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3 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW FBI: No toxic substances found so far in suspicious letters sent to Oregon sheriff's offices ... Emergency Services, July 28 ... I-5 crash kills one Medford woman, injures another ... FBI: No toxic substances found so far in suspicious letters sent to Oregon sheriff's offices ... Emergency Services, July 28 ... I-5 crash kills one Medford woman, injures another ... Dave Ramsey: Appreciate depreciation Comment By Dave Ramsey More Content Now MailTribune.com By Dave Ramsey More Content Now Posted Jul. 22, 2015 at 12:01 AM By Dave Ramsey More Content Now Posted Jul. 22, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News Dear Dave, I’m self-employed, and I travel about 30,000 miles a year in my van. I’m three payments away from having the vehicle paid off, but it has 170,000 miles on it. Do you think it would be a good idea for me to buy a new van and have the tax advantages that would go along with it? Doug Dear Doug, There are two things you can do on taxes when it comes to your automobiles. You can straight line depreciate them, which is what you do with expensive vehicles, or you can write off the mileage. That’s a good idea if you drive a lot. The thing is, you get the mileage whether you have debt or not. Let’s say you bought a $25,000 van. If you depreciate that over five years, that’s $5,000 a year. If you made $65,000, and take $5,000 from that, you’d pay taxes on $60,000. If you didn’t have that, you’d end up paying $1,250 in taxes. In other words, you’d be spending $25,000 over five years to save $1,250 a year on taxes. That’s a trade I don’t think you want to make. Remember, too, that you basically destroy whatever you drive. You have to think of your vehicle as overhead. So you’re going to destroy a $25,000 van or a $5,000 van all in the same period of time. As a businessman, which would you rather destroy? The answer is whatever is the least expensive and gets the job done! — Dave Don’t need those cards Dear Dave, I have two credit cards. One charges me an annual fee of $79 and the other a fee of $39. Should I cancel these and not worry about my credit score? I’d like to buy a house in the next two or three years. Ken Dear Ken, In my mind, there’s no such thing as a good credit card. My advice is to go ahead and cancel them. When you stop borrowing money and don’t have any open accounts, your credit score will slowly disappear. The big thing is that you don’t want to be caught in no-man’s land in terms of a credit score. You want either a fabulous one, which means you’re in debt all of the time, or you want no score because you don’t have any open accounts. By the way, did you know that you can still qualify for a mortgage even with no credit score? There are still mortgage companies out there that will do manual underwriting. It takes a little extra effort, but in my mind that’s a small price to pay. Cancel the cards, Ken. I’ve never met a millionaire who prospered thanks to credit cards and their gimmicks! — Dave Dave Ramsey is America’s trusted voice on money and business. He has authored five New York Times best-selling books. “The Dave Ramsey Show” is heard by more than 8.5 million listeners each week on more than 550 radio stations. Dave’s latest project, EveryDollar, provides a free online budget tool. Follow Dave on Twitter at @DaveRamsey and on the web at daveramsey.com. By Dave Ramsey More Content Now MailTribune.com By Dave Ramsey More Content Now Posted Jul. 22, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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