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What is more important to you money or memories..


nick8086

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Love, man. Gotta have love. From around 60 years ago, I can only remember one line. About love. Shall I sing the sum total of what I remember ? Might trigger someone else’s memory. Maybe a talented computer jockey here can find the source . Here we go. Line sings like this : “Love is a five letter word; spelled M-O-N-E-Y”. Anyone remember ?     -    Carl 

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22 minutes ago, Restorer32 said:

Money is way down the list of my life's goals.

Me too.  You likely will understand my reply below:

 

10-12 years ago, my son and I were invited to get a tour of a large indoor antique "big, heavy duty trucks" collection.  The place was huge, full time heating/cooling.  It was just part of a monster newer commercial building that the 69 year old owner ran several businesses out of.

 

He was giving us a great tour of each truck and the history of each one......but then he went into a trance-like stare at a wall..   After a long silence, he blurted out:   "You know, I made a LOT of money in my life"..... " and I thought I needed all of this". ... Truly a  Wow moment..

 

Prior to this he said he was recuperating from another heart operation and his "Doctor forced him to take a month off down in Florida to get away from stress".     Just inside the huge roll up door laying on the floor, was a 10 foot Jon-boat with oars.   He said "now, each evening, I strap that boat on the roof of my SUV and go fish in a small pond".  

 

That tiny cheap aluminum boat was blocking in a huge new diesel pusher motorhome. He then said Doc advised him to take the motorhome to go trout fly fishing in Idaho that he had always wished he had time for...  He dejectedly said "that trip is going to cost me $5000 !!"

 

...I then told him: "yea, but just think of that native trout fishing!!".

 

.

 

 

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Money is just a tool, if you don't use it, you may as well not have it. We only get one chance to have a life well lived. I intend to die broke, or better yet, in deep debt. One only needs enough to have a good life/life style, any extra is a waste of time. 

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Money is only unimportant if you have "enough" (a variable dependent on need and greed levels).

If memory goes, prolly won't care about money.

$250k automobiles have never been an issue (one of my race cars was said to sell for $250k, not particularly interested) $16mil afterburning aircraft now...

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Seems easy, keep the better of the two and sell the other.  That money can pay off debt, create some financial security for later in life, give your kids some help with education or with their first house and alleviate the stress of keeping the cars insured, running, stored correctly and so forth.  Maybe you and the family might want to travel and see things that will remain with you for the rest of your life. I have fond memories of the places I’ve been to in this world more so than the device that got me there. 

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"Money is only unimportant if you have "enough" (a variable dependent on need and greed levels).

If memory goes, prolly won't care about money."

 

If one had been fortunate enough to see the world, just being an American living in this country makes one wealthy compared to 98 percent of our fellow human beings. A life spent working in a shop or factory, raising a family, and sitting in front of a tv watching sports shows is just as valid as someone who overachieves and works compulsivluy to make huge excesses of wealth. It's the freedom to make our lives what we want, and live them how we see fit that is the true liberty and wealth all of us have here in the USA. Obviously having "more or excess to our needs" is what 99 percent of us try to achieve. Do we really need more than one hobby car? Do we even need a hobby car? These are all the choices we get to make in living our lives how we choose. Honestly, one hobby car for me is fine, though I prefer to have three. I have had many more at one time, and find I get bogged down with too many. Too much of something is just as bad as not enough of something you aspire to. Ballance is the best option........figuring that out can take a decade, several decades, or for some.....they never figure it out. Human nature is to want more than we can easily achieve.......the trick is not making yourself miserable getting there. 

Edited by edinmass (see edit history)
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1 hour ago, edinmass said:

"Money is only unimportant if you have "enough" (a variable dependent on need and greed levels).

If memory goes, prolly won't care about money."

 

If one had been fortunate enough to see the world, just being an American living in this country makes one wealthy compared to 98 percent of our fellow human beings. A life spent working in a shop or factory, raising a family, and sitting in front of a tv watching sports shows is just as valid as someone who overachieves and works compulsivluy to make huge excesses of wealth. It's the freedom to make our lives what we want, and live them how we see fit that is the true liberty and wealth all of us have here in the USA. Obviously having "more or excess to our needs" is what 99 percent of us try to achieve. Do we really need more than one hobby car? Do we even need a hobby car? These are all the choices we get to make in living our lives how we choose. Honestly, one hobby car for me is fine, though I prefer to have three. I have had many more at one time, and find I get bogged down with too many. Too much of something is just as bad as not enough of something you aspire to. Ballance is the best option........figuring that out can take a decade, several decades, or for some.....they never figure it out. Human nature is to want more than we can easily achieve.......the trick is not making yourself miserable getting there. 

 

My motto has always been: Nothing in moderation. Do it until you make yourself sick.................Bob

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Strange thing is that in this country if you save the max & pay same into social security for 50 years, after retirement you have to avoid extra income or your medicare costs go up (IRMAA) and you do not get stimulus checks.

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17 hours ago, nick8086 said:

If you get two car worth 250K.. from your estate..

 

Would you sell or keep them..???

Faking your own death and leaving to your new self is frowned upon by most Governments. You would be better off selling them and wire the money to the Caiman Islands. 

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Money to live is important but love and respect of and by family is more important than wealth. I never felt love from my family growing up. Not a bad life by any means but it was just an existence. When I met and fell in love with my wife my life changed dramatically for the better. Prior to that coaches and teammates matter more than family. I’ve been a very lucky person for the last 50+ years because of her and our daughter and our other family members the dogs. All the money in the world can not replace that. 
dave s 

Edited by SC38DLS (see edit history)
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It’s easy to forget all the blessings we have here in our every day lives. Fantastic modern health care, all the modern conveniences, reasonably safe neighborhoods, ect, ect, ect. We live in the best time in the history of mankind. With all the problems and issues facing us today......living is fifty times better than just 100 years ago. It’s easy to forget.

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Is it about the value of the cars, or the cars? 

 

 I inherited my fathers collection of cars and none of them interested me, it had nothing to do with the value, I just did not love them. Sold then off and bought what I wanted for myself.

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1 hour ago, edinmass said:

...living is fifty times better than just 100 years ago. It’s easy to forget.

I would agree with Ed  I was 12 years old when electricity came to our farm.  Didn't have AC in a car till after I graduated from college and now my wife's new car has the self driving option.  I would agree with Dave s that my wife of 38 years was more important to happiness than the money or the cars.  If all of my cars disappeared tomorrow I wouldn't miss a beat as long as I have my health.

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Like I have said a number of times, the cars themselves can be reasonably inexpensive. It's the support items that can be anywhere from a significant to a seriously large expense. The car hobby friendly house , property and buildings . And in a suitable location for a hobby like cars.

  I always say a person needs at least 2 buildings. One for a decent workshop, with room for the needed tools and equipment plus at least a two car size working space. And a second; preferably larger, much more basic building to house all the spare parts, parts cars , future project cars , jigs , fixtures and general clutter that needs cover from the elements, but if left in the work area beyond when you are actually using them make the shop a misery. Ideally you also have a small fireproof welding / grinding fabricating area, preferably in its own separate building . And some of us also have a small machine shop.

Once you have the working plant handled you can add, subtract and upgrade / downgrade the cars to suit your inclination / wallet.

But the set up itself is in my opinion the real big ticket item and much harder to afford than the cars themselves.

Many will say money is unimportant. And given a situation of health vs money of course health is far more important than money. However if someone wants to include old cars in their life, money is a very basic part of being able to do that.

Greg

Edited by 1912Staver (see edit history)
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Speaking as an unrepentant old sentimentalist, it's an easy choice. Being old and looking at some numbers in a bank account has no allure for me. The sadist thing about Scrooge is that he waited until the end was near to figure it out. It would be easy for me, as an old man, to say what the hell does it matter, money means very little if you can't spend it. However I started turning down my chances to be wealthy thirty years ago, for the sake of what I held dear. I've never regretted my choice. I only look back as a reminder of how fortunate I have been.

 

Bill

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In a previous life I was a grad student working on an advanced degree in South Asian Studies. As part of that I spent some time living in a village in Northern India. Sun dried mud houses, no electricity, no running water, no phones, not even a road into the village but the people were happy!  Living as they had for hundreds if not thousands of years and they were happy. Statistically at that time (1970) if you made $10,000/year you were among the top 1/10 of 1% of the wealthiest people in the world. One out of every seven people on Earth lived in a village in India.  Made me appreciate the freedom of choice I had as to how I spent my life and I am happy that I turned my back on striving for wealth and concentrated on making a living doing what made me happy.  As my Uncle said, if you have a dime in your pocket that you don't need you are rich.

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There is no greater reward than a life well lived. Living a life of kindness, honesty, and decency and helping others along the way is truly the way to self satisfaction and happiness. Giving help to others is the only true joy in life......and we should all do more of it. Too often we get caught up in the rat race. The only problem is when you win the rat race......you're still a rat.

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3 minutes ago, dustycrusty said:

I have memories of once having money- does that count?

 

 

The bigger question is......does it matter? 

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On 3/25/2021 at 6:49 AM, Restorer32 said:

Money is way down the list of my life's goals.

Pretty much my point.  Even when I was stone broke there were other priorities.  I recently reviewed my SS benefits and earning summary over my life - my goodness what a joke.

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For many the trouble in the USA is not money, it is time. Best trips were in an old VW Westfalia with an AC I could hang in the drivers door. One I had to scrounge a coil in the desert & gave my son his first dip in the Pacific. With a Golden Eagle pass (have had one for over 40 years) you did not need much more.

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10 minutes ago, padgett said:

For many the trouble in the USA is not money, it is time. Best trips were in an old VW Westfalia with an AC I could hang in the drivers door. One I had to scrounge a coil in the desert & gave my son his first dip in the Pacific. With a Golden Eagle pass (have had one for over 40 years) you did not need much more.

 

 

Less is always more. The trips (1982-1986) in my 72 Chevy with 265 thousand miles on it, sleeping in a tent on the side of the road, and eating at 7 -11 for five days in a row..........steamed hot dogs and a Big Gulp for lunch and dinner. We had a great time. Laughed harder, saw more things, and made better memories........all while trying to figure out if we had enough gas money to get home. Didn't have a credit card.......and more than once fixing broken down cars on the side of the road to make a few extra bucks. Met a great bunch of people along the way.

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Ed I did a road trip like that once with a buddy. On the way back home we were so broke we would pull into gas stations that were closed at night and push the car to each pump so we could drain the gas still in the hoses into our tank. It was great to find an intersection with a station on each corner. A cop pulled in one time and we thought we were going to be arrested. He asked what we thought we were doing and when we told him he laughed and gave us two bucks. That was almost a half tank of gas!  Money isn’t the answer good times and memories mean much more. 

Edited by SC38DLS (see edit history)
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1 hour ago, edinmass said:

The only problem is when you win the rat race......you're still a rat.

Ed. that is one of the most profound statements on life I have heard.  One of the advantages of money is what you can do with it like my friend who helped fund the library and will have his name on it, although I would prefer to do it anonymously.

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Never had a problem with people willing to take credit for my work. Didn't really care since by then would be working on something else and by the questions that came in would know exactly what the competition was doing.

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If someone was willing to pay a quarter of a million dollars for an item or two there is a pretty good chance they would hold it in pretty high regard. Maybe even treat it better than the current owner. I wouldn't rule out the thought that it may be going to a better home.

 

I like the watch Antiques Road Show. When I see someone given a high sale appraisal on a family heirloom that is kept in a closet or a dresser drawer I tell my wife they should sell it to someone who wants it more. I may not look like much of a sentimentalist but the motivation for owning things can be a little more pragmatic.

 

It is a lot easier for me to bring up a bunch of memories about my father, grandfathers, and great grandfather than it would be to dig out the few mementos I have from each.

 

In my own instance, I would feel irresponsible if my "toys" were greater than a small part of my estate. $250,000? That should be about 1/10th of the estate in a typical setting.

Edited by 60FlatTop (see edit history)
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