Spending after Retirement

[Out of Steam]

I'm thinking I'm being kind of extravagant to plan to replace my Subaru at 8 years old and 170K miles.

 

[Out of Steam]

I bought my first new car after I retired. A 2019 Chevy Impala Premier with the extra grand for premium paint plus a sunroof. Forty five grand out the door.

The same guy that asked me where I was moving after retirement (nowhere) asked me what kind of car I was going to get (because I was loosing the Co. car) and I said nothing (the 2003 Taurus I inherited from Pops was still working fine), but it got me thinking. A Maserati Quattroporte. Eighth mill, probably 150 out the door. But hey, I can afford it. But then there's service and insurance and big license fees. But I can afford them too. The killer was I don't live in a Maserati neighborhood.

I've always liked the Impala.

As far as a car fitting the neighborhood, I was thinking recently that I'm not sure that we live in an Audi neighborhood. Other than pickup trucks, nearness of the Hyundai dealer has made them a neighborhood favorite.

 

[Koolau]

I've always liked the Impala.

As far as a car fitting the neighborhood, I was thinking recently that I'm not sure that we live in an Audi neighborhood. Other than pickup trucks, nearness of the Hyundai dealer has made them a neighborhood favorite.

A few years back, our next door neighbor had shipped her Impala from the mainland. Paradise didn't work out for her and she had to sell out and move "home." To make the timing work, she practically gave the Impala away ($3K) and I lusted after it. BUT, one of the pastors at our church really needed a car, so I told him about it. He's still driving it several years later.

The impala is "big" on the inside but reasonable on the outside. Lots of power and features without being a gas hog or dinosaur killer (dinosaur refers to me when it comes to tech.)

 

[RobbieB]

Yeah, it's bigger than a Chrysler 300, the other one I was considering. 300 horse power gets you up to speed quick, short merge, no problem. Going up the mountains, no problem.

Good car, glad I bought it -

 

[MC Rider]

I did not know about this Maserati Quattroporte, so looked it up.

2022 model - MSRP: $96,000 - $143,200

But also popped up are these used cars for sale.

2018 - 17,859 mi - $57,489
2008 - 15,823 mi - $34,995 ($140,795 when new)

I understand the depreciation, but not the low mileage. The car owners hardly drive these cars. They buy them just to look at?

Some people must. Or they just drive it now and then as a trophy car.
I notice the same thing with Ducati motorcycles.
I like to buy barely used from those kinds of sellers. Save $1,000's.

 

[NW-Bound]

Look at the depreciation of these cars that are hardly driven, I will have to say the purchase of an expensive car is truly "blowing dough". Purchase of a 2nd home is nothing compared to that.

At least with a home, even if you buy at a bad time, you can wait long enough and the price will come back for you to perhaps break even after inflation. With a car, the more you wait, the more money you lose. Might as well get some enjoyment out of it by driving it.

 

[MC Rider]

With a car, the more you wait, the more money you lose. Might as well get some enjoyment out of it by driving it.

There are rare exceptions, but I agree. I buy cars and bikes to use, not look at. Although I may look at them and say ooh aah, too.

 

[NW-Bound]

I am telling you, I am not a car person, but seeing these fancy exotic cars with 15k miles and in nice condition going for so cheap, it makes me want to go out to take a look to see what's wrong with them.

The danger is, what if I come home with one?

 

[MC Rider]

I am telling you, I am not a car person, but seeing these fancy exotic cars with 15k miles and in nice condition going for so cheap, it makes me want to go out to take a look to see what's wrong with them.

The danger is, what if I come home with one?

Maintenance costs.



I hear for German cars they are Gudenhigh.


I know for fact Ducati maintenance costs are above average. Italy.



Oh, and lots of these Euro things have less than great reliability. Never mind Detroit.



Pick yer poison.

 

[skyking1]

do some searching to see what goes wrong with them. It is not even about the money of repair (BTD being the goal ) .
It is about the availability of your new used car. I'll give an example:
Audi made an S8 with a V8 engine, with the timing belt on the back of the engine!
Pretty much any service seemed to require pulling the engine. What a PITA.

 

[MC Rider]

do some searching to see what goes wrong with them.


Yes. You might find a model specific forum.

 

[street]

I had to look up what all those cars were. I really have a hard time spending money on vehicles. I will need to replace my old ranch everyday truck in the next few years if nothing major happens before that. I got 180K on it and have done very little to it but tires and some maintenance.

 

[MC Rider]

I had to look up what all those cars were. I really have a hard time spending money on vehicles. I will need to replace my old ranch everyday truck in the next few years if nothing major happens before that. I got 180K on it and have done very little to it but tires and some maintenance.

Sounds like you got your money's worth.
An at this point it's not worth selling. Cool.

 

[Exchme]

I have 2 cautions to mention:

1. Gifting to some kids, kills their desire to save/achieve/strive to succeed as they figure the parents can just pay.
2. The fantastic returns on the stock market last few years will in some years be balanced off by large negative returns for the year. If you gift away too much, you could end up literally short and hope your kids lend you some money for gas.

Valid concerns. We'd always been very quiet with the kids about our finances. They are great savers and while I wanted to share more info, I figured DW would be against that, so we didn't even discuss what we were going to tell the kids. I was being very vague, when DW blurted out our exact numbers. So that was my clue that we were sharing.

I cautioned that the gifts could stop at any time. The good part was that our older one opened up about their need for investing advice, so I put together a little write-up showing the simplicity of the basics and helped them fix some elementary mistakes they were making. Suddenly, they are acolytes and sharing their new found knowledge among their friends!

Tentatively, our plan would be to stop giving if the inflation adjusted value of our accounts went below the current value. In other words, if the historical data is a representation of the future range of possibilities (no guarantees there!), the results wouldn't be any worse than the worst FireCalc scenario with no giving.

So we should be able to buy our own gas and we'll maybe even be able to eat the good cat food, not the kibble.

 

[Dash man]

One of our boys has finally realized he needs to learn more about finance and investing, something we’ve been waiting to hear for years. The birth of their twins has helped his desire to learn! [emoji23] The other has been investing for a number of years now and he and his wife are both doing well. We are giving them all some cash this Christmas, and have decided to read them into our accounts. Hopefully that will motivate them both even more to keep learning.

 

[NW-Bound]

I was joking about these exotic European cars. My son's Audi S4 is not that fancy, and he got two repairs that cost thousands of dollars for something supposedly innocuous.

The first failure is a Hall effect sensor at the clutch pedal. It detects when the pedal is pressed to the floor, a condition that permits the starter to be energized. When that sensor fails the car will not start. Took 2 weeks for the shop to get the part, and the repair was more than $1k.

The 2nd failure was the thermostat that failed to open, and the engine overheated. To replace it, they had to remove a lot of stuff, including the supercharger. This repair cost him a few $K.

Each time, he had to borrow my Nissan SUV, which is our spare car, while his car was in the shop.

There have to be some reasons these European cars depreciate so fast. The owners are probably just tired of the repairs, and perhaps are afraid of driving them, hence the low mileage.

Speaking of expensive car repairs, yes, those are true "blow the dough" expenses when you just spend a lot of money and get only pain and no pleasure from it. Compared to that, Robbie's spending on food items is not at all "blow the dough".


PS. Speaking of stuck thermostats, I recall when I was young, did a few thermostat replacements by the side of the road when the car overheated. One car was a Chevy station wagon with a V8. Another was a Ford with an inline 6.

 

[Koolau]

I have 2 cautions to mention:

1. Gifting to some kids, kills their desire to save/achieve/strive to succeed as they figure the parents can just pay.
2. The fantastic returns on the stock market last few years will in some years be balanced off by large negative returns for the year. If you gift away too much, you could end up literally short and hope your kids lend you some money for gas.

That's one of the reasons we have gifted through specific investments to the kids. SO, for instance, we have been mostly on but occasionally off, funding the kids Roth IRAs to the tune of $1K to $3K per year. Just this year, we began funding insurance for the kids. We let them decide how they wanted to set it up, but we would only pay for insurance to one company - with an agent we have grown to trust. One kid bought term on her life, because she has 4 kids. Another bought whole life (where did I go wrong?) because he's a recent dad and then the unmarried/no-kids kid bought disability insurance. Our promise to the kids: As long as they buy insurance and as long as we are able, we will fund each kid to the tune of $1500/year.

It adds up to a BTD amount when you put it all together. Still, that's what brings us pleasure and we believe it gives the kids a leg up on their financial future. YMMV

 

[ragabnh]

Spent at least a million dollar through out the first 7 years of retirement, keep changing cars, international travel, out of state college education for my son. This year I am at 65k which is a major drop down in spending. My wife is still working and spends around 40k per year from her earnings.