Know anything about fences?
We need to replace a 20 year-old wood fence at our home that’s one strong storm away from falling over. In these past few weeks, I’ve learned more about fences that I care to admit.
On the bright side, shopping for a fence has led me to think about and practice many of the personal finance habits we talk about in the blog.
Let me walk you through my thought process to help you whenever you have a big expenditure in front of you.
In the world of privacy fences, there seem to be three primary choices available: wood, vinyl, and composite. I won’t bore you with all the details. The key points to consider for our conversation are:
- Wood is the cheapest, but requires the most upkeep and will eventually need to be replaced.
- Vinyl (plastic) comes with a lifetime warranty, requires little-to-no upkeep, but is 30-40% more expensive than wood.
- Composite is the most durable, looks incredible, requires no upkeep whatsoever, has soundproofing ability, is made from recycled materials, comes with a 25-year warranty, but is nearly 3x more expensive than wood.
We’ve ruled out wood after doing our research and determining that we’ve got too much going on to worry about annual fence upkeep.
So, that leaves vinyl and composite. From our research, both would be good options. However, there’s really no doubt that composite is the best overall option, if you can stomach the cost.
Talk to your people about expensive purchases.
This is a big financial decision, so of course, I’ve been talking to my people for weeks about what they would do.
I’ve gotten three common responses that go something like this:
- “You’re planning to live in this home for the long run, make the investment in the best fence possible and never worry about it again.”
- “How much do you really care about a fence? I’ve never even noticed my fence. Think of what other projects you could spend that money on.”
- “Dude, leave me alone. I don’t want to talk about your fence.”
As you can see, talking to your people does not mean that you’re off the hook for making the decision yourself. You will likely get a wide spectrum of advice.
However, you’ll gain invaluable perspective to consider so you can make the best decision for your personal situation.
Expensive purchases test your personal finance habits.
Whenever you have a big purchase ahead of you, many of the strong personal finance habits you’ve been working to establish will be tested. You’ll be asking yourself questions like:
- Do I really need this thing?
- Can my budget handle the purchase?
- Do I have sufficient savings to cover it?
- What else could I spend this money on?
- Should I invest the money instead?
- Are there financing options to spread out the cost?
My wife and I have considered all these questions as we’ve talked through the options.
As of this moment, we’re leaning towards the composite fence so we never have to think about fencing again.
To help defray the cost, we’re considering a financing option that offers 0% interest for 18 months.
Important side note: if you ever choose to go with an attractive financing option, always read the fine print first.
The lender is hoping you fail to pay off the purchase within the 0% interest period so you’re forced to pay insanely high interest on the remaining balance. The financing option we’re looking at jumps from 0% interest to 26% interest if we fail to pay off the loan in 18 months. That’s a serious penalty.
Financing aside, we’ve also concluded that other projects will have to wait for a while so we don’t crush our money goals for the year.
We’ll make our final decision this weekend.
What would you do?
Leave a comment below to help my wife and I decide.
Sharing Think and Talk Money with Others.
Over the past couple days, I’ve heard from several readers who have shared Think and Talk Money with people they care about.
One reader told me that he shared the blog with his 25 year-old son. The reader was very appreciative because he’s experienced how important personal finance is.
He knows his son will only benefit in the long run if he implements strong money habits at the beginning of his career.
Another reader shared the blog with a friend who is now tracking her spending for three months. This is the first time she has ever tracked her spending to learn where her money is going each month.
She is using her phone and a simple spreadsheet to track her expenses. She reports that even though it’s only been a month, she’s learning things about her money choices she never knew before.
I love reader stories like this because they reflect one of our core philosophies at Think and Talk Money:
It’s not taboo to to talk about money.
When you start the conversation, you’re not just helping yourself, you’re helping people you care about.
It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about paying for a fence or starting a budget. We all could use help when it comes to making good, consistent money decisions.
Your friends are likely going through the same money challenges.
Since writing about my challenges with credit card debt at the beginning of my career, I’ve had some great talks with friends I knew back then.
Multiple friends have shared with me that they were dealing with the same credit card debt issues at the same time that I was.
None of us ever knew it at the time. We were hanging out with each other every weekend, spending money we didn’t have. The joke of it all is that we were likely encouraging each other’s poor habits.
Learning that I was in the same position as my friends all these years later does make me feel at least a little bit better about the mistakes I made back then. But, that’s not the important takeaway.
The big takeaway for me is that if my friends and I were dealing with the same money challenges back then, we’re probably dealing with similar money challenges today.
It might not be credit card debt from our social lives, but it might be something like saving for college or paying for a home. Maybe it’s what we should do when the stock market slumps.
Just like we mentioned above, my friends and I will only benefit from having these kinds of money talks.
Instead of just talking about mistakes we made in the past, we can talk about how to get it right as we move forward.
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