There are a million apps and services out there that will let you pay bills and move money around, but you still need a bank account. Yes, banks can be kind of crappy, but there’s a reason less than 5% of the population is unbanked: It makes everything more costly, and more difficult.

But despite the crucial importance of a bank account, you don’t actually have a right to one. Banks can refuse to let you open an account in the first place, refuse to accept a check for deposit at their discretion, and can close out your accounts and send you—and your money—packing any time they want, for a wide variety of reasons. And they do just that, all the time, usually without any explanation. Add in the prevalence of bank fraud and the real possibility that you won’t get your money back even if it was clearly stolen and you did nothing wrong, and it's clear that while not having an account isn't an option, having one can be a nightmare.

Instead of trying to live a cash-only life or moving to the wilderness to live off of berries, there’s one thing you can do to protect yourself: Have a backup bank.

How you bank can screw you over

It’s a nightmarish scenario: You have a checking account with Bank A, where your paychecks are directly deposited and from which you pay all of your bills. One morning you wake up to a long list of bounced checks, failed debits, and late fees—and a note from Bank A that your account has been closed due to “suspicious activity,” or some other vague reason.

The bank is required to return any funds still in the account to you, but this is often in the form of a check that can take some time to reach you. In the meantime, you don’t have access to your funds and you can’t pay your bills easily—and your job has nowhere to send your paychecks. Once you get that check you can open up a new account at Bank B, of course, then switch everything over there. But in the meantime, it’s chaos.

The benefits of a backup bank account

But if you already have an account at Bank B, you can jump straight to redirecting all of your debits and deposits (including your paycheck) to that account. Suddenly, the surprise closing of your account at Bank A is just an inconvenience instead of a financial crisis. If you’re someone who has almost all of their bills paid via a points-earning credit card, you might need to visit just two websites to get your finances back on track in the wake of an account closure—your credit card and your job’s HR department.

A backup bank account can also act as quasi-emergency fund. A checking account at Bank B likely won’t be earning much interest, but it will also likely sit undisturbed, and since it’s not directly connected to your daily spending, you won’t be regularly tempted to dip into it.

Additionally, money in bank accounts is federally insured up to $250,000—but that limit applies to banks, not your overall net worth, so if you have substantial savings, having money in separate accounts allows you to have more funds protected by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

Finally, if you choose to have your backup account at a local bank as opposed to an online behemoth, you might enjoy better customer service and perks like the ability to easily cash checks or talk to an actual human being, in person, if you have problems or questions.

The downside of using a backup bank

On the other hand, having multiple bank accounts increases the amount of work you have to do to keep track of everything. If you’re not careful, your second account could end up costing you in terms of fees if you don’t maintain a required minimum balance, and for maximum efficiency you’ll need to make a note of all the account information so you can quickly switch payments and deposits to the backup bank should anything go wrong with your primary bank.

Retirement planning can be a scary subject, with good reason: More than a fourth of non-retired people have absolutely nothing saved for retirement, and even many folks who have some retirement savings don’t have nearly enough. For some folks that means tightening their belts and figuring out how to survive on Social Security. But for a lot of aging parents, having nothing saved for retirement means they’re relying on their adult children to be their retirement plan.

About one-third of middle-aged adults are already supporting their parents financially, and most expect that to continue indefinitely. While most people love their parents and probably don’t want them to slide into poverty and sadness, there’s one obvious problem with serving as your parents’ retirement plan: You might go broke doing it. If you know that your parents will be looking to you for support when they can’t work anymore, there are steps you can take to protect yourself.

Start with the numbers

First, you need to know what you’re dealing with, and that means digging into your parents’ financial situation and overall net worth. Consider all of these possible sources of income and potential financial needs.

• Do a Social Security audit. If your parents worked, they’re likely entitled to Social Security benefits. If they haven’t already, have them create Social Security accounts and check into their benefit situation. Keep in mind that the longer they can wait to take their Social Security benefit, the larger the payouts. Social Security won’t be an enormous amount of money, but depending on your parents’ work history, it can be a significant amount that will definitely help defray the costs of supporting them.

• Track down their retirement savings. Even if your parents have long assumed you’ll be their retirement plan, they may have accrued some retirement savings automatically through their jobs. They may have even forgotten about small 401(k) plans they left behind at old jobs. Do a deep dive to uncover every single retirement account they have or once had, and make sure you know how to access them and what the balances are.

• Plan what to do with their property. If your parents own a home, find out what the situation is there. Do they still owe on a mortgage? Are there any open home equity lines of credit or loans? What’s the home's value? Selling can unlock a lot of cash that could be used to support your parents (while eliminating the associated costs of home ownership), while a reverse mortgage might be a way to let your parents age in place with an enhanced income.

• Make a budget. Once you know how much money your parents actually have, you can make a budget for them that will stretch that money as far as possible. Getting them used to living on a budget now will pay dividends later if you have to take a more active role in the day-to-day management of their lives. It’s important that this budgeting process includes how much you can reasonably contribute without harming your own finances—or your own future retirement. Knowing what your “number” is in the context of supporting your parents will be essential in every decision made, so you'll have to plan out your own budget as well, with your parents as a factor.

Consolidate your resources

Now that you have an idea of how much your parents (and you) can contribute to their own upkeep when they retire, you can start to think about how to lower those costs. A few scenarios to consider:

• Move them in with you. If selling their home is part of funding their retirement, or they don’t own a property, one of the easiest ways to lower their retirement costs is to have your parents live with you. There are obviously a lot of emotional and psychological factors at play here, but from a financial standpoint, it makes a lot of sense. Instead of trying to pay their living expenses on top of your own, a lot of those expenses would be shared—and you’ll also have control over those expenditures.

  This can especially make sense if you have space in your own home and your parents don’t need the support of an assisted-living facility or other resources (such as a nurse). But it’s important to formalize how they’re going to contribute to the household budget, whether that means paying rent or covering specific bills.

• Give them tax-free "gifts." You can give a certain amount of money to your parents every year without any tax concerns. The current limit is $18,000, so you can give that amount to your parents to help support them without having to file any tax paperwork. That can help cover their bills without any extra penalties for your income or assets.

• Create a money pool with your siblings. If you have siblings, you may each have a different capacity to help out. Instead of richer siblings paying for everything and lower-income siblings paying nothing, create a “pool” of money that everyone pays into according to their situation, and pay our parents’ bills out of that. It’s important to consider not just a siblings’ income, but also their direct costs—if your parents are living with you, for example, you might be paying more to cover higher utility bills and other costs, and thus you might contribute less to the pool to reflect that.

Find support

One of the most crucial things you can do to protect your own retirement once it becomes clear that your parents will need your assistance in theirs is to identify public programs that your parents can use to supplement their retirement. There’s often a stigma surrounding utilizing these sorts of government- and community-run programs, but this is why they exist in the first place—so take advantage.

There are the obvious programs like Medicaid and Medicare, or food assistance through the SNAP program, but there are more other options than you might think, so do your research. A good place to start is this site, maintained by the National Council on Aging, which lets you search in your area for specific support programs, including health care, transportation needs, or simple senior discounts that might be available. There are often a lot of valuable benefits out there that can save your parents—and thus, you—a lot of money.

Outside your local area, there are several programs run by the federal government that can help too:

• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). If you can’t afford to have your parents move in with you, and they can’t afford where they’re currently living, HUD offers programs to help senior citizens find affordable housing.

• Utility assistance. Heating and cooling can be a significant expense, and attempting to keep costs down by not heating or cooling the home can be dangerous. Many local utilities have low-cost programs in place for seniors in need, so it’s worth a call to investigate this. There’s also the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which can provide assistance.

• Tax credits. If your parents have a very small income (currently between $12,500 and $25,000, depending on their filing status), they may be eligible for a federal tax credit, which can be as much as $7,500.

• Supplemental Security Income (SSI). If your parents are 65 or older and earn less than $1,971 per month, they may be eligible for SSI benefits. This won’t be a huge amount of money (it depends on actual income and other factors, but tops out at about $914 per month for individuals and $1,371 for couples), but it can help defray costs.

Additionally, many areas offer free transportation for seniors (sometimes specifically to and from medical appointments, but some municipalities also run free bus services around town) which might allow you to cut the expense of a vehicle from your parents’ budget.

Being your parents’ retirement plan is a lot of responsibility—and a lot of stress. But if you plan ahead and look into all the resources available, you can at least avoid going broke yourself in the process.

There are a lot of reasons someone might choose to be child free, either for a short time or permanently. Some folks just don’t have any desire to be parents, some can’t afford to be parents, and some parents just need a break from their kids from time to time (which is totally normal and okay). Whether it’s a lifestyle choice or just a weekend, going places where you’re guaranteed to see no children can be a godsend.

Of course, just because you’re not bringing any kids doesn’t mean other people won’t. Some folks seem to believe that children should be welcome everywhere, in every situation, no matter what. And some people can’t afford childcare and have no choice but to bring their kids places they might rather not. Whatever the reason, you can’t always guarantee you’ll have a child-free experience—unless you plan ahead and choose your destinations wisely. Here are some of the best places to go when you don’t want to be around any kids.

55+ communities

If your desire to see no kids is an active lifestyle choice, you might consider living in a 55+ community following the 80/20 rule. These communities require that 80% of the homes be occupied by at least one person aged 55 or younger, which leads to two important scenarios: One, you can still live there even if you’re not yet 55 years old as long as there’s an opening and the ratio works out; and two, the chances of having kids in the community is very low. Not impossible, of course, but people with young children are unlikely to view a 55+ community as an ideal place for their kiddos to make friends and live their best lives. If you’re hoping to avoid kids pretty much all the time, this might be your solution.

Child-free resorts and cruises

If you’re planning a vacation or other kind of trip and want to deal with as few children as possible, you have a lot more options than you think:

• Hotels and resorts. It’s actually pretty easy to identify adults-only hotels and resorts. Expedia has a whole category you can select to view adults-only hotels, for example, and the site Adulty Hotels maintains a listing of several hundred hotels that exclude children that you can search. And if you’re looking for a really adult resort, you can seek out “sex-positive” vacation spots where you can let it all hang out.

• Cruises. There are more adults-only cruise options than you might think. Although often promoted as the ideal family vacation with ships littered with kiddie activities, there are a lot of adults-only options to choose from—heck, even Disney offers them. All of the cruises offered by Virgin Voyages are adults-only, for example, as are all Viking river cruises. And most cruise companies offer at least some adults-only cruises, you just need to look for them.

Restaurants

If you’re just looking for a night out without dealing with screaming kids or misbehaving pre-teens, finding an adults-only restaurant is just the ticket. While many restaurants aren’t specifically no-kids-allowed, there’s a growing trend of restaurants advertising themselves as “adults-only,” promising a dining experience free of chicken fingers and the buzz of multiple screens designed to (hopefully) keep youngsters occupied while the adults attempt to have a conversation.

There’s no easy directory of adults-only eateries, but a quick Google search in your area will reveal them—or use the age-old tactic of making a few phone calls to ask what their age policies might be.

Spas

Few spas will be explicitly adults-only (and there’s actually a trend of more family-centric spa offerings), but if you find a kid getting a facial or having a schvitz in the steam room, rest assured it’s still rare. If you’re looking to have a child-free experience for a few hours, book yourself a couple of treatments at a nice spa and enjoy the silence.

Living in a consumer paradise has its downsides, like the sheer amount of packaging that you wind up throwing away—mostly plastic. Plastic is an amazing material, and it gets used to package everything from shampoo to produce for one simple reason: It works really well at keeping food fresh and protected from damage. Plus, it’s really convenient.

But that convenience has a price, because we’re throwing away a lot of plastic packaging. Almost all plastic packaging is thrown away after a single use (hence the term “single-use plastic”), and a huge amount of that plastic winds up in the environment. That’s a big reason why so many Americans are looking for ways to reduce their dependence on single-use plastic.

Which often leads them to zero-waste stores, also known as refill stores (or, more charmingly, “refilleries”). These stores let you bring your own reusable containers to buy groceries, health and beauty products, and cleaning products, eliminating (in theory) plastic waste. This might seem like an obvious way to live a more sustainable life—but there are downsides.

How it works

Zero-waste or refill stores all operate similarly: You bring your own containers, whether that’s Tupperware or other sealable plastic bowls, glass jars, or literally any container that can be filled, sealed, and then cleaned for re-use. Most products are offered raw, in bulk, in large dispensers or pump stations without individual packaging; some products (like dissolvable cleaning tablets that you mix with water) are sold individually. Most stores offer containers for sale (or for free, via donations) if you don’t have your own, or if you miscalculate and need a few extra.

You weigh your containers when you enter the store, then fill them up with whatever you want. Aside from eliminating single-use packaging, this also has the advantage of enabling you to buy only as much as you need. If your cereal regularly goes stale at home because you don’t eat through a standard box fast enough, you can purchase just a small amount that’s ideal for your consumption rate.

When you’re done, you weigh the containers again and pay for the weight of each product. You bring the stuff home, use it, and when you’re done you clean out your containers, bring them back, and repeat the process. If you commit to the lifestyle, you eliminate all that packaging you would otherwise throw into the trash.

Downsides

A refill store can definitely help you reduce the amount of stuff you’re throwing into the trash or the recycling bin. And less plastic in our landfills and oceans is definitely a good thing. But that doesn’t mean zero-waste stores don’t have their downsides:

• Sanitation. You have to clean your reusable containers very thoroughly if you’re going to prevent bacteria or mold from creeping in—but the act of washing them can actually make them less safe to use, as rough scrubbing or dishwasher cycles can create grooves where bacteria can grow, as well as break the plastic down, allowing its components to leach into food.

• Reusable math. The plastic, glass, or metal container you bring to a refill store most likely required a lot more resources to create than the flimsy single-use plastic in a standard grocery store—which means you have to use them a lot to actually have a net-positive impact. If this is a permanent shift in how you shop, you’ll eventually get there—but the number of uses resets every time you have to introduce a new container, further eroding the impact.

• Price. Zero-waste shops usually have some pretty tough margins, and can be as much as three times more expensive for certain products than a traditional grocery store.

• Spoilage and spillage. Single-use plastics are pretty good at keeping food fresh and free from blemishes—one study demonstrated that plastic-wrapped cucumbers lasted more than a week longer than “naked” ones. Unwrapped produce may spoil faster, leading to increased food waste.

  There’s also the issue of spillage in the store—mistakes with dispensers or knocking loose produce onto the floor leads to waste and bruising, further increasing the potential for food waste.

• Choice. Most zero-waste stores are fervently local and focused on environmentally friendly products, which makes sense. But that means that you might not find a lot of familiar brands in those dispensers, so you might need to adjust your expectations and preferences.

Best practices

That said, zero-waste stores offer an opportunity to lead a less wasteful lifestyle. If you have a refillery nearby and want to give it a go, there are some basic best-practices to follow:

• Choose containers wisely. You want to bring containers that are appropriately sized so you can buy the amount of products that you need. You can use just about anything—old cereal boxes can be filled with fresh cereal, for example—but filling a square plastic storage container with shampoo might be a little awkward.

• Pre-plan. Because you have to fill up your own containers, shopping at a refill store can take a little longer than shopping at a regular grocery store. Know what you need (and how much of it you need) before you go to cut down on the amount of time it takes to get through your list.

• Contain containers. Don’t forget you’ll need to transport your collection of jars, bowls, and boxes from the store to your home, so you’ll need to bring some shopping bags to put everything into. You might already bring your own bags when you shop, but keep in mind that your glass and metal containers may be heavier than the single-use plastics at a traditional store, so make sure your shopping bags are strong enough—and that you can carry them all.

• Go slow. Many dispensers in zero-waste stores work using gravity, so it’s easy to have a torrent of beans or whatever just go shooting everywhere. Your container will fill up quickly, so be careful to avoid spillage.

• Ask. Zero-waste stores are usually run by people who have a lot of knowledge and passion about the environment and consumption. If you need advice on replacing your usual products or storing something, asking the owners or employees is almost always your best bet.

Buying a home is one of the biggest financial decisions you’ll make in life—home equity accounts for nearly a third of people’s net worth, making it the largest piece of their financial puzzle by far. People who own homes are also richer than those who continue to rent, so it’s not surprising that home ownership remains a key goal for many people.

Of course, houses are also expensive, which leads many people to seek out bargains. While buying a fixer-upper doesn’t guarantee you’ll actually save money—and houses come with a ton of hidden costs you can’t always predict or account for—if you’re a handy person who can do a lot of work yourself, buying a cheap house that needs work can be a workable financial decision.

Unless you buy a money pit. The difference between a fixer-upper and a money pit is generally of scale: A fixer-upper has some defined issues that you can remedy. A money pit is a black hole that sucks all the money from your wallet and sanity from your soul.

The signs you're about to buy a money pit

Identifying a money pit is sometimes obvious—listing the house “as-is,” visible cracks in the foundation, mold everywhere—but sometimes the signs you’re about to ruin your life with a home purchase are far more subtle. Here’s what to look for:

• Bad air. All houses develop a distinct “like home” smell that might be alien when you first walk in, but there’s a huge difference between a homey smell and, you know, a stink. Fishy or smoky smells can indicate electrical problems; rotten eggs could mean a gas leak; and a damp, musty smell might mean mold is hiding behind a fresh paint job.

• Rust. You can hide a lot of things behind paint and some quick cosmetic work, but rust is harder to hide or eliminate. If you spot rusted appliances and/or pipes in the kitchen and bathrooms or rusty nails or screws, you might be looking at a house with moisture problems that are going to be expensive to deal with.

• Stuck windows and doors. If you can’t easily open the windows or the doors are all stuck, at the very least you need to have the foundation carefully inspected—this could be a sign that the house needs foundation repair, which can be costly. Another sign that the house might have foundation problems is a simple lack of right angles or even surfaces—if every floor slopes, every wall bulges, and every corner is greater or less than 90 degrees, it’s time to hesitate.

• Low water pressure. Does the water trickle out of the taps? There are a lot of expensive reasons for low water pressure you should be concerned about. More importantly, low water pressure is a quality of life issue, and if the previous owners didn’t fix it, that by itself implies it’s an expensive, difficult problem.

• Dropped ceilings. Sure, there are some totally legitimate reasons someone would install a dropped ceiling in their home. But they’re also often used as affordable ways to hide problems—like a water-damaged ceiling, crumbling old plaster, or bad wiring and plumbing jobs.

• Outdated wiring. If the house has two-prong outlets instead of more modern grounded outlets, you might be staring down the need to rewire the whole house—which can cost as much as $30,000. It’s time to get an electrician to give you an idea of what you’re getting yourself into.

• Insect traps everywhere. Everyone has the occasional bug invasion, and it’s not uncommon to see ant traps in the spring even in houses that are spotlessly clean and well-maintained. But if you see a lot of traps and new traps dropped on top of older ones, it might indicate an infestation—or current owners who have confused termites for ants.

• Lack of maintenance. It’s one thing if a fixer-upper needs work. It’s another if critical aspects of the home’s infrastructure have clearly and obviously been ignored, like an older roof with missing shingles, dirty HVAC vents, or a rusting water heater well past its expiration date. Those are signs that the house is bursting with problems that just haven’t exploded into crises yet. Just because there are no obvious leaks or other problems when you walk through it today doesn’t mean there won’t be tomorrow, especially if the current owner hasn’t bothered to do basic home maintenance. You don’t want all those deferred problems to be yours.

Electric vehicles are becoming more common—1.6 million of them were sold in the U.S. in 2023, representing a 60% increase over 2022. And the federal government is currently working hard to encourage that shift away from gasoline-powered cars and trucks, which means that EVs are likely going to become even more common.

Meanwhile, however, our charging infrastructure isn’t keeping up, despite the priorities of the current administration. That translates to difficulty finding a place to charge your EV or long lines waiting for one to open up—and then possibly waiting hours to get a usable charge if you’re stuck with an older Level-1 charger. If you live in an area where there are relatively few charging stations, you might have opted to install an EV charger in your house. And the good news is that you can turn that EV charger into a small business if you want to make a little extra money.

DIY charger rental

Installing an EV charger in your home is a bit of an investment in terms of both time (you have to make sure your house is ready to handle it, although plug-in chargers that don’t need wiring are available) and money (which can run you more than $1,000, though there are state and federal incentives in place that can lower those costs significantly). While the immediate benefit—being able to charge your personal EV overnight in your own garage or driveway—is pretty obvious, you can milk a little more benefit out of it by renting out your EV charger when you’re not using it.

This could be an informal arrangement: If you have a neighbor or neighbors who own EVs but can’t install their own charger for some reason, you could offer to let them charge at your house for a fixed cost per charge or a monthly payment. This works especially well if you have a wide driveway or a two- or three-car garage and your neighbor can just pull their car in and charge. By placing a power clamp meter upstream from your charger, you can keep track of the power usage and set your rates accordingly.

Sharing apps

If you don’t have any conveniently powerless EV-driving neighbors, you can still make a little passive income from your home EV charger by signing up for a car-charge sharing platform. Apps like EvMatch, Plugshare, or Plugburb let you list the specifics of your charger on a map and set rates (often including additional fees on top of the electricity cost) and other rules (like times when it’s unavailable) for its use. When people need a charge, they search the app, find your house listed, drive over and use your charger. All the billing and payment is handled by the platform.

These apps make it pretty easy to turn your EV charger into a passive income stream because they manage everything. But just because it’s easy doesn’t mean there aren’t downsides.

Downsides

Charging people to use your EV charger might generate some money for you, but there are things to consider before you sign up or start advertising your DIY car charging service:

• Income. You’re not going to get rich doing this. The average cost per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity in the U.S. is roughly 17.5 cents. According to EvMatch, the average cost to charge a car on the platform is 21 cents per kWh, so your profit margin is not exactly enormous. The average electric vehicle requires 30kWh to go 100 miles, so if your customer soaks up 30kWh per session you’ll make a whopping $1.05 each time.

  Of course, you can make more. The plug sharing platforms usually allow you to set your own rates, so you could charge 25 cents or 50 cents or whatever you want per kWh—though that might drive customers away. You can also charge a flat access fee to supplement each session, bringing your profits up. But no matter what you do, this isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. Instead, it’s best to think of it as an easy way to make some extra pocket money.

• Security. Renting out your EV charger means strangers will be coming to your home, parking their car in your driveway or garage, and then hanging around for (potentially) hours as they wait for their cars to charge sufficiently. Platforms like EvMatch require people to leave the area while their car is charging (it’s part of their terms of service), but how you’d enforce that if they ignore it is something you’ll have to think about.

• Neighbors. Your neighbors may not love the fact that you have a parade of strange cars sitting in your driveway, or that strangers are wandering the area killing time while they wait for their cars to charge up.

While you might not get rich renting out your EV charger, there are some other benefits: You’ll be helping to encourage EV adoption, boosting their environmental impact. And if you’ve ever been stuck in an area without a lot of charging infrastructure you know how grateful people will be to find a charger they can use for a reasonable cost, so you’ll be doing your part to make the world a better and friendlier place. And it’s not a heavy lift: If you already have the infrastructure installed, any money you get from it is a bonus.

Any car accident you walk away from is a positive outcome, relatively speaking, but even minor fender benders can cause you a lot of hassle: damage to your vehicle and potential injuries, waiting around for the police to come and make a report, and spending time dealing with insurance. So when someone hits your car and then just offers you some cash if you agree to skip all that trouble, you might be tempted.

It seems like they’re making it easy for you, after all—admitting fault and offering compensation without paperwork, delays, or conflict. And their motivation is obvious and understandable—they don’t want their insurance rates to go up, or they’re doing something shady like driving without insurance and want to avoid trouble.

But for all the seeming upsides, there is only a very narrow set of circumstances when taking cash after an accident might be good idea—and even if you decide to do it, you should still document the accident.

The downsides of taking cash after a car accident

There are a lot of possible downsides to accepting cash to just drive away from an accident that wasn’t your fault:

• Hidden damage. The accident might seem minor, and your car might show no obvious signs of a big problem—at first. If your car starts making a weird noise or handling strangely a day or two later, it’ll be too late.

• Hidden injuries. Shock and adrenaline can compensate for a lot, and you might not notice pain or other signs of an injury until much later. If you can’t make an insurance claim, those medical costs will be on you.

• Extra costs. If your car is damaged enough to keep it at a repair shop for a while, you might need a rental or you might not be able to get to work—and it’s unlikely the wad of cash you took at the scene will cover those extra costs.

• Scams. Sometimes drivers pay out cash to keep you from filing a claim stemming from an accident—and then turn around and file a claim with their own insurance to get a payout.

For these reasons, you should always wait for the police to arrive at the scene and make a report, and at the very least get the other driver’s name and insurance info, even if you agree not to file a claim. You might need that information later if the damage to your car is worse than you thought, or you discover you did, in fact, suffer an injury as a result of the accident. If the other driver refuses to provide their insurance information, get their license plate number—your own insurance company may be able to use it to track down their insurer and reach out on your behalf.

When it's OK to take offered cash after a car accident

Of course, sometimes an accident really is very minor, and taking some money might be the easiest and quickest way to resolve it. But you should be certain of the following before you make that decision:

• The car was unoccupied, so injuries aren't a risk. You have to be absolutely certain you were not injured, which means the only time it’s a good idea to accept the cash is if you weren’t in the car at all when it was hit. If you were in the car, even a minor accident could result in injuries you’ll only become aware of later.

• It was a very minor accident. Only accept cash if you’re 100% certain that the damage to your car is cosmetic and/or very minor—and you know the cost of the repair with some certainty, or it’s something you know you can fix yourself, or that you won't bother getting fixed at all.

• You got a police report. If you have an official record of what happened, you’re protected from future claims—and even if you decide to take cash, you’re probably required by law to report the accident and get a police report.

• You have the other driver's information. If you at least have their identity and insurance info, you can avoid future attempts at fraud.

Keep in mind that insurance companies won’t enforce or honor any agreements you might make with the other driver—by accepting cash and not filing a claim, you’re giving up your leverage over the situation. If you’re certain there won’t be any future problems, taking the cash might make sense—but the key word there is “certain.”

Everyone can be scammed. Even if you think you’re pretty savvy about things, you can be scammed—maybe especially because you think you’re pretty savvy about things. Between our desire to have goods and services and our determination to get a good deal on those goods and services, we can all be vulnerable to a good scam.

Owning a house, as you may have noticed, is expensive, and thus homeowners can be extra vulnerable to scammers. And hiring contractors can be a fraught, stressful process. You might think that would make it harder to fall for contractor scams, since we usually enter into these relationships with our bullshit antennae already up, but people fall for contractor scams all the time—about 10% of Americans have been hit by a contractor scam, losing an average of $2,426 in the process. While you might think scammers are obvious and easy to avoid, that’s probably only because you haven’t been scammed yet.

Driveway destruction

The scam: You hire someone to repave your driveway—maybe they showed up at your door offering a great quote, or maybe you found them through internet research. Either way, they get to work and tear up your existing driveway. Then, once your driveway resembles the surface of the Moon, they announce the cost will be twice as much as the original quote—or more. If they’re being polite they’ll offer some excuse as to why the price increased, but either way, you’re in the same spot: You either pay up or you have no driveway.

Why it’s easy to fall for: It’s just so ... brazen. Holding your house for ransom is often totally unexpected, but they know that once your driveway is ruined your only alternative is to hire a second contractor for even more money.

More materials, more problems

The scam: A contractor shows up at your door and tells you they’re working in your area, and they have materials left over. To get rid of them and make their time in your neighborhood more profitable, they’d be happy to do some work at your house for a big discount (since they already have the necessary materials). They negotiate a perfectly reasonable deposit and disappear—or spend a day doing some really low-quality work and leave you with a mess.

Why it’s easy to fall for: Like all great scams, it combines a perfectly reasonable scenario with your own desire to save a buck. Plus, having a friendly person at your door puts you at ease because you feel like you’ve made a connection.

The "urgent" deal

The scam: A contractor offers you a terrific deal on a project, but only if you sign a contract and put down a deposit immediately. Once you do, they walk away and never return.

Why it’s easy to fall for: Time pressure is a common psychological trick used by scammers. And it’s common because it works—it triggers a primitive reaction in our brain that drives us to make decisions we normally wouldn’t make. This is one reason why people often have a sense of disbelief that they fell for a scam like this—once the time pressure is removed, we think rationally again.

Straight-up insurance fraud

The scam: You tell a contractor you can’t afford a project, but they have a helpful idea: insurance. They tell you that they will get your insurer to cover the project; just let them handle it. One of two things happens next: Your contractor literally commits insurance fraud in your name by inventing a covered event, or they file a claim and take payment from the insurance company—but never actually do the work.

Why it’s easy to fall for: Contractor scammers always approach as friends who are just trying to help us out, and it’s not uncommon for legitimate contractors to deal with insurance companies on behalf of homeowners. It’s always a good idea to be in on any communications between your contractor and your insurer and to double-check any claims a contractor makes about what’s covered.

My friend the lender

The scam: We’ve all had that moment when a contractor gives us a quote and our souls briefly leave our body in shock—but this contractor has a solution. They have a lender they work with frequently who will offer a great rate to finance the project, and the contractor will offer a discount if you use them. The contract you sign with the “lender” actually takes out a home equity loan on the house—and the contractor vanishes.

Why it’s easy to fall for: Financing home repair and improvement projects is pretty common—but everyone dreads the trouble and paperwork. When a contractor makes it easy for us, we’re grateful, and might not do the due diligence we should.

Free inspection!

The scam: A contractor knocks on your door and offers to inspect some aspect of your home for free. They might claim they can see from the street that your roof, windows, air conditioning, or other part of the home is old and showing some wear and tear. The contractor then magically finds an emergency situation—and may even damage your home purposefully to force you to hire them to do the work. Once you pay a deposit, they go to “get materials” and never come back.

Why it’s easy to fall for: You figure if the inspection is free, there’s no risk—and you’re getting over on them because you’ll get the information and then you can go looking for the best deal to fix it. You’re not expecting the sudden pressure of having to make a decision right there because they’ve discovered a very bad, no good situation that threatens your home or family—and you’re certainly not expecting a roofer, for example, to come down from your roof holding a bunch of shingles they literally tore off on purpose.

How to protect yourself from contractor scams

Because we’re all human and our brains are hackable, anyone can fall for a scam—but you can take steps that will protect you from most contractor scams:

1. Always do research. Never hire a contractor without researching them first. No matter how good an impression they make while standing in your doorway or when working up a quote, do your due diligence every time. Ask them for the license and insurance information and then use your state’s license verification website to make sure they’re legit.

   You should also ask for and check their references to make sure they’ve completed projects and have satisfied clients. If they can’t provide these or you can’t actually get in touch with them, think twice.

2. Never sign right away. If you’re being pressured to sign a contract and/or drop a deposit to get a deal or secure an appointment for the work, walk away. Even if it’s not a scam, it’s a contractor you probably don’t want to work with.

3. Watch the deposit. Many contractors want a deposit before scheduling or beginning a job, and typically an amount between 10% and 33% isn’t crazy, depending on the total cost of the project. But more than that should give you pause, because you want to have some leverage if things go south. And some states limit how much a contractor can ask for, so check your local regulations before agreeing to anything.

4. Never pay cash. If a contractor insists on a cash deposit, politely show them the door. A credit card offers you a lot more fraud protection, although some contractors won’t accept them because of the associated fees. But even a check is a better option than cash, as it at least establishes a paper trail.

5. Always get your own financing. Just as shopping around for car loans is always a good idea, you can almost always get a better financing deal for home repair or improvement projects on your own. And by not using a contractor’s “recommended” financing you remove any risk of getting suckered.

6. Trust your gut. Legit contractors will outline the project, give you clear costs, and then give you time to consider and ask questions. If you feel pressured, confused, or frightened when speaking with a contractor walk away, even if it seems like they’re making sense.

If you got scammed by a contractor

So what happens if a fast-talking scammer caught you at a bad moment and scammed some cash out of you for a repair or project they’re obviously never going to do? There are a few basic steps to take:

• Contact law enforcement. File a report with your local police. Even if they never identify and catch the scammer, having a record of the scam may be useful for you if you need to make an insurance claim. You should also contact your state’s Attorney General’s office and file a report.

• Consult a lawyer. It’s possible you can pursue legal action against the scammer if you can locate them and prove they scammed you. Speaking with a lawyer can give you some idea of your chances and outline a way forward.

• Contact your insurer. Your homeowners insurance may cover at least some of the financial loss, and if the scammer damaged your home as part of their scheme, you may have coverage for that as well. A conversation with your local insurance agent is a must.

• Consult a (legit) contractor. Just because you got scammed doesn’t mean your home doesn’t need work, and sometimes scammers damage homes accidentally or purposefully while doing their “work” (or they do some of the work, and not particularly well). Don’t assume your financial loss is the end of the trouble—get a real contractor in there to ascertain if you actually do need work done.

The American economy as a whole may be an unstoppable force these days, but on an individual level most of us feel pretty poor. While some of that may be “money dysmorphia,” it’s also a fact that everything costs more these days, and until very recently our incomes haven’t kept pace.

In a capitalist society, the answer to any problem is usually “more money,” so a lot of people have been wondering how they can level up their earning power, especially if they don’t have a college degree or experience in a well-paying field. While there are a lot of professions that only require a certificate or license, paying for that when you’re already broke can be a challenge.

But not every professional certificate costs an arm and/or a leg. Here are eight professional certificates that are relatively cheap but can lead to robust careers.

Drone pilot

Cost: $225

Potential salary: $98,249

Drone pilot careers seem like a glitch in the matrix. Chances are, if you’re somewhat good at video games you could probably be a good drone pilot, and yet this career path averages close to six figures in terms of income. Even more amazing, to become a certified drone pilot you just need your Part 107 certificate, which costs just $175. If you need some help to pass the exam, a drone pilot course will run you about $50, making your total cost $225 (although you’ll probably need a drone to practice with, which might run you a bit more). Even if you find a job for a lot less than six figures, that’s a pretty great deal.

You might wonder who hires drone pilots—the main industries looking for these skills include photography businesses (including real estate photographers), film and television production companies, and surveying companies.

Home inspector

Cost: $500 - $800

Potential salary: $48,000 to $78,000

Home inspectors are always in demand, because people are still buying houses and still worried about buying a money pit. While a background in construction or home maintenance might give you a leg up, it’s not required—if you can meet your state’s requirements (and some states don’t even require a high school diploma to certify you as a home inspector), you're good to go. All you generally need to do is take a Home Inspector Education Course that costs anywhere from $500 to $800, pass your state’s exam, and start up your business. How much you make depends entirely on you; while the range is generally between $48,000 and $78,000 per year, it depends on how many inspections you can schedule every day.

Real estate agent

Cost: $1,325

Potential salary: $139,286

Real estate often seems like everyone’s fallback career. Lose a job? Retire? Get into real estate! Well, there’s a reason for that: It’s not hard to get licensed, and there’s potential for a lot of money. The operative word there is potential, because real estate is not a magical journey where money rains out of the sky—most newbie real estate agents work for brokers who sponsor them, and they often start off working the lowest-paying listings and paying part of their commissions up to their broker.

But getting licensed as a real estate agent isn’t too expensive—about $1,325, including fees—and the average income is just under $140,000 if you stick with it. The only catch is that it takes a lot of knowledge to pass that exam, so be prepared to study your butt off.

EMT

Cost: $1,000 to $2,000

Potential salary: $98,000

Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) are an essential part of our emergency medical system—these are the folks who show up in an ambulance and offer emergency stabilizing treatment while getting you to a hospital. It’s a high-pressure, high-stress job, but it can pay close to six figures. Getting certified as an EMT isn’t a high barrier, either, as long as you can master the skills and knowledge required. Most courses cost between $1,000 and $2,000 (equipment and exam fees might be extra). If you have a passion for serving your community and saving lives, this certificate offers an excellent ROI.

Funeral director

Cost: $4,000 to $21,000

Potential salary: $64,617

Being a funeral director isn’t for everyone, obviously, and getting licensed can cost a bit more than some of the other certifications on this list (up to $21,000 depending on the program). And it won’t get you into six figures easily, averaging just under $65,000 a year. But if you find a program under $5,000, it’s a career that offers something invaluable: Job security.

Medical coder

Cost: $3,564

Potential salary: $48,780

Medical billing involves knowing how to appropriately code medical services so insurers and healthcare systems can bill properly for them. It’s precise work, but it’s work that anyone can do if they apply themselves and complete the appropriate training. While the average salary is just under $50,000, it’s a growing industry, and getting a two-year certification to work in it usually costs under $4,000 (although you can spend much more), making it a solid investment.

Massage therapist

Cost: $10,000+

Potential salary: $57,060

Just because your friends tell you that you have “magic hands” doesn’t mean you’re ready to just open up a massage therapy business. To get certified as a massage therapist in most states, you’ll need to complete 500 hours (or more) of training. And that training isn’t as cheap as some of the other programs listed here, costing about $10,000 or more. But that’s still a lot less than the average cost of a four-year degree (about $38,270). If you complete that training, you can look forward to a career earning an average of about $57,600.

Air traffic controller

Cost: $10,000 to $35,000

Potential salary: $129,750

You might assume you need all kinds of arcane experience to become an air traffic controller, responsible for preventing air disasters and keeping your flights from ramming into each other. You’d be wrong: It’s relatively easy to become an air traffic controller (ATC). You don’t need a degree, although getting one is often helpful. All you absolutely need is to complete a training course offered by the Federal Aviation Administration and passing an exam.

Technically, you can become an air traffic controller without any degree as long as you pass the exam, but it’s usually necessary to either have training (from military service, for example) or to complete at least a two-year Collegiate Training Initiative (CTI) school. The FAA has a list of approved CTI schools on its website. Total costs can go as high as $35,000, but can be as low as $10,000—and ATCs enjoy a median salary of $129,750.

Renovating or remodeling your house can be a disorienting experience. Between the mess, the strangers crawling all over the place, and the constant discovery of disasters hidden inside your walls, stress levels can skyrocket. And when the bills come in, it gets worse.

One reason the average home renovation can cost more than $40,000 is our tendency to assume you have to do it all in one marathon instead of in phases—and to spend top dollar on everything along the way. All that flooring, hardware, and construction materials (not to mention appliances and new furniture) really add up fast, especially if you assume that higher prices equal better quality. While some renovation materials cost what they cost (you won’t be comparison shopping drywall any time soon) the fact is that not all your renovation or remodeling choices matter the same amount. There are aspects of any renovation where paying extra money makes a difference—and aspects where you can get away with cheaper, less flashy materials and no one will ever notice. If you’ve got limited funds for your project, here are the renovations that are worth extra money—or not.

Home renovations that are worth it

There are certain aspects of a home renovation where you should spend extra money:

• Kitchen floors. You have a lot of flooring choices, and in other rooms you can likely get away with a cheaper carpet or an engineered wood of some sort. But your kitchen floor is going to see a lot of traffic—not to mention a lot of spills, temperature extremes, and scrubbing. The kitchen floor also pulls together the whole design, and you can’t easily cover it with an area rug as you can in other rooms. Spend that extra money here.

• Furniture. In general, it’s worth spending money on furniture like sofas, chairs, and beds. If you’re remodeling or renovating your living room, buy a really good sofa. After all, you will spend a lot of time using these pieces, and the minor problems that come with cheap stuff will quickly become major irritants.

• Appliances. Higher-end appliances are generally going to be worth any extra margin you have in your budget. They look nicer, actually do last longer, and tend to perform better.

• Windows. If you’re replacing your windows, spend the extra money for high-quality ones. They will look better, last longer, and offer energy efficiency benefits that will actually reduce their overall cost over time.

Home renovations that might not be worth it

If you have all the money in the world, sure, go to town and spend on every little thing. If you’re trying to fit your renovation project into a modest budget, there are some areas you can get away with basic, no-frills stuff:

• Kitchen cabinets. In the end, your kitchen cabinets are just boxes of wood. You want quality construction, but beyond that you can buy basic cabinets and easily make them look more expensive with new hardware, paint, or adding a soft-close feature.

• Moving plumbing and wiring. Your ideal kitchen or bathroom renovation might include shifting the sink or toilet and changing the location of every single power outlet—but you can almost certainly get away without doing that. Moving plumbing can add close to $1,000 to your job, and rewiring a kitchen can run you nearly $2,300. Unless you need to do this to get the place up to code, it’s an easy place to not spend your money.

• Lighting fixtures. Recessed lighting costs an average of $300 per fixture. Just by going with wall- and ceiling-mounted lights you can save a fortune and still have style to spare. And there are plenty of inexpensive light fixtures that look pricey and provide the same light that more expensive stuff does.

• Cabinet/drawer hardware. Trust us: No one will know if your drawer and cabinet pulls cost $300 each or $10.

• Backsplash. While you don’t need to spend a fortune on tile to get a luxe look, generally speaking, cheap tile will look cheap. But a backsplash is typically a very small area, and is usually obscured by appliances, cabinets, and all the stuff on your countertops. You might not want to put the cheapest tile or other materials on your backsplash, but you can definitely get away with cheaper.

If you find yourself in the woods or the wilderness, far away from civilization, chances are good that it was a planned excursion and you brought all the equipment you need to be safe and comfortable, including a basic survival kit.

But what if you didn’t plan this trip into the backcountry, and you didn’t bring a survival kit? Maybe you thought you were going for a short, easy hike and somehow wandered off the trail, or you thought you knew a shortcut and now find yourself surrounded by pristine, unmarked wilderness. How are you going to survive until you’re rescued (or you can rescue yourself)?

First: Don’t panic. Follow what’s known as the STOP protocol: Stop, Think, Observe, and Plan. Don’t go rushing off in a promising direction, and don’t rev yourself up by worrying about wasting time. Think about your surroundings, the path you followed, and what you might have in your pockets that can help you survive the rest of the coming ordeal—because it’s probably a surprisingly useful collection of stuff.

Your pocket survival kit

If you didn’t expect to be lost in the woods today and have brought no special equipment, you might still have the basics necessary:

• Smartphone = signal mirror. One of the most important things to do when you’re lost is to make yourself noticeable. If people are searching for you, you want to make it easy on them. If you didn’t think to bring a signal mirror, your smartphone will do—shut it off (we’re assuming you don’t have a signal to call for help) and it becomes a pretty decent reflective surface to shine at potential rescuers.

• Bottle cap = whistle. Sound is also very useful when trying to get noticed for rescue, but few people carry around piercing whistles every day. But if you have a bottle of water, you can use it as a fairly effective safety whistle, as seen here. Alternating that with good old-fashioned shouting will get you noticed if anyone’s nearby.

• Hand sanitizer = firestarter. If night starts to fall and you’re no closer to being rescued, you might be in for a cold, miserable evening. But if you have hand sanitizer with you, you can transform it into a slightly warmer miserable evening, because hand sanitizer is really, really flammable. Once you have some kindling and a fire built, you can use hand sanitizer to get your fire going easily.

• Condoms = firestarting lens. Of course, you can build the greatest fire ever designed and absolutely soak it in hand sanitizer, but if you can’t create a spark it’s useless. If you didn’t think to bring your flint and steel and have no idea what the bow and spindle method of starting a fire is, but you do have a condom you’ve been carrying in your wallet since 2013, you might be in luck. Fill that condom with water and you have an effective sun lens that can use solar heat to start a fire.

• Keys = saw. Did you wander into the woods with your house or car keys in your pocket? Good, because those keys can be used as tiny little saws. You won’t be building a log cabin with them, but they can be used to strip branches off of trees and notch them to construct a quick shelter, or cut your shoelaces or other cordage to size as needed.

• Nothing = compass. If you’re not sure anyone is coming for you, you should at least have some vague idea where you are. If your phone has power and a connection, you can use the maps app or a compass app to figure this out, but if it’s dead or isn’t reliable, you can always figure out the directions using just a stick, some rocks, and the sun. As shown in this video, just plant the stick in the ground and mark the tip of its shadow with a rock. Wait 15-30 minutes, then mark the tip of its new shadow. The line between those rocks is East-West. If you stand with your toes touching the rock, you’re facing north, more or less. If you know the direction of your camp, car, or civilization in general, you can at least know you’re walking in the right direction—though you should check yourself regularly to make sure you’re still on course.

Surviving in the wilderness begins with not panicking, conserving your resources, and using the tools you have on hand. Luckily, you probably have more of those tools than you think.

When you buy a house, chances are you’re going to find at least a few incomprehensible decisions made by your home’s previous occupant. When those decisions involve important infrastructure—what look like stopgap repairs, or projects that seem like temporary fixes that became permanent over time—the urge to just rip them out and do them over the right way is often overwhelming. “What were they thinking?” you might wonder as you swing that sledgehammer.

And then, disaster. You remove an oddly placed planter in your backyard that’s ruining the layout, only to discover it was diverting water from your foundation—and now you have a flood. You find a basement window well covered in ugly, thick plastic, which you tear out to replace with a more attractive mesh—and a few months later a small jungle is growing in that well. Assuming previous owners were dumb or lazy is an easy way to make a lot more problems for your house. The best way to defend against this is second-order thinking, or what’s known as Chesterton’s Fence.

What is "Chesterton’s Fence"?

First-order thinking is simple stuff: You conceptualize an action and an immediate consequence. Consider that weird planter: The first-order thought is, I’ll remove that planter and my yard will look better. Second-order thinking is more abstract, and takes into account where the consequence of that action will lead—sometimes called the “consequences of the consequences.” The second-order thought asks: What else happens if I remove the planter? Will the water drainage shift? Will something be exposed that needs to be covered up? Will I disturb an ancient grave and unleash evil forces on my home?

The concept of Chesterton’s Fence wraps this concept up in a mental exercise. The concept comes from G. K. Chesterton’s book of essays, The Thing: Why I Am a Catholic, published in 1929. In it he describes someone coming across a gate across a road that seems to serve no purpose. One sort of “reformer,” he argues, assumes that if he can’t see the purpose there isn’t any purpose, and removes the gate. A “more intelligent” person won’t do anything until they can understand why it was put there in the first place.

Understand why something was done before you do anything about it

The idea of understanding why something was done before you remove or reverse it is key if you want to avoid home renovation disasters. Homeowners often make quick, DIY repairs that become permanent—because they work, despite not being the correct material or not using the correct techniques. And that original homeowner might be the only person who remembers the why of something.

Consider the dripping valve in an unheated garage. You buy a house and discover that a loose valve in the garage is always dripping a small amount of water. It’s an easy fix, and you feel very capable and handy. And then a few weeks later the pipe freezes and bursts, because the previous homeowner learned to just let it drip all the time. Taking a moment to stipulate that the drip might not have been negligence or ignorance and asking yourself why it was left loose might have led you to at least investigate the reason—and possibly saved you a lot of trouble and money.

Next time you notice some strange decision made by a previous owner in your house, don’t immediately suit up and start ripping the offending bit. Stop and do some second-order thinking, asking yourself why the decision was made in the first place. Only when you understand that can you safely proceed with your own plans. Doing this will save you a lot of time and trouble over the years.

Cars certainly aren’t cheap—the average cost of a new one is just under $50,000, and used cars are going for an average of almost $29,000. Buying a car might be necessary, but buying a new car is almost always a bad financial decision—even if you find ways to sweeten the deal. Either way, though, focusing on price alone when you're shopping for a vehicle is a bad idea—price should be just one aspect of your decision-making process.

The next time you’re on the hunt for a new or new-to-you car, make sure you take the following factors into consideration, just as much as the price.

Total cost

Instead of thinking solely about the bottom-line price of the car and assuming that if you manage to cut it down a little in the negotiation you’ve done your due diligence, consider the total ownership costs of the car. Aside from the interest you’ll pay on financing, you should also consider:

• Maintenance costs. Cars are sinkholes of money because they are complex machines you will have to pay to have repaired and maintained. And not all cars are the same when it comes to the cost of keeping them in working order. Teslas, for example, have a 10-year maintenance and repair cost of $4,035, while Land Rovers can bleed you for an eye-popping $19,250 over a 10-year period. Add that number to the cost of the car and the interest on your financing to get a better idea of what you’re really spending.

• Insurance costs. Not all cars cost the same to insure, so it’s worth doing some research to find out if your car will cost you $1,600 or $2,000 a year in premiums. While your own driving record and other factors go into insurance rates, the make, model, and year of the car have a lot to do with it.

• Fuel efficiency. You might be getting a great deal on this car in terms of up-front price, and maybe you’ve even got great financing numbers. But if the car is going to cost the GDP of a small country to fuel up, it could still be a bad deal. A car with a better miles-per-gallon (MPG) rating can translate into thousands of dollars saved at the pump.

Electric vehicles (EVs) have an efficiency rating to consider, too, and you’ll be paying for the electricity to charge them up. Every EV has a rating that tells you how many miles you get out of a charged-up battery. Choosing an efficient car today will offset a higher price and enhance a lower price in the long run.

Reliability

Maintenance costs are one thing. Being able to rely on your car is crucial. If you want to have fewer mornings ruined by the sound of a starter grinding and sputtering, make sure you’re buying one of the more reliable cars on the market. For example, if you purchase a Pacifica Hybrid from Chrysler, you should make sure your bus pass is current and ready to use.

Theft rates

As the recent “Kia Boys” plague proved, your car won’t do you much good if you can’t keep it in the driveway. Even if the car you’re about to buy isn’t the target of lax security and an internet meme, you should consider how frequently it’s targeted by thieves. The most-stolen vehicle in the U.S. in 2022? The Chevy Silverado, which was boosted nearly 50,000 times that year alone. If you want to have one less headache tied to your car, buy one that thieves disdain.

Resale value

If you’re buying a new car, chances are you won’t be driving it forever—the average length of car ownership these days is a little over twelve years. So a big factor you should take into consideration when buying a new car is the resale value. All cars depreciate, but not all cars depreciate at the same rate or by the same dramatic amount. You might get a good deal on a car today, but when you try to sell it or trade it in after a few years, you might get smoked on the value—and the time to think about that is when you’re on the lot deciding which car to buy.

Warranty

Even new cars have problems, and a solid warranty can save you a lot of money and heartburn. Maybe you’re getting a good price on that car, but check the warranty to make sure you’re not getting rooked. You’ll want to know what’s covered, how much repair costs you’ll be on the hook for, how long the car is under warranty, and if specific aspects of the warranty expire at different times. You can always try to negotiate a better warranty if the standard offering isn’t great, but at least know what you’re getting for the price.

Use case

One major aspect of buying a car is the use case—the way you’ll be using the car. For example, if you need a vehicle to transport three kids and their sports equipment all over the state five days a week, buying a fun little two-seater is likely a poor decision. Make a list of the ways you’ll use the car, from your commute to grocery hauls to transporting your elderly relatives to and from family gatherings, and consider whether the features of the vehicle in question will satisfy those requirements. If not, even a great deal won’t be so great in the long run.

Safety

Even if you’ve negotiated a solid deal in financial terms and ensured you’re buying an efficient, easy-to-maintain vehicle, you should also check the safety rating before pulling the trigger. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) awards Top Safety Picks every year, which is an easy way to determine that the car you’re buying is safe for you, your family, and other drivers and pedestrians.

Comfort and features

If you’ve ever driven a long distance, you know that even minor problems with the seat, the climate control, or the legroom can become butt-numbing miseries. If you’re going to be spending a lot of time in your car—commuting, road-tripping, or ferrying your family around town—you want to know whether the car is going to be comfortable. The test drive is key here—you can’t take the vehicle to Coachella to really see if it’s comfy, but you can look for cars with a lot of adjustable features (like the steering column and seat), and don’t forget to consider the impact of noise while you drive.

Used car specifics

While most of the considerations above apply equally to used and new cars, there are some specific things to consider other than price for used cars:

• Mileage. It’s obvious that every mile put on a car translates into wear and tear. A common-sense cutoff is about 100,000 miles, depending on the age of the car. The average driver puts about 13,476 miles on their car annually, so you can do some quick back-of-the-envelope math to figure out if the previous owner drove that car hard or not.

• Vehicle history. You should never buy a used car without getting a vehicle history report to see if it was ever in a major accident or flood. You don’t necessarily have to pay a company like Carfax, either—you can run a check on the car’s vehicle identification number (VIN) for free.

• Condition. It might be obvious, but if you’re getting a great price on a car that ticks all the other boxes but looks like hell, think twice. Rust and scratches, ruined upholstery, a permanent odor, or an orchestra of creaks and groans when it goes over a pothole might indicate that it’s not a great buy even if all the paperwork and math says it is.

The moment someone builds a house, nature begins the process of destroying it. This can be a shockingly fast process, as when a natural disaster sweeps through the area and erases the house, or it can be a slow, grinding process of weather and time picking away at the structure bit by bit.

That’s why houses are always clad in siding of some sort. Siding keeps the sun, wind, and rain off the structural aspects of the home, extending its life. But siding isn’t cheap. The average cost of siding a house these days is $12,690, but the high end tops out over $20,000. The good news? It’s a terrific investment. Not only does siding protect your overall investment in the home, it has a very high return on investment (ROI) (typically between 75% and 85%). Plus, the boost to your home’s curb appeal that fresh siding provides can translate into an increase in property value of as much as 10%.

There are a lot of siding options for your house. Here’s a rundown of your choices and how to decide whether they'll work for you.

Vinyl siding

Vinyl siding is basically plastic, but don’t let that fool you. While early versions of vinyl siding were prone to cracking and looked kind of cheap, modern vinyl siding comes in a wide range of styles and colors and is one of the most durable siding materials around.

Pros: Vinyl siding is relatively affordable, averaging about $11,100 per installation. It’s also a flexible choice, as you can find vinyl in a wide variety of styles mimicking wood or other materials.

Cons: While vinyl can last decades with proper maintenance, it can also fade within a decade or two, and is generally considered to have a lifespan of about 20 years or so, which is shorter than other materials.

When to choose: When cost is a main consideration.

Metal siding

Metal siding, typically aluminum or steel (although other metals like copper can be used), is a durable siding material with a distinctive look. Costs range from $8,374 to $22,942 depending on the material and size of the house.

Pros: Most metal siding will last between 30-50 years, and it’s very low maintenance. It also offers a distinctive look to your home.

Cons: Metal is durable, but it weathers unpredictably. Dents, scratches, or some sort of patina aren’t uncommon, and while it won’t undermine the function of the siding, it might undermine your style. Metal is also a poor insulator and sound barrier and can conduct sound into the house.

When to choose: When durability and longevity are primary concerns, but you don’t want the look of brick or stone.

Wood siding

Wood siding comes in a lot of different forms, including old-school clapboard (which most vinyl siding seeks to imitate), split logs (for that cabin feel), board and batten (for a farmhouse look), and shakes and shingles (for that New England port town look). There are also manufactured (aka engineered) versions made from a combination of wood fibers and a resin binder. In general, wood siding will run you an average of $19,300, though it can go much higher depending on the specific style and type of wood you choose.

Pros: Classic, traditional look. Environmentally friendly, as its manufacture doesn’t require any toxic materials and it’s a renewable material.

Cons: Requires more maintenance. While wood siding can last decades, it often requires cleaning and sealing every so often, and is vulnerable to rot and insect infestation (like termites, a word that strikes fear into any homeowner’s heart).

When to choose: When you want a cozy old-school look, or you want to worry less about the environmental impact of your house.

Fiber cement siding

Made from Portland cement, silica, and wood fiber, like vinyl fiber cement siding can mimic the look of wood or other textures while offering superior durability.

Pros: This stuff lasts: You should get at least 50 years out of fiber cement siding. It’s also comparable to vinyl in terms of cost, with most installations running about $15,000. It’s also very easy to maintain.

Cons: Like vinyl, it can look a little artificial compared to wood or metal.

When to choose: If you’re looking for the same flexibility as vinyl, but you want a more durable material.

Brick and stone siding

When you think of “siding” you might think of the traditional planks of vinyl siding or wood shingles. But anything that covers your home’s exterior is siding, and that includes brick and stone facades.

Pros: Brick and stone siding offers a classic, traditional look. It’s also very low maintenance, and can last as long as 100 years if properly maintained.

Cons: Expense. Brick siding can run an average of $22,500 to install, while stone siding can go as high as an eye-popping $72,000, depending on the size of your house.

When to choose: When you want your siding to outlive you with minimal maintenance.

Stucco siding

Stucco is an old-school siding choice made by combining cement with sand or lime and applying it to a lathe of some kind (typically metal screening) attached to the exterior of the home.

Pros: It’s very flexible in terms of color, and provides superior energy efficiency because it forms a seal around the home, keeping the outside air outside. It’s also price-friendly, with an average cost of under $10,000.

Cons: Stucco is porous, and won’t do as well in cold or damp climates. It’s also maintenance-intensive, as weather and settling can create cracking that will need repair on a relatively regular basis.

When to choose: When costs or energy efficiency are the main thing.

Other considerations

Of course, part of choosing siding for your home will be your neighborhood. You may not want to have a dramatically different style of house (or you may not be allowed to have a dramatically different house if you have a homeowners association). Keep the look of your home as it pertains to the rest of the community in mind when choosing siding.

Another consideration is the installation process: If you’re looking to DIY your siding to save some money, you might choose vinyl siding (even if you don’t love the look) because it’s definitely something you can do yourself.

Whatever siding you choose will improve your home’s curb appeal, comfort, and longevity, so there’s no really wrong choice here. You just need to balance cost, durability, and aesthetics.