4 ms·

Depending on where you work parking is a factor in your salary though. I was paying $200 a month, that's a pretty significant dent.

brailsafe 5y ago
Not needing to park or have a car at all would be even better, you'd just get an extra $500/month cash. ($200 + whatever gas and other bs the car costs)
- matthewaveryusa 5y ago
  I was doing the amortized cost of owning a car the other day and it’s pretty terrible: 50 gas, 75 car insurance, 20 maintenance, 100 amortized cost, 40 excise tax. That’s around 300 a month for a no frills Honda HRV. The way I amortized was 20k over 15 years, maintenance is oil change and tire rotation
  - brailsafe 5y ago
    I did this after my last car died a few years ago, and I had to make the argument for myself whether I'd replace it or not. The numbers really don't work out (as you discovered) unless you're very directly using the thing for something that you can't solve another way. In my case, it's more like probably $90/month for gas, $190/month for insurance, probably $600/year on maintenance unless you're under warranty with a brand new car, and then there's taxes and depreciation that you immediately lose thousands to. Amortizing them paints less of a bleak picture, but again, you gotta be directly profiting with the thing. Maybe you're already living in a walkable neighborhood, but for some reason you work nowhere remotely close and there aren't viable alternative companies or transportation options. Maybe you're constantly traveling (say 30+ times a year) to the mountains in a way that would surpass the viability of renting a car frequently. Maybe you run a company that requires the fastest last mile transportation and storage almost all the time. Since then, I've used car share and rentals when I absolutely need them, and the numbers would have to be dramatically different for those options not to make more sense, because I do live in a city that prioritizes transit and other transportation options, and I'll do anything possible to avoid needing a car (as in owned) in the future. If my hobbies change significantly && my financials improve significantly, then that's where I'd reconsider.

brailsafe 5y ago

Not needing to park or have a car at all would be even better, you'd just get an extra $500/month cash. ($200 + whatever gas and other bs the car costs)

matthewaveryusa 5y ago
I was doing the amortized cost of owning a car the other day and it’s pretty terrible: 50 gas, 75 car insurance, 20 maintenance, 100 amortized cost, 40 excise tax. That’s around 300 a month for a no frills Honda HRV. The way I amortized was 20k over 15 years, maintenance is oil change and tire rotation
- brailsafe 5y ago
  I did this after my last car died a few years ago, and I had to make the argument for myself whether I'd replace it or not. The numbers really don't work out (as you discovered) unless you're very directly using the thing for something that you can't solve another way. In my case, it's more like probably $90/month for gas, $190/month for insurance, probably $600/year on maintenance unless you're under warranty with a brand new car, and then there's taxes and depreciation that you immediately lose thousands to. Amortizing them paints less of a bleak picture, but again, you gotta be directly profiting with the thing. Maybe you're already living in a walkable neighborhood, but for some reason you work nowhere remotely close and there aren't viable alternative companies or transportation options. Maybe you're constantly traveling (say 30+ times a year) to the mountains in a way that would surpass the viability of renting a car frequently. Maybe you run a company that requires the fastest last mile transportation and storage almost all the time. Since then, I've used car share and rentals when I absolutely need them, and the numbers would have to be dramatically different for those options not to make more sense, because I do live in a city that prioritizes transit and other transportation options, and I'll do anything possible to avoid needing a car (as in owned) in the future. If my hobbies change significantly && my financials improve significantly, then that's where I'd reconsider.