[metalliqaz]

Americans make terrible decisions with cars.

The article includes two anecdotal examples. I suspect that my income exceeds both. I would never pay as much as they did for a car. Cars are terrible investments. Most should be purchased as the bare minimum cost to get back and forth to work.

I particularly dislike the common refrain, "the cost to repair it is more than the car is worth." It's the wrong mindset. The repair cost is always far less than the replacement cost. My old 150k beater that needs $1k of repairs every year is still much less expensive than the $25k+ it would cost to replace. I have no car payment (thus no interest), and property taxes are cheaper.

And people keep buying brand new cars. Why? Our culture doesn't properly identify brand new cars as luxury items. We should publish a new rule of thumb. Nobody should be buying new cars who can't already afford to fund an IRA.

[RickJWagner]

I think many Americans make terrible decisions with money.

The really sad part: It's easily curable, with financial education. Why it's not part of middle school education, I'll never know.