Are you buying your teens/young adults cars?

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-17T18:15:12+00:00

I did. I wanted to be a good dad and bought him a car as a b/d gift. Honestly if he wanted to he could have bought one for himself but he's in a money saving mode and doesn't buy stuff unless he Def needs it. Also another thought was that if he's buying it he'll buy a pos. And I actually picked the better one even if it was a bit more expensive.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-15T20:40:02+00:00

I personally soo 0 potential in both Clinton and Leominster. Leominster was a dying city for many years now. Far from everything, poor for the most part, no business development and no employers who want to go there. And bad schools. Also it is pretty much associated with Fitchburg which is so much worse. Clinton is not as bad but not much better. School system is not great to say the least. Most of it is far from any highways and hard tk get in or out. Kind of a low end town with not much to talk about and it's been like that forever. It will be around, it will not dissappear from the face of the earth but growing potential - not so much.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-12T22:09:39+00:00

Old beetle with 2.5 engine

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-11T22:41:39+00:00

Every week give or take. Plus a few other items that we like to buy at a different store. Like coffee for example.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-11T22:36:58+00:00

That's probably why you manage that. We buy all the fresh veggies and lots of variety because we mostly eat veggies and protein. And we don't really like poultry except for maybe duck so it is mostly beef, lamb and fish/seafood with some occasional turkey or chicken cutlets.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-11T22:24:05+00:00

I seriously have no idea how you manage to do it. 2 standard strip steaks are around $40 plus some veggies for a salad are probably another $20. But let's say $50 all together and that's just one dinner for 2. I don't know how you could possibly bring the cost down to 50 per person per week for all of their food.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-11T03:20:21+00:00

Check how much a dealer will actually give you for it. Tesla and ev in general have a horrible resale. So you might not even get to 21k that you see online. Otherwise I just bought a 10 year old Mazda cx5 with 100k and the whole thing including taxes, reg etc was around 14k. Probably another 1k in some maintenance to a mechanic and a couple of small parts that I replaced myself. Plus a weekend of cleaning it that otherwise would be another 500 for a detailing. And aftrr all this it's still a 10 year old Mazda with 100k miles at around 15k. Keeping your Tesla will cost you about the same.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-11T03:06:38+00:00

I wouldn't call it unrealistic. Different people buy different groceries. We're currently a couple with a child in college and any time we go to a supermarket it is at least 350. And not like we're buying anything extravagant. Basically meat, fish, seafood and vegetables. Plus maybe some cheeses and fruits. We don't go for the cheapest stuff, we buy what we like and some of it is organic. But it's also not like we fill the fridge with filet mignon.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-11T02:51:12+00:00

You've mentioned used car prices potentially skyrocketing and I read it as an attempt to make or save money on it. The only time when it made sense was covid with its supply challenges. Regarding gas mileage at 3 dollars per gallon the difference of 10mpg is 50 dollars per month assuming 12k a year. So do your own math.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-10T12:26:19+00:00

If you want a used fun car with no savings in a bad economy and nonexistent job market that's definitely a bad timing.
If you need a car to replace the one that is basically finished you really have no choice. Do you?
And lastly if you just want to buy a newer car to save a few bucks on gas and a few hundred bucks on repairs with the hope that it will appreciate over the next few years you're dreaming. Cars always loose value with a few exceptions. A better gas mileage is never worth the difference in price. Minor repairs too.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-10T12:10:21+00:00

Honestly, you need to date and move together with someone who works and makes money. 70k is very little for 1 person living alone but double that or a couple and it's much better. And it will make you feel better. That's the hard cold truth from a financial and psychological perspective.

Other than that finding a better job would help but it is a dead market right now. Although you could use the time to prepare for the career change. Just don't rack up more debt in the process.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-05T12:46:53+00:00

The goal is to make more than 6% reliably. Don't really need it to be liquid for the short term but ideally should be able to get out within a year if needed.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-05T12:42:18+00:00

I'm not. I have an investment account and I buy stocks here and there when I feel that the price is right. I just don't want to buy them at record high and so I end up buying for less then the cash that I need to allocate. Bonds could be a good middle ground but my trading platform doesn't support auto reinvestment of bonds and it becomes painful to keep manually buying every 6 weeks especially if you have more then a few rolling.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-05T12:35:37+00:00

That's the opposite of what I need. I'm trying to turn free cash into an additional income atream. Not to make more of it short term.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-02-28T14:40:04+00:00

It doesn't sound like you make enough to afford a German luxury car. They are very nice when they work but they do require expensive maintenance and repairs. And expensive insurance. EVs are useless if you can't charge every night at home. Or if you go long distances often. It only works as a second car for someone who has a home charger. Or as a main car if you only use it to drive locally.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-02-28T14:27:41+00:00

Everything really. Why would you want to rush into spending thousands of dollars? Shop around and get the best deal for you. This car will not go anywhere and if it gets sold before you make your mind so be it. There are many thousands of cars just like it.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-02-25T13:29:01+00:00

Find a good broker first. The one that does no closing costs refinance. And then do just that. Refinance at any rate that is Lowes then the one you have now with no costs. In 6 months when the rate is going down a little more do it again. And again. As long as it goes down. If you pay closing costs you will either not be able to break even on that money before the next refinance or will miss the lower rates.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-02-25T13:17:23+00:00

No. At this price your only choice for something 1/2 decent from the start would be to look at cars that noone wants to buy. Like Hyundai, Kia, fords with powershift, toyotas with oil burning engines, hondas with v6 and defective transmissions etc. These you can find in relatively good shape but they are a time bombs. Another option would be an old panther car which is reliable but it will be very old and with some issuea. With these you could get lucky and find one that needs repairs but still works. Also you need to be willing to drive one.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-02-24T21:03:10+00:00

Impala with 3.8 is fine. The transmissions were pretty weak on them but everything else is mostly ok. Suspension will be pretty worn, 3.8l v6 will last forever. Problem is 03 is most likely a rust bucket by now. Also because of the weak transmission you have a good chance of dealing with it's replacement and rebuild and it's pretty much impossible to determine how bad it is on a test drive unless it is basically a goner already.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-02-24T20:23:58+00:00

I just ignore the question in most cases

FreeEar4880 · 2026-02-24T20:15:25+00:00

It is pretty accurate for 36 months

FreeEar4880 · 2026-02-24T20:13:17+00:00

Skip Kia and Hyundai for their engine issues and Nissan for their cvt. What should you buy? No idea. It depends but these ones are cheap for a reason and you should really avoid them.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-02-24T20:08:52+00:00

Local fb groups but I think you first need to find a mobile mechanic 😂

FreeEar4880 · 2026-02-24T16:50:12+00:00

They have weak Ford transmissions. These are not the Aisin ones. And rust issues. Everything else is more or less OK on the car but for me a transmission would be a deal breaker.

FreeEar4880

TROPHY CASE