BIC_BAWS Adventure Thread

[BIC_BAWS]

Yeah uh gambling on GM stock is a bit different from gambling on a penny stock on the TSX.V

I thought it'd be secure cause of other unnamed factors. But I was wrong lmao

[JDMDreams]

I just ran the math $600000, 30y at 5.5% is $3,383.44 a month, when rates goes down to 4.25% it's down to $2,938.61. also switch your payments to weekly if you're not already on it. You should save at least $2-3xx a month vs monthly.

[BIC_BAWS]

Idk if I mentioned, but I'm on a fixed. When we previously looked into it, the cost of breaking the fixed wasn't as good as the savings.

But that's a fantastic suggestion. I have a few gigs already, but looking into doing UberEats or smt that's 100% cash isn't a bad idea at all. It would definitely keep me afloat.

[JDMDreams]

Even if you're on fixed, depending on your bank. If you still have available room on your heloc to use you should be able to take money from the revolving portion to pay down the annual lump sum of your fixed portion. Then relock that new amount you used to pay down at current lower rates + amortize it over 30y again. You can do this to save money without having to pay the penalty, you can make your 2024 lump sum before year end and do it again in 2025.

[RevYouUp]

Originally Posted by JDMDreams

I just ran the math $600000, 30y at 5.5% is $3,383.44 a month, when rates goes down to 4.25% it's down to $2,938.61. also switch your payments to weekly if you're not already on it. You should save at least $2-3xx a month vs monthly.

His problem is not his mortgage. He’d be paying more in rent if he were to move out, his part of the mortgage is 33% of the $600K. I’m 100% with Gerbs on this, you need to work on your financial literacy like ASAP don’t just shrug it off. I’ll break down your expenses with guesstimates:

Gross income - $60K, after taxes net about $3.5K a month give or take a couple hundred.

Expenses:
- mortgage $2k (being generous, based JDMdteams it should be $1.5K for your portion)
- Car payment $500-$600
- Car insurance $200
- Gas $300

Just the total of the above expenses is about $3K. That leaves you with $500 a month for food and everything else. You’re spending 33% of your net income a month on car expenses, not including maintenance and car mods. That’s not it my man. It doesn’t matter if you think you deserve it or not. You deserve to take transit at that point let alone a $40K car. The car owns you at this point and you don’t own the car.

I’m pretty sure you’re starting to slowly accumulate credit card debt living on $500 a month with $90 in your bank account. One major expense and you’ll be stuck in a snowball of debt.

If you really need a car, there’s no problem buying a Honda Fit, those are capable track cars. You can reduce your car expenses by 50% if you do that. Wouldn’t it be more rewarding driving a slow car fast at the track. My friend is literally a dentist and makes 3x your income, he drives a 1999 Accord and everyone gives him shit about it. He doesn’t care, the people judging him aren’t paying his bills.

You need to take control of your finances now. Increasing your income is a good start but not your solution. 3-5 years from now when you’re making $100K+ and your cars older, “I deserve a nicer car, 2030 M3”, “my partner wants this”, “I can’t live with my parents anymore, I need to buy my own place”, and so on. You’ll let life style creep take over.

Also one last note. Don’t write off travelling in your 20s. Travelling with your closest friends in your 20s is something you shouldn’t take for granted and will be hard to replicate when everyone’s older and have their own commitments. Good luck man, just take responsibility of your finances and stop having excuses for yourself of you’ll find yourself in a worst situation in your 30s.

[JDMDreams]

Sell the type r and spend like $10000 on a leaf, you will save the $200 a month in gas. Just plug in at home. Throw the remaining $25000 on the s&p.

[AstulzerRZD]

The leaf play is to buy the cheapest leaf in battery warranty
Bring OBDII reader to check health, you want one that's on the verge of needing a replacement (I heard it's 7 bars?)
Fast charge it, then rip it up and down Cypress while the battery overheats. MAX regen and lots of full throttle at low battery state.

Boom, Leaf just got a new, bigger battery with a new warrantry

[Traum]

Originally Posted by AstulzerRZD

The leaf play is to buy the cheapest leaf in battery warranty
Bring OBDII reader to check health, you want one that's on the verge of needing a replacement (I heard it's 7 bars?)
Fast charge it, then rip it up and down Cypress while the battery overheats. MAX regen and lots of full throttle at low battery state.

Boom, Leaf just got a new, bigger battery with a new warrantry

I'm totally taking notes on this LOL~

My other plan was to find a Bolt that hasn't had its battery swapped yet.

[BIC_BAWS]

No EV... funny thing is if I had EV charging capabilities at home, I'd be in a red Model 3 right now instead of a red Type R.

There's this whole panel capacity, aluminum (or was it copper) wiring thing, and not enough power supply in this junky ass house.

Originally Posted by RevYouUp

Also one last note. Don’t write off travelling in your 20s. Travelling with your closest friends in your 20s is something you shouldn’t take for granted and will be hard to replicate when everyone’s older and have their own commitments. Good luck man, just take responsibility of your finances and stop having excuses for yourself of you’ll find yourself in a worst situation in your 30s.

Yeah this is one of the expenses I wish I didn't track and instead saved money for. I'm missing a Japan trip for 2025 because I can't afford it. And well most of my friends are getting closer to 30s.

And yes, those guestimates are pretty accurate.

$1500 for my portion
$646.80/mo for the car
$200 for insurance - accurate
Gas is likely more than $300... but ya.

I didn't really start to feel the struggle until gas got more and MORE expensive and I used my safety net to paydown the mortgage (not by choice).

I'm pretty frugal with additional car expenses (not an excuse). All my basic maintenance is covered - lifetime oil change package, wheel/tire warranty, FCPEuro for brake pads, brake fluid, and Motul 300V (as needed), rotors are the only thing that isn't covered but I buy people's used rotors lol, and tires (ie. in the summer I got a pretty new set of Cup 2s for $200) - I almost always buy used and wear them all the way down. I initially chose the newer car so I don't have to worry about maintenance or reliability at all.

I don't buy mods, things just end up in my possession lol (no i didn't steal it) or I already had it (5x120 wheels from BMWs). I'm a strong believer that I should be tracking the car stock until I am a good enough driver to justify mods. The car is tuned, but that was covered as its a shop's dev car.

I'll say this now. I'm 100% committed to not tracking in 2025, with the exception on if I get my track days sponsored (by friend) which outside of gas is no additional expenditure since I use FCPEuro.

And yeah.. I'm concerned about what's gonna happen in 5 years when I do need to find my own place to live and what not. However, I am doubtful that I'll upgrade my car beyond the FK8. I'm an one car forever type of guy. The only reason why I have an interesting list of them is because they keep getting written off.

Edit: Just looked it up, I owe $17.6K. So thankfully, I'm not underwater yet. It seems like general consensus is $35K is on the cheap end, $38-$39K if I want to play the Rallye Red one MY card. Let's aim lower and say I actually get 30K, that'll leave me with $12K to find a replacement daily, which I think I can get my friend's CSX-S for. But then I'll be back at 0 and have to consider cost of maintenance which is not the same as a monthly payment, but it's an expense.

It being $17.6K owing makes me think I should almost just work harder and pay this off ASAP, which would give me the most breathing room. Still skip out on track this year tho and work on personal finances.

[AstulzerRZD]

Don't rly need EV charging at home with how cheap it is in BC.

.22/kwh at public supercharger means $4/100km, home charging would've been $3 at .15/kwh.
BC Hydro's a bit more at .35/kwh

putting a ton of miles on an EV is great

[BIC_BAWS]

Yeah.. I'm not going out of my way and sitting at a supercharger in the middle of the night to charge. My friend does that as he has no charging capability, but hard pass.

[AstulzerRZD]

it's like 30 mins even in the dogshit slow teslas (90kw).
the hyundais pull 230kw+ and it's a 10 minute charge stop

[AstulzerRZD]

My 2 cents - the other guys have offered a lot of suggestions, but I wanna zoom out a little bit:

The energy I’m getting is things have to be done a certain way which can work, but at the same time I got the impression that family commitments and choices we’ve made before have left us with not very much buffer/ options.

I think a healthy reframe here could be how can I get more options so that my life can be good across a variety of outcomes or even if a lot of things I was hoping for don’t actually land. Are there things that we can do that have asymmetrical outcomes - a little bit of sacrifice for a big increase in average outcome and optionality?

[RevYouUp]

Yea, the car loan seems manageable at $17K. You’re right, that should be your priority right now if you don’t have any other loans outstanding. Not having to pay $700 a month for the car will definitely help with your cash flow and well being.

[SkinnyPupp]

Should be taking the bus tbqh

[BIC_BAWS]

I ain't taking the bus. I won't make it in to work. Have you heard about my 13 hours on Alex Fraser story? Yeah it would be much worse in a bus.

If I still lived in Richmond, it would be possible. Not in my part of Delta tho. A previous coworker that lived nearby (when staying with his gf), I'd occasionally pick him up, cause otherwise it would take him 3 hours to get into work. Leave at 5:30am to get to no.5/Bridgeport for 8:30.

Doesn't matter how broke I will be, that ain't it. I could be spending that 3 hours making more money elsewhere, gig economy or a part time job.

Edit: And no, I don't think I'm too good for the bus. I took the bus my entire life until 20. My dad was the only one who drove, so when he went to work, my mom and I went on adventures across the Translink network. I'm quite fond of my time (and autism) on the bus and thankful that she did that as I was pretty self resilient on transit throughout high school.

[Tapioca]

I'm in my 40s and I drive a 15 year old car with a manual transmission that basically requires no maintenance other than fluids and other consumables. It's worth like 3K - you can reduce your transportation costs if you really wanted to.

If you don't want to exit the hobby at this time, you should just buy a beat up Miata or E36 (not an M3, but like a beat up 318i or a 325i), like all of the broccoli heads these days, for the track and keep it off insurance until track days. Keep it under cover in your driveway.

[Hondaracer]

Would have to agree with Skinny.. honestly you’re not really in the position to have a car loan period.

As well, are you getting anything out of the equity you’re putting into the home other than a roof over your head temporarily?

Like, at the end of the day are your parents going to sell and give you a portion of the sale of the home? Or are you just paying down the mortgage for their benefit and they will ultimately need the entire sale of the home to live off moving forward? OR is this the type of situation where they are just going to live in this home until it falls apart?

[bcrdukes]

BIC_BAWS - Assuming you continue to track your CTR, and heaven forbid, you total it, what is your contingency plan?

[AstulzerRZD]

I think the car brings BIC_BAWS a ton of identity/value in his social life even outside of track.
That balance has to shift to something else (gym? golf? dating? dance? running?) to feel ok with giving it up/going back to 9G Civic.

FWIW even on 280k salary, I thought my paid off 30k S2k was too expensive of a car for daily & never did track it because of risk.
BUT, it also wasn't a major part of my identity/social life so it was easy to give up.

[Tapioca]

Yeah, he needs to find another outlet that will reinforce his self worth and identity.

In my 30s, I was a Toastmaster for a few years which gave me an outlet to talk about myself and develop some leadership skills.

Track racing is a complete bro hobby as well. He would be better off spending a couple of thousand dollars to refresh the wardrobe and buy some fitness equipment, like a power tower and some adjustable dumbells. He'll feel better about himself and maybe attract the attention of others too.

[badgerx3]

Brother, have you ever considered getting therapy? Sounds like there are some underlying issues or even trauma that are causing this attrition.

A couple of posters already chimed in that driving a car that is 80% of your gross salary is insane. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Speaking as a CPA myself, if you ain't going to grind the corporate ladder, there isn't much this designation can provide that can guarantee what you desire.

You mention that you and your mom can bill at rates higher than a bookkeeper if you get this designation. Is the plan to run your accounting shop? If so, isn't that just a glorified bookkeeper but with a CPA?

[noclue]

Originally Posted by bcrdukes

BIC_BAWS - Assuming you continue to track your CTR, and heaven forbid, you total it, what is your contingency plan?

Doesnt even have to be a track day accident, can be something else like a money shift, or a transmission failure or a $$$ repair that you cant defer.

I don't agree with a racing civic that takes 91 octane and high insurance cost + consumables given the situation but dude's stubborn so c'est la vie. I think as long as he doesn't track or mod his car until he pays it off it's managable.

[bcrdukes]

A car should never be anyone's identity. It's easy for me to say this, but after all, this is a car website.

I understand the why but you can't let a material object define who you are. I agree with noclue - you get into an accident of any kind, whether on the street or on the track, the car is gone and you're left picking up the pieces of the repair bills. I think the track day accident should have raised the alarm bells where he had to spend his savings to fix the car and he's down to $90 in savings. That is no way to live.

[Razor Ramon HG]

I think at this point, his mind is made up and he's not going to sell the CTR despite everyone's advice. If he rather have $90 in his chequings and keep the vehicle, you know he's too far gone.

At this point it's better that we focus on his other expenses to get a better picture of where all his money is going and what can be cut.

Making $60,000 a year, he should still have around $1250 a month after the "fixed" expenses he listed. Subtract $200 a month for weed (which is fucking wild BTW) and that's still $1050.

He said he doesn't eat out much or buy clothes. He lives with his parents, so how much do they chip in for things such as groceries and utilities?

We need a spreadsheet of all monthly expenses.