I could own 5 extra cars, for less than the cost of a single tiny 1bed apartment.
Not every place in the US is ridiculously expensive. The median price of a home is $200K (https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/29/what-the-median-home-price-o...) and anyone with barely passable credit can get an FHA loan with 3.5% down. Most lenders are going to be wary about you having more than two car notes.
I could own 3 extra cars, for less than the cost of daycare for one child.
I'm not really sure what your getting at. I agree with all of your numbers, that's what all of my figures were already based off of in my original post.
(For example, a $200k home on a 30yr 3.5% down mortgage is roughly $1500/month, which is equal to the average total monthly ownership cost of about 4 to 5 cars)
I don't really understand why people think cars are so expensive. Sure, they can be, but that's true of anything.
In 20 years, I've never owned a car worth more $4000. Hardly seems like a huge investment. I have friends with bicycles worth more than my current vehicle.
Not every place in the US is ridiculously expensive. The median price of a home is $200K (https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/29/what-the-median-home-price-o...) and anyone with barely passable credit can get an FHA loan with 3.5% down. Most lenders are going to be wary about you having more than two car notes.
I could own 3 extra cars, for less than the cost of daycare for one child.
The average cost of child care is between $5000 - $15000 a year (https://www.epi.org/child-care-costs-in-the-united-states/)
I could own 3.5 extra cars, for less than the cost of health insurance. Cars are pretty cheap, all things considered.
The average cost of family medical insurance is a little over $14K (https://www.ehealthinsurance.com/resources/affordable-care-a...)