Killing time until it's good and dead.

Bought me some car insurance tonight--now I feel like a real grownup. I wanted to buy the bare minimum required by law 'cause I'm a really good driver and don't go around hitting things. California is a screwy state. It requires you to have car insurance; however, the minimum property liability is $5000. How useless is that? Five grand? Maybe I'm jaded 'cause I live in Orange County, but there are very few cars on the road worth less than $5000.

I even called an agent today to try and figure out this insurance thing. The dude seemed kinda surprised that I didn't want any coverage in case I have an accident that is my fault.

"I'm looking to keep my rates as low as possible," I told him.

"We can set you up with something that has a high deductible--like $1000," he offered.

"My car is only worth $2000--why would I want a $1000 deductible?"

I really don't understand people. Folks always wanna have a new shiny car--it's so vain. A car's only job is to get you from point A to point B. My 18-year old Honda is just as good as your 2007 Hummer. The amount of money people put into cars is absurd. When someone buys a new car nowadays, they rarely have the cash to purchase the thing so they gotta finance. Most people who have car payments fork over two or three hundred dollars a month. On top of that, you gotta get insurance. You can't go the cheapo route like me 'cause when you're driving around in a $10,000 car, you sure as hell want insurance to cover any damage. That'll run another hundred--hundred fifty a month.

That's just insane--how can anyone put three to four hundred dollars a month into a car? It just seems like a poor use of dollars compared to getting an older car for one tenth of the cost. That kinda money could be applied to something far more useful--like getting rid of those credit card bills.

And the worst part? When someone finally gets their car paid off, most of the time they go a buy a new car--so the process never ends! No wonder we live in a debt-filled society.

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