RPF0356-Your_Next_Car_Should_Be_a_Minivan
00:00:00.000 | I'm back, and today we're going to do a fun one.
00:00:06.040 | No technical financial planning here today.
00:00:07.760 | We're just going to talk about minivans and why I believe that your next car should be
00:00:13.040 | a minivan, no matter who you are.
00:00:19.000 | Welcome to the Radical Personal Finance Podcast.
00:00:34.680 | My name is Joshua Sheets, and I'm your host.
00:00:36.480 | Thank you for being with me.
00:00:37.480 | Happy to be back after a few weeks away from the microphone.
00:00:40.360 | I missed you guys.
00:00:42.040 | I needed a break.
00:00:43.040 | It was a much needed break, but I did miss you.
00:00:47.280 | I didn't want to be away that long, but at the end of the day, I needed the break.
00:00:51.400 | Today, I'm back, excited, energetic, and enthusiastic.
00:00:56.080 | I think you'll like this one.
00:01:00.200 | I do welcome you to the show.
00:01:06.000 | This is the show where I'm dedicated to providing you with the knowledge, skills, insight, and
00:01:10.360 | encouragement you need to live a rich and meaningful life now while building a plan
00:01:14.440 | for financial freedom in 10 years or less.
00:01:16.760 | We've had a lot of great feedback on those past few episodes that we did on the three-part
00:01:20.080 | series discussing the details on that three-part series that is explaining that tagline.
00:01:27.760 | Last show, how to become financially free in 10 years or less, many of you have gotten
00:01:32.720 | great feedback that many of you enjoyed that.
00:01:34.360 | It's been quite popular, so thank you for that.
00:01:36.560 | We'll continue to flesh these concepts out and get them into a more actionable form for
00:01:41.400 | you than just a podcast.
00:01:42.400 | Today, we're going to do something fun and talk about minivans.
00:01:45.160 | This is a subject that's near and dear to my heart.
00:01:47.480 | In fact, just this weekend, I was with a friend of mine.
00:01:49.960 | They have one child and we were talking about vehicles and they were saying, "Well, we don't
00:01:53.720 | really like our current car."
00:01:54.720 | I said, "What are you thinking about buying?"
00:01:55.920 | They weren't thinking about buying a minivan.
00:01:57.960 | Now, of course, in personal relationships, I can't necessarily hop up and down and beat
00:02:01.840 | people on the head and say, "Listen, you've got to buy a minivan."
00:02:05.760 | That doesn't work very well, but in my podcast, I can.
00:02:09.000 | Here's the case that I'm going to make to you.
00:02:11.080 | I believe that each and every one of you should consider, if you don't currently own one,
00:02:16.400 | should consider buying a minivan as your next vehicle.
00:02:20.600 | I'm saying that with very few qualifications.
00:02:23.880 | I will, at the end of the show, get to a couple of the exceptions and talk about some of the
00:02:27.680 | exceptions to that, but we're going to start off with a very strong and powerful case for
00:02:33.920 | minivans.
00:02:34.920 | I love my minivan.
00:02:35.920 | I think that if you could get one, you would love it too.
00:02:38.480 | Today, I'm going to try to give you the ammunition you need.
00:02:41.600 | If nothing else, this show will sit here as a resource that the next time I'm having a
00:02:46.320 | conversation with a friend of mine who's not considering buying a minivan for some silly
00:02:50.720 | reason, I could just point them to this show.
00:02:52.760 | Before I get into the bulk of the content, two quick things.
00:02:55.440 | Sponsors of the day number one is me, myself.
00:02:58.520 | Back from vacation, and I've got some time in the coming weeks.
00:03:01.080 | Would you like to have some input from me on any particular financial question that
00:03:05.200 | you have?
00:03:06.200 | Well, I've set up a consulting program where you can actually consult directly with me.
00:03:10.720 | This will work through a phone call system.
00:03:13.480 | All the details can be found at RadicalPersonalFinance.com/phonecall, but if you'd like my input on your situation,
00:03:19.860 | you can book that call with me.
00:03:21.160 | The way it works is there's a software system that's set up.
00:03:23.640 | It'll bill you by the minute for the discussion, but I'll show up.
00:03:26.640 | I'll be happy to read anything in advance that you'd like me to read, an email from
00:03:29.560 | you or information.
00:03:30.560 | I'll show up.
00:03:31.560 | I'll take notes and ask you some questions about your situation, try to help you.
00:03:35.120 | The feedback so far has been fantastic.
00:03:37.720 | So if you'd like to talk to me about a personal financial planning problem or personal financial
00:03:42.480 | discussion, please go to RadicalPersonalFinance.com/phonecall and book a call.
00:03:48.280 | Now let's talk about minivans.
00:03:50.720 | I am fully aware that many people object to minivans on the basis of their style.
00:04:00.920 | I'm fully aware that many people don't want to drive a mom mobile.
00:04:05.360 | I get that.
00:04:08.600 | But this objection is...
00:04:11.880 | I'm so tempted to be over the top.
00:04:14.640 | I have in my notes here, this is so fundamentally silly that it seems like we should hardly
00:04:18.820 | need to deal with it.
00:04:20.120 | Now, at the end of the day, I know that's probably a little bit too strong.
00:04:22.880 | So let's just say this objection I think is so insignificant compared to the many advantages
00:04:30.120 | of minivans that I really think you should consider getting over it.
00:04:34.480 | But we'll come back to that and deal with it in a moment.
00:04:37.520 | I want to start with just a few of the features and benefits because I think that not only
00:04:40.800 | can a minivan serve as a really compelling financial choice for you, I'm going to defend
00:04:45.720 | that to you today, but it can also result and it can also serve as a really compelling
00:04:50.960 | lifestyle choice.
00:04:52.980 | To me, that's the biggest benefit of minivan is a lifestyle choice.
00:04:56.600 | I think it's probably not the cheapest way to operate a vehicle.
00:05:01.700 | But from a lifestyle perspective, it has so many benefits that when you actually incorporate
00:05:08.300 | those things, it makes a really, really strong case.
00:05:10.920 | Now, a few of the features and benefits of a minivan are really, really simple.
00:05:14.360 | Let's buzz through them.
00:05:15.360 | Number one, big one, you get a ton of usable seats.
00:05:19.000 | I recommend if you're shopping for one, do your best to get an eight-seater.
00:05:23.120 | What that means is that you and seven of your friends can travel your town or travel your
00:05:28.240 | country in air-conditioned comfort.
00:05:31.400 | The seats on these minivans are fantastic.
00:05:33.240 | They're really, really comfortable.
00:05:34.720 | They've got tons of space.
00:05:35.960 | The great thing about a minivan, unlike any SUVs, is that when you actually have people
00:05:42.320 | with you, you still have a ton of cargo space.
00:05:45.240 | If you've not ridden recently in a modern minivan, and by modern minivan, I'm talking
00:05:50.720 | newer models of Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna, Hyundai Entourage, Kia Sedona, or the Dodge
00:05:58.520 | Chrysler Town & Country version, Caravan, etc.
00:06:01.760 | If you've not been in one of these recently, do yourself a favor and rent one and use it
00:06:07.440 | for a few days before you do something else.
00:06:11.640 | Many times when people are considering a larger car, they're moving up from a smaller car
00:06:15.560 | and they know they need a little bit of space.
00:06:17.640 | The biggest thing I want to point off is to help people to head away from SUVs in this
00:06:22.600 | context and help you to move towards a minivan.
00:06:25.040 | I'm going to be primarily referencing the difference here between SUVs and minivans,
00:06:30.720 | but I even still think that a good comparison can be made between cars and minivans as well.
00:06:37.160 | I'm going to get to that in a moment.
00:06:39.240 | A minivan has so much more space than even the largest of SUVs and most people just simply
00:06:44.880 | are not aware of it.
00:06:45.960 | Let me give you some actual numbers.
00:06:48.240 | 2016 Toyota Sienna has 150 cubic feet of cargo space behind the front seats.
00:06:56.080 | 150 cubic feet of cargo space behind the front seats.
00:07:01.920 | Let's compare that to the two largest SUVs that are on the market right now.
00:07:05.680 | A 2016 Ford Expedition EL, that's their extra long, the big one, that when they got rid
00:07:11.820 | of the Excursion, they added on this Ford Expedition EL.
00:07:15.840 | They added this on, it's got 130.8 cubic feet of space behind the front seats, 20 feet less
00:07:22.880 | than the Toyota Sienna.
00:07:24.560 | A 2016 Chevrolet Suburban has 121.7 cubic feet of space behind the front seats.
00:07:32.200 | So a minivan, standard everyday issue minivan has more usable cargo space and interior space
00:07:39.120 | behind the front seats than the largest SUVs on the market.
00:07:44.280 | By the way, I should have mentioned earlier, I've owned cars.
00:07:47.280 | I've owned a Honda Accord.
00:07:50.000 | I've owned a Ford Escape.
00:07:51.160 | I've owned a Ford Expedition.
00:07:54.080 | Very happy days of my life was when they got rid of the Expedition and transitioned it
00:07:57.000 | to a minivan.
00:07:58.000 | So I come from experience.
00:07:59.880 | Been through it from experience.
00:08:02.360 | What most people don't realize is that this usable space in a vehicle of a modern minivan
00:08:09.440 | is so much better because of the simple design.
00:08:12.400 | For example, something like a Toyota Sienna or a Honda Odyssey or my Hyundai Entourage,
00:08:18.440 | the cargo space is lower and you get way better access to it from the sides and from the rear.
00:08:23.680 | When I used to have the Expedition, one of the biggest problems with SUVs and their fundamental
00:08:27.440 | construction is that their back row seats only open out.
00:08:32.480 | They only open out with the traditional car seats.
00:08:34.520 | A minivan, you have these giant sliding doors that open back.
00:08:39.360 | This is a big deal when you're loading cargo in and out.
00:08:41.600 | This is a big deal when you're trying to access anything that you have in the back.
00:08:44.960 | And it's a big deal when you're trying to work with kids and kids in car seats.
00:08:48.080 | If you have kids, I mean, that should be a huge incentive for you.
00:08:51.640 | But even if you don't, this is still really useful.
00:08:54.480 | On a minivan, you open up both sides, sliding cargo doors on either side.
00:08:57.520 | You open up the back hatch, you have a very low load floor.
00:09:00.440 | You have a really high ceiling.
00:09:01.760 | You've got fantastic access to the cargo.
00:09:04.040 | So not only is there more space, but it's much more useful.
00:09:08.500 | The full-size back hatch on a minivan is more useful in terms of things like rain coverage.
00:09:12.480 | There have been tons of times from out on a minivan and we use our vehicle.
00:09:16.440 | That's one of the things that I think you should have a vehicle that you use.
00:09:20.080 | So you take it out.
00:09:21.080 | You take it to the beach or you take it out to a picnic.
00:09:22.840 | Starts raining, you can pop up the back hatch and you can have a party of six people, two
00:09:26.680 | people sitting in the back of the vehicle and two or three sitting there underneath
00:09:31.400 | the hatch.
00:09:33.600 | Now one of the best ways to use a minivan is if you're only using a few of the seats.
00:09:38.400 | So if you only use that middle bench row, you wind up with a fantastic five-seat car,
00:09:44.560 | two front seats and three seats in the middle bench row and you have a massive cargo space
00:09:48.880 | in the back, which is really, really useful.
00:09:52.740 | Now I don't think that you necessarily always have to upgrade your vehicle just when you
00:09:56.440 | need some cargo space.
00:09:57.440 | There are lots of great ways to do it.
00:09:59.860 | As a simple example, one of our vehicles, I have an old 1998 Toyota Corolla that I bought
00:10:03.880 | for $500.
00:10:04.880 | A few months ago, our minivan was in the shop and so we wound up driving this Corolla for
00:10:10.120 | a couple of weeks.
00:10:12.800 | I took my family of four people, two dogs, two adults in the front, two kids in car seats
00:10:21.080 | in the back, two dogs.
00:10:22.080 | We don't have small dogs.
00:10:23.520 | They're not huge but they're about – one's about 50-pound dogs and two dogs in this tiny
00:10:28.920 | little Corolla with two paddle boards strapped to the roof.
00:10:31.880 | So you can do it.
00:10:34.280 | But man, is it a lot more comfortable in a minivan.
00:10:37.360 | And just this cargo space opens up the possibilities.
00:10:40.560 | A simple thing, talking about the paddle boards, I carry our paddle boards in the vehicle.
00:10:45.520 | Instead of having to deal with the hassle of strapping them on the roof, suffering poor
00:10:49.440 | fuel economy for that, I just pop the back seats down.
00:10:51.960 | Our middle seat is captain's chairs.
00:10:54.120 | I slide them right up through the front of the vehicle and you have access to it.
00:10:57.960 | I carry grills and smokers and all kinds of things to all kinds of events and it's so
00:11:03.520 | nice to be able to have all of that space.
00:11:06.000 | One of the reasons why the space is important for us and one of the reasons why I carry
00:11:09.240 | a lot of things in different places is even for the perspective of entertaining.
00:11:13.840 | When we sold our house, we wound up moving into a smaller apartment and the smaller apartment
00:11:17.880 | is not quite as conducive to entertaining lots of people as our larger house was.
00:11:22.020 | But I'm not willing to give up on entertaining people.
00:11:24.400 | So what I just do is take the show on the road.
00:11:26.680 | Have a griddle.
00:11:27.680 | I have a Camp Chef stove, a big three-burner stove that comes with this big, long, about
00:11:32.280 | 30-inch griddle on the top.
00:11:34.280 | I can cook 30 pancakes at a time.
00:11:36.560 | I have tons of chairs and coolers and things like that.
00:11:41.200 | Load the smoker.
00:11:42.200 | A friend of mine, a listener of the show, gave me a pit barrel cooker, a smoker.
00:11:45.040 | I can load that in the back.
00:11:46.840 | Load all the stuff up in there and then I can take the party on the road and we can
00:11:50.120 | have tons of big events but it's not at my house.
00:11:52.640 | We just go down to the beach and do it at the beach or do it at a local park, things
00:11:55.080 | like that.
00:11:56.080 | It's cheaper than owning a big old house but I still get one of the major benefits of the
00:11:59.640 | house which is the entertaining.
00:12:02.720 | So this cargo room is really, really valuable.
00:12:06.800 | My wife loves the minivan because she can stop and pick up things off the side of the
00:12:10.200 | road.
00:12:11.200 | We're driving through a place and pick up a free bed or she's gotten a free rocking
00:12:15.120 | chair.
00:12:16.120 | We have a rocking chair in our living room that's probably the kind you'd pay 200 bucks
00:12:18.720 | for, a cracker barrel.
00:12:20.320 | She found it on the side of the road but by having the capacity to just toss it in the
00:12:23.400 | car.
00:12:24.400 | We were out looking at houses and looking for rental houses and kind of driving the
00:12:29.920 | neighborhoods and seeing what the neighborhoods were that we wanted to possibly purchase a
00:12:33.920 | rental house in.
00:12:34.920 | We found a table on the side of the road.
00:12:36.520 | Pop that thing up on the roof.
00:12:37.600 | It's a 10-foot long table.
00:12:39.240 | It's in our dining room now.
00:12:40.800 | So having this space opens up tons of options for you.
00:12:44.480 | It's not just about where do you strap a car seat.
00:12:47.040 | It's much more about just having room to move in and we'll come back to that in a moment
00:12:50.800 | because we need to take travel and you talk about the ways that you can travel and the
00:12:53.840 | ways that you can move and you can camp and you can use.
00:12:56.880 | It's so nice to have that space.
00:13:00.040 | Many vans are awesome because they're really, really drivable.
00:13:03.800 | They're very easy to drive and they're very comfortable to drive because of the design.
00:13:08.320 | The modern unibody construction is built around drivability.
00:13:12.440 | It's much more drivable, much more comfortable on the road than the traditional which is
00:13:16.440 | much stronger, the traditional body on frame construction of the larger SUVs that they
00:13:21.000 | still use.
00:13:22.000 | The smaller SUVs use the unibody construction as well.
00:13:24.800 | But minivans are much more solid and enjoyable to drive on the highway than a smaller car.
00:13:29.960 | They're about 4,000 to 5,000 pounds, about 4,400 pounds and so they're much more stable,
00:13:35.840 | much more comfortable in high winds and high speeds and speeds in small cars.
00:13:40.200 | But they're much more drivable than SUVs are.
00:13:42.760 | For example, 2016 Toyota Sienna has a 37.5-foot turning radius.
00:13:50.440 | You could compare that very favorably to a big SUV, a 2016 Ford Expedition EL, again
00:13:57.240 | the big one, has a 43.9-foot turning radius.
00:14:02.360 | So you have about a seven-foot advantage.
00:14:04.080 | That makes a big difference when you're pulling into parking spaces and doing U-turns, things
00:14:07.520 | like that.
00:14:08.520 | But it even compares more favorably than a small SUV.
00:14:11.880 | Remember, the Sienna has 37.5-foot turning radius.
00:14:15.280 | A 2016 Ford Escape has a 38.8-foot turning radius.
00:14:21.200 | So you have this tiny little Escape, used to own an Escape, I've used it a lot, I think
00:14:25.840 | it's a useful vehicle, but you have this little tiny Escape versus this minivan.
00:14:29.680 | The minivan has better turning radius.
00:14:31.000 | What about fuel mileage?
00:14:32.000 | Well, a Sienna is rated for 18 miles per gallon in the city, 25 miles per gallon on the highway.
00:14:38.520 | That same Expedition EL, 15 miles per gallon in the city, 21 on the highway.
00:14:43.000 | Now, here's where something like a small SUV would come out ahead.
00:14:47.600 | 2016 Escape, 23.32.
00:14:51.160 | So you have a little bit of an advantage there in fuel mileage from an Escape over a Sienna.
00:14:56.560 | And that does make a difference.
00:14:58.160 | You do need to calculate the actual amount that you drive because, and it's one of my
00:15:03.800 | exceptions, if you are a real road warrior, you're really putting on thousands and thousands
00:15:09.640 | of miles, then the fuel mileage will make a difference and you should calculate that.
00:15:16.280 | But for many people, the offsetting value and the ability to have a vehicle for a long
00:15:22.000 | time, meaning that you buy a minivan and you keep it for a longer period of time because
00:15:27.680 | it fits as a family grows, you get dogs, you get stuff, you're moving stuff, you'll make
00:15:32.560 | up for the fuel mileage from that perspective.
00:15:36.600 | One thing that's just great about modern vehicles is they're powerful.
00:15:41.080 | A 2016 Sienna has 266 horsepower.
00:15:46.960 | I like to compare that.
00:15:48.200 | Now, certainly you can get lots of vehicles that are far more powerful than that, but
00:15:52.240 | I like to go back and compare it historically.
00:15:54.440 | A 1995 Ford F-350, one ton pickup truck with the biggest V8 they offer, 7.5 liter V8, that
00:16:04.880 | vehicle came from the factory with 245 horsepower, 20 horsepower less than a modern 2016 Toyota
00:16:13.200 | Sienna with a V6.
00:16:16.480 | These vehicles are powerful.
00:16:17.480 | They're cheap to buy.
00:16:18.480 | They're cheap to insure.
00:16:19.480 | Many vans have a great insurance cost compared to others because they're generally driven
00:16:22.720 | by people who are parents who are probably a little bit more stable.
00:16:26.580 | They're cheaper to maintain because there's so many of them out there.
00:16:29.280 | There's tons and tons of benefits to them, especially as compared to an SUV.
00:16:35.520 | From a lifestyle perspective, you'll get far more use and utility from a minivan over an
00:16:41.480 | SUV.
00:16:42.480 | I've owned both.
00:16:45.480 | I've used both.
00:16:48.840 | I promise you'll get more utility.
00:16:50.600 | Now, I think one of the major benefits of a minivan and why I can so confidently state
00:16:55.280 | in the title of this show that your next car should be a minivan no matter who you are
00:16:59.760 | is simply because they're appropriate at every stage of life.
00:17:04.960 | I think that people forget about how valuable it is to have one vehicle for a long period
00:17:10.440 | of time.
00:17:13.160 | The process of buying and selling vehicles is generally extremely inefficient for most
00:17:19.400 | people.
00:17:20.400 | Now, there are some of you who are quite radical and I love the fact that you do it who will
00:17:24.160 | go out and you buy an old car and you'll fix it up and you'll own it and drive it for a
00:17:27.840 | year and then sell it and sell it for more than you pay for.
00:17:31.120 | I think that's awesome.
00:17:33.200 | There are some of you who will be able to make money on your cars through that process.
00:17:37.640 | I have a family member who's a car dealer and he makes money on every car he drives,
00:17:42.080 | just drives for free.
00:17:43.400 | You could do that on a little space.
00:17:44.880 | For example, some of you, a good part-time business should get your auto dealer license
00:17:49.600 | and go and buy a couple of cars and sell them out of the front yard.
00:17:52.960 | You can do that, but most people don't and most people aren't going to.
00:17:57.620 | It's not a skill set that I'm particularly interested in working with right now.
00:18:02.240 | The process of buying and selling vehicles is very expensive.
00:18:06.000 | The friction, the cost of finding a good one, the cost of inspections if you're buying a
00:18:10.260 | used one, the cost of taxes.
00:18:12.440 | In the state of Florida, we pay sales tax on a vehicle.
00:18:15.040 | There's a 6% cost every time you will go and register a vehicle.
00:18:18.520 | The process of changing titling and things like that.
00:18:22.080 | There are always transaction costs that have to be accounted for.
00:18:27.280 | The other thing is the cost of depreciation.
00:18:30.640 | Many people, when they're consistently upgrading vehicles, and this is what most US Americans
00:18:35.360 | do, is they're consistently upgrading their vehicle every few years.
00:18:38.380 | They're often driving a vehicle at the most expensive part of the curve of depreciation.
00:18:43.640 | They're moving up and they're buying a $20,000 vehicle and if your $20,000 vehicle is depreciating
00:18:48.960 | at 15%, you're losing $3,000 that year on the cost of depreciation.
00:18:55.280 | If your $20,000 vehicle becomes a $10,000 vehicle after about three, four, five years
00:19:02.080 | and you turn around and sell a vehicle for $10,000, you trade up again to a $20,000,
00:19:06.320 | you're always operating that vehicle in a very expensive part of the depreciation curve.
00:19:14.400 | That adds up.
00:19:16.240 | Especially when you add on those friction costs of changing ownership, that adds up.
00:19:21.080 | Also when you add on the cost when you buy a vehicle, and again for a moment I'm assuming
00:19:24.160 | you're buying a used one, you buy a used vehicle, what do you need to do?
00:19:27.080 | You need to do a tune-up.
00:19:28.080 | You need to make sure that all the maintenance was done.
00:19:29.960 | You change the oil, you change the belt, you change the hoses, you change all this stuff.
00:19:34.240 | In a modern world where the average vehicle can easily go 200,000 miles with minimal repairs,
00:19:40.920 | and many of them can go much beyond that, there's no need to constantly be trading out
00:19:45.720 | your vehicle every three or four years except for lifestyle changes.
00:19:51.280 | This is often what happens.
00:19:52.840 | Many people start looking at a minivan when they are thinking about when they have kids
00:19:57.680 | or they go from one kid to two kids.
00:19:59.280 | I'll tell you, putting kids in and out of car seats of a little Toyota Corolla is a
00:20:02.520 | pain.
00:20:03.520 | I do it.
00:20:05.520 | It's a pain.
00:20:07.160 | So people start looking around and then all of a sudden you start trading up.
00:20:10.560 | This trading process is very, very expensive both because of the depreciation curve and
00:20:15.400 | because of the friction of buying and selling.
00:20:17.680 | So I recommend to you that in order to stem the financial outflow, in order to stop hemorrhaging
00:20:22.320 | money from your life with vehicles, it's good to buy a vehicle that's going to serve you
00:20:26.440 | for a long time and own it for a long time.
00:20:29.320 | Even if some of you buy a new vehicle.
00:20:31.040 | I was doing a consulting call with somebody recently on the phone line, radicalpersonalfinance.com/phonecall.
00:20:38.320 | They were asking, they had bought some new vehicles, they were a few years old, and they
00:20:41.080 | were asking, "Do you think that we should sell them?"
00:20:44.600 | They were trying to get out of debt.
00:20:45.600 | They said, "Do you think we should sell our vehicles?"
00:20:46.600 | I asked about the vehicles and number one, "Do you like the vehicles?"
00:20:50.520 | "Yes, we like them."
00:20:51.520 | Number two, "What type of vehicles are they?"
00:20:53.040 | They were vehicles that could fit their lifestyle for a long period of time.
00:20:55.720 | I said, "Your best thing at this point in time is just to keep them.
00:20:58.840 | If you've bought a new car, that's done.
00:21:02.160 | Now you got to make a fresh decision.
00:21:03.680 | You bought a new car.
00:21:04.800 | Now you've owned it from the factory.
00:21:06.560 | Hopefully you've stayed current on all of your maintenance costs and things like that.
00:21:10.040 | You know what's gone on with the vehicle.
00:21:11.480 | You know it wasn't buried in water in Hurricane Sandy.
00:21:14.480 | You know that it's been cared for."
00:21:16.680 | Well, in that case, in order to minimize the cost, just keep the vehicle for a very long
00:21:21.120 | period of time.
00:21:22.640 | If you can own a vehicle for 20 years, your cost of depreciation becomes a very small
00:21:28.040 | cost as compared to everything else.
00:21:30.320 | If you keep a vehicle for a short period of time, depreciation is a much bigger expense
00:21:34.040 | that you've got to plan for.
00:21:36.240 | When you're thinking about how do I set myself up logically, buy a vehicle that you're going
00:21:40.360 | to own for a long period of time.
00:21:43.440 | I think a minivan is the perfect vehicle for high school students to drive.
00:21:47.760 | I really do.
00:21:49.560 | I think a minivan is, if you're working with your high school student or if you are a high
00:21:54.200 | school student, you should look into buying a minivan.
00:21:57.760 | Why?
00:21:58.760 | Well, first of all, in high school, if you're driving in high school, many of your friends
00:22:02.320 | don't have driver's license.
00:22:04.200 | How great is it to have a vehicle where you can eight-seat minivan, you can load up seven
00:22:07.660 | of your friends and travel around with them?
00:22:10.140 | How cool is that?
00:22:11.140 | You're the most popular person around.
00:22:12.420 | You can move people instead of only being able to fit two or three people into your
00:22:16.380 | little tiny car.
00:22:18.140 | Minivans are great because they can be filled up with stuff and used for adventures.
00:22:22.980 | To me, one of the biggest benefits and I see people, the first inclination that people
00:22:27.920 | make when they're young is buy a little car.
00:22:31.300 | Little car is good for gas mileage, but truly, how much do you actually commute?
00:22:34.840 | Are you really putting 20,000 miles a year on a car, on a little car?
00:22:38.380 | Most people aren't versus using it.
00:22:41.340 | You give me a minivan, I'll load up four or five of my friends and we got massive space
00:22:44.820 | in the back for stuff to take a great trip, stuff to go take adventures with going rock
00:22:49.980 | climbing or going surfing or going traveling and we need a place for tents and coolers
00:22:53.940 | and all that stuff.
00:22:55.320 | That cargo space is really useful.
00:22:58.660 | A high school student, you get a minivan, you can fill it up with stuff for your adventures.
00:23:02.740 | The great thing is minivans get the best safety ratings.
00:23:05.660 | Now, there are other vehicles that get the best safety ratings as well, but you get the
00:23:09.180 | benefit of having a large vehicle.
00:23:12.020 | Many people want a large vehicle.
00:23:14.140 | They want to put their high school student in a tiny little car.
00:23:16.380 | You get the benefit of a large vehicle.
00:23:17.700 | It has five-star safety ratings across the board, most of them.
00:23:25.180 | It's not built for hot-rodding.
00:23:26.700 | It's not a muscle car.
00:23:28.140 | It avoids many of those problems.
00:23:29.660 | It's much safer than an SUV in terms of the likelihood of it being flipped on the highway.
00:23:35.580 | It has a lower center of gravity.
00:23:37.620 | It's just a much safer vehicle.
00:23:38.940 | They get great safety ratings, perfect for high school students.
00:23:42.140 | What about college students and young adults?
00:23:43.820 | I think a minivan is the perfect vehicle for a young adult or college student because one
00:23:49.140 | of the features of this stage of life is often a lot of moving.
00:23:53.620 | Minivan not only works for all those things that I just said for a high school student
00:23:56.620 | like taking your friends around, but it works great for moving.
00:23:59.780 | You can pack that thing full.
00:24:01.880 | Lower the seats, all flattened to the floor.
00:24:03.220 | You have a huge amount of cargo space.
00:24:05.220 | You can move easily and transition.
00:24:08.020 | Works really, really well for all those adventures.
00:24:11.700 | One of the great things about a minivan is that you can easily, very, very comfortably
00:24:15.500 | camp in the back of it while you're traveling.
00:24:17.380 | I've camped in the back of, let's see, a Ford Escape, Ford Expedition, minivan, Hyundai
00:24:23.820 | Entourage, and also Toyota Prius.
00:24:25.940 | Those are the four different types of cars that I've actually camped in the back of.
00:24:29.940 | Of all of them, minivan is definitely the most comfortable.
00:24:32.900 | Well, let's say that you're a young person and you're into traveling.
00:24:35.980 | You just toss a mattress or a mattress pad in the back of the thing and you've got tons
00:24:41.100 | of room for stuff slid up against the side.
00:24:43.060 | You've got a great place to be in out of the weather.
00:24:45.940 | You need air conditioning.
00:24:46.940 | You just run the air conditioning.
00:24:47.940 | I've calculated it out.
00:24:48.940 | It probably costs you about, depending on the vehicle, it costs you about maybe six
00:24:52.220 | bucks of fuel to run the AC all night on the vehicle.
00:24:55.180 | It's a lot cheaper than a hotel stay.
00:24:57.540 | Pull over on the side of the road and camp in the back of it.
00:25:01.060 | Just from the perspective of adventures and the ability to go and to do and to travel
00:25:04.900 | and to experience many of the things of life, a minivan is the perfect road trip vehicle.
00:25:09.980 | You can take more people.
00:25:11.340 | You can always add in more people.
00:25:14.140 | You can easily put two.
00:25:15.500 | I've seen it one time.
00:25:17.180 | We did a – one time, it was one of the last flights of the space shuttle.
00:25:23.060 | This was one of the first times I was pretty young.
00:25:25.380 | We decided to go up to Cape Canaveral and watch the space shuttle take off.
00:25:29.940 | I rigged up the minivan to sleep a bunch of my friends and took out all the seats, popped
00:25:35.100 | the other seats forward, laid out a bunch of foam padding on the back and I think that
00:25:38.780 | – I can't remember.
00:25:39.780 | I think three or four – we had three or four girls that went in there and slept in
00:25:43.300 | there.
00:25:44.300 | It worked great, super comfortable.
00:25:46.900 | One of the best features – oh, also, on this perspective, things like work.
00:25:51.820 | Minivans are great work vehicles.
00:25:52.980 | They can easily be used to carry tools.
00:25:54.900 | They can easily be used to carry people.
00:25:57.540 | Minivans are perfect work vehicles.
00:25:59.580 | I look at a lot of tradesmen and people around me and I know it's the same in the rest
00:26:03.820 | of the country.
00:26:04.820 | Many, many tradesmen, the standard answer is to drive a pickup truck.
00:26:08.740 | A pickup truck, unless you need the open back for hauling and unless you need the weight
00:26:15.100 | ratings of the vehicle, the ability to really load it up, pickup truck is the worst vehicle
00:26:19.140 | ever.
00:26:20.820 | All of your stuff is exposed to the weather.
00:26:23.980 | It's crazy inefficient and you have no good place to put tools.
00:26:29.540 | You got a pickup truck and what's the thing?
00:26:30.540 | You put this toolbox.
00:26:31.540 | You got the toolbox in the back.
00:26:32.540 | You put this stupid aluminum toolbox in the back that has very little actual cargo space
00:26:37.620 | for your tools.
00:26:38.860 | Get a minivan and strap down a couple of nice toolboxes in the back.
00:26:42.860 | You get a low load floor.
00:26:45.660 | You get much easier to get in and out of, much easier to haul things, much more practical
00:26:50.900 | unless you need the weight ratings, which I'll get back to.
00:26:55.300 | I'm a realist.
00:26:56.900 | Some people do need the weight ratings.
00:26:59.500 | So minivans are great for work, for work vehicles.
00:27:02.420 | This can be really, really useful, especially for somebody like a college student or somebody
00:27:06.340 | who's living a more transient lifestyle.
00:27:08.900 | You may be able to use the cargo capacity of your vehicle to actually store your stuff
00:27:14.140 | in.
00:27:15.140 | For example, one of the things that I would do if I were in that phase of life is I would
00:27:19.980 | minimize my living expenses and I would try to store things like my tools or some of my
00:27:25.020 | gear in the actual vehicle.
00:27:27.380 | That way I don't have to spend quite so much on having a storage place for it.
00:27:32.660 | Super useful.
00:27:33.660 | Now, one of the other great things about it at this stage of life, most people who are
00:27:37.820 | going through this stage of life are interested in attracting a potential spouse.
00:27:42.820 | Minivan is the perfect vehicle for you to drive because it helps weed out all the undesirable
00:27:47.300 | spouses.
00:27:48.300 | If you're a young man, minivan is the perfect vehicle for you to drive because it weeds
00:27:52.780 | out all the undesirable women who are just looking for somebody who's flashy and sporty
00:27:57.620 | and trying to figure out and say, "Well, where's the guy that drives the nicest car?"
00:28:05.180 | That type of approach will help you to find somebody who is a little bit more practical
00:28:10.500 | and who appreciates somebody who values thriftiness and practicality and who's family-oriented
00:28:15.660 | and who's using their equipment for adventure.
00:28:19.740 | Somebody who doesn't recognize the fact that you're frugal and you're careful and you're
00:28:23.820 | wise with your expenditure, somebody who's just looking at admiring the flashiness of
00:28:27.940 | your presentation with a muscle car or whatever your thing is, that's often a difficult person
00:28:34.780 | to satisfy down the road.
00:28:39.500 | Same exact thing goes the other way.
00:28:41.180 | Minivans would be a great vehicle for a young woman to drive because it conveys the right
00:28:44.700 | message to a young man about an orientation towards intelligent, thoughtful planning,
00:28:49.940 | an orientation towards family, towards practicality instead of an orientation towards flash and
00:28:55.940 | consumption.
00:28:58.260 | Talk to people who've been married a little while and all of a sudden you find that some
00:29:01.540 | of these deeper character qualities make a much bigger difference in your relational
00:29:07.440 | happiness over the long term.
00:29:14.260 | Much better to be in a relationship with somebody who values the same things as you than to
00:29:20.260 | be in a relationship with somebody who's looking for something that you don't want to provide.
00:29:26.540 | If you are interested and you're trying to portray a high status, high consumption lifestyle
00:29:32.940 | and put yourself out there as, "Look, notice me because I drive this beautiful fancy new
00:29:37.300 | sports car," go for it, but you're not listening to the show.
00:29:42.220 | That type of person generally wouldn't even click on the title of this.
00:29:46.440 | But when you get to something like, "Hey, I'm building financial independence," or,
00:29:49.700 | "I'm trying to save money to invest and I'm trying to be practical and wise with my money
00:29:53.700 | so that I can pursue financial freedom so that I can have money to invest in my lifestyle
00:29:57.820 | and the things that matter," having a vehicle whose sex appeal is limited is probably a
00:30:06.540 | good way to weed somebody out.
00:30:11.140 | I had no problem going and driving a sweet car with my wife.
00:30:13.820 | I think it's fun.
00:30:14.820 | You know, borrow a Corvette from somebody or rent a fun car and go and take it out.
00:30:19.300 | That's awesome.
00:30:20.300 | That's fun for an experience.
00:30:22.660 | But if my wife expected that on a daily basis, that would be really, really stressful.
00:30:27.020 | It'd be really stressful to our finances.
00:30:33.660 | So consider a minivan as the ideal vehicle to drive because of how it portrays you as
00:30:42.300 | an intelligent, thoughtful person.
00:30:46.340 | Now with the 20% of the audience that I still have listening to this show, let's talk about
00:30:52.060 | other stages of life, families with kids.
00:30:54.180 | Now, this is obviously where minivans are tailor-made for.
00:30:57.540 | A minivan is perfect because it allows you to have a great place for your kids and all
00:31:01.460 | of their stuff and it's so, so useful.
00:31:04.260 | It's amazing the amount of stuff that we wind up having for kids and it's really, really
00:31:10.060 | incredible.
00:31:11.060 | I don't need to labor on this point simply because most of you are aware of that.
00:31:16.660 | But if you are a parent and you haven't at least tried a minivan, when you think about
00:31:22.340 | the practicality of vehicles, they are really, really useful.
00:31:30.420 | But I think even for people who are older people without children, a minivan is perfect
00:31:34.740 | for older people.
00:31:35.740 | It's easy to get in and out of.
00:31:36.740 | It has a low load floor.
00:31:38.180 | It's useful.
00:31:39.180 | It's comfortable.
00:31:41.020 | So basically, my point with these life stages is simply that a minivan is one of the most
00:31:45.780 | useful vehicles that you can have for a very long time.
00:31:49.420 | When I think about vehicles, I primarily think in terms of function and in terms of how does
00:31:55.060 | this complement my fleet.
00:31:57.860 | What does this do?
00:31:58.860 | A minivan, I think, is the most versatile, most useful vehicle for most people in their
00:32:05.860 | fleet because it does something that crosses all the boundaries.
00:32:10.100 | It's useful in many, many situations.
00:32:15.340 | When we were moving about a year ago, I used the minivan as a – I was hauling a trailer
00:32:20.700 | with it.
00:32:21.700 | I also used the minivan for all of the interior capacity and I used the minivan for its roof.
00:32:27.220 | That's the kind of thing that you can't do with a car.
00:32:29.380 | I had lots of weather-protected interior space.
00:32:32.100 | I had the entire thing full because I was cleaning out the old house and it was things
00:32:35.460 | I hadn't yet dealt with.
00:32:36.620 | So I had the entire interior of the vehicle full.
00:32:39.060 | I had a big trailer loaded on the back that was also full and again, stuff strapped all
00:32:44.860 | over the roof.
00:32:45.860 | Now, it looked a little bit unsightly.
00:32:47.860 | It looked a little bit like I was moving but I was moving and it was useful.
00:32:53.660 | Then once you get all that stuff cleared out, you load up the family and you have useful
00:32:57.380 | – it's a useful vehicle, very, very useful.
00:33:00.820 | Now what are the exceptions to this?
00:33:02.260 | Who should consider not getting a minivan?
00:33:07.220 | Well, if you're a serious, serious road warrior and the bulk of your miles are just
00:33:13.760 | a commuting miles, then I think you should seriously consider getting something that's
00:33:18.940 | much more fuel-efficient.
00:33:19.940 | In that case, you should buy a Toyota Prius.
00:33:23.380 | That shows for another day.
00:33:24.580 | I'm convinced it's the best vehicle all around, economical to drive, economical to
00:33:29.500 | own, incredibly useful.
00:33:31.420 | It bears – by the way, the reason it's so useful is because it has some of the attributes
00:33:35.460 | of a minivan, the ability to fold down the seats, the ability to have lots of cargo space.
00:33:39.520 | You can tow a small trailer if you need to.
00:33:41.140 | It wrecks your gas mileage but it's – and it's economical to own.
00:33:44.860 | It gets great safety ratings, et cetera.
00:33:46.780 | So Prius, we'll save that lecture for another day.
00:33:49.580 | If you need to buy a car, you should seriously consider buying a Prius.
00:33:53.660 | They're fantastic and because they're basically ubiquitous at this point, there's
00:33:58.420 | a good selection of them out there.
00:33:59.940 | There's a good infrastructure for parts and repairs.
00:34:03.420 | They're – across all of the ratings, they're incredibly reliable.
00:34:09.340 | They're incredibly well-built.
00:34:10.740 | There's my sales pitch on Prius.
00:34:14.060 | But if you're a serious road warrior, you should consider something more fuel-efficient.
00:34:18.460 | For many people, the actual cost of driving, the actual fuel mileage is not the biggest
00:34:27.740 | factor.
00:34:28.740 | It is a factor but it's not the biggest factor.
00:34:31.740 | Let's do some quick math.
00:34:33.380 | 10,000 miles driven and let's say that you're going to have a difference of 5 miles per
00:34:38.020 | gallon in your calculation.
00:34:42.580 | So you're looking at a vehicle and one vehicle gets you 5 miles per gallon more.
00:34:45.380 | So an example here would be the difference between an Escape and a minivan.
00:34:50.420 | So 10,000 miles divided by 5 is – all right.
00:34:54.220 | We got to do it the long way.
00:34:58.140 | So 10,000 miles driven divided by 25 miles per gallon means you're going to put 400
00:35:03.180 | gallons of fuel into a vehicle.
00:35:05.380 | 10,000 miles driven by 500 gallon divided by – excuse me, divided by 20 miles per
00:35:10.180 | gallon means you're going to put 500 gallons of fuel into a vehicle.
00:35:14.140 | So the difference between 20 miles per gallon and 25 miles per gallon of cumulative driving
00:35:19.780 | is 100 gallons of fuel.
00:35:22.100 | Now the 100 gallons of fuel, let's say you're paying $2.50 per gallon, is going to be $250.
00:35:29.420 | So there will be an increase of cost of $250.
00:35:33.820 | However, calculate out the cost of the insurance.
00:35:38.100 | Many vans really shine compared to many vehicles because of the lower cost of insurance.
00:35:42.220 | Calculate out the cost of maintenance.
00:35:44.940 | For example, if you buy a four-wheel drive SUV or pickup truck or let's say you buy
00:35:51.420 | something with a diesel, you're going to have higher maintenance cost.
00:35:54.300 | $250 disappears pretty quickly there.
00:35:57.200 | Calculate out the cost of depreciation.
00:36:00.120 | If you can own one vehicle and you can avoid a $3,000 – instead of buying a $20,000 vehicle
00:36:06.020 | and upgrading continually like I said in the upgrade cycle and experiencing that $3,000
00:36:11.500 | drop in depreciation by paying an extra $250 for fuel, you can work – these things can
00:36:19.300 | work out much better.
00:36:20.840 | So my point is not to say that you shouldn't consider fuel economy but simply to say that
00:36:24.760 | you should factor it into everything else.
00:36:26.920 | So if you are a serious, serious road warrior, you should consider owning something else.
00:36:31.400 | If you already have a minivan, it wouldn't generally make sense to buy another one.
00:36:38.680 | Only there is where you should get a more fuel-efficient vehicle.
00:36:43.080 | I love fuel efficiency but when I put onto – even when I talked about those earlier
00:36:47.680 | life stages, high school student, you're a college student, young adult, when you have
00:36:52.720 | a vehicle that you can take on the road and you can pull over on the side of the road
00:36:55.640 | and for the cost of $6 of fuel, idling the vehicle and having air conditioning all night,
00:36:59.920 | you can avoid a $50 hotel stay.
00:37:03.760 | All of a sudden now, it becomes much more compelling to have that capability than the
00:37:08.880 | fuel-efficient vehicle.
00:37:10.500 | But if you already have that capability in a minivan in your family, then you should
00:37:15.500 | consider going ahead and getting a more fuel-efficient vehicle.
00:37:19.280 | People who shouldn't consider getting a minivan, if you have more kids than can fit
00:37:21.680 | in a minivan, you should probably trade up.
00:37:25.080 | That's fairly obvious.
00:37:26.080 | I mean it's five or six kids.
00:37:27.360 | If you have more than five or six kids, time to trade up.
00:37:29.760 | If you need a high clearance vehicle and this is where minivans don't do so well, some
00:37:33.920 | people have a legitimate need for a high clearance, high ground clearance, actual four-wheel drive
00:37:40.720 | vehicle.
00:37:42.160 | In that situation, you live at the top of a mountain on an unimproved road and you get
00:37:46.100 | snow and you've got to get up the mountain in the snow.
00:37:49.400 | So you need an actual legitimate four-wheel drive and high ground clearance.
00:37:52.920 | Well, in that situation, you need to go to an SUV.
00:37:56.840 | An SUV is going to be able to deliver that.
00:37:58.680 | A minivan can't.
00:37:59.680 | You can get an all-wheel drive minivan, although most people I don't think it's generally
00:38:04.440 | necessary.
00:38:05.440 | I don't live in the north but from all of my research, it would indicate that the tires
00:38:09.680 | that you have on your vehicle are a far bigger deal than your all-wheel drive nature of a
00:38:13.560 | vehicle.
00:38:14.560 | Better to have a two-wheel drive vehicle that has great tires than have an all-wheel drive
00:38:19.040 | vehicle that doesn't have great tires.
00:38:21.540 | Tires are what help you stop.
00:38:22.960 | All-wheel drive only helps you go.
00:38:24.800 | In most situations, the need for the all-wheel drive could probably be avoided by many people.
00:38:31.800 | Now, obviously there are exceptions to that but that's been at least my research.
00:38:39.160 | But you can't get an all-wheel drive minivan.
00:38:40.600 | The Sienna offers it.
00:38:43.040 | If you need a higher weight rating than a minivan can handle, then that's where you're
00:38:46.800 | definitely going to need to move up to something different.
00:38:49.240 | Whether that's because you're hauling heavy cargo, whether that's because you're hauling
00:38:52.760 | lots of people, this is where tradespeople, when you have heavy tools and heavy equipment
00:38:57.520 | comes into play.
00:38:58.520 | Then also, if you need to tow a bigger trailer, then that's where you need to move up from
00:39:03.200 | a minivan.
00:39:04.200 | However, I think you'd be surprised.
00:39:05.800 | Generally, the minivans are rated to tow a trailer of about 3,500 pounds with a tongue
00:39:11.960 | weighting usually around 400 pounds of tongue weighting.
00:39:15.940 | You can haul a lot of trailers that are under 3,500 pounds.
00:39:20.720 | You can haul a small boat.
00:39:22.360 | You can haul something like a small pop-up camping trailer.
00:39:25.740 | They make these ultra-light, small, non-pop-up camping trailers that can be hauled.
00:39:30.960 | They're under 3,500 pounds.
00:39:32.880 | You can haul a landscaping trailer.
00:39:35.560 | Instead of having a pickup truck, my dad always just had a trailer.
00:39:38.960 | Far more useful to have a trailer than a pickup truck.
00:39:41.560 | You do all the same things that a pickup truck can do but you can lend it to your friends
00:39:45.020 | much more easily.
00:39:46.020 | You don't have to pay for an extra drive train.
00:39:47.800 | You just buy the thing.
00:39:48.800 | Yes, you got to pay for an extra tag but it's a lot less hassle to have an extra trailer
00:39:53.120 | around than a pickup truck.
00:39:54.800 | You can hook the trailer up to the minivan.
00:39:57.080 | You can hook the trailer up to a larger van, even to some cars and it's very, very useful.
00:40:03.040 | Plus trailer is much more practical than a pickup truck for loading.
00:40:06.960 | You get a much lower load floor.
00:40:08.200 | You get an actual so it's easier to get stuff into it.
00:40:10.920 | You get an actual ramp.
00:40:12.560 | It's just all around superior to a pickup truck when it actually comes to carrying cargo.
00:40:18.280 | If you need to tow a bigger trailer and you need to tow a lot of people, then you should
00:40:23.440 | consider an SUV.
00:40:25.080 | However, at that point in time, you probably still shouldn't consider an SUV unless you
00:40:30.240 | need really great 4x4 high ground clearance because a full-size van is going to be a better
00:40:35.720 | solution for you in that situation than is an SUV.
00:40:41.280 | I don't hate SUVs.
00:40:42.640 | I just find them to be completely impractical and I don't understand why everyone thinks
00:40:47.600 | that an SUV is the best vehicle ever.
00:40:50.440 | The only thing I can see in SUV is if you need to haul seven people and a big horse
00:40:56.040 | trailer and you need high clearance 4x4, well then in that case, you need a Suburban.
00:41:02.080 | But just about every other solution I can come up with, some other design is superior.
00:41:08.600 | If you're looking at the small SUVs, a station wagon is in many cases a superior solution
00:41:15.260 | to a small SUV or a minivan is a more superior solution to a small SUV.
00:41:19.840 | The larger SUVs, a minivan is usually a better solution or a full-size van is a better solution.
00:41:25.400 | So I don't hate SUVs.
00:41:27.200 | They just don't make a lot of practical sense.
00:41:29.980 | So why do people run to them?
00:41:32.160 | Well, it's about image.
00:41:34.520 | Let's talk about image because image does matter.
00:41:37.500 | This is obviously the fundamental problem that many people have with minivans.
00:41:44.880 | I don't see how you could have a problem with all the practical things that I talked about.
00:41:51.640 | My wife, she always hated my expedition because she had to step up on the running board.
00:41:55.560 | She loves the minivan.
00:41:56.560 | She can just sit down.
00:41:57.560 | It's a lot easier to get into.
00:41:59.280 | So when we talk about objections and things like that, I don't see how they can be practical
00:42:05.480 | objections.
00:42:06.480 | They're related to image.
00:42:09.320 | So here are some thoughts that you should consider.
00:42:14.200 | How important is image really?
00:42:17.600 | And what is the image that you're portraying going to do to you?
00:42:21.160 | I'll concede that image will make a difference in many things.
00:42:25.720 | The way that people perceive you is going to make a difference in how they treat you.
00:42:31.720 | For example, I give my example where I probably lost 80% of the audience because I just think
00:42:36.240 | I'm crazy.
00:42:37.240 | I mentioned that young men and women of marriageable age should consider the image that they're
00:42:40.280 | trying to convey.
00:42:42.520 | But I mean it.
00:42:44.120 | I don't consider driving a vehicle with a lot of sex appeal to be the primary basis
00:42:50.600 | of vehicle selection.
00:42:51.600 | I view it as a liability.
00:42:54.360 | And in most areas of image, if you think about it, you might agree with me.
00:42:58.240 | It's a liability because it's something – you're portraying something that you might want to
00:43:03.240 | change in the future.
00:43:05.840 | And it sets you up over a lifetime of trying to maintain this idea of I'm going to project
00:43:11.680 | sex appeal.
00:43:14.160 | Interestingly, I mean in that situation, the body of your own physical human body is probably
00:43:21.480 | going to make a bigger difference than the physical body of the car that you drive when
00:43:25.640 | you're trying to convey an image.
00:43:27.880 | But image does make a difference.
00:43:29.600 | And so if you are incredibly insecure and you lack the security to drive a minivan,
00:43:37.360 | then perhaps you should consider driving something else.
00:43:40.880 | But it would be a lot cheaper for you to fix the underlying fundamental problem, the problem
00:43:44.640 | with your self-image, than to go out and constantly buy a new car to try to feed your problems
00:43:52.000 | with self-worth.
00:43:53.000 | I'm not saying that everybody who doesn't drive a minivan doesn't have self-worth.
00:43:58.560 | If you want to drive a different vehicle, go ahead.
00:44:00.800 | I'm just saying that for many people, this is their problem.
00:44:03.840 | I always found – I always like driving a van or a big vehicle because I always found
00:44:07.880 | I could have more fun, have more friends.
00:44:10.600 | In college, there wasn't a time that either me or my best friend didn't have a full-size
00:44:15.200 | SUV or a full-size van.
00:44:17.160 | When you talk about the ability to have adventures, I always preferred to be the kind of person
00:44:21.720 | who would load up five or six people in their vehicle and be able to go and have some fun
00:44:25.920 | than to be able to fit one other person in the seat of my sports car.
00:44:28.960 | By the way, I also faced this other problem that I can't actually fit in many of the
00:44:33.040 | smaller cars.
00:44:35.360 | So a larger vehicle is kind of important for me.
00:44:38.400 | What about things like sales, etc.?
00:44:39.880 | I think many people – meaning what about occupations where you need to project a certain
00:44:45.000 | image?
00:44:46.000 | I think a minivan is something you should consider because it's one of those just
00:44:48.840 | in-between vehicles.
00:44:51.000 | Most people just don't think much about them.
00:44:54.120 | You can avoid the problems of perception in a couple of ways.
00:44:57.920 | You can avoid it by meeting the problem head-on and displaying something directly or you can
00:45:04.000 | just avoid it by getting into something where people aren't going to notice.
00:45:10.400 | So I think a minivan can work great.
00:45:12.480 | The same way that a full-size SUV or a vehicle like a Prius or some of these in-between vehicles
00:45:17.960 | can avoid any negative perception, a minivan can work great.
00:45:23.360 | Now is it perceiving you as the salesman of the year?
00:45:27.960 | No.
00:45:28.960 | If you're running an MLM company and you've got to convince everybody that you're making
00:45:31.800 | so much money, well, you better go out and lease a fancy new sports car so that you can
00:45:35.680 | put your company's logo on the back and that way you can bamboozle everybody into
00:45:39.200 | thinking that you're making lots of money when you're actually not.
00:45:43.160 | But if you don't have a need to do that and to scam people by displaying your flashiness,
00:45:47.960 | consider a minivan.
00:45:49.880 | Image and worrying about image can put you right into the poorhouse.
00:45:55.360 | I think it's a major character weakness.
00:45:58.160 | Now I'm not accusing those of you who say, "I'm a motorhead.
00:46:01.400 | I want to drive a car that I like or have an enthusiast."
00:46:04.280 | Fine.
00:46:05.280 | If that's your thing, cool.
00:46:07.340 | But many people just have this weakness, this character weakness of considering what other
00:46:11.660 | people think and allowing what other people think to be the primary driver of their decisions.
00:46:18.880 | I think it's good to tackle this head-on as a character weakness.
00:46:23.840 | Now when dealing with a character weakness, there might be a point in time that you need
00:46:26.640 | to indulge it.
00:46:28.400 | Great.
00:46:29.400 | But that shouldn't be a lifestyle because you will never, ever be able to meet up to
00:46:37.280 | other people's expectations of you.
00:46:41.260 | If you are worried about how other people perceive you based upon what you drive, it's
00:46:49.640 | possible that you're also going to be worried how other people perceive you based upon where
00:46:53.480 | you live and based upon what you wear and based upon what you do.
00:46:59.280 | It's a recipe for failure, for misery.
00:47:02.640 | It's a recipe for misery because you will always fail.
00:47:08.600 | Think a little bit more.
00:47:13.840 | Think a little bit more deeply and consider if there's a way to tackle it in a different
00:47:20.880 | way.
00:47:21.880 | I think weaknesses and self-worth things, self-worth problems and the way that you perceive
00:47:25.760 | you is – those things can be changed.
00:47:30.400 | I see driving a minivan as an expression of intelligence for all of those practical reasons
00:47:35.960 | that I just mentioned.
00:47:40.000 | Hope it doesn't sound like I think I'm better than you.
00:47:41.480 | I just think like when you actually look at the usefulness of a vehicle and you say – and
00:47:47.080 | you weigh all of those factors that I mentioned and you compare them based upon, "Well,
00:47:52.040 | I don't want to look like I'm driving a mom mobile."
00:47:55.320 | Seems a little silly to me to worry too much about driving a mom mobile.
00:48:01.040 | Your mileage may vary.
00:48:02.040 | Hopefully, at least this sparked a little bit of conversation for you, a little bit
00:48:05.920 | of thoughtfulness for you.
00:48:07.440 | I love to see people be happy with their decisions.
00:48:12.740 | If any of you have ever bought a minivan and hated it and gone back to an SUV – because
00:48:19.280 | I guess that's really the focus of this show.
00:48:22.320 | I would love to know about that.
00:48:23.840 | I've never met anybody who was in that situation.
00:48:26.480 | But feel free.
00:48:27.540 | Come by the show page at RadicalPersonalFinance.com.
00:48:30.280 | Comment and let me know why.
00:48:31.280 | I would love to know why.
00:48:33.000 | But there's my little diatribe against minivans.
00:48:35.000 | Hopefully, that was a fun show for you in coming back here after a few weeks of being
00:48:38.920 | away.
00:48:39.920 | Thank you all for being patient with me.
00:48:41.800 | I needed a break.
00:48:42.960 | It's always hard when you're running a business to schedule the break.
00:48:45.680 | I felt guilty much of the time that I was away.
00:48:49.680 | But I did need the break.
00:48:50.680 | So back at it now.
00:48:51.680 | That's it for today's show.
00:48:53.720 | Tomorrow's show is – I was going to tease it but I can't remember what show I scheduled
00:48:58.560 | it for.
00:48:59.560 | I think I scheduled it on lowering the cost of college.
00:49:02.200 | So that should be tomorrow's show, an interview on lowering the cost of college.
00:49:04.920 | I hope you'll be back with me to do that.
00:49:06.480 | If I can serve any of you in any way, I'd be happy to serve you with a consulting call.
00:49:10.680 | Go to RadicalPersonalFinance.com/phonecall to book a phone call with me.
00:49:14.480 | Also, I'd be happy to – if you would like to support the show directly, please consider
00:49:19.480 | becoming a patron of the show, RadicalPersonalFinance.com/patron.
00:49:26.040 | Also today was the first time that I went ahead and live streamed the show online on
00:49:30.640 | YouTube.
00:49:31.640 | One of the things that I worked on was to improve that.
00:49:34.400 | So thank you to those of you who are watching on YouTube.
00:49:36.640 | I haven't perfected the technology.
00:49:38.200 | Today was the first test.
00:49:39.200 | But feel free to come by and check out the YouTube channel.
00:49:41.880 | It's like YouTube.com/c/RadicalPersonalFinance, something like that.
00:49:46.640 | Primarily, there's just been audio of past shows up there, but I intend to be live streaming
00:49:50.720 | the show more and more, at least when I'm doing it from my home office.
00:49:55.560 | Thank you all for listening.
00:49:56.560 | Be back with you soon.
00:50:07.560 | (upbeat music)