Are You Rich?
Hi,
I recently made a difficult personal financial decision. I sold my car. My 2018 BMW X1 with 40k-ish miles. Why? In order to pay for something my husband and I honestly couldn’t afford. We have a renovation project at home that must be completed before summer because I am almost 6 months pregnant with our first child. Thus it is non-negotiable. However, said project would cost us 50k in cash. I think we’re pretty good savers but we couldn’t save the additional 30k (at the time we had 20k saved) we needed by the end of May without dipping into our life savings which wouldn’t be wise with a baby on the way. So, I went online to see how much I could get for my car. 20k was the highest number I was seeing. The next day, I sold my car and got my 20k check.
I grew up in a household that valued appearances more than anything. My mother leased expensive cars even though we could barely afford rent because “appearances matter.” So, when I got my first job out of college, I too went for an expense car that frankly I could not afford. I had no business making a $500 monthly payment making $67500 a year with student loans. It was silly. But I cared more about what others thought about me than my actual financial situation. However, as the years went on, I learned how to care less and less about what others thought of me and my material items.
A big part of why I drove the BMW I previously owned was because of external perception. I wanted people to think I had money. I wanted people to think I was well off. Even though the car had been paid off for 3 years when I sold it, I had no business driving it. For context, I work from home. The main places I go to are the gym, church, and grocery store. All of these places I go to with my husband 95% of the time. So now, my husband and I share his 2018 purple Toyota RAV4 with 67k-ish miles. With my husband’s recent raise our pre-tax household income is just over 270k a year. I could go out to a dealership and buy a new car on loan. But, after living without a car payment for 3 years+ I couldn’t fathom going into debt for such a massive liability. I much rather have people believe I have no money when I drive down the street.
We as a society have completely lost ourselves in consumerism. We fawn over people that drive fancy cars, have big homes, and wear designer clothes when that has nothing to do with actually being rich. Being rich is something people cannot see. It’s financial stability. To me it’s a full funded Roth 401k and HSA. To me being rich is knowing that you can retire 20 years earlier than your peers. To me being rich is knowing that my family will be taken care of regardless of when I pass.
Will I get another car one day? Absolutely. I still love luxury cars that go fast but for the right reasons now. Because in my life, financial stability will always take precedent over external perception.
Thanks for reading.
