Forest Hill's Jeff Judge in AARP: The real cost of buying your teen a car isn't the car

By Jeff Judge, CFP®, AEP®, ChFC®, CLU®, Managing Partner, Chesapeake Financial Planners, Forest Hill, MD.

My son doesn't turn 16 until 2028. I'm already running the numbers on his car, and it's not the price tag that worries me.

When AARP asked me about the true cost of buying a teenager a car, my answer was simple: the sticker price is the smallest number in the equation. Adding a 16 year old to your auto policy can raise your premium by $4,000 to $5,000 a year, depending on the vehicle. Add gas, repairs, and a loan payment if you're financing, and a car purchase for your teen stops being a one time expense. It becomes a multiyear expense stream that most families never budget for.

For parents in Fallston, Towson, and Aberdeen, this hits closer to home than the national numbers suggest. Harford County and Baltimore County families are exactly the ones juggling a teen driver alongside college savings, a mortgage, and everything else that gets more expensive in the same handful of years. The car is rarely the thing that breaks a budget. The insurance premium nobody priced in advance is.

The takeaway: before you shop for your teenager's first car, call your insurance agent and ask what adding a new driver to your policy will actually cost. Run that number before you fall in love with a specific vehicle, not after.

This piece builds on "The True Cost of Buying a Car for Your Teenager," published in AARP (August 2026).

Jeff Judge, CFP®, AEP®, ChFC®, CLU®, is Managing Partner at Chesapeake Financial Planners in Forest Hill, MD. Book an intro call.