WWGRMD or What Would GRM Do

Jaynen said:

yupididit said:

I think I'm pretty much convinced just to keep my 2wd Excursion. 

Now that my wife was more clear about 2wd being ok I may find one as well. This one is close, its a little on the pricy side I have seen 2wd around 5k or so for the non rusted clean ones usually

Second owner, seems like it was the wifes rig is close enough to go see only 40mins away motivated seller

4wd 2001 Excursion Limited

 

Funny that's the exact same color scheme as mine. Even share the same dent up front lmao. Almost the same price I paid as well!

Oh yeah, I think it is a little pricey but the interior is clean and the bumper seems to be the only exterior fault. If its rust free and had good maint history I'd say go for it, maybe $5000 offer . 

I guess I am very non OCD. My miata happily sits outside until its needed for the most part, I just run through the maintenance before events. Same thing with the camper, out of site out of mind? I have just found over the years that trying to find one thing to do it all usually doesn't work or just ends up with a fat monthly payment

Doesn't have a lot of strong documentation however it is second owner good tires. It is 4x4 so don't how if that's worth the big of a premium.

ProDarwin said:

STM317 said:

Fair enough. I didn't mean to imply anything. I know that I'd feel super stressed financially trying to sell a house and buy a house on different sides of the country, while also storing a camper trailer (that will soon be upgraded with something more expensive) and funding  race weekends, but that's me. I wish you nothing but the best. keep the shiny side up!

Its funny because simply reading these threads stresses me out.  I have a SFH, 2 cars, and a 3 year old.  Its a lot to take care of and a lot of stress.  We are considering renting a loft downtown, renting out or selling the house, and going down to 1 car just to simplify.  A camper, car trailer, tow vehicle, 2 DDs, a track car would make my head explode.

I just think I'm not cut out for it :(

Mostly the same here. But more power to the people that can make it work I guess. I appreciate their contributions to the economy.

I guess I have always looked at it about total value. People will go down to one car but then want that one car to be nice and spend 30-40k on it, while I will buy 20k dd's and a 5k track car etc

In reply to Jaynen :

From a 'total value' POV, I still think renting makes sense for a long time. You're budgeting $10k for the purchase, and you'll be on the hook for maintenance and insurance. Because of your restrictive HOA, you're already paying to store the camper offsite, and the car hauler would presumably share the same fate. What are those storage fees costing each year? Plates/registration? Maintenance? Time invested? Seems like you'll have $1000 per year tied up in these vehicles pretty easily and they'll spend most of their time just sitting. How will these extra items impact your house search? Will you have to pay quite a bit more for a larger place with adequate storage? What does that cost, especially if you'd be paying mortgage interest?

How many weekend rentals could you get for $10k initial + $1k/year? And you'd have newer vehicles that you shouldn't have to worry about leaving you stranded or spend any of your own time or money maintaining or storing them. Plus, it would let you keep more in the way of liquid assets, which is always good while house hunting.

In reply to Jaynen :

Take a closer look. 10K can buy a really nice class C.

We have some pretty strong criteria for our next camping rig with more space/storage/separate sleeping area for the kids so we don't have to go to bed at 7:30 when they do. The MH I found that would be the bunkhouse models tended to be more like 30-40 for what we would want while a travel trailer with the same suitable layout can be newer and more like 10k

I am budgeting 10k because I got 52k in life insurance from my moms recent passing and I want to spend a little bit of it on something that I enjoy. I don't have any car payments, I don't have any credit card debt. We used the rest of the insurance proceeds towards taking care of those types of things. When I sell my house in SD I will probably net 70-80k and should easily be able to put down 20% on something out here.

We are happening to look for places with extra parking/land just because we are not fans of the newer sub divisions that was our plan anyway

So I guess I am not sure what I am renting to save up for? (if renting truck and trailer etc)

We use the camper at least once a month sometimes multiple weekends if one weekend is me and a buddy and another the family or his family, my total "event days" for HPDE will end up around 10 this year. (7 remaining currently scheduled)

I know a lot of times these types of posts are from people who don't really have business spending this kind of money and are compromising their price because they think cheap = free = I can afford it. I don't *think* that is the case here but I do appreciate you guys looking out.

But maybe a 10k rv+open car trailer for 2k or less is viable to sell the wife if especially we sell the current camper also. But like I said I haven't seen many 10k rv's I think we would like

yupididit said:

Oh yeah, I think it is a little pricey but the interior is clean and the bumper seems to be the only exterior fault. If its rust free and had good maint history I'd say go for it, maybe $5000 offer . 

Funny enough the guy just messaged me offering me it for 5k if I come look/buy today

Jaynen said:

I guess I have always looked at it about total value. People will go down to one car but then want that one car to be nice and spend 30-40k on it, while I will buy 20k dd's and a 5k track car etc

I should clarify.  In my case it is only a little bit of financial stress.  The stress of life with all those things is a lot.  There's a lot there to go wrong, and even if you can afford to pay someone else to do all the work, its a lot of time and energy to manage all of that.  Also, when you do pay someone to do all of that, then it becomes financially stressful.

My financial stress threshold is pretty low though - I'm trying to retire in 10 years.

Still, if you can make it work, go for it.

In reply to ProDarwin :

I'm hoping to retire in about 12 years (at 60).  While I have way more hobbies, cars and projects than I have time for, I'm fortunate these do not really stress me financially. Granted, I haven't really done the math to see how much I need to save up to be able to ride out the years between 60 and when I can start drawing from my retirement accounts.  Maybe after I do that math my attitude will change...  Regardless, in my opinion, there needs to be a balance.  Plan for tomorrow but not at too much expense of enjoying today, because who knows what the future really holds.

In reply to Jaynen :

Sounds like that Excursion is at least worth a look.  

I know what you mean about RV's.  While there are thousands out there for sale at all sorts of prices, finding "the one" can be like looking for a needle in a haystack.  I'm still looking... 

I bought that excursion, at the 5k price it was hard to beat. Interior is actually in great shape just the one shot of the steering wheel makes it look bad. Its a bit dirty and has the bumper ding/small hood dent, and the drivers side rear corner got bent a little but its pretty straight, no rust, seems to run quite well. AC works but only blows coolish.

Congrats on the tow pig, now to find your trailer.  If you can get that one in the pic for 3500 run and get it now. Every one who owns a trailer think they increase in value.i spent months trying to find a decent used enclosed  and did eventually find one but in hind sight it would have been cheaper to buy a new one after having to do some minor repairs and upgrade to.the one I bought. 

The trailer seems like a mostly sure deal. Its a well known local guy who got out of racing and the trailer was being used by a buddy so it has been maintained, its just basic inside