I can see why kids are skipping car ownership & just using Uber. Lemme see, this Summer:
Car payments: $464
New battery: $130
New headlight: $20
Gas: $190
Oil: $30
Registration: $37
Rear brakes: $284
State inspection: $100
6 months insurance: $314
_______________________
Total: $1,569
I wonder why I never go anywhere or buy anything & am still spending $400 a month? It’s all going to my car. Mercifully I made my last car payment, so once I get caught up on the brakes, I’m good.
One trick I learned is to break down annual expenses monthly. I know I’m gonna get hit with registration & inspection every summer so $137 / 12 = $11.42. Set up an automated monthly transfer to savings for that. The distinction I’ve made now is tires & brakes aren’t exactly a surprise expense either; I gotta replace em every couple years, so I’ll add another $25 a month to savings to cover those when they come up (usually at an inspection). I should probably also be getting my brake pads checked every 10k miles so I don’t end up grinding down the rotors & getting my tires rotated so the wear is more even.
So to own a car or just Uber? Unfort. I’m addicted to the freedom of ownership. I’ve always use the ‘drum set test’: can I fit the equivalent of a drum set in my vehicle & drive 100 miles to a gig that night? If the answer is no, you’ve limited your music career. Yeah there’s always car rental, but I’ve found that’s a seasonal business. There are amazing deals to be found off-season, but you’re gonna get hammered in Summer when you won’t find a rental for less than $70 a day.
So if you’re living in a city, don’t need to haul anything for your art & spend less than $300 a month on Uber, yeah you’re probably saving by outsourcing your car ownership.
The same thing happened when Airbnb started as “you got a spare room? why not rent it out to a visitor for a few nights? you get some extra cash and they get a nice place to stay while they visit the city” and it immediately turned into “I’m gonna buy up every available unit in this condo building downtown and rent them out short term, contributing to massive rent increases, severe housing shortages, loud inconsiderate assholes treating places where people are supposed to live like cheap no-restriction hotels, and then bitch and moan when Airbnb gets banned from my building before just continuing on anyway”
