Rolling past me are a champagne Escalade,
A $29,000, 2013 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid with heated leather seats, even the rear seats,
an immense, black crew cab pickup truck, an Audi, a new VW Beetle, and several other cars and SUVs three years old or less.
Then there is my car: a 2002 Chevy Malibu with 172,000 miles. All of my classmates are enlisted soldiers around the same pay grade as me. There cars are new, shiny and represent about a year's pay.
I suppose this is normal in America, but living with my frugal Ninja wife and working with young people who live in Philadelphia and mostly drive old cars or no cars, it is strange to be with young people who live in middle America and own new, expensive cars. Just another bit of culture difference when I go on active duty.
So do you have debt envy? I thought not. Our daughter, in the Air Force, hasn't purchased a car, or much of anything else and has well over $20,000 in savings. She feels like she's filthy rich! That's the feeling no debt gives you. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteGood for her!!! She is definitely on the right track. Some of these people live paycheck to paycheck--in very shiny cars.
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