Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

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> So a $30,000 car (or less if bought used) when you make $120k is living outside your means?

Yes!

> If you have no debt and you have the ability to buy the car cash or pay it off within 1-2 years, how exactly is this bad- especially since you'd enjoy it?

Enjoyment does not enter into whether or not it is rational to put a substantial portion of your wealth in a depreciating asset such as a car.

> Sure, the boring thing to do would be to put all the money in savings...

But then you wouldn't be buying foodstamps five years down the line.

> but if you think a 30k is outside your means, then you're probably so cheap you don't take vacations

Being cheap and being smart with money are not the same thing, and using words like 'cheap' to target a person indicate that you are not approaching the subject rationally but would rather attack a person that has an opinion different from yours using a negative term than to bring a solid counterargument. Pity.

The real pity is the lady in the article having the 1st world problem mindset of treating WIC like it's something she gets as punishment

I'm with you- as long as you make more than you spend and you can squirrel away 6 months of savings (to avoid situations where you need assistance), you're doing great.

But enjoyment does count for something, which is what I was getting at. On paper, vacations are a complete waste of money, there is no rationalizing them; they're purely for enjoyment and you have nothing tangible at the end.

The real mistake for these folks was not the $30k car purchase (that they paid off)... but the $200k of debt they introduced themselves to buy purchasing a house in a questionable market and being legally tied to it (unable to sell because it's underwater).

And to buy an expensive car when they could have gotten a cheaper one instead and use the difference to reduce the principal (which is exactly what I did when I bought the house I live in). For years I drove in ugly but reliable sub $1000 cars to pay down the debt as fast as I could.

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