Muchas personas durante su vida sueñan con poseer vienes. Algunos piensan en tener casas, carros, empresas, tener, tener y tener. Ese no era mi caso, ya que nunca me ha interesado tanto el poseer cosas, más que el aprender, conectar y disfrutar de cosas y momentos.
Sin embargo, tampoco es que tenga una mentalidad de pobre y siempre que pueda mejorar un aspecto de mi vida que me de alguna comodidad lo trato de hacer.
Es por esta razón que el pasado mes de septiembre luego de varios meses reuniendo pude comprar mi primer carro, un Fiat Palio año 1999. Les cuento como para un joven periodista de 26 años con un solo trabajo, una madre viuda y en un país donde es “muy difícil” ahorrar lo pudimos hacer.
En marzo de este año me retiré de mi antiguo empleo luego de tres años. Como es “lógico” me dieron mi arreglo por todo el tiempo que estuve dentro de la organización. Fue más de lo que yo esperaba, razón por la que pensé comprarme algo que me facilitara el traslado a cualquier lugar que fuera.
En principio había pensado en una moto, resaltando que su precio se acercaba a lo que había percibido por el retiro, en ese mismo periodo de tiempo y mientras me adaptaba a mi nuevo trabajo decidimos vender el Ford Zephyr que había dejado mi padrastro al fallecer.
El “chocolate” que nosotros le decíamos porque era marrón, ya estaba muy viejo, además, que llevaba meses accidentado por lo que pensamos que la mejor solución era venderlo, ya que ponerlo a rodar nuevamente iba a generar grandes gastos y teniendo en cuenta lo antiguo del vehículo, no valía la pena.
Casualmente (o no) antes de que decidiéramos venderlo varias personas nos había hecho propuestas para comprarlo, pero no nos decidíamos, hasta que finalmente se lo terminamos vendiendo a un familiar que sabíamos que lo iba a reparar y cuidar.
Así fue como ese dinero lo añadimos al que ya teníamos por mi retiro, no era mucho, pero sí ayudaba a contar con un poco más para poder ya plantearnos comprar un carro, por encima de una motocicleta.
En esta redacción incluyo a mi mamá porque todo lo hicimos y decidimos juntos desde el principio, es por ella que realmente me decidí a comprar un carro por encima de una moto, debido a que es conocido que trasladarse en un vehículo de cuatro ruedas es más seguro para sus tripulantes y por la seguridad de ella y mía no lo pensé mucho.
Ya teniendo ese dinero y en el nuevo trabajo me meto a ahorrar junto a otras personas en los llamados “bolsos”, que es una metodología de ahorra colectivo donde participan varias personas quienes hacen un aporte mensual o quincenal (dependiendo como lo decidan) y ese dinero se le va otorgando a una de las personas que forman parte de la misma ordenados por números. Es decir, a mí me tocó el número 5, para la quinta quincena yo iba a recibir el total del bolso, aunque luego debía seguir pagando cada 15 hasta finalizar el mismo.
Es así como pude ahorrar un poco más, aunque cada quincena me sentía que no me rendía el dinero para nada, pero fue un esfuerzo que tuvimos que tomar, sacrificar algunas actividades como salidas, paseos, entre otras cosas, para poder hacer posible el objetivo.
Algo que me frustraba muchísimo, era que al principio cuando comenzamos a ahorrar los carros que tenían un precio de $800, para el final del bolso ya estaban en $1400, lo mismo pasaba con los que estaban en $1300, ya sobrepasaban los 2 mil dólares.
A pesar de esto pudimos ahorrar, reunir dinero extra, recibir ayuda de familiares en el exterior que aunque no fue mucho, lo recibimos con todo el amor del mundo porque reconocíamos su intención.
Llegado el mes de septiembre ya contábamos con el dinero para poder ver reales opciones, porque hasta ese momento veíamos carros, pero nunca concretábamos nada por la falta completa del dinero, hasta que un tío vio este hermoso Palio el cual pudimos adquirir.
Para la compra fui con este tío, quien sabe de mecánica de carros y muy importante también, sabe negociar, por lo que pudimos cerrar el trato, hacerle la revisión e irnos “más contento que negra preñada de musiú”, como dice la frase.
Ahora falta solo terminar de aprender a manejar sincrónico, pero ya poder contar con un carro que nos facilite el traslado a cualquier parte que queramos ir es un alivio y una satisfacción.
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I managed to buy my first car
Many people throughout their lives dream of owning property. Some people think about owning houses, cars, companies, having, having, having and having. That was not my case, as I have never been so interested in owning things, **more than learning, connecting and enjoying things and moments.
However, it's not like I have a poor mentality either and whenever I can improve an aspect of my life that gives me some comfort I try to do so.
It is for this reason that last September, after several months of collecting money, I was able to buy my first car, a Fiat Palio 1999. I tell you how for a young journalist of 26 years old with only one job, a widowed mother and in a country where it is "very difficult" to save, we were able to do it.
In March of this year I retired from my old job after three years. As is "logical" I was given my settlement for all the time I was within the organization. It was more than I expected, which is why I thought I would buy something that would make it easier for me to move wherever I was going.
At first I had thought about a motorcycle, highlighting that its price was close to what I had received for retirement, in that same period of time and while I was adapting to my new job we decided to sell the Ford Zephyr that my stepfather had left when he passed away.
The "chocolate", which we called it because it was brown, was already very old and had been in an accident for months, so we thought that the best solution was to sell it, since putting it back on the road would generate great expenses and considering the age of the vehicle, it was not worth it.
Coincidentally (or not) before we decided to sell it, several people had made us proposals to buy it, but we did not decide, until we finally ended up selling it to a relative that we knew would repair and take care of it.
That was how we added that money to the money we already had for my retirement, it wasn't much, but it did help us to have a little more to be able to consider buying a car, rather than a motorcycle.
In this writing I include my mom because we did and decided everything together from the beginning, it is because of her that I really decided to buy a car over a motorcycle, because it is known that moving in a four-wheeled vehicle is safer for its crew members and for her and my safety I didn't think much about it.
Once I had that money and in my new job, I started to save together with other people in the so-called "bolsos ", which is a collective saving methodology where several people participate and make a monthly or biweekly contribution (depending on how they decide) and that money is given to one of the people who are part of it, ordered by numbers. That is to say, I got number 5, and by the fifth fortnight I was going to receive the total amount of the purse, although I had to continue paying every 15 weeks until the end of the purse.
That's how I was able to save a little more, although every two weeks I felt that I didn't have enough money for anything, but it was an effort we had to make, sacrificing some activities such as outings, walks, among other things, in order to be able to achieve our goal.
Something that frustrated me a lot, was that at the beginning when we started saving the cars that were priced at $800, by the end of the bag they were already at $1400, the same thing happened with the ones that were at $1300, they were already over $2,000.
In spite of this we were able to save, raise extra money, receive help from relatives abroad that although it was not much, we received it with all the love in the world because we recognized their intention.
In September we already had the money to see real options, because until that moment we were looking at cars, but we never did anything because of the lack of money, until an uncle saw this beautiful Palio which we were able to buy.
For the purchase I went with this guy, who knows about car mechanics and, very important, knows how to negotiate, so we were able to close the deal, do the inspection and leave "happier than a black woman pregnant with musiú ", as the phrase goes.
Now we just need to finish learning how to drive synchronous, but being able to have a car that makes it easier to move anywhere we want to go is a relief and a satisfaction.