So long!

[Jeeperjamie]

Good luck with it. Honestly I was a hair away from buying a 2024 Ram Rebel on Saturday after driving it. 6,000 miles and $51,000 was very tempting. I'm towing a 6000lb camper now and it had plenty of power. My wife is ready to buy something else so I'm trying to talk her into buying it which would be a win win because I can keep the jeep and have the Ram.

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[Zachanadandy]

Break that down to the week or month - especially when some get paid only every 4 weeks, and they have to get by in between, you are talking 800/year difference - 66 a month can matter.
Own that thing 5 years and you have $4,000 difference in fuel.

For a lot of people - that matters.

Taxes and depreciation, especially in the current car market, will easily kill twice that the day you make the switch to "save money" on fuel. Sure if you're going to drive it for 15 years you'd save a few grand but it would take you the 1st 10 years to break even. I'm my opinion if $4k per year really stretches your budget you shouldn't be in any new vehicle and especially not a $40k+ one. It's terrifying when you see stats on the average Americans finances like debt to income, cash in savings, and retirement investments. I'd say most Americans need to learn to live below their means and swapping 1 new vehicle for another that also gets poor fuel economy isn't even a half step in the right direction.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

It's terrifying when you see stats on the average Americans finances like debt to income, cash in savings, and retirement investments. I'd say most Americans need to learn to live below their means and swapping 1 new vehicle for another that also gets poor fuel economy isn't even a half step in the right direction.

Timely post as I just saw another article on credit card debt being back up to records or something like that.
My wife remembers when she met me - and I was farming at that time - how much I owed the bank, the credit card debt, and the fact I didn't get paid until the fall. It freaked her out. She could never handle that sort of life, so, we left the farm.
(but I got a really nice letter from the bank up there, saying I was one of their only customers who showed a gain in net worth each year and if I ever needed anything at all, to contact them. )

These days, credit cards get paid off each month. If there's even 1 day late fee or any interest, she's through the roof.

 

[Zachanadandy]

Timely post as I just saw another article on credit card debt being back up to records or something like that.
My wife remembers when she met me - and I was farming at that time - how much I owed the bank, the credit card debt, and the fact I didn't get paid until the fall. It freaked her out. She could never handle that sort of life, so, we left the farm.
(but I got a really nice letter from the bank up there, saying I was one of their only customers who showed a gain in net worth each year and if I ever needed anything at all, to contact them. )

These days, credit cards get paid off each month. If there's even 1 day late fee or any interest, she's through the roof.

We got married and had our son young. There were a lot of lean years early on, check to check, credit card debt, and the like but I sure as hell wasn't buying brand new trucks at the time. 25 years later and there's enough in the retirement accounts we'd be comfortable even if I didn't work the last 15 years of my career. She feels stressed if we don't have 10 weeks worth of wages in the savings account. I never said it was easy, but small steps in the right direction compounded over decades are amazing. Still wish I would have bought those $20 bitcoins my apprentice was talking about years ago but that's another story.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

We got married and had our son young. There were a lot of lean years early on, check to check, credit card debt, and the like but I sure as hell wasn't buying brand new trucks at the time. 25 years later and there's enough in the retirement accounts we'd be comfortable even if I didn't work the last 15 years of my career. She feels stressed if we don't have 10 weeks worth of wages in the savings account. I never said it was easy, but small steps in the right direction compounded over decades are amazing. Still wish I would have bought those $20 bitcoins my apprentice was talking about years ago but that's another story.

Not quite up to the level you may be in retirement funds, but as our agent said, we'll be ok and able to maintain our current standards (not that our standards were ever that high, really)
I suspect we're a lot more alike in these ways than there are differences.
I still remember that VW Bunny I drove in the lean times - I call it a bunny as it was pretty meek, unlike a real RABBIT. Poor thing, but it did the job.

My wife always wants "padding" in an account just in case - like recently happened with me and gall bladder, and trying to salvage trees on the property and the drive unit going out on the lawn tractor. So she "hides away" a few dollars here and there into an account so if the well pump dies, we'll be ok.

It's not easy - but planning and looking to the future means that later, you'll be ok.
I can't believe the people I worked with who squandered away all of their sick leave and vacation - often using it for Prairie Meadows and the slot machines. Then when they got really sick, they begged to borrow sick leave from others.
I seldom took more than a couple of days of vacation at a time and rarely ever took sick leave - opting to use vacation instead.
In the end, when I retired, I was totally maxed out on sick leave and vacation time. I got paid a nice check for that unused vacation (which my wife grabbed and socked it away) and the sick leave hours were taken by my hourly rate (I wasn't hourly, but......) and that amount of money was put into an account and used to pay for my health insurance until I hit 65 or the money ran out. When I turned 65 there was still enough money for 2 months of insurance. Sure, I lost that money, but my health insurance was paid up for 5 years. (I retired at 60 thanks to my wife's planning and keeping a spreadsheet on our vacation and sick leave hours and so on)

 

[Zachanadandy]

Not quite up to the level you may be in retirement funds, but as our agent said, we'll be ok and able to maintain our current standards (not that our standards were ever that high, really)
I suspect we're a lot more alike in these ways than there are differences.
I still remember that VW Bunny I drove in the lean times - I call it a bunny as it was pretty meek, unlike a real RABBIT. Poor thing, but it did the job.

My wife always wants "padding" in an account just in case - like recently happened with me and gall bladder, and trying to salvage trees on the property and the drive unit going out on the lawn tractor. So she "hides away" a few dollars here and there into an account so if the well pump dies, we'll be ok.

It's not easy - but planning and looking to the future means that later, you'll be ok.
I can't believe the people I worked with who squandered away all of their sick leave and vacation - often using it for Prairie Meadows and the slot machines. Then when they got really sick, they begged to borrow sick leave from others.
I seldom took more than a couple of days of vacation at a time and rarely ever took sick leave - opting to use vacation instead.
In the end, when I retired, I was totally maxed out on sick leave and vacation time. I got paid a nice check for that unused vacation (which my wife grabbed and socked it away) and the sick leave hours were taken by my hourly rate (I wasn't hourly, but......) and that amount of money was put into an account and used to pay for my health insurance until I hit 65 or the money ran out. When I turned 65 there was still enough money for 2 months of insurance. Sure, I lost that money, but my health insurance was paid up for 5 years. (I retired at 60 thanks to my wife's planning and keeping a spreadsheet on our vacation and sick leave hours and so on)

59.5 is the goal for me, of course that means 40 years in the IBEW so I have a big advantage over a lot of people who started careers late or had multiple career changes. I could have done a lot of things better which is the only reason I mention any of it in these types of threads. The kids need to get out of the check to check, spend 100% of the income, 8+ year car loan cycle ASAP as nothing is getting cheaper and none of us will even be able to survive on social security alone (if it's even still around by then).

 

[Sweetums]

After 4 years of owning several Gladiators I’m moving on. My driving commute has changed (6 hours round trip) and the Gladiator’s road manners and cabin noise was wearing thin on me. I’ll be posting a bunch of items I had plans for in the for sale section in case anyone is interested. Had a blast and will miss the community!

Jebus, that's nearly a second full time job just driving to and from work!

 

[Hootbro]

Jebus, that's nearly a second full time job just driving to and from work!

I think he said in another post, it was only a couple times a month commute and the rest a work from home situation. But yeah, it is still a long haul regardless.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I think he said in another post, it was only a couple times a month commute and the rest a work from home situation. But yeah, it is still a long haul regardless.

I'm glad I retired before covid and all of this work from home stuff because our internet would never support that stuff.
I worked with a guy who had an hour and 20 minute commute to work - every day. So 5 days a week he was spending at least 2 hours and 40 minutes on the road - and that was if the I80 traffic didn't suck like it normally does around Altoona.
I'd have never survived that type of commute 5 days a week. but I know a lot of people do just that and feel it's perfectly normal and fine.

 

[Zachanadandy]

I'm glad I retired before covid and all of this work from home stuff because our internet would never support that stuff.
I worked with a guy who had an hour and 20 minute commute to work - every day. So 5 days a week he was spending at least 2 hours and 40 minutes on the road - and that was if the I80 traffic didn't suck like it normally does around Altoona.
I'd have never survived that type of commute 5 days a week. but I know a lot of people do just that and feel it's perfectly normal and fine.

Fortunately most of my career has been in a company vehicle with a gas card, but my average commute is 3.5hrs per day. Union electricians make more than double where I work vs where I live and I hate the bay area and wouldn't live there period. It's a sacrifice I chose to make knowing full well the cost. To me the benefit is worth it, but it's not for everyone. I definitely wouldn't commute for a few grand extra per year, but when the difference is into the six figure range I'm in.

 

[Blade1668]

59.5 is the goal for me, of course that means 40 years in the IBEW so I have a big advantage over a lot of people who started careers late or had multiple career changes. I could have done a lot of things better which is the only reason I mention any of it in these types of threads. The kids need to get out of the check to check, spend 100% of the income, 8+ year car loan cycle ASAP as nothing is getting cheaper and none of us will even be able to survive on social security alone (if it's even still around by then).

I'm of the group who always tries to live below my means, and even saved and invested in my plan to be "retired" early. Well I will say S### happens. Needlessly many things outside of my control and planning. I should have and would have been retired years before. But as of mid 50s I'm "retired" living on substantial less than I had planned on but when factoring in what I was getting as net pay I'm only getting 16k less than what I was when working. But not driving over a hour to and from work, dealing with the B.S. or people who have no integrity. Now, I my decide to do something else but not as of yet.
On a few of the things you mentioned in earlier post, I'm definitely not one of the jump on a new vehicle payments or seeing how much I can swing on C.C. I despise owning money on anything. Now I do have a crap load of stuff from boats, 4wheelers, Jeeps, Scamp T.T, currently and small piece of land. I built a cabin "tiny house" last year for under 17k, traveled, went on a cruise. Now some of my thoughts are of cutting away with a substantial amount of my stuff that's excess and unnecessary. Less to worry about when I'm traveling.
I've had a few jobs and had a business besides serving in the Army. The changes for me have been mainly due to my personal standards... I'm not going to do things that will make me disappointed or ashamed of who I see when I look in the mirror.

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