A cluttered life: Middle Class abundance

[skull]

Where are you buying used cars at one tenth the msrp?

Craigslist/public auto auctions

 

[sdifox]

Craigslist/public auto auctions

How old are these cars? Just wondering.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Where are you buying used cars at one tenth the msrp?

Dealership. Probably get cheaper via private sale though. I guess it helps that my dad has always worked at a dealership so he would wait for a good deal to come up. But still, you can get a used car for like 3-5 grand, when a brand new car is like 30 grand or more when all is said and done. The advertised price often does not include much. Like by the time you add necessities like a block heater etc it adds up. At one point I was obsessed with the idea of buying a brand new truck, was looking at smaller ones as they start at 30 grand, well by the time you add 4 wheel drive and an automatic transmission you're looking at like 50 grand lol. That's almost half my mortgage.

 

[skull]

How old are these cars? Just wondering.

I got my $40,000 truck for $4750 at 8 years old.

 

[ponyo]

If I had bigger garage, I would buy additional cars. I have 4 cars right now and the only reason I don't have more is the lack of garage/parking space.

We all have our hobbies and vice. I don't see a problem with buying things you like even if you have more than one. At one point I had like 16 grills and smokers. I think I'm down to like a dozen now since I gave away couple grills to family and friends. But I'll probably buy couple more to replace the ones I gave away.

 

[sdifox]

I got my $40,000 truck for $4750 at 8 years old.

Yeah eight year old at 10% msrp ms reasonable.

 

[skull]

Yeah eight year old at 10% msrp ms reasonable.

5 years later shes still running strong plan to get another 5+ years out of her, first owner got 8 years for 35k, at that rate I've already saved over $17,000.

 

[IronWing]

I got my $40,000 truck for $4750 at 8 years old.

Damn, when I was eight years old I was glad to have a bicycle.

 

[Muse]

Where are you buying used cars at one tenth the msrp?

If you wait long enough, yeah, 1/10th. I paid $250 for a 1957 Chevy in 1971.

 

[Muse]

... No incoming call, no data, why do you even bother carrying it?

Well, I can turn off airplane mode any time I want and get data, e.g. for weather report info and there are apps I use occasionally that require data. I carry it for music a lot of times using my earbuds. Incoming calls on it I only have need for occasionally. I'd probably be more dependent on incoming calls for it if I had 1/2 decent coverage at home. The worst coverage I get anywhere I've tried other than inside a Costco warehouse the other day (zero coverage), is at my house. Damn AT&T, after all these years they still haven't upgraded, I'm dealing with them... we'll see. I use my landline for calls unless I have a need for out-of-the-house calling, which is just occasionally.

Airplane mode not only extends battery life by a factor of maybe 4, it eliminates any physical effects from radiation, IMO not a fairy tale.

 

[Muse]

Damn, when I was eight years old I was glad to have a bicycle.

I loved my bike back then too, also my roller skates. The technology for both has improved tremendously, and I still prefer both to driving. Traffic is much worse and I enjoy not being cooped up in a car, the exercise too.

 

[highland145]

Damn, when I was eight years old I was glad to have a bicycle.

Roller skates with the key.

Sing it. IW, sing it.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

That's ridiculous!

Everyone knows you should buy the house next door for storage.

Its funny you should say that. I priced out three POD storage containers for a 6-month static rental. The cost was about the same for a 2/2 apartment. We were looking at moving the bulk of our belongings out of our home for a 20th year overhaul and upgrades, etc. and felt we needed to move the stuff. Yet, we have no kids and the toys are all ours. But the way things are going, my employer is embracing the anti-middle class movement and firing thousands of us so maybe the forces of foreclosure, should they arrive, will bring down this material volume in do course.

 

[IronWing]

Roller skates with the key.

Sing it. IW, sing it.

Sung in the key of Melanie.

 

[rommelrommel]

It depends, but overall you are right. If you mean asset like "a tool car," a daily driver, sensible sedan, truck, van, etc etc, then yeah, garbage investment. it isn't even an investment. It's a tool.

But if you are a collector, and the asset is then considered "art," then they can appreciate wildly. But then this is another level of collecting where the minimum bar of entry is rather serious money. The outlier of course is the 250 GTO, which most recently sold for ~$50 million? Nick Mason (Pink Floyd), purchased his some time in the early 80s for about 30k, I think. But I think there are less than 40 of those in existence? So that's part of it. Even for modern supercars, there are a couple of gems that actually do appreciate in value. I'm not sure if madoka's 650S is going to appreciate all that much--it is the "value" Mclaren, after all, but the P1 is probably the one to look at for investing because of its unique design and placement wrg to pushing new technology, history of design going forward and all that....but it's a $1 million+ car now. Even so, that late 90s super, fastest-car-ever at the time, the LM, is now valued at $1.5million or so? Those were sold at $600k when new.

This is very much a hyper-niche market in the auto industry, but collecting and trading cars for profit is certainly a thing. Then there are the auto restorers that buy collectible beaters, restore them, and can make a respectable profit in the end.

Move the decimal over for the price of a McLaren F1 LM, somewhere in the 15 million dollar range for sure. Even the most undesirable F1 is in the 5-8 million range.

 

[zinfamous]

Move the decimal over for the price of a McLaren F1 LM, somewhere in the 15 million dollar range for sure. Even the most undesirable F1 is in the 5-8 million range.

shows what I know!

 

[OverVolt]

I have my own apartment and its pretty barren. Living that Bohemian lifestyle.

 

[Kaido]

I have my own apartment and its pretty barren. Living that Bohemian lifestyle.

Hah, I remember getting my first apartment after I get married, back in college. We had one of those plastic fold-up card tables for a dinner table for like a year & a half. Good times

After the first year, we finally decided to invest in some new furniture & went to IKEA, which was a pretty good step up from what we had at the time lol. Although I wish I had known about Home Reserve back then, because they have a super awesome modular couch system:

https://www.homereserve.com

 

[Muse]

I have my own apartment and its pretty barren. Living that Bohemian lifestyle.

BTDT, lots of apartment living, home owner for close to 20 years. Both have their pluses, not to be unappreciated.

When you own a home (especially if it's paid off), you have security. I never felt secure in an apartment.

In most apartments, the landlord is responsible for upkeep, repairs, etc. That is a huge advantage compared to the overhead and extra work in keeping up a house, especially a house with significant problems. I'm convinced that compared to me most apartment dwellers are loafers.

 

[evident]

Keeping up with the Jones'.

It has to do with our countries pompous attitudes - and their stupidity of always try to compare to others based on possessions (and I don't mean monetary possessions). My in-laws are a good example. They are always recycling their next vehicle debt. God forbid you just..dont...have a loan at all? Is that a hard concept? Then their neighborhood pool simply wasn't enough, so they have to get their own - even though that is another loan. Wife always has to take pictures of whatever wine she is drinking while in-front of their new 70" ultra-deluxe TV.

They also have one single child - and H-O-L-Y shit, if you want to see American-ized spoiled, this is a perfect example. We are often over for the holidays, and they will have 80% of the presents (10-20 depending on the year) for the kid. He opens that shit so fast it's insane.... RIP OPEN PAPER... "OH COOL!" *throws to the side* RIPS OPEN NEXT PRESENT *OH COOL*... rinse and repeat. Jesus fuck, I hate to do the whole "Back in my day" speech, but at the very least I would have checked out the presents inbetween opening the next one - in addition to thanking if it was from a family member.

I like to think that generations are able to learn from the mistakes of the others - but sadly it seems like they repeat the mistakes and create new ones. Idiocracy, etc, etc..



Bingo.

And thats why our P&N is such a cesspool of retarded liberals that honestly think the middle and lower classes have it more and more rough. Of course, all of them live in the upper-middle class and have no real clue of what it's like to live in a middle class neighborhood. We live substantially below our means - and in general I live in a middle-class blue collar neighborhood with a ton of Latins and other culture upbringings.... For the longest time I kept trying to understand why no one was using their garage to park their cars, and often park on the street daily.... Then you catch them with their garage open and it all makes sense... It's filled with total complete shit like an episode of Hoarders.

As I said, I live waaaaaaaay below our means. Our house payment is roughly 3% of our gross income to put that into perspective.

you had me till you started blaming liberals for all our country's woes. grow a brain. its the entire populace.

 

[MrSquished]

you had me till you started blaming liberals for all our country's woes. grow a brain. its the entire populace.

consumer capitalism does not discriminate that is correct. all we are are dollar signs, it does not matter our race,creed, sex, age, or political affiliation - all that means is that they have to split us up into demographics and research different ways to market stuff to us.

 

[Muse]

consumer capitalism does not discriminate that is correct. all we are are dollar signs, it does not matter our race,creed, sex, age, or political affiliation - all that means is that they have to split us up into demographics and research different ways to market stuff to us.

I had a girl friend. This was 30+ years ago, who said "you want your things to last forever." It was a reproach. I was speechless, nothing unusual! It's kind of true, I've always been thoroughly offended by any whiff of planned obsolescence. I repair things instead of tossing them, replacing them. I pick up stuff on the sidewalk and repair it, have done this for years, repair stuff I bought even decades ago instead of tossing and buying what they are offering today.

I've stopped checking out free boxes or sidewalk stuff, I don't even slow down (i.e. on bicycle or roller skates or walking) unless I spot something obvious that clicks as something I need. Likewise, I've stopped checking out yard sales. Thrift stores just bore me. I have so much stuff already and I have enough cash that I just feel (intensely now) that stopping to see if there's something there that I could use is on balance a waste of my time.

My battle at this point is to reassess, get rid of stuff and only buy/acquire with an eye to decrease my situational entropy.

 

[rh71]

The fuq are you saying? You're proving my point? If you understand the concept of depreciation, you understand that when most people sell their cars (~5 years) is PRECISELY just after the majority of depreciation has occurred. That isn't healthy for anyone's budget, yet it's the uninformed that do it the most

Yes, I am in the same boat. I'll drive my 2006 Acura until the wheels fall off.

Then why did YOU say it keeps YOU away from cars? What does depreciation have to do with you then?