ning
Elite Member
If you're looking at the TCO, you need to compare the lost opportunity cost of the money you used to buy as well. Such as, if you drop $30k and 5 years later it's worth $15k, that $30k invested after 5 years would be worth $37k (at a meagre 4% compounded) - so that $30k you had is now a $15k tractorcompared not against $30k but actually vs $37k - after the 5 years, you've effectively lost $22k (viewed 5 years on)... of course, you still have to subtract from the $37k you'd otherwise have the cost of getting stuff done without the tractor.
I suspect that for most people - including many here on TBN, tractors are not an economically sound investment, when you run the numbers. I include myself in this - with the caveat that if I didn't have a tractor to do these things, they would simply not get done, because I'm not paying someone else to do these things... but then I end up complicating the above math even further because my land getting overgrown worse and worse (without work done) vs getting nicer and nicer (with work) just may actually pay for the tractor.
IDK.
Personally when I did the math it was more of
1) can I afford it as-is without TCO concerns
2) assuming the work has to get done, how much more does it cost me to have a tractor than to pay someone to do it (the math gets really fuzzy)
3) how useless do I feel when I pay someone to do something I could've really easily done myself?
4) how much fun am I going to have and how rewarding will it be to do all these things on my list?
If you're not a farmer and you're not in the "I'm an excavator" business, you probably don't *need* a tractor economically. But emotionally... we do.
I suspect that for most people - including many here on TBN, tractors are not an economically sound investment, when you run the numbers. I include myself in this - with the caveat that if I didn't have a tractor to do these things, they would simply not get done, because I'm not paying someone else to do these things... but then I end up complicating the above math even further because my land getting overgrown worse and worse (without work done) vs getting nicer and nicer (with work) just may actually pay for the tractor.
IDK.
Personally when I did the math it was more of
1) can I afford it as-is without TCO concerns
2) assuming the work has to get done, how much more does it cost me to have a tractor than to pay someone to do it (the math gets really fuzzy)
3) how useless do I feel when I pay someone to do something I could've really easily done myself?
4) how much fun am I going to have and how rewarding will it be to do all these things on my list?
If you're not a farmer and you're not in the "I'm an excavator" business, you probably don't *need* a tractor economically. But emotionally... we do.