While growing up in the Midwest, my parental units provided the perfect counterexample for how I didn't want to manage my finances. At any given time they would each have a vehicle, but I can clearly remember them having at least these vehicles before I turned 18:
- a Chevrolet Camaro (the last in a similarly long line of pre-baby pony cars)
- 2 Chevrolet Celebrities
- a Chevrolet Cavalier (ok enough with the junky Chevys!)
- a Honda Civic
- an Oldsmobile Alero (so we'll do other junky GMs now)
- 2 Hyundai Elantras
- a Kia Optima
- a supercharged Pontiac Grand Prix
- a Mitsubishi Diamante VRX
- a Pontiac Brownie Hauler (Montana)
- 6 (six!!!) different Saturn S-series sedans and coupes (related to job at the time)
Yes, that's at least 18 cars in 18 years, and none were ever owned outright to my knowledge. All were relatively new. There may be others, but that's all I can remember. The two of them always had money problems even though my father had stable corporate jobs... it never made a lick of sense to me that he
HAD to trade in a vehicle prior to hitting 50k miles.
However, I clearly remember going to a friend's house at some point in high school, and his parents were all excited that they had paid off their Jeep Cherokee and could start using the money freed up for other things. I didn't have a grasp on what living expenses should be at that point, but the idea of eliminating a big payment that everyone else seems to accept as normal seemed like a fantastic (although foreign) idea.
Needless to say, I'm glad I had the friend's example early enough to make an impact.
