Buying a Tesla and our road to financial independence

On a fruitful day towards the end of April 2019, our family unwrapped a present. It was a brand new, black Model 3 LR with the FSD option. I wanted to show my support for Elon Musk, Tesla, enjoy the cool features, and save on maintenance costs. I had been writing part-time for Cleantechnica for 9 months. Surely, it didn’t make sense to write about Tesla, or buy shares in TSLA, without owning a Tesla? With some well timed car repairs to remind us of the perils of a gas car, we took the plunge.

The plunge came at a heavy price: about $1000 a month for 5 years. I don’t regret buying the car. If the battery holds, I plan to own it for 20 years and rent it out as a robotaxi. The family has enjoyed the heck out of the car. We were doing our part to reduce noxious emissions. The acceleration is grin inducing. Buying a Tesla and seeing how we could it afford became my primary motivation to earn more money. What made sense? How did our finances look? Not pretty. Probably down right ugly. We were spending money like mad and not making headway to our goals.

Over the past 18 months, I have learned a lot about finances. That the situation wasn’t as bleak as we expected. How to pay off our mortgage in 10 years. How to be debt-free. How to protect our family. And, how to build wealth. More importantly, how to build income. Hard to believe buying a Tesla would set us on the path to financial independence.

The last I wrote on WordPress was a few years ago. Starting today, I want to share what we have learned. Much of the mainstream financial views are outdated. If I can help you lead a better financial life while enjoying your time to do what you want, that’s a job well done. The intersection between climate change and personal finance is one I hope to explore further in this blog.

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Thanks for reading!

Warmest regards,

smilingdad

How could a Tesla lead us on a journey to financial independence? Not in the way you think.

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