Lilred's Rant of the Week- The American Public

[fabsroman]

Rocky,

That issue came up at a financial planning seminar I attended a couple of years ago. The standard of doing well in the 50's was food on the table, a roof over your head, a car in the driveway, and a TV. Today, the standard of doing well is being able to go out and eat every night, a main home and a vacation home, 3 to 4 cars in the driveway, and a TV in every room of the main home and vacation home. Don't get me wrong, I want all those things too, but I am not willing to sacrifice my long term financial well being just to have what I want now and pay for it the rest of my life.

Very few people even think about paying off their mortgages early, and a lot of accountants don't even suggest it. Me, I suggest paying off a mortgage ASAP and not taking out any home equity loans on it afterward. I know people that are taking out equity loans on their cars. How sad is that?

Billy,

My mom used to re-use the sandwich bags and Ziploc feezer bags. I would get irritated about the freezer bags because some of them had holes in them and when I froze game in them they would end up getting freezer burned. Finally figured out that if I water tested them first, I would know which ones were good and which were bad. To this day, my mom still saves those used Ziploc bags and she even saves aluminum foil. In one of the drawers in her new kitchen, there is a bunch of aluminum foil that has been flattened out, but you can still see all the crinkles from it having been used.

Today's society is one of buying a new one whenever something breaks, and I cannot say I blame people in most cases. Things just become way too obsolete way to quickly. For instance, if something goes wrong with a PC nowadays, I am more likely to spend $600 on a new one than spending money on fixing the old one. Same thing goes for a TV, MP3 player, etc. However, other things can still be fixed and continue to work just fine. I fix my bikes and guns whenever possible. Same goes for my cars. Maybe I am being a little unfair to people about cars because I can fix them myself, but most people cannot. A buddy of mine took his Saturn into the dealer for a brake job. He was quoted $1,500 by the dealer and a couple other places. The car was already 7 or 8 years old do he decided to spend the money as a down payment on a new car. Now, we all know that a brake job on a car is about $400 to $500 in parts, and that is if you replace all 4 rotors and all 4 sets of pads. On my F-350, it is a little more, but something tells me the dealer would also charge more than $1,500. Had to replace the oxygen sensor on my wife's car the other day. It was a $35 part and it took me about 40 minutes because I had to take the radiator gan and catalytic converter heat shield off. Probably would have cost $200+ at the dealer. I'm also not complaining about the dealer prices, because the dealers have to pay for rent and the mechanics have to eat. It is just that way too many people no longer know how to do things on their own. I bet 50 years ago most people would work on their own cars. Then again, maybe I am wrong.

[BILLY D.]

Fabs

I can tell you most of my classmates in High School were metal heads and worked on their own cars. Plus that if we had problems we had a class for auto mechanics and one for auto body. These guys were ones you wanted for friends. If ya really flubbed up they would take the car to class and use it for a project. The instructors/teachers loved it.

Bill

One funny. I had one brother who fancied himself as a mechanic. My Dads carbuerator went south so Erwin was gonna fix it. He detested following directions and mechanical books. Well he screwed it up royal and lost a few parts in the process. He being the smart A$$ that he was took it down to the Oldsmobile garage and they charged him $25 to put it back together and another $25 to rebuild it. The rest of my brothers and I laughed our fannies off. At this time buying a rebuilt off the shelf was cheaper.

[fabsroman]

I'm a big proponent of reading the manual. I have Chilton and Hayne's manuals for my cars, and I also subscribe to AllData DIY (Do It Yourself). My tools, manuals, and onlnie subscriptions have paid for themselves umpteen times over, if not more.

[Duffy]

Originally posted by fabsroman
My mom used to re-use the sandwich bags and Ziploc feezer bags. To this day, my mom still saves those used Ziploc bags and she even saves aluminum foil.

Hooray! I'm glad to see that my mom, my mother-in-law and...gasp!...my WIFE aren't the only women in the world who do that!