Some advice for the youth – EPautos

One of the first things I didn’t do, but many of my friends did after we graduated, was buy a new car. I kept the old but mechanically sound ’74 Beetle I was driving, which I had paid off in cash—all of it for about $700—instead. It didn’t have air conditioning or even a heater (which worked). But it also didn’t require a down payment—and that allowed me to save instead of spending a few hundred dollars every month paying off a mortgage on a depreciation of consumer equipment.

And so I was able to save thousands after working for a few years and holding on to some of the money I earned. Including the savings I didn’t spend on a full insurance policy on an old VW. For a while I didn’t pay a dime – because you could get away with not paying the insurance mafia for damage you wouldn’t have caused in a better time.

It is wise to understand that a vehicle is a depreciating consumer appliance. Like a toaster. It loses value the moment you buy it – unless it’s a collector’s item, in which case it’s probably not a car you can use for everyday transportation. In that case, you need another car that realistic for daily transportation.

Just like my old Beetle.

Not the feasible part in italics above.

My old Beetle was just that – and not much more. It was sweaty in the summer and in the winter I had to dress like an Eskimo to keep from freezing. Yet the windshield still froze and I had to keep an old gas card – remember that? – handy to get the ice off the inside from the windshield while I was driving so I could see somewhat where I was going.

It was rusty. It leaked when it rained. But the holes in the floorboards let the water drain away.

One time the hood flew up while I was driving – and I couldn’t see where I was going. Luckily I wasn’t going very fast – old Beetle, remember – so I was able to slow down fast enough to open the door wide enough to see the painted lines and pull over to the side of the road and push the hood back down. It was a little bent, but so what?

Another time the cable connecting the clutch pedal to the clutch mechanism broke (it was just a lever that turned when you pressed the third pedal), but I was still able to get home by not coming to a complete stop (and thus not stalling the engine) and by timing my gear changes to the engine speed at the right times until I got home.

You can deal with this kind of thing when you’re 22. Or rather, it’s easier to deal with when you’re 22. If it breaks and you can’t fix it, you call a friend or go for a walk. No problem – when you’re 22.

What’s less easy to deal with is being up to your eyeballs in debt at 42 – partly because you decided to go into debt when you were 22.

This is the antimatter of capitalism – which is not so much an economic system as the idea of ​​accumulating capital (wealth) so that you don’t have to spend your life – and certainly the last half of it – paying off debt.

You don’t do this by spending capital, especially not on things you don’t need, such as a new car.

Especially if you young.

One of the greatest advantages of being young is that you unencumbered. You don’t need a car with air conditioning and “safety” features because it’s just you now. You’re not responsible for much yet, except yourself.

You have the glorious freedom to cheap living – and therefore accumulate capital.

This is how one becomes a capitalist; that is, an owner of things. Especially the owner of oneself. This is my most important advice: a debt-free person is a person who is not owned by others. You are a person who does not need a job as much as the person who is owned. Therefore, you can more easily quit a job that does not suit you than a person who knows he is owned – and has to make a payment next week.

You certainly don’t need “coverage” – as handing over capital to the health insurance mafia is called. Special the term ‘health insurance’ in the style of ‘coverage’ – an absurd construction, because nothing can guarantee that you will be healthy and, moreover, young people generally are healthy ipso facto.

Taking good care of yourself can improve your health and reduce the risk of health problems, but that’s a different matter.

Spending money on “health insurance” when you’re young and almost certainly never going to need it is as foolish as buying a life jacket to wear while walking on the beach. You’d be smarter to save what you’re told to spend on “coverage” – and have capital to spend on things like medical care when (and if) you need it, and have it as a down payment on your first home, because you probably won’t need to spend it on medical care. See that point about being young and healthy.

That’s exactly what I did.

Unfortunately, Obama came along – ironically supported by many young people – and now young people are forced to spend money (if they are employees) on “coverage” they will most likely never need, and so they now have a harder time raising the capital needed to buy their first home.

Instead, they are “covered”.

And possessed.

. . .

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