Investing In My Jimmy

With January coming to a close, I’m not too happy about my money situation. I should end this month at a little over 11k which means that I actually lost money. I’ll get over it of course, but the feeling of working for nothing is going to linger into February. While much of the blame for January’s loss can be attributed to the upstairs tenant of property Alpha, Nicky (and therefore the blame is really on me for choosing her), another big reason is car repairs. I spent well over $800 for car maintenance and repairs this month and I plan to spend more.

I drive a 2000 GMC Jimmy with 157k miles on it. Coming into 2012, my plan was to make sure that the Jimmy gets me through this winter then use my savings account to buy one of my favorite vehicles—the Jeep Grand Cherokee (1999-2004 models only) once I saved up $5000 in the savings account. Then I was going to use the Cherokee until 2014 when I would trade it in and finally get my dream car—the BMW X5. But after looking at how the savings account helped me reach my quota of 15k for 2011, I had second thoughts. I mean, why not just let the savings account accumulate for years just for the hell of it, using it only as emergency money? It feels good to have that extra money on hand and I don’t want to start from scratch just to have a newer vehicle. Ego-wise, I’m already used to the fact that all my tenants drive better vehicles than me, including Nicky. The way I see it, I’d rather have a working vehicle with dents and scratches that gets me from point A to point B than to have a nice looking vehicle and be on the brink of eviction. I’ve also seen those landlords that have these amazing cars and the rent just covers the monthly payments. What’s the point? Is it to impress strangers? Not for me, as I actually prefer letting strangers down.

I have a certain fondness for the GMC Jimmy as, unlike my previous 7 vehicles (1992 Nissan Altima, 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee, 1999 Audi A6, 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee, 1992 BMW 750il, 1999 Oldsmobile Bravada, and the 1997 Chevy Blazer chronologically), this is the first vehicle I’ve owned that has heat and a working 4-wheel drive. It’s also the longest period of time that I’ve owned a vehicle at almost 2 years! I’ve already repaired the fuel lines so now I have to replace the shocks and fix the radiator. The total cost of the repairs will be around $1500, so it’s definitely going to hurt my wallet initially. But I would much rather have the Jimmy that I know than the Cherokee that I don’t know, and I’m actually saving money this way. Saving money is my primary goal during this period, and keeping my not-so-pretty GMC Jimmy around goes a long way towards maximizing my overall profits.