So when I ran across these helpful suggestions, I had to share it.

Back in the old days when you turned your car off the only drain was a clock and your battery could still start your car after 6 werks. Now with all the fancy computer stuff there is a much bigger drain when OFF.
It is good to know when your battery was replaced, used to have a tag on them with a punched date. That and knowing the warrantee time for the battery. Used to be on the battery also.

Another point is if you drive on rough roads a lot all the extra shaking can cause failure overtime.

In places like Florida and Texas, you're doing well to get to 3 years on a car battery. When I worked as a technician in Tampa, most car batteries hit the wall in terms of life at around the 36 month mark.

A good practice is to write the month and year on the battery label if you don't keep a maintenance journal.