The rules are listed below. They are explained in full at the link above:
2 Likes
I was surprised to see #2. Especially wrt leasing an automobile. Here’s what the author says about leasing an auto:
“To this day, I still lease my cars. However, I never extend a lease for more than 24 months, even if it makes the bill more affordable. A lot can change in two years, and I try to avoid being stuck with a car that doesn’t serve my needs.”
OK - who buys a car, say a sedan, and in two years later says I wish I bought a pickup truck? Or vice versa. About the only situation that I can see happening is if a young couple who have no kids decide to have a family and then need a minivan or SUV instead of a 2-door sports car.
I guess life situations do happen to others that would necessitate cashing in a < 2-year old car for a totally different type of auto, but that has to be the exception!
I’ve always gone by “its better to buy than lease” - especially if you hold onto your cars until they are no longer safe to drive or have otherwise outlived their useful life.
I would also add on point #1, with many large purchases (furniture, electronics, etc.) many retailers do offer n years of credit interest free. I think those deals are worth jumping on if you have a need and don’t have 2x the cash.
Just my thoughts on this.
'38Packard
6 Likes
Yeah, I don’t see the need to take out a shorter lease. Good thinking, Packard.
And as for large purchases bought on Buy Now/Pay Later (and no interest!) yeah, your choice seems a good one too as long as you have the money to pay it off.
Good analysis.
1 Like
p.s. Point No. 3 above describes me and my wife and all the wildlife out here in the jungle:
3. Don’t spend to impress others.
Of course, wildlife (and my furballs that adopted my wife and me such as my recently departed Razah Cat) don’t worry about money, mindless consumerism, keeping up with the Joneses, etc.
Someone on this board recently talked about how guileless and genuine domesticated animals can be. It’s not only cats, dogs, or whatever domestic animals people might think of as family.
My “family” is now an empty nest: just me and my wife, who is my very best friend on this planet. And then I have thousands of other “friends” hiding in plain sight deep in the jungle with me.
I know that I prefer wild animals to humans these days. I look at their environment where humans have intruded, and my heart and soul cry out at the desecration of their homes.
Humans can be so heartless to other species, not just animals but our flora as well. (How hardware stores can still sell Roundup is beyond me.) And don’t get me started on single-use plastics, such as the damned plastic bags blowing like ghosts in the winds of the Keys.
Humans are the most uncaring species.
True story from a few weeks ago: I watched a woman in a Tesla at the Key West PetSmart store park diagonally in a no-parking except for trucks. She parked in an unloading zone (it was clearly marked) in the most oversized rectangular painted box on the asphalt. Fit Granny gets out her Tesla and springs into the store in her LuLu Lemon gear, hair perfectly coiffed, brand new Nikes on her feet, shiny manicured nails on her soft-looking hands, which probably are slathered in expensive lotions before bed each night. I shook my head at what this proud woman was missing by her rude indiscretion in parking.
This woman made a hen and five chicks move out of “her spot” with her silent car. Those six birds had been busy pecking at the asphalt for what appeared to be a seed spill, probably something which dropped from a truck unloading in that spot. This woman could not park anywhere else because she put her beautifully detailed car above the insignificant lives of “yard birds,” which are everywhere in Key West. She just reeked of entitled virtue signaling while ignoring the six little lives she made move out of “her” spot so that her shiny car would not be assaulted by dings from cars of lesser mortals entering the parking lot.
I loathe people like that woman. And it is hard for me to bite my tongue when I see the trespasses which unthinking, uncaring humans foist upon other species. I see it so much just in the way Americans discard trash on our Keys highways and roads, where many wild animals will die from the refuse of humans.
Key Deer are everywhere in the Nature Preserve next door to my cottage. Although we are 1.5 miles from US 1, these same deer travel up to that busy highway and find food scraps attached to Styrofoam, waxed paper wrappers, or still inside fast food plastic bags.
Jettisoned food ends up killing deer, which can’t digest gluten products. This trashed food and its wrappings chokes and kills turtles or fish ingesting plastic bags and whatnot. Something as simple as a plastic six-pack ring or discarded fishing line entangles sea life which impedes their motion through the ocean.
Recently, I called the Florida Wildlife boys to come to rescue a deer that had a piece of metal conduit used in HVAC runs stuck over its neck like a dickie. That piece of conduit had to have fallen off someone’s truck going to the landfill/waste dump nearby. And if a deer found it on this road, then busy humans would have seen it too. The poor deer could not bend its neck upward to eat from branches in the trees out here.
I always see this type of trash on the road leading to this dump. And I am constantly stopping in my infrequent travels to pick up this dangerous material and tossing it inside one of the half-dozen trash barrels along this 2-mile stretch. That 2-mile road, in the middle of nowhere reminds me of why I don’t like most humans.
Humans and their superiority complexes have turned the Keys into a giant toilet bowl. The ironic thing is this: all the fish caught off the nearest bridge to me are contaminated. The new injection well for “treated” sewage at this nearby dump site is seeping into nearby waters. And the water shows not only higher levels of plastics, but also forever chemicals and drugs. Tylenol is the most found drug in fish flesh in this area.
So, I no longer eat fish from the waters nearest me. And yet the fishing bridge within eyesight of this tall waste site is full of daytime fishermen and fisherwomen, many of whom have caught and kept fish that are illegally too small to keep and should have been released back into the waters sluicing under that bridge.
Unbeknownst to these vacationers is the water they fish is now tainted by thousands of chemicals from the nearby waste site, which is also the location of this new wastewater deep injection well that leaks into the porous coral rock below. Many of these same “sportsmen” and “sportswomen” will leave plastic bottles, mono-filament line, wax paper boxes which once contained chum, etc., all over that bridge where winds gusts blow this junk into our beautiful aqua-marine waters below. And all of these sports people were within 50 yards of a trashcan on this bridge.
When I pass unthinking Americans as described above, I audibly growl. And that’s why I prefer my time on that bridge at midnight through early dawn: no humans are around, and I pick up after those slobs so that my true friends, the sea life and flora, are not molested by humans’ uncaring laziness.
That’s why I don’t have faith in this country any longer. It’s like the populace - even Liberals in Teslas - are watching the world go to hell and not seeing they are part of the problem.
People who don’t respect animals and our environment don’t deserve their shrouds of unthinking superiority. Buying an EV doesn’t mean you are clean, not in my cynical view. You have to show me you have a conscience if you want my respect.
There’s this old guy on my 2-mile road near my house who rides his bicycle (not an EV bicycle, but the real thing powered by humans) who I wave to whenever I see him. I’ve watched this fellow stop his bike, pick up a can or plastic bag, and then continue on to one of the six waste barrels on this road, where he properly disposes of the litter. That guy? He’s a hero. He’s the kind of human I would sit next to and drink coffee and talk about the desecration of our environment and how fast this destruction is accelerating in our old lives as the Keys become more populated. I don’t even know his name. Nor have I ever talked to him. But next time I see him, I’m flagging that geezer down and telling him he’s one of my human heroes. I think it is important enough now to grow bonds with humans who are of the Conscious Party.
So, your response, Packer38, has made me think outside the lines of this OP. This response may not seem related to the OP. Still, I know it was ignited by my thoughts about a throwaway society where people are more worried about becoming millionaires than they are worried about preserving bits of this hurting planet.
My wife and I will continue to alert to mindless consumerism and neglected waste. We will recycle furniture tossed to the curb and extend the life of things like air conditioners, washers and dryers by taking them apart and learning, “Oh, just needs to have the lint trap cleaned with an air compressor gun,” or, “Oh, the washer needs a new belt.”
So maybe I’m off-topic on the OP, which I just placed here and to which both of us are responding to. Just know this: I donate money and time to animal rescue outfits such as the ASPCA or the Turtle Hospital up in Marathon. I don’t go to church, as I am an Atheist. But taking time to commune with nature is a religious experience I seek out every day of my remaining life. Dropping money or supplies off to any non-profit doing “God’s work” is my tithe.
If I complain but don’t get active, I should not complain. Despite the colon cancer, I am fighting, I spend precious time supporting animal and flora life. If a man who is low on energy and whose step has lost his pep can stop and think about all creatures small and beautiful, maybe I can spread the vibe by being an example - such as my respected friend on the bicycle I have never spoken to.
Winning small battles daily against unthinking humans is a tonic for my soul. It might tire and anger me to see so much waste and pollution. But if the guy on the bicycle and I don’t channel our inner anger at slobs who pollute, and if we don’t do our share to pick up after, the world around us would be a much nastier place. And I prefer to watch out over my brothers and sisters who are not of my species.
2 Likes
Apparently this guy is a “car guy”. And that’s ok. But he shouldn’t mix that in with giving prudent financial advice. There’s no way getting a new car every two years, leased or purchased, is prudent financial advice. A new Corolla every 12 years whether you need it or not is prudent! Seriously, it’s ok to be a “car guy” but don’t mix that with giving financial advice.
3 Likes
This 
“Apparently this guy is a “car guy”. And that’s ok. But he shouldn’t mix that in with giving prudent financial advice. There’s no way getting a new car every two years, leased or purchased, is prudent financial advice. A new Corolla every 12 years whether you need it or not is prudent! Seriously, it’s ok to be a “car guy” but don’t mix that with giving financial advice.”
- Daryll44
1 Like
Please tell me you quickly went to the nearest possible spot, bought a large soda, preferably a frozen one so it’s stickier, and walked into the store, “accidentally” tripping and spilling said soda all over that car!
2 Likes
Too long; didn’t read
2 Likes
LOL! Your honesty is breathtaking, MoneySlob!
At least you’re not as bad as the guy who started that “14 Characters Is Too Long For A Title” thread on METAR. No problem. I take no offense.
#1 is wrong. As has already been discussed. And, for instance, your house.
#2 is wrong. Leasing is a sucker’s game’ you’re taking merchandise new, at it’s most vulnerable point to depreciation, and then turning it over for more of the same. This is foolish.
#3 is wrong, depending on your occupation. Sales people need to demonstrate success. Only Columbo gets away with driving up in a beat up jalopy. And nobody takes their stock portfolio to a guy wearing a suit from Sears, driving a Nash Rambler.
#4 is well, wrong. Sometimes. Depending on the future value of money vs the future value of whatever you’re buying. See: buying a house.
Other than that, the guy is spot on.
3 Likes