My 1995 Sweet Ride

So last night I was reading Brian Sims' Brass Magazine about money management for young people. It's a great, innovative magazine and media company created by the local entrepreneur. In one of the articles, Sims mentioned his 1992 Pontiac and the fact that sure he's driving an older car, but he owns the lot and the building he parks at every day for work. Besides, he could buy a new car, but those things lose value the second you drive them off the lot and really, it's all about making your money work for you. Is that money better spent on a new car or on a mortgage payment, investments, etc?

Reading stories like this reassure me that driving around my goldish, 1995 Toyota Corolla is still a wise decision. After all, I don't make car payments and the beauty gets 28-35 miles per gallon so I really can't complain too much. It may not be the sweet ride I'd like to be rolling around town in and giving my friends a lift in, but really, it does the job.

And then this happens... I wake up this morning to find my driver's side window shattered and a stolen GPS unit (which was hidden under the seat) from my vehicle. For whatever reason, I feel like the universe was trying to tell me something as I rarely think much about my car other than deciding when I should wash or fuel it. I thought I was fairly immune to this sort of crime. My roommates and I live in a fairly safe neighborhood in a college town of 150,000+ with street lights and all.

Lucky for me, I'm fairly patient and don't find much reason for getting upset over something I couldn't really have prevented. But I can't help but wonder if I did have a modern car, would they have gone to the trouble of breaking in, knowing the vehicle could have an alarm system in it? Anyway, I still claim that driving my 1995 Corolla is a wise decision. I hope the idiot gets some much-needed grocery/diaper/drug money out of the Garmin while I get lost on my next road trip.