03 base model rwd v6 auto f150 Not FS

My son was told if he wanted to have a car he had to pay insurance, that's it.  I offered a gas allowance to go back and forth to school.   He made decent money this summer and has $37 saved.  Nope, didn't miss a digit or leave off a "k".

So after offering a hundred ways for him to make any of it up on weekends he is always "playing".  

Last night was the last straw.   As I was working on the truck doors he walked up and said "Can I go to the football game?"

I put the whole story up as much for advice or confirmation as the reason I'm selling before I've even tagged it.

Everything works, a bit over 200k miles manual windows and locks, bench seat, great brakes, tires and trans too.  Purrs like a kitten and  and has surprisingly good power.  Must be the cab/bed configuration is much lighter than most full size trucks.

$3000, a bit flexible.

My daughter made $6000 from Winter thru Summer barely saving $2500?   
 

Its amazing the crap she wastes. 

I get that it's hard for a 15 year old to save.  Got his first debit card too which made it even harder.  But to not even offer to help me was my breaking point.

In reply to Justjim75 :

It's those stupid debit cards.  When you use cash it's harder to part with it.  Those debit cards give you no emotional attachment.  

I paid a contractor cash for some side work.  Having 28 100's come from my savings to his hands was real.   I felt the pain   LOL    

My daughter struggles with the debit card thing too.  

In reply to Justjim75 :

Annoying I'm sure, sounds like an average 15 y/o to me. Might learn a bit by having to pay his way back into transportation.

I feel sorry for Jr.  That looks to be a great truck for a kid.  I can't say why he doesn't appreciate how good he's got it. 

My real fear for you (dad) is that $3k will not buy you the same quality of truck.  

I think that truck would sell in less than a minute at $3k here in Chicago.

However, it is probably worthwhile explaining to him why his actions made you feel the way they did. (I'm assuming you already did that, but still worth saying in case you did not). 

Park the truck at a buddies house. Let son walk to school for a month. When he tires of that, sell him the truck for $3k (but maybe take payments).

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

That's not the southern way. 

How about shortening Jr's leash?  One way might be get weekly (or payday) payments from him for insurance. 

Maybe he's failed at this round of money management but that learning still needs to happen. 

You aren't alone in the financial lesson struggles. Here were we are and what we're changing. 

We wanted our soon to be 18 year old to focus on school (he struggles with ADHD and would prefer to drop out), he has been going to camp for 7 weeks during the summers so no summer work, and he plays hockey so we hadn't been pushing him to get a job.

To help provide some over site we have one of the Greenlight debit card for us to provide funds for gas and essentials.  

He recently started working a couple days on the weekend at a job that works around his hockey schedule, so he has some income. He has to put 1/2 of his check into a savings account and then can use the other half. I don't know if it's helping, but at least he has some money in the bank, and needs to budget his money to do things with friends.  

OK...I'm 69 years old, so may be the grumpy old guy, but here's what my parents did......I had to show my mother my pay check every week and my bank book. House rule was "80% of the check goes in the bank".  I had to obey that rule all the way through university if I expected any financial help from them. I'm not advocating 80% or any other number, but it was a way to learn financial responsibility and discipline. If Jr. can't save any more than $37 over the summer he doesn't deserve the truck, so sell it. Maybe sell it to someone close by so he sees it drive by occasionally.

Edit: If the 80% sounds excessive, that was when I was 18 (and later) and was able to work in the local munitions plants at a union labour rate. I wasn't working McDonalds.

In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :

80% sounds like a pretty good number if you are trying to make sure they understand how much of their net income needs to go to rent, food, bills, and savings. 

I think we'll need to move our son towards a higher savings level (like 80%) once he graduates and is working full time. That will help prep him for the transition from living at home to being out on his own. 

I could EASILY over look the savings mistakes if he showed even a passing interest in helping me with HIS truck.  I'm very much a "show me effort and I'll do anything to help you" kind of Dad and he doesn't get it

I had a job at 14 and my parents never watched my money at all. I did pay them $50 a week for food and such.

I couldn't imagine respecting an adult that tried to tell me what to do with my money from my own job. Having enough to cover gas and insurance is one thing but demanding 80% ? 

That would have gone very poorly with me.

In reply to Antihero (Forum Supporter) :

They expected 80% in return for paying the gap between my savings level and the total cost of university. They were doing that for three of us at one point on Dad's $800/month salary. I thought it was a pretty fair deal at the time since I didn't pay any room and board until I graduated from university. Had I not showed savings discipline I'd have been paying them to live under their roof. And, I was earning union wages. I couldn't eat and drink the 20% I kept each week anyway. When I graduated I was $800 in debt, so the whole exercise worked.

In reply to Justjim75 :

True story....I'm working on one of my cars on a stinking hot day. Oldest son shows his face and says he's going over to see Danny. Danny is his girlfriend's father. My immediate reaction was negative , assuming he was helping Danny with something when I could have used a hand, and I kinda snapped at him "What are you going over there for?" His response was " I'm going to ask Danny's permission to marry his daughter." I remember my lips moving, but no sound coming out.

I had a different experience with debit cards.

This was a along time ago, so you have to scale the numbers a bit, but gas was a lot cheaper and I was driving a Civic with an eleven  gallon tank.

When I needed gas, I'd take $20 out of the ATM, fill the tank for maybe $16 and then the other $4 would magically disappear somewhere. I felt that I started saving that four dollars when I started using a debit card for buying gas. But for me, gas (and driving) were the most important ways to spend my money. 
 

So it worked for me... BUT... now I feel that debit cards are far too risky to use from a security standpoint. Credit cards are much safer, but that requires the discipline that most 15 year olds lack. I certainly didn't have that discipline until I was much older. 

accordionfolder said:

In reply to Justjim75 :

Annoying I'm sure, sounds like an average 15 y/o to me. Might learn a bit by having to pay his way back into transportation.

I have a 42 YO son who isn't much better.  

In reply to Justjim75 :

If you're anywhere near Tampa I have a spot you can park it and pull the tag and insurance. I agree with the point you'll be hard pressed to find another truck like that for the price point. Maybe having it disappear for a bit will get his attention. All I ask is for a key so I can move it to mow around. 
 

Edit. Never mind. Just remembered where you're at. Offer still stands but you're a bit far away for it. 

In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :

All that is valid and since it succeeded all is well.

I can just say, personally it would have been a bad idea

I'm in Montgomery AL right now.   Last trip home I spent a lot of time finding and buying him a truck because I didn't know if I'd be home before his birthday and I wouldn't buy one in New Hampshire (duh).  So I left for a month on work and came back for his bday that's coming Sept 22.   He had a cracked taillight so I bought him the ones he liked and told him to install them while I was gone.  They are still on the kitchen table after 4 weeks.  That's 4 screws and plugs total.  The truck doesn't have a tag, because he doesn't have any money to pay for insurance and I'm not insuring a truck for him if he won't even put on the berkeleying taillights he asked for.   

So is the consensus that yall agree he isn't ready for the truck, but you don't think I should sell?   I wish I could have gotten the $500 Audi home for him.  That would have fixed his little red wagon.

yes to not yet and yes to keep it somewhere somehow.  That's a nice looking truck and I too think you'll be kicking yourself when you try to replace it.

I understand the anger and the desire to teach a lesson, but a lot can happen over 12 months of time.  Guaranteed it will go forward, backward, or neutral.  As he grows and matures, maybe it will come sorta quick.  Or maybe not.  But if it does improve, as we teach and guide, which is the desired outcome, you don't want to do something you'll regret when you then have to help to replace it.

I'll say it again, that's an awesome first vehicle.

Another thought is that maybe it's not the "right" inspiration to get into wrenching. I had NO desire to work on a vehicle or learn how to do anything with one till I bought my third gen Camaro after high school. I had  several "normal" cars previously, that I learned to do nothing more on than basic stuff like brakes, and oil. When I got the Camaro, the narrative changed. I soon learned to pull heads, port match the intake, while the heads were off getting worked over, I installed a new cam, wired up a banging sound system, diagnose overheating issues, etc. Expensive lessons, but ones that pushed me off the cliff of "I don't want to work on it"

BTW the normal cars, I learned a bit on. But dad had to drag me out there to work on them with him. When the timing belt broke on my 88 Subaru wagon, dad did 90% of the work. I was just there to fetch tools, and lend a hand where needed.  He eventually overheated the car and killed it thinking he could baby it home. (cracked a head, and we could never find a replacement in the 90's that wasn't cracked)  The other normal car was a 86 grand prix. That one split a heater hose, and we forgot to put antifreeze back in, instead of water after fixing it. First freeze of the winter I got to learn how important antifreeze is. 

Though I did have a job, and I did pay for my insurance and gas. My parents kicked in occasionally for gas, but I only brought the family van home empty once. That was all it took for me to learn that lesson. (I was only able to borrow the van to go to work for a few months)