Cars. One of the things I wished I had done

was keep better vehicle maintenance records so I could write something accurate about the pickups I have owned over the years.

I see a lot of people simply figure the costs as being the payment, insurance and the gas they use. There's more.

Back in Y2K I mentally pulled a figure out of my hat when I bought the Silver Bullet, a silver Tacoma NIB. I figured that it was going to cost me about $100/month over time to run it after payments, gas and insurance.

The $100 figure proved to be too high at the time because in 2009 Toyota bought it back when the frame rusted out and gave me almost $8K for it. Having spent $11K for it this became the best deal on reliable transportation I ever got. I think I had rolled 180K miles on it when they repurchased it from  me but I digress.

Still, even though I had estimated too high it gave me a nice slice for what to most people would have been the down payment. Instead it gave me a slice toward the total amount I paid for the truck because I paid in cash. Either way I was ahead. I bought another Tacoma which is clost to 18 years old and most likely will run to the end of my days because I have taken care of it.

You really can't go wrong overestimating an expense. You get the unspent money back, usually with interest.

Part of what keeps The Poors poor is they don't think about the total cost of something. All they seem to think is buying the biggest car they think they can afford. Payment and insurance and that's it. They forget that the car must be taken care of. 

Of course they cheap out on keeping up on maintenance  and the car wears out a lot faster and requires more repairs over time. I was a lot like this early on but I stopped acting poor and as a result I got 'rich', meaning life got a lot better for me.

The rich buy a solid product (of every kind), maintain it and keep it until it wears out. They don't follow fads. The follow quality. In the long run cheaping out is the most expensive way to go.

Better to buy a solid plain jane and take care of it than to buy something fancy and let it go.

I kind of wish I had kept careful records to prove my point.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY