A financial topic that nearly everyone has an opinion on is car ownership. Do you buy new and drive it into the ground? Do you buy slightly used after the early depreciation hit? Do you buy a cheaper 10-year-old car, drive it for a while, sell it for not much less, and repeat?

Reddit user nmtxinsc2 put together an interesting car cost comparison of the total cost of ownership for these options and more. Here is the final graphic, which you should click to enlarge:

Assumptions. These are not based on average or historical car values, but from a theoretical cost model for a single car. A quick overview:

• Car Value. New price $32,000. Value depreciates exponentially down to $2,000 after 20 year lifespan. The historical depreciation behavior of a Ford F-150 is a general benchmark.
• Maintenance. From $0 to $800 over lifespan.
• Insurance. From $742 to $300 over lifespan.
• Fuel efficiency. MPG goes from 25 to 16 over lifespan. 12,000 miles a year at $2.50 a gallon.

Don’t agree? You can download the source spreadsheet and adjust any of the assumptions yourself.

Observations. It’s not surprising that leasing a brand-new car every 3 years is the most expensive, or that buying a 10-year used car and keeping it for a while is the least expensive. However, it may interest you that the calculations show that, for example:

• You would save ~$68,000 over 20 years if you Buy 10-year-old Used Car/Keep 5 years instead of always doing 3-year New Leases.
• You would save ~$20,000 over 20 years if you Buy New/Keep 10 years instead of Buy new/Keep 5 years.
• You would save ~$8,000 over 20 years if you Buy 5-year-old Used Car/Keep 15 years instead of Buy New/Keep 20 years.

My own thoughts on managing car costs. I like reading about models and statistics like this. However, my rule of thumb on affordability is more simple and behaviorally-based. If you want to achieve early retirement, you should only pay cash for cars. In my opinion, car debt and credit card debt are equally harmful to your financial health. In fact, auto loans may be worse – many can garnish your wages even after the car is repossessed. Financing obscures the real cost. When you’re faced with writing a huge check for $20,000 or whatever, your decision-making clarity is greatly improved.

I enjoyed reading this NYT article When the Gospel of Minimalism Collides With Daily Life. The “Minimalist Mom” was profiled who vowed to not buy their kids anything for an entire year (2013). How does she live now?

These days, she warned, their two-story London house is far from minimalist. “Lego bricks strewn across the floor, poster paints cluttering the breakfast table, children’s drawings covering the fridge,” she said. In hindsight, she said, some of the trade-offs she made as the Minimalist Mom, like spending days looking for free toilet-training underpants for her toddler, “may not have been the best investment of my time.”

Ms. Garlick cautions those flirting with such a lifestyle change, “Chasing any ideal, whether it’s minimalism or anything else, isn’t the way forward.”

“Family life,” she added, “and actually any life probably, is at its best when it’s a bit scruffy and messy.” Being the Minimalist Mom entailed some daily mental gymnastics, she said, and required her to say no to her son about buying certain things, purely “in pursuit of a principle.” Today, she said, she feels more relaxed and happier, without the added worry of so much minimalism.

I’m sure she felt a lot of pressure to keep up with her commitment. It can be hard to keep projecting the perfect life (credit: Fowl Language)…

Perfection is exhausting. I figure if two people cut their consumer waste by 50%, that’s the same effect on the environment as one person living as before and another person fitting all their waste into a tiny jar.

The perfect frugal early retiree. I observe this dynamic at work in the “frugal” and “early retirement” communities as well. Very quickly, an ideal forms. Small home. 15-year-old used econobox car. Better yet, bike 30 miles a day or use public transportation exclusively. At least two side hustles and your hobbies must consist of couponing, dumpster-diving, and visiting garage sales to resell on Amazon and eBay.

My goals is to not teach my children any specific ideal, but instead that the world is full of options. You don’t need to spend like everyone around you, and you don’t need to live like everyone around you.

I have to admit, I enjoy reading about extremes. You can learn a lot from people living at the extreme and it can help inspire a change within your life. The key is to not treat it like a religion (“gospel”). Pick and choose what works for you. It shouldn’t feel like you’re in a cult. Otherwise, it’s conformity all over again.

Our family does not fit into any ideal. We have not optimized our life solely based on savings rates and early retirement. We chose to have three kids (higher expenses). We chose to work half-time instead of paying for daycare (lower net income). We intentionally spend more so that we can travel (supplemented by points and miles) and are also putting some funds aside some money for future education to take advantage of time and tax-exempt 529 growth (hopefully the kids will see this and appreciate compounding returns and long-term investing).

I suppose my pre-Uber generation might be the last one to equate having your own car with fun and freedom. In high school, I would comb through the “Under $2,000” section of the newspaper classified ads every day. How it looked didn’t matter as long as it meant I could go places without my parents. More recently, I bought a cheap beater car on Craigslist in order to learn how to drive a stick shift. Goofing around in that thing was great nostalgic fun, although I sold it soon after.

This Car and Driver article compares the various places that you can find your own cheap-yet-decent car:

• Impound lots
• Junkyards
• Airport Auctions
• Public Auctions
• The Spare Car on Facebook
• Government Auctions

The author Steven Lang has been an “auto auctioneer, car dealer, and part owner of an auto auction for nearly two decades”. Amazingly, even after inflation the target price point is under $1,000.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: To spend less than $1000 on a car, you have to be willing to risk that money and spend maybe $500 to $1000 more to get it back into tip-top mechanical shape. So do yourself a big favor and don’t be lazy in your pursuit. Go where you can have the least uncertainty and invest in the automotive beauty that lies within.

While I still enjoy learning tips about the “hunt”, these days you will find me driving around in a comfortable and reliable Toyota Minivan. My philosophy is now “buy new and drive it for at least a decade”.

See also: Top 10 Best Dirt Cheap Beater Car Models?

If you are like me and have to purchase multiple Epipens every year, you may like to know that CVS has a new generic Epipen alternative with a cash cost of $110 with a cost of $10 for many people with commercial health insurance. In most cases, the discount can be applied right at the pharmacy counter. You have heard of Adrenaclick, but this is technically a generic version of Adrenaclick made by the same laboratory.

Patients can now purchase the authorized generic for Adrenaclick® at a cash price of $109.99 for a two-pack – the lowest cash price in the market. This authorized generic is a Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved device with the same active ingredient as other epinephrine auto-injector devices.

Many parents of children with allergies have to buy multiple Epipens. The school usually requires one to be stored with them at all times in the classroom. If there is an afterschool program in a different area, that’s another Epipen. You may also want one to keep one at home, one at the grandparent’s house, and more for your purse, “Go Bag”, or vehicles. On top of all that, they expire after only one year, so you have to buy them all over again every school year.

Even with health insurance, they may only cover one or two, or perhaps you have a high deductible. Epipen made the news when the cash cost reached $600, but even at lower prices it can all add up quite quickly. I haven’t tried to buy any of these CVS versions yet, but I will look into before the next school year starts.

CVS has the following advice for those switching over. Note that an existing prescription for “Epipen” may not work as that is a brand name, so you’ll need a new one written for “epinephrine auto-injector”.

How can a patient switch a prescription from EpiPen to the lowest-cost epinephrine auto-injector?
First, the patient should speak with his or her prescriber about whether the authorized generic for Adrenaclick is a good fit for their specific medical needs. The prescriber can then write a prescription for an “epinephrine auto-injector” to ensure the lowest-cost product is filled. Patients who already have a prescription on file with CVS Pharmacy can ask their pharmacist to check with the prescriber about making the change.

You may also want to print out this $100 off coupon and bring it in.