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nickutz posted:I have a giant crack in my windshield. If I had caught it before it spread my insurance would have fixed it for free. Now I have to replace the whole thing.  xie posted:The hardest part has been Mint not connecting to my bank account for a while now and trying to figure out my girlfriend's retirement plan, which seems to have nothing in common with anything you can Google... from what I can tell it kind of sucks and at best will pay her out 12-20K a year if she works there her entire life. Post in the long term investing thread... People can help with that. spwrozek posted:Sure but would you put 2 little kids in the back seat? Most cars from that time period are not very safe at all. I sure would. I drive 90's BMW's. Cheap to buy, cheap to maintain, very very safe. And very comfortable and attractive. But drat I hate the teens city mpg. We're looking at b5.5 1.8t wagons for my gf due to mpg.
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Jun 12, 2014 01:59
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SiGmA_X posted:That isn't free? I pay a couple bucks more per six months (single digit difference) for free glass replacement. I replace one shield per 3-5yrs and they cost around $6-800... Pays for itself Mississippi doesn't offer the full glass coverage, but Florida does, that's where we're moving.
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Jun 12, 2014 02:15
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Uncle Jam posted:Not getting splattered by a sleeping truck driver when you inevitably break down on the side of the freeway is worth the cost of a newer car in my opinion. Which cars are perfectly crash rated against being hit by a fully loaded semi rolling at 65 MPH while you're sitting at a standstill? 
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Jun 12, 2014 03:35
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Sundae posted:Oh right, I forgot that every last one of us died in the 90s because apparently nothing was safe or functional. The early 2000s must've been one hell of a time, what with the tens of thousands of broken down cars from the 80s and 90s clogging the highways. Enjoy your car payment, I guess? So you're saying a 10 year old car 10 years ago had the same chance of breaking down as a $250 20 year old poo poo bucket? Yeah that makes sense. I'm not saying buy a new car, but the amount of reliability you can get from a $5000 car compared to a $250 car (where can I buy a $250 car that runs, anyway?) is ridiculous. Seriously show me an ad for a $250 car. pig slut lisa posted:Which cars are perfectly crash rated against being hit by a fully loaded semi rolling at 65 MPH while you're sitting at a standstill? The whole point is to not get into that situation in the first place, durr.
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Jun 12, 2014 03:40
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pig slut lisa posted:Which cars are perfectly crash rated against being hit by a fully loaded semi rolling at 65 MPH while you're sitting at a standstill? Another fully loaded semi. Juanito posted:Ugh, it better not be this much. Yeah my rear windshield was like 600 bucks IIRC. Ridiculous, I bought several windshields for my '92 Mazda 323s for like $85 a pop!
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Jun 12, 2014 03:41
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Uncle Jam posted:The whole point is to not get into that situation in the first place, durr. The marginal safety gains you pick up moving from a $250 car to a $5,000 car are minuscule compared to the marginal safety gains you pick up for every driving mile you cut out of your life. tuyop is dead on with this assessment: tuyop posted:Man it's kind of messed up how many people in this subforum use fear to justify their expenses. If you want a nice new car because you think it's better than an old crappy car, just say that. You want a nice new car, it's not controversial that it is in fact nicer in many ways than an old crappy car. That's ok, don't let it ruin you. I'd never buy a $250 car. I care about the comfort and lower maintenance requirements that a more expensive vehicle gives me. But I'm not going to pat myself on the back for making myself "safer" in any meaningful way by trading one automobile for another.
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Jun 12, 2014 03:48
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Uncle Jam posted:So you're saying a 10 year old car 10 years ago had the same chance of breaking down as a $250 20 year old poo poo bucket? Yeah that makes sense. Meh, cars for around $250 aren't that hard to find. I've owned 3 cars around that price in my life, they ran 4 years (no work needed) 1 year (no work needed, sold it when I moved), and 2 years (then I sold it for $200). Dropping $5000 for a car isn't crazy and certainly a lot more sensible than a new car, but yammering about safety is kind of silly.
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Jun 12, 2014 05:37
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Used cars became rather expensive after the recession/cash for clunkers. I sold a 96 Rav 4 with a bad oil leak, cracked head and no AC for $700 just a couple years ago. My Chevy Prizm, a car that would have probably cost me $1000 before the recession ended up costing me over 2,500.
Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Jun 12, 2014 |
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Jun 12, 2014 13:00
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Our current DD is a 2001 civic, which we both love, but due to the physical size of infant seats, we have to get something bigger. When my son was in it, we had to put it in the middle seat in the back and kind of jam it in between our two seats and we're both pretty short. Our other car, a '99 avalon, is much more roomy, but we've historically spend a lot of money keeping it going. Seriously, the $ spent per mile driven is probably astronomical. We don't want to rely on that car for our DD, but I can stomach keeping it around as a second car. In the end, I just want a nice car I don't have to worry about and justifying the cost is not going to happen once we have two kids in daycare. We have enough liquid assets to buy one cash if we wanted to today so I'm cool with it, though we still plan to finance around half of it @ 1.49% and pay it off aggressively. Didn't mean to start a shitstorm with my safety comment, it probably came off as a justification, but it's just more of a benefit I guess.
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Jun 12, 2014 13:01
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Other than electronic stability control and side air bags, what significant safety features exist in a 2010 model year car vs a 2000 or 1990? I'm not under the impression that the actual construction of the cabin has changed significantly but I could be all wrong.
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Jun 12, 2014 14:34
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The engineering that goes into the chassis / structure / crumple zone has improved a whole lot. Maybe not so much since 2000, but definitely since 1990. poo poo my 2012 Camry has the front seats designed to deform if you get rear ended or some loving poo poo. I don't really care because I don't plan to get into an accident and I take steps to avoid that, but there it is.
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Jun 12, 2014 14:43
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I used to be much more concerned about safety when I lived in Jacksonville NC (small town, low wages, drunks, lots of young drivers and a large population for a town of its size) and all the young people/marines would drive like assholes around town whenever they could get away with it. You're also guaranteed to use old roads (where some drunk could easily cross into your lane, or someone thinks they can get away with driving 100) all the time until they recently built a bypass (Ronald Reagan Highway) with a median barrier. One of the intersections I had to use on regular occasions was notorious for accidents/deaths and didn't get a proper light for years. First they went with two stop signs, then years later they put in four stop signs, and finally I believe they have working lights. Marines are also notorious for buying motorcycles and driving them obscenely fast around town, especially down the back roads which is something I rarely see in the city. A lot of the people I grew up with were also really into car culture and would always want to buy extremely fast cars and speed/race whenever they could get away with it. Now that I live in the city I stick to the highway (with a barrier) most of the time so the risk is much lower. Now that I think about it I used to actually witness a lot of serious accidents back home but haven't seen to many serious accidents since I moved. Not to mention my time in Jacksonville taught me to be extra careful and I always look out for people attempting to run a red light at the last second before I make a turn. Myrtle Beach was also scary as hell too. There was always some idiot trying to drive home drunk instead of calling a cab. I was driving home late one night and saw a guy driving in the incoming traffic lane, hopefully the cops got him. So yeah, basically concern about safety would matter more to me depending on my location. If I lived in the country and used mostly back roads to get to and from work I would definitely invest in something newer and heavier than what I currently drive. Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 16:06 on Jun 12, 2014 |
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Jun 12, 2014 15:34
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About to start school at the end of July, please convince me that I don't need to spend money on a new laptop or tablet. I already have a 2012 MBA that works just fine, but the allure of a new device is crippling me.
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Jun 12, 2014 20:16
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Donald Kimball posted:About to start school at the end of July, please convince me that I don't need to spend money on a new laptop or tablet. I already have a 2012 MBA that works just fine, but the allure of a new device is crippling me. You don't need a new laptop or table, the poo poo you have is perfectly fine. Yes, the school gives great loans to buy those things. You still don't need it. Money you'll have to pay later is money you could use to buy a better computer ~in the future~ later so don't spend it then on a new laptop now. You don't need a new laptop.
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Jun 12, 2014 20:17
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Donald Kimball posted:About to start school at the end of July, please convince me that I don't need to spend money on a new laptop or tablet. I already have a 2012 MBA that works just fine, but the allure of a new device is crippling me. can you name a single thing a new computer would do that your old one wouldn't? i mean that literally. what will a 4th generation i3 or i5 processor do that your 2nd or 3rd generation can't. computers have reached such a plateau in consumer performance. poo poo the new macbook airs even have the exact same chassis, nobody would even be able to know Put $50 a month away and in 2 years when this one is due for replacement you'll have $1200 to put toward a new one. edit: Not that many laptops are particularly upgradeable, but this is exactly what apple is banking on with making much of their hardware completely non-upgradeable. The RAM and hard drive are soldered onto the board. xie fucked around with this message at 20:24 on Jun 12, 2014 |
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Jun 12, 2014 20:22
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Donald Kimball posted:About to start school at the end of July, please convince me that I don't need to spend money on a new laptop or tablet. I already have a 2012 MBA that works just fine, but the allure of a new device is crippling me. Yeah sorry bro, I bought an iPad mini for exactly this reason and feel your pain but I don't regret it at all. If I want to replace it every two years (~$300/year) I'll have to save about 7k more to meet FI. Whether 2-3 months more work to save that much is worth it is a judgement you'll have to make (if you care) but I've been reading about 300 pages of PDFs a week on it instead of a computer and the trade seems very much worth it to me! Not to mention the fact that electronic texts are much cheaper than hard ones and better in every loving way. If you save $100 per text on six texts you could easily make the purchase "pay for itself". I can't justify an MBA for myself though... Yet.
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Jun 12, 2014 20:28
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Donald Kimball posted:About to start school at the end of July, please convince me that I don't need to spend money on a new laptop or tablet. I already have a 2012 MBA that works just fine, but the allure of a new device is crippling me. As someone who is paying off a ton of student loans, please don't spend more than you have to in school. Also, wtf, your laptop is 2 years old.
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Jun 12, 2014 20:50
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tuyop posted:Not to mention the fact that electronic texts are much cheaper than hard ones and better in every loving way. Rubbish! My educational career was built on the backs of buying the n-1th edition of textbooks for 5 or 6 dollars instead of $100+. Example: Current edition: http://product.half.ebay.com/Essentials-of-Investments-by-Zvi-Bodie-Bodie-Alex-Kane-and-Alan-J-Marcus-2012-Hardcover/143419970&tg=info Previous Edition: http://product.half.ebay.com/Investments-by-Zvi-Bodie-Alex-Kane-and-Alan-J-Marcus-Mixed-media-product/109169800&tg=info The content is (usually) 99% similar. Sometimes the exercises or sample problems change. If there are exercises in the text you are asked to complete, swing by the library for the most current edition and snap a picture of the page with the stuff you need, or just borrow it from your classmate for 5 minutes to make a photocopy. If you're a sucker, you'd spend $250 for that new textbook. If you were a little wiser, you'd spend $125 on that book and then resell it at the end of the semester and hope to get $100 or so (but risk getting stuck with a near worthless book if a new edition is released) If you can swing it, you buy the previous edition for a few dollars and just throw it away at the end of the semester. If you pay $100 for access to online text, you can't resell it once the semester ends. But now many professors require you to use the publisher's online website for exercises or submitting assignments, which means you are probably spending $50+ for access anyway. 
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Jun 12, 2014 21:31
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I got an electronic rental of a textbook for $50 or so. Web access and all. Then of course I dropped the class because I'm an idiot who can't guestimate workload worth a poo poo.
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Jun 12, 2014 21:49
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FrozenVent posted:I got an electronic rental of a textbook for $50 or so. Web access and all. Yeah I've had a couple of profs who told us to rent texts for <$10 because we only needed them for a week or two. And I found the Kindle edition of one book for $1.65, which was funny when I just automatically sent the bill to my sponsor.
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Jun 12, 2014 21:56
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When I was in college, the library had reference copies of most important textbooks, and you could borrow them for 2 hours at a time, but only inside the library. I worked at the library, so I'd check them out, demagnetize, and take them to class. If I was working a late shift and could study, I'd check the book out, then check it back in and out repeatedly from the desk I was working at. Saved some money doing that.
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Jun 12, 2014 22:02
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Can't kids these days just use their phones to go to the book store, snap photos of the chapter they need for the day, then go off to class? That's what I'd do
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Jun 12, 2014 22:04
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You know how many pages the arrange textbook has? They usually end up  but if you need the edition that just came up, or that bullshit web access... Welp.
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Jun 12, 2014 22:11
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EugeneJ posted:Can't kids these days just use their phones to go to the book store, snap photos of the chapter they need for the day, then go off to class? Yeah sure, but gently caress taking readable photos of 30-100 pages a week, per class. It's almost worth the price just to have the material digital and searchable, since nearly every text I buy these days is actually useful as a reference material, at least for about ten years before the research is stale. This is legitimately useful, like two weeks ago I needed a source from my fourth year undergrad, I just vaguely remembered a line I quoted from the conclusion. I was able to search my stack of old essay files, find the citation, and grab it from the library.
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Jun 12, 2014 22:26
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Also a huge plus when you can copy-paste from the digital text, or use screenshots of tables and graphs. Properly cited of course, but goddamn does it make my life easier. Especially professionally. "Here's a page long table of operating cost break downs! It's from a world renowned reference so have fun refuting it!"
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Jun 12, 2014 22:28
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Just be good looking and sit next to a girl or some dork that will share the text with you and give you the answers/help you cheat.
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Jun 12, 2014 23:04
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Juanito posted:Ugh, it better not be this much. tuyop posted:Another fully loaded semi. Donald Kimball posted:About to start school at the end of July, please convince me that I don't need to spend money on a new laptop or tablet. I already have a 2012 MBA that works just fine, but the allure of a new device is crippling me. tuyop posted:Yeah sorry bro, I bought an iPad mini for exactly this reason and feel your pain but I don't regret it at all. If I want to replace it every two years (~$300/year) I'll have to save about 7k more to meet FI. Whether 2-3 months more work to save that much is worth it is a judgement you'll have to make (if you care) but I've been reading about 300 pages of PDFs a week on it instead of a computer and the trade seems very much worth it to me! tuyop posted:Yeah sure, but gently caress taking readable photos of 30-100 pages a week, per class.
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Jun 12, 2014 23:52
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Rear windshields are more expensive because of the de-icing whatsits.
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Jun 13, 2014 02:10
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Vilgan posted:Meh, cars for around $250 aren't that hard to find. I've owned 3 cars around that price in my life, they ran 4 years (no work needed) 1 year (no work needed, sold it when I moved), and 2 years (then I sold it for $200). The only one I could find had the driver compartment filled with soil for some reason. Still would like to see some ads for $250 cars.
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Jun 13, 2014 02:18
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Uncle Jam posted:The only one I could find had the driver compartment filled with soil for some reason. I hate it when that happens.
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Jun 13, 2014 02:35
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Uncle Jam posted:The only one I could find had the driver compartment filled with soil for some reason. Still would like to see some ads for $250 cars. I also tried to find one after the "$250 car" post. The best I could find was a few $1500 cars that needed major work, and the owners were nice enough to lay out what repairs would be necessary to make them run Most cars that I found that ran were around $3000 with 250,000+ miles and rebuilt engines
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Jun 13, 2014 02:39
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EugeneJ posted:I also tried to find one after the "$250 car" post. The best I could find was a few $1500 cars that needed major work, and the owners were nice enough to lay out what repairs would be necessary to make them run The best bang-for-the-buck car I ever bought was a $250 1986 325e. I made a couple hundred bucks off of driving it for 60k and 4yrs, and had to put a motor into it, all wheel bearings, tires, some body work, and other maintenance. Getting totaled was FTW. Rebuilding was cheap, and I sold it for $1700! Thanks CountOfNowhere for being awesome at selling cars!
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Jun 13, 2014 04:32
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I had great luck with a cheap lovely car, but it's probably an exception. And it happened before I considered myself "financially prudent" My Ford Escort finally had so many problems that it getting to be not worth fixing, it was still driveable but it needed poo poo like a wheel bearing, had low compression, would need timing belt soon, AC didn't work, etc., so I was looking at over $1500 easy before too long to keep it running. Then by magic this woman pulled out in front of me in a residential area and I broadsided her. We were both fine but my car was totaled. Score! I took most of the money her insurance company offered me (could have gotten more from them but I didn't know better then) and bought a 87 Pontiac Sunbird from one of my Dad's neighbors for $700. I drove the loving poo poo out of that car and never once had a problem with it, except for an alternator. I miss that car. Anyway around 20 months later I had a better job etc. so I put an ad in the paper for the sunbird and got... $800 for it. The alternator cost me $175 with labor so I basically spent $75 + gas + oil changes to drive it for almost 2 years. Knowing what I know now I wouldn't have sold it then, but I felt like I needed to upgrade my car for whatever stupid reason.
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Jun 13, 2014 14:02
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The cheapest car I've ever owned was a $500, 20 year old(at the time) Oldsmobile back in high school. It had no muffler, and I had to keep track of milage between fill-ups since the gas gauge didn't work, but hey, it drove!  Just taking a gander at craigslist now, I literally cannot find a single one of these mythical $250 cars. Everything is either scrap cars for parts or straight-up car parts that were put in the wrong section. The sub-$1000 car selection in general looks pretty dire, but doable if you had the car knowledge to have confidence in what you bought. I'd personally either have to learn a lot more about cars or make friends with a car geek before I felt comfortable springing for something in that range.On that note, I walked to work for the first time since getting this job, since I now live close enough that it's feasible. A few people I know were freaking out because  there's no proper sidewalk and you have to walk back when it's dark out , but it's a mere 15-20 minute walk and I didn't feel unsafe at any point. Score one for sinking less money into driving, at least until winter hits. 
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Jun 13, 2014 20:24
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Cars fetch around $300 for scrap nowadays. Mystery solved.
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Jun 13, 2014 20:36
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Haifisch posted:On that note, I walked to work for the first time since getting this job, since I now live close enough that it's feasible. A few people I know were freaking out because The software company I work for is about 12 years old, and our customer #1 was a founder's uncle. A few years ago, it was early evening and he was walking home on one of those roads with no sidewalks, a road he'd walked down for years and years and he got swiped by a drunk driver in a hit and run. Hopefully he was killed instantly. Pretty sad. He was a veteran, and well respected member of the community. I still have his password memorized because I'd use his account for testing. So keep in mind, even though you feel safe, and you're doing your best to say safe, don't assume the same of anybody else on the road. ninja-edit: I completely support the walking.
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Jun 13, 2014 20:41
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What the gently caress, how do you get out of bed in the morning if all you think about is the likelihood of death in all your activities? Are you in insurance or something?
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Jun 13, 2014 20:57
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Jesus Christ, so call it a $2K car or a $5K car or whatever your local market bears if it makes you feel better. It doesn't matter - the point is that you don't have to pay $20K+ to get a car that loving works. There are four under $1K in my local classified ads right now, as low as $470 for cars that appear (as best you can tell without actually going and taking a look at them in reality) to be in reasonable shape plus one that is a clear piece of poo poo. There are about ten under $3,000 (admittedly way above my $250 number) that have significantly less than 100K miles, including a 97 garage-kept Volvo with supposedly only 33K miles. My 1996 grand marquis cost $250 two years ago and was purchased via local classified ads on Long Island. I sunk another $450 into it to replace all the brake lines (one of the legitimate safety concerns with older cars) plus other minor maintenance, and it remains great. It had 93K miles on it at the time, now has 114K after two moves and a lot of road trips to visit relatives. Prior to that, I drove a $400 1998 Grand Marquis with 130K miles on it. My grandmother borrowed it, drove it through a red light and wrecked it when someone with the right of way T-boned her. She came out uninjured, thankfully. Scrapped the car, though.  quote:What the gently caress, how do you get out of bed in the morning if all you think about is the likelihood of death in all your activities? Are you in insurance or something? I hate agreeing with Tuyop, but I do agree with this. Sundae fucked around with this message at 21:00 on Jun 13, 2014 |
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Jun 13, 2014 20:57
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tuyop posted:What the gently caress, how do you get out of bed in the morning if all you think about is the likelihood of death in all your activities? Are you in insurance or something? 
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Jun 13, 2014 21:02
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After having an $800 car that used to stall out randomly in heavy traffic, I'd rather pay extra to not ever experience that again Anyone here ever use CarMax before? Good experiences? Bad experiences? EugeneJ fucked around with this message at 21:15 on Jun 13, 2014 |
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Jun 13, 2014 21:12
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