MONEY MANNERS
DEAR JEANNE &
LEONARD: My wife and I are hard workers who’ve managed to buy a home, plus save a bit for a rainy day. We’ll soon need to replace our 12-year-old car, and we’re considering buying, for the first time in our lives, a fancy one — something flashy that would cost $20,000 more than a small economy car like the ones we’ve always bought in the past (we’re approaching 50). Here’s our dilemma: Neither my wife nor I received inheritances from our parents, and it’s very important to us to leave our only child a nice one. How can we justify spending an extra $20,000 on a car when we know that, in the long run, it will be coming out of our daughter’s inheritance? — Naga
DEAR NAGA: The same way you justify going to a movie or ordering a glass of wine when you’re out to dinner: You can’t deny yourself every pleasure in life in order to leave that much more money to your daughter.
The question, of course, is where to draw the line. Since you own a home, are in your peak earning years and have been saving all along, it sounds to us as if your daughter still will receive a nice inheritance, even if you buy that flashy car. Put another way, it doesn’t sound as if your daughter is going to need the twenty grand you’re reluctant to spend. So unless there are special circumstances that suggest she might, and we assume you’d have mentioned them if there were, the question here is not what should you do for your daughter, but what should you do for yourselves. And only you can say what will give you greater pleasure: saving the money or enjoying the car.
DEAR JEANNE & LEONARD: Sister One & Husband One, Sister Two & Husband Two, and Sister Three just went on a 3,500-mile road trip (with minimal quarreling!). They went in Sister One & Husband One’s vehicle. So how do we divide the gas expenses? Two sisters say divide by five; I say divide by three. What do you say? Also, should we factor in wear and tear on the vehicle?
— Sister Three DEAR SISTER: We say divide by three, the three being Sister Two, Husband Two and you.
Consider: The IRS estimates the average cost of driving to be 53.5 cents per mile. For most cars, gas represents 10 to 20 cents a mile of that expense. Which means that, even after you and Couple Two pay for the gas, Couple One will have paid for much more than half of the auto expense of your trip. So treating them to a nice dinner might be in order as well.
Had this been a rental car, by the way, the right way to have handled the gas — and the rental fee — would have been to divide by five: That’s how many people were transported.