Author Topic: Can a car enthusiast be a mustachian?  (Read 5545 times)

shanesauce

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Can a car enthusiast be a mustachian?
« on: November 15, 2014, 11:25:09 AM »
Let me start off by saying I love this website. The information here coupled with common sense could yield some very impressive savings regardless of the person that reads it.

Is it possible to be a mustachian while being an avid car enthusiast? I know it seems to go against the whole idea but I'm not sure that I could drive a camry every day for the rest of my life. I love my rwd manual transmission cars. Could I live this lifestyle minus the econobox mindset? I am all for a fuel efficient daily driver but I like roasting down some tires every now and then.


Paul der Krake

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Re: Can a car enthusiast be a mustachian?
« Reply #1 on: November 15, 2014, 11:46:02 AM »
It's best to be one who lives precariously through other people's purchases.

pzxc

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Re: Can a car enthusiast be a mustachian?
« Reply #2 on: November 15, 2014, 11:46:24 AM »
Of course!  Being a mustachian is about being *smart* with your money, it doesn't mean living the life of a monk.  Everyone chooses things that are "worth it" to spend on... the point is that it's supposed to be a *CALCULATED* risk.  Meaning, you know exactly how much longer you're going to have to be an employee (how long it's going to delay your FIRE) with each and every purchase you make.  So it the value/cost ratio is high enough to you, and you know it's going to cost X weeks/months/years of retirement but you've decided it's worth it for you to make the trade, then you can do it.

In fact, I'd say being a car enthusiast might make it *easier* to be a Mustachian!  That means you know enough about cars to not get ripped off like so many people do!  It means you know, even more than most people, how stupid it is to buy a brand-new car and take such a massive depreciation hit the day you drive it off the lot. So you won't do that. You know how a car should be maintained, so you end up paying less in repairs than most people (and less for the maintenance too! because you can do a lot of it yourself). It means when you do buy a car, whether it's an econobox or a muscle car, you're going to pay a fair price for it and not get ripped off because you're too lazy to look up the kelly blue book value before you buy. And you're smart enough not to get ripped off by ever doing a trade-in.  You know exactly how much gas mileage you're losing by driving a Mustang instead of a Metro, so you're not going to do something stupid like drive your muscle car on a 100-mile commute every day.  You'll either keep your commute ultra-short, or just have your fun car as a weekend thing and get something more efficient for the daily driver.

Etc etc, it goes on...  being "into" cars means you can buy the cars you want and *still* pay less than most people do!

(I enjoy the same privilege but with computers...  I've been into technology my whole life so I know exactly what devices I need to buy to meet my uses, and which ones I want for "fun", and which ones don't appeal to me even though I've never tried them, because I know everything about them so I don't have to get my info from salespeople that have their own agenda, I don't have to pay somebody else to replace a failed hard drive or whatever, I know exactly what free software I can get that does the exact same thing as expensive commercial software, etc etc.  In the end, it means I get to enjoy my "toys/gadgets" and still pay less than the typical person does...  because I do things like, instead of paying several hundred extra for a "smart tv" I get a regular one and buy a $35 chromecast stick, etc etc)

pzxc

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Re: Can a car enthusiast be a mustachian?
« Reply #3 on: November 15, 2014, 11:47:46 AM »
It's best to be one who lives precariously through other people's purchases.

LOL - the word you're looking for is "vicariously"

Although lots of people end up living precariously through their own purchases! (not others)  lol :)

Paul der Krake

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Re: Can a car enthusiast be a mustachian?
« Reply #4 on: November 15, 2014, 11:49:44 AM »
It's best to be one who lives precariously through other people's purchases.

LOL - the word you're looking for is "vicariously"

Although lots of people end up living precariously through their own purchases! (not others)  lol :)
Yup. Brainfart. :)

shanesauce

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Re: Can a car enthusiast be a mustachian?
« Reply #5 on: November 15, 2014, 12:11:35 PM »
Of course!  Being a mustachian is about being *smart* with your money, it doesn't mean living the life of a monk.  Everyone chooses things that are "worth it" to spend on... the point is that it's supposed to be a *CALCULATED* risk.  Meaning, you know exactly how much longer you're going to have to be an employee (how long it's going to delay your FIRE) with each and every purchase you make.  So it the value/cost ratio is high enough to you, and you know it's going to cost X weeks/months/years of retirement but you've decided it's worth it for you to make the trade, then you can do it.

In fact, I'd say being a car enthusiast might make it *easier* to be a Mustachian!  That means you know enough about cars to not get ripped off like so many people do!  It means you know, even more than most people, how stupid it is to buy a brand-new car and take such a massive depreciation hit the day you drive it off the lot. So you won't do that. You know how a car should be maintained, so you end up paying less in repairs than most people (and less for the maintenance too! because you can do a lot of it yourself). It means when you do buy a car, whether it's an econobox or a muscle car, you're going to pay a fair price for it and not get ripped off because you're too lazy to look up the kelly blue book value before you buy. And you're smart enough not to get ripped off by ever doing a trade-in.  You know exactly how much gas mileage you're losing by driving a Mustang instead of a Metro, so you're not going to do something stupid like drive your muscle car on a 100-mile commute every day.  You'll either keep your commute ultra-short, or just have your fun car as a weekend thing and get something more efficient for the daily driver.

Etc etc, it goes on...  being "into" cars means you can buy the cars you want and *still* pay less than most people do!

(I enjoy the same privilege but with computers...  I've been into technology my whole life so I know exactly what devices I need to buy to meet my uses, and which ones I want for "fun", and which ones don't appeal to me even though I've never tried them, because I know everything about them so I don't have to get my info from salespeople that have their own agenda, I don't have to pay somebody else to replace a failed hard drive or whatever, I know exactly what free software I can get that does the exact same thing as expensive commercial software, etc etc.  In the end, it means I get to enjoy my "toys/gadgets" and still pay less than the typical person does...  because I do things like, instead of paying several hundred extra for a "smart tv" I get a regular one and buy a $35 chromecast stick, etc etc)

Thanks for laying this out for me. Luckily I have also been very tech savvy.

MoneyCat

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Re: Can a car enthusiast be a mustachian?
« Reply #6 on: November 15, 2014, 02:24:21 PM »
I used to be into fast, powerful cars, but I decided to change my mindset and instead get excited about efficient technology.  When you turn hypermileage into a game, it's easy to get excited when you see a 1st generation Honda Insight, because you realize that's a car that you could get 80 mpg out of.  If you can change your mindset like that, it makes it fun plus you save money (plus you can get some bragging rights at green car clubs).

DCJrMustachian

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Re: Can a car enthusiast be a mustachian?
« Reply #7 on: November 15, 2014, 11:20:16 PM »
MMM is himself an admitted car enthusiast.  I don't think it would be possible to collect Corvettes or drive 100s of miles without a MMM face-punch.  Changing your own oil or doing your own maintenance is very MMM. 

As others have said, the MMM cult isn't about living frugally, but about appreciating what things cost and be smart about minimizing costs to maximize your lifestyle.

SnackDog

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Re: Can a car enthusiast be a mustachian?
« Reply #8 on: November 16, 2014, 02:06:57 AM »
Join your local SCCA and borrow a car and helmet from a friend for parking lot autocross. It is 1000x more fun that hooning around on the streets in a Corvette.  Horsepower means nothing in an autocross as you won't get over about 30 mph.  A Miata is ideal.  In fact, if you want the funnest value out there, but a Gen1 '93 Miata for like $3,000.  Sips gas and is a blast to drive.

lizfish

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Re: Can a car enthusiast be a mustachian?
« Reply #9 on: November 16, 2014, 03:24:38 AM »
SnackDog my DH has a Mazda mx5 (Miata) that he shares with a friend and they do very similar events to that. Much cheaper to enter than track days in the UK and the wee car is a lot of fun to drive for relatively little money to run and fix. Might not satisfy a true speed freak though, although nothing much legal does!

BlueMR2

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Re: Can a car enthusiast be a mustachian?
« Reply #10 on: November 16, 2014, 06:39:41 AM »
I sure hope a car enthusiast can be mustachian...  I consider myself fairly mustachian, having expenditures on par with others here despite having an excess of cars (the wife has a Celica, I've got an MR2 and a turbo Eclipse).  Basically, we've swapped the expenses of children out to have cars instead!  :-)

Holyoak

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Re: Can a car enthusiast be a mustachian?
« Reply #11 on: November 16, 2014, 07:24:28 AM »
Sure, just I was an enthusiast of old junkers...  I worked as the service manager at a JD Byrider, and bought and sold cars (trade-ins) like they were loaves of bread...  Talking 2-$500 cars here that I would sell outright for a bit of profit, or buy and fix up some, and drive them like I stole them...  There was even a joke about my fleet of Tercels...  Yep, hard to pass up a fine running $100 car with a slipping clutch, that for 50 bux and some of my time I repaired and drove daily.

P.S.  I still drive my 22 year old Camry that I have had since 1997, and yeah, it's boring...  But man did they build them right in the early/mid 90's!  Original alternator, starter, blower fan, distributor/igniter, injectors, FP, radiator, ECM, engine still strong (for a 5S-FE), Aisin trans shifts great...

 


TheThirstyStag

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Re: Can a car enthusiast be a mustachian?
« Reply #12 on: November 16, 2014, 11:43:50 AM »
Absolutely.  I am a car enthusiast, and it actually makes me more mustachian.  Yes, I drive a powerful fun-to-drive car, but it's over 10 years old and my "car guy-ness" has led to maintaining it on the cheap.  I do all my own maintenance and repairs and it has been a fairly frugal thing to own an operate as a result.  More importantly, I LOVE maintaining it myself.  I also love hunting for "Junkyard HP", and as a result any upgrades haven't been too costly.

In short, it's a hobby for me but it's also led to mustachian choices.  As long as your car enthusiasm doesn't lead to a need to buy a new sports car every 3 years, you can absolutely be frugal about it.