Life really is what happens when your busy making other plans. I mean I wanted to do all of this on my own from day one. While I have no Luxury car I do drive a 2007 FJCruiser my mom bought for me to drive. A car payment with maintenance costs and repair time is a cash flow issue, not a savings issue. If one has reliability and maintenance cost requirements, as well as will spend a lot of time in the same car that they plan on keeping for the next decade, then the decision to go cheap is not clean cut.īad decisions can work both ways: cheap and expensive. As a bonus one gets luxury quality interior and noise levels. Whereas one can buy a 3 year old 6 cylinder Lexus with the best reliability today (better than than a Camry), but with the same maintenance costs when it needs it, for the same price as a new 4 cylinder Camry. Non-luxury new cars at 30k and under and late model used cars at 25k and under offer transportation with bonuses like significant road noise and mid level to economy interiors. Rock-solid reliable means, in most instances, either low depreciation late model (ie: relatively expensive used Toyota that has held its value) and / or newer or new of most makes and models (also expensive). Some people need rock solid reliable and low maintenance cost cars because they use them not only to get to work, but sometimes to drive around for it (ie: therapists driving from client to client). If I had to give any advice to Jennifer on this subject, I would tell her that she should never fear peer pressure for owning a “beater” for a car.įinancially savvy people actually consider it a badge of honor. I’ll also wager the vast majority of newer luxury cars on the road aren’t.Īnd while those over-extended luxury car owners will continue to be saddled with some hefty car payments over the next several years for the privilege of traveling to their jobs in style, the rest of us will continue driving our Honda Civics, Toyota Corollas, and Ford Focuseses-es - or is it Foci? - and use the money we save for our relentless drive toward financial freedom.Īnd guess what? Most of us won’t give a darn what the others think either. Those cars are not glamorous, obviously, but I kept them well-maintained best of all, for the majority of the time that we drove them, they were paid for!Īlthough she didn’t say so, I bet Jennifer’s car is paid off. Although I do not know the exact circumstances that led to the foreclosure, perhaps if they drove more modest cars that didn’t require monstrous monthly payments - or better yet, no payments at all – they might still be living in their home today.Īlthough we can truly afford to drive almost any car we desire, both the Honeybee and I drove our 2001 Honda Odyssey and 1997 Honda Civic, respectively, for more than 15 years before finally getting new Hondas. Guess what? The bank foreclosed on their house a while back and they had to move away. I know a couple that used to live in my little neighborhood community who drove brand new his and hers BMWs. So clearly, one cannot determine the size of a person’s bank account merely by the type of car they drive. Heck, Jennifer’s friend owns a relatively-modest priced SUV and she couldn’t even afford to get the engine fixed. I also see people working in jobs that pay $30,000 per year driving Infinities. I don’t think most of them hit it big blogging, or own wildly successful businesses at that tender age. If you don’t believe me, just look around the proof is everywhere.įor example, here in Southern California I see teenagers driving BMWs, and Lexuseseses - or is it Lexi? - all the time. (Dang, I hate when I do that.)Īs far as smart people are concerned - and even dummies like me - the sticker price of somebody’s car can never be considered a reliable indicator of financial success. The truth is smart people know nothing could be further from the … er, truth. Yes, it’s true a large segment of society still believes that the car a person drives is a status symbol that accurately reflects the level of financial success he or she has achieved. Let them mock you all they want because those people clearly have a misguided view of how the world really works. I’ve had many people mock my car, and if I cared, I would run out and get a fancier one.Īh, Jennifer. Her engine costs more than my whole car… I will admit that peer pressure is real though. I declined to participate because even though I have a lot more money than her, I have a 9-year-old car that’s worth maybe $2000, and hers is worth about $30K. I know a woman who is a single mother and hit up her friends for money to replace the engine in her SUV. A few days ago, a reader named Jennifer left a comment on my blog lamenting the sense of entitlement she saw in many people.
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