Mild and sunny this morning, going to head for a ride in a bit maybe out to Voorheeesville and the Bender Mellon Farm. Not a long ride, as dad is picking me up at 11:30 for a Sunday get together with the family.
Yesterday was mild and fairly gray, ☁️ finished up another book on car buying and the auto industry, gaining further insight into the process, learning more about the FX4 Off-Road Package on Ford Trucks, and reconsidering a lot of things, like whether or not to finance. More on that later. Rode my bike down to the Norman’s Kill Preserve West and it was super icy down town there, but nice down by the Norman’s Kill. 🏞️ You can see so much more this time of years when the leaves are off the trees, though no free blackberries to eat. 🍓
Then I rode over to Hannaford, got $30 in groceries, just a few things, rode home, then out to Five Rivers 🛒 for a while mostly to see Mead’s Cows 🐮 and I don’t know, listen to more of Andrew Ross Sorkin’s 1929 which chronicles the Great Depression. Been doing a lot of reading and thinking about personal finance, running numbers and thinking about how I can move more of my IRA and 457K into Roth accounts, so I can take advantage of tax-free growth without getting pounded even harder with taxes. ⚖️ It really sucks to get hit with a big tax bill in retirement if I need to buy something like a tractor 🚜 or a manure spreader. 💩 Paying the government a shit ton of money to sling shit.
I am very happy the bike trail is free of ice and snow 🚴 for the most part so I can ride to work at least through Wednesday with no issues, avoiding Corning’s Hill and Delmar Bypass. That should be good for getting through Andrew Ross Sorkin’s 1929, and the ride through the gorge is always pleasant, as is avoiding the morning busing. 🚍 Still have to take the bus home in the evening, but eventually we’ll get to Valentines Day ♥️ and have enough light to ride both ways. That puts a smile on my face, 😀 as even if I do get a big-assed SuperDuty, ain’t going to drive that thing to work and visit the gas station ⛽ every day on the way home.
I didn’t realize that most standard auto loans don’t contain a prepayment clause or fee, you can finance a small amount, maybe $1,000 or whatever the sales tax is, and within 10 days pay off the balance of loan only paying a few days interest and servicing fees. 💵 You might ask why, well it turns out dealers and manufacturers often have incentives for credit buyers that exceed the value of dealer cash, and dealers get a cut for loan origination, though they do get some of that clawed back if people pay off their loan within six months, but you can pay it off before that. Fascinating stuff. And lots of info on various fees and strageties to confirm a vehicle is on the lot, get a total out the door price, and negotiate in a way that both gets you a fair deal 🤝 and makes dealer generally willing to work with you
Still I don’t know the idea of financing something makes me cringe, 💰 I’ve never actually taken out a loan or had a subscription to anything. though I pay rent. But I guess holding a $1,000 note 📜 or whatever for two weeks before paying it off to save a bunch of money might be worth it, but I need to study the specifics of the fees and loan text to make sure it makes sense. But it’s easier to be honest with the dealer, and tell him I am interested in financing when working on the total out the door price. I am also planning to make sure I get prices from a lot of small town dealerships, as you know they all have those SuperDuty trucks but a lot of people in small towns are quite poor and can’t afford them, especially this time of year. I could see farmers buying in the fall when they sell their harvests, 🌽 but in winter, nto so much. Milk prices and soybeans are way down, I sadly don’t see many teat strippers buying themselves a new SuperDuty in Schoharie or Davenport Ford anytime soon. 😔 Unlike buying a house, one SuperDuty with the same package as another one is virtually identical, you can travel to take delivery, as it’s not like a house that has to be within reasonable commuting distance. Any Ford dealer will be more then happy to preform warranty work, because they get paid by factory.
I realize I have time, still eleven weeks until that last week of March, 🗓️ which is my target date for getting a truck before the end of Quarter 1, by then hopefully the snow will be gone and the roads free of salt. ☃️ Who knows, we do sometimes get later winter snow storms but they’re rare. Dealers are more motivated to make sales quotas by the end of quarter, but also I wouldn’t have to worry about road salt eating away at my new rig right away, or getting caught in a blizzard trying to get my new rig home. Lamolin coat that bad boy, probably professionally done next fall, and then buy my own bottle and underbody sprayer for touch ups that there after. That still gives me a few months to order a camper shell or camper for the truck, get the solar and CB radio and other equipment moved over. I was actually looking at potentially using a larger residential panel for solar, but if I don’t go that way, I do stick at least a second 100 watt panel on the cap for more power, especially if I will be powering a diesel heater next winter camping.
Honestly, it’s something to keep my mind active and busy during the long winter. 💭 People find it boring and offensive, but the whole auto dealer experience intrigues me because it really reminds me of my whole career in politics. While I’m now working over in the Data Unit, 💽 for years and years I worked directly with Assemblymembers on communications, so I know a lot on how negotiations work and don’t work. 🏛️ I know how to spin and communicate, sell ideas. Selling big trucks aren’t that much different. I’m not saying I’m going to become a used car salesman, but I do find it fascinating how persuasion works on sales floor and what is legitimate and what isn’t. 🐐 As much as I might like reading books about homesteading, this is in some ways much more practical. Like learning the ins and outs of buying land and houses, like I did a deep dive into two years ago, a lot of knowledge is transferable. I do want that off-grid cabin, but it’s not practical to build what I want in New York, and to walk away from my good paying job at this point, so damn close to the 20-year pension 1.6% to 2.0% per year of service credit would be tough. 🐽 Honestly, I want to get in 30-years, and who knows then if I buy my parents homestead what I’ll do but I still want a kind of freedom I can’t find on 5 acres in New York State. 🛢️ 🔥 🔫