Car maintenance and home equity

I usually agree with your posts CKN, but I can't tell if this was sarcasm or not.

He's right. While I'm not a good example of it, paying yourself (in investments) either a car payment or what you saved doing your own repairs could be huge in a 40 year timespan before retirement.
I was serious. Car payments-are OK if you can afford them-taking everything else (inc. retirement) in to the equation. Maintenance-we can agree to disagree here-maintenance IMHO just doesn't add up to that much.

BTW-it's nice to know I have at least one person who agrees with me-and doesn't drink the BITOG Kool-Aid!
 
Housing and transportation are the two biggest items in nearly everyone's budget. Keep those in check (below your means) and you'll do very well with saving money, which can be invested and can lead to wealth.

Notice I said "housing" - home ownership does not lead to wealth. It is a forced savings of paying down principal that works for most Americans. If you are disciplined enough to rent for less than owning, while investing the cash saved, you will do quite well. Plenty of people couldn't afford their mortgages and lost their home. That didn't help build "wealth". Live below your means, and you'll do much better than the average consumer.
i would just add the caveat that buying a home fixes the p&i portion of your payment, while rents increase over time. so if you buy a house when you are 25, it is very likely your house payment will be far lower than a comparable rental when you are 50. so smart homeownership can certainly help build wealth.
 
I was serious. Car payments-are OK if you can afford them-taking everything else (inc. retirement) in to the equation. Maintenance-we can agree to disagree here-maintenance IMHO just doesn't add up to that much.

BTW-it's nice to know I have at least one person who agrees with me-and doesn't drink the BITOG Kool-Aid!
maintenance doesn’t add up to much unless you consider the fact that doing your own maintenance can help you avoid car payments in the first place. and over the course of a lifetime, car payments absolutely add up - how much better off would most people be putting an extra 250 per month in their 401k?
 
maintenance doesn’t add up to much unless you consider the fact that doing your own maintenance can help you avoid car payments in the first place. and over the course of a lifetime, car payments absolutely add up - how much better off would most people be putting an extra 250 per month in their 401k?

You should only buy a new car if you can afford it. AGAIN -taking everything else in to consideration.
 
I saw some comments about wealth building in another thread and got to thinking about how lots of us maintain our cars to save money, both on labor and by keeping them running for a long time. My first thought was, jeez, compared to the wealth you can build by owning a home, the money you save keeping your car in shape is peanuts.

Then I started thinking more and realized they are kind of related. If you’re able to maintain your own car and don’t overextend yourself with your transportation budget, sure is a lot easier to save up a down payment and lowers your transportation expenses so you can afford a mortgage.

I guess I convinced myself that taking care of your car yourself is actually worth it in the long run, you just have to look at it the right way!
Being able to Maintain a vehicle formthe long term is a means but not fundamental To developing financial security,

after developing a cash reserve all debt needs to be eliminated. Having no car payments by keeping vehicles longer or buying older ones can accelerate this.

saving 15% a year and investing it into retirement accounts builds a future beyond working for income.
paying a mortgage is not owning a house, it is long term usery.
paying off a house and having no other debt is financial freedom especially When years Of savings has been accumulated.
At this point you will basically be able to drive some great vehicles But most likely you won’t think that way anymore, controlling your destiny is a bigger reward than saving 100 bucks on a break job. sometimes your time is worth more than what is saved on labor when you are working towards achievable goals.
 
You guys are very limited in your thinking. Use this S&P 500 calculator to see how much 10-100k would be in 20-30 years.


Or see how much real estate would be worth now if you bought some rental property 5-15 years ago.

Cultural etiquettes about wealth prevents me from saying more.
 
Doing most of my own repairs for 45 years hasn't made me rich but figuring the markup on parts that a dealer/independent would get plus their labor I've probably saved $25-50K dollars on automotive repair. If I know about a repair ahead of time I can also shop prices on parts where a mechanic will go to the nearest auto parts store and buy it regardless of price. I also do most of my home repairs, lawn equipment repairs, etc. 30 years ago the house we lived in needed a new roof. I think the estimate was around $5K so I went and bought the shingles and one Friday afternoon when I got home from work I tore off half of the old roof, got up on Saturday and put that half back on and tore the rest of it off. Sunday I put that half back on and ran my ridge cap. I think my total out of pocket was under $500. Approximately two 12 hour days labor saved me about $4500. Several years ago we had a water heater leak that did about $25K damage to the house. I turned it in to my insurance company and had them cut the check to me. I took the money and bought all the needed supplies then tore out the damage, dried everything out, sprayed everything down with mold control, painted the wood that had been effected with Kilz and put everything back together in less time than the contractor had quoted. I think materials were about $3K including buying a dehumidifier and my a new water heater. About 3-4 weeks worth of drying out/repair and cleared about $22K. One single thing doesn't amount to a huge amount but when you start totaling up several things at a few hundred or a few thousand dollars each it amounts up.
 
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Being able to Maintain a vehicle formthe long term is a means but not fundamental To developing financial security,

after developing a cash reserve all debt needs to be eliminated. Having no car payments by keeping vehicles longer or buying older ones can accelerate this.

saving 15% a year and investing it into retirement accounts builds a future beyond working for income.
paying a mortgage is not owning a house, it is long term usery.
paying off a house and having no other debt is financial freedom especially When years Of savings has been accumulated.
At this point you will basically be able to drive some great vehicles But most likely you won’t think that way anymore, controlling your destiny is a bigger reward than saving 100 bucks on a break job. sometimes your time is worth more than what is saved on labor when you are working towards achievable goals.
While I understand that statement-if you bought a house 40 years ago in Southern California for an average price of $300,000.00 that house is now worth anywhere from $800,000.00 to well over 1 million-depending on the area. That's not a bad return. I bought our home in Utah 10 years ago (retired from So Cal) -it has doubled in price. So yes-Real Estate is an investment-even when one doesn't know it.
 
I don’t own a house yet I still live with my parents so I spend all my money on tools and my cars lol. I make good money. $30 an hour sometimes more for road calls. And flat rate at the shop. I pay my insurance and everything for my car every other bit is mine to spend on what I want. Which usually is friends or tools or cars lol 😂 I don’t want much else.
Now's the time for you to begin saving toward that house and your future retirement. Making good money and limited expenses, the perfect combination for starting to build wealth early in life. I always considered buying tools more as an investment than an expense because I knew they were going to save me a lot more money than I'd paid for them. In your case good tools just allow you to be able to do your job easier and faster. Like everyone I hate to buy a special tool for something and may never need it again but if the tool is $25. and I'm saving $300. by repairing it myself that tool just made me $275.
 
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I think everybody is going to have different goals in life anyways. While I am building wealth, I have no real plan to retire either. Could never sit at home anyways. Just need to make sure it’s want I want to do at my old age...

It’s simply doing what is going to make you happy. Money is nice, but it doesn’t do much if you’re dead. It’s making sure there is balance.......
 
I think everybody is going to have different goals in life anyways. While I am building wealth, I have no real plan to retire either. Could never sit at home anyways. Just need to make sure it’s want I want to do at my old age...

It’s simply doing what is going to make you happy. Money is nice, but it doesn’t do much if you’re dead. It’s making sure there is balance.......
I hadn't planned to retire until probably at least age 65 but a construction accident that left me with chronic back pain and not being able to work on a regular basis changed that for me when I was 40 years old. Luckily I'd always tried to save when and where I could so the house and cars were paid off when I got hurt. It took 5 years to get my disability approved. We had two school age children at the time. It might not have always been exactly what they wanted but they were kept clothed and never missed a meal. Some people want to wait until retirement age to start saving. In my case if I'd have done that and had a house payment, car payment when I got hurt we'd have lost everything. I'm not rich and never will be. As long as we can have enough income to live on and have a little stashed away for emergencies I'm fine.
 
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my understanding was that this is more of a car maintenance forum and not so focused on child care or heart surgery. my apologies in advance if i was mistaken.
It's self-selection. The person with the weak ticker isn't taking on a trans/engine swap or brake job.
Lug nut loosening'll kill ya. And consumers tend to think about their next new car, not their next tie rod set.
Seen people who care more about having clean fingernails than clean tar & nicotine free lungs. It's A Wild World as Cat Stevens sang.
 
I think everybody is going to have different goals in life anyways. While I am building wealth, I have no real plan to retire either. Could never sit at home anyways. Just need to make sure it’s want I want to do at my old age...

It’s simply doing what is going to make you happy. Money is nice, but it doesn’t do much if you’re dead. It’s making sure there is balance.......
Totally agree as I say save when you can and live a little when you feel the need and it makes financial sense. Over the years I've read of those (and known a few) that pinched every penny possible and died with a decent amount of wealth, but clearly missed out on some things trying to be super thrifty. That really only benefits whoever inherits that wealth.
 
The money I don't spend on a new car payment goes toward maxing my IRA contributions every year. The money I save not paying for the insurance on a new vehicle boosts my kids' college funds.

My mortgage payment is 19% of monthly income though I pay 25% with the extra going to principle. I will never pay more than 35% for a home + all essential bills or more than me or my wife's sole income, whichever is less. That way, if one our incomes suddenly stops, we can still pay the bills.

Outside of my mortgage, if I have to finance it then I can't afford it. My mortgage is the only loan I have.

I do not keep all of my eggs in one basket. My investments are spread across multiple industries so that way if one of them goes under, I don't lose everything.

I plan accordingly to make one trip into the city each week to do all of my errands (if needed) so I don't make 2+ trips a week that just wastes fuel and money.

I DIY as much as I possibly can. I conserve electricity and water as much as possible. I don't waste money on HOA dues or anything of that sort.

We cook at home as it's far cheaper than eating out. I can make an 8oz ribeye dinner with wild rice and corn for less than the cost of a Mcdonald's happy meal (though I do miss the little toy sometimes). That's not the cheap junk frozen ribeye either, but rather grass-fed ribeye from a farm 15 minutes away.

I budget proactively at least 6 months in advance.

Not making this political, just relevant discussion to the post topic, but I'm active in local politics as county ordinances can have an effect on my taxes, insurance, and property use. That plays into my budget.

When house shopping, I made location a priority in terms of not being in a flood zone, high tornado risk area, or common area for any such natural disaster. That keeps my homeowner's insurance down.

I use an older model LG phone with a limited data plan. Nothing new or fancy.

There's a lot of people out there who buy a new Iphone every time one comes out, pay >30% for their mortgage (not including escrow/insurance and utilities), pay another 20% for a new car payment plus increased insurance, eat out 3-4 days a week, and then complain about having to live paycheck to paycheck.
 
When I was a young guy I bought a small truck and religiously changed the oil every 6K with Mobil 1. This was when cars were carbureted and 3k changes were the norm.

Got stupendous mileage out of it and the money I saved was the down payment on my first house.

People tend to forget that money saved in this way is tax-free.
 
Car maintenance is one line item in a budget.

Just one. You can’t draw any conclusions on financial success by taking that one line item out of context.

Building wealth comes through managing the whole budget, including the investment portion of that budget, and ensuring the investment is managed appropriately for the household.

I don’t even consider home equity as wealth, by the way. That’s the housing line item in a budget.

For me, personally, I enjoy working on my cars. If I gave up the hobby cars (Packard and Mercedes, that’s not gonna happen, but hypothetically), I would save enough in tools, shop rental, supplies, parts etc. to lease two brand new cars.

The overall household budget for us would be relatively unaffected. The investment portion would remain robust, and financial goals would continue to be met, because cars and maintenance are only one line item in the budget.
 
I have a coworker, her previous car payment was $750 for a Honda Pilot Elite used let alone other bills; it gives you an idea if you don't know what you doing, cars will bite you in the rear end
 
I'm of the opinion (knock on wood) that newer cars are pretty darn reliable compared to the old jalopies I drove in high school.

I always do more maintenance beyond what the book says, and mostly replace only consumable parts.

As we advance in our careers we would rather pay money to an honest mechanic for most dirty jobs to get back some time to spend together or with friends or family. I no longer sit on my back in my garage to change oil or trans fluid, but sometimes I do a brake job myself. Depends on what I have going on.
 
my understanding was that this is more of a car maintenance forum and not so focused on child care or heart surgery. my apologies in advance if i was mistaken.
It is, but we get into many areas of discussion in the General and Off Topic section - men's shaving habits, girlfriend problems, finances, television, food, etc.. I figured I would raise your ire with my post. I generally try to only post positive here, but once in awhile my devious side takes over. I have a penchant to occasionally poke good natured sadistic fun at others.

Please accept my good will offering. While your OP does fall under the idea of "keen grasp of the obvious", what's important is your zeal to be in control of aspects of your life instead of moving about blindly and depending on others. Kudos to you and please keep sharing here!
 
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