When purchasing appliances, electronics, or cars, you will most often be asked whether or not you want to buy extended warranty. Is this such a good idea? It really depends on what you are buying and for how long you are going to keep it. Let us say that you are buying a car, then it might be a good idea to purchase extended warranty if you plan on keeping it beyond, say, three years. The same reasoning applies to other major purchases. If you are buying a laptop, for example, and you plan on keeping it way beyond the period covered by the normal warranty, then you ought to purchase extended warranty.