When I was car shopping at the end of 2024, I quickly realized the best bang for the buck was around $10-12k because at that price you could get a low-mid range vehicle that was around 6 years old with around 100k miles. Obviously some vehicles in that price range would be older with fewer miles, some would be newer with more miles, but that seemed to be about the price range where you’d get a vehicle which you could reasonably expect to be mechanically sound for at least another 2-3 years. Less than that and you got into vehicles that were far more worn either by age or by mileage, so you’d be trading upfront payment for additional maintenance costs.
$10k is a lot of money to save up. That’s about my entire emergency fund right now. That’s almost 3 years of socking away $300 a month, or 2 years at $500 a month. Simply put vehicle ownership is horrendously expensive especially for folks making close to minimum wage
Ideally yes, but on top of your normal expenses socking away $800/mo is a ton, especially since we’re almost certainly talking about a young adult, fairly freshly on their own who’s probably only making around 30-40k per year. When each paycheck is under a thousand dollars every couple of weeks that money disappears fast especially with the financial discipline one can realistically expect of a young adult
Hey that’s honestly super awesome. Most folks don’t have that kind of financial discipline when they’re young.
When I was first on my own I was just proud that I was a able to pay extra on my possibly-illegal car loan that I got from a place that was shut down a couple of years later for credit fraud
Most folks I know who were bad with money… had rich parents. So it didn’t matter really if they had any discipline or not. They were going ot get bailed out either way, and did, repeatedly.
I can’t speak to what goes on in other people’s heads. But a lot of people rationalize totally distorted beliefs about money and I can’t say I agree that taking on 100K of debt makes any sense if you don’t have a clear plan on how to become employed and earn a salary as such to pay that back. Life is about choices and consequences… and for some reason on lemmy people feel like those things should be totally disconnected. The concept of everyone ‘pursuing their dreams’ doesn’t really work in reality because both education and jobs are limited resources over which we compete.
There are also so many alternatives. I just walked my nephew through college application process. He could have gone to a few schools for free, but he decided those schools were ‘below’ him and he would rather take on debt to go to fancier schools out of pride and arrogance. That’s his choice, and I hope it works out for him, but in 5 years if he is crying poor w/ 100K of debt in a 50K job and living outside his means, I am not going bail him out of his own mistake. I knew plenty of people that went to ‘lesser’ schools for free, and those who went to expensive schools with zero aid and f’ed themselves for life’. The former are a lot happier and chiller than the latter.
But you know what, if my nephew suddenly has cancer or a car accident and has to drop out and has 50K of debt from his choice, I’d probably feel pretty bad for him and help him out. Sometimes shit does happen that is beyond your control.
I’m vacationing with my upper-middle class sibling. They rented a car for the week … for $970! for one week! It takes me months to save up that much money! And they do this every year!
Car rentals are so expensive nowadays. Enough so that I’ve never done it in my adult life. Its always expensive enough that it makes some alternative make way more sense, whether that’s driving our own vehicle somewhere or just winging it with public transit
This is why we drive when we go on our yearly trip back to the east coast to visit family. Flying would cost the same once you factor in a hotel stop midway, and would save 8+ hours if we were actually able to drive without stopping, but no one we visit lives near an airport and transportation to/from the airport adds a ton of cost.
When I was car shopping at the end of 2024, I quickly realized the best bang for the buck was around $10-12k because at that price you could get a low-mid range vehicle that was around 6 years old with around 100k miles. Obviously some vehicles in that price range would be older with fewer miles, some would be newer with more miles, but that seemed to be about the price range where you’d get a vehicle which you could reasonably expect to be mechanically sound for at least another 2-3 years. Less than that and you got into vehicles that were far more worn either by age or by mileage, so you’d be trading upfront payment for additional maintenance costs.
$10k is a lot of money to save up. That’s about my entire emergency fund right now. That’s almost 3 years of socking away $300 a month, or 2 years at $500 a month. Simply put vehicle ownership is horrendously expensive especially for folks making close to minimum wage
you can’t afford a car if you only saved up 10K over 3 years.
Ideally yes, but on top of your normal expenses socking away $800/mo is a ton, especially since we’re almost certainly talking about a young adult, fairly freshly on their own who’s probably only making around 30-40k per year. When each paycheck is under a thousand dollars every couple of weeks that money disappears fast especially with the financial discipline one can realistically expect of a young adult
I don’t think I was super human and I had zero issues saving $1200/mo on a 2.2k/mo salary.
but i lived with multiple roommates, ate cheap food, and didn’t party.
Hey that’s honestly super awesome. Most folks don’t have that kind of financial discipline when they’re young.
When I was first on my own I was just proud that I was a able to pay extra on my possibly-illegal car loan that I got from a place that was shut down a couple of years later for credit fraud
Most folks I know who were bad with money… had rich parents. So it didn’t matter really if they had any discipline or not. They were going ot get bailed out either way, and did, repeatedly.
I can’t speak to what goes on in other people’s heads. But a lot of people rationalize totally distorted beliefs about money and I can’t say I agree that taking on 100K of debt makes any sense if you don’t have a clear plan on how to become employed and earn a salary as such to pay that back. Life is about choices and consequences… and for some reason on lemmy people feel like those things should be totally disconnected. The concept of everyone ‘pursuing their dreams’ doesn’t really work in reality because both education and jobs are limited resources over which we compete.
There are also so many alternatives. I just walked my nephew through college application process. He could have gone to a few schools for free, but he decided those schools were ‘below’ him and he would rather take on debt to go to fancier schools out of pride and arrogance. That’s his choice, and I hope it works out for him, but in 5 years if he is crying poor w/ 100K of debt in a 50K job and living outside his means, I am not going bail him out of his own mistake. I knew plenty of people that went to ‘lesser’ schools for free, and those who went to expensive schools with zero aid and f’ed themselves for life’. The former are a lot happier and chiller than the latter.
But you know what, if my nephew suddenly has cancer or a car accident and has to drop out and has 50K of debt from his choice, I’d probably feel pretty bad for him and help him out. Sometimes shit does happen that is beyond your control.
I’m vacationing with my upper-middle class sibling. They rented a car for the week … for $970! for one week! It takes me months to save up that much money! And they do this every year!
The wealth gap is rapidly increasing.
Car rentals are so expensive nowadays. Enough so that I’ve never done it in my adult life. Its always expensive enough that it makes some alternative make way more sense, whether that’s driving our own vehicle somewhere or just winging it with public transit
that’s cheap. how much did you think it should cost?
it might have been way cheaper if she didn’t get insurance. that usually adds 30-40% to the cost
I guess I am just way out of touch. read: too poor to rent a car.
That amount is still crazy to me. A rental car pays for itself in less than a year!
This is why we drive when we go on our yearly trip back to the east coast to visit family. Flying would cost the same once you factor in a hotel stop midway, and would save 8+ hours if we were actually able to drive without stopping, but no one we visit lives near an airport and transportation to/from the airport adds a ton of cost.