RPF0555-Good_Cheap_and_Fast-A_Travel_Story
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00:00:29.960 | Welcome to Radical Personal Finance, the show dedicated to providing you with the knowledge,
00:00:36.200 | skills, insight, and encouragement you need to live a rich and meaningful life now while
00:00:40.680 | building a plan for financial freedom in 10 years or less.
00:00:45.480 | My name is Joshua.
00:00:46.480 | I am your host and I am your fellow financial freedom fighter working with you and sharing
00:00:52.560 | some of my own journey on this quest towards financial independence, hoping to help you,
00:00:58.560 | to teach you, to encourage you, and also just to share from my own adventures along the
00:01:03.280 | way.
00:01:04.280 | Thrilled to report to you that I am broadcasting from on the road, officially out of the state
00:01:09.640 | of Florida.
00:01:10.760 | My family and I are officially into our long-term full-time RV trip around the United States
00:01:17.320 | and what a past few weeks it has been.
00:01:22.480 | It has been quite the adventure.
00:01:24.480 | But one of the very important principles under which I create Radical Personal Finance is
00:01:30.120 | to share with you the good, the bad, the challenging, etc.
00:01:33.080 | I have never hidden from you really anything.
00:01:35.880 | I have never tried to create a facade of any sort.
00:01:40.280 | I've tried to share with you very transparently and forthrightly a little bit about my own
00:01:46.360 | journey because for me, Radical Personal Finance has been both a professional endeavor and
00:01:51.960 | a personal journey.
00:01:54.480 | It's been a personal tool.
00:01:55.520 | It's been really a personal hobby and I'm very grateful to be able to share that with
00:02:01.760 | you.
00:02:02.760 | So today, I will primarily share a narrative with you, a little bit of the story of especially
00:02:05.880 | the last few weeks as we have set out and faced big challenges in getting out the door
00:02:13.280 | on our own financial, on our own trip, kind of the fulfillment of us living our rich life
00:02:19.520 | now while also working towards and continuing to trot down the plan for financial freedom
00:02:25.560 | in 10 years or less.
00:02:28.240 | And so today, that relates to our travels.
00:02:31.160 | On the most recent show, I shared with you that a week before we were scheduled to leave
00:02:36.320 | or excuse me, five days before we were scheduled to leave on our full-time RV trip, when we
00:02:42.120 | were mostly moved out of an apartment and told our landlord when we were out and we
00:02:45.640 | were mostly moved into a travel trailer and really had no stuff, all of a sudden, our
00:02:49.560 | tow vehicle, our pickup truck was stolen and wound up in really a serious shape.
00:02:55.880 | And so that has been quite the wrinkle and it has utterly consumed the last two weeks.
00:03:00.480 | So thank you for your patience with me.
00:03:03.160 | Thank you also for patience over the coming months.
00:03:04.640 | You're going to hear me broadcasting from many locations.
00:03:06.800 | It is extremely challenging to find a place to work when you're on the road and when you
00:03:11.280 | record audio.
00:03:12.280 | I've done my very best to have top of the line equipment and to find quiet places, but
00:03:17.040 | thank you for your patience.
00:03:18.040 | You're going to hear me, you're going to hear all kinds of funny things in the background.
00:03:20.960 | Today, I worked and worked and right when I'm ready to record, the wood chipper started
00:03:25.200 | it up.
00:03:26.200 | So there's a wood chipper in the background.
00:03:29.240 | So to the story as to how we've actually gotten on the road, I want to share the story with
00:03:33.800 | you and I want to also use it as a loose way of discussing a principle that I practice
00:03:39.760 | when I try to break the model of good, fast and cheap.
00:03:43.780 | Think of the sign that you've no doubt seen in your mechanic shop that says you can have
00:03:47.960 | your work done good, you can have your work done fast, or you can have your work done
00:03:53.840 | cheap.
00:03:54.840 | Now, I love that sign because I think it expresses a truth, especially a truth as relates to
00:04:00.040 | really any kind of service that you are purchasing.
00:04:03.440 | Good, fast, cheap, pick two.
00:04:06.400 | You can get two of them, but you can't get all three.
00:04:09.520 | And I think one of the basics of finance is to recognize where you are in that triangle.
00:04:15.320 | Which two do you really need and doing your best to always keep cheap in the mix.
00:04:22.920 | Because the more you pay, really, the more it costs you.
00:04:26.920 | And in general, any time you can lower your expenses, the better.
00:04:29.560 | So that means that you have to play with either the good, and I think that's really problematic
00:04:35.220 | when buying things or services, or you have to play with the fast.
00:04:40.320 | And I think that's usually the best thing to play with.
00:04:43.800 | But I tell you what, I've had my back up against the wall last week.
00:04:46.880 | When you are a father of three small children, all under the just a few years old, and you
00:04:53.240 | have two dogs and your family has moved out of an apartment, but not really moved into
00:04:57.120 | a trailer and that trailer is sitting in your driveway and you really it's not livable,
00:05:01.160 | you don't really have any amenities hooked up to it.
00:05:04.720 | It's just in it's stuck there and you don't have a vehicle to pull it with and all of
00:05:08.040 | a sudden you got to move fast to solve the problem.
00:05:10.040 | So I'm going to share that story with you.
00:05:13.320 | One other point of introduction here though on good, fast and cheap.
00:05:16.120 | I modify this a little bit when I'm buying things.
00:05:18.440 | So I don't think you have to choose between good, fast and cheap when buying things.
00:05:22.940 | I think you can find good.
00:05:24.720 | I think you can find fast.
00:05:25.720 | I think you can find cheap.
00:05:26.720 | The way I modify it when buying things is you can have fast, cheap or exactly what you
00:05:34.120 | want.
00:05:35.120 | Something unique, something specific.
00:05:37.440 | Because if you're willing to lower your standards or lower your discrimination among
00:05:42.760 | certain items and be willing to accept a broader range of choices, you have more buying options.
00:05:49.440 | So I'll share with you a little bit of the story because I think this will be similar
00:05:53.400 | to what you'll face whenever you're trying to work towards something unusual, when you're
00:05:58.680 | trying to work towards something radical and also keep money under control.
00:06:05.560 | Because I'll tell you what, if I start to get money out of control, it's tough for me
00:06:10.080 | to feel at peace.
00:06:11.080 | It's tough for me to feel content if the money is out of control.
00:06:13.640 | But sometimes you commit yourself to a course of action and all of a sudden you're sucked
00:06:17.080 | in deep and you feel like just the money is quickly spinning out of control.
00:06:21.280 | It's what many, many people face.
00:06:24.160 | And so I'll share the story with you.
00:06:26.480 | The concept of the RV trip goes back a long ways and it wasn't something that we wanted
00:06:31.800 | to do super important to us because of a long-held plan or a long-held dream.
00:06:38.380 | It was something that just seemed like a really good move for our next step.
00:06:42.120 | And we don't know how long we're going to be on the road.
00:06:44.720 | We tell people six months, it may be shorter, it may be longer, we don't know.
00:06:47.800 | But we just thought it seemed like the best next move for us and allows us to travel the
00:06:51.640 | country, to visit with you, to do all kinds of cool things in the coming months.
00:06:56.040 | And so we've been pretty excited about it.
00:06:57.400 | We've been actively planning towards it for about a year.
00:07:01.560 | Now when I have a goal and I know that goal is going to require a lot of money, specifically
00:07:05.960 | you've got to buy a rig, set everything up, then I try to be as forward planning as possible.
00:07:11.600 | I try to look through the options because I really want to have something cheap and
00:07:16.120 | I want to have something good.
00:07:18.340 | And so I figured the easiest factor for me to control is to control the speed.
00:07:23.080 | And let me be willing to move slowly because if I can plan ahead by having long range thinking,
00:07:30.360 | then I can move slowly and I can get good and cheap.
00:07:34.160 | That's how I usually try to solve that.
00:07:36.220 | As I figure the best thing for me to move is to move slowly and I can get good and cheap.
00:07:42.800 | So we started the process of putting together our traveling rig, our full-time RV.
00:07:48.960 | Now I've long had a desire and a goal of owning an RV and my wife and I, we bought one a number
00:07:54.140 | of years ago and the first one we bought was a Class B van camper.
00:07:58.040 | I love Class B campers.
00:08:00.000 | I think they're really one of the best options for people to consider.
00:08:06.040 | If you're unfamiliar with the lingo of the RV world, a Class B camper is basically a
00:08:10.660 | van that has all the camper stuff in it.
00:08:14.760 | And by a van, I mean a van.
00:08:16.560 | It has metal walls just like a van.
00:08:18.320 | Now these have gotten longer over the years, they've gotten taller over the years, but
00:08:21.520 | if you can buy it as an empty shell of a van, the kind of van that a workman might drive,
00:08:27.720 | and then turn it into an RV, it's a Class B camper.
00:08:30.880 | Here's what's wonderful about Class B campers.
00:08:33.080 | They're small and that means they're nimble.
00:08:36.520 | They're versatile.
00:08:37.640 | Now in the world of RVing, bigger is not always better.
00:08:40.280 | When I was younger, I would look at the huge rigs, the big buses and the big giant campers
00:08:44.640 | and I would think, "Oh, they are so awesome."
00:08:46.980 | And they are awesome for certain applications.
00:08:50.000 | But for applications like I want to use, I want to be nimble, I want to be versatile.
00:08:54.560 | For example, you start getting a rig that's much over 30 feet and it becomes hard to fit
00:08:58.680 | into a lot of national parks, state parks, small little campgrounds.
00:09:02.680 | If you have a big giant bus, it'll be so comfortable while you're sitting in a big parking lot.
00:09:10.240 | But that's about the only place it can go.
00:09:11.680 | It can't go into a little campground.
00:09:12.920 | It can't whip into a little side street, little back alley that looks interesting in a city
00:09:18.180 | while you're exploring.
00:09:19.720 | And so we loved the Class B camper.
00:09:21.760 | We had a lot of fun in it.
00:09:22.760 | We traveled and we loved the travel of it.
00:09:24.960 | You can park in any standard parking space, which means that you don't have any size restrictions
00:09:30.080 | and yet you have most of the comforts of home.
00:09:32.820 | You have to be a little versatile and having all those comforts at once because it's a
00:09:37.280 | small vehicle, but you have all the comforts at home.
00:09:40.380 | But we frankly just outgrew it.
00:09:42.140 | We took a trip with two children, two dogs, two parents, but that was about the limit.
00:09:46.980 | We decided that we couldn't handle a third child in that rig.
00:09:50.740 | And specifically the problem was car seats, where to put car seats at night.
00:09:54.120 | Car seats take up so much room and yet you can't just stick them outside very well and
00:10:00.760 | taking them up and putting them down was a real hassle.
00:10:03.040 | So we decided, okay, next step is I want to have a tow vehicle that the car seats can
00:10:06.800 | stay strapped in full time.
00:10:09.340 | And so I thought, well, you know, I'm Joshua.
00:10:12.720 | I'm Joshua Sheets.
00:10:13.720 | I'm, I'm a radical planner.
00:10:15.200 | So what's the best move?
00:10:16.940 | What I decided the best move was, was to buy a full size van.
00:10:19.780 | And here was my theory.
00:10:21.300 | Full size vans have a huge amount of interior space, which is wonderful when traveling with
00:10:26.720 | children.
00:10:27.760 | If you traveled with small children or if you are a small child, you can understand
00:10:32.560 | that traveling long car rides with small children is not the easiest thing in the world.
00:10:37.780 | And it's made a lot easier if you can have a few amenities such as a little bit of space
00:10:42.200 | for attending to bathroom needs, such as a little bit of space for attending to food
00:10:47.980 | needs, a little bit of space for attending to entertainment needs, et cetera.
00:10:51.880 | So I decided that a full size van could be fixed up to provide many of the amenities
00:10:55.960 | of traveling in an actual motor home.
00:10:58.560 | You could remove one of the seats.
00:10:59.560 | You could have lots of space so the kids could get up and down.
00:11:01.960 | You could have a small portable potty in the car for them to use.
00:11:05.040 | You could have a cooler with snacks.
00:11:06.440 | You could have plenty of space for things.
00:11:08.240 | There'd be space for mom and dad, space for the children, space for the dogs, and plenty
00:11:12.000 | of space for cargo if I got a big 15 passenger van.
00:11:15.360 | Also, 15 passenger vans, especially certain brands, are rated well for good towing numbers.
00:11:20.720 | You could tow a 10,000 pound trailer.
00:11:22.960 | And 10,000 pounds is a really workable number for a bumper pull travel trailer.
00:11:26.640 | You can find almost any trailer for under that.
00:11:30.240 | And then also, I thought this was the best.
00:11:33.080 | This is great because it's going to be financially a real bargain.
00:11:36.840 | I consider full size vans to be a wonderful bargain in the world of tow vehicles.
00:11:42.100 | If you look and analyze the marketplace, pickup trucks are in huge demand as tow vehicles
00:11:47.200 | and as just personal vehicles.
00:11:48.680 | People love pickup trucks.
00:11:50.220 | So because they love them, they're willing to pay a lot of money for them, which means
00:11:52.600 | it's hard to find them cheap, especially good ones.
00:11:55.600 | Same thing with SUVs.
00:11:56.920 | Most SUVs are in huge demand, so it's hard to find them cheap, good ones.
00:12:01.200 | But full size vans are really built like trucks, especially the older ones that have the body
00:12:06.000 | on frame design.
00:12:08.480 | They're built like trucks.
00:12:09.480 | They're strong and they're cheap.
00:12:11.000 | Nobody really wants them.
00:12:12.360 | The only people that want them are commercial companies.
00:12:14.280 | Most families don't want them.
00:12:15.480 | They just, what am I going to do with them?
00:12:17.160 | So they're cheap to buy.
00:12:18.720 | And so I thought I've got the perfect solution.
00:12:20.960 | We bought a full size van and I was tickled pink.
00:12:24.640 | I only paid a couple thousand bucks for it.
00:12:26.200 | It had 190,000 miles, had a Chevy 350 V8.
00:12:29.040 | I was happy as a ubiquitous engine, very inexpensive to buy, inexpensive to maintain.
00:12:33.120 | Parts are everywhere.
00:12:34.120 | One of the most common engines on the road, especially in the past.
00:12:38.160 | And so I just thought this is going to be wonderful.
00:12:40.400 | Well, unfortunately, when we poked up the camper, I couldn't get the thing over 51 miles
00:12:46.120 | an hour.
00:12:47.120 | Now, I don't know what the problem was.
00:12:48.680 | In the beginning, I thought it was an engine problem.
00:12:50.320 | The engine should have been able to do it.
00:12:51.800 | It really should have.
00:12:53.120 | So I did have some engine problems that I didn't find in the process of buying it.
00:12:57.660 | That was my fault.
00:12:58.660 | I did a bad job buying it.
00:13:00.400 | And then I also had some other problems.
00:13:03.560 | So I wound up sinking several thousand dollars into the thing, which annoyed me because all
00:13:08.640 | of a sudden my great deal didn't turn out to be such a great deal.
00:13:12.320 | I think probably the major problem was gearing.
00:13:15.040 | The truck wasn't geared well for towing.
00:13:18.640 | And I just was at that point, I was in it so deep, I just cut my losses and sold the
00:13:23.220 | vehicle and decided to move on.
00:13:25.520 | But I still had plenty of time.
00:13:26.520 | It was very early.
00:13:27.880 | This was a long time ago.
00:13:29.720 | And again, trying to buy good and cheap and giving up fast.
00:13:36.060 | So I switched to diesel pickup trucks.
00:13:38.320 | And I chose to buy, I was shopping for something that was between a 1999 and a 2002 Ford Super
00:13:44.000 | Duty diesel pickup trucks.
00:13:45.600 | That would be either an F-250 or F-350.
00:13:48.020 | And back to selection.
00:13:49.020 | Now, when I'm buying something, I try to figure out what do I have to have?
00:13:52.800 | Because if you, even if you got to spend twice what you'd like to spend, at least if you
00:13:56.520 | get what you have to have, you won't waste your money.
00:13:58.840 | You will waste your money if you don't get what you have to have.
00:14:02.140 | So whatever your minimum requirements are, you've got to meet those.
00:14:05.080 | But if you can be flexible on anything else, it'll open up the market for you.
00:14:10.360 | If you have to have a certain make, a certain model, a certain color, and certain amenities,
00:14:16.400 | well, because your selection, remember I'm inserting the word selection for good here,
00:14:21.160 | very, very careful selection.
00:14:23.540 | Because your selection is so specific, you're probably going to have to budge either on
00:14:27.160 | moving fast, you got to wait a long time to find it, or you're probably going to have
00:14:31.600 | to budge on moving cheap.
00:14:34.400 | So I think that if I'm trying to maneuver through this triangle, if I'm willing to take
00:14:41.560 | a long time, and if I'm willing to be fairly liberal in the types of things that I can
00:14:45.800 | accept, I can get a cheaper deal.
00:14:48.900 | So with a pickup truck, my minimum requirements were very simple.
00:14:51.960 | I decided I was going to go with a pickup truck.
00:14:54.220 | It needed to be a crew cab because I needed space for my family, and it needed to be diesel.
00:14:58.560 | It needed to be this specific diesel engine.
00:15:01.120 | Now that second one may not have actually been required.
00:15:04.600 | For example, Ford produces a V10 engine that for those years was a great engine, and it
00:15:10.200 | probably could do the job.
00:15:11.600 | But because I'd been burned, I was feeling a little gun shy, and I felt like I just can't
00:15:16.040 | take the risk again.
00:15:17.240 | I don't want to go through this again.
00:15:19.080 | Our departure date is starting to move up on me.
00:15:21.560 | I need to just buy what I know will work, even if I have to pay a little bit more for
00:15:24.880 | it.
00:15:25.880 | But beyond that, I was totally open to anything.
00:15:27.520 | It had to be a crew cab, it had to be a crew cab, and it had to be a diesel, and it had
00:15:30.960 | to be a crew cab with a bench seat in the front, or one that I could swap out.
00:15:35.620 | So I honed in on those years of the Ford 7.3 liter diesel engines.
00:15:42.960 | Those are the best engines that are inexpensive, and they basically do the job, and they have
00:15:47.840 | the least problems.
00:15:48.880 | Now they have their own set of problems.
00:15:51.040 | They're not as quiet, they're not as comfortable, they're not as powerful as some of the more
00:15:54.200 | modern ones.
00:15:55.200 | But at the end of the day, a diesel pickup truck is going to get you 10 miles a gallon,
00:15:59.200 | pulling you down the road whether it's brand new or whether it's 20 years old.
00:16:02.520 | So a lot of that stuff, I don't really see the point of it.
00:16:06.000 | It's just got to have the power to get the trailer over the mountain.
00:16:09.200 | So I found a great truck.
00:16:10.640 | It was a great truck.
00:16:13.160 | Basically it was owned within a single family for all of its history, owned since new, got
00:16:17.640 | a good deal on it, everything was good.
00:16:21.320 | And I took time to fix the things that were wrong with it over time, and that was where
00:16:25.240 | we were.
00:16:26.240 | I bought the truck, bought the camper, etc.
00:16:28.160 | And the truck, everything was ready.
00:16:29.640 | And once I found the truck, the other thing that I found was I put a big topper on it.
00:16:33.600 | I had a big giant aluminum commercial topper on the back that I had shopped for and I got
00:16:37.600 | a great deal on.
00:16:39.120 | And that gave me lots of cargo space for all of the traveling things, until it got stolen.
00:16:46.240 | And so the story of the theft was a little bit weird because it got stolen, but I actually
00:16:51.880 | found it the same morning that I found out about it being stolen.
00:16:56.120 | And I don't care to go into all those details, but I went looking for the truck and I actually
00:17:00.320 | found it, but unfortunately it wound up being pretty hurt, pretty badly.
00:17:05.040 | And this all of a sudden was when my family was moved out.
00:17:08.360 | And again, out of the apartment, didn't really have a place to live.
00:17:11.880 | So now I'm back to the drawing board.
00:17:13.860 | And I really wrestled with what's the right thing to do.
00:17:17.040 | I knew I could go ahead and buy a newer truck.
00:17:20.440 | If I were willing to spend 25,000 bucks, you can buy diesel pickup trucks in good shape
00:17:24.560 | that'll do the job all day long.
00:17:26.000 | But I didn't want to spend $25,000.
00:17:28.760 | I feel like it's dumb to spend.
00:17:31.080 | I'd rather, if I've got $25,000 to spend, I'd rather spend $10,000 or less on a truck
00:17:36.700 | and $15,000 on fuel and money for things while traveling, then put it into the truck.
00:17:43.080 | I don't get the point of why people spend so much money on having the fanciest RV that
00:17:48.400 | just sits in the driveway.
00:17:49.400 | I'd rather have the cheapest RV that's out on the road.
00:17:52.520 | And you go and you use the thing up because they all break, they all fall apart anyway.
00:17:55.760 | So go and buy it, get something that does the job, but then go and use it, drive the
00:17:59.200 | wheels off of it, and then make sure that you actually have a bunch of experiences.
00:18:03.000 | Same thing with trucks.
00:18:04.000 | It doesn't make sense to me why I see $80,000 pickup trucks that basically sit at home all
00:18:08.040 | the time.
00:18:09.040 | And you go shop the market for RVs and trucks.
00:18:11.360 | And it's very sad.
00:18:12.920 | You talk to all kinds of owners who've bought these beautiful vehicles new, and they used
00:18:17.360 | them a dozen times, and now they're selling them.
00:18:21.320 | That doesn't make any sense to me.
00:18:22.640 | Why not buy something that just barely does the job with sufficient comfort?
00:18:27.640 | For example, you do need sufficient comfort, you need to meet your minimums, but then save
00:18:32.320 | all that other money for fuel and for going to things that you want to see.
00:18:38.040 | So that's been my operating mindset.
00:18:41.520 | My goal originally was to get the whole rig put together for under $10,000.
00:18:46.480 | That proved not to be possible, although I thought it was going to be.
00:18:49.720 | If I had bought a slightly smaller RV, if I had a slightly smaller family, I could have
00:18:52.960 | done it for $10,000.
00:18:53.960 | At the end of the day, then I put it for $15,000.
00:18:56.560 | And so total, I've got about $15,000 into the whole thing.
00:18:59.200 | And that leaves plenty of money for diesel fuel.
00:19:01.760 | That leaves plenty of money to go to attractions and things like that.
00:19:06.480 | And to me, that just makes more sense than having the fanciest stuff that sits around
00:19:10.420 | and drains your bank account.
00:19:13.840 | So truck was stolen and then thinking, "Okay, what do I do?
00:19:17.360 | How do I replace it?"
00:19:18.360 | Now, having shopped the marketplace, I will tell you this, buying a specific used car
00:19:25.320 | fast and at a good deal is not easy.
00:19:31.680 | Because of my requirements and because of the fact that I was shopping anywhere from
00:19:35.360 | 16 to 19-year-old vehicles, the market is out there, but the market for good vehicles
00:19:43.220 | is a lot smaller.
00:19:45.160 | You can go and you can buy a truck with 300,000 miles on it all day long.
00:19:49.880 | And there's some power to the argument to say that that 300,000-mile truck has a lot
00:19:53.880 | of life left in it.
00:19:56.360 | But it's tough to buy a really good one fast.
00:20:00.460 | So I started shopping hard and I shopped hard and I shopped hard.
00:20:04.100 | Now, here are a few of the tactics that I've used to good success when trying to do this.
00:20:10.600 | If you're trying to buy something that's good, something that's cheap, and that's fast, I
00:20:15.240 | already talked about the first tactic, which is be as flexible as you can on what you're
00:20:20.140 | actually trying to get.
00:20:22.240 | So my only two things were crew cab and a 7.3-liter Ford diesel engine that was post-99.
00:20:29.140 | The reason was that in '99, they made some changes to the mechanics of the engine.
00:20:32.540 | You can buy the older trucks, but they're problematic now with being able to get parts
00:20:37.680 | for them.
00:20:38.680 | They didn't have as much power, so a newer truck.
00:20:41.540 | But before '03, when they changed to the 6-liter engine, which can be a great engine, but has
00:20:48.060 | its own set of problems and is a little bit harder to predict.
00:20:51.740 | So beyond that, I didn't care.
00:20:53.220 | Two-wheel drive, four-wheel drive, whatever.
00:20:57.140 | Long bed, short bed, don't care.
00:20:59.300 | Color, I don't care.
00:21:01.260 | But I needed to be in good condition.
00:21:02.500 | I needed to basically be ready to hook up and go.
00:21:05.100 | Now in the used car marketplace, you can often get a deal on something that needs a little
00:21:09.100 | bit of work, and that's what I did the first time around.
00:21:11.460 | I had time.
00:21:12.460 | And so you get something, any time you get a used car, there's always going to be stuff
00:21:16.580 | that needs to be done.
00:21:17.580 | That's why it's being sold in the first place generally.
00:21:19.900 | So I bought it early, had time for it to sit at the mechanic.
00:21:23.780 | But now, I got no place for my family to live.
00:21:27.540 | We're basically living out of a backpack while we were traveling and doing some other
00:21:30.900 | things.
00:21:31.900 | Now what do I do?
00:21:32.900 | So I shopped hard.
00:21:34.220 | So the first strategy was be open to different options.
00:21:38.780 | Second strategy is know your market.
00:21:40.720 | One of the things that I think makes a big difference is being able for you as a buyer
00:21:45.020 | to move fast.
00:21:46.540 | In any negotiation, when you're buying something, there are a few different things that you
00:21:50.260 | can negotiate.
00:21:51.260 | They basically fall into the points of price and terms.
00:21:55.060 | So price is what most people only negotiate on.
00:21:58.180 | What's the actual price?
00:21:59.780 | And price matters.
00:22:01.300 | But you can also negotiate based upon terms.
00:22:05.160 | So the simple reality is sometimes if you're willing to buy fast, if you're willing to
00:22:11.060 | sign now, you may be able to get a better price or better terms because of your willingness
00:22:16.580 | to move fast.
00:22:17.580 | Well, my theory is this.
00:22:19.780 | If I know what I want and I have money, I can move fast.
00:22:23.300 | Other things involve things like having cash.
00:22:26.460 | Literal cash.
00:22:27.860 | When you get to vehicles of a certain market, there's a weird wrinkle in the used car market
00:22:32.620 | that relates to financing.
00:22:35.100 | Most people that buy vehicles don't just pay for them.
00:22:37.700 | They buy them on payments.
00:22:39.640 | But financing companies will only insure newer vehicles with lower miles.
00:22:44.200 | So because those vehicles are open to financing, you find that there is a strong market for
00:22:51.180 | them, and the prices are relatively high.
00:22:53.660 | People generally don't mind paying more when they can make monthly payments.
00:22:58.140 | And so newer vehicles have higher prices because financing is available.
00:23:02.660 | On the flip side, if you go down to the bottom end of the market, cars that are a few thousand
00:23:06.380 | bucks, those cars are affordable for many people, and so they generally move quickly.
00:23:10.840 | If they're good cars and they're a few thousand bucks, lots of people can put together a few
00:23:13.900 | thousand bucks for basic transportation.
00:23:16.180 | So it's hard in those markets to differentiate yourself.
00:23:21.460 | Those markets are often very strong.
00:23:23.900 | There are lots of people buying.
00:23:25.260 | But there's a wrinkle in the middle where you're buying a vehicle that's beyond the
00:23:28.980 | financial capacity of the average person.
00:23:31.700 | The average person doesn't have $15,000, $20,000 that they can just write a check for.
00:23:38.020 | So you have a smaller pool of competitive buyers that you're competing against.
00:23:43.220 | And also, those vehicles are not available for financing.
00:23:49.580 | So you have a smaller pool of people who can't get the financing.
00:23:53.180 | And so there are good deals to be had in that marketplace where you get a great car that
00:23:58.420 | has a lot of life left in it, but it's cheaper than other options because you're moving with
00:24:03.220 | cash and you can compete in that marketplace.
00:24:07.300 | So follow that way in the back of your mind for the next time you need a car.
00:24:10.940 | I don't think everybody should drive $2,000 cars, but there is a time at which vehicles
00:24:15.020 | are no longer financeable and you can get a good price discount there.
00:24:19.480 | So if you're shopping, in addition to being flexible on what you're actually willing to
00:24:23.700 | buy, if you can be knowledgeable enough to be able to move quickly, that can help you
00:24:28.900 | to get better deals.
00:24:32.660 | So this last week, literally Monday morning, I finally decided I couldn't find anything
00:24:39.800 | that was reasonably priced, that was low priced, and that had good enough prices.
00:24:49.740 | It's hard sometimes to broadcast outside because then you see more distractions than inside.
00:24:54.780 | I couldn't find anything that was reasonably enough priced, that had low enough miles that
00:24:58.980 | I thought it would be good to hook up and go.
00:25:01.100 | And because I didn't have time to have a vehicle sit in the shop for a long time to get ready
00:25:06.580 | to go across the country, I was feeling pretty constricted.
00:25:11.100 | So I decided on Monday morning, "Okay, I'm just going to go ahead and fix the truck I've
00:25:14.700 | got."
00:25:15.700 | The damage was significant.
00:25:16.700 | The insurance company totaled the vehicle.
00:25:18.380 | But it was also, I felt like it was largely cosmetic.
00:25:21.460 | And I figured, "Well, if I'm willing to drive an ugly vehicle, this could work out.
00:25:24.300 | I'll take a check from the insurance company, I'll drive the vehicle with a salvaged title,
00:25:27.820 | and we'll just head out across the country."
00:25:29.860 | Well, on Monday morning, I came across a vehicle on OfferUp.
00:25:33.980 | I was shopping hard in the private market, OfferUp, LinkedIn.
00:25:39.460 | Facebook is also good for this.
00:25:40.860 | Sorry, not LinkedIn, Craigslist.
00:25:43.100 | I have found over the years, after being a long-time Craigslist shopper, I feel like
00:25:46.700 | Craigslist is losing its luster a little bit.
00:25:49.060 | I've often found a bigger selection on OfferUp and on Facebook Marketplace than on Craigslist.
00:25:55.620 | So keep those in mind when you're shopping.
00:25:57.880 | But I found a vehicle that had just come online.
00:25:59.740 | I went immediately to look at it.
00:26:01.980 | Literally, my wife and I drove our children just across the state.
00:26:05.500 | We hadn't planned to leave in the morning, but I went to look at it and was able to work
00:26:09.700 | the deal.
00:26:10.700 | I laid a stack of $100 bills on the hood and walked away with a truck that is an older
00:26:16.780 | truck but has very low miles.
00:26:19.260 | And it was just in great shape.
00:26:20.920 | But I only would have had the confidence to do it if I had been hardcore shopping.
00:26:24.060 | I'd looked at a lot of trucks.
00:26:25.960 | And that would be one of the things that I would recommend to you.
00:26:28.180 | If you're in the market, you need to be able to know what is available for you when you
00:26:34.100 | actually...
00:26:35.160 | You need to know your market.
00:26:36.560 | And you can't know your market just from pictures.
00:26:39.020 | So what I've often found with used vehicles, you need to go and look at them.
00:26:42.540 | You need to drive them at least a little bit.
00:26:44.760 | And you can start to develop an understanding of the marketplace.
00:26:47.800 | When you look at one that's $15,000, you look at another that's $7,500, and you look at
00:26:52.860 | one with 300,000 miles, and you look at one with 150,000 miles, you can start to understand
00:26:57.780 | the demand for these vehicles.
00:27:00.180 | You can talk with the sellers and you can see them.
00:27:02.560 | So that when it comes to the point at which you are ready to buy one, you can be confident
00:27:10.900 | in saying, "Yes, I'll buy."
00:27:13.500 | So shop hard.
00:27:14.580 | And that's one way that you can be able to move fast when the market is there.
00:27:19.140 | So thankfully we got a truck.
00:27:20.500 | And that morning I thought I had decided I was going to fix the other one.
00:27:25.140 | Then finally something came on the market.
00:27:27.260 | It had just been listed, went to see it immediately, bought it immediately, and that evening was
00:27:31.220 | working on...
00:27:32.220 | I drove the new truck home.
00:27:34.780 | Spend the next few days cleaning it up.
00:27:37.020 | That's what occupied all of last week.
00:27:39.260 | But cleaned the truck up, did a bunch of mechanical stuff, changed the fluids, changed the bearings,
00:27:43.060 | and had my fingers deep in grease just getting everything ready to go on the road.
00:27:47.100 | But thankfully it didn't need much, and hooked it up and went.
00:27:50.940 | Now here would be the flip side.
00:27:52.340 | Let me give you one more example where I haven't been able to find something yet.
00:27:55.780 | That's related to a topper.
00:27:57.540 | Now for our purposes, one of the most important things about a pickup truck is being able
00:28:01.580 | to put a big topper on the back so that we can have essentially a garage and keep the
00:28:05.420 | stuff that we have out of the elements.
00:28:10.140 | And I have shopped and shopped and shopped the market for toppers, and I have not been
00:28:16.860 | able to find anything that was cheap and good.
00:28:20.860 | Cheap and appropriate for my particular needs and the specific things that I want.
00:28:25.460 | Not buying a new one.
00:28:26.460 | And I haven't been willing to buy a new one.
00:28:28.260 | So I said, well, we'll just hit the road without it and try to find one on the road.
00:28:32.340 | So I continue to shop.
00:28:33.620 | I continue to look for that.
00:28:35.140 | I haven't found one yet.
00:28:36.900 | But time will tell, and I think I'll find one in time.
00:28:39.780 | But it just goes to show that I'm not saying this formula, you can't always beat it, but
00:28:43.420 | it is pretty neat when you can.
00:28:45.060 | So that's the trip report so far.
00:28:47.140 | We are on the road.
00:28:48.700 | We're currently in Georgia.
00:28:53.700 | We're heading quickly across the country because our traveling season has gotten constricted.
00:28:58.340 | And once we get across the country, we'll probably slow down a little bit.
00:29:01.460 | But our traveling season and the time of year has gotten constrained because of our late
00:29:06.780 | start.
00:29:07.780 | And I'll tell you what, last week was tough.
00:29:10.140 | I was tired.
00:29:13.260 | I've done the best I could, but a lot of things have suffered.
00:29:16.860 | My business has suffered.
00:29:18.340 | I've had some unhappy clients.
00:29:21.620 | Unhappy emails, and I haven't released a show in a little while.
00:29:25.780 | And that's life.
00:29:27.780 | You just do the best you can.
00:29:29.100 | At the end of the day, we just got caught in a tough spot.
00:29:34.660 | And it was really very challenging.
00:29:36.860 | And so I just want to encourage you, not everything is all fun and roses.
00:29:41.000 | Even now, I won't talk about even switching into a, transferring into an RV.
00:29:47.460 | I won't talk about it for at least a month or a couple months.
00:29:50.400 | Because one thing that my wife and I have learned is stuff takes time to adjust to.
00:29:54.940 | Anytime you adjust to a new situation, it takes time.
00:29:59.760 | And I think one of the biggest things that we've learned that I'd encourage you to consider
00:30:04.260 | adopting is don't make judgments on things until you've developed time.
00:30:10.140 | Don't make snap decisions.
00:30:12.660 | Moving into the RV has been uncomfortable.
00:30:14.740 | It's still uncomfortable.
00:30:16.980 | But I know that in time, it will be less uncomfortable.
00:30:20.220 | It's uncomfortable because it's been crazy.
00:30:23.580 | Just the logistics of it.
00:30:26.380 | It takes time to figure out where to put things, how to make things work.
00:30:30.300 | But it won't always be uncomfortable.
00:30:31.540 | It's just uncomfortable now.
00:30:34.100 | So I won't make any decisions about is this working, is this not working for at least
00:30:38.580 | a month, couple months.
00:30:40.500 | I vividly remember when my wife and I married, she had been living in a very small studio
00:30:47.300 | apartment that was very inexpensive.
00:30:49.180 | It was 234 square feet.
00:30:51.300 | And after we married, we decided I moved into the apartment there with her.
00:30:57.140 | And I remember just standing in that little kitchen of that tiny little studio apartment
00:31:01.140 | and just thinking how unbelievably small it was and how this is never going to work.
00:31:06.980 | What were we thinking?
00:31:07.980 | You know, trying to fit two people into this tiny little apartment.
00:31:10.580 | What's wrong with us?
00:31:11.580 | Well, we wanted to save the money.
00:31:12.580 | It was a cheap deal, etc.
00:31:13.580 | But I just thought this is never going to work.
00:31:16.240 | But I put off judgment for a while.
00:31:18.300 | And after a few weeks, it was just normal, totally comfortable.
00:31:23.100 | Now after we moved out of that apartment, we moved into a big old three bedroom house.
00:31:27.620 | And I remember we looked at each other and this house was huge.
00:31:31.340 | And we just felt like we were rattling around in this house.
00:31:34.220 | And after a few weeks, it felt totally normal.
00:31:37.860 | And that's been my experience in almost any life transition, any life change.
00:31:41.300 | It takes time to get used to it.
00:31:43.620 | So I'll share more about the trip in the future.
00:31:45.860 | I'm not going to turn Radical Personal Finance into just a travel log.
00:31:48.980 | I want to provide things that are more useful to you rather than just sharing with my goals.
00:31:53.140 | But I also know that it is interesting to you.
00:31:55.500 | So that's the travel log.
00:31:56.500 | That's the story.
00:31:57.500 | So we're again, very happy to say we're on the road.
00:32:00.620 | And that's the saga.
00:32:02.820 | Thank you for your patience with the intermittent, the non-existent shows the last week and a
00:32:07.420 | half.
00:32:08.420 | I've missed you all.
00:32:09.740 | I've had my fingers deep in Greece.
00:32:11.500 | I've been running all over the state.
00:32:13.580 | I've been wheeling and dealing, trying desperately to put this thing together and not lose any
00:32:17.300 | more of the travel season.
00:32:19.900 | And finally, we made it clear.
00:32:22.660 | So in summary, just think of the good, cheap, and fast when you are making your next buying
00:32:26.820 | decision.
00:32:27.820 | And again, I encourage you.
00:32:29.820 | It's good to get good.
00:32:30.820 | And again, when buying things, selection, exactly what you want.
00:32:34.060 | Get something good.
00:32:35.620 | Get something cheap.
00:32:36.660 | That usually means you will have to go ahead.
00:32:39.660 | You'll have to be a little bit ahead and move slower to be able to find what you need when
00:32:44.460 | you want it.
00:32:45.460 | Now, if your back's up against the wall, well, be willing to adjust a little bit in what
00:32:50.740 | you're willing to accept.
00:32:52.200 | The more flexible you are on what you want, the bigger the marketplace is.
00:32:56.240 | The more selection will be available to you.
00:32:59.060 | Be knowledgeable enough.
00:33:01.000 | Study your market.
00:33:02.000 | Understand what you're doing.
00:33:03.220 | Know the values of things.
00:33:04.780 | Be knowledgeable enough to go in.
00:33:06.980 | And when you see the deal, then you move fast.
00:33:09.580 | And always think about the terms in addition to the price.
00:33:12.580 | And figure out how can you make the terms work for you.
00:33:16.060 | Last point is this.
00:33:17.060 | When I bought the truck, I would have paid more money.
00:33:21.360 | Because money is worth different amounts at different points of time.
00:33:25.180 | When you have six months, and you're six months before you plan to leave, well, in that case,
00:33:29.900 | I would quibble over a couple thousand dollars.
00:33:31.820 | I would fight with somebody, and I would negotiate, and I would quibble, and I would just take
00:33:36.460 | my time because it's a couple thousand dollars.
00:33:39.460 | But when I was in the situation that I was in, I would have paid more.
00:33:43.780 | Thankfully, I'm so thankful I found a great deal, great truck.
00:33:47.660 | It's a hundred thousand fewer miles than my other truck, and it's going to work out really
00:33:51.740 | well.
00:33:52.740 | I'm really, really happy with it.
00:33:53.740 | But I would have been willing to pay more.
00:33:56.220 | And the point is, money doesn't always have the same value.
00:33:59.980 | So assess its value to you at a certain time.
00:34:03.580 | And hopefully you'll be able to work through the challenges.
00:34:05.740 | Fighting is easy.
00:34:06.780 | No big task, no big goal is easy.
00:34:08.700 | They don't come without challenges.
00:34:10.580 | And so I hope you can be encouraged by my story that just know that just because you
00:34:14.700 | face challenges doesn't mean you have to give up.
00:34:18.340 | Just keep fighting, keep working through.
00:34:20.220 | Be back with you soon.
00:34:22.560 | Thank you for listening.
00:34:23.560 | You've honored me with your time and attention, and I'm grateful for that.
00:34:27.780 | And I hope that I've effectively served you today with some ideas and strategies and tactics
00:34:32.580 | and techniques and tools that will help move you towards your goals.
00:34:37.300 | Before you go, three simple requests.
00:34:39.660 | One, if there's an idea that's been helpful to you in today's show, make a plan to take
00:34:45.420 | action on it.
00:34:47.460 | Listening does lead to learning, but learning in and of itself doesn't automatically lead
00:34:52.880 | to a life change.
00:34:55.220 | It's action that leads to a life change.
00:34:59.200 | So take action.
00:35:00.900 | Two, take something that was helpful to you in today's show and share it with somebody
00:35:06.520 | that you care about.
00:35:08.080 | I'm depending on you to be a co-laborer with me in helping me to propagate the message
00:35:15.280 | that I'm seeking to share.
00:35:17.740 | That helps the person that you are engaging with, and it also helps you because teaching
00:35:23.580 | others is one of the most effective ways for you to learn and for you to cement your learning.
00:35:30.440 | Three, if there's an idea that's been specifically helpful to you, and if you're gaining financial
00:35:35.720 | benefit from Radical Personal Finance, I'd be grateful if you'd consider paying me for
00:35:40.420 | this work voluntarily.
00:35:43.080 | Come by radicalpersonalfinance.com/patron and you can sign up there to support the show
00:35:47.320 | at whatever level you feel is right for you.
00:35:50.560 | This is a voluntary support.
00:35:52.340 | That's my Patreon page.
00:35:53.960 | You can support me with a dollar a month, $5 a month, $10 a month, any number that seems
00:35:59.000 | right to you.
00:36:00.000 | If you're gaining financial benefit from this show, and if it's achieving financial results
00:36:05.560 | in your life, I'd be grateful for your financial support at radicalpersonalfinance.com/patron.
00:36:11.200 | Hey, parents, join the LA Kings on Saturday, November 25th for an unforgettable kid's day
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