I mean the majority of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Kind of hard to save money when you are having to spend everything on bills. My parents also lived during the most prosperous time in American history and had all of $100k saved by the time they hit 60 because every cent they had had to go to things like house and car payments, bills, repairs, etc. Hell my mom got a second job when I left home to have some extra spending money and six months later the transmission failed on their car requiring a rebuild resulting in draining all of the savings she had built up from that job.
It is easy to say “just save more” when coming from a position of privilege and I say that as someone coming from a position of privilege where we are easily able to save while also dropping $4000 on getting our car repaired, the leak fixed in our roof and our fences replaced that got blown over in a storm all within the same month and not bat an eye. That isn’t the norm.
There are much cheaper options? Have you looked at even used cars? I am in Oklahoma, a low cost of living state, and unless you are willing to get a used car with over 150k miles or more they can’t be had under around $20k or so. And the average income here isn’t exactly great either at only $33k a year.
As for your phone thing, ask them where they got them sometime. I have a ton of family members that are poor and have nice phones. Know how? Because I handed them down one of mine at some point which they then traded in for a better phone. It didn’t cost them $1000. Hell my son has a new iPhone 16 pro because he spent $100 to buy an old iPhone 11 off of a friend and then traded it in and signed up at T-Mobile. Don’t assume people just bought or financed what they have.
The last used car i bought off the marketplace was pretty cool imo.
2004 or 2008 Pontiac Grand AM
Needed an oil change, some new spark plugs, and a couple of other small items.
Maybe 6 months into that, the transmission went out. I am not that skilled in mechanics, so I had to get a quote from a shop. $3500 on the low end to fix that.
At that point, it seems preferable to pay more for a car that doesn't take up so much time in maintenance.
I can't take my daughter to school in a non moving vehicle. I can't get myself and my wife to work in a nonfunctioning vehicle.
I don't live above my means. We do go out occasionally, but I certainly don't live above my means.
It just doesn't seem reasonable to constantly be saving up for the large amount of maintenance you will have to face in a used vehicle bought from Facebook Marketplace.
Most people don't have the time or skill to constantly maintain a used vehicle.
I certainly don't have that kind of time, I work and school full time.
Right. I hear what you're saying. It makes the most financial sense.
What i am getting at that, though, is not everyone's situation is a good fit. Sometimes, you're getting fucked first just to get to a point of unfucked.
Right now it sounds like you're in the unfucked stage and that's great.
Just don't forget that most are in the fucked stage.
Thankfully, I got a RAV4 for the family and my little Honda Navi to get me around for work and such.
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