I have a great saving story in this vein: when I worked at a hospital, I was saving to try and buy a car. Everyone told me I was so silly wanting to save so much before buying. I could just take a loan and make payments, after all. But I did not like that idea - if the payments took all my extra income, how would I pay for gas and insurance and repairs? If the car broke down, I would be stuck not being able to fix it. Plus you pay more with interest on a loan. I wanted to save enough to buy the car outright, and then what I had been putting into car savings could be the insurance/gas/parking money after.
Well, I ended up losing that job after a while and I lived off of that car savings for months. What would I have done if I was without work AND I had a car payment?? I probably would have had the car taken away for missed payments.
My friends who had thought I was silly all come from middle class backgrounds where money was never very dire for them; I come from poverty (first world poverty, anyway) so I have it in my head that shit happens, and you better be prepared.
I still don't own a car but at least I don't have that debt and cost now that I couldn't afford.
So many lessons to learn from your story other than the need for saving that I mentioned. I particularly like how you didn't feel the need to compete with your middle class friends and live above your means just to impress. Some people make that mistake, and end up with endless debts and regrets
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta