Some purchases
keep costing you over a lifetime of use; others may have been a bad idea to
begin with. Here's what to know to minimize unplanned spending.
A smartphone
A smartphone will change your life. Once you have one, you'll wonder how
you ever managed without it.
The maps and GPS navigation show you where to go. The camera and video
functions allow you to document your life along the way. The games and music
players mean you never have to be bored if there's downtime.
And the darn thing will cost you a small fortune.
It's not just that smartphones are more expensive than other cells, even
with the heavy subsidization wireless carriers offer to get you to sign a
contract. The data plan typically costs $30 a month, although heavy users can
spend more than $100. The apps can add up, a few bucks at a time.
But the real danger is how easy these phones make it to shop. Install a
retailer's app, like Amazon.com's, and you can buy anywhere, anytime. Wireless
carriers also want to turn our phones into wallets, so we won't even have to
reach into our pockets for our plastic anymore. The whole goal of these
"frictionless transactions" is to get you to spend more.
That doesn't mean you have to give up your precious smartphone. You just
have to be aware of the vast conspiracy to get you to spend, and fight back.
A car
The costs of buying, financing, insuring, maintaining and repairing our
vehicles -- in addition to fuel costs and depreciation -- average nearly $9,000
a year for a medium-size sedan and more than $11,000 for an SUV, according to
the most recent driving-costs survey by AAA. If you get your first car at 18
and drive until you're 78, that means you'll pay more than half a million bucks in today's dollars for the
privilege.
You can pay a whole lot more than that astronomical sum if you buy
luxury cars or trade in your vehicle for a new one every couple of years.
You may not be able to do without a car, so the trick to saving money is
having fewer cars -- and taking better care of them. You can dramatically
reduce your finance and insurance costs by owning each vehicle for at least 10
years (assuming you pay cash or finance for five years or less). With proper
maintenance, today's cars can last well past 200,000 miles. Buying slightly
used cars also can reduce costs.
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