Quote:
Originally Posted by Sliver
A caveat on the whole spending-too-much-on-vehicles thing is for the people who have a passion/interest in cars that go beyond just using them as transportation. To me, cars are marvels. They're fun, they can be beautiful, the engineering is incredible...they're my thing. Some people are travellers, some people like big houses, some people like fancy clothes, some people like art, some people collect stuff, some people spend tons of money on grooming, some people treat themselves to fancy meals, etc. etc.
We've always run a pretty tight ship as far as budgeting goes, but I've rarely been without a cool car. They bring me a lot of joy, so I do allocate funds in my budget to ensure I get to drive something that puts a smile on my face or lets me experience something automotive that I haven't before.
Getting easier now that I'm older (47), but back when we didn't have much money I definitely sacrificed travel, nice clothes, etc. to be in a car that made me feel good and proud.
If you're not a car guy, though, overspending on a vehicle seems super dumb to me, too. Lots of great vehicles will get you safely from A to B that don't cost an arm and a leg.
Also, I get that having the ability to allocate money toward a car is a luxury and privilege in and of itself. I understand there are people who aren't choosing between different cars, but are stressing about the fact that carrots aren't on sale when they get to Safeway.
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Yeah. I think ideally those with strong incomes would do well to pick one luxury, not all the luxuries.
My wife and I were married a long time before we had kids, and we had one korean-made vehicle between the two of us the whole time. That saved us a ton of money. We also rarely ate out, bought Starbucks, etc. But we did travel. We spent extra on the one thing that gave us joy, but not being car people we economized a lot there. Now with kids we've gone to 2 vehicles, but they're both pretty standard makes and we will keep them 12-15 years.
That's not going to fix things for everyone, and we had dual professional incomes plus side hustle which helped a lot on the income side.