Here I am back again talking all things on four wheels. I’m talking about cars of course!
So I will say to you what they always like to say in Welcome Back Kotter’s theme song, “Welcome back!”
And less like Agent Smith in The Matrix saying Welcome back.
However, we did miss you.
After my last post on on the price of luxury cars, it is time to bring you the sequel! Just like The Matrix Reloaded. This posts sequel is all about cars so Buckle Up!!!
See my post Beamers, Benz, and Bentleys Or A GMC Truck
Why another post about cars you ask? Because apparently folks out here are still lining up at the dealership every summer ready to take on these 5, 6, 7, now 8 year car loans!
You read that right. Lenders are now allowing borrowers to repay car loans for 8 friggin’ years!
That is enough time to do the following:
1. Graduate from college twice, including graduate school
2. Get married
3. Watch all 14 seasons of Supernatural on Netflix
4. Have the President of the United States finish two-terms
5. Write the next great American novel (hey it’s possible as it took J.R.R. Tolkien 12 years to pen The Lord of the Rings) 😉
I am here to remind folks that cars will not make you look, feel, or be rich.
Hey, don’t get mad a t me. I am just the messenger. Like Loreali Gilmore, I am A Messenger, Nothing More. Please just take the letter Dean or in this case, just read this post. 😁🙏
MAKE PEACE NOT CAR PAYMENTS You must make peace with your finances. It is the only way to come to terms with reality and set your sights on the bigger picture. You must choose a path. Rich or Broke. Never poor because poor is eternal.
All things are temporary. However, life is not short, it is long. And like Chris Rock said, “life is long especially, if you make the wrong decisions.”
Therefore, I want you to make good financial decisions from the starting gate. Paying 8 year car payments is like going to war with your bank account. And you know here at Greenbacks Magnet, we are all about the love. So make peace not war. So I am here to tell you: BACK AWAY FROM THE CAR PAYMENTS SLOWLY, TURN AROUND, AND RUN AWAY!!! You need to stand on firm financial ground. Your financial footing has to be so good that not even the Big Bad Wolf could huff and puff and blow your finances over!
When you constantly have to worry about how to make the mortgage payments or paying for the Range, then you have a serious problem. No car is worth going into foreclosure over. Should the home get foreclosed are you prepared to live in that Range Rover? A car that luxurious should be parked in a driveway and not on a freeway off ramp. Paying a $700 car note is outrageous. Then again, so is paying a $6,000 mortgage. Both of these high fixed expenses could leave you in the poor house.
Tons of bankruptcy filings include not only credit card debt, but high mortgage payments and out-of-control luxury car notes! People, people please don’t forget what Ferris Bueller said about priorities!
RANGE ROVERS ARE OVER RED ROVER Why discuss and name my post about Range Rovers? Let me tell you a story and paint this picture for you. In the illustrious words of Sophia from Golden Girls, “picture this.” 🤣
I have heard several separate stories about Range Rovers and the cost of ownership.
In one story, the owner had the car in the shop for an entire year because he could not pay the repair bill. That’s right. A car that you are still paying the payment for, including auto insurance is sitting in a repair shop.
Now how are you gonna be a number one stunna, if you can’t ride around in your car to impress all the people out there, while only having $100 in the bank? It’s like Birdaman said, “Ride Bentley’s ’round the city on buttons.” “I’m the # 1 stunna!”
Oh and why only $100 in the bank? because it took almost every dollar in your paycheck just to keep the car on the road. And speaking of keeping the car on the road…let’s talk about maintenance and repairs on a Range Rover.
If you didn’t already know, then let me be the first to tell you. Luxury cars are more expensive to repair. Why you ask? It’s simple. Luxury comes at a premium. You have to pay the cost to be the boss.
See my post Lipstick Confessions: Confessions Of A Teenage Waitress
Repairs will also cost you more for luxury models. The parts are more expensive and not easy to find and replace like American made cars, as repairs and upkeep are cheaper on these models. Why even buy a Range? That is because nobody wants to wear platinum Rolexes and canary diamonds while pushing a Honda!
However, if you drive that Honda for a decade and invest that $40,000 you spent on the Range, then you could have a million more in retirement in 35 years. That Range will be long gone by then. But you know what? If you have money to burn, then play on player or should I say drive on driver!
In another story, I heard that a mechanic left a stable transit authority job with excellent benefits to go repair cars for the Range Rover dealership. When asked why he did it, he replied, “because I can make more money fixing Range Rovers because those cars are always in the shop.” What the F*ck!!! You spend enough to put a kid through college to get that car only to have it in the shop! Unbelievable. You would think with all the dough you had to drop to get that ride it would at least hold up better than a Rav-4 or Honda CRV.
SITTING PRETTY WITH MONEY IN THE BANK OR WITH YOUR CAR ON BRICKS I will end this post with some news I have heard from around the water-cooler and then some.
One lady told me that she didn’t know what her husband was going to do because his BMW was in the shop and he couldn’t afford the $8,000 to get it out! Holy crap! So you want luxury but you cannot actually afford luxury. Then it’s simple: Sell the car. Take the $15,000 check that Carmax will cut you for the trade-in, get you a Ford or Toyota for $6,000 and put the rest of that money to work in the stock market. That is how I turned my $450 car payment into over $100,000!
It is far more important to have money in the bank than a Range in the driveway or the repair shop. Put your money where your values are. Far more people are impressed by those than can afford to buy Range Rovers, but actually don’t. The most important thing you can do with your money after you earn it is to actually have and keep some of it in the bank.