5 ms·

> Suppose you have enough disposable income to pay for a new $1200 TV over the course of 12 months. If you don't have $1200 for a TV you shouldn't be buying it

by dazc 11y ago

> Suppose you have enough disposable income to pay for a new $1200 TV over the course of 12 months. If you don't have $1200 for a TV you shouldn't be buying it. It's not as if you can't buy a perfectly reasonable TV for much less is it?

socalnate1 11y ago
You're missing the forest for the trees.
rdrey 11y ago
Replace the word TV with 'first household car'.
- tomjen3 11y ago
  No. Tv don't enable you to get a better job/keep your current. If you want the argument to mean anything then you have to trade like for like. A nice couch will last years and it is still a frivolous consumer spending object. Is it worth it to pay ~80 usd to have the couch a year earlier?
  - lkbm 11y ago
    Here's what I just read: > > > > Here's my argument. > > > That argument's too weak. > > Okay, here's a stronger version. > No, you have to stick with the weak version. Personally, I want to hear the strongest version of the arguments when I'm making a decision.
- nostrademons 11y ago
  Curious what your point is? It's pretty common to pay cash for a used clunker as your first car because you don't have money to buy a new one, and then use it to get to work so you can save up more money to buy a new one. Or at least, it's pretty common among the folks I hang with. The car-loan phenomena is baffling to me; why would you pay interest on a depreciating asset?
  - craigds 11y ago
    I think it's an American thing. In NZ it's pretty rare to buy a new car, far more common to get a 10-15 year old one for $5-10K. Paying cash is normal
    - heywire 11y ago
      Well, someone has to be buying the new cars, or else there wouldn't be any used cars.
      - dazc 11y ago
        A lot of new cars are sold to fleets and these eventually come on to the used market. (UK figures) https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/421337/vls-2014.pdf https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm... In 2014, 54% of all car first registrations were made by companies. Which is lower than I would have guessed, but still significant.
      - kaybe 11y ago
        I think NZ imports a lot of cars from overseas. The used-car market is great!
      - deleted 11y ago
        [deleted]
      - repsilat 11y ago
        I don't know if it's still the case, but New Zealand used to import a lot of Japanese second hand cars. Cheap, reliable, fuel-efficient and left hand drive. Less common in Australia because they have (had?) a domestic market to protect -- import tariffs made it less attractive.
  - saalweachter 11y ago
    Why would you waste your liquidity on an asset so easy to secure a loan for as a car? A five year new car loan from a credit union -- no shopping around -- has a cost of something like $58 / $1000 borrowed. So even if you have $20k cash on hand to buy a new car, for a thousand bucks you can maintain an extra $20k of liquidity for expenses that are more annoying or more expensive to finance, like auto repairs.

by dazc 11y ago

socalnate1 11y ago

You're missing the forest for the trees.

rdrey 11y ago

Replace the word TV with 'first household car'.

tomjen3 11y ago
No. Tv don't enable you to get a better job/keep your current. If you want the argument to mean anything then you have to trade like for like. A nice couch will last years and it is still a frivolous consumer spending object. Is it worth it to pay ~80 usd to have the couch a year earlier?
- lkbm 11y ago
  Here's what I just read: > > > > Here's my argument. > > > That argument's too weak. > > Okay, here's a stronger version. > No, you have to stick with the weak version. Personally, I want to hear the strongest version of the arguments when I'm making a decision.
nostrademons 11y ago
Curious what your point is? It's pretty common to pay cash for a used clunker as your first car because you don't have money to buy a new one, and then use it to get to work so you can save up more money to buy a new one. Or at least, it's pretty common among the folks I hang with. The car-loan phenomena is baffling to me; why would you pay interest on a depreciating asset?
- craigds 11y ago
  I think it's an American thing. In NZ it's pretty rare to buy a new car, far more common to get a 10-15 year old one for $5-10K. Paying cash is normal
  - heywire 11y ago
    Well, someone has to be buying the new cars, or else there wouldn't be any used cars.
    - dazc 11y ago
      A lot of new cars are sold to fleets and these eventually come on to the used market. (UK figures) https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/421337/vls-2014.pdf https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm... In 2014, 54% of all car first registrations were made by companies. Which is lower than I would have guessed, but still significant.
    - kaybe 11y ago
      I think NZ imports a lot of cars from overseas. The used-car market is great!
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
    - repsilat 11y ago
      I don't know if it's still the case, but New Zealand used to import a lot of Japanese second hand cars. Cheap, reliable, fuel-efficient and left hand drive. Less common in Australia because they have (had?) a domestic market to protect -- import tariffs made it less attractive.
- saalweachter 11y ago
  Why would you waste your liquidity on an asset so easy to secure a loan for as a car? A five year new car loan from a credit union -- no shopping around -- has a cost of something like $58 / $1000 borrowed. So even if you have $20k cash on hand to buy a new car, for a thousand bucks you can maintain an extra $20k of liquidity for expenses that are more annoying or more expensive to finance, like auto repairs.