Jewell Slinger

Yesterday I got bent over. And they didn’t even buy me dinner…

This is of course figurative. I would never publicly share when that actually happens (it wont). But yesterday, it certainly felt like I got bent over.

Who could do such a thing to me? Why would I even talk about something like that? Because here I share the ups and downs, cutting through all the fake BS you see on the internet. You get the real Jared.

My friend, I made a tough choice yesterday. A choice that will make you roll your eyes, spit your coffee out, and then subtly shake your head that even I put myself in this position in the first place.

Yesterday I decided to sell my car.

How could selling a car be such a traumatizing experience? When you pay a car company $7,376.81 to take your car.

How We Got Here

I had two clear goals for before I turned 30:

1. Break $100K/year income (as salary)

2. Buy a Tesla

For the record, I hit that by the age of 28.

I was a big nerd for EVs throughout high school and college. When I was switching my major, I thought about doing something in environmental engineering because I thought alternative energy was so freaking cool. I discovered the industry was small and not booming. So I spared myself. But I was always keen on “doing my part” and getting an EV to help mother nature out a little bit. Or at least that’s the silly story I’d tell myself.

The decision to buy a Tesla changed my fundamental perspective on life. So I don’t ultimately regret doing it. It wasn’t the best financial decision at the time. I knew I could make it work. Let me explain…

It’s October 2021. I see the price of my silver chariot, a 2014 Rav4, creep up and up and a promotion horizon. I couldn’t find a used Tesla Model Y. I ran the numbers on what buying a new one looked like.

I was only paying $1.2K/mo in rent in San Diego. A 6 year loan on a brand new Model Y would cost me $1001 (exactly) per month. I would put away ~$400/mo per paycheck and I wouldn’t have to adjust my lifestyle at all. Insurance was $150/mo in San Diego. My salary at that time was $77k/yr as an engineer at Dexcom.

I asked around to my fellow colleagues that were one “level” above me what engineers at that level made. They were all over $100k/yr in salary! Boom. Once I got promoted I would jump to $100k/yr in salary and be able to afford a tesla. Charging was also free at work. It made too much sense!

I was planning to stay at my apartment for at least the next 3 years. By that point I would likely be making over $150k/year working at a big tech company. I was never going to get rid of this car. Buying it brand new made sense.

I saw the path.

I remember the moment I peeped over into my coworker, Craig’s, engineering cubicle. Our masks pulled down as chin-straps because neither of us abided by the mask wearing policy that our office strictly enforced. He said, “It makes sense man. Pull the trigger. You’ve been thinking for this for a while. I know you’ll make it work regardless!” That night I put down my deposit for my Red Model Y, with sleek as hell black rimmed wheels.

Smooth sailing.

Right?

I told one of my coworkers that helped me triangulate on what my salary would be once I get promoted in 3 months. He looked at me with a slightly concerned parental look on his face. “Jared you know you only get a 10% raise when you get promoted here.”

Me: “No way. That doesn’t make sense. Why wouldn’t I just make what you’re making?”

And that is the day I learned the harsh truth about corporate America.

When you get promoted at large companies HR only increases your salary by ~10%. That’s the policy. That was the exact moment I realized I was not going to get what I want unless I either went kicking and screaming for a fair salary, or left the company to get a pay bump.

I came to realize the way to quickly increase your salary is: you work your ass off and hope the company compensates you fairly for you work (they likely won’t) or you jump from company to company every 2-3 years. Neither sounded like the path I wanted to take.

This decision is what made me realize I needed to start figuring out how to make more money own my own. Not through my employer as my sole source of income.

In the meantime, I did fight like hell to get my employer to (begrudgingly) increase my salary to a fair level relative to my peers. It was too late. I took the red pill (poetic that its a red tesla too).

Between October 2021 and July 2022:

• I got my salary raised to a fair level (not really that fair though)

• Took a promotion to a different function within the company to break 100k in salary (Product Management)

• Took delivery of my Tesla Model Y and locked myself into 72 months of $1001/mo + insurance

  

  The Moment I got my Tesla

What a time to be alive.

I achieved my goal! I got my Tesla. My salary was over 6 figures. Life was good, and I was content? Nope. I moved the goal posts. The harsh truth set me down the direction of wanting to start my own business. I wanted to achieve more! Not solely rely on my 9-5 salary for income.

• I started a media business

• I almost bought real estate for short term rentals in Ohio

• I drop shipped for 4 months on Amazon becuase a teenager told me it would make me rich.

These were cute little baby steps. As you know this part of the story, I was getting antsy and wasn’t feeling the motivation to do big things in San Diego. I was surrounded by chillers, and I needed to be around killers. I decided to move to San Francisco. See how the big dogs build business.

What’s happened since then?

I made sure I didn’t make any rash decisions. I kept my job and moved up to the city to a great place in Russian Hill. The only thing that changed was my rent went up a net of $1,200/mo

I sold off some stock to maintain my cost of living for 8 months. Surely I would find a new job that would pay me more up in the bay so I could keep my beloved tesla?

8 Months go by and I did not decide to look for a new role. I was focused on projects that would make me more money on the side. So I could keep my beloved tesla.

It good friend to talked some sense into me. Why was I prioritizing keeping a car I BARELY drove. It was so stupid. The thing I “owned” ended up owning me.

My goals changed and now I live in a city where a car is not necessary. The car became a financial and mental strain on me. I decided it was time to part ways with the jewell on wheels. Couldn’t be that bad? I had $35k left on the loan and I saw Teslas with 18k miles going for $34-$38K on the marketplace.

This is the point where I assume you’re shaking your head and fists into the sky in frustration. And so was I.

I was fucked.

This was the time I learned that no one wanted to buy my car for anything close to my loan balance. The person to person market dried up because tesla dropped their prices to combat high interest rates. Dealers wanted to lowball the hell out of me. I was screwed.

Before you smash that respond button and ask “what about driving for uber” or “what about renting your car out on turo?” Yeah. I looked at all of this. These options did not make sense because at the end of the day, they were ways to keep the car and resulted additional wear and tear on the vehicle. The plan was to get rid of the car. The question now was, who was going to buy me dinner before bending me over (a figurative dinner to the figurative act of getting bent over).

The suitor: Carvana.

Yesterday I wrote Carvana a $7,376.81 check to take it off my hands so I didn’t have to pay $1k/mo for 35 more months for that car. I have a decision registrar where I document all the big decisions in my life. I set a time point to review them and reflect on that choice. It was on track to be a good choice. Until things changed.

This was a bad choice.

I was so jazzed up about buying this car that I tied it to my goals, lifestyle, and identity. While paying it off made sense to own the car while I was working a salaried job in San Diego. It made absolutely no sense to hold on to this car while I was flipping my life on its head and looking to start a business of my own.

I picked the “least bad” option. I bit the bullet and sold my car so I could get lean for the next chapter of my life. Here I am. Admitting this wasn't the best choice. But whats most important here is being able to admit that I made a poor choice, admit that things change, and be ok with making a hard pivot. That’s my lesson.

At the end of the day, no one is going to care if I have a tesla. But I will care if my decision to keep a tesla right now, stopped me from achieving my long term goals.

The goal posts moved.

Now its time to strip down the extra baggage and run in the right direction.

Onward!

RIP Juju beans, the jewell on wheels.

You’re Awesome,

Jared

Cool Things from the Internet

Things I find while surfing the web that are worth sharing.

• Scott Galloway on what he tells his students at NYU stern: Become an influencer

• Justin Mares, asking uncomfortable questions about vaccines

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Daddy’s Home

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