4 ms·

A 19yo paying $1650 every month just to get around! That would have paid for my first car and insurance for six months, just a scant decade and a half ago. > I

A 19yo paying $1650 every month just to get around! That would have paid for my first car and insurance for six months, just a scant decade and a half ago. > I think a major culprit is our social-focused society creating this desire to keep up with the Jonses' in your social/work circles. Society may very well pressure individuals to keep up with the Joneses, but individuals do not have to yield to that pressure. Let's retain some individual agency. Nobody has to put themselves in a lot of debt to appear a certain way to their peers.

colechristensen 3y ago
1650 could buy my first two cars.
- mistrial9 3y ago
  the economic deal you got at that age, is not the economic deal that 19 year olds are getting now. (let that really sink in for a minute)
  - dghlsakjg 3y ago
    This can be true while at the same time it can also be true that this kid bought something completely unnecessary. You can still buy an old Toyota sedan for $2k.
- falcolas 3y ago
  Mine too. Granted, neither could run without another few grand pumped into them (my dad thought he was being frugal).
notaustinpowers 3y ago
> Society may very well pressure individuals to keep up with the Joneses, but individuals do not have to yield to that pressure. Let's retain some individual agency. Nobody has to put themselves in a lot of debt to appear a certain way to their peers. Agreed, but those outward pressures can be pretty harsh. I left real estate because I was told by my boss I needed to upgrade my car to, at a minimum, 2yr-old Lexus NX or I'd be relegated to internal work rather than meeting with clients. I was driving a 2019 Kia Forte at the time. Some industries just tie your personal life and expenses to your work life way too much.
- chii 3y ago
  > I was told by my boss I needed to upgrade my car to, at a minimum 2yr-old Lexus NX to which you should be replying "sure, let me send you the receipt so you can expense it". If it is for work, the employee cannot expect to pay for a required piece of equipment.
  - mistrial9 3y ago
    this is sales - they can and do everything not allowed, constantly
- gottorf 3y ago
  > I left real estate because I was told by my boss I needed to upgrade my car to, at a minimum, 2yr-old Lexus NX or I'd be relegated to internal work rather than meeting with clients. Yeah, I grant you that is the case in certain occupations. It's funny, because in other lines of work (like accountancy, for example), you're actually discouraged from meeting clients in a flashy car.
- freedomben 3y ago
  May I ask where you live/worked? And what type of real estate? I was a real estate in Idaho in the mid 00s and the only people I knew who had the super nice cars were the long-time brokers and the real estate school instructors. People that rarely if ever met with clients. That said, I worked low end stuff. I could see high end stuff very much requiring outward signs of "success" otherwise the clients might think you suck at your job. I left the field because the incentives and commission structure was so out of whack with what it should be. Selling a house and doing 95%+ of the work got you half of half the commission. 6% total, 1.5% to buyer broker, 1.5% to buyer agent, 1.5% to seller broker, 1.5% to seller agent. The agents (not the brokers) did 95% of the actual work, but the law required a licensed broker to "oversee" the transaction. People only got paid when a house sold, so there was heavy incentive on both sides of the transaction to get the right person into the right house, and as the great Lionel Hutz (Phil Hartman) tells Marge Simpson, "I'm going to let you in on a little secret. The right house is the house that's for sale. And the right person is anyone." I could go on for a long time, but suffice to say it seems absurd to me that the fee to a seller is directly proportional to the value of the house, completely disconnected from the amount of labor involved in the transaction.
lamontcg 3y ago
Yeah last vehicle I bought was a used truck for $8k cash, put around $5k into it and it lasted ~10 years before the engine conked out. He's paying more a month than I paid per year. I need to buy another used truck, but I'm sort of waiting for the flood of used cars from these people to saturate the market a bit and drive down prices for me when the recession hits.

colechristensen 3y ago

1650 could buy my first two cars.

mistrial9 3y ago
the economic deal you got at that age, is not the economic deal that 19 year olds are getting now. (let that really sink in for a minute)
- dghlsakjg 3y ago
  This can be true while at the same time it can also be true that this kid bought something completely unnecessary. You can still buy an old Toyota sedan for $2k.
falcolas 3y ago
Mine too. Granted, neither could run without another few grand pumped into them (my dad thought he was being frugal).

notaustinpowers 3y ago

> Society may very well pressure individuals to keep up with the Joneses, but individuals do not have to yield to that pressure. Let's retain some individual agency. Nobody has to put themselves in a lot of debt to appear a certain way to their peers. Agreed, but those outward pressures can be pretty harsh. I left real estate because I was told by my boss I needed to upgrade my car to, at a minimum, 2yr-old Lexus NX or I'd be relegated to internal work rather than meeting with clients. I was driving a 2019 Kia Forte at the time. Some industries just tie your personal life and expenses to your work life way too much.

chii 3y ago
> I was told by my boss I needed to upgrade my car to, at a minimum 2yr-old Lexus NX to which you should be replying "sure, let me send you the receipt so you can expense it". If it is for work, the employee cannot expect to pay for a required piece of equipment.
- mistrial9 3y ago
  this is sales - they can and do everything not allowed, constantly
gottorf 3y ago
> I left real estate because I was told by my boss I needed to upgrade my car to, at a minimum, 2yr-old Lexus NX or I'd be relegated to internal work rather than meeting with clients. Yeah, I grant you that is the case in certain occupations. It's funny, because in other lines of work (like accountancy, for example), you're actually discouraged from meeting clients in a flashy car.
freedomben 3y ago
May I ask where you live/worked? And what type of real estate? I was a real estate in Idaho in the mid 00s and the only people I knew who had the super nice cars were the long-time brokers and the real estate school instructors. People that rarely if ever met with clients. That said, I worked low end stuff. I could see high end stuff very much requiring outward signs of "success" otherwise the clients might think you suck at your job. I left the field because the incentives and commission structure was so out of whack with what it should be. Selling a house and doing 95%+ of the work got you half of half the commission. 6% total, 1.5% to buyer broker, 1.5% to buyer agent, 1.5% to seller broker, 1.5% to seller agent. The agents (not the brokers) did 95% of the actual work, but the law required a licensed broker to "oversee" the transaction. People only got paid when a house sold, so there was heavy incentive on both sides of the transaction to get the right person into the right house, and as the great Lionel Hutz (Phil Hartman) tells Marge Simpson, "I'm going to let you in on a little secret. The right house is the house that's for sale. And the right person is anyone." I could go on for a long time, but suffice to say it seems absurd to me that the fee to a seller is directly proportional to the value of the house, completely disconnected from the amount of labor involved in the transaction.

lamontcg 3y ago

Yeah last vehicle I bought was a used truck for $8k cash, put around $5k into it and it lasted ~10 years before the engine conked out. He's paying more a month than I paid per year. I need to buy another used truck, but I'm sort of waiting for the flood of used cars from these people to saturate the market a bit and drive down prices for me when the recession hits.