I recently wrote a column about how my husband’s 1992 Toyota Camry is on its last legs. The photo posted with the story cracks me up because the shot was intended to show how the key is stuck in the ignition. But instead it just highlights how we’re total slobs. Thank god you can’t whiff the indescribable-but-I’ll-try motor oil/grease/hot Goldfish crackers smell too!

To recap. The car has a lot of problems, but it still runs. And it does not qualify for Cash for Clunkers. And its trade-in or charitable value is laughable.

I thought writing the column would help me to retire the household topic of whether we should buy a car now (answer: No) .  But all of this cash for clunker talk makes me envious.

Part of me wants to join the new car party. I know it’s expensive. I know my car can run longer. I know I can buy used. But buying a new car would help the economy. There are good deals out there. And frankly, we can afford it if we want to, Cash for Clunkers or not. It’s all a matter of priorities.

Our 2003 Ford Windstar with 93,000 miles on it does qualify for the program. The $3,500 government dough plus a $1,500 cash rebate and a discount I get because my father used to work for Ford would equal a pretty good deal on the Ford Flex, the grocery getter I think we’d buy to haul around the three kids and the pop-up camper. I’m all for fuel efficiency, but  you try fitting three car seats in a Focus.

So I played around on the Ford web site and got a quote. Picked up the phone to call Mr. Kablog. His response? “$20,000 is $20,000.”

How true.

Yes, it’s a good time to buy a car. But cars are expensive, even if you qualify for the rebates and incentives.

In the next weeks as Cash for Clunkers is in the news, I’ll try to think of Jason each time I have the urge to head to the dealer’s lot. He sent me the following email:

My clunker is a 1999 Grand Caravan. It has 140,000 miles on it. The value is $2,000 because it is in poor condition – lots of body rust. The Caravan is list at 18 MPG so I would qualify for the $4,500 cash for clunkers incentive.

Originally I wanted use the cash for clunkers to get a small high MPG car. However after much consideration I decided not to.

The Caravan should last another two years (another 15,000 to 20,000 miles). Based on the current economic situation and uncertain job market I decided to wait until the car dies and tow it to the junk yard.

Readers, any of you planning on taking advantage of CARS? If so, what made you pull the trigger? Any trouble finding a vehicle?

If you are considering a new car, check out this tip sheet from Americans Well-Informed on Auto Retailing Economics.

I’ll keep you posted on my car-waffling. As you know, it’s often the behavioral/psychological aspects of finance that trip us up. And my heart might just overrule my head on this one.

I’m definitely an ant with a newly diagnosed affliction: hyperopia. I’m an oversaver “so obsessed with preparing for the future that they can’t enjoy the present, and they end up looking back sadly on all their lost opportunities for fun.” 

Read the rest of this  NYT story here.

Perhaps this is why my gut reaction when invited to two out of town weddings in the next year was “no way we can afford to go” instead of “these will be two meaningful events and we can’t miss ‘em.”

Last week I wrote my column on a book by certified financial planner Rick Kahler called “The Financial Wisdom of Ebenezer Scrooge.”

In it, I described his concept of money scripts– the money beliefs you carry with you that influence your behaviors around money. As Kahler puts it:

These Money Scripts are at the core of all of our financial behaviors, both beneficial and problematic. They are the internalized and typically unconscious beliefs we have about what money is, what it is not, what it can or cannot do, the role we play in it, and the role it plays in our lives. Every Money Script has an element of truth in it. Not the whole truth, mind you, but an element of truth. 

Money Scripts will always influence our financial beliefs and behaviors and thus every aspect of our lives until we die.

Here are the 10 most common money scripts identified by Kahler. Any common ones you don’t see on the list but you see all around you?

And as Tiny Tim would say: “Merry Christmas and God bless us everyone!”

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How do we fix the stock market and the economy?

We fix confidence, says one local marketwatcher. But how do we do that?

Here’s what Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist for Wells Capital Management, had to say in his latest newsletter:

The U.S. is facing one of its most severe confidence crises in its history and it has little experience in dealing with such a deep and prolonged period of widespread and dominating fear! (more…)

Allianz Life released their second study on women and money today.

While some of the Women Money and Power Phase II study findings are interesting, I can’t help but wonder: Would men have answered much differently?

For example women who were surveyed answered the following regarding financial information:

Information is overwhelming/too much/hard to sort through	44 percent
Information is complicated or hard to understand	36 percent
Materials are really boring and dry	32 percent
Don’t understand terminology/materials seem foreign	26 percent

I would not be the least bit surprised to learn that many guys feel the same way. It’s not a female thing to think that much of the terminology and materials that insurance companies utilize is hard for even finance majors to digest.

Here’s another example

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