The invention of the car in the late 19th century was a game changer for what the world had been, and what it was going to become. There are few, if any, people who could imagine what it would be like not to have access to a car today. Sure, there ...
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3 Tips for Financially Responsible Audi (and Other Luxury Car) Ownership
Just about everyone underestimates the true cost of car ownership, especially those who can't resist the look, lines, and luxury of a higher-end brand vehicle like Audi. Despite superior design, it's not as if an Audi or similar luxury car can win ...
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9 Ways to Make Sure You’ll Always Get the Best Deal on Car Insurance
At some point, we all realize that although car insurance seems purely precautionary, it's absolutely necessary because accidents can be extremely costly.
Smart people make car insurance work for them. Save your money and be astute when buying ...
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Evaluating the Pros and Cons of 4 Common Car Loan Alternatives
In an ideal world we all want to be debt-free; and borrowing money is something that we all should approach with caution. However, when it comes to living a real life, very few of us will be able to escape borrowing money to finance a larger ...
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How to Get a Car Loan If You Have Terrible or No Credit
Getting a car loan is very easy if you have a good credit score that meets the lending criteria of the financier, but when you have a poor credit report or no credit at all, the exercise can become really difficult. If that's your hard reality, then ...
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Is It Better to Buy, Lease or Hire-Purchase a New Car?
Buying a brand new car is one of the bigger purchases we make -- not quite as big as buying a house, but significant none the less.
For many of us, money is always an issue and we can't afford to spend a great deal of it unwisely. As such, when ...
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Comparing a 2008 Camry to a New One: Which Car Is the Better Deal?
Ah, yes. I remember when I took the plunge and bought a new car of my very own for the first time.
I also remember getting an earful from many of my readers after I wrote about it. Of course, I should have expected it; most of my readers are ...
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Why Maintaining Older Cars Isn’t as Costly as Most People Think
Parents, if you want your kids to become independently wealthy, don't encourage them to go to college; tell them to open up a car repair shop instead.
I say that because I just paid my mechanic almost three-thousand bucks for services rendered. I ...
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10 States Where You Can’t Afford to Get Into a Car Accident
Who doesn't love getting behind the wheel of a car every once in a while and just drive for the sake of driving? Cars provide a sense of freedom that other modes of transportation can't.
Then again, nothing can put a damper on the joys of driving ...
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The Average Owner Credit Score and Loan Payment for 10 Popular Cars
In case you missed it, the other day ZeroHedge published a story on the soaring car repossession rate that included some interesting data from Experian comparing the average credit scores and loan payments for owners of ten popular car models. I ...
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How Cheaper Gasoline Ultimately Costs You More
You know, there used to be a guy named Ripley who made a fortune explaining why things aren't always what they seem. For example, a banana tree is not a really a tree at all, but a massive herb that can grow as tall as a four story building.
If ...
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More Reasons Why I Decided to Buy a New Car Instead of a Used One
As I mentioned in my previous post, I finally relented and bought myself a new car.
I can understand why some of you may be scratching your head at my decision to buy new instead of used. Especially when the playbook of good personal finance ...
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I Finally Broke Down and Bought a New Car
OK, I did it.
After commuting to and from work in my 1997 Honda Civic for the past 13 years, and with my son on the verge of getting his driver's license, I finally relented and bought myself a new car.
That's right. I'm now the proud owner of ...
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Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Guess My Rental Car Bill.
It seems like every time I go to Hawaii, I always learn a valuable financial lesson.
I already shared how, during my recent summer vacation there, I was reminded of why folks should always be on their toes when shopping, as illustrated by two sizes of the same detergent being sold at a local supermarket -- and the jaw-dropping price-difference between them.
And although you'd think I'd know better, that wasn't the only financial head-scratcher I came across there.
After I turned in our rental car I was also reminded why you should never ever take a rental car quote at face value.
When I made my rental car reservation I had secured a minivan for the undeniably fantastic price of $282.50 per week, plus $56.50 for each additional day. I know. I couldn't believe it either.
Of course, when I was handed the final bill after turning in the car in perfect condition with a full tank of gas, and exactly 8 days and 3 hours of rental time, I was still caught off guard by final bill.
Here are a few more pieces of information to consider:
I used one of the major rental car companies
I was given unlimited mileage for no additional cost
I refused all rental car insurance
Hawaii sales tax is 4.166%
With only that information at your disposal … Are you smarter than a 5th grader?
What was my final rental car bill?
If you’re up to the challenge, leave your best guess below and I’ll post the answer later this week in the comments section.
Don’t be shy; like all of my "5th grader" questions, this is not as easy as it looks.
Last month, our defending champion, Deb, showed just how smart my readers really are after nailing the answer to the detergent price question on the button!
As always, the lucky guy or gal who comes closest to guessing the actual price will officially be crowned the “Smartest Person in the Room” until the next “5th Grader” post!
Good luck!
Photo Credit: Jennifer Murawski ...
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Dogs and Old Cars: Why Both Are Worthy Of Being Man’s Best Friend
I was surfing the Internet this week when I stumbled upon a brilliant essay by The Washington Post's Gene Weingarten on why old dogs make the best dogs. In it, Weingarten astutely observed:
"It's no big deal to love a dog; they make it so easy for ...
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Should Low-Income Drivers Receive Subsidies to Use Toll Express Lanes?
Every day on my way home from work I zip by tens of thousands of people behind the wheels of cars stuck in hopelessly gridlocked traffic because they didn't want to pay the toll (usually between $2 and $10, depending on the direction and time of day) for the open express lanes.
For me, the money spent every day for the right to avoid 10 miles of traffic hell is money well-spent. I currently spend about $1000 each year for the privilege of driving unimpeded and, truth be told, I would gladly spend double that if I had to.
Those express toll lanes are a beautiful thing - without them I would not be able to endure my daily 38 mile commute and I would most likely be forced to leave my employer of many years to take a much lower paying job closer to home.
Not everybody thinks they are a good deal.
In fact, a lot of people argue that paid toll lanes are inherently unfair to low-income drivers. They wonder why those who make less money should have to endure a hellish commute while others who can afford to pay for it get to whiz by in relative comfort.
A joint study conducted in 2008 by UCLA and USC actually seems to disprove that line of thought.
According to the study, pay-as-you-go transportation options like toll express lanes are actually fairer to all income levels than paying for road improvements such as additional express lanes through sales taxes alone.
While the study found that toll express lanes are disproportionately used by middle- and upper-middle-income households, it also found that those same drivers would have ended up paying less each year if the lanes would have been funded via their sales taxes.
What troubles me is the study authors' suggestion that policymakers worried about low-income peak-period commuters could provide discounted subsidy pricing based on income levels, or provide travel credits to lower-income commuters.
Of course, such a suggestion poses another problem.
Since the only way to keep the express lanes flowing smoothly is to raise the prices during times of peak use, the implementation of subsidies would result in other drivers being priced out of the lanes in favor of the subsidized lower-income drivers. How fair is that?
As usual, when it comes to subsidies and hand-outs there is no free lunch.
Somebody is always going to have to pay. ...
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Evaluating The Costs of a Longer Commute: When It’s Better to Just Suck It Up
As many of you know, I live in Southern California; cars are king here. Most of us who live in Los Angeles can't even spell "public transportation."
That's why it was big news when I found out my employer was moving 21 miles down the road, ...
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Does Buying Your Gas In The Early Morning Really Save Money?
I've already written about the folly of trying to save a few cents per gallon when shopping for gas.
But did you know there are times when you don't get exactly what you pay for when you fill up your gasoline tank at the local station? It's not that the gas stations are doing anything illegal. But they are taking advantage of the laws of physics in a way that permits them to make a little extra money at your expense.
Now, for those of you who regularly ditched your high school physics class, let me give you a quick primer on why this is so. ;-)
Gasoline expands when temperatures rise, but the energy content of gasoline is directly related to its weight, not its volume. The end result of this expansion results is less energy per gallon.
Now, it's absolutely true that gasoline retailers adjust for hotter weather when they buy fuel at the wholesale level. But it's also true that the very same retailers (at least in the United States), knowingly refuse to make the same warm-weather adjustments when they sell their gasoline to the public on hot days. The result of this is consumers end up paying a "hot fuel premium" every summer in the neighborhood of two billion dollars.
This tends to get a lot of nerds who actually enjoyed their physics classes really spun up. But should they really be that upset?
There are roughly 300 million people in the United States. Assuming that about half of them drive, the two billion dollar hot fuel premium costs each driver about $16 per year. That probably doesn't amount to even a half tank of gas per year for the average driver, although it ultimately depends on the type of car you drive, and the cost of fuel.
Still, if you want to ensure you avoid the summertime hot fuel premium you can move to Hawaii, which already requires retail stations to install automatic compensation devices on all its gas pumps.
For those who don't live in the Aloha State, they may be happy to know that Costco recently announced that they have agreed to install the same type of gasoline compensation devices at stores in 14 states. Those states are Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.
Then again, if a trip to Costco is either impractical or a non-option, the effects of the hot fuel premium can be minimized by filling up in the early morning when temperatures are coolest.
True, the Costco decision will not result in any significant gasoline savings, but at least you can be assured that when you pull up to the pump you will get what you paid for.
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