Dallitude (materialism & money) (Houston, Dallas: credit, live in, rich)

[stargazer]

By the way, I drive a Lexus and I love it. It only costs $15/month more than my Ford Taurus. Does that make me materialistic?

No not at all! Our caddy suv is 100 dollars less than what Saturn wanted for an Outlook per month. You shopped smart imo.

[midnightbirdgirl]

Only been to Dallas once, I live in LA and will be moving to Dallas area shortly.
Just wondering, since you all are speaking about cars, do you guys have many folks who drive very expensive cars and yet, live in HUD housing and are on public aide??
Just curious.
We have a lot of that here.
MBG

[LongHornGuy86]

Originally Posted by bobparr

By the way, I drive a Lexus and I love it. It only costs $15/month more than my Ford Taurus. Does that make me materialistic?

Not at all. You're simply driving a Japanese highline Toyota.

[bktx1]

The girls may be hot in Dallas, but they are not marriage material (unless you want a shallow, materialistic bloodsucker). Remember, there are plenty of fish in the sea, you don't have to settle for sharks. I went into other seas and caught me a prize!

[socketz]

First off, regarding cars, nicer cars typically hold their resale value MUCH better than cars considered to be 'values' in their perspective class. People pay more for things that are desirable to others, whether it's a home, car,pc of video equip etc. Things that are desirable typically cost more, yet hold resale better.

Also, this was an excellent remark Bob:

"3. The opposite of pervasive materialism is not any better.

One of the states I lived in is notorious for being one of the poorest in the nation. It's not, however, because they have somehow been cheated or oppressed by rich people. It is because of a cultural MINDSET. An oppressive poverty mentaility is just as repellent as abrasive materialism.

After being around people who rarely aspire to do anything other than maintain the status quo, I have personally concluded that I would rather be around those who strive to better themselves, their lifestyles, and want more out of life."

I left Socal partially because many of the people there kind of gave up on inspiring to anything new and accepted everything around them because changing it meant leaving the area.

[shannon94]

Originally Posted by stargazer

No not at all! Our caddy suv is 100 dollars less than what Saturn wanted for an Outlook per month. You shopped smart imo.

Was your caddy brand new??? They( caddy) drop in value pretty quickly believe it or not.

[stargazer]

Yes a 2007 fully loaded SRX. My husband gets a GMC discount due to the business he is in. Saturn was aware of the discount ( They are gmc too) but somehow the figures they gave us was way off from what we had built online.
The Outlooks are new too and Saturn doesn't haggle so I know we didn't get a good deal because of that. The Cadillac dealership was really helpful and worked with us.

[GoPadge]

Value only matters when you sell. (Or are involved in a wreck.)

[Spree]

We're in Dallas right now and there are tons of nice cars - everywhere. I did drive by the Plano West high school, yes lots of nice cars in the student parking lot and the students seem to dress to impress. Much more flash and bling. I took a tour of the Highland Park high school and funny thing is that the students there seemed more the typical teenagers - tshirts, shorts, flip flops on the boys. I don't think I saw any abercrombie or popped collars that is popular in FL. The girls had a more eclectic/individual style and perhaps the high dollar items they had were their book bags, a couple of coach/vera bradley etc. We did have to park in the parking garage due to lack of space out in front of the school. Typical 2-3 year old model cars, jeeps, a couple BMW's but nothing outrageous as one would expect. I did see plenty of high end cars that adults were driving in the Highland Park area but also plenty of SUV's and mini vans in the area with HP sports stickers.

Hubby has been here since Jan. and had been renting a car to get around. He finally found something last week - a 2006 Taurus, in great shape, with warranty left. Best thing is --- $200 / month car payment!

[Texan#1]

^ not surprising at all! Highland Park, along with many North Dallas residents are what one would call, 'old money.' They don't feel the need to impress others as much when everyone already knows they have money. I really have a negative view of the people that live up North.. Frisco, Plano, etc. It's nice and all but the people are so fake and when you ask someone from Plano where they're from they're quick to let everyone know they're from 'West Plano' and many times they may even let you know what subdivision they live in. sad but true lol