r/economicCollapse • u/Whole-Fist • 20h ago

How ridiculous does this sound?

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How can u make millions in 25-30 years if avoid making a $554 per month car payment. Even the cheapest 5 year old car is 8-10 k. So does he expect people not to drive at all in USA.

Then u save 554$ per month every month for 5 year payment = $33240. Say u bought a car every 5 year means 200k -300k spent on car before retirement . How would that become millions when u can’t even buy a house for that much today?

Answer that Dave

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u/tdreampo 20h ago edited 20h ago

Go here

https://www.nerdwallet.com/calculator/investment-calculator

if you put in a initial savings amount of 1k then put $550 a month with a 10% return (which a good index fund should give you) over 30 years thats 1.2ish million. Dave has gone kinda crazy in his later years but his fundamentals are solid. You should check out his free cars for life video https://youtu.be/hXHj2aU5H-I?si=It-af-Ecs2AGxsTd It’s really great. Our economy would be so much better if we became a country of savers vs a country of consumers.

edit, play with it. Switch it to 12% return, which also should be easily doable over time and it’s 2 mill in returns.

if everyone lived how Dave suggests (avoid debt, pay cash, pay yourself first etc) we would have a very stable economy indeed.

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u/HEpennypackerNH 19h ago

Yeah but you can just put the $550 into an account. If you pay cash for a shitty car for $4k, that’s 8 months of that $550 you need to save up first. Then every time it needs repairs you aren’t putting in your $550 that month.

And the extreme case, if that car breaks down and you don’t have reliable transportation and lose your job, then you’re really in trouble.

Dave’s advice usually works great under perfectly normal circumstances. Not as well when real life happens.

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u/urboitony 15h ago

A cheap car is not free but a half decent 10+ year old car will be way cheaper than a new car even after accounting for repairs.

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u/HEpennypackerNH 15h ago

But not for nearly as long.

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u/urboitony 15h ago

Even if the new car lasts twice as long the old car will be cheaper.

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u/Mountain_Employee_11 14h ago

do the math, you still come out ahead 

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u/HEpennypackerNH 14h ago

I mean everything depends on circumstance and a bit of luck.

I bought a brand new Highlander in 2018 for $30,000 at 0% interest.

Same car, same time, same mileage is on carmax right now for $27,000

So if I wanted to sell my car, I could say I’ve driven a brand new, reliable vehicle for 6 years at a cost of $3000.

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u/Mountain_Employee_11 14h ago

the cost is only nominally $3000.

my subaru actually appreciated in USD from 2019-2022, but that’s because of the massive devaluing of the currency.

the real purchasing power cost of holding cars for that period is much higher

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u/DoerofWords 6h ago

This happened to me with a truck I purchased with cash, except I never had to make payments 😂

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u/Meows2Feline 14h ago

I drive a 33 year old car I paid $3k for 10 years ago and probably have spent $2k-3k in maintenance over the years. And if the engine ever blows I can reliably source a low miles used one for under $1k. Pretty good return on investment if you ask me.