He comes to a forum where everyone seeks to maintain vehicles economically, and is surprised to see financial threads in General and Off Topic. We debate non stop over OCIs and groups of oil for what? Potentially saving money on oil and mitigating future repair costs.
Don't spend too much on 1st car, mine cost me 2 million dollars...
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What you actually invest in is also important. I spent years chasing high returns, but they would fall back and then end up trailing the S&P 500 for years. Finally gave up years ago and just did the S&P 500 plus reduced my exposure chasing funds with big one year numbers and focused more on funds with a better long term track record.
Also bought property about 15 years ago. Maybe it's kept track with inflation but you forget that my down payment was just 25% so the return is actually 4x inflation. Plus the rents have paid for half the mortgage and updates at this point.
There was also a point where after factoring in the market down turn, the market didn't do anything for 10 years. Only in the last few years has the market really shot up. You have to stay in the market to catch those run up, otherwise most of the time it's just sideways and does nothing.
It's just too bad in this culture it's fine to moan and groan about how broke you are, but the ones who are doing really well keep quiet. You never hear Gates, Buffet, Bezos, etc complain about not having enough money.
The reason it cost 2M today is because everyone trade it in or they were not worth keeping. Had everyone keep theirs it wouldn't be worth 2M. Had YOURS been kept around and you are not spending your life away keeping it on the road, it might drag both yours and this 2M car down to 300K each, or something like that.
Depends on inflation. In the days of hyper inflation it make sense to borrow for long term assets early on if they are not overpriced. There is a risk so pick your "investment" wisely (i.e. a student loan for an engineering degree instead of working low skill labor part time and drag out the graduation date, a house early on if mortgage is similar to rent in your area).
For that 300k haircut WB might have paid for, I'm sad that the barber will never be able to turn his $30 into 300k WB has consider his $30 is actually $20 cost and $10 in his pocket after that, and it is not a leveled playing field. It is not WB's fault, it is normal that success lead to success and open more doors, and some field have more opportunities that not everyone can take advantage of. It is just normal economics and finance, and everything else in life.
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This is why real estate investing can beat inflation, you get leverage. 20-25% down or even 3.5% or 0% in some cases. Thanks to my wife being military we got a house zero down for 175, 10 years later sold it for 325 to upgrade. 2% inflation for 10 years would indicate a value of about 215k. In a year the dude that bought my house went from 3.5% down to maybe 60k of equity in a single year. *edit: Not even a year, he's owned it since March and its up about 45k. * Cause Utah property values are flying up.
You can't put 11k in the stock market and control 300k of stock but you can do that in real estate.
What if you buy a house and the value drops? Well you have a fixed mortgage keeping you out of the rent escalator. You gain equity every month from paying it down. Eventually it will go back up.
I'm mostly in stocks now but real estate is a great investing foundation--pun intended.
I bought a microwave oven in 1968. They were a new appliance and advertised for heating soup, cooking hot dogs etc. Nothing too involved. I got the idea that I could pop popcorn in mine. I experimented but couldn't do much more than heat up popcorn hot enough to burn the paper bag I put it in. I gave up and forgot about it. Not long after somebody (not me) figured out that the popcorn needed to be heated with lard or oil and microwave popcorn was invented.
And I wasthisclose.
And I wasthisclose.
Do you remember how much it was? Didn't they used to cost over $1k at the time?
It was a Sharp microwave. I believe that it was about $400. It was a large and very heavy rectangular appliance designed to sit on a counter top. Had two controls, timer and off/on switch. About two weeks after I purchased it a very well dressed Japanese man from Sharp electronics came to my door to measure it for microwave leakage. He didn't speak English and gave me a card explaining his intentions.
That's customer service!
I paid cash for a 2007 Ford Focus when it was new, with 16 miles on it. I then drove it from near San Fran down to LA where myself and a friend spent 3 days turbocharging it and doing other upgrades to handle the more than double stock power. I then drove that car all the way across the country to Maryland to race it at the World Cup Finals where it set a record (since fallen) for the quickest ET with a stock bottom end 2.0L Duratec. I was doing 5k rpm clutch drops with that car on a regular basis. I drove it to Texas, Ohio, Louisiana, Florida, New York, etc... just to meet other people in the car community and thrash on that car. I put over 100k miles on it in 3 years. Aside from a few twisted axles and destroyed wheel bearings (no regrets), that car was a blast. I eventually moved onto other projects and let it sit for a couple of years before a buddy made me a reasonable offer for it. I sold it for far less than I had into it, but I didn't care. The fun I had with that car is worth a ton more than the money I put into it. I have many good friends that I met because of that car. Some of them were Camaro and Mustang owners who were shocked that a Focus was pulling away from them on the dragstrip. I miss that car sometimes, but I always have the memories of it. Track photo from the WCF on day 3 of the event after several burnouts (it was dirty).
As a car enthusiast and racer, I get where you're coming from. However, I don't put money into my car as a financial investment but rather an emotional one. I do it to have fun. Did you have a lot of fun driving the hell out of that car? Did you meet good friends in the car community that you are still close to today? Can you put a price on those memories and experiences? I can't.
Properties are great if you know what you are doing. Too many people lose their @#& trying to be in the real estate game.... when a basic S&P 500 fund would have served them well.
I expect the HGTV types will simply walk away from their rentals and Airbnbs. You can’t get blood from a stone and you can’t get rent from a deadbeat moocher helped by the never ending new laws from Gov.
I expect the HGTV types will simply walk away from their rentals and Airbnbs. You can’t get blood from a stone and you can’t get rent from a deadbeat moocher helped by the never ending new laws from Gov.
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Deadbeat tenants are part of the game. The real failure is to think you won't have any. Banks figure that you'll actually get 90% of your rents. That's like opening a store and thinking no one is going to steal from you. It's not that bad for me because when you have 10+ rentals, when one person doesn't pay, it's not that large a percentage of the entire portfolio. When you just have one unit and you get a bad tenant, then you have a problem.
As the saying goes, of course the game is rigged (against landlords here in this state) but if you don't play, you can't win.
And then you die and your wife gives all the money to PETA. 
Sure, but you're only young once. By the time you might get rich, you'll be too old to enjoy the fun toys.
What good is buying a Corvette in your 80’s and not remembering where you parked it?
I hate it when that happens.
I used to park my new 1990 black 6 speed coupe waaaaay out in the end of the parking lot.
Someone still had to park next to me, too close.
There are no guarantees in life except death... and taxes.
The key to financial success is buy that toy AFTER you have a career and making good money.
Theres a young YouTuber that recently bought a used $55K car (72 months at 8% loan) and says he wants to be a full time YouTuber making car content. He lives with his grandma and is financially stretched to the limit. He is like 20 years old and will probably destroy his car in a short time like he did his last car.
He has 16K subscribers, does not have a regular full time job and dropped out of college to follow his YouTube dream.
Theres a young YouTuber that recently bought a used $55K car (72 months at 8% loan) and says he wants to be a full time YouTuber making car content. He lives with his grandma and is financially stretched to the limit. He is like 20 years old and will probably destroy his car in a short time like he did his last car.
He has 16K subscribers, does not have a regular full time job and dropped out of college to follow his YouTube dream.
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