I'm not justifying the buying of a new vehicle. I'm just saying different people splurge on different aspects of life. The wants. Some want rifles, bows, camo... Some want walk in closets full of shoes. Some want super bowl tickets. Some want a week in the Dominican every year. Others want a new car. My only point is about how naive it is to view your money in different lights based on what you spent it on. Money is money. Once spent, you have to be objective about it.
The only thing I haven't paid cash for is my mortgage. Unless something off the wall happens to my wife's car or mine, the objective is to NEVER have a car payment. We will save up to buy the car we want, cash, then drive it until it dies, blows up, falls off a cliff, etc etc.. It's a simple concept....do not invest money in something that you will not get your investment back out of. Cars depreciate. Some of my buddies have multiple car payments and they're paying more on those cars than I pay on my mortgage all together! And then they BLAME "big business" for them not being able to afford to live in a nicer neighborhood...... The only other thing I probably wont pay cash for (depending on our financial standings then) is when we buy a farm. Even tho that's a luxury payment, it would be one heck of a cash payment. A smart tool that I was taught by an older man when I was in middle school was the term "squirreling". Basically, if you get paid 'X' amount, take a percentage of it, and "squirrel" it away. More or less, "rainy day money" (if you dont know what that is, ask your parents). But the key to the idea was, always have double the amount of money of what you're going to spend. If you are going to buy something worth $10, then you should have $20. He said, that way you never go back to zero. America could learn this old timers way a little better, so we, the workers, don't have to bail out the spenders, politicians.
Reading this thread makes me want to go buy a used F-150 this weekend. I want to be like the cool kids and have a decent vehicle but am too cheap.
Just priced the exact truck I would want.. 2015 2500 duramax....and 61k later... Reality of what I can afford...
10 more months of payments til my truck is paid off, then we will have three vehicles and no payments. I cant wait.
I didn't own a vehicle with less than 100,000 miles on it until I was 38 years old. I paid cash for older vehicles and socked money away into retirement funds and other investments starting at age 21. That one simple strategy has made several hundred thousand dollars of difference to my net worth.
That right there is sage advice. That is something I did not do at an early age and it is going to cost me a bit. I have been investing the last couple of years and my wife has been investing for 15 years now. I have already started speaking to my kids about living below their means, investing money, and putting away 3%-5% of every pacycheck into savings. I hope that makes their life a little easier than mine.
Land is going back down thankfully but last year the average farm land was probably 8500 plus around here.
I hate car payments. I am lucky in that I have a company truck for me to drive. My wife and I went 4 years without a payment on a car or truck but it was time either spend a lot of money on a tired truck or get a new one, it sucked but we bit the bullet, what added to the suck was my kids are both in college and that payment is more that a car payment so it all compounds. Only 3 years left on car payments and college payments.
