One Car-Buying Change Could Add $250,000 to Retirement

Clark Howard ran the numbers this week and the result is striking. A single change to your car-buying habits buying a reliable 3-year-old used car instead of a new one every few years could add a quarter of a million dollars to your retirement balance over a career. The math works because the monthly payment difference gets invested instead. And over 30 or 40 years of compounding, that gap becomes enormous.

We talk to a lot of people who think about retirement savings in terms of what they can squeeze out of their budget. But the real lever is not the coffee or the streaming subscription. It is the big recurring expenses. Car payments, housing, furniture financing.  The takeaway is simple: the car in your driveway might be the single biggest thing between you and a comfortable retirement.