How to own a car sensibly. $700 a month? Don’t go there.

The American Dental Association estimates that 96% of dentists cannot retire at age 65 and maintain their lifestyle. Why is that?

In no particular order – too much car, too much house, divorce. Been there, done that.

My family once had five drivers, and I owned five brand new cars. I live in a small town and was concerned about what would people say about Dr. Somborac driving a used car?

Today, I would ask what could be a greater economic disaster?

Well, I had the answer to that one also. I built an architect-designed and supervised 5,000 square-foot house with a 20′ x 40′ in-ground swimming pool and a tennis court. Maintaining a home costs about a dollar per square foot per year.

Except for the greater municipal taxes connected with owning a large property, it costs nothing to maintain a tennis court.

Maintaining and operating a 20′ x 40′ swimming pool is different. It comes to about $5,000 annually.

Most other professionals and most self-employed people probably are similarly unable to retire at age 65 and maintain their lifestyle.

This post will deal with car ownership.

In a perfect world, all cars are electric, and all electricity is generated by nuclear fusion.

Electric cars are here now and many governments have mandated the end of the internal combustion engine car production within the next few years. Nuclear fusion may not be here in our lifetimes, but someday, it will be in place.

So what to do now?