Keep Cars Longer
Impacts: Mind, Money
“Heroes are not known by the loftiness of their carriage; the greatest braggarts are generally the merest cowards.” – Jean Jacques Rousseau
Many of us would be lost without our cars. We need them for our modern life. We also tend to spend a lot of money on them. When you consider that in addition to your car payment you pay for insurance, fuel, maintenance, loan interest, parking, and so on, a $300 monthly payment can easily turn into a $500 or $600 monthly expense. Many families have more than car too and the overall cost of transportation can become a very large part of your monthly budget.
I’m not advocating walking everywhere but if we simply chose to drive cars longer, buying fewer new cars, we’d save ourselves money and the average monthly cost would decrease. In hard economic times it’s easy to figure this out, but as times get better keep frugality in mind before rushing out and taking on a new car payment.
Some say the prolonged economic impact to the automobile industry could have permanent negative effects to the automobile industry and economy. This is most certainly a real cost but consider the offsetting benefit for the millions of people who will save money by choosing to keep their cars longer and lower their monthly transportation expense.
For those that begin to drive cars longer the economic benefit is felt immediately. The elimination of ant monthly payment immediately frees up money to be spent on higher priority items.
Take Action
- Maintain your car regularly.
- Keep your car clean inside and out to help you feel good about driving it.
- Buy reliable classics or cult cars that don’t go out of style.
- Pay off your car and enjoy the extra money each month.
