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Thankfully, the average life of a well-maintained car is now a very long time. I have a sixteen-year-old sedan that is still going strong. My best friend's husband drives a 1988 version of the same car. People give up on their vehicles many years before they really need replaced, mostly because of aesthetic issues rather than mechanical ones.
A major problem with an old car is that sooner or later it starts developing "old car disease": the almost monthly failure of one original part or another. Old car disease puts you behind the eight ball because it can easily erode your car account, so you have to decide when to just give up and buy a new car rather than keep pouring money into the old one that's likely to need another repair in 5 or 6 weeks.
Not quite. The repairs on an old car are usually lower than the depreciation, plus interest/opportunity cost, plus possible additional insurance cost, on a brand new one. You might have a hefty repair bill, yes, but once you average it over a 1-2 year period the old car is much less costly to own.
This means every year you keep the old car your net worth benefits. Eventually you'll be able to have new car, debt free*. Granted, you may have to cycle through a couple of used cars first to get there, but eventually you will, unless your income is so low you couldn't make car payments had you just bought the new car at the beginning without savings (or you lack the discipline not to dip into the money for other things). But if that is the case, the whole issue is moot because you cannot drive a repossessed car to the grocery store, your kids' school, work, to the gym, or on a road trip!
The lack of discipline situation is exactly what Dave Ramsey handles best. His advice isn't necessarily optimal for people who stick to the same budget, but without the motivation, this is irrelevant.
*By this, I mean to have the cash available, even if you end up financing anyway and investing it.
if you really want to save money, you live in a van for a few years, traveling where the weather is tolerable and where the work is. No rent, almost no commute, either. No utilities.Presto, you save at least 10k per year. Invest that savings well and in short order, you'll have a great income from it. I highly recommend marrying a nurse from overseas, one that already has her 4 year degree and whom can pass the US nursing exam. Presto, she can work for the VA somewhere in the US, making 50k per year, with lots of incentives/loans for furthering her nursing education. She can get the same loans and grants as any US citizen. the grants will pay her actual expenses for college, the 12k per year loans are "forgiven' one year of work as a nurse, one year of loans forgiven. She can work full time for VA, get part time school loans and VA nursing assistance loans. Since she need not repay those loans if she works as a nurse, that's "free money". In the case of my spouse, guess who gets that loan money? :-) Once she's working on her master's degree, the amounts of fees, loans and grants double. Once she's a nurse-anethecist, shell be making $60 per hour. She'll owe a big chunk of that (for a while, at least) to the guy who made it all possible. In her home country, she'd be making 2k per year. So, yes, if you get a decent one, she's going to give you a pretty good sized chunk of money, over the 5 years it'll take her to become a citizen. Then, however, you'd better watch out! :-) any properties bought should be bought with a Nevada corporation, so that nobody but you and your nevada attorney know anything about it.
if you really want to save money, you live in a van for a few years, traveling where the weather is tolerable and where the work is. No rent, almost no commute, either. No utilities.Presto, you save at least 10k per year. Invest that savings well and in short order, you'll have a great income from it. I highly recommend marrying a nurse from overseas, one that already has her 4 year degree and whom can pass the US nursing exam. Presto, she can work for the VA somewhere in the US, making 50k per year, with lots of incentives/loans for furthering her nursing education. She can get the same loans and grants as any US citizen. the grants will pay her actual expenses for college, the 12k per year loans are "forgiven' one year of work as a nurse, one year of loans forgiven. She can work full time for VA, get part time school loans and VA nursing assistance loans. Since she need not repay those loans if she works as a nurse, that's "free money". In the case of my spouse, guess who gets that loan money? :-) Once she's working on her master's degree, the amounts of fees, loans and grants double. Once she's a nurse-anethecist, shell be making $60 per hour. She'll owe a big chunk of that (for a while, at least) to the guy who made it all possible. In her home country, she'd be making 2k per year. So, yes, if you get a decent one, she's going to give you a pretty good sized chunk of money, over the 5 years it'll take her to become a citizen. Then, however, you'd better watch out! :-) any properties bought should be bought with a Nevada corporation, so that nobody but you and your nevada attorney know anything about it.
But you are mooching off taxpayers for health care coverage, no?
I'm a vet. do you want to call 26 million of us "mooches"? We are so, but no more so than people who work for the govt, or farmers who get subsidies, or those who work for the military, or for public housing or public schooling, or who draw SS or work for the SS admin. 90% of the US population 'mooches' off of the taxpayer in some form or other.
I'm a vet. do you want to call 26 million of us "mooches"? We are so, but no more so than people who work for the govt, or farmers who get subsidies, or those who work for the military, or for public housing or public schooling, or who draw SS or work for the SS admin. 90% of the US population 'mooches' off of the taxpayer in some form or other.
It's one thing to get benefits you earned through labor (as in the veteran case) or taxes (as in the SS case). It's another thing altogether to choose to not earn your keep and just be ok with it because you can get benefits.
if you really want to save money, you live in a van for a few years, traveling where the weather is tolerable and where the work is. No rent, almost no commute, either. No utilities.Presto, you save at least 10k per year. Invest that savings well and in short order, you'll have a great income from it. I highly recommend marrying a nurse from overseas, one that already has her 4 year degree and whom can pass the US nursing exam. Presto, she can work for the VA somewhere in the US, making 50k per year, with lots of incentives/loans for furthering her nursing education. She can get the same loans and grants as any US citizen. the grants will pay her actual expenses for college, the 12k per year loans are "forgiven' one year of work as a nurse, one year of loans forgiven. She can work full time for VA, get part time school loans and VA nursing assistance loans. Since she need not repay those loans if she works as a nurse, that's "free money". In the case of my spouse, guess who gets that loan money? :-) Once she's working on her master's degree, the amounts of fees, loans and grants double. Once she's a nurse-anethecist, shell be making $60 per hour. She'll owe a big chunk of that (for a while, at least) to the guy who made it all possible. In her home country, she'd be making 2k per year. So, yes, if you get a decent one, she's going to give you a pretty good sized chunk of money, over the 5 years it'll take her to become a citizen. Then, however, you'd better watch out! :-) any properties bought should be bought with a Nevada corporation, so that nobody but you and your nevada attorney know anything about it.
LOL thats great. the crazy thing is it will probably work like a charm.
Where does your cash earn 3-5% interest? Could I put mine in too? I'll even let you have a 10% commission for it.
any diversified portfolio should be able to get you 5% easily. you can earn 3-5% with numerous municipal bond offers. one that comes to mind is Port Authority of NY & NJ bonds that pay over 4%.
What do you mean? Even corporate bonds lost a tremendous amount of value, and took almost 2 years to bounce back. In the meantime, your payments would still be coming due every month.
you honestly don't think you can keep the cash for a 30 year mortgage invested over a 30 year period for average of 3-5%? seriously? well then - pay cash.
Still, the point is that it seems absurd to insist that these things ought to be leveraged. And the effects of past actions are very much relevant to future ones too, no time machine needed. If the fact that I have no student loan debt is going to hurt me, I better start preparing.
my federal student loan APR is 1.675%. so - you would pay that down early? just for a frame of reference - not even accounting for the 100% match up to 6% my employer gives me + profit sharing i get for participating in a 401k - my YTD performance of my 401k is 1.71%. Not good at all - but still beating my student loan APR.
So you would reduce the amount put into 401k to pay down the 1.675% loans early?
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