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Why would a billionaire be driving a 2013 Chevy Tahoe? Forgive me if I find that to be the most interesting part of all of this.
by rubicon33 11y ago
Why would a billionaire be driving a 2013 Chevy Tahoe? Forgive me if I find that to be the most interesting part of all of this.
- mmanfrin 11y agoIs buying a new car every <2 years a requirement of being excessively wealthy?
- sriram_sun 11y agoIf it's a big SUV you can take write-offs. Here is some data from my accountant. "By way of example: $40k suv. $25k section 179. Then bonus is 50% of the $15k remaining $7500. Then a little bit of standard depreciation. So that vehicle would be a $32,500 deduction if new or $25,000 if used."
- protomyth 11y agoI know people who aren't excessively wealthy that do that. I think its a tax thing for them, plus they put a lot of miles on the car each year.
- RunawayGalaxy 11y agoI'd guess that he didn't want to ruin the Mercedes.
- nordsieck 11y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Millionaire_Next_Door#Car_shopping_habits https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Millionaire_Next_Door#Car_... Basically, one of the traits of the kind of person who accumulates a lot of wealth, is that they don't tend to spend much of it.
- JosephHatfield 11y agoMcClendon is actually an exception here; He was known for being an extravagant spender.
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- gimmeabreakpal 11y agoThree things: 1. This is trivially disproved by observing people who have accumulated a lot of wealth. They spend it on dumb shit all the time. 2. Buying a Tahoe is not "spending much" if you are a billionaire. 3. Most wealthy people do not become wealthy by sticking to formulas in garbage self-help books: they inherit it, they become famous entertainers, they become successful professional athletes, they're former politicians who make insane amounts of money on speaking fees, books, and sweetheart access-based jobs. They're people who've created singular inventions or companies that produce dramatic payoffs. Sure, Warren Buffet (a wealthy, connected child who was able to access enough money to bother investing with thanks to birth advantages) had not plowed all of his earnings back into the fund, he'd be poor now. Good thing he drives shitty pickups. Bill Gates drove a Porsche when he was in his 20s. Larry Ellison owns most of the beach in Malibu and the biggest, tackiest, dumbest yacht the seas have ever had to bear. The Koch brothers are heirs. The Waltons are heirs. Michael Bloomberg has two jets and a double double townhouse in the most expensive part of Manhattan. Walton, Walton. Zuckerberg bought all the houses around his for extra privacy. Sheldon Adelson built a 50k square foot house in the wastes of Nevada. Larry Page and Sergey Brin built a fuck plane full of california king-equipped suites. I'm just going down the wikipedia list of wealthiest americans in order. Good luck becoming a billionaire by skipping out on the guac at chipotle though boss.
- diyorgasms 11y agoI really think this post is unnecessarily combative as a response to a very innocuous remark.
- seibelj 11y agoIndeed, but I found it amusing.
- superuser2 11y agoSigh the Millionaire Next Door doesn't mean what internet frugality zealots want it to mean. The median salary out of college for a plain middle-class job is $45k. Two such earners, packing away 15% for retirement into index funds, mortgaging a $200k home, and not taking on credit card debt will reach $1m household net worth in middle age. There is nothing special about the millionaire designation and it does not make them rich, just normal people (at least among the college-educated set) who were lucky enough to avoid layoffs/expensive medical conditions and followed ordinary financial planning advice (save 15%, buy a house, have an emergency fund, pay your credit card bill in full every month). Plenty of such people buy BMWs and do lots of expensive travel; it's still within their means. If you want to understand the behavior of the truly rich business owner/capitalist/old money class, don't pollute your sample with families of teachers, accountants, middle managers, IT department workers, etc. Also, a Tahoe is $46k. Yet I imagine you wouldn't be pointing to the frugality of the rich if he were driving a $46k BMW.
- bozo1979 11y agoI've read the book and get your general point. However, having a hard time believing your math. Are you assuming 8% compounded annually? I have no idea how to do that.
- superuser2 11y agoBankrate [0] defaults to 7%, but yes, basically. Compound interest is magical. Vanguard's Total Stock Market index fund [1] has seen an average annual return of 8.87% since inception in 1992. [0] http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/retirement/retirement-plan-calculator.aspx http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/retirement/retirement-pl... [1] https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=0085&FundIntExt=INT#tab=1 https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=0085&...
- jkempe11 11y agoWell, one of the most interesting features (in this case) of any Tahoe Aubrey McClendon would have been driving would be that it was very likely a CNG-converted Tahoe.
- cossatot 11y agoI was thinking the same thing, and that it was part of the reason it was 'engulfed in flames'.
- fnordfnordfnord 11y agoMy only billionaire acquaintance/friend has about a dozen cars at any time including a McClaren and all sorts of other fancy cars, but his/their everyday cars are as normal as anyone else's. They don't want to attract attention all the time, and why would they?
- superuser2 11y agoA Tahoe is a $46,000 vehicle. Would you be surprised to see a billionaire in a BMW 4-series? Roughly the same price.
- noblethrasher 11y agoSteve Ballmer famously only drives Ford vehicles out of some sense of loyalty (his dad worked for Ford).
- Nihilartikel 11y agoDriving a nice American truck could be a fairly economical way to cast a working-class identifiable public persona if that is something that he would have found valuable in his ventures.
- mywittyname 11y agoThe Tahoe is a $50-70k luxury SUV. You can get it's sister car, the Escalade for a few grand more, but the difference is mostly a half dozen screens for passengers.