The advice given for this post was the following:
"I know this seems like an extreme stance, but borrowing money to buy a very expensive thing that plummets in value is an extreme strategy for burning money. So an extreme response is called for! Ok, but what if you NEED a car and you don’t have any MONEY? What do you do? The average US new car payment is $716/month. Let’s say you’re broke and can only afford half that, or a $350/month payment. Here’s what you do: • First four months: Don’t have a car. Bus, bike, borrow, barter, and beg your way to where you need to go. I know it sucks. But it’s only four months of your entire life and it means you get to be a millionaire later. Humans were around for 6 million years without cars. You can do four months. Put your $350/month in a savings account. • Month five: Take the $1,400 you saved and find a deal on a clunker that runs. Boom. You have a car, and zero debt. Keep saving $350/month. • Year one: Sell your $1,400 clunker for about $1,400. Combine it with the $2,800 now in your savings account and buy a perfectly decent $4,200 car. (I drove a $3,000 car for six years). Keep saving your $350/month. • Year three: Sell your $4,200 car for $3,000. Take your $11,400 and buy a really darn nice used car. You can get a 3-4 year old car that looks and drives like new. Drive it for five years. Keep saving your $350 • Five years later: Take the $21,000 you have saved, plus the $7K or so from your last car and buy yourself a $28,000 car you want. When you repeat that last step, you’ll end up with EXTRA money and you’ll be able to invest the rest and become a millionaire. See, now wasn’t riding the bus for four months all those years ago worth it? You can tell your kids about all the character you built and all the nice bus people you met. As always, reminding you to build wealth by following the two PFC rules: 1.) Live below your means and 2.) Invest early and often.
- Jeremy"
I have no alternative to a car loan. It’s a scam, yeah, but for millions of Americans, we need a car to reach our jobs because of how shit our country is about transportation. There are no junkers I can find because my family doesn’t have those connections. Cheapest car I could find was nearly $12k, and I know it might very well die on me before I can pay it off. It gets me to and from my job, let’s me hang out with friends, and I needed a car loan because I could never get more than $4k saved up before losing a job, or some unexpected expense.
And my experience isn’t isolated. I’ve seen people who are better with money thrust into shittier situations and struggling worse than I ever will. People who give this kind of advice have no idea how bad conditions are in the US, lol.
That dude is living in a fantasy world. I’m willing to bet he’s lower middle class from some major city, thinking he was “poor”, and he beat poverty, so surely it’s just that easy. Am I close?
Good rebuttal. Have I seen you somewhere before?
I comment occasionally. Or was this a joke I’m overthinking, lol
Yes ;)
I think the real advice is “Never buy a brand new car”
Sell your 1400 car for 1400 after putting God knows how many miles on it 😇
Duh!!!
Humans were around for 6 million years without cars.
ummm
Better advice:
If your life doesn’t require or desperately want one to fill a hole in your life, don’t buy one.
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If your life does require a car, buy a cheap one that’s mechanically in as good of shape as you can find. The advice from the original was sound except for the $1400 car. Fuck that shit unless you know it is mechanically sound and free of serious rust (more than surface rust). Save up for the next tier. For reference, mine was $2000 in 2005. A quick inflation calculator says $3200 is equivalent now. Be patient and you can find something suitable. Try to stick to more reliable brands from the era it was made (avoid Ford and Chevy in general after the 2000s, Subarus are good until the mid 2000s, then get better after ~2010, Toyota is almost always a solid pick, avoid Audi and BMW because parts are expensive).
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Learn to fix your car, starting with routine maintenance. Manuals for how to do this are available for $20-30 at any big box auto shop for most cars unless they are newer. For anything else, go to YouTube and/or forums specific to your car. Buy parts and maintenance supplies from cheap online wholesalers or similar such as rockauto.com.
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Drive your car until it dies. Mine’s been going strong for 20 years now (it was over 10 years old when I bought it) and I was not nice to it for the first 5-10 years. If you are really about saving money, why in the fuck are you buying a $20000 car when that could go to savings or investments??? Get your head on straight. Think this is a ridiculous stance because some people want nice cars, see sentence one.
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I am maybe a bit of a hypocrite since I just bought a new car (I kinda need it for my job now to the extent my company paid for at least part of it), but I got by without one for close to 20 years. Incidentally, BYD Dolphin, it has been the best car I’ve ever driven.
I agree that the first thing is decide how much you need that car. I honestly don’t think most people in a city need one. Even if you are in an area without public transportation, walking and/or biking can be totally reasonable options. When I first moved out of the city, living within walking distance of a market was a requirement for me for specifically this reason. My partner still doesn’t want to ever drive and we get along just fine.
I would argue that buying a clunker can be a bad longterm value proposition though. If it’s an old car in reasonable condition, great! But you could definitely end up in a situation where you are spending more on maintenance than you spent on the car, especially if you aren’t particularly knowledgeable about maintenance.
Also at least in my country, there are other costs associated with car ownership too, especially for used cars. You need to show proof you own/rent a parking space, which can be extremely expensive. Used cars must get an inspection every two years that is around $1000-2000 USD plus the costs of any repairs required. New cars can go longer before they are required to get an inspection. About 500 USD tax/yr for car ownership. Additional taxes if the car is over 13 years old. There’s a reason you see very few people in Japan driving old used cars, it just makes no sense to spend more than the cost of the car in annual fees.
All that means that even if I buy a used car and resell it for the exact same price I bought it at, I am out a lot of money.
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humans didn’t need to drive cars to survive for 6 million years.
