Howdy
Today is a messy day for me, and problems keep coming in and I believe it won't stop until next week. I am getting big and bigger shits as time goes, but I am not talking about those problems in this post. Those problems somehow remind me about something else I have overheard, or eavesdropping from some young man trying to look cool in front of some girl. Maybe they just met up so he tried so hard to impress her.
He talked big about how to live with full conscience on his spending. From my perspective, he was a bullshit, just FOMO-ing the new lifestyle of Frugal Living, so he wanted to act in front of his princess about how frugal he was. And I did not know for sure whether the girl was too dumb to keep listening and buying that young man words or maybe she was interested with him so she pretended to be like that.
Frugal Living was one of the topic I planned to use in FreeCompliments community. I wanted to make a sub community there, more like a small movement for some people who really wanted to do or learn about it.
Most of frugal living I know from influencers are about achieving your goals such as get rich at young age and you can retire young with full of money, That sort of Financial Freedom bullshit. It's not like I do not believe in Financial Freedom, I have achieved it a decade ago but Covid Pandemic destroyed my financial kingdom.
So what's the difference with that? I don't know for sure, maybe it is generational preference that has changed. For me Frugal Living is a lifestyle, a way to live which demand as to train and keep our mindset in proper way. I am a very stingy person, being frugal seems simple for people like me but actually it not as easy as people think.
Stingy is just keep everything as low as you can. Frugal is a bit similar, but there are some small goals in it. For example you want to save up a bit more money, reduce some waste or unnecessary spending. It is more like getting the best value of a product or service, without having to get it at the lowest.
For example, having a cheap lunch. If I let myself being stingy, I will buy bento box or lunch box at 1 USD. In Jakarta - Indonesia, you can eat some good meal at 0,8 USD, from street hawkers. That's stingy, it has no goals other than getting the cheapest. If I am being frugal, I will go for $1.3 lunch, which I will have some meal in cafeteria and I will get some chicken, a soy cake, stir fried vegetable and good warm tea. The quality in term of hygienic and nutrition are better than a cheap ready to go lunch box.
Ok I think I get strayed too far, let's get back to that young man who winning his sweetheart's heart. Why did I see him as a bullshit ? Just because he bragged he could get his BMW within 3 years?
ok here my thought about him being bullshit!
You Cant Fight Maintenance Cost
Live is not all about eating, get a place to live, saving, and so on. It is but not all. There are many small things that we do not talk in general, but they are there and they eat your money, draining your saving, and for some people, they make fool of them making them confuse unaware where their money has gone.
One of them is Maintenance Cost. Everything in this world won't last forever, so you must maintain, nurture or repair them regularly. That's why some things in this world, or you call them assets, keeps getting their value on the same as before, or some has depreciation and appreciation.
How about digital assets, such as Crypto Current and NFT? It's simple, they have inflation right, in the end most of them walking towards 0. That's the same fate, that's why I call it everything won't last forever.
OK back to maintenance, the worst expenditure on this maintenance is for our own body, the health issue. Many people lose their lifetime saving from some illness, but we do not talk about it this time. It will lead to health insurance, which is a big topic because for some people they have it and it is not an issue, but for others, who are not covered by any insurance or maybe they live in an area with no insurance, things will be different.
So I will take my car here for the example. Within two years it has consumed more than $1000 for the maintenance. I still need to cash in around $400 to change my front tire arms, they have a little crack there which makes some weird sounds when I run over a speed bump or make a u-turn.
Every two months I need to replace my engine oil and that will cost me $20. That's the cheapest maintenance cost I have right now. The picture above is my car when having an Air Conditioner maintenance, they charged me for $30 there.
So car maintenance are like that, you have small cost that keep popping out regularly, and a big one if you get accident or maybe your car gets too old.
My car is a cheap Nissan SUV manufactured in 2013, it is an old one and too old actually for me. I want to replace it with the newer car, different model because this one is more suitable for someone between late 20s to mid 30s, and I am not that young anymore.
The reason I do not replace it because the car price currently too expensive for me. I can force myself to buy a better one, I can pay it, but the real question is... Can I Afford it? How would I cover up the maintenance?
That's the thing why I tell him the young man is a bullshit. You may brag you are going to buy Ferrari or BMW, my question is simple, how would you cover it maintenance cost? Each car has different maintenance cost, and sometime they are irrelevant to the car price.
Here, Most of Japanese cars have the lowest maintenance cost, because their spareparts are everywhere. Exception for Mazda, you are dead if you get a Mazda here, almost everything are pre-ordered.
And then for European cars, the cheapest one for maintenance is old Mercedes Benz cards. But for the newer cars, Mercedes and BMW have the cheapest maintenance cost here for European cards. Ferrari might be cheaper than Bentley here, but maintaining Ferrari would make your head explode. Unless you are a rich brad, a privileged second generation person in some business dynasty, better you get Bentley.
Bentley is more expensive but they have official dealer here which help you with the maintenance. Overall their maintenance cost is a lot cheaper than Ferrari, but still a bit more pricey than BMW maintenance. We talk about annual average maintenance cost here.
Ok kiddo, don't talk big about cars. I am not a fan of cars but you don't need to be a genius for knowing that Ferrari and BMW are far from head to head, apple to apple.
And the most important thing... stop talk about being frugal if your mindset is still about buying it only. There is a Maintenance Cost you can't fight there, you must pay it regularly... It's part of it's life.
Oh I think I have blabbered to much here. Talking about expenses keeps my headache intact well here. Gotta go then, cut it here. See you...
Thank you for coming and reading my post. I live in Jakarta, Ex-Capital City of Indonesia. Currently I am running a small business with less than 10 people. I used to live by making money online, that's why I like being here, on HIVE, and in PIMP - (Paper In My Pocket) community.
