I am familiar. Some look remarkably like antebellum plantations, but without the Spanish moss.
Lol, there are plenty of people you don't know that live in big house that don't have furniture in them. I've never seen more cases of "keeping up with Jones's" in my life.
Lately, I have come to the realization that I must be doing something wrong. My wife and I have been "attempting" the Dave Ramsey thing. Been able to clear up some debt, and follow a "loose" budget. It's not perfect, but we've been able to find cash which goes into savings.
My 8 month old son has started daycare full time. So that's more money going out. Plus, we've been trying to make a double payment on the wife's car payment. Trying to get that sucker paid off.
On my vehicle, 2005 Jeep Wrangler, I've been doing more maintenance on it. I just hit 105,000 miles, and I have recently replaced the rear main seal. I'm getting ready to do the axle seal and high pinion seal next. And over the weekend, I had to replace the spark plugs, and clean the throttle body. Just trying to keep that thing running good because it has to keep going.
I really [STRIKE]don't want[/STRIKE] can't afford another car payment.
Plus, my wife and I have found out that my son has more stuff than we do. So our 2 bedroom house has become quite full
We've started looking online for homes for sale. Unfortunately, they are all priced higher than we want to pay.
Anyway, we've been trying to become smarter with our money.
I look around, and I see people with VERY nice and very BIG homes. And most are driving brand new vehicles. On the interstate, I see brand new 4-door Jeep Wranglers. Brand new Silverados. Brand new F150's. Brand new RAM's.
How are people affording all this? High mortgage payments. At least 2 car payments on brand new vehicles. I'm amazed at what I'm seeing.
Are people actually able to afford to do all this? Or are they living paycheck to paycheck?
I want to know, because I have to be doing it all wrong.
I feel the same way about guns here. I have nothing compared to a lot of people here and how do they afford all them guns!
Nah. New tires are planned maintenance.New tires = emergency fund.
New tires = emergency fund.
Nah. New tires are planned maintenance.
If one can't afford to maintain a vehicle, one can't afford that vehicle.
I've known folks that splurged on REALLY nice vehicles, but couldn't afford to keep them. One bought a fancy sports car. Tires were $500= EACH, and he liked smokey burnouts. Oil changes were $100+. It finally needed a clutch, and that was well over a grand.
So very few folks consider the Total Cost of Ownership. They look at payments, and hope for the best. Then they hit the "emergency fund" (or credit cards) for every little expense they didn't plan for.
Emergency fund is when you blow a practically new tire (you have road hazard, right?) and ruin the rim.
This seems appropriate for this thread...
NSFW...
[video=youtube;tNV16tz1NK0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNV16tz1NK0[/video]