Cost of Equipment 'my equipment is paid for'

Hahahaha. Nice read. Well written.
And still the posts roll in...How do I become a trucking carhauler tycoon with the family pickup. Or "I see 3500 Rams all over the place, must be good" I see homeless people pushing all their crap in shopping carts...how bad could it be.

 

A few thoughts.

Good post.

First off trucks are tools, to think they keep a value of what you paid for it is not the right way to look at it. It doesn't matter what you can write off, it matters if it is a dependable tool and how you keep it that way.

Second if you want to think about the costs involved compared to what you get out of it, then most of the time you did buy a job. I don't believe you did like others have.

Third the worth of it to sell isn't the issue, it is what people are willing to pay for it. Like the eBay adage goes, just because they are asking $100, doesn't mean they will get more than $10 for it.

Fourth what you have is not an investment, it is self-employment. It actually is a good thing, not a bad thing, and you may be the example others should follow. People who call it investing are the same ones who try to make a go at it, try to earn the BIG BUCKS but fail because they don't see the big picture, and it is one of the most common things we see.

Edit ... I don't want to make this a political thing but if you want to see a solution for taxes, go look up FairTax, it is a consumption tax that applies to consumer new goods and services but trucking would be exempt. It wipes out the need to worry about deprecation, and all kinds of things we pattern our behaviors around.

 

I fight with this scenario almost daily, every time a truck goes down I wonder if I should have traded it sooner. All of my equipment was paid for as of last year, that includes all the 2015 SC trailers I bought.

To me it's just a balancing act of keep old equipment and pay the gov. or buy new equipment and pay the bank, I know that is a terrible way to look at it, but that is what it comes down to.

I was going to sit pat this year, but I find myself sticking my toe back in the pool, as I have been working with SC on a new trailer design and am finalizing an order with my KW salesman on a new tractor.

Having no write-offs in business is not advisable, the game is rigged to keep you in debt, just in case no one has noticed. JMHO

 

I think you and I think along the same lines, but I will give you my opinion on this topic.
I bought a rig to have more control over me. I also wanted to improve my office situation.(15 year old Volvo to a new Pete) side note I liked the Volvo, but I love the Pete! I haven't been hauling cars 30 years, only 5 but I have been trucking 30 years and still love it most days.
I also was looking at drastically slowing down over the next 5 years. Something I probably would not have been able to do if I stayed an employee. There are part time trucking jobs, but they generally don't pay what most of us would usually be satisfied with.
I also really enjoy hauling cars, so that played in to it as well. When I laid out my business plan I forecast it over a 10-15 year period. I also said to myself that if I could make as much or more than I did as an employee I would be happy. In the first year of my operation I was in service from March to December. I took a month off during that 9 months and exceeded my business goals for profit retained.
In my case money is important, but it is not the most important part of why or how I do things. Don't get me wrong, I still am going to make great money or I don't do it very long, but other factors are more important than the almighty dollar. I.E. work schedule, hours worked and the treatment I experience with the people I work with and for.
What I have done may not suit everyone who reads this, but it most certainly has suited me. It's a #### good thing because if I had spent $300,000 and not liked it, I would have been pissed!!!



I just can't resist this part, because I am an ###! "My equipment is paid for"!

 

Mine too, I write a check every month to the bank.