mooreATL, welcome to this forum. Thanks to the combined years of
hard-won experience + a collaborative attitude, the Signal/Noise ratio
here is much better than the average website where people gather
to share a common interest.
Anyway, reading between the lines it sounds like you share a similar
approach to your finances that I do. Years ago, one day I came to
the realization that I was spending the vast majority of my brain
cycles worrying about my debt. With no time left over to think about the
good stuff?
It took some time & focus, but today I have no debt, buy my
(previously enjoyed) cars cash on the barrelhead, and I continue with
the old school 'pay as you go' approach, especially with my hobbies.
(Keeping a couple of credit cards w/no balance for use only in case of emergency,
using them just often enough to keep the creditkarma scores in a good
place.)
And if anything I seem to enjoy more happiness than some of my friends
who have the very nicest toys that they will own xx months or years from now?
Meanwhile, they are on a financial hamster wheel running at max speed?
****
The point I was going to make was that you are definitely on the right
track. The more that you invest in your own skillset in order to become more
self-sufficient, the more control that you will have over your situation.
Our forebears didn't have the luxury of disposing income via Doordash
in order to bring a Big Mac to their front door with a few clicks on
their smartphone?
If they didn't tend to their garden for 3 seasons, then the following
winter was going be extra lean times. (If you ever read some of their
diaries it's amazing the sheer backbone that they had.)
****
The punchline? Tools extend your positive sphere of influence & control.
I have no choice but to buy certain items in order to live. But a good tool is
an
investment. For example, when I graduated from high school my
grandmother asked me what I really wanted. And after giving it a
lot of thought, I asked her for a quality 1/2" drive torque wrench.
And to her credit (she came from hardy covered wagon stock :0)
she did exactly that. That was in '77. I've used it since on countless
engine builds. And every time it's been checked for accuracy it's
still on the money. And I used it yesterday.
That's 46 years of use, so maybe $2/year? (~$90 was a lot of money
back then for a semi-pro tool.) And the all-important price-per-use
metric is down in the pennies?
Others have shared rock solid guidance on which tools to get. All I
would add is to figure out which tools you are going to use the most,
and that is where you invest first.
And the expensive stuff that you will use once in a great while? Those
are the tools that you buy used at estate sales, auctions, flea markets,
etc. Never buy junk, no matter how attractive the price. It takes up
valuable real estate, only to disappoint when you finally go to use it.
To recap, buying a single nice tool for $10, and then using it once?
$10 price-per-use...but if you avoided a $300 garage bill by doing so,
then you are still money ahead.
By the same token, a $200 tool kit may seem spendy, but if you use
it 200 times in order to avoid those garage bills, now we're talking
only a $1 per use. Bargain.
****
Like you said, we don't want to start a financial debate in the GMT400
forum, but if you think that being a little more self-sufficient down
the road is a good thing, then tracking down & buying quality used
tools is time better spent than shopping around for, say, a new jet ski
on credit.
Good on you. Glad to see folks like you starting to pop up!