Tag: Finances

Community Tales

Community

Part 1

A couple of weeks ago, I got up one morning, went dowstairs to get some coffee and wake up. Dad, since he’s been staying here, normally gets up before me (at least he did before I started working again) and makes a pot of coffee. Dad was sitting at the desk where we put his iMac and he was scrolling through Yahoo! news or Facebook or something.

A cherry turnover on a plate next to a coffee mug in the shape of BB-8 from Star Wars. Both are sitting on a computer desk. In the background on the desk are a pair of computer speakers, the arms for a computer monitor, a USB hub with cables coming out of it, and a stack of Oregon Megabucks lottery tickets.
A perfectly normal breakfast: cherry turnover and coffee in the shape of BB-8.

I made my coffee drink. I take my 20 oz. BB-8 coffee mug and add about 2 ounces of half-and-half, 2 ounces of chai concentrate, and two tablespoons of chocolate syrup then fill the rest of it with brewed coffee. I call it, “coffee”. Then I walked over to where dad was sitting and scrolling. Took a look outside, saw grey but no rain.

“Another gray day,” I said.

“Yeah, where’s our sun at?” dad said. He shifted in his seat a bit. “Had to go out front for a smoke.” My apartment, a townhouse, has a back patio where he normally goes to smoke, but if it’s raining, he goes out front because the overhang usually protects him from the rain better.

“Oh? But it’s not raining.”

“I just wanted to see if Glasses [nicknamed for her privacy] was out there.” Dad is, despite his age, an incorrigible flirt, and he’s been talking to the woman who lives next door. Just small talk, I’m sure, but he’s more extroverted than I am, so he likes talking to people, especially women. He made a sound halfway between a grunt and a chuckle that indicated to me, embarassment. “She’s got an eviction notice on her door.”

My stomach sank. I’ve been there. I’ve had to deal with no money and rising debts. I was kinda going through that now, actually; if it wasn’t for dad’s help, I would be a month or two behind in rent myself. This story is before I landed my job, when I was still hunting. My empathy for my neighbor kicked in, hard. I carefully opened my front door, saw no one was out there, cracked open the screen, looked to my right. Sure enough, a large legal paper was taped to her door.

She’s a single mom, with a teenage-ish daughter who may or may not work. I think Glasses works, not sure. I am also well aware that just having a job does not mean someone can pay the bills, especially the rent. I went back inside.

“That sucks,” I said. Dad grunted again in agreement. I wondered what he was thinking. I didn’t think he would be inclined to help her out, though he certainly could if he wanted to. I wouldn’t judge. He’s been helping me and I appreciate it immensely. I’m also quite aware that when I was much younger, he would have probably been against providing me with any kind of financial help. But people change over the years.

When I was a kid, for various reasons related to my probable neurodivergence as well as incuriosity about the world and general distaste for doing irrational things like labor, I did not like or want to work at all. Now, while I still hate doing irrational things for irrational people, I also know that I need to do a certain amount of it so I can continue to live indoors and eat food I didn’t pick out of the trash. Fucking capitalism. And maybe dad feels better about helping me when he knows I’m doing my best to helpl myself?

Glasses, though. Regardless of her circumstances, I wouldn’t wish the anxiety of possible eviction on anyone. If the sheriffs’ deputies come, I pledged to stand in their way.

Thinking about planning to examine cars

Cars

For the longest time, I did not own a car. I didn’t own a car for more than two decades. I used public transit or made use of short-term car rental services like ZipCar, or relied on friends and family to pick me up, or I rode my bicycle for short trips. It was fine, really; when I was employed, I could bus to my office, and I could check out a motor pool car if I needed to drive for work. And when I wasn’t working… where did I need to go, really? I could still use the other options, I just did them less often, because I had no money.

But in July 2016, however, I got a decent-ish job working at a call center for a major US bank. The call center was over 18 miles by surface streets, and since my schedule (after training) was a very early shift, public transit did not have any option to get me to the call center on time. I needed a car.

My cousin was looking to upgrade to a newer car, and I bought her used 1996 Honda Accord for cheap. It ran, almost everything on it worked, and it got me to work on time, and that’s all I cared about. I’ve tried to keep up the basic maintenance on it, and it’s served me well, with only minor hiccups here and there.

I have insurance, the car is legally registered, it uses a moderate amount of gasoline, and it only leaks a little oil. I’ve driven it to the beach and back several times. When a prospective employer asks if I have reliable transportation, I am comfortable saying yes. As long as I keep the fluids topped up, I often joke, it will probably outlast me.

For all of those reasons, I did not pay any attention to cars as a topic. I paid no attention to car makes and models, or trends in cars, or prices for new or used cars. I gave zero thought to what kinds of cars I liked or might buy, assuming I had money to buy a car, which I nearly always did not.

My last several jobs were either contract work, with expiration dates, or positions I took out of desperation, keeping a hope of finding something better. I was unable to save up enough money for a down payment and never felt secure enough to take out even a short car loan. That situation has shifted, though. I like my new job, and I can dream a little that maybe I’ll still be there for the foreseeable future. I can think about the possibility of planning to examine the options of perhaps getting rid of the ancient Honda… and replacing it with something newer.

Last night I started figuring out some things. What is a decent price range for a reliable car for me? How will it impact my budget? What will gas, insurance, and maintenance cost? How long will it take to save up a down payment, and is it worth it trading in the Accord? What is my credit score and how does that affect the interest rate and how much money will my credit union loan me? Should I buy a hybrid vs a gasoline car?

I started a spreadsheet to start tracking some of this stuff, because of course I did. I’ve got a first draft of what years, makes, and models interest me, just to get a feeling of what’s out there. It’s a start. Stay tuned for posts where I share some of my research and ask you, my readers, for your advice. Thanks in advance!