A financial timeline…
- 2007-11: earned two incomes, but lived on a one income budget so we could pay down our debt.
- 2009-15: drove a reliable, payment free Cherokee.
- 2010: had kiddo #1.
- 2011: had kiddos #2 & #3 and dropped to one income so wife could stay home.
- 2014: got out of the rental rat race and bought a fixer-upper house.
- Jan. 2015: had kiddo #4.
- Jan. 2015: bought the greatest minivan ever created to fit the four kids and dominate the daily duties.
- Feb. 2015: paid off all our debt sans the mortgage.
- Apr. 2015: sold the old blue minivan AT A YARD SALE for thousands more than I paid for it (it was free).
For purposes of this build thread (reality isn’t so neat and tidy), I was batting a thousand, so you would assume the next move would follow suit. Nope. Let the stupidity ensue…
- Summer 2015: rather than replace a caliper and brake line for <$100, dump thousands and thousands of savings into a moonshot Jeep project. Brilliant!
…but didn’t you say you had a fixer-upper house? Shouldn’t you have put those thousands into it? Nope. Jeep!
…do you know how to completely reconfigure the suspension, transfer case, interior, etc. parts that you’re planning to modify? NopE! JEep!
…and didn’t you say you had four kids? Can you fit four kids in a Cherokee? NoPe. JeEp!!
…and with four kids, when do you plan to do all this work? NOpE. jEEP!!!
…and what about… NOOOPPPPEEEE! JEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPP CHEROKEEEEEEEEE PROJecT TIIIIMMMMEEEEEE!!!
…begin the facepalms of hindsight.