Unexpected Expenses

Over the last year, I've had to endure 3 major expenses unexpectedly. :'(

Car Repair:

My IS250 is approaching 12 years at 160,000 miles.  Last year, the clutch went out to the point where I could not even accelerate effectively and it was almost dangerous to drive the car on the road.  I took my car to the dealer (I know, some people will say to take it to a 3rd party mechanic, but I guess I am more trusting of the Lexus service shop than a 3rd party for something like this).  They estimated about $4,000 in repairs needed to fix the car, most of it going towards the clutch and clutch assembly.  They believed there was still value in the rest of the car being in good shape, and given that I was only at 160,000 miles, there was still a lot of life left in this car.

I began to weigh my options.  Should I just buy a new car?  If I spend $4,000 here, the car would last me what, another 5 years or so?  Could I even get any value back for my IS?  Maybe $2,000 at best knowing that it would need repairs for whoever bought it?  It was a tough decision for me, especially since this is my first car and my realistic dream car from 2006.  I wasn't ready to give her up just yet and decided to fix her up.  This was the first major repair ever needed on her since the 100,000 mile warranty ran out, so I figured she earned it.

My hope is that she'll last at least another 5 years before her time is finally up.  I want to get another Lexus, but they don't make them in manual transmissions anymore, so I'll really have to enjoy this time until I am basically forced to buy a new car...

Golf Clubs Replacement:

So around October of last year, a friend of a friend needed a place to stay for just a few months.  I was feeling nice at the moment and offered my place to him.  That ended up being a horrible decision.

So you may recall that just 2 years ago I started really getting into golf and got myself a brand new Taylormade set for about $800.  Well one day, the roommate left the house through the garage and left the garage door open (even though I asked him to exit through the front door instead of the garage).  I was one of those people who leaves their clubs in the garage, so as you can imagine, by the time I had realized the garage door had been open for so long, the clubs were gone.  Who knows, maybe the roommate even took them, I'll never know.  A strong lesson learned here, never leave anything valuable in the garage.  But I will also argue that the roommate didn't value my belongings like I would, so him accidentally leaving the garage door open wasn't a big deal to him.

Now I was out an $800 set and very upset.  In addition, we decided that the roommate couldn't live at my house because he couldn't co-exist with Duncan (Duncan haaaaated him and wouldn't allow him to enter my house without hissing and attacking him).  In the end, he would eventually move his stuff out and give me $200 for storage, but the headaches of having to be home when he needed something he left here at the house, having my clubs stolen, and the effort of moving stuff around in my house to make room for his, it was just not worth it.  Another lesson learned here.

I still wanted to play golf so eventually I had to rebuild my set.  I wanted to go back to the Taylormade Outlet Store in Tucson, but they ended up closing shop in March.  Unreal, what bad timing!  So now I was forced to shop online, but that experience was eye-opening and actually worked out really well.  First I went to the PGA Superstore to try out all the brands and sets that I would consider buying.  I ended up really liking the Callaway clubs and shopped online for them.  Here's what I bought:

	Club Description	Vendor	MSRP	Sale Price	Discount Price
Irons	XR OS Irons (8 Iron Set, 4-PW,AW) Graphite	Rock Bottom Golf	899.99	649.99	617.49
Driver	2017 GBB Epic Driver 10.5°	CallawayGolfPreowned.com	499.99	349.99	244.99
Wood	2017 GBB Epic 3 Wood 15°	CallawayGolfPreowned.com	279.99	199.99	139.99
Hybrid	2017 Epic 3 Hybrid 20°	CallawayGolfPreowned.com	279.99	181.99	127.39
S Wedge	Mack Daddy Forged Chrome 56°-10	CallawayGolfPreowned.com	169.99	78.99	55.29
L Wedge	Mack Daddy Forged Chrome 60°-08	CallawayGolfPreowned.com	169.99	83.99	58.79
Putter	White Hot RX Rossie 35"	CallawayGolfPreowned.com	189.99	98.99	69.29
Bag	2017 X-Carry Stand Bag	DICK'S Sporting Goods	129.99	129.99	108.68
		Totals:	$2,619.92	$1,773.92	$1,421.93

Only my irons are brand new, but the quality of the preowned clubs are actually phenomenal.  I think the preowned clubs may have been display sets even, or struck just once and returned because they didn't like them.  There was even an additional 30% off on order $300 and more the weekend I bought them!  Here is a picture of my driver, which basically looks brand new:

I'm really happy with my new set and already took them out to the course once.  A $2,600 set for $1,400!  Not too shabby at all.  But if you think about it, it's still about $2,200 in expenses (since I lost the Taylormade set for nothing).

Don't worry, I no longer keep my clubs in the garage.  They stay in a protected area inside the house so that they will never get stolen again!

HVAC Replacement:

My house is 18 years old in 2018 and the original air-conditioning system finally went out on me early this month.  I had a couple companies come look at it, but I decided to go with Hamstra based on their reputation (multiple friends referred me to them) and their inspection was very knowledgeable and informative.  I honestly felt they would do the best job and they had a very competitive price.

Unfortunately, HVAC replacements are not cheap.  I would go on to pay $8,000 for a 3-ton Night & Day set including installation and a Nest.  However, it does feel super nice in the house once again (it was so miserable that one week alone without A/C)!  And hopefully the system will save me some money in energy savings in the long run too.

A lot of major expenses to handle unexpectedly, but at least we're good to go for a while now.  I guess that's why they say you should try and save up a nice nest egg of monies for times like these!