Auto Estrogen

If you’re the parent of a teenager, there will come a day when you have to address the issue of driving. When that day comes, you will begin to consider things like: when should they get their driver’s license, are they ready to be on the road, can they handle a car, do they need a car, so forth and so on.

For the teen it’s one of the most exciting times in their life. It symbolizes maturity and basically says to the world ‘I’m trustworthy, so much so that I’ve been given the keys to a car.’ The problem is teens don’t always do so well when it comes to driving. Statistically speaking, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens, accounting for 36% of all deaths in this age group, according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control). Of course there are methods to counteract these statistics, safe driving courses for one. And we can’t lump all teenagers in a category of irresponsibilty. As a matter of fact, for many parents, putting a teen behind the wheel is a welcome relief, freeing up schedules of chauffeuring to and from practices, ballet classes, sporting events, work, and the like.

Whatever stance you happen to take, there’s still the inevitable act of buying that first car and I wondered what specific considerations a woman might have when it came to purchasing that first car for a teen. It just so happens that a good friend of mine is preparing to purchase a car for her daughter. She gave me a little synopsis of how things are going, some of the decisions they’ve made and just how harmonious the idea of car buying for teens might or might not be.

1. They’ve opted for a cash purchase on a used car.

2. Although her daughter had originally saved some money towards the car, she’s since spent the money and now the parents will be making the purchase, while her daughter will be responsible for her own gas money — no money, no gas, no driving.

3. Insurance is a concern as it will increase their premiums by upwards of $3,000 annually, so they will look into insuring her separately.

4. It seems that both my friend and her daugher are quite ready to move things along, although her husband is moving very slowly. According to her, the only car that pleases him thus far is a Toyota. Her daugher researched almost 200 cars and he wasn’t pleased with any of them.

5. Her goal is to have a car by the end of the year. At this point, her daugher doesn’t care what model or color, just a reasonable sized car, with good gas mileage, that’s a two or four door automatic.

As I inquired about how things were going, she did let on that the whole car thing is now a very sore spot at the house. So to answer my own question, Do Teen Driver’s Cause Havoc in the Home? Looks like the answer is no, it’s the teen father’s that do!

Stay tuned for the article, Things to Consider When Purchasing a Car for a Teen

Auto Estrogen goes live today. I just taped the first show of Auto Estrogen Live! We’ll be talking about everything automotive as it relates to women and their cars as an extension to our blog. You can check it out here www.blogtalkradio.com/auto-estrogen

Our introductory show covered a few of the mistakes that I made when I was shopping for my car several years ago. We have some exciting ideas, topics and speakers for the fututre as we help you manage your life as a woman on the road.

So if you’d like to hear about car buying and maintenance in addition to reading about it, then by all means subscribe.

Listen to our Introductory Show:

In a recent appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show, Suze Orman discussed what she knows best — Money. With an audience full of women, Suze discussed credit, debt, investing and more. This newfound awareness of women and their money is an interesting one, so much so that Orman dedicated a whole book to the subject. In it she states, Women have been thrust into an entirely new relationship with money that is profoundly different from anything we have ever encountered before. The shifting roles of women at home and at work have dramatically changed where and how money interacts with a woman’s life.

I’ll say it has, take a look at some of these statistics:
- Women control $7 trillion in consumer and business spending and make over $1 trillion dollars annually
- Sixty percent of adult women in America work outside the home and thirty percent of married women now out-earn their husbands.
- Over the past thirty years, women’s income has soared a dramatic 63 percent.
- Women bring in half or more of the income in the majority of U.S. households.
- Women account for more than 50 percent of all stock ownership in the United States.

Women have reached a time in our society where they are much more powerful when it comes to finances. Over the last several years I’ve received numerous invitations to dinners and lunches hosted by financial institutions focusing on women and money.

Why all the sudden interest and attention? Well, if the stats didn’t give you a clear answer, there’s also the fact that women are living longer (twice that of men) and divorce rates continue to climb so at some point and time in her life, a women will have to manage her own money. And we obviously need some help. With all this money and power, women can still find it all a bit intimidating. During her appearance on Oprah, Orman stated that women often don’t trust themselves when it comes to money. Her advice: Women should trust themselves more than they trust others.

There is an interesting relationship between women and money and when you add additional components to the equation, buying a car for instance, things become even more complex. Why don’t we trust ourselves when it comes to cars and money? Why haven’t we taken more interest when it comes to investing, financing and cars?

Now that we have, what can we do? How do we get the knowledge, one Oprah audience member asked? Well for one, we have to get educated. Purchasing Orman’s book is just one way to get started, among others.

So what about you? What will you do?