Just got my car insurance renewal in the mail.
Despite my car going down in value, no tickets, and no accidents, premiums went up 18%.
So, recommendations that aren’t State Farm, Progressive, or Travelers?
I really, really hate shopping for insurance.
Can you tell which days SayUncle linked to me?
A few weeks ago I bought a Logitech Revue when the price dropped from $299 to $99.
Here are my thoughts on it after two weeks:
Meh.
We don’t really watch a lot of live television, so a box that is most useful when you’re watching live TV doesn’t have a lot of value to us. I have used XBMC as my home media player since it’s inception back in 2003-ish. Originally I used original XBOX’s, but now I have a quad-core desktop running the package in the living room.
XBMC basically does everything the Revue does except allow me to watch live TV. Most things are done better with XBMC, like the Youtube link that really just opens the web page in Chrome.
At $99 I’m not upset at the purchase. Eventually it’ll end up replacing the aging XBOX in the bedroom. At $299 I would’ve been upset.
At the $99 price point it’s really competing with something like a Roku. At $299, it’s competing with HTPCs like this one.
As of this post, Google TV still doesn’t have the Android Market nor any easy way to install third party apps. I think when that happens (supposedly with the update to Honeycomb, which was supposed to happen in August of 2011. It’s now September) the device will be a lot more valuable. Until then, I’ll stick with my XBMC.
So, you want to be completely debt free? The steps are simple. The execution is difficult because it involves telling yourself “no” a whole lot. You can do it, I promise.
I am a huge Dave Ramsey guy. I followed his program and it’s done wonders for me and my family. Here’s something a lot of people don’t know or understand about his program:
You don’t have to buy anything.
Seriously.
The first two years I was doing “the plan” Dave got exactly $0 from me. All I did was listen to the radio show, which you can do over the internet for free if there isn’t a local affiliate. I didn’t go through Financial Peace University until I had already completed Baby Step 2.
Wait, what?
There are seven (really, there are nine) Baby Steps that walk you through to retirement. Step 0 is to be current on everything.
Steps 0 through 3b are done in order, to the exclusion of all other steps. Yes, this means stopping the 401K while paying off Visa.
Steps 4, 5, and 6 are done concurrently. Step 7 is obviously started when the house is paid off.
That’s it. That’s the entire plan. No “buy this software!” or “attend this seminar!” required. I will tell you that there is value in going to FPU, and it’s well worth the money, but if you’d rather take the $199 (or $99 when you catch it on sale) and put that on your Capital One card, by all means do that. That’s pretty much what I did.
Mrs wizardpc for scale.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKyV8CTHeJ0&w=420&h=345]
I love cars. I think that’s why I’ve owned so many of them. I’m 31 years old and I have literally lost count of how many cars I have owned at one time or another. I remember having three cars at the same time shortly after I moved to Nashville.
The thing is, the total value of all three cars combined was about $5,000. The most expensive vehicle I’ve ever owned was a 1997 C1500 that I paid $14,000 for in 1999. The cheapest vehicle was a 1992 Saturn SC1 my brother got for $300.
Guess which one I lost more money on? The thing about a $300 or even a $3000 car is they’ve pretty much lost all the value they can. I had that truck for three years and got $6000 for it after having it on the market for about 4 months. I bought my 1999 Jeep Cherokee 4×4 with 95k on it for $4000 in 2008 and 50,000 miles later I can probably still get $2700 for it without even trying hard. $3500 if I detailed it. Even if you factor in the small repairs I’ve had to do I come out WAAAY ahead compared to someone who buys a new car.
A lot of times people say they need “nice car” because they are reliable. Well, all cars are reliable until the day they aren’t. If you find yourself in an unreliable $1000 car, go find a reliable $1000 car! You could get a different $1000 car every other month and STILL be ahead of most people since even a non-working car will easily bring $300. (Though I don’t advocate this as a plan. Buying a car is a PITA because of all the government-mandated crap you have to go through.)
One of the things we’ve sacrificed is newer cars. My wife drives an Accord worth probably $2500 and it’s exactly the car she wanted for the money we had at the time. I only pay cash for cars. If I need a new car and only have $1000, I buy an $800 car and then pay sales tax and tags. That car was a 1995 Plymouth Neon affectionately called Barney. I bought Barney in 2007, put 16,000 miles on him, and then sold him with non-working air conditioning for….$800. Barney was never in a shop, either. That was probably the best car deal I will ever get.
I say all that to say this: You should probably sell your car if you ever want to get out of debt. That $500/month payment is just a huge boat anchor around your neck, and that’s not even considering what your insurance cost is. Do you know how much insurance is on an $800 car? Like $18 a month. I think I paid $40/month when I was single and under 25, because all you need is liability.
And I gotta tell you, after driving sub-$3000 cars for almost ten years now, I would be uncomfortable driving a $30,000 SUV.
Do I plan on driving $3000 cars the rest of my life? NO! Hell I’m probably buying a $7,000 car later this year and I’ll be slightly paranoid driving that one! The rule about anything with a motor is that, combined, the total value of all vehicles (including boats, ATVs, motorcycles, etc) should be less than half your household annual income. And you should pay cash.
Will I ever buy a brand new car? YES! ABSOLUTELY! I have promised the wife that when we have a million dollars, she can get a brand new car. Since my retirement goal is somewhere north of $17 million, she’ll get that car eventually.
is apparently also called a “silencer.”
And, just like every semi-auto rifle is an AK47, every large, unreliable pistol is a TEC9.
SBR AR-15 with a TAC2 barrel system. This system allows for a quick change of standard AR15 barrels. It takes about 30 seconds to switch from one barrel to another. This belongs to commenter Tac. Click to embiggen.
All the goodies.
Short handguard installed. Note the acme threaded flash hider just barely protruding.
Rifle Length free float with offset rails. Suppressor is attached in this picture.
BUIS offset on the 45 degree rail.
