The curse to be responsible and a sensible at all times is one that is crushing our souls this week. 10 days away and we have returned to a household that needs cleaning, the infant and the lady of the house attacked by some merciless bug rendering both sick and suffering (although not in silence!) and good grief, has the sun been out to roast us here in Singapore?
Over dinner yesterday, Mr.C and I started throwing a rant of wants at each other trying to get it out of the system. A car! A dishwasher! A helper! A massage chair! A dryer! To live somewhere cooler! Food delivery! A new TV where I can flick content from my phone right on to the screen of the TV! A comfortable rocking chair!
Of all that, one really got under our skin and that was the car. How did we arrive at this even? Could it be:
- the sweltering heat, threatening to turn my brains to crisp when I go out?
- we were spoilt in Melbourne, driving around in a swanky BMW X5?
- Coco#1 is a master salesman, persistent, hopeful, confident and creative?
- “Are we taking a taxi today?”
- “Papa, I want you to work more so we can buy a car from the showroom without taking a loan”
- “I want to buy a mini steering wheel and pretend to drive when Papa is driving”
- “Do you know what is faster than a bus? A Car!” <– My favourite!
Of course, as sensible adults, we talked through the cost. We quickly went to Mr.15HWW’s page as he did a write up about car ownership recently (here and here). Check out what I found in the comment section!
Mr.C has clearly overlooked the fact that his capable and gorgeous wife straps Coco#1 to herself every weekday at 12:30pm to head out for a 10 minute walk to the bus stop, board the bus and fetch the 4 year old before making the same journey back, in the hottest hour of the day under the scorching sun. So while Mr.C forgets very quickly in the mornings, Ms.K remembers *wink,wink* 😉
This week clearly has my brains sizzling from being burnt. I asked Mr.C what is the cheapest car we can get. It’s not too far off from Mr.15HWW’s $1,400 total cost estimate, maybe shave off HDB parking and it’s $1,300 a month. Phew, that’s a lot more than that I was unrealistically hoping for. If we were to maintain that amount monthly, that adds a mere $390,000 to our target nest to reach FIRE [power of 25 darlings, annualize your monthly spend x 25 which is the inverse of the 4% rule]. Umm, I think I’ll just skip the whole car idea, thank you very muchly.
“But what is the purpose of having money if I have to suffer daily?” the unfrugalistic alter-egos shouted, rearing their still beautiful heads.
A brief monologue later which was mostly muttered under his breath as he battled his inner alter-ego, Mr.C said “Let’s just stick with the plan and hit the number”.
~ The End ~
What’s a story with no lessons? Surely this is a teachable moment…Lessons or realizations that I take away from this, as I now sit in the air-conditioned room, would be :
- We are humans too with wants that can sometimes inflate our spending in ways that would deviate from our grand plan.
- The importance of having a solid plan that aligns your goals and desires as well as priorities to fall back on when there’s a strong inner struggle as this.
- It is much cheaper to take a cab daily 😀
Author: Ms.K
Ms.K is everything that Mr.C is, without the natural interest in investing and company financials! The activity planner for the family, the driver of random ideas and soon to be ‘retiring’ in to full time motherhood – Ms.K has no idea what she’s in for but remains super excited!
As a mother with two young kids I totally feel you! Having a car does indeed makes it a lot more convenient in so many aspects and yes I know the numbers probably doesn’t make sense for a car but it would greatly help in the daily drudge.
It is your decision to make as a family and whether you get it or not ultimately, I am sure you will be glad you made that decision.
As always, nice to have you drop by! Yes you are probably the closest to understand the dilemma on hand – being on the path to FIRE and with 2 young ‘uns! Oh well, we’re still not biting the bullet and throwing in some extra cab rides when it is indeed too hot.