Budgeting for a Tank

I have a confession to make. I have had a tank on my Amazon wish-list for over two and a half years now. As Lazy as I am, it’s time for me to make this a reality. No it’s not a hot water tank or a fish tank – it’s a drive-around-and-run-over-stuff tank. It even comes with a cool name – the Badonkadonk – or Donk for short. Let me be clear, I don’t spend the day thinking, “I really want to do some damage today.” Well, at least not every part of the day. There are a lot of other things that can be done with a tank (let me know in the comments).

My friends had a lot of good fun when they discovered the Badonkadonk on my wish-list. If one them happened to win the lottery for a re-“Donk”-ulous amount of money, I think NAO Design would have an order in their in-box. Neither me, nor my friends play the lottery, so it’s going to take a little more planning for this to happen.

How am I going to make my dreams of tank ownership a reality? It comes down to budgeting. At a nickel shy of $20,000, it’s cheaper than the average car. NAO Design is clearly willing to take a loss on shipping as well. I live about ten miles from it’s Palo Alto headquarters, but I think it will still cost more than $14.99 in gas alone for them to ship it to me. However $20,000 is still not chump change (at least not for me). I need to have another plan.

I can see two viable ways of getting me in a Badonkadonk. The first would be to get those friends together and purchase it together. People buy timeshare vacations everyday – why not do that with tanks? We could be the pioneers of an entire “tank-share” industry. If I can convince 6 friends to give around $3500 we’d be there. That’s less than $300 a month. The downside is that each of us would only have the tank two months of the year. That’s still two months more of tank-time than I have today.

If I can’t convince my friends to join in, I have a plan B. I’ve got two words for you: tank rentals. I could rent the tank at the bargain price of $20/hr. At that price, I would nearly own the tank if I could have it rented for 1,000 hours of the year – just 20 hours a week. I could even rent it out for special occasions at a bulk rate of $250/day. I haven’t done extensive market research, but I believe this is a fair price for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. What makes a bigger impression at the prom – a limo or a tank? How about tailgating at Lambeau field before the Packers’ game? I think you know the answer.

If you see me posting less often in the upcoming months, it’s because I’m focusing on my efforts on making tank-ownership a reality. Once I complete that, I’ll be able to re-focus my goals on the journey of becoming financially independent.