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Anautomobileisama- jor purchase, and it's the consumer purchase most likely to put a major kink into your finan- cial situa- tion. Here are the three rules to fol- low when buying a car: RULE 1: Pay cash. Hang on. I know you may not be able to do that right now. Just be pa- tient, and I will teach you how. This principle is so important that I repeat: Pay cash for your car. RULE 2: Opt for a late model. Make sure you are not the first owner. Let someone else take that 20 percent depreciation hit. Your goal is to drive the best late-model previ- ously owned car you can afford with the cash you have. RULE 3: Always make payments. I hope that got your attention. On the one hand, I just told you to always to pay cash for your cars. And now I am telling you to al- ways make payments. Both principles are true. You must adopt the atti- tude that as long as you intend to own a car, you must anticipate the cost by making monthly pay- ments to yourself in an- ticipation of your next car. This way you are al- ways earning interest, not paying it. Even if your current car is doing well, I want to challenge you to start today so you can pay cash for your next car. Open a special sav- ings account somewhere convenient, and begin to make that monthly pay- ment into the account. Pay yourself $300 every month, just the way you would have to pay that to a finance company if your current car died a tragic death in the next week or so. That's right. Make these payments to your- self. Be strict with your- self — rigid and unbend- ing. No late payments. No slacking. Continue driving the car you have for as long as you can, even if it is a real clunker. At the end of a year, you will have accumulated $3,600 cash plus interest in your ac- count with the Bank of You. Not bad. Then, sell your clunker. I don't know what you have or what it might be worth, so let's say you can sell it for $2,000. Put that money together with the $3,600 and buy the best car you can find for $5,600 cash. By now you've become used to making $300 payments to yourself, so don't stop. It's a habit, and a good one at that. At the end of another year, sell your current clunker for, say, $4,800 and put that money to- gether with the $3,600 you saved during the year by making those pay- ments to yourself. Now you can buy the best used car you can find for $8,400. Then, continue making those payments. At the end of year three, sell your current car for, say, $7,800. Put that together with the $3,600 from your sav- ings, and buy the best car you can find for $11,400. Your selection of good used cars is getting bet- ter each year. You have graduated from clunkers to much more respectable automobiles. In year four, sell your most recent car for, say, $11,000. Add that to the $3,600 from your sav- ings, and buy a used car for $14,600. By year five, you will have at least $17,000 cash to upgrade to an even better car. By year six, you should have at least $20,000 cash to buy a car. Keep repeating this process once each year. As you become more ad- ept, you will lose your fear of buying and sell- ing cars. And imagine your confidence and per- sonal power knowing you are not at the mercy of a salesman, bank or fi- nance company as you look for a car. You can ne- gotiate because you will have plenty of experience. After five or six years, buying a brand-new car will certainly be an op- tion. But I predict you will pass. Why? Because by this time, you will be so good at buying late- model, low-mileage cars for a fraction of the price that you will scoff at the folly of buying new and feeling that big deprecia- tion hit on the front end. Still, you will have that option. And who knows? You just might take it. Wouldyouliketosend a tip to Mary? You can email her at mary@ everydaycheapskate.com, or write to Everyday Cheapskate, 12340 Seal Beach Blvd., Ste. B-416, Seal Beach, CA 90740. EVERYDAYCHEAPSKATE Rules for buying a car for all cash Mary Hunt Staff Reports MINERAL Public comment on five options for revamp- ing Bumpass Hell access is being sought by Lassen Vol- canic National Park. The geothermal area is one of the primary attrac- tions in the park, but the boardwalks that carry visi- tors to the feature are hard to maintain, especially with the geothermal features changing. In 2015, for in- stance, a portion of one of the boardwalks had to be removed because a boiling pool undercut it. Currently, two board- walks head out into the area, one to the Big Boiler and the other to the Pyrite Pool. One option would re- tain that condition. Others would enhance the board- walks or remove them, add additional trails and over- views around the basin, and in a couple of options, built pit toilets along the trail from the park road. The five alternatives can be downloaded at http://ti- nyurl.com/bumpassopts. The public can comment online at http://parkplan- ning.nps.gov/lavo, the web- site for the National Park Service's Planning Envi- ronment and Public Com- ment system. Comments may also be mailed to: Su- perintendent, Lassen Volca- nic National Park, P.O. Box 100, Mineral, CA 96063. Comments will be ac- cepted until April 1. BUMPASS HELL Lassen Volcanic National Park seeks public review CONTRIBUTEDPHOTO Visitors look out from one of the boardwalks in Bumpass Hell in Lassen Volcanic National Park. The National Park Service is seeking public comment on five alternatives to revamping access to the popular geothermal area. Mercy Foundation North is accepting applications for the Chris Lawley Memorial Scholarship for nursing stu- dents. This is a $1,500 annual scholarship and will be awarded to a nursing stu- dent who will be attending the second year of nursing school at a community col- lege or a four-year college or university in the fall . The application deadline is April 15. For information on scholarship eligibility and applications visit sup- portmercynorth.org or red- bluff.mercy.org. Contact Kristen Gray, Mercy Foun- dation North Development Officer, at 529-8016 with questions. The Chris Lawley Memo- rial Scholarship was estab- lished in memory of Chris Lawley, R.N., longtime em- ployee of St. Elizabeth Com- munity Hospital. The first scholarship was awarded in 2011. A goal of the pro- gram is to support nursing students as they complete their education with the hope that they will pursue their nursing career in Te- hama County at St. Eliza- beth Community Hospital or another health care fa- cility. Additional gifts from the community to this fund are welcomed by making a do- nation to: Mercy Founda- tion North, Attention: The Chris Lawley Memorial Scholarship. Mercy Foundation North is a nonprofit organization sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy and is dedicated to supporting their activities throughout Northern Cal- ifornia. Guided by the Sisters' mission to care for those in need of physical, spiri- tual, social, and emotional healing, the foundation raises money for St. Eliza- beth Community Hospital, as well as other sponsored works of the sisters in the north state. EDUCATION Applications being accepted for nursing scholarship Better Business Bureau This scam looks like just another email message from your company's IT depart- ment. It's so mundane, it's easy to click without think- ing. But be sure to give this email a second look before you do. Howthescamworks You get an email that looks like a message from your company's IT depart- ment. The version that hit BBB inboxes has the subject line "[name]@[company. com] update required" and appears to come from info@ webmaster.com. Accordingtothemessage, your email has reached the storage limit, and "you will beblockedfromsendingand receiving messages." The message instructs you to click a link to validate your account and add storage. In a clever move, the scammers even made the link look like your email address. But in theversionBBBreceived,the link really points to a web- sitewithanoverseasdomain name. Clickingthelinktakesyou toalog-informthatasksyou to enter your email address and password. If you do so, you receive a message con- firming that the extra stor- age was added and the prob- lemisfixed.Butdon'tbelieve it. Theformisafraud.It'sre- ally a way to steal your email password, which opens you up to identify theft. How to spot a phishing scam: Be wary of unex- pected emails that contain links or attachments. Do not click on links or open files in unfamiliar emails. Don't believe what you see. Just because an email looks real, doesn't mean it is. Scam- mers can fake anything from a company logo to the "Sent" email address. Check your company's IT department or internet service provider. If some- thing sounds suspicious, confirm it first. Contact them directly from a num- ber you know is accurate. Don't click on any links in the message you suspect is a scam. Be cautious of ge- neric emails. SCAM ALERT 'You've reached your storage limit' messages are a con SHESNORESMORE THANIDO,BUTISTILL LOVEMYHUMAN. —BANDIT adopted11-26-09 TheRedBluff Triton Swim Team islookingfora summer swim coach in Red Bluff. $15.00/hr Mid- May-End of July. Contact Dani @736-5701 or email redblufftritons@yahoo.com. Deadline March 24th TheConnection/ His Way Church ComeWorshipwithUs Tuesday & Saturday at 6pm WithPastorsJohnandChuck 446 Walnut Street Downtown Red Bluff (across from Post Office) www.hiswayonline.org www.theconnection@vpweb.com wwwnortherncountiesroofingsystems.com FreeEstimates 530-356-0686 Owner on site Lic# 955662 • Residential • Commercial • New Construction 25yearsprofessional experience. QualityWork Very Reasonable Rates Red Bluff Transmission • Automatic • Manual • Computer Diagnosis • Clutches • Transfer Cases • CV Axles CALL TODAY! 529-4493 440 Antelope Blvd. #6 Bob's Youcantmissus... Weonly moved 50 feet!! April 1 & 2,2017 Tehama District Fairground 650 Antelope Blvd. WithFeaturedQuilters Roxanna Bradley & June Kirk Food • Vendors • Boutique www.suncountryquilters.com (916) 425-8230 SunCountryQuilterspresents "Quiltingin theSunCountry" Quilt Show LIFESTYLES » redbluffdailynews.com Thursday, March 23, 2017 MORE ATFACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6