors, problems, and situations that make it complicated. However, if we know that life isn't simple, why do we constantly try to simplify it? We come up with one size fits all solutions and expect them to simplify our issues.