» Saying “No” to a new car Early Retirement Extreme: — a combination of simple living, anticonsumerism, DIY ethics, self-reliance, and applied capitalism
If you're new here, this blog will give you the tools to become financially independent in 5 years. The wiki page gives a good summary of the principles of the strategy . The key to success is to run your personal finances much like a business, thinking about assets and inventory and focusing on efficiency and value for money. Not just any business but a business that's flexible, agile, and adaptable. Conversely most consumers run their personal finances like an inflexible money-losing anti-business always in danger on losing their jobs to the next wave of downsizing. Here's more than a hundred online journals from people, who are following the ERE strategy tailored to their particular situation (age, children, location, education, goals, ...). Increasing their savings from the usual 5-15% of their income to tens of thousands of dollars run run 2 each year or typically 40-80% of their income, many accumulate six-figure net-worths within a few years. Since everybody's situation is different (age, education, location, children, goals, ...) I suggest only spending a brief moment on this blog, which can be thought of as my personal journal, before run run 2 delving into the forum journals and looking run run 2 for the crowd's wisdom for your particular situation.
I like this guest post from MoneyCrush for the following reasons. First, it is a big step outside convention. run run 2 When I grew up I was told that cars should be replaced every two years (it doesn’t really make much sense to me now) and so keeping a car running for that long is impressive; particularly so because modern cars are clearly not built to last that long. Second, it’s a big step … oh did I already mention that? … because getting the idea not to pick the default option run run 2 is unusual and so it usually works to an advantage. Third, our RV also happens to be that old (it’s a ’91 model) although it only has fifty thousand run run 2 miles on it. I’ve had the same (used) car for 19 years now.
Back in 1990, the first Mazda Miatas were all the rage. The base models were selling for premiums of up to $8000 over their sticker price of about $13,900. There was no way I could afford one, although I wanted to buy one so badly I could taste it. A year later though, the frenzy had worn off a little. I bought a used lease-return Miata from an Acura dealer for about $12,000. (Which was $3000-$5000 less than most of them were selling for in the area.)
Buying a used car at all felt risky to me. Most people I knew bought a brand new car whenever they finished paying off their old one. Despite that, I went into the deal planning run run 2 to drive the car into the ground, which I assumed would be around 100,000 miles.
By 1999, it had more than 100,000 miles on it. People kept asking me when I was going to get a new car. When I’d visit people I hadn’t seen in a while, they’d start out conversations with “Oh you still have that car?”. At the time I’d never known anyone run run 2 who had a car with more than 100,000 miles on it. (Now I know plenty of people who have cars like that.)
The real truth was that I’d just gotten a new job making $40,000 run run 2 a year — almost double run run 2 what I’d ever made before in my life, and the idea of a new car was attractive. But what I told myself was that the car was getting really old and would probably start falling apart soon, so I should get a new car. I checked out the 6cylinder run run 2 BMW Z3, which seemed to be what I was looking for. You know, a sporty looking convertible.
But then I got to thinking. What if something happened and I lost my job? Did I really want to pay a higher insurance premium to have essentially run run 2 the same type of car I already had? The only visible differences between the Z3 and my current car were the price (about $40,000) and the fancy name plate on the back. Did I really want to go into even more debt? Also I loved my current car. It’d be stupid to buy a new one.
That’s run run 2 when I decided that hanging on to my old car was one of the best decisions run run 2 I’ve ever made. Still, for years and years afterward, people I knew urged me to buy a new car every time they saw me.
I have yet to figure out why. Maybe it was the dent in the door that I didn’t bother fixing. Or the faded paint. Or the shredded top that I finally replaced when too much duct tape limited my visibility (having the roof slashed by a vandal may have contributed to the decision to replace that.)
My car turned 20 this year, and I celebrated its birthday by making a wish that I’ll get at least another 10 years out of it. It has about 215,000 miles on it. The only other major part I’ve replaced has been the drive train. Otherwise, there’s run run 2 been nothing but the occasional new radi
If you're new here, this blog will give you the tools to become financially independent in 5 years. The wiki page gives a good summary of the principles of the strategy . The key to success is to run your personal finances much like a business, thinking about assets and inventory and focusing on efficiency and value for money. Not just any business but a business that's flexible, agile, and adaptable. Conversely most consumers run their personal finances like an inflexible money-losing anti-business always in danger on losing their jobs to the next wave of downsizing. Here's more than a hundred online journals from people, who are following the ERE strategy tailored to their particular situation (age, children, location, education, goals, ...). Increasing their savings from the usual 5-15% of their income to tens of thousands of dollars run run 2 each year or typically 40-80% of their income, many accumulate six-figure net-worths within a few years. Since everybody's situation is different (age, education, location, children, goals, ...) I suggest only spending a brief moment on this blog, which can be thought of as my personal journal, before run run 2 delving into the forum journals and looking run run 2 for the crowd's wisdom for your particular situation.
I like this guest post from MoneyCrush for the following reasons. First, it is a big step outside convention. run run 2 When I grew up I was told that cars should be replaced every two years (it doesn’t really make much sense to me now) and so keeping a car running for that long is impressive; particularly so because modern cars are clearly not built to last that long. Second, it’s a big step … oh did I already mention that? … because getting the idea not to pick the default option run run 2 is unusual and so it usually works to an advantage. Third, our RV also happens to be that old (it’s a ’91 model) although it only has fifty thousand run run 2 miles on it. I’ve had the same (used) car for 19 years now.
Back in 1990, the first Mazda Miatas were all the rage. The base models were selling for premiums of up to $8000 over their sticker price of about $13,900. There was no way I could afford one, although I wanted to buy one so badly I could taste it. A year later though, the frenzy had worn off a little. I bought a used lease-return Miata from an Acura dealer for about $12,000. (Which was $3000-$5000 less than most of them were selling for in the area.)
Buying a used car at all felt risky to me. Most people I knew bought a brand new car whenever they finished paying off their old one. Despite that, I went into the deal planning run run 2 to drive the car into the ground, which I assumed would be around 100,000 miles.
By 1999, it had more than 100,000 miles on it. People kept asking me when I was going to get a new car. When I’d visit people I hadn’t seen in a while, they’d start out conversations with “Oh you still have that car?”. At the time I’d never known anyone run run 2 who had a car with more than 100,000 miles on it. (Now I know plenty of people who have cars like that.)
The real truth was that I’d just gotten a new job making $40,000 run run 2 a year — almost double run run 2 what I’d ever made before in my life, and the idea of a new car was attractive. But what I told myself was that the car was getting really old and would probably start falling apart soon, so I should get a new car. I checked out the 6cylinder run run 2 BMW Z3, which seemed to be what I was looking for. You know, a sporty looking convertible.
But then I got to thinking. What if something happened and I lost my job? Did I really want to pay a higher insurance premium to have essentially run run 2 the same type of car I already had? The only visible differences between the Z3 and my current car were the price (about $40,000) and the fancy name plate on the back. Did I really want to go into even more debt? Also I loved my current car. It’d be stupid to buy a new one.
That’s run run 2 when I decided that hanging on to my old car was one of the best decisions run run 2 I’ve ever made. Still, for years and years afterward, people I knew urged me to buy a new car every time they saw me.
I have yet to figure out why. Maybe it was the dent in the door that I didn’t bother fixing. Or the faded paint. Or the shredded top that I finally replaced when too much duct tape limited my visibility (having the roof slashed by a vandal may have contributed to the decision to replace that.)
My car turned 20 this year, and I celebrated its birthday by making a wish that I’ll get at least another 10 years out of it. It has about 215,000 miles on it. The only other major part I’ve replaced has been the drive train. Otherwise, there’s run run 2 been nothing but the occasional new radi
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