Ignorance is Scary

[powerplay]

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Originally Posted by Cobra9777 I wonder if there are big truck forums where members make fun of their retired neighbor who drives a 1999 Camry and actually paid a mechanic to replace the fuel pump?

Hey now I drive a 1999 Camry and am retired. Maybe I need to peruse some big truck forums and see if anyone is making fun of me. I don't really have any nearby neighbors with big trucks though most have newer cars/suv's. I do pay a mechanic to do maintenance and repairs on my car. I have an even older "truck", a 1996 Dakota. I really chuckle over the vehicles that are called trucks now. When I was a kid a truck hauled logs and pickups were what many families drove for personal vehicles.

[Jay_Gatsby]

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Originally Posted by powerplay Hey now I drive a 1999 Camry and am retired. Maybe I need to peruse some big truck forums and see if anyone is making fun of me. I don't really have any nearby neighbors with big trucks though most have newer cars/suv's. I do pay a mechanic to do maintenance and repairs on my car. I have an even older "truck", a 1996 Dakota. I really chuckle over the vehicles that are called trucks now. When I was a kid a truck hauled logs and pickups were what many families drove for personal vehicles.

An old truck that runs is still a truck that can haul things. One of the reasons many people pay for furniture delivery, landscaping services, etc... is because they don't have a way to haul the materials. If I had a truck, I'd be the one fixing my fences with new crossbeams and posts, planting new trees, leveling spots in the yard, putting in drainage, etc... Unfortunately, I don't have a truck (and perhaps more importantly, the time to do those things).

[powerplay]

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Originally Posted by Jay_Gatsby An old truck that runs is still a truck that can haul things. One of the reasons many people pay for furniture delivery, landscaping services, etc... is because they don't have a way to haul the materials. If I had a truck, I'd be the one fixing my fences with new crossbeams and posts, planting new trees, leveling spots in the yard, putting in drainage, etc... Unfortunately, I don't have a truck (and perhaps more importantly, the time to do those things).

You are so right on that! It is really nice to have a vehicle that I can just load a large item into and go. These days it is largely used for my gardening activities at a couple community gardens and delivering fresh produce we grow to a local food bank.

[athena53]

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Originally Posted by 2B Most of the stories here is why Dave Ramsey does so well. <snip>Unfortunately, most of the rest of the population are still struggling to understand "Debt is Dumb." This is the basic message of his program with an actual way to get out of debt. I have personally sent many people in the kind of situation described in this thread to his Financial Peace classes. I've read a couple of his books and occasionally listen to his radio show. I've never taken Financial Peace but the last time I had any debt other than a mortgage was in 1976 when newly wed DW showed me her car note. She watched me write a check to pay it off and I said we don't do car loans.

I agree- DR is oversimplified (many of us here deliberately opt for borrowing in order to keep $$$ in investments that return at a higher rate that the lender charges), but a huge % of the population needs his approach. A couple of years ago when pledges were down at our church and many people were saying they were having a hard time financially, I got agreement to have an FPU class and had one other woman who was going to help me teach it. I spent a few hundred $$ having beautiful flyers printed up and having a big sign made for the church lawn.

Two people signed up. We gave up and tried again 6 months later and couldn't get enough people to agree on what night/time worked for them. The class never happened. And the ones who had said they were having a hard time were not the ones who had signed up.

When DS got married, it turned out that DDIL, who worked managing inventory for a Toyota dealer, had bought her SUV with a loan. I'm sure she got a good deal on it and it 's a reasonable-sized SUV- I forget what model. DS called me once and asked about taking a loan from his 401(k) to pay off her car loan (interest rate 2%). I told him to keep the car loan! Fortunately, DDIL is very good with money, and I kind of like the fact that they have DS' beater, bought with cash, for his daily commute, and a more substantial, newish car for carting around my wonderful baby granddaughter!

[timo2]

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Originally Posted by Jay_Gatsby An old truck that runs is still a truck that can haul things. One of the reasons many people pay for furniture delivery, landscaping services, etc... is because they don't have a way to haul the materials. If I had a truck, I'd be the one fixing my fences with new crossbeams and posts, planting new trees, leveling spots in the yard, putting in drainage, etc... Unfortunately, I don't have a truck (and perhaps more importantly, the time to do those things).

A few years ago I purposely let go of my last pickup truck (1979 F150) and also the SUV with the intention that I would have purchases delivered and would not do it myself any longer. I got my use out of those and no longer had the frequency of use that made the upkeep and bad gas mileage and insurance worth it. For smaller items, we bought a Fit that holds a reasonable amount of small stuff.

[travelover]

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Originally Posted by timo2 A few years ago I purposely let go of my last pickup truck (1979 F150) and also the SUV with the intention that I would have purchases delivered and would not do it myself any longer. I got my use out of those and no longer had the frequency of use that made the upkeep and bad gas mileage and insurance worth it. For smaller items, we bought a Fit that holds a reasonable amount of small stuff.

I got rid of a pickup truck years ago, too. I have one of those cheap folding Harbor Freight trailers that fold in half and stand in my garage. It does 99% of what I want and if I need something bigger I can rent a truck at Home Depot for 20 bucks an hour or have something delivered.

[Walt34]

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Originally Posted by jIMOh Most people only make decisions based on cash flow (can I afford the payment). I have an ex wife like this, and Al has a neighbor like that too.

You're probably right - I've seen too much of that to disagree. My ex was that way too. It is the reason we divorced (in fairness to her it was amicable, none of the revenge-seeking behavior seen so often). But I just didn't see any future in living paycheck-to-paycheck for the rest of my life. Otherwise she was very intelligent so the behavior was extremely confounding and frustrating to me.

[Andre1969]

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Originally Posted by travelover Absolutely. They even have kits to make diesels deliberately spew out soot onto less than macho vehicles like Prius and others.

[HFWR]

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Originally Posted by Andre1969

I think hating on the Prius is kind of silly, plus SOME of us old hippies might be armed...

[Jack_Pine]

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Originally Posted by Andre1969

Love that. Will always have a truck.

[38Chevy454]

Not trying to derail and go off topic, there is a reason Prius get made fun of - the owners will not step on the gas for fear of causing 0.01 mpg less. I have a friend with one, he calls it "the golf cart" and he has it because it is fairly cheap to drive as commuter. Prius are fine if that is what you want. Big truck is fine if that is what you want. It's a free country and both owners can be happy.

Smug pollution from a Prius is just as bad as the rolling coal from diesel trucks.

[Bestwifeever]

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Originally Posted by Andre1969

Looks like the Prius is winning?

[travelover]

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Originally Posted by HFWR I think hating on the Prius is kind of silly, plus SOME of us old hippies might be armed...

Harassing any other driver, regardless of the vehicles involved, is pretty silly and yes you never know who is armed.

[Jack_Pine]

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Originally Posted by travelover Harassing any other driver, regardless of the vehicles involved, is pretty silly and yes you never know who is armed.

That's the truth.

[Andre1969]

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Originally Posted by 38Chevy454 Not trying to derail and go off topic, there is a reason Prius get made fun of - the owners will not step on the gas for fear of causing 0.01 mpg less.

I think the Prius gets made fun of the most simply because it's the most popular of the hybrids. Personally, I think anything with a semblance of a trip computer can be annoying, because it can encourage the same effect.

I used to have an '88 LeBaron turbo coupe that had a trip computer, and currently have a 2000 Park Avenue Ultra with a trip computer, and I'll admit I've been guilty of trying to hypermile the things, to see how high I can get the mpg readout.

I also have a 2012 Ram Hemi with cylinder deactivation. One of the displays toggles through the odometer, the two trip odometers, the outside temp, and a setting that says "ECO". When it goes into 4-cyl mode, it'll say "ECO ON". I know it sounds counterintuitive, buying something with a Hemi and then trying to hypermile it...but I've tried it.

[Chuckanut]

I have mentioned it here before, in regards to ignorant people, but I used to have a neighbor whose retirement plan was to inherit his uncle's gold coin collection and sell it.

[Chuckanut]

This thread reminds me of the first rule of human stupidity:

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Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid people in circulation.

[jazz4cash]

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Originally Posted by aja8888 $2500 ESTIMATED repairs to a 13 year old car is an old trick by the dealers to unsophisticated owners (I've seen it happen: 1999 Saturn, 100K miles, Est maintenance $4,000). Sure hope he doesn't go over the mileage limit on the lease and that it's in "new" condition when turned in or he will be in for additional costs.

Years ago a (thrifty) co-worker shared this story with me. His new bride had an excess mileage fee of several thousand dollars when she turned in the vehicle she had leased prior to meeting my co-worker. He said she had "no idea" of the mileage limitation and he had to show her and explain what the vehicle odometer was!

[jollystomper]

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Originally Posted by Chuckanut I have mentioned it here before, in regards to ignorant people, but I used to have a neighbor whose retirement plan was to inherit his uncle's gold coin collection and sell it.

Sadly, that is not far from DW's siblings plan...no need to save for retirement, their mother (and what is left from estate when she passes) will cover it. What is worse, they also want her to spend her money on them today (e.g. invite her on a vacation and then tell her she has to pay for their meals/lodging). At not just pay for them... but slip them her credit card so it looks like they are paying, for whomever they are trying to impress.

To me, it isn't their financial ignorance that is scary. It is their financial ignorance with refusal to want to learn or change things from their experiences. They have gone from mocking our LBYM lifestyle to mocking us for "making them look bad" simply because we have stayed married (all have or are going thru at least one divorce) and are financially solvent. One of her sisters recently told DW that the only reason we were still married and didn't have money issues was because (a) I was "too dumb" to divorce her and (b) she (DW) can't appreciate the "finer things" in life.

[bld999]

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Originally Posted by Bryan Barnfellow I was in a Macy's department store a few years back and overheard two women in their twenties talking about some clothes that were on sale. They spent about 10 minutes trying desperately (and not succeeding) to figure out how much a sweater would cost that was on sale for 15% off the $50 original price. It was one of those funny/sad moments. -BB

"That % thing, is that, like, some kind of dollar sign?"