It may be that the smiles on our faces are more important than the money. It might be more about "utility theory" and not so much about the money. Having $30/$44/$65,000 says NOTHING about the "opportunity cost" in adventure and smiles. I'd rather have 10 years worth of adventure and smiles than $65,000 in 10 years. I've had my vans in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, I drove my van from Cairo to Amsterdam, and several trips through England and Western Europe. I've driven across Canada a few times and across the northern US. And I'm just getting warmed up! As for "In general, car addicted people are not good money people." ...... I have a Pd.D. in Finance from a big school :-) and I am an Associate Professor of Finance at my local U, and I can tell you with ABSOLUTE authority! that "it's not about the money" The investment is in my life!, Not in my van. "economic sense" is subjugated to lifestyle and adventure. :-) Malcolm Stebbins
--- Dennis Haynes <dhaynes@OPTONLINE.NET> wrote: > One thing I don't see mentioned is the cost of the money! If you have $30K in cash to put into > your vehicle, think of what that could be in 5 years. At a modest 8% you would have over $44k in > 5 years. Almost 65K in 10. The 30K in cash could be a future retirement home. Heck, you could > invest the 30k, use the $200 month earnings to pay off a cheap car and still have the $30k at > the end. Well, not quite with taxes and stuff. > > In general, car addicted people are not good money people. ....................... > > As for spending that type of cash on a vehicle for a trip, just don't make economic sense.
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