I’ve been meaning to write tips on CARS. Don & I have this old friend. His name is Bramante Perkasa (Pakabar Bram? How’s Life?)
Last time we heard from him, he was relocating to Singapore for a decent job.
Back in Perth, Don & I were both faced with the choice of buying a car or a PC. We bought the PCs.
Bram was one of those lucky one to have a car. It was a BOMB (the name for AU$ 3,000 old car). But it ran just fine. Jadilah kami tukang nebeng 
actually we ended up borrowing Bram’s car for one of our first dates.
Those were the days when Bram gave us his super power tips on CARS.
“Wina, beli mobil itu gak cuma beli doing lho. It’s about : Having It, Running It, and Maintaining It.”
This is so very true.
Having It.
You have to buy it right? You can buy it cash, credit (KPM only please), brand new or second hand. Please remember that a car is an asset but not the so productive one. Value of a car drops significantly once it drives off from the dealership. (ok ok, kecuali Avanza, Innova, CRV.. apa lagi? 
)
I’m usually reluctant to endorse consumptive loans. A car is an exception. It gets you going. It gets you to work. It gets to those special meetings. So go ahead if you want to purchase your car through credit. Just make sure your monthly total loan installment is not higher than 35% of your income.
Theoretically, buying secondhand car gets you good price. Honestly, we never buy second… *malu-malu* Another important point is Sell Value. Normally people would have to ‘update’ their ride every 5 years Sell Value is largely affected by the kilometers and how you maintain your car.
Last but not least… the paperwork. You have to budget for STNK & Car Insurance on your annual expenses. Make sure you know its due dates and when you have your annual income coming in.
Running It.
Cars run on gasoline. Gasoline expenses goes directly to your regular monthly expenses. So you have to know how much your car is spending! This is one very specific reason to choose with which car producer!
Go for efficiency. What is your car efficiency ratio? How many litters of gaso per km? How much money is spent on gaso per week, per month?
Maintaining It.
If you want this car to sell well in the next 3-5 years, it needs to keep running. So you’ll have to budget on regular maintenance expenses. Ganti Oli, Spooring, Balancing, Salon Mobil, Ganti Ban, and many more. This doesn’t happen every month, but you should have the money when the time comes.
There are two approaches to this. You can take it out on your monthly expenses. Karena ganti oli bulan ini, jadi ke salon gak usah 3 kali sebulan ya Or you pool in some extra cash in your account called : ‘non regular expenses’. You can spend money from this account for the maintenance related expenses or STNK/car insurance expenses. This way, your monthly expense don’t go into a shock every now and then.
Next time, I’ll tell you how we manage to have, run and maintain 2 cars.
Finance Should be Practical!
Ligwina Hananto
