Original link: http://mednoter.com/having-a-car.html
When my wife was pregnant seven years ago, my friends suggested that I buy a car so I could take the kids on a trip. From Shanghai to Taihu Lake, Moganshan, and Hangzhou, within 3 hours of driving, you can go as far as you want. In addition, it is not easy to take a taxi when it is raining. In case of an emergency, it is most convenient to drive your own car.
Until now, I haven’t bought it, and my life is going well, and I haven’t encountered a single emergency.
I have carefully considered buying a car, first buying a used car within 100,000 yuan to practice my skills, but I finally gave up, no car, no worries.
It is difficult to charge and park in the old community. The urban area of Shanghai is dominated by the old and the young, and there is a battle for parking spaces every day. Public parking spaces are first-come, first-served, and the parking fee is half a day. Because there is no parking space of its own, and charging piles cannot be installed, it is not only difficult for electric vehicles to park, but also to charge.
Rental houses usually do not have parking spaces. My family rents a house all the year round and moves every two years. The more stuff you have in your home, the lower your chances of finding the right home. If you buy a car, you have to find a parking space for it. You can only choose a high-end community, and the choice is getting smaller and smaller.
For people studying, driving doesn’t necessarily save time. Taking the subway is slow, but you can memorize words, read books, and study on the way. I used to take 1.5 hours one-way to work. I took the subway at 7:00 in the morning. There are many things I can do on the subway:
- Do a set of radio gymnastics first
- stretch the body
- memorize words
- Review the knowledge points learned yesterday
- Walk to the subway entrance and exercise
If you are driving, you can only concentrate on driving. Can’t learn, can’t think, can’t exercise.
After changing jobs, I became a remote engineer. Every day I go to work is to walk from the living room to the study, and be in place in 10 seconds, which is closer. My wife walks to work and arrives in 10 minutes. Cars are used less frequently.
Cars keep depreciating. A house will resist inflation, and if you are lucky, it will increase in value; bonds will have interest, and stocks are cash cows that will continue to spit out dividends. But the moment a car is bought, its value begins to shrink, depreciating every year.
The car needs maintenance and is a future liability
- 500-1000 parking fee per month
- If you burn oil, you will have a lot of money every month.
- Annual insurance premium of 5,000 yuan.
Owning a car in Shanghai costs 20,000 yuan a year to maintain. In other words, once you buy it, you will be in debt of 20,000 every year in the future.
“It’s not easy to take a taxi when it rains, and I can’t call a car in an emergency, so I have to buy a car” This kind of reason does not hold. The probability of raining in Shanghai is not high on weekdays. It is obviously not worthwhile to pay huge expenses for a very low probability. If you can’t get a car, you will pay more. There must be a driver under the reward. When it rains, you can “add 50 yuan” or take a luxury car. It can be solved by spending an extra 1,000 yuan a year. Why introduce another complicated problem to solve a simple problem.
There is no car at home, and there are many inconveniences.
My driving skills were completely forgotten. It’s been a year since I got my driver’s license, and my driving skills have been returned to the teacher.
It is inconvenient to go home. It is particularly inconvenient to visit relatives and friends without a car, and it is also particularly shameful to ride a bicycle for New Year’s greetings. But when I think of going back to my hometown at least twice a year, I don’t have face, right? The face is for others to see, but the money saved is for me.
If you look at it dialectically, “looking poor” is not a bad thing, and no one will ask me to borrow money.
Unable to start a trip that just goes away
Because I don’t have a car, I can’t wake up on Saturday and go on a willful trip. If you want to travel across cities, plan ahead, book high-speed rail tickets, and book hotels.
Save the big head, you can not pay attention to the small head.
Our family is well-off and has enough money to buy and maintain a car. Because I didn’t buy it, I saved a lot of money, and I could spend it in other small places, which greatly improved the happiness of the family.
- Kids educational supplies, pianos, books, educational software.
- Stay in a better hotel when you go out.
- Take a taxi with a budget of 2,000 yuan per month.
- Occasionally go to a high-end restaurant to eat a meal that doesn’t hurt.
- Bought a mechanical keyboard HHKB, spent 2000 yuan.
- I bought a Macbook Pro and spent more than 20,000.
- Bought a Go Pro camera for 4,000 yuan.
- buy some gifts for elders
- Buy a variety of office software.
- Occasionally help others financially.
The article ” List of Tools I’m Using ” details where my money is being wasted. Anyway, no matter how much tossing, it doesn’t cost as much to buy and maintain a car.
not rich enough
There are thousands of reasons not to buy a car, the essence is “not rich enough”.
If the annual salary is one million and the family has a house of 150 square meters, I will not care about 20,000 pounds per year at all, and I will buy a car decisively. Even if it is lying at home every day.
If I have my own underground parking space, the elevator is directly accessible, and I don’t have to wander around in the old and poor community for half an hour to find a parking space, then I will buy a car decisively.
If you don’t have enough money to spend on tiptoe, and spend money to cause yourself a lot of trouble, it’s better to save it and buy some things that are used frequently and can significantly improve the quality of life.
Our current travel plan and cost
City: Shanghai
| Travel range | Program | spend |
|---|---|---|
| within 10 km | electric bicycle | 0 yuan |
| within 10 km | bike | 0 yuan |
| Within 10-100 km | Didi, Meituan | 200-300 yuan/time |
| over 100 km | Long-distance bus, high-speed rail | 100 yuan -300 yuan |
Our family bought 2 small electric donkeys. Traveling within 10 km, the small electric donkeys save money and are convenient. I really love them.
- Park on the side of the road, no need to find a parking space
- no parking fee
- Turn off the speed limit, you can reach the speed of a small motorcycle, which is very fast.
If I have money in the future, whether it is a new car or a used car, I will most likely still buy a very ordinary car.
- The car price is 1/4 of the annual salary.
- It doesn’t feel bad when you scratch it, just paste it up and use it again, you don’t need to give it every day.
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