Ever find yourself putting cars before other financial and practical priorities??

All you have to do is go buy the movie "Christine". Everything will make sense then. You will know where to keep your car, the car won't cost much to fix, the car will kill any shitter who ever tried to keep you from having just that one thing. Get you a 57-58 Plymouth cut the radio on and let it fix itself. This only works with 57-58 Plymouths.

 

My bad. I'm a single 21 year old service member with not many financial responsibilites. Didn't want it to sound like I'm taking food out of children's mouths to fill up the tank.

 

Stationed at Lakehurst by chance??

When my Dad was your age he was in the Navy and had two babies in diapers and a wife that stayed home and took care of them. No extra money for anything, cars, beer, anything. If you have ONE hot rod that runs and you can have fun with WHY in the world would you want to NOT pay for bills first and take car of business. Think about the FUTURE and where you want to be 10 years from now. Would you like to own your own home and not live from paycheck to paycheck? Planning now will allow for that. Screw up now, get yourself in debt and you will pay for the mistake for more years then you realize.

IF you need help budgeting for savings and hobbies there are counselors available to you. Talk to your superior.

 

That would be a no.

 

I wrote the book on this subject! Over the last few years, including initial purchase price, I've sunk over $25K into a '95 Vette that might currently be worth $10K on a good day. This era of Vettes is not done tanking yet, value wise. Do I give a shit? Not really. It's more fun to drive than any street car or race car I've ever owned. It runs like a raped ape (high 11s with drag radials), drives almost like a stocker in normal driving and gets 15/26 mpg. Rear wheel HP/TQ is right around 400/450 naturally aspirated and with no fucking NO2. I'm damn proud of it and don't mind bragging a little. Except for the engine machine work during the builds, internal engine coatings (heat barriers and low friction) and the computer tweaking on the dyno, I've done it all myself.
My house which I also built myself (with some help) years ago is going to hell. My kids will probably not see much of an inheritance, except for what they can get out of my assets, cars and related junk, and thankfully I have no wife to answer to anymore. Nor do I plan to ever to acquire another one, so screw it! My kids are grown, doing well and enjoy watching old dad have fun now.
If my Model A comes out half as well as the Vette has, I'll be shickled titless!

 

OK!! At last a real hotrod hooligan! What's with this outpouring of prudence and resposibility?? We're hotrodders, dammit, just a bunch of juvenile delinquents even if I'm about a hundred years old...

 

nope not here , but i think about every day in every way but with one in college and another on the way it just aint gonna happen
i have my own system and im sure others do the same , i have two cars and a harley im not rich or well off i cannot afford another prodject until i sell one before i start another its always worked for me and it keeps the bills paid and ol off my ass at the same time..
good luck on your tri5

 

I have two bank accounts...at two different banks. One is were my ENTIRE pay check goes to pay bills, morgage, food ect. The other is the car fund. They NEVER cross paths. Works very well. The car account has been down to 0 a couple times...but the bills account always has a little more than enough to do due the month's duties. I keep them seperate, and that keeps me strait when the bills come in. Thats my system and it works for me....

 

Oh Boy....I've hung with Bruce and seen his stash.....he's not kidding about that juvenile deliquent stuff or doing the hobby in excess (if there is such a thing as excess in this hobby).

Myself, I've always made sure my kids were fed, had nice cloths and a decent place to sleep/live and when we divorced I never missed a single support payment (which is the size of a mortgage payment). That being said, I've run a constant 5-50 grand in the hole for the past 20 years, have minimal savings, a modest retirement egg and I sometimes pay bills on close call basis (even sold parts to make rent/mortgage/heating bills when things were tight but always have the bills paid)....but I've had and still have some cool cars and have a great time every year traveling and hanging out all over the place.

I didn't save up to do it "someday" because someday may not be there to do it. In other words, if I was to die tomorrow I can say, without a doubt, that I've had a good life. I've seen what I wanted to see when I wanted to see it and I've done what I wanted to do when I wanted to and had the cars, toys and - most importantly - the people in my life I've been able to enjoy very much. You've got to live while your alive. Thank you American Express and MasterCard for making this all possible.

-Bigchief.

 

I think it depends on where you are in life. When I was younger 120% of my net worth was tied up in my cars. I didn't really have any extra money but it didn't matter because I really had zero responsibility. When you get older, married, and especially kids, then things need to change a bit.

As a 20 something year old, there are a lot worse things you could spend your money on than your car. Lets see, girlfriend, beer, ...

 

i also use this system. works well. Car money is car money and the occasional titty club run...and beer run. The other account pays the bills and accumulates wat needs to be saved

No house for me yet so the only bills i have are my cell phone, and insurance on my truck. No more rent after this month because ive decided to become a freeloader and live with my girlfriend. Actually it was her idea since any money i save benefits her also when i finally do buy a house

 

We see to it that the bills are paid, and whatever is left over goes for the other stuff we like to do. Been married going on 41 years and done a lot of crazy stuff together. May not have a lot to show for it, but we have a nice comfortable house, and some fun toys too. The race car project, (Rapid Rabbit HA/GR), gets allotted some of the leftovers, the '64 Dodge isn't done, (and probably won't ever be "finished"), but runs great and is a ball to drive.

The projects take longer than we would like, but we eat good and have a place to call home, and we have a good life. Can't really ask for more than that, and as long as we have stuff to do, we ain't finished here.

 

yes.
why, is there another way?

 

When you start choosing hobby cars over responsibilities, you're headed down a fragile path to ruin. Kinda like a crackhead. Sell everything for the high? Get help.

 

i use the credit cards to my advantage, no fee cards that give you cash back and then pay the bill in full every month.....that's like free money. if you don't have the money to buy parts then save until you do.

 

Family and bills ALWAYS come first. Even though we all love them, they are just that "toys". OK we have ALOT of passion towards are toys. I am fortunate enough to have accumulated enough parts to let my hobby "feed" itself. I never would of thought there was such a thing as a hobby that supports itself.

 

Who me?.....NEVER.

 

I'm kind of in that boat right now. Tore the whole front end off of my truck to convert it to disc brakes (and had to torch some of the 35 year old rusted bolts off), then the next day I get laid off.

Well, even though the money has stopped coming in, I still have a truck halfway torn apart in the driveway, so I have to spend the money to fix it!

Spent $600+ this week on parts to finish it up, but I think I have everything to finish up (I'm still going to be expecting to spend another 100 bucks on misc. stuff this weekend).

Hopefully by Tuesday I'll have a rolling, stopping truck again!

Nick

 

Thank you. This gives me more hope than you can imagine. Haven't ever had a single 'toy' either, I won't take away from the family budget to do it. I have a little stash I keep adding to from 'extra' money that I make and eventually I'll have enough saved up to buy a car that I want, but what I'll probably end up doing with it is spending it on a nice family vacation or something, even though my wife insists that I don't. Once the kids are gone...

 

I don't put money for my old cars in front of my family finances, but I do put it in front of my own personal stuff, i.e. I don't buy designer shoes, clothes, etc.., and unlike alot who replied to this thread, my old cars ARE NOT my "toys" they get me to and from work, kids to and from school, etc.., fair weather toys are not in my budget, and everything(except my project) has to earn its keep. I'd rather live it now, than make payments on somthing more "modern" and "friendly" thats gonna be worth 1/3 or less than what I payed for it by the time I pay it off. And yes I do have 1 late model I bought new for the misses to drive, that I saved during my overseas tour to pay cash for, and I'll drive it till the wheels fall off to get my moneys worth out of it. I'm not frugal, just CA living and Hot Rods comes with sacrifices for the "common" man. Debt be it credit card, or car payments etc.. is hell, and I'll avoid it at all cost.

Drew

 

I only wish I had the self control of a lot of you guys;My bills and mortgage are always paid but I've probably carried more debt at times than I should have. But this shit is an obsession for a lot of us and it's hard to be sensible.Lets put it this way,I've collected a few 32-36 Fords;ardun heads,kinmont brakes and a scot blower and I've probably never had the cash saved up at the time.When you get a smokin deal on a rare part you don't have the luxury of waiting till it's convenient financially;you get the money and you don't hesitate.I've always believed you get one shot at alot of your dream stuff for the right money so you better not pass it by. 20 yrs ago I could have bought a 40 willys coupe for $3500. I offered $3000. but was turned down; I walked away feeling proud of myself for my self control. This is like a sickness for alot of us but I've never regretted what I've bought only what I didn't buy.

 

Use a little common sense and remember, "the best place to live is inside your income."

 

Good words...a lot of my stash is stuff collected for a '32 in the '60's and '70's...before I had kids and that sudden 30 year hiatus of raising them, paying for them, and always being too broke for car stuff...now I'm just finding my way back to where I was what seems like a thousand years ago.
Time to get moving and blow every nickle on parts and tools!
Rodder finances sometimes have distinctly odd consequences: I got interested in '32 Fords about 1960, and since then, except for the kid decades, blew every cent I could find on Ford stuff. Oddly enough, all the crap I irresponsibly blew the rent on is now worth 10-20-100 times what I paid for it...if I had put every loose nickel into a savings account, my money would now be worth a helluva lot less....
My kids will be E-Bay hotrod tycoons when I croak...
But I'm still broke!

 

I've never skipped paying bills, but I've gotten over my head on projects and had to sell them unfinished. It hurts to think about those... It's easy to get into that situation if you're a student, or a young guy in the Service.

 

nope not me. we bought our second home in January and have put my 32 on hold until just a week ago due to repair/remodeling on the home. Ive just started back to work on the truck again. thats why it takes me years to finish anything on my hot rods...

 

Lately, I've gotten messed up in the mindfuck of thinking how much faster my mortgage payment would be gone if I applied whatever money I'm about to spend on parts on the mortgage. The damn internet calculators are screwing me. We're currenty on track to have the house paid off in 10 years and I can't help fantasizing about doing it faster. Don't think it's because I'm responsible, though, it's so that I can afford to blow over a grand more a month on parts/tools/projects. I also don't do the credit card thing and I'm done with car payments in 13 months - I can drive beaters for the cash I blow on my current truck. I know people love to talk about how the credit cards are 0% and 'free money' blahblahblah, I used to use em and they're snakes. I don't play with snakes anymore. We have an emergency fund for emergencies. That being said, a buddy whose dad built jalopies in the 50s recently called me telling me his dad had something he'd like to sell to someone who'd preserve it and mentioned something about a runble seat. He once told me his dad LOVES '32s. If it's what I think it is, we'll grab it, even if I have to borrow money. Some things only happen once in a lifetime and I'd be a fool to miss it...

 

I'd get abaolutely no pleasure driving a hotrod/custom that put my family at financial risk....BUT!
During those years when I was helping my wife to raise our kid, I still kept my hand in the game but on a limited basis. I'd buy/sell parts and cars at the local swapmeets to finance my hotrods. I've never dipped into the "family money" which consists of my paychecks from my job....there was barely enough to go around to pay bills as it was.
Family always comes first in my house...
I've seen some guys disregard the family money responsibilities and blow the rent on car stuff. Their wives lose respect... I couldn't take that...

 

Totally. My car fund comes from cars/parts etc. Ebay is your friend. A lot of times you buy a car and it has "extra parts". You sometimes find a goldmine and sometimes (in the case of my 50 Merc) can fund the entire getting it back on the road process just by that.

A lot of times if I need something, or want something I dont need...I go down to the basement where all my stash is and eenie meenie minie moe which is going to go to fund it. Just depends what I want/need more. This way I get to buy the new item and still remain at 0$ out for it.

 

I am now over fifty and am just now building my first true rod. For the past thirty years I have equipped my shop very nicely and did that on ONLY spare dough. Extra money was not around very often so I spent LOTS of time reading and learning about our hobby. I don't feel cheated because I could not afford to actually build a rod untill now. My daughter graduated college this summer and I feel great about spending money on more important things than a hobby. I actually think I enjoy rodding more because of the wait...worked for me!

 

I make sure the bills are paid first (I'm anal about paying them the day they arrive). I worked hard over the years to have a good credit rating and earned the priviledge of having an unsecured line of credit. I never raise the limit and even if it were maxed out (it never is) I could easily afford the payment. That's my car fund. I use it to buy, and pay it off when I sell. My dad never spent a dime on anything for himself and he was rewarded with a brain anurism at 44. After going thru that (I was 16) I kind of took on a "live for today" attitude. I work with guys with a big bag of money in the bank and they are cheap as hell. I dont recall ever seeing the brinks truck in the funeral parade!
Todd