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> * Cars - it's a lot harder to save when you're basically forced to spend $250-$600 a month for basic transportation. You might point out that there are altern
by vonmoltke 10y ago
> * Cars - it's a lot harder to save when you're basically forced to spend $250-$600 a month for basic transportation. You might point out that there are alternatives, and there are, but in the US it means paying a TON for rent in order to live in one of the few nice neighbourhoods in the country.
As a soon-to-be resident of the NYC metro area, I was shocked to discover that the monthly costs of those alternatives effectively added up to a car payment.
- dredmorbius 10y agoPerhaps the car payment, but consider: fuel, depreciation cost (almost always overlooked), insurance, parking, and maintenance. If you can live without a dedicated car (taxi, Uber, car-share, rentals), it's often a surprisingly affordable option. The critical loss is in the flexibility of auto-based transport, though again, that hinges greatly on the alternatives offered by the location. Humans existed without cars for nearly 200,000 years.
- vonmoltke 10y ago> Perhaps the car payment, but consider: fuel, depreciation cost (almost always overlooked), insurance, parking, and maintenance. Well, depreciation is irrelevant if I consider the entire car payment a sunk cost. Anything I get for selling the car is a bonus. Otherwise yes, there are additional costs. > If you can live without a dedicated car (taxi, Uber, car-share, rentals), it's often a surprisingly affordable option. That is the part that hinges on location and the trade-off between transportation costs and domicile costs. > Humans existed without cars for nearly 200,000 years. Humans existed without cities for about 197,000 of those years, but I'd rather not go back to that.