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View Full Version : Dd and the cost of owning a car



Chicken lady
6-3-17, 4:16pm
Dd just got her liscense plate renewal forms. First she was appalled at the fee "that much for a sticker?" Then I explained that the money is used to maintain the roads and she said "oh. Well then they need to charge more. Because the roads are sh*t."

then she she did the math and discovered that her car (payment, gas, insurance, taxes, fees and maintainence) eats a third of her paycheck.
dd
:0!
me
"isn't being an adult fun?"

razz
6-3-17, 8:00pm
It is neat when they make the discoveries on their own without being told. Reality is hard to run into suddenly. The fun for the parent is "been there, done that" and suddenly it seems that the child thinks that their parent suddenly got a lot smarter than they had thought.

BikingLady
6-4-17, 8:16am
Cars are an evil necessity in most places >:(

Chicken lady
6-4-17, 8:40am
We definitely live in one of those places. A truck is a necessity for us. I feel better about it because it now serves three households, although, as it is almost 20 years old, I begin to worry about replacing it. The brakes need work at the moment.

She now understands why we made her check insurance rates on various cars before buying, the value of a good student discount, and the importance of maintenance. Her car payment is over half of that cost, and she is 20. So in 5 years her costs will be much lower. She also sees the value of public transportation in high density areas (where we live the closest thing to public transportation is the school bus)

BikingLady
6-4-17, 11:52am
You are great parents for giving her thoughts on best way to get ahead with a car.

LDAHL
6-5-17, 8:48am
Where are the schools in all this? I would think knowing how to conduct a rudimentary cost-benefit analysis would be at least as important as some of the stuff they seem to think is crucial.

Chicken lady
6-5-17, 9:14am
Well, this child only attended three years of school 10, 11, 12. She was required to take a life skills class, but honestly it was complete crap.

my favorite was the simulation where they assign you a town to live in, a spouse, a level of education and debt, a number of children, and one or more jobs and then make you work out a budget. They did not allow you to choose "go back to school", "have one parent quit and stay home because daycare is too expensive", "subtract one or more children because we would have chosen surgical sterilization at that point", "move", or any other creative solutions to your financial situation. Just choiceslike cable/no cable :doh:

the he place where I work has a similar class called "life skills" to allow students to qualify for a state diploma. I have started threatening to teach a competing class called "Adulting."

creaker
6-5-17, 2:01pm
Where are the schools in all this? I would think knowing how to conduct a rudimentary cost-benefit analysis would be at least as important as some of the stuff they seem to think is crucial.

As if the corporate world wants consumers to grow up cost savvy.

ToomuchStuff
6-6-17, 11:22am
the he place where I work has a similar class called "life skills" to allow students to qualify for a state diploma. I have started threatening to teach a competing class called "Adulting."

Probably quickly get a lot of signups from people who thinks it means something else (more adult in nature).

Chicken lady
6-6-17, 6:39pm
No, that's how they talk. "I took myself to the dentist #adulting."

Yppej
6-6-17, 7:28pm
There was a class like that in my high school, only it revolved around planning a wedding. One poor guy was teased mercilessly for telling his class bride she should get a $100 wedding dress from the J. C. Penney catalog. At that age not everyone is ready for financial maturity.

ToomuchStuff
6-6-17, 7:41pm
At that age not everyone is ready for financial maturity.

At what age are people? Saying this knowing people in their 70's and 80's who are not, and have lost houses and such.

Chicken lady
6-6-17, 8:33pm
My thought would be - at whatever age they have money.

i have a 14 y.o. Student whose life is a mess. Not her fault, but man is she read to fix it! I listened to her explain to her friend that said friend needed a bank account. "I'm getting a bank account as soon as i can get one without an adult. Whenever I get money, I put half of it away and don't touch it - that's what I'm going to open my savings account with - for big stuff like school and maybe a car. Half goes in short term savings for stuff I really want, like a computer. And the rest I can spend on clothes, or food, or minutes on my phone or whatever.

my wedding dress cost $125 in 1990.

jp1
6-6-17, 8:38pm
Yes, some people just never get it and some do. I went shopping for wedding shoes with my best friend from college back in 1990. They were going to be covered by the wedding dress so they just needed to be basic white. She found the perfext pair at payless for $10.99. Her soon to be MIL nearly had a heart attack that she'd bought such cheap shoes. And even offered to buy her a 'better' pair.

Perhaps they were the cause of the divorce ten years later... :)