Is Your Car Destroying Your Finances? (4 Video Links)
For many people, having a car is essential for their way of life. But one of the problems with driving a car is that it can be financially quite troublesome, and can at times even lead to a significant disruption in your financial wellbeing. If you are keen for your car not to have this effect, then there are a few things that you might want to focus on to help ensure that. Let’s take a look at some of these right now that you might want to consider.
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Contents
Forget About Buying New
If you want to stop your car from destroying you financially, the main thing is to make sure that you don’t buy a new car. A new car is one of the most worrying financial purchases you can ever make, because the value of the vehicle decreases by about half the moment you drive it away. After that it will only continue to depreciate, making it one of the worst ‘investments’ of all time. It is much more financially sensible to simply buy second-hand when you are thinking of getting a vehicle to drive.
Service It Properly
One of the main ways your car will lose you money over time is through the cost of maintenance and repair. It costs much more to repair something than to maintain it, however, so it’s important that you are keeping on top of this as best as you can at all times. The main way to do that is to get it serviced on a regular basis, because the money you spend on that will be saved by not having issues to fix later on. You might even be able to do it yourself armed with a S-10 service manual and some patience, if you feel able!
Be Clever About Insurance
In most parts of the world, insurance is a legal necessity, so it’s not an expense you are able to avoid. However, you can keep the cost of it low by being a little clever about how you approach it and what kind of policy you get. There are policies which are kind of bare minimum, such as third party ones, that cost only a tiny fraction of the fully comprehensive ones. It’s up to you whether you want to take that risk, of course, but it is at least something you can consider if you want to keep your costs low. Of course, with insurance it’s always a gamble.
Consult with a licensed insurance agent regarding insurance coverage.
Drive It Right
Finally, by being careful about how you drive your car, you are going to be able to keep its costs relatively low, particularly in terms of how much fuel you are using. Just making a couple of changes can make a huge difference here – such as switching gears at the right time, and limiting your braking and acceleration rates. That will mean that you are using much less fuel, and therefore spending much less money as well.
Those are just some of the main things to remember when it comes to looking after your car and your finances.
Ken Boyd
Author: Cost Accounting for Dummies, Accounting All-In-One for Dummies, The CPA Exam for Dummies and 1,001 Accounting Questions for Dummies
(amazon author page) amazon.com/author/kenboyd
(email) ken@stltest.net
(website and blog) https://www.accountingaccidentally.com/