why do you own a tractor? how does it save you $$

[vtsnowedin]

Lots of good lists up thread. I'll go with all of the above. The first thing is getting out my firewood. To heat my house with oil would cost $5000 a winter at current prices. That’s the tractor payments right there. The driveways I plow bring in enough to buy my fuel for the tractor, chainsaw and wood splitter so after that it's all gravy.
But most of all I'm an independent old codger and don't like to be beholden to anyone and like to have my own tools and equipment to do with when I want to do it. That's pretty much priceless.

 

[bigbull338]

if you own any amount of land you need the tractors an equipment to keep it up.an its to costly to hire everything done.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

I do not need a tractor. It does not save me money.

Absolutely! I do a lot with my tractor. Everything I do doesn't really need to get done, life would go on if it didn't. I do it because I want to. I don't need to justify it to anyone but myself.

 

[CobyRupert]

I think of it as: I have the same amount of "money" whether it's cash sitting in the bank represented by numbers on a statement or represented by a tractor sitting in the shed. Otherwise I'd have to spend the cash in the bank to get my driveway plowed or haul logs. My tractor doesn't lose the equivalent value of the money I'd have to spend

Round numbers: Say I bought my tractor for $30,0000, I still have $30,0000+/-, but now it's just in the form of a tractor instead of ink on a bank statement. If I sell my tractor after 5 years for $25,000 (?) I've rented a tractor for $2.74 a day. Pretty cheap! (ignoring currency inflation, or the money I "might" of made (or lost!) from investing that same $30,000). Plus I've got a lot of work done!

Most tractors aren't a consumerable item, like a bag of oranges, that once you buy it the money's gone.

 

[azkubotaguy]

I make money with my tractor as a small side business, so it pays for itself. The bonus is using it on my land for miscellaneous tasks as needed.

 

[rsallen]

If I didn't own a tractor I may as live a condo.

 

[nybirdman]

I used to own a sports car/collector car that sat in the garage for nine months of the year.Didn't want to drive it and put too many miles on it.Talk about a bad investment.I sold it for more than I paid for it and purchased my first new tractor.I use my tractors year round,food plots,brush-hogging and snow removal ect.On another note now I have a boat that sits in the garage for eight months of the year(but it's not going any-where!)

 

[Piston]

I own my tractor because its fun. I enjoy it, I've always enjoyed "machinery".

I have more money invested in my equipment than it would cost me to pay others to do the work.

I'm pretty simple with my reasoning for owning a tractor, I want to.

 

[Looking4new]

It used to take me three hours to snow blow my driveway and that was only a lick and a promise. I do a much better job now with my tractor and blower. There was some dirt that was begging to get moved for over 15 years. It got moved with the tractor.

Co$t wise, the tractor is a back saver and it keeps me out of the ER and the nut house.

 

[Daver1963]

When we had decided on our new home with four acres I debated over lawn/garden tractor and compact tractor. I looked at all the things I would want to do and started searching the internet and comparing prices. When it came down to it a lawn/garden tractor and all the attachments came in at about 2/3 the cost of a tractor with attachments. That didn't count all the things I could do with a tractor that I couldn't do with a lawn/garden tractor.
Plus the fact that a well maintained tractor would probably last much longer than a lawn/garden tractor that I'd have to replace every few years and hope that my attachments would still work with the new one.
And like many others here I know it has saved me a trip to the ER and probably the psycho ward. Riding that tractor is good therapy.