Let me tell you a story.

A week after Typhoon Ketsana (Ondoy), my Dad asked, “Son, why don’t you buy a newer, better car?”

At that point, my car was downstairs, a casualty of the heaviest floods our city has seen, and I was looking to replace her heart… the engine. Transplanting a new motor is a massive undertaking, not to mention an expensive one, and this particular instance is going to rack up a price tag that would cost well over half the residual value of my car. From a logical point of view, it doesn’t make sense to spend that much, especially since I could have just sold her as-is, add the money for the new engine and get a newer, better car…. like my dad said. (more…)