Sunday, January 31, 2016

Oil Change Interval: Miles and Time

How Often Do You Need to Change Your Oil?

How Often Do You Need to Change Your Oil?


Changing the oil regularly is important to keep your car running well.  Clean, fresh oil does a good job of reducing friction in your engine and protecting it from wear and tear.  Over time, your oil gets dirty and it loses its ability to protect your engine.

But how often do you really need to change the oil in your car?  This topic has been in the news a lot over the years.  The old guideline was to change your oil ever 3,000 miles or 3 months- which ever came first.  Some of the windshield reminder stickers given out by service shops still have this outdated information.

Most modern cars call for oil changes every 5,000 to 10,000 miles, depending on driving conditions.  Short trips that don't get the car fully warmed up are harder on oil.

News organizations including The New York Times, Time Magazine, and Scientific American have all weighed in on this question- and all suggest that a 3,000 mile oil change is no longer needed due to advances in engine design and oil chemistry.

I'll share the question from a reader that inspired this article, and then my answer:

"We bought a Toyota RAV4 on October 20.  It was traded in a few days before that and they did some maintenance stuff on it including changing the oil.  

The sticker on the windshield says they changed it on October 15th and that we should change it again on Jan 15th which I haven't done.  We have driven it 911 miles since Oct. 15th. (We don't drive much any more).  The manual for the car says to change the oil every 5k miles. If we did that we wouldn't change the oil for over a year.

Suggestion on when to change?

Also change at the dealer or the Firestone store or Walmart? The dealer is more expensive..."

Thank you for your question!  Although changing the oil in a car is relatively inexpensive- around $30 for a full service oil change- you don't want to waste time and money changing the oil too often.  Plus changing oil more frequently than is needed results in more dirty oil that has to be disposed of somewhere.

Oil Change Interval- Mileage

I pulled up the recommended service interval for a Toyota Rav4 that I found in the Warranty and Maintenance Guide.  The recommended oil change interval is 5,000 miles or 6 months- whichever comes first.

So if the oil was last changed in October, your oil change is good until April if you have driven less than 5,000 miles.  Unless you go on a major spring break trip, you should be well under 5,000 miles on your current oil change by the time the 6 months is up in April.

Oil Change Interval- Time

Since you have only driven 911 miles, you might be able to run longer than 6 months without changing the oil.  Some other websites I checked indicated that oil should be good for up to 12 months.  Over time, oil can become corrosive due to increased acidity and damage engine parts.  Short trips where you engine is not fully warmed up are especially hard on the oil.

I would probably stay with the 5,000 mile/6 month recommendation from the maintenance log for the RAV4.  In general, I would suggest checking and follow the oil change interval recommendations from your vehicle's manufacturer.

Where to Get Your Oil Changed?

Now for the question of where to get your oil changed.  I have found that dealer service departments tend to be more expensive.  Even though the dealer shops usually have free donuts, I take my car to Midas for routine maintenance.  I have received great service there and I use coupons to save at Midas.  Other similar shops include Tuffy, Jiffy Lube, Walmart and Firestone as you mentioned.

Best of luck!


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Saturday, January 23, 2016

Home Disimprovement: Downgrade and Save Money

For Cheapskates Only...

Home Disimprovement Can Save Money

When I bought my house a couple years ago, it had two doorbell buttons near the front door.  The funny thing was that neither one worked.  Pushing the buttons did not make the doorbell ring.

Here's what I think happened: the original doorbell button installed when the house was new in 1981 stopped working at some point, so someone installed a second doorbell button.  The replacement was a wireless doorbell button, and was installed right next to the first one.

I didn't pay much attention to the doorbell button situation until Halloween.  Trick-or-Treaters were pushing the doorbell buttons, but nothing was happening and we didn't know anyone was there waiting outside.  Visitors did not know to knock since there were two doorbell buttons.  It was rather confusing.

So what to do?  I thought about putting up a sign that says "Please knock, doorbells don't work".  I decided against this because it would look sort of tacky to post a sign explaining that something doesn't work.  Plus, I thought the sign would get wet and fade over time and would require periodic replacement.  So I needed to figure out another solution to the doorbell situation.

Maybe I should fix the doorbell button?  Perhaps add a third doorbell button next to the existing two broken ones?  But then I would probably need to add a sign to indicate which button works.  Plus I would need to find and buy a doorbell button, install it and get it working.  This sounded like a lot of trouble.  I needed an easier solution, and I found it.

I decided to do a downgrade and save some money.  My dogs usually bark like maniacs whenever someone even thinks of approaching the house.  It would be hard to hear a doorbell ring over the barking of my dogs anyway.  Why not just remove the broken doorbell buttons?  This wouldn't cost anything, and then it would be obvious to visitors that they should knock without the need for signage to explain which doorbell button to press.

I disconnected the doorbell ringer from the transformer and removed both broken doorbell buttons next to the front door.  I used some caulk that matches the siding to fill in the hole.  Problem solved.  Cost: $0.  Time: about 10 minutes.

After "downgrade" I no longer have a doorbell...

In this case, I am better off with zero doorbell buttons than with three doorbell buttons.  Sometimes a downgrade is better than an upgrade, and you can save some money as well.


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Monday, January 4, 2016

Can You Really Buy Hope for $2.99?

Buy hope for $2.99?

Can You Buy Hope for $2.99?

Today I went shopping with my wife at the consignment shop.  She wanted to check out some used furniture and I wanted to check my balance to see if I had money waiting for me.

We found a nice old dresser for the bedroom, but we did not buy it.  It was a solid old unit, made with real wood and dovetail joints.  But I decided to get rid of some of my clothes that wouldn’t fit in the closet instead of buying a dresser for more storage.  This seemed like a good way to save some money and avoid buying yet another thing.

I picked up $3.88 for some old clothes that I sold.  Considering the decision to get rid of some clothes, I can look forward to more payouts like this.  I like shopping at a store where I can walk out with more money than when I walked in!

On the way out of the store, I saw something for sale at the check-out.  There were some impulse items for sale with a sign that read:

  “Hope $2.99”.

 I was intrigued.  For one thing, I had $3.88 in my wallet, so I could actually afford to buy what they were selling.  But how can you sell hope for $2.99?

I moved in closer to see what was in the packages that you could get for $2.99.  I was disappointed to see that it was a package of rope.  The sign actually said “Rope $2.99”.


Hope for $2.99?
Is There Still Hope?

Even though hope was not for sale as I had initially thought, I began to wonder... could you really buy hope for $2.99?

For this exercise, let’s assume that if you have some money that you have some hope for the future.  If you were completely broke and started saving $2.99 every day, would this be enough to provide hope for a stable financial future?

Saving $2.99 per day adds up to about $90 per month.  First, let’s look at how this would grow in a savings account.

If you put away $2.99 per day (round to $90 per month) you would have:
$5,400 after 5 years
$10,800 after 10 years
$21,600 after 20 years
$32,400 after 30 years

You would do a little better in a bank account at 0.85% interest:
$5,514 after 5 years
$11,268 after 10 years
$23,536 after 20 years
$36,891 after 30 years

If you really want to buy some hope for $2.99, let's try to find a better rate of return.

What if you invest the money in the stock market instead of a bank account?  The stock market can go up or it can go down.  Over the long term, the historical rate of return is around 8%.

Here's how your daily contribution of $2.99 would accumulate with a 8% rate of return:
$6,613 after 5 years
$16,465 after 10 years
$53,011 after 20 years
$134,132 after 30 years

You can check out these calculations yourself with my Saving Calculator.  Just put in a $0 starting investment amount, set the monthly investment amount to $90, and set the interest rate for your investment scenario.

It is starting to look like you can buy hope for $2.99 after all.  If you wanted to save up a million dollars assuming an 8% average return, it would take just over 54 years.

If you start buying hope soon enough, you could end up with some real money.

Not to dash your hopes, but there are some things we have not considered in the simple calculations above.  Inflation over time tends to reduce purchasing power of your money in the future, so what looks like a lot of money in these calculations may not buy as much as you would think in the future.

Also, you will have to deal with taxes.  One way to avoid paying taxes on a retirement investment is to contribute to a Roth IRA.  You do not have to pay capital gains taxes if you follow rules that apply to withdrawals.

Buying hope for $2.99 seems like a pretty good deal.  The best time to start buying hope was 54 years ago.  The second best time to start is right now.


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