Similarly, when we sold my parents’ home…it was a perfect-for-us deal.
One Thanksgiving weekend, my wife, my aunt, my cousin and I were clearing out the house (my mom was a hoarder, and my father needed to move into a retirement community). As we kept putting salvageable-not-worth-selling furniture out on the curb, some folks down the street furnished an empty room in their house.
Eventually, they were curious enough to stop by, and a conversation was started. They had some friends who were looking to buy a fixer-upper and were at that time looking at an open house nearby. They were invited over; they weren’t intimidated by the amount of work needed (1930’s bungalow, not updated since it gained an addition in the 1950’s). They weren’t looking to start their renovation effort just then – one was a schoolteacher, the other a journalist, so they didn’t really have the time to start until summer…which coincidentally was about the amount of time I expected I was going to need to finish emptying out the place (since I was working on the job one week at a time while living/working 1200 miles away).
We talked my father into accepting a price-per-square-foot at the bottom of what flippers were paying for similar houses in the neighborhood (pointing out that the logistics were just too good to pass up, and we hadn’t had a good experience with the realtors we had already chatted with…and that there’d be no realtor commission)… it was about the best deal we could have hoped for.
My parents don’t know our detailed financial situation or my income. They know we make decent dual incomes. We save a lot of our incomes.
Wow, [young cousin’s] car is nicer than yours! Don’t you think it’s time for an upgrade? How old is that, like 10 years?
Uh… yeah, we both WFH and once considered going down to just 1 car. I figured we might replace one within the next five years or so. Just don’t need a fancier-than-necessary hunk of metal losing value below my feet while I WFH.
When we lived in CO, we would drive to KS for Christmas. For a while my wife drove a Mercedes C-Class wagon. Plenty of room but not huge. My wife asked folks to keep the Christmas gifts reasonably small so we could get everything home, seemed to make sense. My MIL said hey, you guys make good money, why don’t you buy something like a Suburban? That way, you have tons of room for gifts! Sure, let’s spend tens of thousands of dollars on a huge SUV, plus all the extra money in fuel, so that once a year we can schlep gifts 600 miles.
Got a spam e-mail (phony invoice) and so far 100 morons responding Stop or Remove Me or Who Are You or Trying to Explain it is Spam or Stop Replying All.
Meanwhile, parents of the young cousin might be saying -
Why aren’t you saving your money for a house instead of spending on such an expensive car? Look at [your older cousin]. They’ve bought a perfectly serviceable vehicle and putting all the megabucks they earn into their house.
We’ve got one of those with our online training. When you get to the end, there is always a box labeled “Comments”. Someone once wrote “completed” as a comment and now the mindless horde continues the practice with endless "completed"s.
Bought my wife’s Christmas present – finally got seats that will meet her standards to see Hamilton on Broadway (she’s borderline OCD and mobility-limited; logistics dictates a matinee; prices were less obscene than the last time I looked)
I bought them for a particular day in July that has significance for us.
I completely failed to consider what else is happening that day.
I wonder how much worse than normal it will be to get into/out of NYC from Connecticut just before/after the World Cup final.
I can’t think of any stadium (maybe Yankee) that would make that trip extra difficult (Train or Car?). Not even sure it makes sense for WC visitors to stay in Manhattan
Probably car. My wife uses a rollator (walker with nicer wheels) to get around.
While trains/public transit theoretically would be doable…since her car accident, we drive in for Broadway shows.
I don’t recall having driven in/out of Manhattan at a time when a major sporting event at the Meadowlands would be a factor. Of course, getting from NYC back to Connecticut even on a normal weekend evening is… unpleasant.
I really like my 14 year old minivan. Sure, it’s a bit ugly, but it runs great and meets all my needs. It annoys my parents a bit, because they have associated success with new expensive cars. My WFH SO’s car is becoming a real beater though. She also drives about 3k miles a year.
“I am happy with my current car and see no reason to buy something new” should be sufficient.
I think that’s it. My parents understand we should be making good money, and I think are confused what we do with it. They expect us to be spending more extravagantly. I’ve mentioned we’re aiming to retire before age 65, but have left it there.
We also have a 14-yo minivan and it’s great for family trips. We don’t drive too much since Weaselette works from home and I typically ride my bike to work. We’ll definitely get something smaller and electric eventually for around town though. Probably will keep the van for long trips.
Family trips. Trips to the city (street parking is not a good place for nice vehicles). Hauling sheets of plywood. Hauling furniture. Taking 6 people to a show and saving $50 on parking another vehicle. Weekly trips to Costco.
America completely ruined the usefulness of a truck. I had a midsize back in the day…4 doors, approachable, reasonable size, but the bed was too small. Full size trucks seem to be terrible at everything. Shit MPG. Lifting things 3 feet up to get them into the bed. Bed is 5.5-6.5 feet which is still stupid for hauling anything.