What To Do With The Extra Money?

I have two, top choices to spend the money on my truck, it needs a new headliner for one thing. I've put a lot of money into it already, but I don't feel anymore secure about taking even short trips in it, it's a 94 Mazda B3000 and I have an excellent Auto Shop that has taken care of it for the last 8 years. It's still old, and so am I, so not sure it's the truck stopping me from any travel, or me.

I also received a notice I may have an apartment in a larger city where I would have many more opportunities, along with pitfalls of larger cities.

The longer I stay here, and not knowing how long my truck will last I am losing willingness to even try for a better situation for me. Maybe it wouldn't be better because I wouldn't feel any different with spending money on my truck, not after awhile, temporary "fix", and moving, I'd have to wait maybe another 8 years to feel as comfy as I feel here, except for the medical/dental situation.

bottom line, I don't know what to do. Keep saving til I do know, but I'm afraid I'll get so old I can't make a move, or my truck will give out. This feels stupid to post but what the hell, at least I'm getting some things out, talking about it, Denise

 

We were, key word here is "were", thinking about putting a new engine in our old 2005 Dodge Durango w/182,000 miles on it, but ended up against that. I have file after file of repair receipts of repairs we've done to it. The Durango was brand new in April 2005, bought by someone who put 24,000 miles on it and sold it back to dealer. We bought it in December 2005. It's held up pretty great, but that meant putting a lot of money into repairs, like we have in our 1992 boat.

Luckily, my wife has had this temp "at home" job that keeps extending her each month. She gets an excellent salary, but no benefits. She was able to save up enough money on this temp job so we were able to trade-in the 2005, but not for much, and get a 2021 Dodge Durango GT. No monthly payments! The vehicle is very "high tech" and we love it. Bought it a few months ago when it had 28,000 miles on it.

We will have our boat until this coming summer, then it will be sold. Have put a lot of money into it, so "enough is enough". Besides that "money/repair" thing, we will be moving to an area that doesn't have any powerboating lakes around.

 

For me, making life decisions is harder than it used to be. When young and carefree, I never worried so much about whether I was doing "the best thing," I'd just go for it. Now I'm more inclined to leave well enough alone since I'm not good at coping with change.

I hope you can decide the best path for you, Denise. Sounds like there's no urgency to do anything at all right now so just consider your options. If you have friends and are comfortable where you are, maybe staying put is the best thing.

 

For me I think the repairs, new tires, windshield, and 180 some thousand miles on my truck is less that buying a newer truck, but I could be wrong. So that's the decision, and you found a low-mileage vehicle you could afford. I don't see any I could afford the payments with low mileage, big problem. I'm tempted to try a car-lot either here or Oregon, and see what sort of deal they might give me either with a down payment + trade it (they'll give me nothing on my small truck, and make a bundle off it).

I realize I could sell it myself on AutoTrader or somewhere, but wouldn't know what to ask for it.

 

That's just how I feel about before when I was younger, and now. You said it best, I rarely worried at all, that was part of my problems too There isn't any hurry, you're right so just keep gathering info, gives me something to do. I know I won't cope with the whole moving thing, as easy as I would just fixing my truck so I can still drive locally without worry. No trips, but I wonder if I'd actually take any

 

Well, Denise, it can really depend on how much more money it will take to keep up maintenance/repairs on a vehicle with 180,000 on it. At first, I was the one that wanted to keep our old Durango, but my wife was set on getting a newer one. She knew the milage and/or year she wanted, but did want another Durango. We were able to pay, in full, for the 2021 Durango, along with three Service Plans to help take care of it. We have electronic things on it that we never even knew existed! It did drain our savings account, but there are all kinds of things that can do that.

We didn't get what we wanted for a "trade-in", but it did have 182,000 miles on it. The Dodge dealership sent our old Dodge directly to an Auto Auction. They knew they couldn't sell in on their lot.........too old/too high of milage.

And, on top of getting this 2021, we also moved to another State to basically escape northern Colorado winters. However, now we are planning on making another move, to northwestern Nevada. Lifestyle up there is much more to our liking (we hope).

Some things are just hard decisions to make, especially at our age (mid 70's for us). Good Luck to you!

 

Yes, the transmission is about the only thing that has not been replaced, of course the engine, and I hear the transmission is the biggest expense of all, and bottom line for me too is the mileage on the truck. It's a small one, and I have a canopy. In CA DMV insists it's a commercial vehicle and I just paid 177.00 for license and registration.
Thank you for the help, I do appreciate having both a man's viewpoint and a woman's

 

Denise, I don't know much about your situation so any advice I could give might not be worth much but I do have a thoughts.

Looking beyond the truck you said you might have an apartment in a larger city with more opportunities. That caught my attention because having things we need more available to us is really important as we age. Could it be that other modes of transportation would be available there if the truck fails? Things like rides to medical appointments or to shopping, maybe.

Would there be more social opportunities in the larger city? Less chores in the apartment? Other things that you would value?

I do think it's important to make plans for the time when it will be harder to move or harder to maintain what we are doing now. I've made one move for those reasons and have considered some plans in case I need to move again. No one can predict what will happen but I feel better having a plan in place.

 

I would not put any money in cosmetic repairs like the headliners for starters. It's lipstick on a pig for a vehicle that old. You sound pleased with your auto repair place, so I would confide in them to steer you in the right direction. They might know of a good vehicle in your price range if you decide to buy another.

Saving money becomes a habit and it's a good one until you run out of time to enjoy it. I'm in the same boat...continue to live frugally or splurge. I've considered spending a goodly percentage of what's saved every year and just see how it goes.

 

I once had the same truck but 1995 not 94. It had 387,000 Alaska miles on it when I sold it. My son had a 1994 Dodge 1500 he wanted to sell, so I sold the little truck and saved the big truck with only 160,000 miles or so on it. Other than MPG, I really haven't regretted selling my Mazda. Didn't get much for it though.