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China is the No. 1 energy user – what does that mean for your car?

By Kevin M

What does energy use in China have to do with your personal financial situation here in the Western World?

Many of us prefer to believe this is an issue best left to politicians or economists, but hardly worthy of serious analysis or concern by the rest of us. After all, things will play out the way they will right?

Maybe not. We spend time and money planning for any number of future outcomes—our retirement, our health, our careers, paying off our mortgages, our children’s futures—why not map out and plan a viable energy future? World leadership hasn’t done such a good job of this so far, and if energy follows the pattern of the last few years with steadily rising prices over the long term, it won’t be politicians and economists who will suffer the brunt of the problem—it’ll be us.


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Save Money on Car Repairs with Car-Part.com

By Kevin M

Last week in New Car or Used Car – Which is the Better Deal? we talked about the many virtues and monetary advantages of buying a used car.

One of the common objections to buying a used car is the higher cost of repairs and maintenance. Well, we may have at least a partial solution to that problem.

Car-Part.com–“Used Auto Parts Market”—provides access to salvage dealers across the United States and Canada. Car-Part.com isn’t a salvage dealer itself, but a database of hundreds of dealers in nearly every state and province across North America. Per the site “about us” description, they’ve been operating since 1998, so they’ve had time to work out any system bugs.


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New Car or Used Car – Which is the Better Deal?

By Kevin M

Question: is a car an asset or a liability?

That was a theory question in a sophomore level accounting course I took in college way back when. After some debate among the class, the professor confirmed what we all knew, that the technically correct classification is “asset”, but felt compelled to add, “Of course, in the real world, we all know that automobiles aren’t assets at all, they’re liabilities that cost money and continually drop in value from the moment you drive them off the dealer lot.”

Most of us know this to be true intellectually, but does that reality guide our decisions at buying time?

Cars represent a structural expense, that is, an expense that’s mostly a consequence of an underlying cost structure created at the time of purchase. Once we’ve made the initial purchase, we’re largely stuck with the expense level over a period of years. It’s in our best interest then to make the most intelligent decision at the time of purchase.

With that thought fresh in our minds, I believe used cars are the better choice for most people in most cases.


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