Your best purchase of all time

[bank5]

This is a follow up thread to: http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/your-biggest-splurge-of-all-time-44884.html

I would say my two best purchases have been:

1. my house. Bought it 3 years ago and it's appreciated about 15%. Not great appreciation but it's doing much better than the regional average

2. my car. Paid $3,300 for a 95 Mazda Miata 3 years ago. The thing is a blast to drive and has been very reliable. I'll probably be able to sell it for close to what I paid for it but I plan on hanging onto it for another year or two.

 

[TooFrugal]

1. A plain black, all weather, wrinkle free jacket from REI. I can role it up in a little ball and shake it out and it still looks fine. I wear it everywhere. On vacation it can go from the beach to nice restaurants and look okay both places.

2. A stainless steel wok. My family loves stir fried foods.

 

[ProspectiveBum]

Pound for pound, I'd have to say my Tivo. If it's possible to love an electronic device, consider me smitten.

 

[bbbamI]

Birth Control Pills.

 

[Khan]

Birth Control Pills.

Oh heck yes.

 

[harley]

Engagement ring and a lobster dinner.

 

[Nords]

Pound for pound, I'd have to say my Tivo. If it's possible to love an electronic device, consider me smitten.

Spouse gives that a big thumbs up.

Either that or buying our "dream house" at the pit of the housing slump and watching it double over the next five years.

 

[Leonidas]

Either that or buying our "dream house" at the pit of the housing slump and watching it double over the next five years.

It took longer for ours to double, but buying in a slump got us a much nicer home and location than we could afford at any other time. If it's not the best purchase I ever made, it has to be in the top five.

The Princess says the best $5,000 I ever spent was to pay for her RK surgery.

 

[Nords]

It took longer for ours to double, but buying in a slump got us a much nicer home and location than we could afford at any other time. If it's not the best purchase I ever made, it has to be in the top five.

We couldn't afford to buy it at any of its prices between 2005-present...

 

[Walt34]

I'd have to say the house I bought after the divorce. It was a struggle for a few years - at first half my net income went the the house payment - but I knew that eventually the payments on a $94k house would be a joke (in that area) and that did come to pass.

And when we moved to WV I wrote a check for a nicer place than either one of us ever dreamed we'd be living in.

 

[W2R]

I have been ponding whether the original question meant "best" from the point of view of finances, quality of life, or what.

THEN, the answer came to me and it satisfies all of these possibilities.

My best purchase of all time was: the emergency gall bladder removal that saved my life fifteen years ago.

I paid about $2,000 - $3,000 out of the $23,000+ total costs, and my insurance paid the rest. Without that surgery I would not be alive today to enjoy all of my other "best purchases" - - my Solara, house, GF grill, Tiffany style lamp, paintings and sculptures, comfy socks, and more.

 

[Lakedog]

My current lake house -- worth almost four times what I paid for it 14 years ago.

 

[Martha]

I thought about it and it is a hard question. I guess I have to say that our first microwave, bought in 1985 or thereabouts was a wondrous thing. Also, our dog Spike, 75 pounds of loving and smart foo foo poodle, and our dog little baby Judy, 12 pounds of wiggle and who now is sleeping beside me, cranky old lady that she is.

 

[FinanceDude]

Two things: The engagement ring I got DW, 3/4 carat marquis cut virtually colorless ($3500 in 1994).

 

[FUEGO]

That triple leveraged financial ETF on March 4.

Maybe our house. Bought it at auction from the city five and a half years ago and it has gone up ~60% or so since then (I got a good deal). This is in an area that has seen housing prices go up at around the rate of inflation.

After that - the honda civic and accord bought 9 years ago, still running like champs and maintaining a good resale value.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

Best purchase of all time: I can't tell a short story so here goes. 1993 and living in Ft. Myers, FL. Daughter, SIL and two grandsons living in Okinawa on Marine Corp deployment. They're moving back to states to McDill AFB, Tampa. They sent us on a search mission for housing. Found a nice one for them in a development area and they bought it. Fast forward to 1998. Daughter got MS and we decided to move closer. Bought house for $121K on a lake with a pool. (The good old days). Decided to sell in 2006 as prices were at their peak. Sold for $310K. I'll swear, as soon as we sold, the bottom fell out of the market. Value of that house is now $225K. Being so involved in real estate for so many years, we just had a feeling and it proved us right.

 

[freebird5825]

The ticket to the clambake where I met dh2b.
I didn't want to go, because a woman friend was on the lookout (gag!) for men with benefits, but she persisted and needled me for weeks.
I agreed to go along with her only because they had lobster and clams and shrimp on the menu.
Best $25 I ever spent.

 

[Meadbh]

After that - the honda [-]civic and [/-]accord bought [-]9 [/-] 14 years ago, still running like champs and maintaining a good resale value.

....and my vacation condo.

 

[Sarah in SC]

The sailboat that started our dreams of FIRE.

Once we'd planned the three long years to get that three month trip on the boat, we knew we wanted more than what was the "normal" life. It also taught us about delayed gratification--a hugely important skillset for FIRE wannabees.

 

[Moemg]

I'd have to say a college education for both of my children .

 

[travelover]

Trip to Kenya with my brother and his son in 2004. We went with Earthwatch and stayed two weeks on a rhino preserve. Walked with the wild animals everyday, had a close call with a rhino. Afterward, we hired a private tour operator to take us around for an addition week, including Mt. Kenya and Lake Nakuru with its million flamingos.

 

[SecondCor521]

I guess along W2R's line, my best purchase was the ~$3K I paid for the emergency C-section (prolapsed cord) when my daughter was born. If any one of a number of things had gone wrong in that 10 minute time span, I could have had a brain-damaged child. Fortunately, due to the professionalism and training of a number of medical folks, she was delivered 100% healthy and is, quite frankly, smart as a whip. Cute, too .

2Cor521

 

[Meadbh]

I guess along W2R's line, my best purchase was the ~$3K I paid for the emergency C-section (prolapsed cord) when my daughter was born. If any one of a number of things had gone wrong in that 10 minute time span, I could have had a brain-damaged child. Fortunately, due to the professionalism and training of a number of medical folks, she was delivered 100% healthy and is, quite frankly, smart as a whip. Cute, too .

2Cor521

Ain't that the truth! The classic OB emergency. I sure hope they operated first and gave you the bill later. Not exactly a discretionary purchase! Glad everyone did just fine!

 

[WhoDaresWins]

Best purchase

I go for comfort these days so I would have to say my Aeron desk chair where I park my butt on a daily basis. Followed closely by Ecco shoes for my finicky feet.

 

[SecondCor521]

Ain't that the truth! The classic OB emergency. I sure hope they operated first and gave you the bill later. Not exactly a discretionary purchase! Glad everyone did just fine!

Her mother and I and the OB nurse had that conversation about 2 hours earlier -- I said that I wouldn't mind a home delivery as long as nothing went wrong, but if something did, I wanted the best medical care money could buy there then and now. You just never know.

The bills of course came later, and they were on the order of $15K, but insurance picked all but the $3K up.

2Cor521