Dave @ Accidental FIRE
I reached financial independence and semi-retired in my mid-40's through hard work, smart living, and investing. This blog chronicles my journey and explores many aspects of personal finance including the psychological and behavioral factors that drive our habits.
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2024 Activity Tracker
Cycling: 4538 Miles
Running: 266 Miles
Hiking: 33 Miles
Paddling: 71 Miles
Climbing Days: 1
2023 Activity Tracker
Cycling: 5400 Miles
Running: 472 Miles
Hiking: 37 Miles
Paddling: 96 Miles
Climbing Days: 6
2022 Activity Tracker
Cycling: 5408 Miles
Running: 321 Miles
Hiking: 43 Miles
Paddling: 40 Miles
Climbing Days: 7
Turnip FIRE! Disclaimer:
Turnip FIRE! is like, real fake news. I mean, there’s fake news that’s meant to be real, and then fake news that’s meant to be fake. The fake news that’s meant to be real is like, actual fake news. Turnip FIRE! is fake fake news…. okay now I’m confused…. Anyhoo, don’t take any Turnip FIRE! stories seriously. Just don’t.
you, sir, are a graphical master wizard. it’s all right there! i saw an ad last weekend saying give up your daily latte and buy a boat. let me know how that works out for ye olde finances.
I guess a master wizard needs a curtain to work behind, I need to get on that….
New t-shirt? 🙂
Ooo…I don’t get t-shirts often but this one would be fun. Good suggestion!
I’m considering , that’s 2 votes
Okay I’d want that shirt!
Except, clothing ban, you know 😂
Now the shirt is Angela-approved, that’s 3 votes…
Hmmm, a bar-chart on a t-shirt… there are enough dorks out there. Possibly!
The amount of money I saved 5 years ago when I clued in to this is astounding. That first year I think I dropped my vehicle payments by $300/month, took 2 years off my loan and cut my fuel costs in half. I traded in my brand new expensive Dodge Ram truck on an old but great condition Hyundai suv.
Your story is typical of what so many people can do to really start getting their finances in line – start with the vehicle. Well done my friend!
Charles Givens said buy whatever car you want; just buy it two years old.
My bank account is all I need.
I like that quote!
Yup, you got that one right! I’ve never been impressed by a Mercedes (or any other luxury car). Funny thing is, I’m car shopping right now… searching for a decent “used beater”. Good timing! 😉
We all know you’ve got this one licked Tako, your net worth could never be that high if you were buying expensive vehicles, well done!
What’s more telling is who your Mercedes impresses. My brother has one he bought at the dealer auction for $3500 that’s in great condition and looks only a few years old. It originally sold for around $60k. My brother has a bunch of rental properties and flips properties. Occasionally, he will remodel someone’s bathroom or kitchen. Most people treat him like he’s a lowly servant when working on their homes, until he stops by to pick up a check and they see his Mercedes. How they treat him drastically changes. It’s sad, especially considering he has more money than most of them.
As always, great graph!
It is sad that people treat someone differently because he has a Mercedes. It’s a reflection of America’s obsession with the car as a costume and a status symbol, regardless of the death and pollution they wreak on society.
So simple, yet so right on.
🙂
I have trouble with this graphic. I am a true product of car culture. I love clean, well maintained cars, and I love cool ones even more. I was raised to do that while still being frugal. I added a love of those nice cars and by me its easy to see lots of Porsches and even Lamborghinis… at supermarkets. Its difficult to not want one yourself when they are right in your face. We are on the 10 year cycle, but well that pretty much accomplishes the goal.
To me more and more cars are like guns. Both have a use that’s for good, but both also cause the death of over 40,000 Americans each year. I don’t think we should celebrate car culture any more than we should celebrate gun culture. But I realize people don’t see it that way. Unfortunately the millions of families who’ve lost a loved one to cars over the years – including me – know the reality.
You know what’s funny to me is that when my father gave me the keys for my first driving lesson, he said he was handing me a gun because it’s easy to kill someone when I’m driving, and I need to treat the car (and driving) as carefully as I would a gun. My father is a vet, as was his father, many uncles and great uncles, and of course me as well.
Cars as status is something I have left behind, but fun is fun. I still see them as tools AND toys, and that is expensive. Fortunately, I have not purchased a car that way, but I want to.
I am sorry for your loss. I still drive with the same care as I did when I used guns in the service.
I get it why cars are so beloved in America, we’re a huge country and they give full freedom. But we have to start looking at what they’re doing to us as far as deaths and injury, and what they’re doing to the planet as far as carbon emissions. The future must be different.
I have to point out the good news. The total vehicle deaths are down since the 70s while total population and more importantly vehicle miles driven is WAY up. The deaths per mile is down amazingly. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_in_U.S._by_year
Granted that means nothing if the person who died is close to you, but as a nation we are doing much better.
As for cars and such, again the numbers are down as efficiency has gone up, and electric cars will likely push gas cars out of usage. Put simply, everything is going in the right direction in the US.
Now I will say this, don’t believe the models. Sure we are warming, and sure burning anything is not good, but the dire predictions are completely off. The basic assumptions are thar population will continue to rise in the ways it was in the 70s. Its not. It assumes that technology will not improve, it is. It assumes basically the worst, and so while the lower end of the models are closer to being correct they still are running a bit hot. The high ends are just fiction. Fracking natural gas has lowered our emissions massively as it displaced coal. Fusion will likely be online in a few years; now that the private sector is on it since governments moved the tech along to the point where they can. Hell even solar and batteries are getting close. I am still a supporter of fission reactors over any fossil fuel, and I did grow up close, and still live, close to Indian Point.
My point is that things are moving the right way and its working. Hell I recall the days when lead was still in gasoline and you could drive down to NYC via route 4 in Jersey and see a brown haze hanging over the city like one of those ships in Independence Day. That’s long gone, and things continue to improve.
I’m not going to touch the climate change stuff, everyone’s gonna believe what they believe. No matter how you look at it, a car is toxic, which is why you’ll die in a room with a running car.
And here’s the not-so-good news about traffic deaths in the US. You are correct that in the 70’s and 80’s etc they were way higher with way fewer people. The main reason they declined over the years is airbags and seatbelt use. People aren’t driving any safer, unfortunately, they’re surviving crashes more. But non-death injuries are up from the 70’s and 80’s.
Deaths bottomed out in 2014, then started to rise again. Why? Cell phones. I have no proof of that, but as a cyclist who rides over 5000 miles each year, I’d say that more than 33% of the cars that pass me (when I look in the window) the driver is holding a phone and fiddling while driving. That’s homicidal behavior and must stop. If it were up to me they’d lose their license for 6 months on first offense. That’s what Europe has been doing and we need to follow. The famous soccer player David Beckham just lost his for 6 months for driving and texting in the UK. Good on the UK. He’s a wreckless jackass for doing that.
The bottom line is that car crashes are the leading cause of death for Americans under 50, and America loves going to see movies like the fast and the furious and celebrating their vehicles’ 0-60 speed. It’s bizarre behavior to me.
Can’t argue either of your points. I will say that I believe the evidence is there showing drunk driving is down, but reckless and distracted is probably up due to phones. But is injuries total up or injuries per 100,000 population and or vehicle miles driven. Since both of those are up significantly, it seems logical that injuries would be up, but how much matters. There are 40% more people here than there was in 1970.
That all being said, I too will be happy when cars are fully electric and perhaps autonomous. I just love numbers and want to understand the trend. Perhaps when we take people out of the equation from driving the numbers will finally drop.
I am an optimist and I have faith in humanity that we will solve all our problems.
Oh and I agree on the law you propose, 100%. I don’t ride as much as you do, but I do ride a lot and always have.
I wish we had that law as well. I agree 100%.
Historically, America has had a love affair with the automobile. However, that relationship can be damaged due to the car buying/financing experience. You may wish to share with your readers several key points.
1) When the dealership is ‘looking for the best lender for you,’ they are really looking for the lender that will pay them the most money on the side for your loan. It can easily be $2,000 to $3,000 today, due to the car prices.
2) Consumers should understand and investigate refinancing to a lower rate and term every time they change their oil.
3) While many of your readers may pay cash for vehicles, their families/neighbors do not. Encourage them to share our thoughts and stamp out economic slavery.
In closing, the car business is changing, and the consumer is starting to take control.
Thanks for the great info!