Electric Car Rant

[7milesout]

In this country, more than 50% of housholds have no savings at all.

Interesting foama. I'm going to guess that in the states, it's much greater than 50% that have no savings. And a refrigerator would be a problem.

I'll admit, I'm struggling. But it's because the choices I've made to save. Been doing it for a long time. Hopefully I'll live long enough to take advantage of it. I hit the federal max on my 401k and HSA. I'm down to 1 son in college right now. They each have 1 talon out of the nest, so their expenses on me is about to drop. My house is on a 15 year mortgage, the payment is high, but that's about to end too. And I have extra money withheld from my check and sent to our trusty gobment cause I keep getting pinched each tax season. So strapped? Yes, I'm strapped.

But savings? I have savings out the ying-yang. Unfortunately it's most all retirement savings and I'll have to pay a penalty to play with it ... at least until I'm 59.5 years old. But once I turn 59.5 years old, it's HOOKERS AND BLACKJACK EVERY DAY! That's 7 years from now though.

[Fummins]

New mortgages here are often 25 years. Having the same interest rate for the entire term isn't really a thing here. I believe it is in the US. I'm a pretty crappy explainer, probably easier to look up what I mean. For the first 4 years I put all my extra money on the house. Knocked it down from 25 years to 16 in 5 years. I'm hoping to have it paid off 10 or less.
The wife has a decent job but is addicted to effin Amazon... If both of us didn't work we'd have to make some big changes. To keep our house going(groceries,utilities, mortgage, taxes,) and cars insured for a month is more than what I paid for my Delica.

I don't think I'd be able to live on the government pention here. The max(if you made max contributions for 39 years) is currently only $16k/year if you take it when you're 65. If you wait til you're 70 it goes up to $23,252. Basically can't survive on that.

I have a retirement savings plan that work helps contribute into. It's not much though, couldn't even buy a Tesla with it. Hoping to get house paid off quicker and save/invest more... The wife has extra tax taken off her cheque too. I told her that she's litterally giving the government an interest-free loan by doing that. Would be better off just having that money automatically transferred from her account each month into a savings account, retirement fund or stock account. Saving is hard though...

[7milesout]

My wife is also addicted to effen Amazon. I'm addicted to effen effen.

[Eggman]

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LOL I imagine this same concept was held by proponents of the horse & buggy.

I wonder what the Amish would think...

Imagine we lived in a world where all cars burned fossil fuels, and then comes along a new invention, the "horse & buggy"! Think how well they would sell, a form of transportation that is merely a fraction of the weight & cost. The 'engine' refuels itself on any suitable vegetative matter it finds edible and with proper care, lasts many miles over varying road surfaces. It does not damage the environment with fossil fuel extraction & spills, and the 'pollution' from the energy consumption can be used as fertilizer for crops! Not to mention it uses far less materials in steel & leather than ICE cars.

Just think how excited people would be for such technology, it would sell like hot cakes!

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I'll admit, I'm struggling. But it's because the choices I've made to save. Been doing it for a long time. Hopefully I'll live long enough to take advantage of it.

You and I are not that different here, but you out-earn me by far as an engineer.

I've concentrated on saving and saying 'no' to a lot of frivolous, unnecessary expenses & goodies over years to try to build my (our) savings. I've done a little investing in stocks (who needs gambling when there's the stock market?) Overall, my discipline has paid off and I/we live with few financial worries.

I dislike loans for anything and paid every loan early. Nobody's going to take away my home or automobiles, they are all paid for. The house loan was paid off years ago and if memory serves correctly I have only taken out a loan for one vehicle in all the years I've been driving.

I've been living debt-free for decades now & living within my means. Now I just gotta take care of myself to live long into a enjoyable retirement.