A topic came up today which is one that I have heard many times with the answers usually being the same when it comes to various sides of the debate. In general, most people agree that having things like a car is one of the worst money drainers if you are on a tight budget. At the same time, many people say they don’t have a choice for things such as getting to work.
When I think about it, not having a vehicle dependent mindset was one way that I was able to save more money for other things. I guess I can even use a teenage job as an example where when I was looking for work I made sure that I didn’t have to necessarily rely on public transportation or a car to get there (That meant a lot of walking). Even nowadays if there is say some kind of snowstorm I can do a lot of the work remotely. Unless the power gets knocked off in the whole area that is.
I’m personally more inclined to believe that vehicles aren’t an absolute necessity per se and so I would treat buying one almost the same as having say your own airplane. While I am sure it can make things more convenient, if it really hurts you financially then maybe it can be good to reconsider your current lifestyle settings.
With a similar train of thought, if you revolved your life around needing a private jet of some sort when you don’t necessarily have say billions of disposable income it is almost the same thing as trying to maintain a lifestyle with a car if you are just barely making it.
I’ve seen many people literally get say new jobs in the same field for less pay that was a lot closer to home. However, in the end they actually made more money as they didn’t have to worry about things such as gas and insurance rates. Something to think about though as everyone obviously has different circumstances.