Women with kids (are you sure?)

[Pete E]

... in response to Better off renting, posted by DallasSteve2 on Sep 15, 2003

Steve,
It was a joke,all these things are very expensive to rent.But at leat they won't bite you on the a-s a second time after you turn them in.
I am an ex car dealer.I manage to drive the absolute best cars,in my opinion, for $1000-$2000 a year depreciation.I have never bought a new car in my life.The book "the millionaire next door" says 40% of people with over one million net worth buy only used cars.
I now have a 1997 BMW 740i.(after my other BMW got totaled by a clueless asian driver.)I stole it.I bet I can drive it 5 years and lose no more than $5000 to depreciation.Someone else took the first $50,000 worth of depreciation in its first 6 years.Its still like new.
Leases you make a payment that is supposed to offset the depreciation,instead of paying the car off,as you would with a loan.So less money goes to pay the principle down.
But there is an internal interest rate figured in the lease,and I have seen them be very high.Also a open end lease is best,where you can buy the car if you want at the end of the lease.And if you put on too many miles there can be huge penalties.
But don't roll the odometer back.I bought a car at an auction one time.The guy had rolled it back from 63,000 miles to 33,000 miles before turning it back from lease.I did a history on he car and found out about the 63,000 miles.The wholesaler who took it to the auction had to cut me a check for the value difference.He went after the dealer who went after the original owner.As a private party
he probably just had to pay some money.If a dealer does that its jail time.Some still do.They are hard to catch sometimes,so he feds really nail them if they do catch them.Slamersville.
To figure your true cost to own,take purchase price minus future sale price.Add expected repairs and any interest you will be paying.Figure that even if you paid cash since you could have done something else with the money.All of this is figured in to the lease,so you can do a comparison.Remember you will one way or another be paying depreciation so buy a car that has already been depreciated,as in paying alot less for it.Any new car will cost you bucks.You could spend more than me for a Saturn.
And I got a car that was $65,000 new,all the bells and whistles.I'll buy my 2002 754i($75,000 and considered by some the worlds best car)in 2008 for under $20,000.It helps if you know these cars are good for 300,000 plus miles.

Pete

[moam]

... in response to Re: California alimony, posted by Pete E on Sep 14, 2003

Hey Pete,
A friend of mine was not even married for 10 years and he had to cough up aliamony, he only had to do it for a couple of years, the court gave her a deadline to get off of her butt and get a career.

[Pete E]

... in response to Re: Re: California alimony, posted by moam on Sep 14, 2003

Gary,
I will send you a E-mail.I got way off subject here again.

Pete

[Pete E]

... in response to Re: Re: California alimony, posted by moam on Sep 14, 2003

Sounds more than fair to me.Maybe the  1/2 the time you are married alimony doesn't have to apply strictly.
A friend of mine paid child support for 16 years.The kid then moved in with him and he asked his ex wife for child support.She didn't want to pay.It went to court.The judge told her to pay,for more than he had asked her for.She was stammering and stuttering and objecting.The judge says thats it,hit the gavel.The audience,other people with cases to be heard,burst out laughing.

Pete

[Bueller]

... in response to Women with kids (are you sure?), posted by DallasSteve2 on Sep 14, 2003

Steve, I for one am glad you share all this stuff with us, amazing as it is sometimes. There were a number of red flags you blew past, if memory serves. This sounds like a pretty typical pair: she doesn't want you to meet her family, and little things she tells you don't quite add up.

 Oh, and to repeat an old theme of mine-- you're still thinking about her? ;-) Just please, please, don't ever say, or even think, the word "Luz" while you're being intimate with Milena, OK? :-)

[Michael B]

... in response to Women with kids (are you sure?), posted by DallasSteve2 on Sep 14, 2003

[This message has been edited by Michael B]

Mexico City, 1972, college tour (not the rowdy spring break stuff, this was sponsored by the college and you even got 1hr credit in Spanish language if you made it to all the required musuems and such). So one of my room mates shows up with a fine beatiful Mexican chick. Turns out she had been an exchange highschool student in the US and his family had sponsored her. Naturaly I asked if she had a friend and of course she did. The friend and I hit it off, spent the rest of the trip together (as soon as I finished the 'required' stuff) and corresponded for 2 or 3 years after that and I went down to visit her 3 more times. She didn't have a phone (which comes into play in a minute), to use the phone we had to pre-arrange a time when she went to the store on the corner, but there were no 10-10's or calling cards in those days, so it was quite expensive and we didn't do it often, every couple of months or so. OTOH, the mail service was quite good, only 1 or 2 days each way for a letter. We hadn't quite arrived to the giving her a ring stage yet, but had talked seriously about marriage more than once, mostly we were just waiting for me to graduate so I could get a job. One time I went down (on another school tour) and to my suprize, she didn't come to meet me at the hotel like she always did when I first got to town. Well, no problem, I'd been to her place (for those who know Mexico City, in Colonia Zaragoza, equivlent to a Colombian 'strata 2') lots of times and knew the subway system, so away I went (remember, she didn't have a phone, so I couldn't call, turns out she had received the letter but got my arrival date mixed up). Carina answered the door and said "Mommy, there's a man at the door".......Well, Mommy had some explaining to do! Her explaination was "If you knew I had a kid, would you have still been interested in marrying me?"....my reply was "I don't know, I would honestly have to think about it long and hard. But now that I know you've been LYING to me for 3 years, the answer is defenitly 'NO'!"....I still have a couple of pictures of us together and a picture of little 4yo Carina standing in the door way, she was such a cute little girl, and sometimes (not everyday, mind you, just when I stumble across something like your question) I still think "what if...." about Velia and Carina. BTW, just out of couriosty, I asked her "Where was Carina when I was in town all those other times, who kept her?" and she said "I took her to the hospital and said 'I think she has pnuemonia', they would keep her for a week or so running test and such, I'd go visit her everyday before being with you" (who says socialized medicine isn't great?, they might not cure you, but at least you get free babysitting)

[Bueller]

... in response to True Confessions (kind of long), posted by Michael B on Sep 14, 2003

"(who says socialized medicine isn't great?, they might not cure you, but at least you get free babysitting)"

 This was good for a chuckle. Now I think I'll grow a ponytail and vote for Howard Dean.

 I'm thinking seriously about marrying a divorced lady with a child; she has always been up-front about everything and it just sounds like she had some bad luck, viz. her ex cheating on her so she divorced him.