It may be that the smiles on our faces are more important than the money.  It might be more about
"utility theory" and not so much about the money.  Having $30/$44/$65,000 says NOTHING about the
"opportunity cost" in adventure and smiles.  I'd rather have 10 years worth of adventure and
smiles than $65,000 in 10 years.  I've had my vans in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, I drove my van from
Cairo to Amsterdam, and several trips through England and Western Europe. I've driven across
Canada a few times and across the northern US.  And I'm just getting warmed up!

As for "In general, car addicted people are not good money people." ...... I have a Pd.D. in
Finance from a big school :-)   and I am an Associate Professor of Finance at my local U, and I
can tell you with ABSOLUTE authority! that "it's not about the money"  The investment is in my
life!, Not in my van. "economic sense" is subjugated to lifestyle and adventure.  :-)    Malcolm
Stebbins

--- Dennis Haynes <dhaynes@OPTONLINE.NET> wrote:

> One thing I don't see mentioned is the cost of the money! If you have $30K in cash to put into
> your vehicle, think of what that could be in 5 years. At a modest 8% you would have over $44k in
> 5 years. Almost 65K in 10. The 30K in cash could be a future retirement home. Heck, you could
> invest the 30k, use the $200 month earnings to pay off a cheap car and still have the $30k at
> the end. Well, not quite with taxes and stuff.
>
> In general, car addicted people are not good money people. .......................
>
> As for spending that type of cash on a vehicle for a trip, just don't make economic sense.

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