Starting A Budget
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Transportation Category

Is Your Transportation Budget A Problem?
When starting a budget, the transportation category can be a real budget buster. However, there are some places in Europe, and even in the United States of America, like Washington D.C. where some people find all of their transportation needs met with public transportation like the Metrorail. They buy a pass every month and ride as much as they want all month, going where ever they need. Planning for this category is easy for those people.

Potential Budget Buster
However, for people who own vehicles the transportation category is one of those big three, along with housing and credit cards, which has huge potential for disrupting your budget. This is because vehicles in general will depreciate 30% the first year and you can quickly get upside down on your loan.

More Than Gas & Car Payment
The transportation category is more than just gas and a car payment, if you have one; the transportation category also includes auto insurance. You might only pay your auto insurance every six months. In that case you will want to take and divide your bill by six and set that amount aside every month so that you will be able to pay the bill in full when it comes due.

Maintenance Too!
Another thing that you will want to consider in your transportation costs is maintenance on your vehicle. How often will you need to replace your tires? How much will that cost? What about general maintenance and repair?

Set Your Money Aside Early
Less money will be spent on maintenance and repair when the car is new than when the vehicle gets to be older. Get into the habit early to set aside money for maintenance and repair when the vehicle is new and you will have money available for when the vehicle gets older.

Cars for CA$H
Consider this as well. If you put the money aside early you might have enough after five or six years to buy a good used vehicle for cash! Imagine buying a well maintained, three year old car that someone else has taken the depreciation hit on and paying $0.50 on the dollar for that vehicle. It can be done. The deals are out there if you keep your eye open to them. This whole begins with starting and maintaining a budget.