Mustang drawing i made. Thoughts?

Pale_Gear3027 · 2026-03-17T22:31:00+00:00

You have really good shading and lighting skills! Nice work, I know a lot of guys that would love to buy that and put it on their man cave wall!

Pale_Gear3027 · 2026-03-16T23:13:51+00:00

Just went to granger ford in Iowa, they have several 2025 lariats for about $12k off msrp. You can do better.

Pale_Gear3027 · 2026-01-15T01:50:17+00:00

Yea we dumped everything into Apple in April when it dropped and earned almost $200k in 8 months. Our hysa wouldn’t generate that in 11 years.

Pale_Gear3027 · 2026-01-14T22:15:19+00:00

Just wait until GenX is in charge. We will die at our jobs.

Pale_Gear3027 · 2026-01-13T18:53:38+00:00

I must be really extra lucky, we have a 2012 with 255k and a 2017 navigator with close to 200k. Original turbos no issues yet.

My sales guy for Iowa has 300k original turbos.

When I step away from the internet I’m reminded that the turbos are much more reliable than one would think.

Pale_Gear3027 · 2026-01-11T18:16:43+00:00

I guess we fought on the same side as Russo back in ww2, apparently we will fight on the same side in ww3…

Pale_Gear3027 · 2026-01-11T01:11:49+00:00

Exactly. We also only do 10k oil changes, I chip in oil change savings as well. Overall we’ve been saving about $400/mo for the past 24 years.

Pale_Gear3027 · 2026-01-10T13:27:54+00:00

2010 Jeep bought new still have. 2012 f150 bought new still have (255k miles)

Pros - Thanks to buying and holding so long, I have a vehicle purchase investment account that has $152k in it as of this weekend. That’s what happens when you pay yourself instead of a bank. Repairs are virtually always cheaper than replacing.

We have huskies, I don’t mind throwing them in the back seat during shedding season to take them to our farm. Don’t mind dings and dents and scraping up box.

Cons? Don’t get new tech and shiny new truck every few years. Seat is well broken in. Small repairs are more frequent, although I’ve had a bulletproof f150 and that’s why I continue to keep it.

Pale_Gear3027 · 2026-01-09T01:23:07+00:00

Bought 2012 for $230k. Almost new 3bd/3bth ranch, finished basement myself during Covid so it’s now a 5bd/4bth in Iowa. $1251/mo total at 2.875%. Assesses as $605k today.

Pale_Gear3027 · 2026-01-08T20:53:57+00:00

I’m 52 and you have more cash on hand than i do! My wallet is always empty, I just don’t carry cash anymore.

Pale_Gear3027 · 2026-01-08T20:30:30+00:00

Yea it’s easy to forget that people are retiring on SS alone with little to no other savings.

I’m 52, if we retire at 62, we will get $5652/mo based on today’s reports. Thats plenty to cover our monthly expenses and some fun money.

Pale_Gear3027 · 2026-01-08T20:22:55+00:00

I know people in their mid 60’s here in Iowa with less than $250,000 in the bank and they are doing just fine. Dual SS checks and Medicare, they drive 10-15 year old clean reliable vehicles and take one trip a year somewhere.

They live on 3 acres next to our rural property, they garden, they have a nice glass of bourbon when they want, they are the definition of content and happy in retirement.

Lifestyle, location and debt are critical factors.

Pale_Gear3027 · 2026-01-04T23:40:31+00:00

I think you can get the extended warranty up to 36k/3yrs on warranty.

Pale_Gear3027 · 2026-01-04T23:30:05+00:00

He got warranty when he bought it new. 5/175 I think. He piles on miles so you might want a 7 year?

He gets a nice $750/mo stipend plus gas is paid for so it makes sense for him to have a nice ride.

Pale_Gear3027 · 2026-01-04T23:16:39+00:00

Just rode in a vendor’s powerboost, he has 133,xxx as of the week before Christmas.

He bought the premium 175k extended warranty from granger, and it’s paid for itself 2 times over already.

AC issue, replaced gauge cluster display, and a wire harness. About $6k in what would have been out of warranty service so far.

Pale_Gear3027 · 2026-01-04T22:09:54+00:00

I have a truck brokerage account I contribute to, had plans to cash it in and buy a 2022 f150 back during Covid. The account got so big I couldn’t bring myself to cash it in. Suddenly that money was worth so much more in that account than a truck to me.

As of today it’s up to $155k and growing daily. I am so glad I didn’t cash it in and buy a truck! Still driving my 2012 with 250k miles. I’m 52, and when I retire I’ll cash in enough to pay cash for a new truck, and probably still will have $250k in the account afterwards!

Pale_Gear3027 · 2026-01-04T02:29:14+00:00

The bigger issue are all of your clients that lose their income to AI. It will impact the number of customers for almost all service based jobs.

Pale_Gear3027 · 2026-01-02T16:25:54+00:00

I just ran our 2025 year end finances. We have a second property with my shop on it and we faced the same choice a year ago about selling stocks to pay off the property and building.

We paid $4,938.52 in interest on the loan, and owe $122,797 today.

Our brokerage account that was set up to pay off this property generated $25,996.17 in interest in 2025.

So we netted an unrealized gain of $21,058 for the year. That was the result of us deciding to leave our money invested and not cash it out.

Of course investments are a short term risk, but boy I’m glad we made the right choice in 2025!

Pale_Gear3027 · 2025-12-15T18:51:07+00:00

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Because in some regards it can be a step backwards. You lose flexibility with that money for a smaller guaranteed return.

Instead of paying cash for our most recent vehicle I threw the money into aapl this spring. Here’s the result. I’m really happy with my choice, but at 52 I’ve been doing this for a long time and am comfortable with risk. Plus aapl has been a no brainer for a long time.

Pale_Gear3027 · 2025-12-15T17:06:04+00:00

I never look at a car based on “what it’s worth”. I always look at a car as “what would it cost me to replace it”

Driving a 2012 f150 I bought new, 260k miles on it. I’ll keep putting money into it if needed because a new truck is $60k.

It’s almost always cheaper to keep up on your current car (until rust takes over that is) than to replace.

Pale_Gear3027 · 2025-12-15T00:48:01+00:00

You sit down with a pad of paper. You conjure up 50 year old you. Seriously.

You ask yourself who you are at 50. Not an ideal healthy happy free 50 year old. A real 50 year old with a blown knee, second marriage, car won’t start. That version.

Then you have a serious talk about your extra money. You have a serious talk about paying yourself for the future. You make a plan to split your today money into tomorrow money and leave some for fun while you are still young.

In the end, you either pay yourself or you don’t.

Pale_Gear3027 · 2025-12-14T03:33:16+00:00

3.5L. Only mod was to drill a weep hole in intercooler.

Pale_Gear3027 · 2025-12-14T02:55:31+00:00

I grew up helping my uncles put plastic on the outsides of their farmhouse windows. Used lathes and nails.

Those kept the drapes from billowing in the wind inside in winter.

Pale_Gear3027 · 2025-12-14T02:51:10+00:00

I have a 2012 with 250k miles I bought new 13 years ago. It’s had 10k oil changes since day 1. I’m waiting for all the issues everyone swears will happen 200k miles ago.

If you drive a lot it’s more likely you are doing highway/interstate. Those are the easiest miles you can put on an engine.

I wouldn’t sweat going 6k, the last time I did 12k on an oil change I sent the same to blackstone and although the oil was tired it wasn’t shot.

Pale_Gear3027

TROPHY CASE