“If you want a truck one day, son, you are going to have to make some money,” dad said. “I’ll pay for half of your first vehicle up to $4000. After that, you are on your own. You must pay for gas, insurance, tax and title. You must keep it washed and take care of it,” he instructed. Oh, how this was different that so many of my buddies. Most of them received cars for their birthdays or just because it was something that their parents felt they were supposed to buy for their children. Not my parents. It might have been tempting for my parents to just buy me a car and move on, especially since they had the money, but I learned quickly that this was much bigger than that.
I’m grateful that they did not make me pay for my first car on my own either. I probably would have screamed and kicked, but if my parents would have been struggling financially, this may have been the only route for the three of us kids to buy cars. I learned quick from dad that there were two options that were not on the table when it came to the truck conversation. First, buying a $30,000 truck for a 16-year-old just doesn’t make sense. That thirty-thousand-dollar ride will be trashed in no time. And Second, don’t even think about the idea of taking out a car loan. No way. I had to work for a few years, summers, holidays, after school and around the house. I had to save a few thousand dollars to buy something that will get me around town. All dad really cared about was that it got me from point A to point B, which in his mind was to school and from school.
When it came to the question about insurance for the truck, I found out later that many teens’ parents just simply added their kids as a driver to their family insurance policy like adding their kid to their family cell phone plan. Well, let me tell you, Ha! That didn’t happen. Auto insurance was significant for teen drivers, but it wasn’t going to impact my parent’s plan by adding me to theirs. There was none of this nonsense of I’ll pay for this, you pay for that when it came to expenses for my truck. Everything was crystal clear. If it needed new brakes, tire, an oil change or if the air conditioner went out…I paid. If I got in a wreck and the truck needed to go to the shop for repairs, it went to the shop, I paid and had to walk or catch a ride with mom. I was not allowed to ride in the car with my buddies who could drive. I guess the thought of peer pressure was too high growing up. So, the $2000 was just a starting point for what I needed to raise to fund my truck.
What I learned most about this first truck buying experience is the need for balance. I was doing a lot of swimming and boy scouts at the time. Dad and mom showed me that those sports and fun things like camping on the weekends are great and all…even highly recommended and encouraged. However, there was a clear need for learning how to work and make money. I needed to balance my activities with work. Life was not going to be all about having fun and just doing the pleasurable activities, I was going to have to work to pay for the activities and just get to the various activities.
