The road to wealth is simple: Drive a crappy car

[Onakosa]

My dad was a mechanic. Owned a couple of garages. He always drove an old van himself, and said new cars were a waste of money.

 

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[James Klymus]

Whenever someone asks me what car they should buy, I always tell them get a used toyota. They asked me for my opinion, so they get it.

99% of the time, a few weeks later, they show up in something like a chrysler or chevy. Sigh. To be fair, I understand that saying "buy a used toyota" is about as appealing as telling a 9 year old to eat a steaming plate of broccoli.

But if you're making 30,000 dollars a year and live with your mom and dad, why drive a brand new, $35-40,000 car? Toyotas made from, I dunno, 2000 and up have plenty of air bags and safety features. Why pay $600 a month just to have a fancy touch screen, instead of an aux cable and some knobs?

I love cars, and plan on owing some cool fast and exotic ones, but you have to be real with your self. If you have to do mental gymnastics in order to figure out how to pay your car note, hold off.

 

[WJK]

Well, I bought a new car in 2005.
I got 450000km on it. And its an old, crappy car for about 8years now.
And think what? I didn’t become rich in this time.
There must be a mistake!

I got a 2004 SUV with only 95000 km on it. So I ll give the theory another try!

I guess you missed the middle part of the program -- using the extra money that you're NOT spending on silly stuff to invest in a business...

 

[Al Berton]

Ok on this subject I can give my contribution.
I made this mistake a long time ago: bought a new car and financed it. So 2 mistakes. And the second even bigger, because I used the financial service of the car dealer (that means he also had some gain on it). So my advice is: 1) Normally new cars are not worthwhile: at least here in Europe, when you drive out of the car dealer, your new car already lost 15-20% of its value. Better look for a car with 30,000-50,000 km which has a better "price/opportunity" ratio. 2) If you can afford it, pay cash; if you can't, don't ask to the car dealer for financial advice but look for cheap money.

 

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[Ing]

I guess you missed the middle part of the program -- using the extra money that you're NOT spending on silly stuff to invest in a business...

Yes, I m too stupid for that.

 

[MoneyDoc]

From some of these comments it seems like people are really missing the point of the article.

This article is true for average people. If you make $50k/year, you have no business buying a 2021 Audi or BMW or Mercedes for $60k.

With that said, don't let someone else tell you what you can and can't do.

Life isn't about eating/driving "crappy" things. What's the point of that? Nothing triggers me more than someone that tells me "oh, $180k is a downpayment on a house. Why would you buy a car?" - because I f*cking can and want to.

 

[WJK]

Yes, I m too stupid for that.

It's NOT that you are "stupid" -- most people don't change direction easily. It takes a bit of planning -- and then just doing the little things differently for big results. It's a matter of being human. Years go by without us realizing that we've been myopically on automatic pilot. We've missed even seeing all the opportunities along the way.

 

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[WJK]

From some of these comments it seems like people are really missing the point of the article.

This article is true for average people. If you make $50k/year, you have no business buying a 2021 Audi or BMW or Mercedes for $60k.

With that said, don't let someone else tell you what you can and can't do.

Life isn't about eating/driving "crappy" things. What's the point of that? Nothing triggers me more than someone that tells me "oh, $180k is a downpayment on a house. Why would you buy a car?" - because I f*cking can and want to.

I agree. Most people can't afford to put themselves out there. They are all show and no go.

I also agree that at a certain level, you can do what you want and buy what's important to you.

Climbing the mountain and arriving are two different experiences. What I want is different from what I thought I would want. My dreams of the perfect life have changed. Maybe it's simply the factor of growing older.