First you get de money, then you get de power, and then you get de women.....

 

I do not know about the crying part, most mine is done at the movies...

But I am both happiest while driving the Corvette and riding my bicycle. Both have a big influence on my heart.

 

And that's why you will always be living hand to mouth. Learn to always pay cash for your cars and you will soon be able to afford a Lambo or anything else you want. Continue to buy on credit and the bank owner will be driving the Lambo.

BTW, the old ad was right. Living well is the best revenge.

 

http://www.usingenglish.com/referenc...+to+mouth.html

You don't know me, and you have no clue how I live Just because I dont make serious bank doesn't mean I don't live comfortably. $4500/mo is all my bills, said and done. My wife works, I work as well.. yet you think we are "very poor" Alright Mr. Rich Guy, glad you're living well and getting your revenge on us common folk

If I paid cash for my car, that'd affect our emergency cushion... so I shouldn't have it because if I do have it then I'm making the bank owner richer? How many people on here wouldn't have their 'vette if they had to pay cash up front? I got a 3.4% 5 year note for my 'vette through a credit union, and I'm not complaining one bit. Feel free to put your foot in your mouth

 

Supercharged it sounds like you have your house in order. You are married with kids and seem to be doing well. Sometimes here we offer advice and opinions that aren't necessarily wanted or needed. I'm the one who mentioned taxes in an earlier post. We could all do without even thinking of taxes. Its probably because we are older and have a great deal of perspective in looking back.

I will soon be 55. I consider myself young though as I am still active in martial arts and other activities. I finish law school in April. I am not what you might call a "fossil."

With all of that said, when I had my first vette I was 21, single and in the Marine Corps. I then got married - sans the vette - and had my first child at 24.

You have a family and you still have a vette. As long as you are properly taking care of your family and properly planning for their future it does not matter what you do with your money.

I'd love to be 23 again! Enjoy it and enjoy your vette, just do the right thing.

I for one am glad to have you on the forum.

 

Which means you bought more car than you could afford. But it's your money and you can waste it any way you want.

All I'm saying is you can pay yourself and let that be an investment in yourself that continues to work for you or you can pay someone else to use their investment in themselves. You can rent a house or you can buy a house. 20 years from now there is a big difference.

 

I was expecting more bashing but this was an alleviating post to read. Thanks for your service in the Marine Corps and congrats on finishing law school!

 

I won't apologize for not being able to afford to pay cash for my HOUSE and my CAR. Get off your high horse

Edit: Not so much being able to afford to pay my car with cash, but rather preferring to save the money in cash in case one of us hard working MIDDLE CLASS parents, god forbid, lost our job. I'd rather be able to pay the bills for another year, than have to sell my car just to get the cash out of it.

 

Success is getting what you want. Happiness is liking what you already have.

I accomplished both with my '07 C6. One of the best decisions I've ever made. Only regret is I waited this long to do it.

 

Or you can die today.. and never enjoy a dime of what spent your entire life saving for.

Which scenario is more depressing? Think about it.

 

Who ever said money don't by happiness is a fool!!! IMO

 

I find it funny when some say money doesnt buy happiness, as if those with money are no better off than the poor. Last time I checked money is a huge necessity.

Money helps prevent hardship, and helps deal with hardship. There are things no man can control, but putting food on the table or being able to pay a lawyer to just make a speeding ticket go away are things things that cost money. Poor people have a harder time dealing with things in life because they have a harder time paying for all the things that many of us take for granted. Many also end up working later into life, and unfortunately its not doing what they want, but doing blue collar labor while their well off peers get to enjoy early retirement on a warm beach. If theres one thing I am truely grateful for its that I was lucky enough to be born into a family that pushed education so that I would have a decent job.



Above and beyond that, hobbies cost money - for us car people, money means being able to modify and maintain our cars so we can go out and have fun in them.

Now for the fun part : If I was making half as much as some of the people here, Id buy a 50 to 100 acre piece of property out in the country and pave a "driveway" around it that just so happened to have a lot of interesting turns and banking... then buy a track toy (lotus 211, radical, ariel atom, or bac mono - take your pick) and spend my days burning through fuel at my own leisure.

 

I think it goes:
money isn't everything but it's way ahead of whatever is in second place.

that saying is on a sign at my place of work...

 

I like that

 

So everyone should pay cash for a car or don't buy it? That's B.S.
Hardly anyone would buy new, the dealers would go out of business and then what?

 

If you spend you life 'nose to the grindstone'
Driving a Prius. What do you think you will be doing @ 70 yrs old?
Driving a 458 tearing thru the countryside?
Or sitting in your den checking your accounts on-line?
The time to hit it is when you can dudes.

 

When I drive my Vette it makes me feel like a MILLIONARE. I am 67 and I do not care how much money someone has. If you have live life to the fullest the last check that is written out of your account will be to the undertaker. That check will bounce like a rubber ball, sorry kids.
C5-JIM

 

To me it would be more depressing to not be able to buy anything you want any time you want. I'm not advocating saving every penny. I'm advocating not borrowing every penny anyone will lend you so that you can buy expendable toys. Every dollar is the same as every other dollar. If you borrow money to buy a car and then go to the grocery to buy food with cash, that is the same as buying a car with cash and then borrowing money to go to the grocery. You can't say this dollar is mine and that dollar is the bank's. They are both the same except one you can spend freely and the other you have to pay to spend.

Do I have debt? YES! But I borrow only when I can make more with the bank's money than the bank charges me. If I can make 8% return per year on an investment and the bank only charges me 3% I'd be foolish not to take the 5% net. But a Lambo isn't an investment. A bicycle is an investment if that is what it takes to get you to work so you can have an income. Any more is a luxury. And it is foolish to borrow money for food when you are buying luxuries.

 

I don't even know what to say to that. If you don't pay for a car with cash, you shouldn't get the car, you should ride a bicycle to work? Let me guess, ride your bicycle to the grocery store too and haul 15 bags of food home, or wait are you advocating making 10 trips back and forth? Guess your wife is going to have to ride her bicycle alongside you, and your newborn can stay home and watch themselves?

 

And what you are saying is that you can therefore justify a chauffeur to drive your limo and another to drive your 18 wheeler and another to drive your wife in her separate car and a personal assistant for each of you and a nanny for each of the kids and... because all of those things would make life easier also, wouldn't they. Yes, I'm saying that anything above the bare necessities to survive is a luxury. I'm not saying you shouldn't make life easier with luxuries. I like luxuries as well as the next person. I'm just saying you shouldn't borrow money for luxuries any more than you would borrow money for food so you could have a chauffeur to drive you. It's really that simple.