I've been driving a sedan for 8 years. It's been a great car, and I haven't had any major issues with it. However, I live in Washington state, and as someone who loves the outdoors, a front-wheel drive sedan has limited me in terms of how deeply I can explore the Cascade Mountains. I've dreamt of driving far away into the backcountry and setting up a tent under a night sky saturated with stars, immune from the light pollution of the city. To realize my dream, I'd have to drive miles and miles down dirt roads, many of which would not be well-maintained, and with the state's constant rainfall, there's a very high chance my sedan would get stuck in the mud in an area where I wouldn't be able to call anyone for help.

An SUV would make my dream much more feasible, and with visions of a silent Milky Way in my head, I decided to go shopping for a new car just to see what would be available to me. My first stop was the Honda dealership, and I was particularly drawn to the Honda CR-V. With all-wheel drive, it would be perfect for taking into the mountains, and I trusted Honda as a reliable brand to last me for years over many camping trips. The salesman handed me a key to take the car on a test drive, and as I took it out on the highway with the new car scent in the air, I couldn't help but feel excited as I pictured myself driving into the mountains for a weekend camping trip without any anxiety about getting stuck in the mud.

Once I got back to the dealership, still fresh with the memory of the new car scent, I thought about what it would cost me to own the car. I could pay cash for the car, but that would eat into a huge chunk of the savings I have for a house. I could finance the car, but that would add hundreds of dollars to my monthly expenses for years, plus I'd have to pay double what I do now for car insurance as well as my annual registration. Repairs for the car would also be more expensive. I thought about if all these extra costs would be worth the value I would get from the SUV.

What is value? That's not an easy question to answer, but one way I've heard it described is "money is what you pay, value is what you get". When you purchase a meal at a restaurant, the value you get comes from the satisfaction of your hunger, the pleasure you get from eating the food, and the memories you make with those around you. Money isn't the only thing you can exchange for value. You can also exchange your time. When you spend time reading a book, for example, the value you get is the knowledge you gain. You could also spend your time learning a new skill which could give you the value of being able to earn a higher salary in your career. Value is anything that is worth something to you.

Value will mean different things to different people. One man's trash after all, is another man's treasure. But before you exchange your money or time for anything, you should ask yourself if the price you are paying is worth the value you will receive.

Let's say you are at a sporting event, and before you enter the stadium you see people selling bottles of water out of coolers. Most of them are selling individual bottles for $1 or $2, but I have decided to set up my own cooler selling bottles of water for $50 a pop. If you saw my cooler of expensive water next to all the competition, you would probably call me crazy. No one would buy a bottle of water for $50 when they could get it much cheaper elsewhere. The value you would get from my bottles of water would not be worth $50 to you. You will go watch the sports game with a cool, refreshing $1 bottle of water from one of the other vendors while I will go home with empty pockets.

Now instead of a sports game, let's say you have been wandering through a hot, vast desert for days with no signs of water or life in sight. Just as you're finally about to lose hope, you spot a green oasis out in the distance. With your last ounces of strength, you run to the oasis, praying that there will be something there to keep you alive. There I am again with my cooler of water bottles, still selling them for $50. In this moment of desperation, the value you get from my bottles of water will likely be worth much more to you than $50 because they represent the difference between life and death. In that moment, if you ask yourself "is the price I'm paying for the water worth its value?" then I'm sure you wouldn't even hesitate to hand over the $50.

So, what did I end up doing at the Honda dealership? After considering all the extra costs that a new car would mean, I decided to put buying an SUV on hold for now. I can't go everywhere I want in my sedan, but I've still been able to go on plenty of hikes and camping trips in it and have gotten lots of value from what I already have. I decided that spending all the extra money on an SUV at this point in time just isn't worth the value I would get.

Someone in a different situation than me could have come to a very different conclusion. For someone else, a few hundred dollars per month on a car payment and insurance would absolutely be worth the value they would receive from the new car. Perhaps their current ride is on its deathbed, or they've received a big bonus at work and feel justified in treating themselves.

Considering my own circumstances and goals, though, I think I made the right decision. It's not always easy determining what the value of something really is to you, but what's important is getting into the habit of asking if the price you have to pay for something is worth the value you'll receive. As exciting as the process of looking for a new car is, just asking that question to myself helped me step back from the emotions of the moment and consider if I was really getting a good deal for myself. Thinking more about value helps us avoid a lot of bad deals and also helps us spot the good ones. My brand new SUV is still a dream that lives in the future, but one day I'm sure the price I pay will be worth the value.