Cars And Transportation

Looking for a job? Maybe you've checked out the newspaper ads, asked around town, talked to friends, searched the web and you've found a couple. Problem is, the better paying jobs are farther away from your house and would require a car if you're going to work there, and that $8/hr job is right next door. Wouldn't it be better to take the nearby job just so you don't have to shell out a couple thousand dollars on a car?

Actually, it's not. Let's say you've found two jobs, jobs A and B. Job A pays $8/hr and job B pays $15/hr, both have 40-hour work weeks. But job B requires a car and job A does not. How do you know which one to pick? Unless you plan on moving in the next couple of years, it's best to go with job B. Why? Because if you buy a cheap car, the extra $7/hr will make up for the cost of the car and gas in only a few years.

As you read that, you may be saying, "A few years? That's kind of a long time." Well yeah, it is, but when it comes to money, things take a long time. In the above example, you are essentially investing by buying a car. You may not see returns on your investment for a while, but you will see returns.

If you come away from this post with nothing else, remember this: investment is a long-term affair. Investing for the short-term almost always leads to loss, but investing for the long-term almost always leads to profit.