Back when I was negotiating my first car purchase -- and had a fair amount of savings to play with -- I telephoned my father to talk through the buy/lease model

Back when I was negotiating my first car purchase -- and had a fair amount of savings to play with -- I telephoned my father to talk through the buy/lease model I had constructed in Excel. My dad, highly numerate, a car enthusiast, and a pretty good financial optimizer, had one response: Just buy a car you can afford. What he meant was that I should negotiate the purchase price and then write a check. No games. If I felt uncomfortable paying a price, I needed a cheaper car, not a different strategy for buying it. Good advice, I thought. I suspect it applies to travel, too.