The History of Mike's Auto Shack

In 1988 my wife Nancy and I bought a brand new minivan. It was rather expensive, and we were determined to make it last as long as we could. We had a goal of making it last for ten years. After the payments were paid at the end of four years, I decided that since I’d been paying just over 300.00 a month for the previous four years, I may as well continue to do that since I had become accustomed to paying that much per month for the years we had been paying for the van. Since the van was paid for, instead of paying that monthly amount to a finance company, I put it in a savings account. That way in a few years I’d have enough money saved to pay cash when we went to purchase another automobile. We did just that, and at the end of just over five more years, we had managed to save over $20,000.00, with the interest that was accumulated on the savings. Somewhere in between the ninth and tenth year, it was time to start looking for a new car again.

My wife Nancy wanted a new Suburban. I had over twenty thousand dollars at that point and thought “yes, this time I’m paying cash for whatever car she wants!” Yes, I know, those of you that have a basic understanding of auto prices are laughing right now because you realize what I did not know then, and that was that twenty thousand dollars for a new Suburban are only a nice down payment!!!