Tag: Car

Time – Your Most Precious Commodity

Throughout my life so far it’s always seemed as though I’ve never had enough time to do the things I am supposed to do, let alone things I want to do? The dreaded “wasting my life away” quote was at the back of my head as I was sitting in my cubicle browsing through pictures of people photographing themselves having the time of their lives at places I’ve never been to. All I could do at the time was say “maybe one of these days” to myself. After all, I have to go to work every day which leaves me with little time for traveling and money is tight so I’ll just have to bite the bullet and hope something comes my way. It didn’t.

Actually, it did but in a whole different form than I would have imagined. As part of my spiritual awakening I started to see things differently and realized how precious a commodity time is. It was already clear to me that spending the best years of my life working so one day when I retire I can enjoy myself made no sense, but when I realized the value of time, things took whole new turn. “Maybe” must be replaced with “May Be”.

I had tens of thousands of dollars worth of stuff sitting in my livingroom and I’ve dumped it all in the bin. I have primarily done it to liberate myself from chains these possessions kept me in, but as I was done, a realization of one far more important aspect of this act came to me. By dumping all these in the bin, I have also saved myself a lot of time. The other option was to list all these items for sale on classified ads sites. Had I followed this option, I may have added few nice bucks in my pocket but at what cost?

I’d have to take each item, take picture of it, get pictures ready for use on the net, write up a reasonable description of the item otherwise it may not attract attention of potential buyers and go through steps of publishing it on the websites. Subsequently, I’d have to deal with potential buyers who would be hitting me up with supplemental questions about each item and requests to drop the price (aka negotiations). I’d be spending my evenings responding to emails, bouncing them back and forth in hopes that someone will bite.

If I got lucky and found a buyer willing to shell out for these second hand things with expired warranty previously owned by a person they don’t know, I’d have to let it go for a price that’s way below reasonable value, because that’s how it goes with classified ad sales. So yes, in theory, I’d eventually make some money on it, but amount of time I’d have to invest into it could grow exponentially. Postings and repostings of ads that didn’t attract any bites, continuous questions from enquiring minds who’ll be trying to lowball me ad nauseum… would time invested really be worth it?

Bingo – that was the million dollar question. If it’s money you want, perhaps one would be better off spending this time focusing on something that could bring more in. As I was digging deeper into it, I came to realize the real value of time. Yes, time is your most precious commodity, because there is no money in the world that could buy it. Those things I had dumped – if such need arises, I can buy any of those back. But time – that’s one thing you can never buy back. Nothing in this world is more precious than time.

Time is so precious, everything revolves around it. Every regret you have is directly or indirectly affiliated with time. If you lose someone you love, you will be devastated. It’s after they are gone that you realize that so many things were left unsaid, so many undone. And now they will remain unsaid and undone forever. And it’s all because you have not spent as much time as you should have with that person. Perhaps it’s because you spent your days going to work and after work you were too tired. Perhaps it’s because you spent last two weeks re-visiting that car dealership and spent every evening there trying to get that new SUV for $10,000 less than advertised. To make or save money, you spent your time – the most precious commodity you have – by doing everything, except from what truly matters to you.

You are not the only one who makes this very mistake. I spent near a decade of my life – the best years of my life – going to work every day, working for money so I can exchange it for things that I then had to store in boxes and haul them around each time I moved. I did not do things I wanted to do and it went on for near 10 years. I will never be able to get those 10 years back. I can get back any of the items I threw in garbage as described above, but my years I spent going to work are irrevocably gone. During those years I haven’t done anything I really want to do. I simply went to work every day with a vision, that one day, sometime in the future I will retire and then I will be able to do what I want to do. As this premise became clearly ridiculous, I realized the value of time and started acting accordingly.

Keep this in mind – time is your most precious commodity. This day, this particular day on which you are reading this post will be there only once in your lifetime. Seize it. Seize the day! Wise people have been telling us that for millennia and I can’t believe it took me this long to realize it. There is a world of infinite possibilities out there. Live your dreams now, not in 20 or 30 years. Time does not discriminate. There are 1,440 minutes in a week and every single person out there gets this exact amount. It’s how you choose to use those minutes that makes the difference between those who live life to the fullest and those who don’t.

Leasing of Smart Car that Failed

As the car I have owned was crapping out on me, I started looking around for a replacement. Shoving money into an old piece of junk just seemed like a complete and utter waste. My old car was a 1997 model, meaning that it was 10 year old. I have just passed 200k on it so the value was not there by any stretch of imagination. If I wanted to sell it, I would get at best a couple hundred bucks.

Troubles with that car started about a year prior. None of the troubles were major, the car was still running as engine and transmission were in decent condition, but the computer was busted and was feeding the engine with way more gas than it needed. Heating was busted too so warming the cabin up in winter was entirely impossible (which also meant it was impossible to defreeze the windshield for driving in cold weather).

I threw $500 into thorough maintenance and none of the issues were resolved. BTW, if you want to waste $500 for nothing, bring your car to Vegreville Auto and Body Shop. They have this great ability to charge you $500 and give you the car with same issue it had before bringing it in. When I brought mine in, I told the owner that it was eating too much gas, way more than it used to and it didn’t heat up. So he ran it through thorough maintenance, replacing all fluids and parts such as sparks, cleaning it up and doing whatever else there is to do to hike the price up to over $500 only to find out later than none of it helped. I was seriously unimpressed. I have clearly stated what the issues were and that this is why I’m bringing it in. I would not have put the car through this crap had I known it was not gonna deliver the result. What’s the point of spending half a grand for something that doesn’t solve your problem?

So after $500 investment that didn’t solve nothing, I still had a car with problems and a value lower than the maintenance ticket I had picked up. The car kept draining my wallet on gas as it used almost $1 worth of gas per 1km driven. This was insane, but it got even worse in winter when I couldn’t see where I was driving through and couldn’t even hold the steering wheel it was so cold. I realized that my time driving this car is up. So I started looking around at other options.

I needed to buy a new car. I’ve never had much luck buying used and given how bad financing options for used vehicles are compared to new, one would end up paying the same monthly premium for three year old piece of junk, as he would for the new one, because of interest rates. New cars have financing with interest rates as low as 0% – can’t get there with used. That means that unless you’re intending to pay for your used car by cash in full, you’re better off picking up a new one.

I didn’t have money to pay off my car at once, so financing was the only way for me. Having been deeply submerged within corporate lifestyle, I knew all about finances and what to do with it. I started to think the same way rich people do and realized that the best way to a new car was by leasing one, instead of financing. There are several reasons for that:

  • Lower monthly payments than with financing
  • After the lease term is over, you don’t end up with an obsolete piece of junk you’ll have to sell under value to get rid of it
  • What you lease, you don’t own and what you don’t own cannot be taken away from you when you get sued. This may not be an issue if you live outside of North America, but for us here it truly is serious. You don’t have to try hard. You just happen to be at the wrong place in the wrong time and you get sued. Lawyers are especially trained to run you to the ground and when you’re down, they will take the heaviest kick at you. The more you own, the more they take from you. Hence owning large ticket items is a dangerous game. Rich people know that – you always want to control it, never own it. Leasing allows you to do just that

Being absolutely clear that I wanted to lease a car, the only question was to find which one. One of the options was to go for Suzuki SX4 as they are the sexiest and the best value for money cars around these days. They come standard with everything you need for a price other makers can’t match. Plus Suzuki cars are made directly in Japan, not just the company being Japanese. You are getting Japan made quality with SX4. Unfortunately at the time Suzuki didn’t have any interesting leasing rates available.

Another option was to go for Acura CSX. These cars have super sexy interior and represent one of the best long term investments. Overall cost of running in relation to what you are getting is incredibly favourable. Not to mention attractive leasing rates that put monthly installments for this $30k worth of car to a level you would get with $25k worth of cars from other makers. You would basically be paying the same amount each month, but be driving a $30k Acura, instead of a 25k something else. Quite a no brainer.

My favourite of all was however Smart Car. Lease rates historically some of the worst in the industry, value for money questionable, however Smart Cars are the $hit. I had two big problems with my current car – massive gas usage and pathetic cabin heating. Smart car solved both of them with charm. Mileage on Smart Cars is unsurpassed and given the size of it, there is way less space to heat up in winter so the cabin would get warmer faster than in any other car. Furthermore, I really like the look of Smart Cars and they are Mercedes made – solid strong, reliable, and backed by lots of warranty.

I went to check both Suzuki SX4 and Acura CSX but Smart Car was my personal favourite. No other car could offer what Smart Cars can so after very little deciding, I was certain that I want to lease a Smart Car.

Off I went to a dealership, spoke with really awesome sales person and after never ending negotiations to get the lowest possible price, we have agreed on monthly installments I was comfortable with. The papers got signed and moved on to the management for approval.

I got a phonecall from the finance department of said Smart Car dealership that my financing was approved by the bank (my credit is actually pretty decent) and I’m ready to line up my insurance for my new car and come pick it up. I was excited like you wouldn’t believe. I saw myself plowing through the streets of Edmonton on my brand new Smart Car like a pimp. No longer would I over pay on gas, no longer would I freeze my bum in winter. All of my car related problems would be gone.

The delivery date was set for a few days later and the last thing I needed was to get myself insurance for this new automobile so I can go and drive. I phoned Morgex – car insurance company with whom I’ve been for almost 5 years to tell them that I have a new car so we get the paperwork all done. I called up my agent and told her all about my new car and she quoted me how much it’s gonna cost me. My smile froze that very instant.

I was looking at an annual hike for car insurance from under a grand I have been paying for my current car to over three grand for this new one. I thought this was a bad joke. I was like – you have got to be kidding me. But no, she wasn’t. Apparently this is what I would have to pay if I were to drive a new car. The fact that I have never had a single ticket somehow meant nothing. The fact that I have never had a single insurance claim (never been in an accident) also meant nothing. $3k+ a year to have my new Smart Car insured. WTF?

I have decided it was time to look for other insurance companies if one who’s been solely collecting from me and never spent a penny doesn’t appreciate my business well enough to give me a decent quote. I spent days upon days calling around and shopping my personal information to get quotes. They all were above $3k mark. I was seriously losing faith in humanity. I had to postpone delivery date for my automobile as I have not had the insurance lined up. It was frustrating.

On a few occasions I was held up. I would phone the company, provide details to get a quote and the quote would be reasonable. So we go through hassle of giving away all of my personal details, faxing one sheet after another back and forth only to have the actual quote I would actually pay come up in the end and look higher than all previous quotes.

From that point on, if I called for a quote and they couldn’t give me not even a ball park without asking for personal information, I would not bother going ahead with it. Frustration was growing, delivery date was getting postponed and I was growing more and more weary of dealing with insurance companies. The dream of owning a Smart Car went from basically real into distant.

The thing was – my leasing payments for owning a Smart Car were just a tad over $300 a month. With insurance quotes I was getting, I would also have to pay the same amount just to have my Smart Car insured. That doubled my monthly cost for owning this car and it simply made little sense to me. This extra $300+ a month was just insurance. There was no gas, oil change or anything of value in it. It was just money out the window and into the pockets of what are known as the most rip-off-happy companies in all of Canada.

This bull crapping of car insurance companies frustrated me to the point that I have decided to slam my fist on the desk and say “Enough!” I’ve had enough of this crap. They all wanted to rip me off, now they ain’t gonna get a penny off of me. I have responded in kind and went to buy myself a quality mountain bike I could use every day for all of my commutes as well as day to day errands.

I got back to Morgex and cancelled insurance on my old car. I have also not renewed the registration on it so the car no longer had legal papers. The inability to drive it didn’t bother me – I had a bike now that got me around everywhere I needed to go. I was saving up big time and did something for environment and my health. I felt happy about the way it played out. They all wanted to get me but I didn’t let them. I did what was best for me and I’ve never been happier about the choice. Biking is a lot of fun and it’s good for your heart. But the knowledge that neither Morgex nor any other rip off car insurance company gets my money was priceless. That itself was worth the hassle.

So my attempt at leasing Smart Car failed, but something good came out of it in the end anyway. What I did not realize back then but do now, was that failing to lease a car left me free to get my life sorted out. Had I successfully leased and picked up the car, I would be stuck with the leasing, unable to leave my corporate lifestyle behind to liberate myself entirely. Some higher power was standing by me and did not allow me to lock myself in this madness that keeps you prisoner of your own will. It took me almost two years to realize but all that matters is that I did not take the leasing. I had it cancelled, financing approval rolled back and turned myself into a free person without ongoing obligation that would never allow me to live as free man. I thank the divine power that saved me from what could have been the biggest mistake of my last few years.

Enter Corporate Lifestyle, Bring On the New Grumpy Me

As I gave it to the pressure from my family to quit being a wandering bum and get a job, I started to change. I did not realize that, as it was a slow-moving process, but gradually, bit by bit my mind was getting twisted by the corporate bs. I have fallen into the lifestyle of a working class slave who voluntarily participates in repetition of his day to day tasks. I did as I was told, I collected my wage, I paid my bills and repeated the cycle over and over again. Every now and again I would meet with my buddies over a beer, we’d have some laughs and do something cool, but overall I was a working class man who turned himself into a slave for the best part of the week so I could collect the pay at the end of the month and exchange it for things. The lifestyle of excitement has dwindled away, the lifestyle of collecting possessions took over.

Of course you don’t see it that way when you’re stuck inside that corporate cycle. I didn’t see it that way until a decade later, when I had a personal awakening and got a chance to look at my past 10 years from a distance. Deep inside I felt that something wasn’t right, but I couldn’t find a name for it and opted for denial instead. There were signs all around me, but I chose to ignore them. I know what kind of toll this lifestyle took on me. I was aware of that fact that I’m miserable and grumpy all the time and that I treat everyone like crap, even though I never used to be that way. I didn’t know why I started acting that way, but instead of looking for answers, I blamed everyone else. It was all their fault, everybody is in my way, everybody wants to take advantage of me, everybody is there to piss me off. That’s who you turn into if you take away excitement from your life and focus on a lifestyle based on possessions. Corporate madness will change you so you won’t even recognize yourself.

The further ahead you get, the more possessions you accumulate, the more you get yourself locked in place and dependent on possessions you bought. If you finance a car, you have years of payment ahead of yourself you can’t escape. If you take a mortgage to buy a house, you will sentence yourself to living in this town for a minimum of next few decades carrying the burden of debt. But the worst thing is – corporate lifestyle will wash you up so badly, you will believe in it. You will believe in the system and will see acquisition of each new possession as a step forward in your life. This gradual downturn will continue for as long as you see the light at the end of tunnel – retirement.

You will voluntarily allow yourself to become a corporate slave because of the vision that one day when you’re 60 or so, you will be able to reap benefits of your whole life’s hard work. You will see yourself with mortgage paid off, owning your cozy house with a nice car in a garage and grandchildren outside playing with your cat. You see this distant picture and it’s good enough to keep yourself voluntarily enslaved. The enslavement makes you grumpy and miserable, but you see possessions accumulating and you see the retirement coming closer, so you don’t give up.

I was exactly the same way and when I saw one of my colleagues retire, I thought she lead the perfect life.

From Fun Times in the University to Living for Work

I was brought up the wrong way. As I was growing up I was being repeatedly told that one has to work hard to make money and that I will end up living a miserable life if I don’t. Many a time I would achieve results by working smart, instead of hard, but in each such case I was immediately put in place and had my self confidence destroyed. In a long run, this treatment has taken its toll.

When I started the university, I sliced myself away from my parents which allowed me to think for myself and do what’s right for me. It was during my university years when I traveled a lot, it was those years I still consider the best years of my life. Many of my peers couldn’t wait to finish high school so they can go to work and start making money. Money for them was the means to obtain items they all dreamed about – such as their own car. While that was a tempting scenario, I saw job as something that ends one’s youth and with it everything that’s fun in life. You get stuck in a 9 to 5 corporate lifestyle, you come home from work, read the paper while you’re munching on a giant slice of bacon, then turn on the TV to watch stupid soap operas with your feet up on a sofa, and go to bed to do the same thing over the following day.

I saw university as extension of youth. Sure, I would not be able to drive around in my own car, but I would not get stuck in the corporate lifestyle which once you start, typically lasts until retirement. Those extra years of not being able to buy anything cause I wouldn’t be making money was worth it, because it meant that I would be able to do things I care about, things that bring excitement into my life, things that impart new vigor to the mind. Life was good. I hitch-hiked through most of Europe, met amazing people, took part in monumental activities and it lasted until I got my university degree five years later.

End of university marked return to parents house. I didn’t stay long cause it was killing me to have to stay with my folks whose frame of mind was somewhere back in the industrial revolution. I escaped this torture quickly, but as much as I wanted to continue traveling, I was instantly told to look for a job and reminded how badly I was gonna end up if I neglect it. My mind gave in, I applied, attended an interview, got hired and the nightmare of corporate lifestyle become my life.