Lease purchase or O/O

I'm going to try to give you some advice that was similar to what was given to me when I joined the military. I hope it leads you somewhere, if I was young again this is what I'd do in your chosen career.

If I was you, being young and newer to my career. If you have no family obligations, get rid of ALL your liabilities. Sell off your car/home/odds and ends. Anything you can't sell lock it up in a storage unit.

I am assuming you have found a company that you can work at for 5+ years. Find an investment advisor and ask if they are bound by a fiduciary duty. If they can't say yes, ask the next one, until you find one. I recommend a mutual fund backed 401k at a minimum. Your advisor will help you decide what types of accounts. Set up direct deposit to those accounts. Then have one account receive 10% of your pay to a cash account, all automatic. This is your spending money while on the road. Find a super close friend/family member who will let you use their address or use a mail forwarding service. Then get in that truck and drive the everloving hell out of it. Your young once, use it to your financial advantage. Take every load, rack up as much miles per year as you can, while racking up much as you can in your investment accounts. At the 5 year mark re-evaluate where you are and what you want.

If the average driver pulls in 70k you could sitting on $310k on deposits alone. With compounding interest and if you participate in your company's retirement plan I see no reason to not be nearer to half a million or over.

I did something similar after I lost my ### in a divorce while in the military. Sold or stored everything i owned, paid off all my liabilities and jumped on any and all deployments I could. I did it it for 8 years before I could take it easy. After I had my wad of cash, I could decide how hard to push and what I wanted to do with my future, without the cash flow worries.

My last bit of advice and you definitely should take this. NO MARRIAGE WITHOUT A PRE-NUP. Marriage is business as much as anything else. You won't work for a company that doesn't pull their weight, why be shackled to a dead weight that pull their weight in a marriage?

 

I'll add, deal with credit unions, not banks.
@WesternPlains - correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't www.connexuscu.org a good credit union for truckers?

 

Agreed.
The goal is to be good at what you do. Being a good driver is completely different from being a good owner.

 

I left connexus. They got too paranoid about online fraud. In my situation now. Working with my little local is good. Home every week. Can deposit in person.
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I wouldn't invest in a Taco Cart right now. Take a good look at what's going on. It's not gonna get better. We discuss this ad nauseum in the politics section. Buy Freeze Dried food, water storage, gold, and gxxs instead. I'm not joking.
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About a year ago. I met a driver at a Speedco. He had a new truck and trailer. Been driving many years. Had other trucks and trailers. He said right now all he is doing is paying for the truck and trailer. Not making any money.

 

Stay company driver. Lease-op you sign a contract to pay all costs but company is not obligated to give you any work.

 

Jbrown, good to see you on the right track. I think your going to do very well. good luck