Low End Vehicle and Low Net Worth Thread
 

Anyone else on here enjoying the simplicity of low end vehicle and low net worth life style ;)

My extravagant purchase this week was a new $100 expansion tank for my central heating system.which I'll install myself

During the holidays I plan to do some kerbside front brake maintenance work on my $1500 Nissan SUV

Savings for both jobs should add a few $100's to my net worth but I probably won't even notice the change in my standard of living

:D

Yep, a not $pendy lifestyle here. Easy to do at my age. What's weird about it is that Cindy & I could have the more $pendy stuff if we really wanted it. We just don't want it...perhaps habits gained over decades of saving and investing?

I usually do the jobs like that myself. Save a few bucks and hopefully get a new tool or two in the process.

I have bought exactly 3 new cars out of 36. I like cheap depreciated cars that require a little TLC.

rjp

I do our yard work, most of the house cleaning, maintain our two Hondas, take the trash to the recycle center and lots more. I can fix most stuff around the home but my theory is to “make sure it’s good and broke” before I actually call somebody. We could afford to have somebody do all that stuff but I don’t sit around very well and like to have stuff to do. Of course golf and fishing always have priority.

I do and have always done all/most things for auto/home/property, etc. as a way of life. I don't trust other people to do a good and conscientious job as I do on my own things. I should think about alternatives considering my age, I guess - especially in the coming years. I've tried to position things so I & my wife won't have to consider a lot of maintenance and repairs - at least a minimum. For me, it's never been a factor of improving my living stankdard.

Low End Vehicle and Low Net Worth Thread
 

I drive a 1986 vehicle as my daily driver for the last 31 years. No car payment since last millennium. I do my own car repairs for most things. Partly because no shop knows old 80s cars. No ports to plug in the computer!
I mow the yard myself.

My 2011 Wrangler key fob was not working. Thinking I was about to drop $200 on a fob and another $150 on programming, I opened it up and cleaned the contacts with a pencil eraser and it works flawlessly.


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I love dailying a Civic with 190K miles. I can park it anywhere.

I have to go change the oil on the minivan this weekend. I think it only has about 120K miles. That car embarrasses the kids. But it's awfully easy to get caught up trying to keep up with the Jones. One of my kids goes to a private high school, where the average parent drops their kid off in a late-model European SUV. And not the entry level ones--those are the ones for their 16-year-old kids.

Fook status. I have worked for many uber wealthy (old money) and they drive modest cars and don't wear jewelry.

There's probably .001 % of the population that gets it. No one here on OT, for sure. Or you wouldn't be here. Don't think about it. You're not a .001 % person.

That's for sure. Neither am I. But if you add the value of my 4 desirable cars, you could buy the lot for 15K. Maybe 25K if I was a dreamer like all the rest of the fools that populate my life.

Life is a house of cards and I have 4 standing. Task your meager brains and figure out the possibilities.

This is a great thread. I've come to realize lately that of all my good friends, nobody has lower aspirations than yours truly. Making do and modest goals are my way of life.

I didn't even lock the doors in my civic (was a standard so that was the anti theft device). Was nice not to worry about locking the doors everytime I got out, being broken into, scratched, ect.

I frequent the jeep sub on reddit and those guys with the soft top wrangles will get the top cut to get burglarized.

There is great book from 1996, The Millionaire Next Door. It is about the different types of savers or non-savers and their characteristics. The authors feel most millionaires live in middle class or working class neighborhoods, and live modest lives with modest needs. The typical drives older cars, wears no jewelry, no fancy watches, etc, They are not in need of the fancy lifestyle that many of white collar professionals pursue, fancy house, fancy cars, etc., but have little actual accumulated wealth - they spend it as fast as they make it. I think from being on this board for a long time, there are many that live generally modest lives and have accumulated substantial assets.

"The more stuff you have the more you worry about the stuff you have"

I've always loathed cars but you have to have one... So "Older cars with character that I can fix myself".

A friend of mine has large collections of various items (Cars, Motor cycles, BMX bikes etc.) He never got married and has no children of his own. He told me all of his stuff will eventually go to his nieces and nephews.

My newest car is a 2010. Our wedding rings are made of rubber. The computer I use is my son’s 3 y/o Chromebook that his school gave him. For exercise, I bought a Bowflex barely used with all the attachments for $160 from the original owner. I have the invoice from Bowflex for $1800!

I am extremely frugal for most things in life, mow own lawn, do own painting, home and car maintance, buy as much crap used as i can, mostly only costco clothes.

However, for the things i care about, i dont mind paying for quality. I hate the disposable society so when i buy a tool i want it to last.

My recently bought used cayman was almost 2x more expensive than any other car i have ever bought and still feel a bit uneasy about it. Lost both of my parents recently and at 46 maybe a bit of a mid life crisis thing.

Dont judge others by how they spend thier money though, cant claim any moral high ground for being frugal, just as bad as having fancy pants and judging those with kirklands

Pretty much my mantra. Never buy anything of value new.

Realized that I have never even purchased a new computer until this month at age 56.

And, it adds up. That computer is for retirement!

I’m not sure where I fit in… I have built almost everything I have (built my own house on raw land in the middle of a canola field)… not as much because I wanted to but more because it’s the only thing I could afford to do. I have some nice vehicles but do all of the work on them myself and didn’t exactly buy in at the top of the market.

With respect to old daily drivers, I decided to drop $5000 on my very high mile 12 year old tundra instead of spending $70000 on a new one. My old truck is getting new tires, a new box, and a few cosmetic touch ups. It’s been a great truck since I bought it new and I think right now, this is a better investment than the alternative.

Exactly where I am. And it’s hard to let go and let somebody else do it after so many years of doing it myself. The first set of tires I had to pay retail for and pay someone else to mount and balance them, I about had heart palpitations!

Our current fleet of vehicles are:
2001 GMC diesel dually
2010 Volvo XC90
2002 Boxster S
1999 996 C4

All were purchased with cash . My wife and I have zero debt including our home . Our only bills are utilities/gas/groceries . We are both retired with a healthy nest egg . We both have pensions and drawing SS .

We live well within our means , that's part of the reason we are where we are financially . We worked VERY hard to get to where we are now . It feels good waking up each morning knowing we are successful at our life plan .

Same as above for my wife and myself...with her ride being a Subaru Forester (paid off) and mine an '87NA 944 which I've rebuilt and will lose very little to no money should I decide to sell it.

Key for us was purchasing our home in 2012 (when it was possible to make an offer) with half down and 3.175 percent on the balance. Sad turn these days when our three kids and their spouses, who've all purchased houses (each over 500K) over the past year - did so in a vastly more difficult financial/real estate climate than what we'd faced ten years ago.

That used to be me, but I've changed 180 degrees. I'll be 73 years old in 6 months. I don't have time to f&%K around doing things I don't want to do. I'm done with crawling around under trucks in 10 degree weather. I never want to paint another wall or run another electrical circuit.
I've probably saved a lot of money over the years doing things myself. I've learned a lot and I used to get a lot of satisfaction out of it, but it took up a lot of time. I don't have a lot of time - I want to spend what I have left doing something creative instead of spending it maintaining the status quo.

10yo Hyundai Santa Fe - new snow tires last week probably upped its value 20%. Bought when we were DINKs it might have been two-three months of take-home pay.

I hate the car. As reliable and exciting as a brick, except recently it's not been reliable.

I hate car payments more though, so here we are. Mrs wants to carvana/carmax it but we might have missed the curve on that. I figure we'll drive it into the ground (at 150k miles we're probably at least half of the way there)

Living debt free is very very freeing. :)

I have a split personality .... Mr. Frugal gets first dibs, then Mr. Drunken $ailor gets the rest :D.

Works for me....

I know that feeling!

We actually hired two guys to paint the trim on our brick house. Some of the gables have soffits 25 feet in the air, and I ain't a gonna do it no mo. They did a great job, and done faster than I would have.

I do the stuff like edge and mow the yard, and help my master gardener wife in her multiple gardens. I will work on my sprinkler system, and since I put it in myself, I kow the system better than anyone else. In 24 years it has been remarkably robust.
I do my minor maintenance on my cars. With a lift, and a heated or air conditioned garage and a bathroom in the garage, it is purely a hobby. I do not work on other people's cars at all.

My next big project will be to empty crap from the attic that has been up there for decades and unused and unneeded.

Anyone need a 17 gallon fuel tank for a 86 El Camino? It is going to the curb soon. I love my 21 gallon tank in the car now.

There is a fine line between saving money on a project and suffering with pain from over exerting my old body. Some chores are best left to professionals.

I really enjoy the perspectives offered in these threads.

Like others, I am over the repairing/maintaining car efforts. I simply lost that lovin' feelin...I threw out a few spiral binders of maintenance and repair logs on cars I haven't owned in 20 plus years. I was looking for my farm equipment logs since my son is home for a week and it is barn'o'rama on routine equipment maintenance.

I work on the farm equipment because the closest dealer in 20 miles away and they are horribly expensive. That and, unless I am replacing mower blades, open air work:cool:

Car-wise, my Tundra is nine years old and in perfect shape...it will be my last 1/2 ton. I bought the LC from a friend because I had put nearly 20k miles a year on the Tundra and wanted to DD miles in something else. So far so good!

Never had a car payment in my life.

Current cars are below and drive them all.

Walking sux :D

On mobile view .... I don't see 'em....

^^^
78 SC Targa Black
84 Carrera Targa White
98 Honda Prelude
22 Honda Civic SI

Closest grocery store is 5 miles...a long walk.:)

It's not about what you make, it's more important to save well, live within your means, and invest wisely. We don't carry debt. House is paid for, cars are old and paid for, no designer clothes, no jewelry that wasn't passed down from family, etc. We try to only buy durable products so we only buy them once.

I'm right there with you guys. The last 'new car' here was in' '86. The wife bought a left over '86 MR2 to celebrate getting her teaching contract with the school board. Then there was another decade when we went through a 924s, a Quattro and some pick up trucks, all used.
Then priorities changed. We were still buying two year old cars, but were keeping them for over a decade. It was around that time when my toys became 30 year old cars which I was comfortable working on, the old E, a '90 MX 5 and the '89 Golf Cabriolet. I guess my feeling was: if they're stuck in garage awaiting parts or loving, it's no big deal.
I must admit, reading this thread, I was reminded of the Python skit of the Yorkshiremen talking about how little they had while growing up.

Best to All.
Les

I used to mow the yards, and edge them too. Hired the neighbors gardener to hide the fact I couldn't push the mower across the yard without stopping after each pass. 6 months later I had a quad bypass. Now I value my time more than my money so we still have the gardener, and my mower and edger sit in the shed.
Wife pointed out that the eves need painting this spring. She won't let me do ladders any more so that'll mean I have to hire someone to do them. We've painted our house twice, by ourselves since moving in back in '85. Had compliments on it too, as to 'Who painted your house? Do you have their number?'
I noticed my wife's car is at 60% on the oil life, but it's been a year so that needs doing to, eventually. May have to wait for a lot warmer temps as even though it's supposed to be 80* tomorrow the concrete is still cold.
Getting old sucks in many ways, but it still beats the heck out of the alternative.

I live pretty well on the cheap, 2 mid 90's Mercedes, an '04 ford diesel truck and a 911 that cost 10k 25 yrs ago. I don't do heavy wrenching any longer but do the maintenance stuff just to get eyes on things regularly. House is a bit extravagant but was well bought so, well, guess my kids will profit at some point.
I don't buy anything "new"-bicycles, motorcycle, most of the tractor implements were all bought after someone else took the depreciation hit.

Scott Douglas [QUOTE
Getting old sucks in many ways, but it still beats the heck out of the alternative.[/QUOTE]

Yes..here too. Pains me, but I hire a lot of things I used to do. Not to save time, but simply because my 79 year old body won't allow me to do them. Part of what hurts is the damaged ego and pride, part because hiring a job done means the help simply doesn't pay attention to the details like I once did.

Talking with my PA about this...she a still kutie in her 30's...the things I miss doing. Should have seen her expression when I mentioned missing "The wild monkey sex of youth". Ha! Must have triggered a memory...

The simplicity of a low end 930 and 964 in your garage?

Hey Les. - do you guys still have the MR2?
Cheers.

:D ha ha, touché

Following the example set by my dad, we have always lived considerably below what our income could get us. For a long time now, we've had 0 debt (no credit car debt, no mortgage, no student loans, etc.) despite our kids going to expensive colleges, and a quite substantial retirement savings. We have a modest house and it is certainly not the most expensive neighborhood in the area.

We currently have 2013 cars (except for my 911, which is an '87) and only pay cash for new (or CPO) ones when our cars wear out.

We shop for the best deals and my wife is a coupon/rebate expert, and I fix things rather than buying new stuff whenever possible. We don't take expensive vacations - in fact, we don't travel much. We also don't have HBO, Disney, or any of the other any premium tv channels/services.

I’ve owned 2 Tacoma’s in 27 years, both bought new, almost 1/2 million miles between ‘em. Just sold my ‘08 and bought a new 4-Runner.
We’re both mid-60’s did the 401 thing and had a 23 year employer that matched to 17%. Yay!
We shop thrift stores and Goodwill for clothes, cook almost all our meals and live quite frugally.
That said when I got my dive license around 2000 I bought myself a used Rolex Sub and absolutely love it. The bands are kinda expensive to replace and a nice watch is the only upscale thing I own. Except for our ‘87 3.2.
My garage and cellar are a literal hardware store / fab / electrical / electronics superstore. Having grown up in rural Maine it’s 45 minutes to most serious stores.
In the end, we have the means to buy almost anything we want. We just don’t want much.
I prefer the bottom feeder lifestyle.