I'm taking the L/P plunge

Glad to hear you are being successful at it

 

Is it that hard?

If you have negative income one week, you have to make up for it - somehow.
Usually that means drawing on saved income from past weeks.

Rocket science, I know.
Or, just plain common sense?

 

Lol Moosetek some of your responses crack me up at times..

Now not to tread jack but can some of you successfully business minded L/Os help me understand how to start doing the number crunching? I have a strong desire to make the lease plunge but I have a hard time understanding how to start understanding the numbers.

 

Take a/some business/accounting classes ... In all sincerity managing the numbers has to be second nature to you ... the ability to do a basic business plan, set up a book keeping system and manage your numbers is as basic to running your business as the ability to shift, do a pre trip and a preplan are to driving.

Not to throw cold water on you and I may be misinterpreting it ... but the analogy would be, can you help me with a preplan, but I don't know how to read a map.

Brocellii has a thread here that would be good place to start ...

 

My magic number is 4.33. 52 weeks a year divided by 12 months is 4.33 weeks on average for every month. It's important to know because Swift deducts truck payments every week and it is a way to convert your monthly bills back home to a weekly number and thus in this way to determine if you're falling behind or getting ahead.

So knowing your total monthly bills back home, say $3000 a month, divide that by 4.33 and add your $700 a week payment from the truck and you have your total weekly 'cost of life/business'.

Figure in 40 weeks driving per year or 100,000 miles times $1.30 divided by 6.5 miles per gallon times $3.75 per gallon and you have a ballpark figure for your business. These numbers will keep your nose just barely above water so you'll need to pump up your miles and therefore your pay to get ahead and keep the truck maintained.

 

I like that 'barely above water' part.

How about a spread sheet showing all expenses vs. income?
And, how much time do you spend creating it and updating it?

I guess I'm just too old, or just too tired.
It just seems like just too much work!

When I finish for the day I just want to make a decent meal and watch some vids.
I don't want a couple more hours figuring out costs and expenses.

 

Moose, I don't think Steve has ever made a spreadsheet to do his lease, or figure it out profit vs loss. It either just works or he has it all figured out in his head. I'll go for figuring out in his head because he is good with numbers.

 

I can "break even" in about 1,000 miles if everything works perfectly, a more reasonable figure is about 1,200 miles. All comes down to fuel. If you're careful where (and when) you fuel you'll do OK. If you don't pay attention (to fueling) you'll go broke in a very short time.

I put $.20 a mile into my maintaince account. I use it as my "savings account". I pay most of my maintaince expenses with my "truck" credit card then transfer money from my maint acct to pay the credit card if I need to.

 

I do the same as Steve. Credit card for the small truck expenses like wash and service. Maintenance account is emergency and mad money or when I let a shop do a minor repair like later today, new shocks and fix a/c in bunk

 

If you get a heavy load on a cross wind or hilly terrain, you will be crying when you see your non-existent paycheck.