Oh, I rent the second one. Because I have to, not because I want to. Couldn't sell it (even at 20% below purchase), had to move 2,000 miles away. Have up & down on renters who take care of it to varying degrees.
Want to buy it
To quote you
Problem is as a depreciating asset, that depreciation will wildly exceed any value obtained from use,
this is why comparing cars to an investment is specious.
That was a wild ride. Not sure if I liked it.
Gotta go on it again.
Being the tenant vs the landlord is a vastly different arrangement.
And if you have $550k in cash, you're not worried about being a tenant vs buying your own house.
The proper question is 'how many zeros is enough'?
If 10^7 is good for 99% of applications, then it's good enough. And 10^15 is way overkill.
Not buying that.
Most dealers would charge you for that, as a line item or an upsell.
Depends on the manufacturer.
Well, I've never considered cars as an investment as they only depreciate (with very rare exceptions). Financially, the best option for a car is to go as cheap as you can tolerate. i.e. I'm fine with a used Subaru, not sure I could live with a Yugo.
So to compare cars to any investment is specious at best.
I was just addressing the GP's comment on rent vs own vs invest.
I hear some studies say the stock market is a better investment than real estate,
It's ALWAYS location.
A little story:
I own two houses. One in NC (10 years), one in CO (5 years).
The one in NC has decreased in value by 20% in those 10 years. And is even difficult to sell because of the lack of buyers.
The one in CO has increased in value by 60% in those 5 years. And would sell in days. Possibly above asking price & a cash offer.
If I was renting either house, it would cost significantly more than my mortgage payment.
My index funds (mid cap S&P 400) average around 12%/year.
So in order to rent AND save enough money to put into the stock market & earn greater returns, I'd have to get a lesser house, in a lesser area, with lesser schools.
And that's something I'm not willing to do. But if you don't have kids, or care about the size/quality/location of your domicile, then yeah it's a good idea.
Drafting won't get you that. But electric motors will.
Say, how often does your car work better after an automatic update from the manufacturer?
You realize that an aircraft carrier could outrun the solar airplane, right?
And that military sometimes need some things quicker than 5-7 days?
Bigger propellers, longer wings/stabilizers just to name a few off the top of my head.
That was kind of my joke.
They should just change the names of airplanes to drones, sheet metal bending to 3D printing, and be done with it.
Just needs more thrust & control surfaces.
All seems condemned in the long run to approximate a state akin to Gaussian noise. -- James Martin
