The road of thoughtful living and intelligent savings isn’t that glamorous. If you are devoted to this road you will not have the biggest house. You will not wear label recognizing clothes head to toe. You will not always have the latest tech. Your car will likely not be the flashiest in the crowd. But what if you get to a point where you are good, where you have some spare funds to allow for a splurge? Do you continue along a road of stealth wealth or do you splurge? If you splurge, what is your one thing?
Last year we decided that it was time to replace the family SUV. We had held our old SUV for 8 years, it had faithfully served us but had required over 20K in repairs over our ownership. All of these repairs had been covered in the extended warranty and/or recall notices. With the expiration of the extended warranty, the next big repair became a looming specter in our life. After a thorough investigation of available cars and a comparison of our family desires and needs, we narrowed our interest down. We elected to purchase an F-Pace from Jaguar. This was with some trepidation. Trepidation because this car would be the first car that in our minds failed to adhere to the theory of stealth wealth. But as we got into the nitty gritty of the car and tried others on for size, it looked more and more that while this car is in no uncertain terms a splurge, it is also a great deal for the cost. I fully expect Jaguar to up the new car price point upward to the likes of the Range Rovers in the next 5 years. Frankly we were and are in lust as my gear headed better half continued to identify the amazing mechanics of the car and finally culminating with a live test drive, delayed for a few months because the car wasn’t out of production and dealers didn’t have it. But that test drive sealed the deal and we placed our order. I have to give credit to my husband, he recognized in the spring of 2016 what the car world later memorialized in May 2017 by awarding Jaguar and the F-Pace with the World Car of the Year and World Car Design of the Year awards.
I expect that most of you had a visceral reaction to our car choice. No further facts provided about the car, our family or otherwise. Avoiding this reaction is one of the pillars of stealth wealth. So we violated that pillar, what happened next? Nothing bad. A few comments here or there about how nice the car was but overall I feel like this purchase may have ruined the idea of stealth wealth for me.
However, after thinking about things further I don’t think the idea of stealth wealth is fundamentally flawed just perhaps too restrictive. Cars are our thing. We’ve taken trips specifically to do things that are car related (car shows, race training, etc.), we read about them on blogs and magazines, we just like cars. So apparently this is our thing. Our house is nice but not huge, we live in a good area of town but there are more noted “wealthy” areas than ours, we aren’t at the box seats of a concert or sporting event on a routine basis and we don’t belong to any country clubs. Perhaps this is why our car is basically no big deal. Perhaps you can have one violation of stealth wealth and still avoid automatic judgement?
We have had our car for a year, it is still just as fun today as it was 12 months ago as I drove it off the lot so I am extremely happy with our splurge. But I would like to leave you with the experience I had when I picked up the car for the first time:
After signing the obligatory paperwork and surrendering my old car to the dealer I eagerly was trained on the electronics of the car. Feeling good and so impressed with my own awesomeness I pulled away from the dealer building and headed out to points unknown. This was it, I felt like the Queen of the world, I had made it, Marie Antionette had nothing on me, cake eaters beware! For 100 yards. What comes driving up the dealers driveway? A Maserati SUV. So yeah just when you think you have climbed to the top of the heap don’t worry, the universe is fully prepared to remind you that you will never get there. It was a solid reminder. Love what you have, value your splurges and try to keep your one thing in sight at all times.