Consider the Cost Per Use When Planning a New Purchase
When we purchase something and use it frequently we comment that we "got our money's worth" out of it, as the cost-per-use has plummeted. Weigh the frequency of use against the purchase price when considering if something is worth buying.
Photo by Joe Marinaro.
Financial blog Personal Finance by the Book highlights how cost-to-use analysis plays out in different situations. For example, when purchasing a new vehicle it makes little sense to pay extra for features that are infrequently used:
Should you pay an extra $5,000 for that 7 passenger car? It depends on how often you actually need those extra seats for the life of the vehicle. Obviously, if you have a family of seven you need all the seats you can get, but if you only use those extra seats one week a year for your annual vacation, you are paying $1,000 for each of those weeks (assuming you keep your vehicle five years). Because a seven passenger mini-van rents for about $500 a week at Enterprise, you may be better off saving your $5000 purchase price and renting that 7 passenger vehicle when you need it.
Check out the full article at the link below for more examples and tips for applying cost-per-use analysis to your purchases.
Your daily dose of news and tidbits from the world of money in politics:
DEMOCRATS MORE LIKELY TO PERSONALLY ATTACK OPPONENTS IN ADVERTISEMENTS: According to a recent report by the Wesleyan Media Project, in 2010, �pro-Democratic ads focused on the personal characteristics of Republican candidates in 21 percent of their attack ads� compared to 11 percent of pro-Republican ads. This is up from the 12 percent of Democratic attack ads in 2008 that were focused on personal characteristics.
The report cautions against claims that this election is unusually negative stating the proportion of negative to positive ads is comparable to 2008. However, the big difference is that among negative ads there is an increase among personal attack ads. Overall, that rate has gone up from 14 percent in 2008 to 20 percent in 2010. The report also mentions that attack ads �are far more likely than other ads to be sponsored by parties and/or interest groups� rather than by candidates themselves.
When making independent expenditures with overt messages in favor or opposition to federal candidates, political groups must tell the Federal Election Commission whether their expenditure is to �support� a candidate or �oppose� a candidate. A Center for Responsive Politics analysis of outside groups� expenditures �opposing� candidates compared to ads �supporting� candidates since October 1st shows �opposing ads� totaling $218 million and supporting ads totaling $42 million. These expenditures include TV ads, radio ads, web ads, fliers, mailings, canvassers, phone banks and other communications:
REPUBLICAN RANKING MEMBERS ARE THE COOL KIDS ON THE BLOCK AGAIN:
Ranking members of House committees are becoming the popular kids. If
the Republicans take over majority in the House, committee ranking
members like Rep. David Camp (R-Mich.) will be the new chairmen. As the
New York Times reported Tuesday, Republicans in positions to become
chairmen of House committees are seeing an influx of cash and popularity
at fundraisers. Camp, the current ranking member of the tax-writing
House Ways and Means Committee is receiving more contributions as
lobbyists plan for the future.
Jennifer Bell, a former Senate Finance Committee aide and a current
health care lobbyist told the New York Times, �You don�t wait until Nov.
3 and say, �What is the plan?� Obviously, it is the majority that sets
the agenda.�
As OpenSecrets Blog reported yesterday, many industries have been
planning ahead and have started to shift contributions to Republicans.
This phenomenon is not unique to this election as contributions have
historically favored the majority party and have fluctuated accordingly.
Below is a Center for Responsive Politics analysis of contributions to
Camp that shows a sharp increase in contributions during the last three
months - through September 30th. The second chart shows the total contributions to all candidates
during the same period for a linear comparison:
U.S. FALLS OUT OF THE TOP 20 LEAST CORRUPT NATIONS LIST: Transparency International released their annual Corruption Perceptions Index on Tuesday revealing that the United States has dropped from the 19th least corrupt nation in 2009 to 22nd place this year. According to Reuters, Nancy Boswell, the President of TI in the United States stated that the United States has lost integrity and public faith about ethics in America due in part to the lending practices in the subprime crisis, �Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme and rows over political funding.�
On the bright side, the United States is perceived to be just less corrupt than Uruguay, France, Estonia and Slovenia.
Have a news tip or link to pass along? We want to hear from you! E-mail us at press@crp.org.
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