Entries Tagged 'Cars' ↓

Well, I’m sitting here waiting for the hubby to get out of the shower to take me to work since my car is still in the shop. The good news is that nothing in the undercarriage was damaged so I just need the tires changed and get an alignment. I should get it back by the end of today or tomorrow. I drew a picture of what it looked like when the tires were killed by the debris and my hubby didn’t appreciate it. He said he has seen flat tires before. So I thought I’d share my art here on the blog:

Anyway, have a great Friday everyone.

Update:  The Bagmobile is back! The carshop put the good tire in front onto the back and got 2 new tires installed and balanced them.  It only cost around $180 for the tires and installation!  The car also got a lot of other needed work done.  Apparently the battery failed the load test because it is 8 years old.  So that got replaced.  Assorted oils and fluids also got replaced.  The windshield wipers are now new because the 8 year old ones were falling apart.  The reason the car had so many original parts is because I really don’t drive it much.  It has 47300 miles now, and it’s 8.5 years old.  The carshop recommended that I get my timing belt replaced because the manual states it should be replaced every 7 years or every 105000 miles.  They quoted me $725 for the service.  I have a 2000 Honda Accord EX so I looked around online as to how much that service should cost.  Apparently people on Honda forums quote anywhere from $600 to $900.  I just asked another shop for a quote on that job and I will get it done soon.  I am so glad the Bagmobile is back!! It’s no longer sad!  I really wish that I didn’t have to drive, but San Mateo is such an anti-public transit county that they blocked BART from coming through.  Sigh…

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The more I drive on these crazy Northern California highways the more thankful I am to God that I am alive. Everything related to our cars was going quite well this month.  For example, the hubby and I have both been driving slower on the highways and we saved quite a bit of gas.  I haven’t had to refuel for a month now.  The hubby’s point for an accident three years ago also came off his record a few weeks ago so we got his car insurance lowered.  Just when I thought that we were on a roll…

Today I got on the 101 north  as usual and started driving fairly normally between 55 to 65 miles per hour on the right lane.  As I neared the Holly exit in San Carlos I saw a paint can  and some other metal strut fly off the rear of a car in the lane left of me.  It was about 4 or 5 cars away and so I slowed down a bit, however, the can and some other debris kept on tumbling in my lane and I swerved a bit to the right.  I guess I didn’t swerve enough because I heard a loud bang, and I felt my car sink to the ground on the left.

I felt that my wheels were on the asphalt so I slowed down more and pulled over to the shoulder.  It turns out that the debris slashed both of my tires on the driver’s side.  Then I saw at least 20 cars behind me swerving into the shoulder to avoid the debris.  I guess my car was really the only one that got damaged because the debris stopped moving after I hit it. At first I thought that I didn’t have my cellphone, but I found it in my purse and called my hubby first to tell him what happened and asked him to send an email to my manager.  Then I called my insurance company to report the incident.  They sent a towtruck for me, and luckily the carshop I usually go to was only 2 miles away.  So I called my carshop (A+ Japanese Auto in San Carlos)  to say that I was sending over my car.

Anyway, I felt better once I got into the towtruck since the driver was kind of funny.  He said he went to an accident scene on highway 280 last week where a portapotty fell off a truck and splattered 3 to 4 cars.  The car in the front of the pile had crap all over it and he said to the driver, “well this is a crappy situation”.  That made the driver and her dad laugh quite a bit.  At least my car only had its tires slashed and the rest of it looked fine.

The whole impact of how lucky I was started hitting me as I sat in the office of A+ Japanese Auto.  I don’t know why it is but I tend to be extremely calm when crazy things are happening but think about it and panic over it later.  My car could have flipped over from the tire popping (in fact that has happened to one of my dad’s friends), or if the debris landed straight in the lane left to me maybe a car in that lane might have swerved and smashed into my car.  The possibilities of a giant highway  disaster were countless.   The carshop took in my car and they will inspect the undercarriage and fix my tires. So now my car is safely parked in their garage.  They also gave me a ride to work since I was only a few miles away from my office.

At the office my boss said to me, “I am glad you are alive!”  Well, I am, too.  I told my mother in law about it and she said she prays for traveling mercies for me and the hubby and his sister everyday.  I am really thankful that someone was watching over me.

This incident will probably set me back a few hundred dollars since my insurance has a $500 deductible, but that’s really the last thing on my mind now.  I am a little sad that all four tires have to replaced because they are fairly new, but I am sure my carshop will do a good job with my car since I have had my car serviced by them for a while now and their service has been consistently good.

Anyway, that’s the story of my crazy morning, and I am extremely grateful that I am alive to tell it to you.  I hope you were entertained!

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Welcome to the 55th edition of The Carnival of Money Stories. It’s that time of the year again. In Vietnam they are celebrating the national holiday of Gio to Hung Vuong, but here in the United States it is time for all of us to hand in our tax forms. I just begrudgingly mailed out my tax forms with payment, but today’s carnival certainly cheered me up. We have nearly 30 great stories about life and money. Enjoy!

Editor’s Choice

Praveen writes that The IRS Are Humans, Too… at My Simple Trading System. Apparently you don’t have to be freaked out when you receive a letter from the IRS.

Will presents Rogue Debt Collectors Illegally Freeze Debtors’ Accounts posted at Your Finish Rich Plan. This is a scary story of debt collectors who would freeze pension statements.

Silicon Valley Blogger tells us I’ve Left My Job! Tying Up The Loose Ends posted at The Digerati Life. I am so jealous!

Booze Tax

Kyle from Amateur Asset Collector gives us Top 4 Money Wasters in Your 20s. It seems like Kyle paid a bit too much taxes on alcohol when he was in his twenties.

Mr. Cheap presents Cross Border Shopping posted at Quest For Four Pillars. This is Mr. Cheap’s story about the tariffs he had to pay on hard liquor. That will teach him to be a cheap boozehound.

Gas Tax

The rising cost of gas is really cutting into many of our pocketbooks. Here are some stories. about how gas affects people.

MoneyKing presents Ditch That Huge SUV! Blah. Blah ,

Financial Learn presents The Frustration of High Gas Prices posted at Financial Learn.

Business

Mark Butler presents My Big Fat Learning Experience: Vending Machines posted at The Butler Project. We can all learn quite a bit from this story of entrepreneurship.

Career

FFB presents Four Ways I Upgraded Out Of My Raises posted at Free From Broke. More money means more taxes, but it doesn’t have to mean more expenses.

Life. Money. Development. presents The 7 Attributes of Leadership posted at Life. Money. Development.

Credit Cards

FIRE Finance presents UAL Visa Story! posted at FIRE Finance.

Ryan Taylor presents How Much I Make in Cash Back Credit Card Rewards posted at Millionaire Money Habits.

Hank presents The age old question: How many credit cards should I have? posted at My Investing Blog.

Debt

Here are two stories about snowflaking! You can get rid of debt one flake at a time and these two stories illustrate how you can do it, too.

NtJS presents What is: Debt-Snowflaking? posted at not the jet set.

paidtwice presents How I Started Snowflaking at I’ve Paid For This Twice Already….

Investing

Passive Income Investor presents Cheney Betting Against The Dollar posted at LIVING OFF DIVIDENDS & PASSIVE INCOME.

MoneyNing presents Financial Cost of Being Careless posted at Personal Finance Blog by Money Ning.

The Dough Roller presents Reader Question: Should $15,000 be invested in P2P Lending or in a Better Mortgage? posted at The Dough Roller.

Net Worth

Want to retire early? These stories of people who managed to accumulate a huge net worth at a relatively young age.

PT presents Where Are They Now? Podcast Interview with a Millionaire in the Making: Todd French posted at Prime Time Money.

GBlogger presents Success Stories: $800,000 Net Worth By His Early 40s? posted at CAN I GET RICH ON A SALARY.

Real Estate

Dorian Wales presents How to Successfully Navigate Your Way through Home Renovations: 10 Practical Tips posted at Personal Financier.

Retirement

Amy presents Yale’s Investment Wizard posted at My Daily Dollars.

Saving

FMF presents Do You Buy Things and Never Use Them? posted at Free Money Finance

Other

Chief Family Officer presents Why I Decided Not To Join Revolution MoneyExchange posted at Chief Family Officer. The loose privacy policy prompted Chief Family Officer to not join the new PayPal clone. I haven’t joined either, because I’m just not really into having another financial account.

First Lady Of Poker presents Women Are Naturals At Poker posted at Shopping and Poker Blog. This is an interesting story about why women can beat men at poker.

The Financial Blogger presents We Are Living In A Good Country.

Raymond presents U-Haul Rental Trucks Suck But They Are The Cheapest Around posted at Money Blue Book.

Jeremy Zongker presents All I Really Needed to Know About Managing Money I Learned From Music posted at Debt Advice.

Madison presents Applying the Five Fundamentals of Financial Success posted at My Dollar Plan.

That is all for this edition of the Carnival of Money Stories. Thank you all for participating and a link back to the carnival is always appreciated. If you have more stories you can always submit it to the next carnival which is being held at Can I Get Rich on a Salary. This is a relatively new blog that is very well written. Now if you haven’t already, go out and file your taxes!

Photo Credit: Paul Keleher 

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I really have no words for today’s accident on the 101 besides that I am glad that no one is hurt. Basically the stretch of highway that I drive from the office to home was shutdown in both directions because some woman named Revuelta (flipped over in Spanish) flipped over an oil tanker with her minivan and spilled over 2000 gallons of oil onto highway 101 causing the asphalt to deteriorate. I was lucky not to be stuck in that jam because a coworker of mine tried to go home around five pm and came back to the office past six saying that he got through maybe 2 miles in an hour. All the local streets were packed to the brim and El Camino was literally a parking lot. I left around 8pm and took the 280 home and I have never seen that many cars on that highway before. Anyway, in honor of this accident, here are a list of supplies that I think commuters in Northern California may need for survival.

1. A Brick - This is for crossing the various bridges.  In case you have automatic windows that don’t open once your car is under water then  you may need a brick to break the glass.  Otherwise bricks are also good for self defense.

2. Life Vests - One of my ex-coworkers actually has these in his car because he can’t swim.  He is afraid that if he were crossing one of the bridges his car may fall in and he may drown and he bought the life vests after he heard on the news a bridge collapsed in some other state.  I think this is reasonable and life vests are not very heavy.

3. A Fire Extinguisher - So the highway patrol closed down most of the southbound lanes today because they were afraid the gasoline was going to catch on fire.  So in case your car is on fire a fire extinguisher may be good equipment to have.

4. Liquids and Snack Packs -  Imagine you were one of those people who were stuck on the highway for hours upon hours.  Actually, I have been there when I tried to drive home one Christmas.  It took me four hours to drive 40 miles on the 101 from the Peninsula to the East Bay.  Water and snack packs are needed to keep your energy up.

5. Gas Mask or Hazmat Suit -  Having lived here for ten years I can’t believe how many times hazardous materials have spilled over on the highways.  Last year a highway connector freaking burned down because of another tanker turn over. Seriously, a gas mask or hazmat suit may save your life one day.

6. Board Games, Cards, and Other Entertainment -  If it gets really bad and you have to shut off your engine, you may have time for a friendly game with the rest of the travelers who are stuck.  If you are a loner it might be good to have portable gaming or a portable DVD player.

7. Car Charger for you Cell Phone - This is pretty essential everywhere I guess.

On days like this I wish I still lived in a high density area with plentiful public transportation, but then again, a bus could be stuck on these highways too and I wouldn’t be packing my gear. The bottom line is people need to be more careful when they drive. For some reason Northern California is rife with bad drivers riding in fancy cars.  It was really a culture shock when I moved from Hawaii to here and saw so many rude drivers that think they own every single road. If everyone just slowed down a bit and tried not to cut people off, then maybe we could have less tankers rolling over.

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In a perfect world, everything is priced at the most reasonable amount a customer wants to pay and haggling is not necessary, but unfortunately, most of the time the sticker price on products are meant to maximize the profit of the seller. When I first came to American I lived in Hawaii. My parents were graduate students and they worked part time at the tourist shops near Waikiki. Sometimes I would go there and do homework while they worked, and they talked about how much the tokens they sold cost the shop, and how much they charged the tourists. Most notably, my mother sold many fanny packs with tropical prints that cost $4.00 each wholesale. She was able to sell them for anywhere from $40.00 to $90.00 to tourists all around the world. She basically taught me that no matter where you are, you have to get the lowest price as you can as a buyer, and get the highest price you can as a seller. Since we are Chinese, we are very familiar with negotiating for a better offer when it comes to purchasing things, and it really surprised us that most people do not question the pricetags in America. It seems that culturally Americans are not accustomed to asking for discounts, and some people are even embarrassed to do so. From my experience, most sellers are willing to yield to the customer and give discounts if the customer just asked politely. There is really no shame in it, and on big ticket items you could save thousands of dollars by simply opening your mouth. Anyway, here are some stories from my family and I hope that they demonstrate why you should always ask for a better deal:

Buying Shoes — A few years ago I went to Macy’s with my dad, and he really liked a couple pairs of shoes which were already on sale. He tried them on and decided to buy them. He went up to the saleslady and asked, if I buy both pair of shoes could I get a discount? The saleslady actually was really nice and smiled and took 10% off. He didn’t have to sign up for any cards or deals and he bought the shoes. So you can haggle at department stores.

Buying a Couch — Recently my fubby and I went couch shopping for our new apartment. We decided to buy a leather sectional with a sticker price of $1799. I said to my fubby, “Lets see if they can give us a better price.” The fubby said, “okay, you do the talking. I know you’re shameless.” So all I said was, “what is the best price you could give us on that couch there?” The lady recognized us from a previous visit and actually cut down the price to $1499. If we didn’t ask at all they would’ve just sold it to us for $1799.

Buying a House – My parents bought their first home in the East Bay back in 1999. It’s kind of funny because we moved to the Bay Area from Hawaii, and real estate in Hawaii was much more expensive than the Bay Area back then. So my parents thought everything was so cheap around here and found a house we all really loved after months of searching. So did my parents get into a bidding war for the home? Nope. They offered for slightly lower than the asking price. After the offer was accepted, my mom wrote another letter to the sellers about the condition of the carpets, and reduced the price a little more. I personally think that the American culture of not haggling contributed to the housing bubble at least a little bit. The artificial housing bidding wars of the past few years really inflated housing prices and in turn people had to borrow more money. What if everyone negotiated and offered reasonably? The current mortgage melt down might not be so bad if the fundamental housing price wasn’t driven up so much.

My fubby hates haggling because he thinks it’s a waste of time and he doesn’t really mind paying more. I agree with him that there is no point in negotiating prices for groceries or very small things. However, when you are purchasing something as large as a car or a home then you should never pay the full asking price. Negotiations may take time, but they can be as simple as asking, “What is the best price you could give me?” If the seller is obstinate and don’t give you a discount, you don’t lose anything, but if the seller opens up negotiations you could be saving some of your hard earned money. I really see haggling as a win-win situation for the consumer, and I hope more people just invest a few minutes in saving their money through haggling.

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