I have been listening to Dave Ramsey recently on Youtube, he gives advice to save money with his motto being something like "Live like nobody else right now so you can live like nobody else later." He is talking about being super frugal when you are young so that you can be rich when you are older. Just about everybody that calls is trying to reduce their expenses to nothing so they can save as much of their money as possible. I get this idea and to an extent I agree that it is a fine idea to have a good nest egg, but at some point, one has to draw the line and find a middle ground, I think.
For example, he seems to tell everybody that they should drive the cheapest car that will get the job done. I kind of took his advice when buying our last car, the 2013 Escape. I started out thinking we should get another car in the $20,000 range, which is cheap nowadays for a new-ish car which I bought with the intention that Baby A will start driving in it. He kept repeating kid drivers all make mistakes and the car they start out with is not going to last them very long. Honestly, we had bought a $20,000 Ecosport and Boy went and crashed it within six months of us buying it and he has been driving now for a good 6-7 years. After listening to Ramsey, I decided we would get something closer to $10,000, if we could and we got lucky, this car is in great shape and so far, seems like a steal at $11,000. We managed to pay cash for it, so we aren't even paying interest to own it.
That was a good example of his advice, but I am now torn as to what to buy for myself. I am not in a rush, but my Excursion is now 16 years old, and once Baby A starts driving the Escape, I will be stuck relying on the old Excursion or get a new vehicle. He laughs at the idea of people buying Extravagant vehicles they shouldn't really be able to afford. I was really thinking of getting another big truck, I know I don't need the size and power of an F-250, but I have always liked them. Buying one means at least $50,000, which is a lot if I am trying to follow this guy's rules to finding financial freedom, but then the thought occurs to me, "Why?"
Why live like a miser and miss out on taking trips and buying things that please you, like a big ole truck when you are young and can enjoy them, versus planning on waiting until you are old? Isn't the old man who wears the same old jeans every day and drives the same small car for 30 years who we find to be an actual millionaire when he dies about as foolish as the man who spends most of his money and enjoys his life in the process, yet dies with almost nothing in the bank. Who cares what is in your bank account once you die, someone else is going to enjoy that, not you. I used to kind of think I wanted to have our house and then a small house on the coast that way we have two properties, one for each son, but then I hear Boy talking about building a house out of old shipping containers and I think he should build that on his dime because it sounds a little far fetched. I think the gift we give our children is the life we gave them on which we educated them and allowed them to find careers which excite them and make them happy. I'm not trying to leave them all my money so they can have fun with it, I think I'll do some of that while I still can.
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