The Legit Way to Buy a Car #017

Transportation costs are American's highest monthly expense (aside from housing of course), so how you buy a car can be a financial game changer! There is clearly a smart and legit way to buy a car and that's what we're talking about in this episode. Don't accept that you have to get a new car because yours is 'old'- avoid cultural and advertising driven spending and try and minimize the money you spend on cars! Listen to the episode to find out why and how everyone should be buying used cars.

A quick tip for now: Only purchase used cars that are at least 5 years old- and no financing!

And at the beginning of this episode we cracked open a growler of Sweetwater's Happy Ending aged in Four Roses Single Barrel, a special thanks to Quickie over at Park Bar for supporting the podcast! If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe and review us in Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts!

For specific links and additional information about this episode, head over to our site: HowToMoney.com . Best friends out!

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I'm Matt,
and today we're talking about the legit way to buy
a car. All right, Matt, So today on the show,
we're gonna talk about how buying a car is like

(00:20):
a financial game changer, why we think you should probably
buy a used car, and then how to go about
doing that. So that's coming up on the show. Yeah,
that's right. But first, it's been a minute since we've recorded,
so let's uh, let's like catch up a little bit.
Joel and his wife went on a big trip and
if you don't follow us on Instagram, you probably didn't
know that. But if you do, you probably saw some

(00:41):
pictures of me lounging around eating cheese and riding bikes
in your seventy dollars a pound fancy ham. Oh yeah,
soh yeah, so I told you about that Briefly. It's
I get this like really fancy aged ham for this
picnic that we had at Versailles, and dude starts slicing
it like super thin slices, and after two slices, I'm like, yeah,

(01:03):
that's that's plenty. I just kind of really want to
taste more than anything. I don't want to spend too
much on this crazy expensive ham just to moves the bush. Yeah,
a little bit, please, But it was man, it was
such a fun trip. Yeah, Paris was an awesome city.
Thoroughly enjoyed it. I would recommend it to anyone. I
think you posted on Instagram. But we got there for
four hundred and sixty three dollars round trip. That is

(01:25):
an amazing deal, dude. Always makes it more fun trip
when you can get a good deal. So you wait
a great time hanging out there for a week enjoining
each other in the city. A little throwback to a
previous episode U traveling with Purpose on the Cheap, How
do you do you feel like you're able to kind
of incorporate some of the things we talked about, you know,
from that episode, and so I guess obviously you guys
are flexible in the dates, right, So that's how you

(01:46):
got that sweet deal, that's right, yep, So definitely getting
the ticket price and then a couple of the other
things we mentioned on that episode. And you can go
back and listen to the full thing. There are a
lot of tips in there. But the first day we
walked so much, and I think that's so good, like
for your jet lag and kind of getting off of
that and getting used to the city and getting your awareabouts,
getting getting a feel for the neighborhoods and the layout.

(02:07):
And so yeah, spending that first day just doing a
ton of walking and seeing what was around us and
where we wanted to go back to that was like
super That was super helpful and it was a lot
of fun. So I recommend that. And then the day
after that we took a nice spike ride, So I think, yeah,
doing that is such a great way for figuring out

(02:28):
the place where you're staying, and it's great for exercise,
and yeah, that was That's definitely the best way to
spend your first couple of days in a new place. Yeah,
you can't like help but to get over your jet lag.
If you're like walking or writing several miles, you know,
in a brand new city, exposing yourself to all the
different elements and smells and all that kind of stuff, right,
you gotta get the blood flowing and uh and and

(02:50):
and really it is. We took the Metro a bunch
of while we were in Paris, but in the Metro
is awesome. This the Metro system there is fantastic, but
still there was something about walking and biking and even
taking the bus some You see all these things that
you want to go back to. And if we just
had only written the metro the whole time, you'll you

(03:12):
get you only see point A to point B. You
don't see all the awesome stuff in between, which is
we would have messed out of what Paris is about,
right right, Yeah, we would have missed out on a
bunch of store funds that we wanted to walk into
you and check out, and a place for dinner or whatever.
So yeah, we definitely That's where our splur just came
was for dinners at some some really great restaurants there.

(03:32):
Despite I will say the recommendation of our flight attendant
on the way there, he said, the food in Paris
is terrible. I wouldn't bother only he's he said, stick
to the pizza in Paris, man, that's what they do. Well, dude,
he was totally agree with you. I think he was serious, man. No, no, no,
I think he was serious and even going to Paris

(03:52):
for like twenty years and he said he hated the food.
Oh poor guy, that's uh. We legit had one pizza
while we were there, but that's it because the food
was excellent. Yeah, that's one of the things. I mean,
So Kay and I, you know, we've been went to Paris,
uh well, France, I guess initially for work, but then
so we flew in early and made a trip of it.
But dude, that's one of the things that we realized

(04:13):
a couple of days in that we're able to kind
of find relief in is the fact that there's hardly
any like tourist trap restaurants, Like it's all legitimate food
and so you don't have to I guess early on
that was kind of earlier on in our marriage too,
and we had a tough time like getting paralysis, like
looking at the different reviews and be like, well is
this right? Is this right? I don't know which one

(04:33):
is the best, and so we couldn't even go anywhere.
But then eventually we realized that, like, man, you know what,
every single place we go to in the city is
freaking amazing. And after we kind of realized that, we
were just like going with it and yeah, loving, loving
every second. Yeah, that's the thing. I guess, you know,
we could have been there for weeks and weeks and
still not run out of awesome dinner joints to go

(04:55):
to because and and honestly decently inexpensive. You know, we
were trying to find that balance, so tasty, good reviews
close by, but still kind of inexpensive, and I feel
like there were still a lot more we could have
chosen from. Definitely, Man, that's awesome. I'm glad you guys.
Uh yeah, it sounds like you had a good time.
It was awesome, very relaxing, but glad to be back
on the mic with you. My friend, I'm gonna lie

(05:17):
when you're doing the intrail is kind of like, oh man,
it's been a minute back in the saddle, the blood flowing.
Though I'm feeling good Trial by fire, I've got hard
questions for you here. Okay, So actually I'll thought of
this too. While you guys were gone. One of my
tenants had gotten gotten in touch with us, and basically
we're asking if they could get out of their lease early. Yeah,
a little landlord questions. So I was gonna ask you

(05:38):
if you've ever dealt with that. I don't want to
say deal with it, like it's like it's necessarily a
bad thing, because after talking about it. I don't necessarily
think it's a terrible thing. Um, but yeah, I wanted
to see if if you've ever dealt with that. I
had to deal with that a few times in fact,
and I will say all but one time it worked
out really well. Uh for the most part, it was
just little things like hey, you know, I got a

(05:59):
new job in another town, or like, hey, this house
just you know, it turns out i'd rather live in
another location. And I did this for six months, but
I'd really like to get out early if possible. And
I feel like every time that the tenant has approached me,
either email or phone call or whatever, in in a
way that was kind and respectful and asking, I was
more than happy to meet them and obliged, especially because

(06:22):
as long as it's happening at a decent time, you
know that they're not getting out like mid December or something,
that that's a terrible time to try to re rent
the re rent the house. And then you know if
they've been slid tenants or whatever, and and I'm I'm
completely happy to to work something out with them. Yeah, man,
I think I agree with you there. And that's the
biggest reason why I think we were okay with that.
It seems that more folks are looking for a place

(06:44):
around Memorial Day, you know, like kind of towards the
you know, in a May beginning, beginning of the summer,
as opposed to like right smack in the middle of
the summer. And so yeah, again, like you it's not
like they're looking to kind of get out in the
middle of the winter when things are dead and every
things like crap, and yeah and too. You just I
would rather have someone to live in there that wants
to be there then someone that's just kind of you know,

(07:06):
annoyed that they can't in their case, they bought a house.
You can't line up all the timing and all that
kind of stuff exactly right, and so they they've got
some overlap there, some you know, I was sinking it through,
and I was just like, you know, i'd be moren't
happy to to let them get out soon, you know,
without penalty as well. Oh yeah, and yeah, that's the thing.
I would do it without penalty. Yeah, I would have
certain stipulations, but uh, no penalty or anything. And I'm

(07:27):
sure you'll have no problem running it out another another time.
And I'm sure they'll be completely happy to let you
show the house whenever you want. Yes, exactly, That's that's
what they're saying. They're you know, they're even saying that
they would kind of help with showings and you know,
doing whatever whatever they would need to do to make
that as smooth as possible. So yeah, I did have
one tenant that, uh, it was like really painful actually

(07:47):
the parting. And it was a husband and wife and
the wife had gotten a job in another state. Uh.
And the way they approached it was not asking, but
trying to find all these like loopholes in the lease
or in the in the state laws and really making
demands that were I'm I feel like I'm super easy

(08:08):
to work with as a landlord and super responsive. And
when they tackled it from that point of view, like
we were at odds and that made it much harder
for me to consider some of their demands, and some
of their demands were honestly unreasonable. Uh And and so
I wasn't really willing to work with them. If they
literally just said here's what's happening, and use the word please,

(08:29):
it would have been I would have been like, yes,
we'll figure something out. I'm happy to accommodate, but because
they essentially went at it from a point where and
I mean verse them sort of thing. Yeah, that was.
That was where it killed me. And I mean they
were wrong on all accounts to from a legal standpoint,
but that I didn't care as much about that as just, hey,
let's let's talk about this like two humans that you

(08:52):
know aren't jerks, and if we get I'm always happy
to do that with with my Actually, now that you
mentioned this, I think I remember you talking about these folks.
This is from like a few years ago, right, yeah, okay,
not fun. We don't Yeah, you don't need to go
into details, but let's an ideal tenants for you. Yep,
you know we should talk about this again. I know
we we've had one real estate investing podcast episode and

(09:12):
let's do another one soon. But that's really the only
bad experience I've had, and it's still even with that.
That was that was a pain. But man, it's been
a great experience of being fine though. Yeah it worked out.
Cool man. So let's move on to our beer. This
one's in a growler, our first beer, and I literally
picked us up on the way here, which is awesome.
Let's see if it makes it sound when I open

(09:34):
it nice. I wasn't sure about it. That was awesome. Oh,
by the way, so this what we're drinking tonight. It's
a whiskey barrel aged stout from Sweetwater Brewing Company in Atlanta. Yeah,
so they're one of our big local breweries. How long
have they been around, dude, you know, probably like twenty

(09:54):
years and years a while. Oh man, look at that.
I swear I opened it up and it was straight
whiskey in my nostrils. It was amazing. I feel like
it's always a great sign. When the when the foam,
when the head is like a dark brown, yeah, almost
like caramel colored. So real, quick we gotta give a
shout out our neighbor and friend, Quickie. Quickie provided this

(10:17):
beer for us. That's his nickname, not his god given
birth name from his mother. I don't believe he says
it all came from a wrestling move, or not a
wrestling move, but like some some character back back when
he was in high school. Yeah, he wrestled, you remember,
I'm telling that, that's right. Yeah, he was on the
wrestling team and and his friends gave him the nickname
based on some cartoon or something like that. Yeah. But
but Yeah, Quickly owns Park Bar, which is downtown downtown Atlanta,

(10:39):
and he's been a he's kind of like a staple
in the Atlanta bar scene. Yeah. So the cool thing
about this beer, uh, and you can find variants of
this beer different places, but this particular beer that we're
drinking tonight, Matt, you can only find it in his bar.
It is this Imperial stout called Happy Ending and it's
twelve point four percent and it's barrel aged and they
they sell this beer on the shell, I think, but

(11:01):
this particular version you can't find it because it was
aged in this one specific bourbon barrel from Four Roses,
and that keg of that beer is only available a
Quickies bar man. So that's crazy. So this specific beer
then is came from that one singular Four Roses bourbon barrel. Yeah,

(11:21):
that's awesome. You know what else is awesome at the
end of this episode, Yeah, so I saw this bottle
right here, which is also Quickly decided to shower us
with ridiculous gifts and gave us the bottle of bourbon
that was that came from that barrel to h So
that's really cool. We're gonna have a sip of that
at the end of the episode. Yeah. So, like first

(11:41):
four roses made this bourbon in that barrel, and then
they emptied that barrel out battled the whiskey, and then
they put the beer in that barrel and now that's
what we're drinking here too. Let's have a taste, man, dude.
That is beastly bourbon goodness. Oh that's fantastic. Dark. It's
got like a nice, like kind of bitter chocolate, like

(12:04):
you know, like the nice chocolate like when you go
to the stores and you buy the expensive chocolate like
you do in France. I guess maybe you did that
like that like dark exactly. Yeah, that's what that's got. Yeah. Yeah.
If it has that like chocolate bitterness on the end there,
and it's got that good bourbon smoothness to it while
also having just like retaining enough of that heat to

(12:25):
give it just like a little bit of an edge,
that's I mean, this is a great it's got that
boozy bourbon edge to it. Yeah. If you're not into
the you know, the hot all the hoppy beers that
are out there, all the I p A s. If
that's not your thing. You want to look at beers
like this brown nails. You want look at stouts, reporters,
beers that have a lot of malt, and those are
gonna be you know, those are gonna be sweeter and
are not going to have that hot presence. And that's

(12:47):
what this beer is all about. There's like zero hops
in this. Yeah, So cheers from us to park Bar,
too Quickie and to Sweetwater for this awesome beer. Yeah,
thanks guys. Alright, Joel, let's talk about cars, the legit
way to buy a car first. How you buy a car.
It's a financial game changer. When you're coming to a
decision to buy a car, it holds it so much
power over your finances and over years and years to

(13:10):
come from that decision, you will either reap the financial
rewards or pay the financial costs based on that one
decision that you make on what car you're gonna get.
And so we really want to talk through it and
help you make a wise decision so that you're not
throwing your money away on a car that you don't like,
don't care for, it doesn't mean much to you years
down the road. We would prefer you to make a

(13:32):
wise decision now, and for your money to go to
places that are meaningful to you as opposed to throwing
them towards like a new car or a fancy ride
that doesn't necessarily mean much to you. Yeah. Man, The
reason that this is such a big deal is because
we're talking about a lot of money. For most Americans,
the second largest expense they have next to their housing costs.

(13:54):
So you're looking at so either your mortgage or your
rent is money that they put towards transportation. And for
most folks that's all the expenses associated with owning a vehicle. Unfortunately,
for a lot of folks that means their car payment
as well, and we'll get to that a little bit
later on. But a lot of money goes towards our
vehicles here in America, and you know that can make
or break you. Yeah, For most folks, buying used is

(14:17):
the way to go, and we're gonna talk about why.
But don't accept that you have to get a new
car because yours is quote unquote old. Old is a
relative term. Avoid the temptations that culture presents and advertising
shows you at every turn that you need a new
car or that these new gadgets are new fangled systems
or GPS or backup cameras that you need all these

(14:38):
things on your car. And I think if nice cars
are a priority for you, it's okay to intentionally spend
in that direction. But many of us just view a
car as a way to get from point A to
point B, and what we're trying to do is minimize
those costs and make sure that our money is going
to the places that matter to us. Yeah, Joel, this
is I mean a discussion we've had before where we're

(14:59):
talking about the why behind why we spend. Right, And
so for some folks, like you said, like having maybe
a nicer vehicle, if that's a priority for folks, then
go for it. You know, like, if that's what you
want to spend your money on, than sure we as
long as you're actively spending that money. Though, what we
want to avoid and you can afford it, Yeah, yeah, exactly.
But what we want to avoid is sort of the
mindless default lifestyle where you're just like, oh, it's just

(15:22):
time to buy a new car, or this is just
what you do because you don't. You don't keep a
car once it's passed so many miles, right right, I
don't know right, that's why most people, oh and hit
a hundred thousand on the odometer, time to get rid
of it, or it's like, oh, it's getting close to
a hundred better bail now while while we're ahead sort
of thing, when in reality it's like, well, why yeah.
We'll get into a bunch of specifics here, but essentially,
the nugget of what it comes down to is, if

(15:46):
you don't want to be poor, if you want to
live a rich life, you want to prioritize your money
to go to investments that are going to be gaining
in value. In a car does just the opposite for you.
So that's essentially why we recommend buying used why it's
been so important for you know me over the years.
I feel like buying inexpensive use cars has actually been

(16:09):
one of those financial cornerstones for me in the wealth
building process. And if I had chosen to buy a
new car or a much nicer used car earlier on,
it would have completely derailed some of the things I've
been able to do because I would have had the
cash on hand to be able to put down on
a home or buy a rental property. They are all
these things. If I had prioritized cars over making investments

(16:32):
on things that are gonna actually bring me returns. It
would have just been a big hindrance to me in
the long run. You know, you hinted at the depreciation
aspect of it, and like, essentially, yeah, like value in
vehicles basically does the exact opposite of what you want
to see in an investment Incorrectly, So many people oftentimes
say that like, oh, well, we're gonna I'm gonna invest
in this vehicle as if it's going to go up

(16:52):
in value, but like you know, in reality, it only
goes down. That's literally worse than just sitting on that
money and doing nothing with it. Not only is it
not growing and not only is it not staying the
same over the next ten years, but it's literally dropping
in value. And so that's why the rest of this podcast,
essentially we're gonna we are going to focus on buying
used because essentially what we want to do is find

(17:14):
a way to spend the least amount of money as
possible on transportation. So let's talk about depreciation. Essentially, in
the first four years of owning a car, your cars
worth is cut in half. Yeah, and so most people
when they're looking to buy a new car, they're only
factoring in can I afford this payment, And that's a

(17:34):
terrible question to ask yourself. Can you afford the depreciation
costs to go along with that payment is the greater question.
And usually most people are training out cars every few
years as opposed to every ten years, which is a
cycle that we would say is much more appropriate. And
if you're training out cars every few years based on
payment buying as opposed to thinking about the depreciation, it's

(17:57):
not the car payments that are doing you and necessarily
what it is, it's it's a depreciation that ultimately is
going to sink your finances. Taking that into account, well
like to me that what that does is informs me
that that's where you need to be looking that at
year five, Like that's the age of the vehicle that
I need to start looking at basically from five to ten.
I see that as being a huge sweet spot when
it comes to looking for a car for us. I

(18:18):
think it depends on where you're at in your life
and what your goals are. For me, the first car
that I purchased was eight and the last car that
I drove for almost eight years was the used car
marketplace in the United States of America is so robust
that you can find really good cars that can get

(18:39):
you from point A to point B for five thousand
dollars or less. And so, depending on what your goals
are and depending how much you want to jump start
your savings and create wealth, the cheaper a car that
you buy, the less appreciation you're gonna suffer, the cheaper
insurance costs are going to be. And in some cases,
if you buy a car that's well priced that's less

(19:03):
than five thousand dollars, you can drive it for a
few years and essentially turn around and sell it for
pretty dan close to what you paid for it. And
in my book, that's that is the ultimate sweet spot
in buying a used car. I don't think it works
for everybody, especially people with young kids and that have
a need for more space and a little bit nicer
of a vehicle. But for me, if you're in your

(19:25):
twenties and your single, this is exactly the route you
should be taking, and you should be stocking away most
of your money in the stock market or investment real estate.
You should be strongly considering putting your money towards things
that are gonna eventually benefit you financially in the long run,
and a car is not going to do that for you. Yeah, Joel,

(19:45):
So depreciation, that's our first point on why to buy used.
You know, that's such a huge factor when it comes
to the value of the vehicle, something that a lot
of people don't really think about, but that has a
huge impact on your financial situation. And you got to
take that into account. Depreciate asian. The next thing that
we're gonna cover our costs. A lot of times people
think that there are a lot of costs and expenses

(20:06):
associated with repair and maintenance, uh in buying a used vehicle,
But in reality, man, that's just not the case. Yeah,
And Consumer Reports stats bear this out. They had a
great article last year about how much it costs to
repair a ten year old car, and seven out of
ten car brands it costs less than six hundred dollars
a year to repair a ten year old car of theirs,

(20:29):
and some of the brands were even more reliable than that,
less than five dollars a year in repair costs for
Toyotas and Honda's and Hundai's and Kiyas, and so if
you're looking at brands like that that show the repair
costs stay low even ten years into ownership, you'll know
what you're getting into. And huge repair bills just aren't
the scary monster that most people make them out to be. Yeah, man,

(20:51):
I feel like a lot of times the biggest thing
with repairs is really just like the fear and like
the like the thought and that like the mentality of
repairs for says it actually happening in in practice in
real life, it's just really not that big of a deal.
You know. Folks think that like, oh man, the car
is gonna break down, I'm gonna have to spend all
this time and all this money and getting to get
your transmission or whatever. But when does that actually happen? So, yeah,

(21:14):
that might happen if you like never get your transmission
fluid changed, you know, open reality, I mean, well like
two d miles or something like that. For that's even
a consideration. What it comes down to is maintaining the
car well. Yes, if you buy a reliable brand and
a car that checks out well with a mechanic, your
repair costs are likely going to be low as long

(21:34):
as you continue to keep up the proper maintenance schedule
on that vehicle. Yea. And that's another thing to consider
when buying a used car is buying from someone who
has the repair records, preferably if you can find someone
that a car with one owner maybe two. When you're
buying a used car, you're essentially interviewing the person as
much as you are at the car and seeing kind

(21:55):
of how they treated it, how they taken care of it,
how did they drive it. So taking those steps and
making sure you know the kind of car that you're
getting has huge implications on the repair bills that you'll
see down the line too. I mean, I want to
go back to I mean, so what you said about
kind of planning for it, Like I feel like that's
what's so key. Folks just don't like to think about
that kind of stuff. They just want to get the

(22:15):
car and just start driving it and put gas into it.
You know, once it starts getting low, you gotta put
a little bit of thought into it and take it
in to get the oil change. And like you said,
staying on that maintenance schedule is is so key, and
you want to budget for that as well. You need
to know that once every six months or a couple
of times a year. You might need to take it
in to get the oil change and have it looked at,
and to keep it on the schedule of regular maintenance.

(22:36):
But that's just kind of part of being an adult,
you know, just like you would you might go in
and get yourself checked up. That's just what you need
to do for your car as well. Yeah, and the
interesting thing is that looking at that Consumer Reports article,
if repair costs on your car are likely to be
five a year, well a new car payment is getting
close to that every month a month. So we're talking

(22:58):
about spending that much, you know, once a year on average.
Let's say you own the car over six years. You
might have a bill one year, but then the next
year you might only spend two on that car. And
so over six years, it's likely only going to cost
you about three thousand dollars in repair costs to own
that used car. And when you compare that against owning
a new car, man, that's a bargain. Yeah. Yeah, So,

(23:18):
like literally the stat for last year, the average monthly
car payment for for a new vehicle is four eighty
dollars a month. Yeah, and so I mean, like you said,
close to five hundred bucks. Yeah, Matt. So another thing
that uh, a used car saves you money on is
insurance costs. Yeah. Man, So obviously with an older vehicle
it's cheaper to ensure. There isn't like a magic number,

(23:40):
per se. And so we're saying, how like, if you're
looking at around year five for a used vehicle, you're
going to see a lot of the depreciation having already
occurred on a vehicle with insurance. It's not really like that.
I guess it's obviously the older vehicle gets it's it's
cheaper to ensure. But really, what has the biggest impacts
on your premiums is changing your average. Right, So if

(24:01):
you're able to drop collision and if you're able to
drop comprehensive, then that has a huge effect on your
on your premiums. Ideally, that's the point that you want
to get to, right, You want to be able to
get to where you're self insured to a certain point,
like you've got enough of an emergency fund set aside
that you know you can only just maintain that liability
which is required by the laws. Yeah. And so with

(24:24):
my first car, I it was a Toyota Cameray car
and uh, last use car I had for seven years
was a two thousand Niecean Ultima and it cost met
and both of those cars, the entire time I had them,
I had liability coverage. Only not only were those super
cheap cars super cheap to run, pretty reliable, not many

(24:45):
things to go wrong with them. On top of that,
the insurance costs were a lot lower because the entire
time I had those cars, I didn't have full coverage.
That cost me a lot more every month. And when
you're talking about cars in that price range, you can
self ensure and it's totally okay, you know, depending on
what phase of life you're in to have a you know,
ten thousand dollar car, fifteen thousand dollar used car if

(25:06):
it fits your needs. And so like the last used
car that we bought was a two twelve miles to
five and that's a car that we think will have
for ten years. It's a great car, and and that costs,
you know, a little bit more, and so we've had
full coverage on it for a few years. But I
think we're getting close to the point where once it
hits that five thousand dollar value range and you can
kind of check the value of your car at KBB

(25:28):
dot com. That's a great website to kind of figure out, Hey,
how much is my car worth? How much should I
be paying for a car? Once the value that car
hits that level, that's when I'm okay with being you
feel comfortable kind of at that point, Yeah, that's when
I feel okay being self insured. And that essentially means,
like you said, that I've got enough in the bank
where if something were to happen, I were to get
in an accident, I'm covered for any damage that I
would cause to other cars or two people or something

(25:50):
like that. But I have to pay then for fixing
my own for your own vehicle exactly. But if you
can say hundreds and hundreds of dollars a year by
cutting your coverage and self ensuring in that way, it's
completely worth it. Yeah. And for example, so we have
a you know, even newer vehicle. This is like the
nicest car we've ever owned. But we've got a Honda Odyssey.

(26:12):
Even though it's six years old, it's still worth like
a pretty penny, man, And we can't really afford to
to replace that right now. And so another way for
us to to get our premiums down every month is
to raise our deductible, and so you're not going to
see a huge as huge of a change in your
monthly premiums as if you were to go with liability only,

(26:32):
but you're gonna still be able to see a significant
change in your in your monthly rates. Yes, so you
can probably handle the increased deductible of a few thousand
dollars more, but you can't handle replacing that car all
on your own. No, yeah, not right now. At least
we need to kind of beef up our emergency fund
a little bit more. So. Essentially, what we want you
to consider is to spend less on cars in general,

(26:54):
and hopefully you're not driving a ton anyway. Think about this,
how often do you use your car? Most cars are
sitting idle something like ninety seven percent of the time.
You drive your car to work and home, and you know,
maybe to the grocery store, but for the most part,
your car is sitting there. Get out of that mindset
of thinking of your car as a status symbol. If

(27:15):
it's just sitting there in front of your house and
sitting there in the parking lot at your job, the
car really is nothing more than a mode of transportation
to get you from point A to point B and
then back to point A. Man, And that's so crazy.
It's like so silly that we, like, in reality, we
use our vehicles so little of the amounts of time
that we actually own it. The fact that our vehicles
sit idle for like nine of the time that we own,

(27:37):
I think it is something like it's something crazy, even
higher than it's insane. It just seems like when you
think about it like that, and to think that, like, really,
what we're paying for is the convenience is to have
the ability to just be able to go out there
and get in it whenever we want. When that's some
expensive convenience man, Like you know, like if you actually
think about the amount of money that you have sitting

(27:58):
there just dropping in value, that's when I start getting
kind of nervous, and I think, man, what are we
doing with our money? And then you think what you
could do put that money every month? Yeah, exactly. The
opportunity cost is huge. Our van that we've got twenty
that is the nicest vehicle we've ever we've ever purchased.
And there's some days when I think, you know, I'm

(28:18):
not sure if if we should have gotten that car.
We paid cash, you know, we didn't finance it. But
but even still, it's just a lot of money that,
like you said, sitting in your driveway most of the time,
a lot of cash just kind of sitting there in
this big steel and I just think of what else
I could be doing with that money. And those are
the times when I started doubting myself a little bit.
But we use it, We like it, so I don't

(28:38):
want to spend too much time just like dwelling on that. Yeah,
I can't, can't beat yourself up over that too much.
But yeah, again going back to what you were saying,
like we would, we just want to encourage people to
driving less anyway, between the different alternatives to driving your
own vehicle into work, Like you've got car pooling, which
is something we talked about in a recent episode, between
car pooling and public transportation and even biking right totally.

(29:00):
And I read an article today about biking and how
people to bike to work are like three times happier
or something like that, And so the stress levels just
go down like crazy because you're just able to get
out and move some and kind of get the endorphins slowing. Yeah,
if you haven't tried it. Go back and listen to
our first episode. We talk about how much we love
biking and why, and it really is a special thing

(29:21):
that can get you out of your car, back out
into your city, into the place where you live, the
town where you live, and experiencing it in a different
way while getting your body moving and uh and also
at the same time getting you out of that hunkle
metal that is actually causing your sedentary lifestyle to be
even that more sedentary. Yeah, Like, drive to work the

(29:42):
whole time you're sitting there in that seat, and then
you get to work and you sit there in the
cubicle all day, sitting in your seats. And then you
get back in your car and you sit in that
seat again, drive all the way back home, and then
you sit down at the inner table table like it's like, no,
wonder that, And then you sit down and watch three
hours of Netflix. I wonder why I'm so unhealthy? Exactly right. Yeah, man,

(30:05):
it's so true. I mean, it's like we joke about it,
but like in reality, that's like, that's that's real life.
A lot of people, it's so crazy and a lot
of times too, when we say, oh, public transit. That's
something that people say, like, oh, what city do you
live in, because unless you live in like New York
or San Francisco, there isn't really a real public transit option.
And I for the most part, probably agree with you.

(30:27):
Public transit in this country, you know, it's it's kind
of lame. However, anybody, regardless of if you live in
a pretty major city or if you live out in
the Midwest, like, anybody can buy a bike and you
can get on it and you can pedal. I will
say too, though. My friend that I work with commutes
from the suburbs into the city and it's not like
it's the greatest public transportation system ever. But he rides

(30:50):
a bus, does he Yeah, he goes for it every day.
And the great thing about that when you ride the bus,
he could read a book or get some work done,
or take a nap, whatever you wants to do on
the bus on his way there. And so it's not
only is it saving him money, but he's got space
to clear his head as opposed to that, you know,
white knuckle sitting in traffic for you know, forty five

(31:11):
minutes to an hour. Uh, if he's lucky, really, you
against the throngs of other people also trying to get
home at the same time. So even if you live
far away but you have a commute like that, that's
the same every day, you know, look into it. Look
into car pooling options, or a bus system, public transportation options.
It doesn't have to be this fancy metro system that
connects everything. There. We have a decent bus system in

(31:33):
many towns across the United States, and so look into
that maybe, uh and and see what options there are,
because anything that can take you out of your car
here or there is a win. Yeah. Including another option too,
is the trying to try to push for is like telecommeting.
More and more employees are, you know, having the option
to be able to work from home, even one or
two days a week, man, is just so much better

(31:55):
than just having to go in every single day of
the week. So for me, I know, if I had
like a corporate job or a job that you know
that just required me to go in, I would, man,
I would be pushing for that like a hundred percent
because I just know what it's like to be able
to work from home and all the time that I
have not behind the wheel driving for like fighting other drivers,
and so I don't think I could go back anytime.
I like romantis size, like the corporate gig, like nine

(32:16):
to five gig where I'm like, oh, yeah, you just
go in and just clock in, clock out, and I
have to think about it. I just think, oh, man,
but those people have to drive to work most of
the time. Yeah. So, hopefully we just helped you understand
why you should buy a used car, and you should
buy a used car that's probably five years old at
minimum to cut those depreciation costs because that's the biggest
costing car ownership. It's huge. And you know what, if

(32:37):
you're super cheap, you should look towards buying probably a
ten year old used car because you know what, those
repair costs aren't as ghastly as you think they're going
to be. And ultimately, buying a car that old custom
appreciation costs even more. Uh, and you're gonna lose very
little on your car purchase if you go in that direction. Yeah. Man,

(32:58):
So we've covered the y. Hopefully we've convince you too
only buy used vehicles, and so let's talk about how,
so how do you buy a used vehicle? And Matt
real quick before we get into the how I feel
like I have to come clean, like I have to confess.
You're gonna be honest, Yes, do it. I bought a
new car one time I did. This is gonna discount
the entire podcast, but here's okay. So I will tell

(33:19):
you why and why I will never I have never
purchased a new view. But let it be known, and
I'm gonna say why. I I don't think I'll ever
do it again, and why I still think it could
have been the right purchase. So back in two thousand
and fourteen, I bought a Nissan Leaf. And the only
reason I considered buying a new car was because of

(33:41):
an anomaly. I've never seen it happen for any other
reason in the car market, where it made so much
sense to buy a new car. And there are times
that ebbs and flows and new cars get a little
bit cheaper than they normally are or whatever. But this
was complete anomaly because of federal government and state government intervention.
And so what happened was buying an electric car. And

(34:02):
the federal credit still exists for many electric car purchases. Right,
But I bought a twenty seven dollar car that essentially
cost me half of that because of government and sentence.
My state had the most real bust incentive for purchasing
an electric car, and the federal government had a ridiculous
one on top of that to boot, And so the

(34:24):
federal credit and the five thousand dollar state credit cut
the price on my car essentially in half. And I
decided I knew going into this that this particular car
would work for me for a minimum of ten years,
hopefully longer. And uh so for me, I think it
made sense to move up to that car. Yeah, it's
pretty nice. You kind of got like that five years
depreciation where you got it at cost, so you know,

(34:47):
five years later, but you got that new vehicle with
zero So when you actually got it with did it
was it like zero? You know, like ten miles or
something like that. Yeah, something like that. What's that like?
I don't even I don't know. It was kind of weird.
But honestly, that's the thing too. It wears off so
quickly fancy paints. I mean after a week and a half,
who cares, it's a used car. I just wanted to
let people know real quick that I did buy a

(35:08):
new car. It's like, it was this weird outlier situation
that almost never comes along, uh, this government intervention situation.
If it had been a twenty seven dollar car and
never would have bought it, yeah, it would have been ridiculous.
All right, well you feel better. Yeah, But you know,
I get back and I gotta say I love used cars.
I still love used cars. And there's something really really

(35:29):
fun about buying a used car. And so we're going
to talk to you now about how to go about
buying used car and getting the best value for your money. Yeah.
I think the first thing that you need to do
when you're looking at picking up a new used vehicle
is consider what you actually need. I think that's just
like step one. Like all so many times people kind

(35:49):
of go into it and they think, by default, oh
well I gotta have this. Oh well you know where
I need to I need to get have the toe package,
or I need to get the car with fool drive
or the with the entertainment syst them. All that kind
of stuff builts in when in reality it's like do
I really need that? Do my kids really need to
be watching NonStop movies when they're just going from home
to school or you know, wherever it is that you're going.

(36:11):
I think these are the sort of questions that don't
get asked enough, and by default we just kind of
get roped into whatever is being sold and whatever sort
of culturally is being pushed upon us. Think about what
car category you're looking in too. So let's say you
what do you mean by that? Well, so I think, uh,
if you need a minivan, there are a few different
models that are historically reliable that you should consider. For instance,

(36:35):
like the Honda Odyssey. You own, fantastic vehicle. If you're
looking for a subcompact, you know, Toyota Corollas are historically
incredibly reliable and a great cars to the board, Toyotas
are almost always the best value, right like gray vehicles.
They you know, they run forever if you take care
of them, and they're just inexpensive yeah to buy and
to run, Yeah, which is amazing. If you're looking for

(36:56):
an electric car or something like that, buying an older
Leaf is really really cheap now, but it also might
not work for your needs for the range that you need,
so you might um might want to look for something
that can get you further. But if you're but if
you have a short commute, Nissan leaf can be a
great option. Uh. We also have a mass of five,

(37:16):
and I think mass of fives are these there's like
perfect in between car. If you're looking for a station
wagon mixed with a minivan. Uh, the mass of five
is this perfect thing that still gives you good fuel
economy while not sacrificing some of those elements of space
that you might need in a car. If you've got
young children. Ye, man, you've got this. You got the
real slide indoors on that thing. Yeah, hall a haul

(37:36):
of fridge in there. Man, if you don't, if you don't, recall,
it's a really cool vehicle that can kind of allow
for you to be able to transport kids or refrigerators
or whatever else you may need to toss in there.
I also want to say, don't put all this stock
in the fuel economy of the vehicle. I think it's
important to consider the kind of gas miles that your
car is getting. I think that's something that at times

(37:59):
when I was buying a car, I put too much
stock in because I was driving so little that the
fuel economy meant very little to my bottom line. And
so I think it is important to consider how much
gas are using and how much gas costs and uh,
and thinking about your car based on the on those terms.
But essentially, don't get so hung up on it that

(38:20):
you buy a Prius over a Corolla when you could
have saved eight thousand dollars and it terms more. Yeah,
and it turns like you don't really drive that much
that you're gonna pay those fuel costs off over time. Yeah, man,
that's a good thought. I didn't think about that. How
much is that actually affects like your bottom line? And
like you said, in reality, hopefully not that much, because
we know what we're trying to encourage, courage you guys
to do is to drive less. You know, consider the

(38:40):
alternatives car pooling, biking, writing public transit, and even living
just closer to your work in general, these are all
things to consider. So yeah, that's a wise word. Yeah man.
And even if you drive twenty thousand miles a year
and you're deciding between a Corolla and a Prius, a
Corolla probably makes more sense. I think Priests are great vehicles,
but there are computers to go wrong with it. They're

(39:02):
just more new fangled gadgets that could potentially have issues.
And the Corollas are just this basic standard that very
little can break. Yeah, we're very little on it can break,
and it makes them just such a smart buy. So
the next thing to consider and how to buy a
used car is to pay cash. Never ever finance a vehicle. Ever. Ever,

(39:28):
sometimes we're even hesitant to finance homes, right, And these
are investments, these are things that are making us money.
But when you're talking about actual cars, you know, things
that go down in value. That is, like, the worst
way to pay for a vehicle is to finance it.
Only pay cash. And essentially how much money you have
to put towards a car should influence kind of that

(39:48):
range of car that you're getting. So let's say you've
got five thousand dollars in the bank towards a car. Uh,
that's your cap. That's how much you can spend. That's
what kind of car you're gonna get. Let's say you've
got fifteen thousand dollars in the bank. You know that
that's your that's your cap, and that's how much you
should consider spending at max. But taking out a used
car loan, I mean, the fact of the matter is
you can probably get a decent deal through your credit union.

(40:10):
But What it comes down to is you don't finance
depreciating assets. So the next point when it comes to
buying a used car is to make sure you haven't
independently inspected. What that means is somebody else looks at
it that is not trying to also sell you the car,
somebody different. You can find a certified mechanic online, or

(40:31):
maybe you've been going to a mechanic in your neighborhood
or close by for years and you trust and respect them.
You can pay them money to look over this car
that you're interested in buying, and they will give it
the run through. They'll give it a test drive, they
will give you a green, yellow, or red light and
tell you what's wrong with it, so that you know
what you're getting into ahead of time. I have a

(40:51):
great mechanic I've been using for a long time, and
sadly he's like twenty minutes away from where I live,
so not super close by, but it's worth driving out
there because I trust him so much, and so if
I'm buying a car, I will go to him, and
because I have been using him so long, he doesn't
even charge me. He looks at the car for about
fifteen minutes, you know, puts it up on the lift,

(41:12):
takes it out for a test drive, and he has
this uncanny ability to tell me exactly what's going on
with the carrs right yeah, and he says, you know what, Hey,
actually the left CB joint needs to be replaced six
months from now, because it's it's getting to that point.
And just like an inspection on a home where you
know what to ask for from the seller, the same
thing is true of a car that you're purchasing used

(41:35):
from an individual seller. Once I get it inspected, I
know the repairs that need to be made, and it
kind of helps me in my negotiating process or to
know whether I need to scrap this purchase completely just
to cut the deal and run. Honestly, it's probably gonna
cost you between seventy and a hundred dollars to get
this one hour inspection at most mechanics shops. And there

(41:56):
have been times where I've looked in other parts of
town and I didn't want to drive down to see
the guy that I normally see. And I've paid that
money gladly, and it's saved my bacon a time or two.
When I was buying my Mom's to five Matt and
save me from buying this really, really crappy one that
you know, I was kind of hesitant about after my
own test drive, but I decided to take it to
the Mechanic just to kind of make sure. And if

(42:18):
they had given it a glowing inspection report, I probably
would have bought it. But their findings essentially backed up
how I felt after test driving it, and I was
just so glad that I didn't jump into that purchase,
and that inspection from the Mechanic just really helps cement
what I was feeling about the car and helped me
make a wise decision as opposed to jumping into something prematurely. Yeah,

(42:41):
it's nice. Kind of gives you that reassurance to know
you're making the right decision, hopefully one way or the other. Yeah,
because I'm no expert, and it's really helpful to have
the opinion of an expert. And how often do we
really buy cars, hopefully, you know, it's really a couple
of times a decade at most, and so on a
purchase that costs so much and is one of the
biggest purchases that we make, it is well worth that

(43:02):
seventy dollars hundred dollars and a couple hours of your
time to take it to your local mechanic and make
sure that you're buying the right car. And it can
save you a lot of money and headache in the
future too. Yeah, and and just to clarify it too,
this is done before you purchased the vehicle. This isn't
something that you do, you know, like once you get it,
you like go and have it checked out. This is

(43:22):
something you do when you're buying from an individual that
you want to do before you make the purchase, unless
you are buying, say from like a dealership of sorts.
And so I'll speak to that because our van we
purchased from Carbonna and Carbona has like this like a
seven day money back guaranteed money back no matter what.
There's a mileage limit you can't drive like over four
hundred miles or something ridiculous like that. And so I

(43:45):
took our that van in at that within that window,
and even within that first thirty days there's still this
sort of I mean there's a bit you know, a
basic warranty that's included as well, but just to be sure,
I wanted to get it within that sort of seven
day window, and so I asked around and got an
awesome recommendation for mechanic who specifically works on accurism hondas
and he was able to look at it and said that,

(44:05):
you know what, it sounds like you're timing belt essentially,
which is a huge thing. It's not like an expensive part,
but it's a lot of labor that goes into it.
That's like one of those big repairs that happens around
a hundred thousand miles. He usually ends up being a
six hundred dollar repair, No over a thousand. Yeah, I
mean this, this would have been huge. So because that
they're able to identify that, I you know, I called
up carbon and asked them whether policy was on that,

(44:27):
and they got the guy's info and he's sent the
info over and they paid for it. So that saved
me a lot of money. And basically we've got like
what I sort of feel as a sort of a
new vehicle. Yeah. And so if a individual seller won't
allow you to take the car for inspection, you're just
gonna want to walk away right then and there. That
is a non negotiable part of making this deal and

(44:48):
buying from a company like carbon and that has this
all your money back, no questions, ask guarantee. That's another
great way to go and that guarantee that they offer
provides a lot of confidence. And after hearing Matt's experience
with it too, if I was looking for a car,
you know there was a few years old, Carbona would
be definitely my the first place I would look. Yeah, man,
I had a great experience with with Carbona. The only

(45:09):
downside with them though, is that they don't have old
older cars. They didn't really have anything older than five
years and so that was kind of a I was
just like, oh, man, I wish I could get something
that was like five to six years old. Instead I
was looking at something stuff that was like four to
five for all the reasons we've talked about tonight, that
was sort of a downside for me. So literally we
purchased that, I think like the oldest vehicle that they
were even selling. And for me, that's the only reason

(45:31):
that I have not purchased a car from Carbonna. Their
customer service and their guarantee our money. And if you're
looking for a newer used car, that's a great place
to start is Carbonna dot com. Yeah, some other places
to consider Craigslist. Have you ever purchased a car on Craigslist?
I've pretty much purchased all my cars. Oh yeah, I
think Craigslist is the best if you're looking past that

(45:51):
three to four year window and looking towards those older
used cars. Craigslist has a plethora of them, depending on
where you live. And yeah, it depends on my market
and there's a lot to sort through a lot of
times too. But and you might need to be willing
to to drive, you know, a little bit further outside
of where you lived, if you don't live in a
major metropolitan area. But man, I have had the best

(46:12):
luck with Craigslist. And you can tell a lot by
the way a post is written, and then by talking
to the person that is selling the car, and just
by the things that they indicate in their post about
how many miles are on it, and what sort of
maintenance they've been performing on the vehicle and how they've
cared for it. The places you want to really avoid,
like the Plague are the buy here, pay here lots well,

(46:32):
And the biggest reason for that is because they're looking
to finance the vehicle for you, right, And so that's
like The biggest thing that we're saying is only pay cash,
and they're making all their money on financing, Like they
might make a little bit on the on the actual
transaction of the vehicle, but they're making all their money
through financing. And honestly, a lot of the cars on
those lots are troubled, cars have issues with them, And

(46:53):
so I also want to warn people away from buying
cars with salvage titles. There are a lot of things
you can know about a used car that you're bying
by having it inspected by a mechanic, But a car
with a salvage title can have such a plethora of
issues and you just you don't know what has happened
to it. It could be a flood car, and maybe
it's working properly right now, but the rust is setting

(47:13):
in and it is creeping all over the body of
the car, the underbelly, and it is completely gonna mess
with your ride over the next year or two, especially
after the recent flooding in uh Texas and Houston last
year with the with the hurricanes, be really careful when
buying a car with a salvage title. It could just
present so many issues in your life and also too,

(47:35):
once you get that used vehicle, you need to do
something with your old vehicle, assuming you didn't total it.
The biggest thing that we want to cover that you
want to avoid doing is trading it into a dealership. Yeah,
you're not going to get your actual car's value if
you're training it in Guess what we mentioned Craigslist. That's
one of the best places to buy a used car,

(47:56):
but it's also one of the best places to sell one.
There's no old man, and you can quickly and easily
find a fair listing price on a website like kbb
dot com. And once you find that, take good pictures,
write a detailed listing. Selling a car on Craigslist really
isn't that hard, all right, Joe, Let's get back to
this beer. Man. I will say, like on the nose,

(48:17):
I was expected to be kind of heavier and sweeter. Man,
the nose is perfect on this. It's got this beautiful
bourbon sweetness to it kind of pulls you in. It's enticing.
Oh man, Yeah, I like could not wait to take
the first sip. Man. Mad props to Sweetwater for their
inventiveness in this beautiful barrel aged stout. Thanks to Quickie
and park Bar for giving it to us to drink.

(48:39):
This is absolutely fantastic, Honestly one of the best outs
I've had in a long time. Alright, Matt, time for
a recap the legit way to buy a car. Ultimately,
you don't have to get a brand new car because
yours is quote unquote old Nigel's right. Why so why
do we buy used vehicles? The number one reason is
because of depreciate man. Literally, the minute you drive it

(49:02):
off the lot, you lose ten percent of the vehicle's
value right there in a split second. Yeah, literally, just
the fact that you own it. If when you invest
your money, you see the sort of like the compounding
interests in the effects of investing that way, what your
money does in a vehicle is the complete opposite. Buying
a new car is like compounding interest in the wrong
direction exactly, So don't do it. People also really overestimate

(49:24):
their repair costs that they're gonna pay on a car,
and Consumer Reports have this awesome article that will link
to in the show notes that really summarized, well, how
much a ten year old used car costs when it
comes to repairs, and it's much cheaper than you would
expect most car models are going to cost less than
six dollars a year in repair costs, and that's way

(49:46):
less than even just two car payments that you're going
to pay on a brand new car. Don't overestimate those
car repair costs numbers, because those repair costs just aren't
as bad as you think they are. Yeah, man, I
think the biggest reason those numbers get inflated is because
they become sort of bigger than they actually are in
people's heads. Uh, it seems like this intimidating thing, when
in reality, it's just not a huge deal to go

(50:08):
get some repairs done and to just properly maintain your
own vehicle. Yeah, and ultimately, we want you to spend
less on your cars in general, because, like you said,
buying a new car is the reverse of compounding interest.
So buying a cheaper used car means that more of
your income can go towards investing in real estate or
the stock market, your four oh one k, your ira,

(50:30):
as a opposed to going towards this metal box that
gets you from point A to point B and SIT's
idle n of the time. That's right, Juel. So that's
the why to buy use vehicles next, how to buy
use vehicles. The number one thing, do not finance a
use car. Always pay cash. You do not want to
finance depreciating assets. Yeah, I think if you take one

(50:54):
thing away from this podcast, it's a dat do not
finance depreciating assets, and financing a use car is doing
exactly that. How much money do you have in the bank, Well,
you don't have enough. Well you need to save up
money for a little bit longer than to afford that
car that you're aiming for. But you definitely want to
avoid taking out a loan from a bank or credit

(51:17):
union in order to finance this asset that is only
going down in value. Yeah, do not get stuck in
that car financing trap. It's sort of like the cycle
and it self perpetuates man in the easiest way to
avoid that trap is to buy an older car with cash. So,
if you only have a few thousand dollars to spend
or less, you either need to take a little more

(51:38):
time to save up or just buy one of those
super cheap cars. And those ten year old cars are
actually a sweet spot because they have almost fully depreciated out.
You're not losing almost any money. Every month to depreciation. Ultimately,
the car is just serving your needs, getting you from
point A to point B, and really not costing you
much money while it's doing so. And the last thing

(51:59):
we want to revisit here is to make sure you
have your car independently inspected. You do it all the
time when it comes to buying a new home. Obviously,
new homes costs way more than vehicles, but even still transportation,
that being, cars are our second biggest expense every single month,
and so if you're going to be putting that much
money towards a vehicle, make sure that you've kind of

(52:21):
done a little bit of legwork and taking it to
a well reviewed mechanic who knows what they're doing, who
knows what they're looking at, and can sort of give
you a green light red light as to whether or
not you should purchase this vehicle before you purchase it.
You're probably only purchasing a couple of cars every decade,
and so it's really hard to become an expert at this,

(52:41):
and that's where the mechanic comes in. They see a
dozen used cars every day with different issues, and so
if you present the car that you're considering before their
eyes their expertise, they can help you make an informed
decision as to whether that car is going to be
a good car for you over the long run or not.
All Right, everyone, this has been a fun one. There

(53:02):
is a lot to consider when buying a used car,
and hopefully we've helped you kind of parse out some
of those details, uh so that you can make it
more informed and wiser decision. Thanks so much for listening
to the podcast. It means so much to Matt and I.
Our home on the web is how to money dot com.
We'll have some show notes up there for you with

(53:22):
some links and some more info that we talked about
on the show today. Until next time, best Friends Out,
Best Friends Out.