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On Tue, 21 Nov 2017 23:48:15 -0500,
wrote:

On Tue, 21 Nov 2017 20:12:51 -0500, wrote:

h.

I suppose it all depends on your philosophy. I bought my last new car
in 1970 (a Jeep) and because I traded a paid off Corvette I was able
to pay that off in about 16 months. I kept making the payments to
myself with the objective of being able to pay cash for my next car
but I got the Gremlin for free and I drove that for a while, then a
used van that I put 100k miles on. By then my banked "car payments"
were enough to buy the condo that was rented and I was rolling. I paid
off the condo in 12 years and that was my last debt.
I will say a free "seminar" (AKA sales call from a broker) got me on
the way to prosperity at just about the time when I was thinking about
getting something new to replace my Jeep. He convinced me there were
better ways to invest my "car" money than a car. I never bought a new
one after that. I don't think people realize how much that saves you,
compounded over 40 years or more.
I screw up a new car so fast it is a waste of money anyway. You saw
what I drive (the green one and the mostly red one). They are both
just a piece of metal that you can ride in to me.

===

Didn't you have an opportunity to buy IBM stock at a 10% discount or
something like that? I've known IBMers who ended up with quite a nest
egg that way.

I admit the IBM stock deal was great, better than that. It was 85% of
the date if grant price (the lowest price that year) and for a while
in the 70s we were getting $400+ shares for $214. It was legend in the
company. They changed that "date of grant" thing to the most recent
close after that.
The 10% was the limit you could buy but you could select your gross
pay option. That was in addition to my "car money" that I kept bumping
up as I made more money. It allowed me to give my ex the Maryland
house, about $100k in mutual funds. That did not count her savings and
other stuff she had.
It made that a painless transaction. No drama and we are still
friends.
I was still able to pay cash for this house.

IBM stock has been flat for a number of years and I have been rolling
out of it but these days the shares I have are pretty much all "zero"
basis so I end up paying the full cap gains nut on them.