I need a new car!
What triggers of the need for a personal transport? Is it the transport or a social requirement?
Well these are the things that I have heard from people who are not capable of paying themselves first (http://www.subramoney.com/2013/02/pay-yourself-first) . Interesting reasons….
1. Sir, all my batchmates have bought a car: this happens when a kid is about 3 years into a job post MBA (or equivalent) or about 6 years into a job post Bcom.
2. My husband pays for all the expenses, so I am buying a car for my father, brother,….etc.
3. Our house is so far away from the station: my take is that the house may be about 5 km from the station, so to ‘save’ auto fare they travel about 80 km (to and fro) by a car. Awesome logic.
4. My wife is pregnant and now we cannot travel by a 2 wheeler
5. One wet evening I had to wait for half an hour to get a rick – so next day I went and bought a car.
6. One night at 12 I had to take my daughter to hospital – and i could not get a rick. It is not about money, it is a convenience.
7. I am earning Rs. 6 lakhs, my dad does not need this money…so instead of spending it, I might as well invest in a car (eeks this investment happens through a car loan!!)..http://www.subramoney.com/2009/09/attitude-towards-money/
8. I need to take my family out for the weekends, SO I NEED a bigger car
9. My current zen does not have enough boot space, SO i need a Honda City at least
I could go on and on and on!
None, repeat none of these are real travel reasons. Most of these people may even be OVERPRICED in this economy which is not really searching for people with 5 years experience and willing to pay them a million rupees!
Ha, time is always on your side and allows for real big mistakes, do make them. That is the only way to learn.
Sunny
hi,
The funniest reason I have heard here in delhi
Metro is for the masses. The classes cant be seen in it.
Thanks
Sambaran Mitra
Why bullet#4 and bullet#6 are NOT real travel reasons?
Atul
Subra, this is similar to Systems thinking. if the road is narrow and llot of congestion people will start car pooling, taking pubic transport etc. The moment there is flyover car pooling is reduceed, people buy new cars. Recalls that early 70s,80s roads were most funded by car companies in US to increase car sales.
Rajesh
Sambaran,
This website is all about money,taking investment courses(at 30,000 per class) and pouring more money in market and enabling commission for the finance professionals..
yes, big metroes have radio taxis. on normal days, they work just splendid. But, try getting a cab on a rainy evening in bangalore and you are stuck without a transport( be it returning home or medical emergency).. many finance profesionals cant see this because for them humans are just numbers..
Krish
This website only advocates investing in equities either direct or through MFs and all other investment avenues are considered to be trash. It also criticizes small equity/mf investors for losing the money as like MLM scheme last line of investors for not being entrepreneurial and dynamic.
On this platform, only Crores in terms of networth, wealth and investment would be discussed. Youngsters are ridiculed for aspiring to study abroad or ivy league school with hefty tuition fee or even to own home and car. As a long time reader of this blog, I can cite many more antagonistic write-ups. Not sure what to say, if some one chooses to ignite thinking through constant critique.
Pooja R
Krish I guess you must have commented at least 20 times on this blog! I guess it takes a long time to understand…I choose to read what is relevant to me and ignore the rest. The best thing I like about this site is the no edits policy. As an editor I also realize that you need to be bold and ruthless – and let the FULL set of readers to choose what to read. I cannot even read India Today fully these days – to each his own I guess. Yes I do read all that Subra writes – wildly disagreeing or happily noding. Cannot ignore that is all. Yes it has a upper class wealth orientation – in fact Subra will benefit if he writes about spending, student loans, credit card usage – more readers and more ad revenue I guess..but as I said to each his own!
nitin bourai
well for point no #4 and #6
it is justified to have a car if you can afford , what is the purpose of living and saving if you cant have luxury to travel and spending on family.
few months back my wife was suffering from high fever and in morning in had to carry her from one hospital to another and due to my car it took me 15 min to provide her best medical facility.
when such things happen one never looks for lakh of rupees’s you just need services on time and you can spend any amount of money for your love ones.
i have a question :
what will you do to your retirement fund of 5 lakh for example and urgently your love one require 5 lakh for treatment as you have exhausted your medical insurance limit.
a wise men will spend this fund on his love ones
as money can be earned but your dearest cannot be.
Sambaran Mitra
@Rajesh,
Completely agree with you.
I fantasized about a car-free life. I still do. I had high hopes from radio-taxis that it can help me to stay car-free without compromising on luxury/comfort/need. I was car-free for 12 years of my job-life.
The guaranteed unreliability of all the public-transport mechanisms(including the radio taxis) has put me off. Finally I had to take a car. I have some typical situations where the car is indeed helping me and I cannot put a value to that.
Having said that, may be some innovative thinking is needed to get car-free again. People have done it. There is one Leo Babauta who writes nicely about this topic (among other minimalism things).