Posted by Dave on December 22, 2009
Over the holidays, my wife and I will spend a lot of time in the car. According to Google Maps over the next three weeks I’m driving 2,400 km which is basically a giant circle around Southwestern Ontario. I’m not sure what other people do on their trips, but for the most part our time is split equally between the following activities:
- Listening to podcasts: I am heavily attached to several, but I would highly highly recommend The Vinyl Cafe podcast (available through iTunes) – most of the other ones are not really family friendly. Many hours have passed by listening to these.
- Dance Parties: I do all of the driving on these trips (my spouse does not have a license) and the only way my passenger will stay awake is with the stereo cranked and singing/dancing along to some country (or at this time of year Christmas) songs – a lot of people like to “admire” these dance parties.*
- Talking: Over 20+ hours in a car allows for some fairly in-depth conversations on many topics (if you want to get caught up with your significant other, just start driving).
In a recent conversation we talked about what we were going to do with my car. I am currently driving a 2002 Nissan Sentra S-ER. I bought the car used five and a half years ago and have averaged 19,000 km per year in driving (it currently has about 155,000 km on it). There are a few obvious rust spots starting to show up that will need attention in the spring, as well as a few repairs that will probably total about $1,000 to $2,000 over the next year or so. We were planning on buying a car in the fall of 2011, but after a lengthy discussion came to the following conclusions:
We’d like a “new” (to us) car, but don’t need one: The current car just had a new engine installed 50,000 km ago (under warranty). The engine in this car is probably in just as good or better condition then anything we’d buy right now.
We’d rather pay off the house then have a new car: Provided there are no major repairs, it seems like it aligns better with our current financial goals to use any available money to pay down our mortgage then to have something that is not really needed.
In the end we decided that we are going to drive my poor Nissan into the ground. Financially I think this makes sense, to essentially bring the vehicle value to $0 and get all of the use we can while we are paying down our mortgage.
While we are paying down the mortgage we will still be saving money for a new car. There has to be a point where it isn’t worth fixing. We decided that $3,000 would be our cut-off where we would essentially call it quits, even if it happens next year. I’m hoping that because I have kept the vehicle maintained this will never happen, but sometimes this kind of thing is beyond a car-owner’s control (as I have found out with previous vehicles).
I’m sure this plan will get refined over time, but that’s what we are currently thinking.
I’d like to take the opportunity to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season. If you see a silver Nissan driving around with a girl dancing in the front seat, after you’re done pointing and laughing, give me a wave 
What do you think of our plan for our car? Any Suggestions?
*According to my iTunes most played songs – the current favourite is “My Favorite Things” – as made famous in The Sound of Music.
Posted by Dave on December 15, 2009
For me, Christmas hasn’t really changed over my entire life, it takes place on different days (my parents divorced when I was 18) but in general the theme has stayed the same. The most important thing to me around the holidays is getting together with the people I love, whether it be on December the 12th or sometime in the middle of January when everyone can get organized. I like the food the drinks and the parties. I look forward to watching the World Junior hockey tournament that starts on Boxing Day every year and seeing people that I haven’t seen since Thanksgiving.
My favourite memory from when I was young (probably 10 or 12 years old) was sitting around the kitchen table by the roaring fire-place playing a board game (The Farming Game) and listening to a play on the stereo (Letters From Wingfield Farm) with my family – eating snacks and just relaxing, having a quiet day at home with nothing to do. I couldn’t tell you what I got for Christmas for presents that year, in fact I can’t remember what I got last year either, but I can remember that afternoon (and many like it) from almost 20 years ago.
I think about how easy that afternoon was to organize (no organization at all) those afternoons and contrast that to the people I see roaring around the mall with three to five page lists of presents to buy for friends and family and wonder how much enjoyment these people are going to get from spending all the money they are going to spend. Everyone has seen the VISA television commercials where people’s credit card bills magically disappear – what the credit card companies won’t show are the people paying for Christmas until next spring because they decided someone needed a special “thing” that was not affordable to them at all.
It seems that the holidays have become much more commercialized in the past 10 or so years, with the introduction of such things as super-expensive video game systems and fancy electronic toys. “When I was younger there was no such thing as fancy electronics” (In the words of an old curmudgeon) – I didn’t own a video game system until I was 13 or 14 (which I bought for myself) and at most got a few toys that probably cost around $10-$15 each. Fast forward to today when even cheap toys cost around $30 and I can understand why people go broke over the holidays.
I recently had a discussion with my wife and was talking to her about the cost of toys and how many toys we were giving to kids and how they wouldn’t even realize that we bought them this awesome “thing” because they are getting 20 awesome “things” to go along with it. Remembering my favourite Christmases, it definitely wasn’t the forgotten toys that made it special – it was family, food, and laughter. If more time was spent thinking about that then running around to malls, maybe people would be a little less stressed (and broke) at the end of the season – putting a little less emphasis on presents and a little more on visiting and fun.
Do you have any special memories/ideas for Christmas fun? Can you remember any awesome toys you got when you were younger(maybe jog my memory)?
Posted by Canadian Dream on November 6, 2009
Cars are money pits. So in the world of personal finance avoiding them is often worth some consideration. When you include insurance, gas, oil changes, other maintenance and depreciation you can spend around $4000/year with out trying hard. So that is why my second car is the bus.
You see we don’t need a second vehicle all that often, perhaps a couple times of month. So rather than keep a second car for those odd times I invest $18 in a sheet of 10 bus tickets and keep them in my wallet (they don’t expire ever). That way I’ve never looking for change to take the bus (also it’s cheaper than the $2.25 per fare). So at the upper limit I spend $172 per year on bus fare, which compared to $4000 is steal of a deal.
Then there is the time factor. Yes it takes me longer to get to and from work by an hour in total, but I also get some extra reading done on those days. So all in all I consider the whole thing a small price to pay to save around $3800/year. On a hourly basis per year that works to $158/hour in savings which is certainly a hell of a lot more than I make at my job.
So yes you can call taking the bus good for the environment in lowering greenhouse gas emissions, but really I’m doing it to save a small fortune in costs. So don’t always think that reducing your carbon footprint makes you spend more, often it is about fattening your wallet.
