Originally Posted by
yote223
I make it a point to NEVER pay interest on anything that depreciates. That's why I pay cash for good quality low mileage vehicles. Saving to pay cash takes discipline. Sadly, too many people have never learned this fact. This is why we carry such a high debt burden in this country which does nothing but drag everyone down with it. JM.02W.
A good way to do that is to diligently put aside a two or three hundred dollars every month to "pre-finance" the car you will buy when your current car buys the farm. This will always be difficult for poorly disciplined people, but is also hard for people with low incomes. When you're poor, there is always some true emergency that will drain your savings.
I'm not sure why these personal finance gurus never hit on the solution of simply not buying any cars at all. I know the carfree option isn't going to work for everybody, but everybody should at least seriously think about it. There's a lot more to it than "riding a freaking bike" as Ramsey put it.