My sister Meredith called me today. Let me paint you a picture dear reader. This is my youngest sister. Meredith lives in Alabama. She has a doctorate in Radiation Biology and is studying ways to use viruses to help attack cancer. She’s a smart girl and is following her life dream to do research that will make a difference. She has a genius IQ and a debt load to beat the band to go with it.

So she calls me because she wants to go buy a new car. She wants me to play devils advocate and talk her out of it. She knows I will be a voice of “reason”. The fact that we haven’t spoken in several months… well. that goes by the way side now that she wants sisterly advice. But of course, I am happy to provide it even though I am slightly irked and feel cheap and used. (whatever!) But alas, she knows me well. Talking about money is almost as good as talking about sex.

She has an old NEON. The car is a beater and she hates it. It just doesn’t make her feel good. However she is tens of thousands of dollars in debt, has no emergency fund saved, has a husband that is only sporadically working (women in my family seem to find unemployed males very attractive – it’s a curse) and a “research” job that doesn’t pay as well as the private sector. She’s also teaching a few Anatomy courses at the local community colleges to bring in some extra money. She’s working hard to try to pay down the debt, but now she wants to go smack on 15K on top of it.

Cause you know how it is. When you are debt and you don’t think you will ever not be in debt, well… then… why not just add some more on there? Buying things is a salve for all kinds of wounds.

Her car works. But the allure of “zero down and zero interest” piques her interest. And of course, they are only offering for the one car left on the lot. She feels like she must act. And she must act NOW.

So we had a talk.

I told her if she really wanted a new car, then to focus on not saying “no” to the new car, but delaying her gratification. Every month she can go without having this new car, is equivalent to her earning 1.50 more an hour at work. Is it really worth giving up a 1.50 an hour? Would she rather have a new car or a raise?

Not to mention, the thousands of dollars she has saved to pay off her debt, would now go out the window. Cause she would be slapping another 15K in debt would add to the debt she started with a year ago. Obliterating the progress she has made

And then there’s the whole philosophy about buying new cars to begin with. I read a great article in one of my investment porn magazines about if you only bought cars 2 years old or older every 6 years between the ages of 20 and 60 and banked JUST the depreciation savings… you’d end up with a million dollars.

She said she was going to take my advice and not buy the car. We decided that it would be cheaper for her to pay $100 to detail the car and $200 for her to get a pedicure and a massage to feel better. Car would feel good, she would feel good and she would save thousands.

As I keep saying to my husband: Day Spa’s can be a salve for the spirit! Sometimes a day at the Day Spa can save you more money then you realize.

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