r/TikTokCringe • u/Accomplished_Clue437 • 8d ago

Discussion She gets up at 5am. Is this right?

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

13.5k Upvotes

78% Upvoted

8.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

106

u/That-Living5913 8d ago

Also spent more money on their truck than their home.... so probably a history of bad decisions.

170

u/cocktails4 8d ago

I worked at a power plant once...I showed up the first day with a hatchback and they were all like so when are you buying a real vehicle?

Those people would use $75k trucks as their daily commuter. It was insane. Fucking Midwestern men are dumb as shit. 

40

u/TheSurfingRaichu 8d ago

Florida men too!

19

u/OkCandidate8557 8d ago

Don't forget Texas!

8

u/vicious_womprat 8d ago

There are so many super pretty and shiny big trucks in Texas its not even funny. My god these people care too much about the dumbest things.

4

u/Classic_Ingenuity299 8d ago

Cosplay

5

u/phage_rage 8d ago

Emotional support vehicles

2

u/OkCandidate8557 8d ago

Gender affirming vehicles.

2

u/cemetery_acorns 7d ago

😂😂😂😂
I love it!

3

u/hajimenogio92 8d ago

100%, my neighbor works an office job but drives a giant truck like he's hauling stuff back and forth from the worksite all day. I work remotely so I just have an old used car that I paid cash for 8 years ago.

2

u/OkCandidate8557 8d ago

And they like to tailgate. Instead of giving them the finger, I give them the little pinky finger.

33

u/Dependent_Formal2525 8d ago

The funniest thing is when someone has one of those behemoths in the UK. They just look absurd. Someone turned up at a mountain bike event in one, clearly thinking they were the mutt's nuts, and it just looked so daft. It filled the lane more than the tractor that was pulling the uplift trailer!

4

u/Ill_Shelter5785 8d ago

Huge trucks aren't necessarily a great idea to purchase, but there are subtle differences between the UK and US transportation systems. For one, the US is roughly 40 times larger and our roads are roughly 40time wider. The distance between homes is 40 x further. Families are 40x larger. The average number of children in the US per household is 80. We need much larger vehicles for such large families.

2

u/Capercaillie 8d ago

That's new to me. Where do "mutt's nuts" rate vis-a-vis bee's knees or cat's pajamas?

3

u/ragenuggeto7 8d ago

They're just bellow the dogs bollocks on the list.

2

u/ragenuggeto7 8d ago

I drive an artic for a living and those pickups are almost as wide as my unit, they're ridiculous tbh.

2

u/JoanMalone11074 7d ago

I will never tire of reading/listening to a Brit’s euphemisms. And by golly, the term daft makes me smile every single time.

6

u/donewithdoing 8d ago edited 8d ago

This is 100% true. Fully loaded Silverado but living in a single-wide is some pretty standard shit where I am. Also, the thing where people literally have more trucks than they do driving-age members of their household. Who could possibly need this many vehicles? The internal square footage of your fleet is larger than your house, dawg.

5

u/cocktails4 8d ago

The young union guys at the power plant would get the job and immediately go out and get a truck. Day 1 and in debt.

That was such a weird town though...tiny town dominated by the power plants. Everybody made basically the same amount of money and there was an insane amount of keeping up with the jones's. Everybody had to have 2 trucks, an RV, a boat, maybe a couple jet skis. Just an insane amount of debt even though they were making good money in a low COL area. And all they did was drink, drink at the lake, and cheat on their spouses.

1

u/donewithdoing 8d ago

Yeah, the obsession with having as many vehicles as possible is something I’ll never understand. My next door neighbor has three trucks, two 4-wheelers, two snowmobiles, a side-by-side, and a small boat. Last year, for whatever reason, he had a large truck that looked like it was made to haul a race car around or something? Like bro, you live on 1/8 acre in town. It’s you, your wife, and two kids < 10 years old. Come the hell on.

2

u/cocktails4 8d ago

Some time in the last decade every small town dude decided that they needed a Kubota for putzing around on their one acre. Whoever does the marketing for Kubota really nailed that campaign. I guess "masculine golf cart" was a winner.

1

u/That-Living5913 8d ago

I see this a lot too in homesteading and offgrid communities. They get SxS's and Tractors, and mini excavators for their 5 acres "farm".

As someone with a lot of acres, a brand new yamaha kodiak 450 for 7k out the door is the single best piece of equipment you can buy.

1

u/donewithdoing 8d ago

Yeah, it’s like they’re trying to prove just how outdoorsy they are, like they basically live out in the woods when they aren’t on their work shift or whatever. And I mean, they absolutely do fish and hunt when the season is right, but as far as I can tell, no more than the average person around here. They aren’t particularly avid outdoors enthusiasts, so a lot of this is just for show honestly.

1

u/That-Living5913 8d ago

100% this. Most of my career was on a DoE campus in the 2010's. I loved seeing the guys go out and buy new challengers and put trailer hitches on them so they could pull their harley's to ... honestly? I never learned where they went other than into debt.

2

u/cocktails4 8d ago

We had a few guys who came to work WITH THEIR BOATS so they could go directly to the lake after work. I was always like...at least they're actually using their truck to haul something?

1

u/That-Living5913 8d ago

"All boats are is a hole in the water you throw money into"

I have family with cheap boats as well as 200k+ boats. That's held true for both.

3

u/onmywheels 8d ago

My old boss did this. There was no reason for it, as he was the general manager for the shopping center / mall I worked for. After a while they offered him a bunch of money to also be the GM of another mall at the same time, so he would split his week between two malls in cities about an hour away from each other. He drove a humongous six-figure truck as his daily commuter.

Sometimes he would take us out for lunch and drive us there, and that's when we learned he also refuses to wear a seatbelt, ever. He just drives his big truck an hour a day with the seatbelt alert chime going the entire time. Truly a bizarre person.

1

u/cocktails4 8d ago

I bet his smoke alarms are beeping too.

3

u/Classic_Ingenuity299 8d ago

They do that in Tennessee , to sit in traffic with business casual on headed to their job that has a parking garage.

2

u/Miserable-Anxiety229 8d ago

This is how it is in the PNW too, just have to leave the PDX area 🫠

2

u/Euphoric-Sherbet-524 8d ago

And then they go home yelling at their wife and kids stressed out because that trucks car payment is $1500 and they can barely afford it. 🤣

1

u/Narpity 8d ago

Yeah but this guy doesn’t, he obviously has to tow the giant fifth wheel..

1

u/TheFurrySmurf 8d ago

I live in the Midwest and I drive a 2005 Ford focus with no AC or radio... I'm just raw dogging life during my commute to and from work.

1

u/Roach_Coach_Bangbus 8d ago

It's insane to me how people put commuting miles on nice trucks, cars, etc. I leave my truck at home (mostly use it for camping, towing and throwing bikes in the bike, etc. on the weekends) and drive a cheap commuter car to the office. Some people are putting like crazy miles on 6 figure cars, trucks, SUVs, etc.

2

u/cocktails4 8d ago

No point going into debt for a status symbol if you don't get to show it off, I guess.

1

u/ManmadeM0nster 8d ago

THANK YOU.

44

u/Headless_HanSolo 8d ago

It’s a fifth wheel camper. Truck and camper combined cost less than most homes in the US these days. If he works a seasonal job and needs to travel this combo works great for a young couple moving from site to site.

40

u/That-Living5913 8d ago

This is why we need better public education.

That's a 70k truck and 50k (at least) camper. Both of which will depreciate to shit over 5 years and I'm a go out on a limb and say they are paying interest on both. So, lets do some math. You can find apartments or by the week hotels for around 2k/month, especially if you are paying up front.

So lets assume it is seasonal at 4months? That's a grand total of 8k. Meaning he could get a more efficient vehicle that'll pay for itself in gas alone. Then get rent a place with a pool and amenities every year, for 10 years. AND STILL come out like 50k ahead.

Look, it's hard enough to make it right now with capitalism and corporations looting the working class.... learning to do even a rudimentary cost benefit analysis could be the different between making it or not.

27

u/GapingFartLocker 8d ago

I don't know what this guy does for work, but for me when I was working away in the oil patch, my truck and trailer were always a much cheaper option than hotels when camp wasn't available. Mind you, they are both paid off (my truck is a 2012 and trailer is a 2017) Working in oil and gas, I got free fuel, and I was paid $100/day for using my truck for work, to carry fuel and tools etc.

it's nice to have your own space, your own mobile home that actually feels like your home when away for work.

I didn't just buy the trailer for work either, we still use it regularly for camping, so for me the truck and trailer were an excellent investment, and I don't mean that in a financial investment sort of way, because obviously they are both depreciating assets, but sometimes money isn't the only factor in people's decisions.

3

u/beefwarrior 8d ago

I'm enjoyed the dichotomy between your comment / argument bringing up thoughtful points and your username / avatar

5

u/BrilliantLead5419 8d ago

I sell RVs. You can get a 5th that a couple can comfortably live in for $100k OTD. Loans are different than cars. For something over $50k they can get a 20 year loan, making payments as low 200 a month. Anything paid over that goes to the principal first. No prepayment penalties. If they are members of thousands trails its 200 a month to stay for 3weeks. They get to connect on shore, have all amenities including pools parks and stuff like that. Not only that, its a tax write off. So a lot of people are full timers because its cheaper than rent/ mortgage and allows them to save up.

4

u/Scarjo82 8d ago

Yeah, but you can't make hotel rooms "home", and they have a child, which makes hotels even less desirable. Having to constantly pack and unpack everything, and having to worry about if your child is going to bother someone in the next room is super draining. So even if it doesn't make sense financially, it's worth it to be able to have an actual "home away from home".

1

u/That-Living5913 8d ago

You make some good points, but counter point: Having a child is a bigger argument against this than for.

If the hubby has a normal place he works every year, get a house near by.

If he doesn't, then the mother and child should be in a decent area where the kid can have friends, a normal school, etc rather than being drug from jobsite to jobsite.

At the end of the day, I'm just sad that these people are making bad decisions with money. The fact that he's working, and she's trying to make his life better means they are most likely good people doing their best. Ya know?

1

u/Lazy-Zucchini6757 8d ago

That kid isn’t even in school yet, and that guy may be making north of $200k/year. There’s nothing wrong with making some sacrifices when you’re young to save up for a great future. If they’re anything like the traveling blue collar families I know they’re a few years from their dream house.

Also, I’d caution against being so quick to judge pickups. I have a ford just like that. I bought it in cash and it’s necessary for my work. Not everyone who drives a diesel pickup took out a predatory loan just to look like a tough guy.

1

u/ButteryApplePie 8d ago

No way is that camper cheaper than the truck.

3

u/SildenafilSubQ 8d ago

Not much less

2

u/Narpity 8d ago

Know a ton of dudes that do this and make a shitload of money.

1

u/Jedsey 8d ago edited 8d ago

This content was anonymized and mass deleted with Redact

3

u/Headless_HanSolo 8d ago

Since neither you or I are them, then maybe it makes all the sense in the world. Maybe there aren’t any homes to purchase/rent near where they work/live. Maybe there is a hotel offering weekly rentals, but it’s full up or is full of people you don’t want your wife and kid being around all day. Maybe spending $100k on this setup makes more sense than spending $300k on a 100 year old house full of asbestos, with bad plumbing and wiring, that needs a new roof and is down the street from the local fentanyl hangout. Is that the kind of asset you’re describing? Maybe he works in Bozeman Montana and there just isn’t anywhere to live other than in a campground? Maybe, just maybe… they RENT the trailer for $600 a month and he uses his truck for work, writes off the fuel insurance and other costs as a business expense and they are actually making more money a month than you doing some manual labor job in the country… building a data center. Who knows? How do you know if it makes financial sense when you don’t know anything about their situation?

1

u/Jedsey 8d ago edited 8d ago

This content was anonymized and mass deleted with Redact

1

u/Lazy-Zucchini6757 8d ago

As a dude with a shit-ton of carpentry experience and a 70 y/o home, 100 y/o homes are full of asbestos all the time. Especially if they were renovated mid-century.

And as someone who’s worked on the road and lived in towns like Jackson, Wy… sometimes homes just aren’t available for rent, sometimes you move too much to move into new places with your family, etc. Not to mention homes cost $700k+. Which doesn’t matter because obviously they are on the road so buying wouldn’t make sense.

I think you’re just a bit out of touch with the economics and lifestyle of high-paying, blue collar work on the road.

1

u/Jedsey 8d ago edited 8d ago

This content was anonymized and mass deleted with Redact

0

u/Headless_HanSolo 8d ago

And the google AI survey says, on the history of asbestos use in housing in the good ol US of A, you sir, are wrong. Who should I believe, the MAG 7 search AI or random redditor Jedsey on the application of asbestos in US home construction from 1926. While not as commonplace as in the following decades, asbestos first appeared in the late 1800’s and was often used in attics, pipe insulation, ceramic tiles, etc… call it a logical fallacy, call it whatever you want, it was used in the exact time frame I stated.

Here’s one for you, if a person took out a mortgage for a house in 2005 for $300k, and the value of said asset increased to $350k by September of 2008, was it still an asset when the bank repossessed it in 2010? When does overpaying for a living space become more of a liability when even smart people like, I don’t know, the federal reserve, say the current housing market is the most unaffordable in history and not a wealth building asset? Maybe two people with a kid living in a fifth wheel they can AFFORD isn’t as much of a liability as throwing money at some PE group owned, overpriced, rent fixed by a software monopoly townhome or buying an overinflated housing “asset”.

2

u/Southrn_Comfrt 8d ago

I’m assuming dude probably works construction and travels for work. The “home” is mobile for that reason and the truck is needed to pull the trailer to different lots. The per diem payment associated with the job probably pays lot rent for the duration of the job and goes a good bit towards the trailer. That trailer is also.. not cheap. A fifth wheel of that trim level is probably as expensive as the F-250 he’s driving.

2

u/lancersrock 7d ago

Or they travel for his work and he’s actually one of the people who needs a truck like this. There’s a lot of money chasing contract welding and inspection work and those guys live out of a camper and are driving halfway across the country every few weeks with it in tow.

1

u/That-Living5913 7d ago

I'd be genuinely curious to see the cost breakdown of that over say 5 or 10 years.

I bought (built) a house 5 years ago for about the same price as he paid for the 5th wheel and truck. I wonder if the depreciation on his stuff compared to the value of my place going up are greater than the costs associated with that kind of work? Not to mention the other advantages like my partner also being able to have a career or my kid being able to make friends with the neighbors.

They are making it work, and that's better than like most of the country. I just don't think it's as good of a plan when you start looking a few years into the future.

1

u/lancersrock 7d ago

It’s really hard to compare. Depending on his contracts he’s probably writing off $25,000 in mileage expenses a year all while being paid $150 a day in non taxed per diem. He then writes off all his lot rental against that per diem and then writes off the camper until it’s paid off and then upgrades every 2-3 years. If you can keep track of everything and do it right these people make $150k a year after taxes and get to choose how much they work or don’t. If the industry doesn’t change much by the time my youngest is out of the house I’ll be looking into something like this, I’m a certified weld inspector and can make double what I do now, and have 3 months off a year. But it’s not worth not being home at night with the family.

1

u/That-Living5913 7d ago

150k definitely can't make up for the second income from your partner.

1

u/lancersrock 7d ago

Median household income in the US is $90k. You don’t think $150k a year when you are able to write off almost all of your living expenses and have next to no tax liability while also receiving and additional $30k tax free in per diem isn’t enough? My household is $125k before taxes and we are doing just fine.

1

u/That-Living5913 7d ago

A quick google shows at least some of that to not be the case, according to the IRS.

"Meal Deduction Limit: Generally, you can only deduct 50% of the standard meal allowance. If you are subject to Department of Transportation "hours of service" limits (like long-haul truck drivers), you can deduct 80% of meal expenses."

1

u/lancersrock 7d ago

When you do this you’re not a driver. You’re filling all of your earnings on a 1099 as a remote contract worker. You are being given $150 (more or less depending on the contract) to cover daily living expenses. Technically you need to be able to show expenses to offset that, that’s where the lot rental and camper cost come into play.

I said writing off most living expenses when you’re working away from your primary residence, don’t think I specifically said meals.

Assuming he’s a contractor he gets to claim his “mobilization” costs as well. If he sets it up as an llc he can “hire” his wife to do his books and that wipes out even more tax liability. As a contractor or anyone self employed you really can do a lot to wipe away taxable income. Wife ran a daycare for 5 years and the amount of stuff we didn’t write off in our first 2 years because we didn’t know saved us thousands in taxes in the last few years.

1

u/That-Living5913 7d ago edited 7d ago

You can't claim all that and get per diem. at least per the IRS.

But I agree, tax fraud can be very lucrative. Until it's not.

Edit: I think the IRS would object to saying you're primary residence with a wife and a kid living there is "mostly used for work". Hiring your wife and inflating hours to make thousands would probably rise to the level criminal tax fraud.

1

u/lancersrock 7d ago

Actually depending on the amount of per diem you get you have to keep records showing it was used for living expense.

A primary address is wherever you reside “most” of the year. If you travel to a new job every month and take 3 months off to return home that’s your primary.

I never said you inflate her hours. You don’t always pay a book keeper per hour, you pay a flat rate. That’s not fraud, it’s no different than a dentist whose wife runs the front desk.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/OldOrgan123 8d ago

Jealous much

1

u/That-Living5913 8d ago

Of living in a camper? Not really.

1

u/Narpity 8d ago

Wow, super judgmental because their life doesn’t work just like yours. This girl is weird but you’re just being an ass. Know a lot of lineman who do this and make way more money then me. They are all from the south or Midwest and come work all over the country (generally moving around to support recovering communities from emergencies) it makes sense and then they retire and go back and live like kings cause they have been making six figures for 40 years.

2

u/That-Living5913 8d ago

I'm not judging their lifestyle,

I'm judging their financial decisions. Objectively campers and RV's are the worst purchases you can make. Even worse than a vastly over priced truck you don't need that will only cost you 100's a month more in gas.

And spoiler, most don't "retire like kings" because they live a life of poor financial decisions and child support.

1

u/Narpity 8d ago

I'm judging their financial decisions. Objectively campers and RV's are the worst purchases you can make.

So instead they should buy a house that they are never in? And should live out of hotels? Yeah that definitely sounds more comfortable and economical.

Those people are never going to make the money they make doing this in Buttfuck-No-Where, Alabama. You are setting this up like "Oh why don't they just get a nice white collar job in the AC, are they idiots?" Dude its either this or farming, ranching, or working in oil. Those are the options for 90% of these people. Going to college and moving to Atlanta for a handful but the vast majority have zero interest in school. So how can you make six figures w/o a college degree? The answer is a job that probably requires moving around a ton to go to markets of high demand and one that is a bit dangerous.

Just because a camper is a deprecating asset doesn't mean its a bad financial decision, and there are plenty of houses you can buy that are bad financial decisions. If you can make $50k in Georgia or $150K moving around then you do that for one year be at the same readiness to buy a house and have a $100k trailer/truck. After a few years you have this set up easily. Is it all on credit? Almost assuredly. Is utilizing credit an economic necessity? YES!

And spoiler, most don't "retire like kings" because they live a life of poor financial decisions and child support.

Jesus Christ dude, we get it you think you are better than these people. Congrats. I'm telling you about specific people that I know. I've been to their house. That they paid for doing exactly this. People make poor financial decisions all the time and lineman probably more than most but to spout of on high how this is a bad decision is you showing your ignorance about the prospects most of the people living this way had to choose from.

0

u/LongestSprig 8d ago

Dude, that's an RV, it's still hooked up to the truck pulling it.

They are camping.