This is a companion piece to 4 Things worth the money.
1. Changing your car’s oil every 3,000 miles.
Really? Doesn’t everyone know you should change the oil in your car every 3,000 miles? It’s common knowledge that’s become so common few even question it. But chances are, if you own car that’s as much as 8 years old you’re changing your oil up to twice as often as you need to. Consult your owner’s manual, but many manufacturer recommend 5,000 – 7,500 mile in between oil changes.
2. Taking the brand-name prescription drug instead of the generic.
This is true for most things in consumer life: the generic product is often just as good as the name brand. In many cases the generic is even made by the same manufacturer, just without the flashy labeling. It’s true with many drugs too.
3. Investing in a loaded mutual fund.
Investing in no-load mutual funds can save you up to 5% in sales fees. Why wouldn’t you want an easy 5% better return on your money? There are a lot of things in investing you cannot control, fees and commission are one of the few things you can control.
4. Extended warranties.
Very few extended warranties are ever worth the money. More often than not, you’re better off putting the money you would have spent on the warranty in a high yield savings account. This is especially true of auto warranties – even if they’re not a scam.
5. Accidental death insurance.
This only covers you in the event you die in an accident. Statistically speaking, only 5% of deaths occur due to accidents. You’re better off buying term life insurance, since it will pay regardless of the cause of your death (except some slight limitations like suicide, etc..)
6. Premium gasoline.
Very few cars actually require premium gasoline, and most modern cars deliver little or no benefit when using premium gas. It’s just another thing to drain money from your pocket. Besides, regular grade gasoline is expensive enough, why pay more?
Quite useful tips. The only I do not agree about changing oil. If you do very heavy driving style, like racing, off road or permanent traffic jam, in this case it worth change oil more often rather than in manual. According to my manual i need to change oil each 5000. So 3000 mies is not completely pointless…
Really good review. Trace your spending, find which oe you can avoid or you don’t really need
Excellent post, and by the way, nice blog. Thanks for sharing.
Your info is quite helpful. There is a group here in San Diego that is scamming money on a phoney site get this for our Chula Vista Little League team that is in the finals, we all need to get together and inform each other about sacms. I was going to buy an extended warranty thru USFIDELIS but after reading the blog on this site I am going to pass.THANKS!!!!