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5 Saving Money Tips for Car Owners

This article was written by in Consumer, Featured. 4 comments.

This is a guest article by Emily Guy Birken, author of The SAHMambulust. In this article, she offers suggestions for cutting the costs associated with car ownership.

Owning a car is an expensive proposition, but most of us never stop to consider the cost of each trip. Unless you live in a city with great public transportation, you use a car for everything. We jump into our cars to commute, run errands, visit friends, go shopping or even just take in the fall foliage. Be proactive about your car to keep your ownership costs low.

Rusted CarHere are five ways to make sure that your car remains a manageable expense, rather than a financial black hole.

Don’t cheap out on a mechanic.

When you find a reputable mechanic whom you trust, don’t expect to see bargain basement bills. Mechanics not only have to stay on top of the ever-changing trends of car engines, but they also need to make sure their (very expensive) tools keep up with cars’ needs and are well maintained. A knowledgeable mechanic is worth the extra money. One who doesn’t know what he is doing but will save you a couple of bucks can often cause expensive harm to your car. This is not the place to try to save. You’ll spend less in the long run if you’re willing to pay a great mechanic.

Looking for the cheapest mechanic will cost you more money in future repairs, so don’t be penny wise, pound foolish. Think about the larger picture.

Make smart gas choices.

There may be a great deal of hype about premium fuel options, but most daily drivers are just fine with the lowest octane gas at the pump. If you’re not sure about your car’s gas needs, check your owner’s manual. Even if the recommendation is for the premium grade of fuel, chances are that you would only need to fork over for the high-grade stuff in warm weather, when hauling extra weight, or driving on extremely steep mountain roads. Any other times, save yourself the money. And if you’re still not sure what your car needs, talk to your mechanic or check the internet message boards devoted to your make and model—there are plenty of them!

Watch the advertised prices as the station. You may pay more for your gas if you use a credit card, because many stations now charge gas customers different prices depending on whether they use cash or a credit card. You may be able to make up some of the difference with a gas rewards credit card, but again, make sure the price you pay above the cash price is worth the benefits.

Provided you pay off your credit card each month, this could be a savvy way to reduce your fuel bill each month and keep you motoring for less, as long as you make smart choices.

Take good care of your tires.

Tires are one of the costliest items that you will have to replace during the life of the car. While they are not made to last forever, you can ensure you get your money’s worth out of each set by practicing good maintenance. Keeping the tires properly inflated will not only make sure they last but will also save you on fuel efficiency. Check your tires monthly for underinflation and wear.

Keep your car clean.

If you live in an area with long, cold winters, you’re probably surrounded by cars that are rusting away. Cars that are exposed to salt will succumb to rust, which can shorten the lifespan of the vehicle. Especially in winter, you want to make sure that your car is regularly cleaned and waxed to keep the metal safe from the eroding properties of salt.

Similarly, if you notice a chip of paint missing from your body, touch it up! That spot is open to the elements and salt and will eventually rust over.

Don’t ignore little problems.

A friend’s car was revving but not catching when he turned the ignition. When he tried again, the car started and he went along his way. The problem? He was short on transmission fluid. Had he not topped off that fluid, he could have destroyed his transmission and been looking at a multi-thousand dollar repair bill, plus an out-of-commission car. Because he took care of the problem quickly, he paid just a few dollars for transmission fluid instead of using his maintenance budget for the year in one shot. We can become so used to the idea that we just jump in the car that we can sometimes end up ignoring small warning signs. If your car is behaving oddly, get it to a trusted mechanic quickly. Always pay attention to small issues.

Maintaining your car is an investment that will keep you motoring for years after your less-savvy neighbors and friends have had to replace their vehicles and spent unnecessary costs.

Photo: sridgway

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8 Tips for Talking About Money With Your Significant Other

This article was written by in Family and Life. 12 comments.

About the author: Margaret is a recent college graduate who, with her boyfriend, plans to save up money to get married, pay off student loan debt and head to seminary.

Money is one of those things you’re not supposed to mention in polite conversation. But if you’re married or in a serious relationship, you have to talk about it.

My boyfriend is the spender; I’m the saver. He’s never had any guidance on how to manage money; my dad had me putting money in a savings account while I was still in the cradle. Coming from such different angles meant that starting the conversation about money wasn’t easy.

But it doesn’t have to be something you dread if you follow a few simple principles. Most importantly, pay attention to how your significant other views money, because that will help you learn how to best communicate what you’re thinking and feeling.

Start out slowly.

It would have done little to no good if I had immediately emphasized IRAs and CDs and how much money he can make in twenty years if he starts saving now. I started simply and slowly, not because he’s dumb, but because changing your views on money eventually transforms your entire life, and that kind of thing doesn’t happen overnight. I began the conversation by suggesting that he get on a budget. He was very positive toward this, so we sat down together and wrote up a plan. I also helped him set up an online high-interest savings account so that he could start building an emergency fund.

That said, it wasn’t all flowers and butterflies at the beginning. I helped him come up with a budget and gave him tools to track it, only to find out several months later that he hadn’t been tracking his spending at all, and often he had no idea how much money he had left in his checking account. At this point, I had to go back to square one. We revisited the budget and talked about why he hadn’t been able to keep track of his spending. I offered to keep track for him, if he would just give me his receipts.

It turned out that he really wanted to keep to the budget, but he got tired of keeping his receipts. I suggested he use his debit card for all his purchases so that he wouldn’t have to keep his receipts. That didn’t solve the problem completely — he still has trouble sticking to his budget sometimes — but by talking about it and being creative with solutions, we made the transition just a little bit easier.

One of the things I learned as a psychology minor is that it is more effective for you to come to a realization on your own rather than having someone try to persuade you. If your partner has outrageous spending habits, saying, “You should stop buying so many clothes” will not be welcomed. Choose instead to say, “Have you ever thought about keeping a budget? I’ve found it really helps me stay in control of my money.”

Even if they don’t stick to the budget the first few months, just tracking their spending will open their eyes to where their money is going. And that may lead them to address on their own their tendency to buy more clothes than they can afford.

Be patient and realistic in your expectations.

If you’re anything like me, it took you more than a few days to come to your current understanding of how to make wise decisions with money. Don’t expect your significant other to come to that point any more quickly. In fact, don’t expect them to ever feel exactly the same way you do about money. I’ve accepted the fact that my boyfriend will never, ever enjoy tracking every penny he spends, but that he can learn how the choices he makes today with money will impact his future. And so I focus on sharing personal stories I’ve read on blogs about how other people manage their money. This has actually made him more interested in personal finance, such that we listen to a podcast on personal finance together every week!

Don’t talk about money all the time.

If your finances are in trouble, then the last thing you need is for your talking about it to make it seem like money is the third member of your relationship. When my boyfriend told me that it sounded like I was getting a little obsessed with money, I knew it was time to step back. Now we pick a night each month to go out to eat and talk about his budget. Because I’m doing my best to avoid talking about money when we’re just hanging out, he actually looks forward talking about his budget once a month.

Only talk about money when you’re calm and composed.

If you just found out that your girlfriend maxed out her credit card, don’t start dialing her number. Wait. Money is a stressful enough topic on its own; add your own anxiety to the mix, and you won’t get very far. Of course, it’s most effective to talk about money before the stressful situations occur, but if you’re already in the thick of it, make sure you’re able to discuss any problems without being defensive or making broad generalizations. It’s amazing how quickly you can diffuse money-related tension by maintaining a calm presence of mind.

Stay in control of your own finances.

You are the best model for your significant other. If you’re telling him to save, save, save, but you consistently spend hundreds of dollars on clothes, then it will be hard for him to take you seriously. Even if you’re married and have joint finances, you can still manage your money in way that will keep you from being a hypocrite and also provide a very personal example of wise habits for your spouse.

By maintaining control of your finances, you say more about your philosophy with your actions that with your words.

See money as a means to an end.

You may be perfectly happy never going out to eat or buying new clothes, but that might not be the case for your significant other. Instead of letting it come between you, use money as a way to bring you closer together. Set a savings goal for a fun trip. When I helped my boyfriend make his budget, I made sure there was at least a small amount of what he calls his “fun money,” which he can spend anyway he wants. We also really enjoy cooking meals together, so we make sure we have a little extra money in the food budget for more exotic ingredients.

Earning and saving money is not a goal by itself. The power of money is not a big bank account, it’s what options you have with a big bank account. Money exists to be used rather than collected.

Choose your battles.

My boyfriend was fairly receptive to my suggestions, but you might be faced with a partner who isn’t so keen on making any changes with their finances. A few days ago, my boyfriend had about $40 left for food and eating out in his budget. He needed to buy groceries for the next week and have some money for food when traveling for Thanksgiving. I told him I wasn’t sure if he should go out to eat for lunch at work one day, but he went anyway and spent about $9. I was so tempted to get angry, but instead, I let it go. It wasn’t worth $9 for me to nag him and him to feel like I was completely oppressing him financially. That way, when a situation comes up where his choice about money really is important, he’ll know that I’m not just a Scrooge trying to take away all of his fun.

If all else fails, bring in a third party.

You can’t wait until your husband has hit rock bottom to address your finances. If your significant other feels like you’re nagging or doesn’t think that any of your ideas are appropriate or helpful, then bring another person into the equation who can speak into the situation. My boyfriend started talking to an older friend of his about money, and his talks with that man have done much more than many of my attempts. Seek out someone who your partner respects and ask them if they’d be willing to sit down and talk with you.

And encouragement is just around the corner. Just last week, my boyfriend was faced with car trouble. In the past, his parents had to loan him money to help him fix things like that. The cost for the repairs was almost $800, but he had been faithfully putting money in an emergency fund, and he had just enough money to pay for the expenses. He was so excited to tell his parents he wouldn’t need to use their money, and for the first time, I saw him taking pride in his control over his finances. All the pestering and obsessing I could have done would never have made him feel that way.

Above all, realize that change takes time. Celebrate staying within the budget, paying off credit card debt and finding more frugal ways to do things. Money has the power both to build up and to tear down, but by talking about money together in a positive way, you and your partner can stay in control of your relationship instead of letting money control you.

Photos: reebs*, crschmidt, gustavobando, Sabrina Campagna

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Most Americans Can’t Pay for Car Repairs, 4 Tips to Help

This article was written by in Consumer. 17 comments.

According to a recent survey by AAA, 62 percent of American drivers would not be able to pay $2,000 for car repairs without going into debt with a credit card or asking for money from friends or family. While the savings rate is positive, it’s not common for consumers to put aside a portion of these savings specifically for car repairs. Many New York residents are likely dealing with this issue right now. Just a few days ago, a hail storm tore through some areas of Queens and Long Island. Social networks like Facebook were buzzing with videos of the storm as well as photographs of tennis ball-sized hail and the resulting damage.

Comprehensive insurance typically covers this type of damage, but not everybody has comprehensive insurance. The survey’s results suggest that 20 percent of drivers needing $2,000 for repairs like windshield and body damage caused by hail will put the repairs on a credit card because they don’t have the money in a bank account while 11 percent will be asking around for help or taking money out of their home equity or retirement accounts.

There are a few approaches to take to help prepare a household’s finances for a car repair emergency. For the most part, it’s the same as preparing for any emergency. There are a few tactics related to cars that would be helpful to consider.

  • Buy low-value cars. There is a strong case for buying well-used cars at great prices. Owning old cars are possible and worthwhile, particularly if you don’t need to drive excessively and you responsibly maintain the car’s performance. When Mother Nature or a crazy drunk driver brings damage to your old car, you don’t feel as great a loss as you would if the same damage afflicted a new car.
  • Buy new or late-model used cars. The typical advice experts offer is to avoid brand new cars because a new car loses the most value the minute you drive it off the dealer’s lot. Depreciation is mostly irrelevant if you own the car forever, though. Then again, many people who plan to own their new car forever and use this as a rationalization for buying a used car don’t accurately predict their predictions several years in the future.
  • Continue making “car payments” to your savings. If you do buy a car and have an associated car loan, once you make your last payment, start transferring the same amount to a designated savings account. For example, if you’ve been paying $300 a month for the past five years for your no-longer-new car, rather than increasing your spending once you’ve paid off the balance of the loan, start depositing a monthly $300 into a high-yield savings account. Many banks let you customize the name of your account, so every time you transfer money, you’ll remember that it is designated specifically for your “Car Repair Fund.”
  • Consider comprehensive insurance. Unlike liability insurance, which covers the damage you cause to other vehicles, the type of insurance that covers damage caused by nature or an unidentified individual is not required. Lenders may require comprehensive insurance during the life of the loan, but once you own the vehicle without debt, you can remove comprehensive insurance. It may be worthwhile to continue the insurance anyway, particularly if the value of the car is still greater than the cost to repair typical damage. It may be cheaper to self-insure — using the technique in the bullet point above — but continuing insurance is a valid option.

Are you financially prepared for damage to your car?

Photo: Dakota Kingfisher
AAA

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Budget Categories Based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

This article was written by in Planning. 14 comments.

When I started my first real budget as an adult, the concept was not difficult. I knew I had to track my spending and keep myself from paying more than necessary for expenses I could control in order to fix my financial situation. To reverse the trend of increasing debt every month, I came up with a simple spending plan that suited my needs.

Although the software I was using to manage my personal finance — at that time, a free version of MoneyDance, though I also experimented with GnuCash — categorized my expenses into at least twenty categories. Like I discussed with J.D. Roth from Get Rich Slowly on this past Sunday’s podcast, complicated budgets don’t work as often as simple plans that break spending down into the most core components.

J.D. is a fan of the Balanced Money Formula of budgeting, which is an overall approach of spending 50% of your after-tax expenses on “needs,” 30% on “wants,” and 20% on “savings.” These ratios serve as a goal that one can strive to reach eventually, much like the ideal weight I’m slowly working towards today. But this is not a full budgeting solution. It lays the groundwork, but you need to examine your spending with a little more detail, possibly asking yourself and answering a few questions.

What constitutes a need or want? Some areas of spending can be reason to be needs when they may actually be wants, and what one person wants may be something another family needs. For an entrepreneur whose business relies on access to the internet, this is a need — and a business expense. Is a cell phone a need or a want? What about a smart phone versus a basic phone? Where does charity fit into the picture?

You will likely find that some expenses are partly needs and partly wants. Food is necessary for survival, but is dining out every week the only option for keeping a family alive?

Even once questions like the above are answered, budgeting hasn’t really started. You cannot effectively budget without tracking your finances and knowing what you are spending — and what you could spend in the ideal “low expense” world — within a variety of real, meaningful categories. If I didn’t create a category for my rent expenses when I budgeted, I may not have worked to reduce that expense at a time I really needed to keep my expenses low. If I didn’t focus specifically on the amount of money I spent on food, I wouldn’t have been able to reduce my spending at restaurants, fast-food and otherwise.

There is an essential list of categories that you need to budget for when you’re looking to reduce your expenses due to an inability to save for the future. The key is finding the balance between a plan simple enough to maintain motivation while detailed enough to have a meaningful effect. Looking at just your wants, needs, and savings is good for tracking your budgeting success, but in practical terms, you’ll need to determine specific categories.

When considering budgeting, I like to refer back to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and my college Introduction to Psychology course. Physiological needs come first, including food, water and shelter (rent or mortgage, for example), and clothing. Sex is also a physiological need, but budgeting money to spend for sex might be beyond the scope of financial needs.

Once physiological needs are covered in the budget, you need to think about safety needs. Health insurance is probably towards the top of this list, despite the fact that most people don’t budget for insurance — they rely on an employer to just deduct an amount from a paycheck. Insurance is an oft-forgotten line item in a budget, perhaps due to the need for simplification or due to a lack of consideration. Also in the safety category, but arguably a physiological need as well, are the utilities that cost money, like providing power to your home. Humans survived for many thousands of years without electricity, though, so I would not rank this as high as shelter and food. Nevertheless, it’s important for living in modern society.

All other categories and the other levels in Maslow’s hierarchy could be considered wants. Education, gift-giving, dining out, and entertainment should be part of your budget. Love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization are the higher levels in the pyramid-shaped representation of the hierarchy. The expenses below apply to everyone within the household and do not include taxes. Debt repayment, savings, and investing aren’t on this list, though they play important roles in budgeting. They might be suited to be placed under the 20% “savings” banner, while the below categories focus on the “wants” and “needs” of the Balanced Money Formula.

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Getting What You Want: Using Sex as Money

by Flexo
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College students, professionals, and married couples are familiar with one of the oldest systems of bartering known to humans: bartering using sex. According to a survey of University of Michigan undergraduate students, 27 percent of unattached men and 14 percent of unattached women offered a service or gift, like laundry or football tickets, in return ... Continue reading this article…

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Don’t Get Ripped Off By Auto Mechanics

by Flexo

Mechanics are salespeople, and like brokers they often have more knowledge about their products and services than the average consumer. Therefore, they are viewed as professionals and without taking the time to learn about cars, customers have no choice but to trust their recommendations are in the customers’ best interest. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the ... Continue reading this article…

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Premium Gasoline Possibly Switched With Ethanol E-85

by Flexo

When I drive up to a gas station, I have a number of expectations. First, if I see a price advertised for regular-grade gasoline, that’s the price I expect to pay for regular-grade gasoline. That wasn’t the case a few years ago when my local gas station decided to implement price discrimination for customers who ... Continue reading this article…

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How to Intelligently and Responsibly Buy a Car

by Flexo

Car companies want you to buy their products on impulse. They would, generally, prefer that the step of thinking is removed from the consumer’s process. This is evident in the commercials you see around the holidays in which a spouse is surprised when he or she notices a gift wrapped in a large red bow ... Continue reading this article…

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