The true cost of owning something = cost of purchase + cost of maintenance/insurance.
Too often, we make decisions just based on the cost of purchase. On average, that works out fine because maintenance/insurance costs are often correlated to the cost of purchase.
However, there are items – sometimes in the same category – whose maintenance costs are negative relative to others that are cheaper but cost much more to maintain.
There’s a great quote that says the true cost of owning something is the amount of life we exchange for it. That exchange often shows up in unaccounted ongoing costs.
The lesson – pay as much attention to what happens after we purchase something as we do to the purchase itself.
