You may have caught in yesterday's post that I absorbed a major expense like the transmission going on my GMC truck. Well, that happened this month.

So here is the story.

I bought this truck from my brother nearly seven years ago. He had purchased it new. Early on, I noticed that the automatic transmission would shift hard whenever I drove the truck over long distances. Once it had cooled, it would go back to shiftly nice and smooth.

So way back in 2002, I took it in to my trusted car repair guy, and he said that I should just drive it until it broke.

So I did. It took nearly seven years for it to fail. I won that gamble!

I took it in to my new trusted car repair guy, and he diagnosed it as "Dead On Arrival". Upon opening the transmission, he could not believe that I was able to even put the car in reverse.

The cost? $1,953.35. That included replacing a broken door handle, an oil change, and some other small stuff.

Man, am I glad I have a savings account for just this sort of stuff! In the old days, I would have been pulling out the credit card.

Maybe I should ask you the question. Do you have money saved up for a car repair?

I am not a prophet, but I can guarantee you that your car WILL break down. It may be today. It may be ten years from now. But something is going to break. When it does, will it crush your finances or will it just be an annoyance that you have saved for?