I remember back in high school sitting in Consumer Education Class. (My
parents couldn’t believe that was a real class. It’s like today when my
children take “Everyday Living” and I think “What’s next for my tax dollars to
be wasted on, Breathing 101?”) Anyway, needless to say it was a blow-off
class designed to boost your GPA. As I worked on math homework the teacher
(who sounded like the one from Charlie Brown) finally spoke an audible
sentence. She said, “A car is the worst investment you will ever
make.” That made me stop and think. To that point, all the
investments I had heard of were stocks and bonds. A car wasn’t an
investment. That’s just nonsense. Fast forward many years to the
present day and I finally see what she meant. My 16 year old daughter
wanted a car and I told her that if she wanted one, she would have to pay for it
herself. Undeterred, she saved every paycheck from her part time job and
accumulated a sizable amount. Keeping my word to help her we spent months
checking out cars and having our mechanic look them over. None of the cars
met the mechanic’s standards but we finally found one that could be fixed well
enough to be reliable for a total amount of just slightly over what my daughter
had to spend. I guess I helped her out a little. We bought the car
and then the work began. It needed brakes and fluids and this thing was
leaking and that thing needed to be replaced. In the end the car looked no
different. It sounded the same. If we tried to sell it we would have
been lucky to get what we paid for the car, let alone the repairs. So why
did we spend the money? Simply put, my precious daughter is out there
right now driving that car. If something terrible was to happen I could
not handle someone coming to me and saying, “The accident happened because the
brakes failed”, or “The car broke down because this part needed to be
replaced.” Then I thought about those words from consumer class. On
paper a car IS the worst investment you will ever make. To quote my wife,
“A car is something to get you from here to there.” All the fuel and
maintenance are just money being spent to maintain the status quo. You
will never see that money again. So I agree. Monetarily a car is an
awful investment. On the other hand, I think of the peace of mind I have
about the car keeping my daughter safe. I think about my wife not
losing traction and having an accident because I either didn’t replace the tires
or else bought cheap ones that didn’t handle the bad weather well. I think
of that frigid winter day after brushing the snow off my car and turning the key
to hear the engine fire up. Maybe this is not a monetary investment you
gain from but rather an outlay for that feeling of security? It’s that
slightly better sleep you get. Some things can’t be measured in
dollars. This investment is one of them.
parents couldn’t believe that was a real class. It’s like today when my
children take “Everyday Living” and I think “What’s next for my tax dollars to
be wasted on, Breathing 101?”) Anyway, needless to say it was a blow-off
class designed to boost your GPA. As I worked on math homework the teacher
(who sounded like the one from Charlie Brown) finally spoke an audible
sentence. She said, “A car is the worst investment you will ever
make.” That made me stop and think. To that point, all the
investments I had heard of were stocks and bonds. A car wasn’t an
investment. That’s just nonsense. Fast forward many years to the
present day and I finally see what she meant. My 16 year old daughter
wanted a car and I told her that if she wanted one, she would have to pay for it
herself. Undeterred, she saved every paycheck from her part time job and
accumulated a sizable amount. Keeping my word to help her we spent months
checking out cars and having our mechanic look them over. None of the cars
met the mechanic’s standards but we finally found one that could be fixed well
enough to be reliable for a total amount of just slightly over what my daughter
had to spend. I guess I helped her out a little. We bought the car
and then the work began. It needed brakes and fluids and this thing was
leaking and that thing needed to be replaced. In the end the car looked no
different. It sounded the same. If we tried to sell it we would have
been lucky to get what we paid for the car, let alone the repairs. So why
did we spend the money? Simply put, my precious daughter is out there
right now driving that car. If something terrible was to happen I could
not handle someone coming to me and saying, “The accident happened because the
brakes failed”, or “The car broke down because this part needed to be
replaced.” Then I thought about those words from consumer class. On
paper a car IS the worst investment you will ever make. To quote my wife,
“A car is something to get you from here to there.” All the fuel and
maintenance are just money being spent to maintain the status quo. You
will never see that money again. So I agree. Monetarily a car is an
awful investment. On the other hand, I think of the peace of mind I have
about the car keeping my daughter safe. I think about my wife not
losing traction and having an accident because I either didn’t replace the tires
or else bought cheap ones that didn’t handle the bad weather well. I think
of that frigid winter day after brushing the snow off my car and turning the key
to hear the engine fire up. Maybe this is not a monetary investment you
gain from but rather an outlay for that feeling of security? It’s that
slightly better sleep you get. Some things can’t be measured in
dollars. This investment is one of them.
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