Posted on 12/26/2007 11:48:41 PM PST by BGHater
Paul Brant calls himself a "penny pincher."
People who know him - including the staff at Mike Raisor Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep - might agree.
Accompanied by a police escort from the Clinton County Sheriff's Office, Friday he drove his old diesel pickup into the Raisor parking lot and bought himself a brand new, 2008 half-ton, shiny red Dodge Ram truck.
What made the $26,670 purchase even more interesting was the manner in which he paid for it.
Brant's payment was made up entirely of quarters and gold dollars he'd been saving since 1994 - the last time he traded enough of his hard-earned coins to buy a vehicle.
Friday, he handed over the coins, neatly rolled and stored in various containers - water jugs, coffee cans, piggy banks - that had ridden in on the bed of his pickup.
Lt. Joe Mink and Chief Deputy Mike Hensley of the sheriff's office were right behind him.
Being thrifty, Brant said, comes naturally.
"I reckon I was just brought up that way," he said.
His father always paid cash, he said, and it's a tradition he carried on.
Besides, he added, "Checks are no fun."
He makes it a habit to save his loose change, he said, explaining that he cleans out his pockets every morning, and doesn't hesitate to pick up stray coins from the ground wherever he goes.
"Once you drop them out of your hand, they're gone," he said. "They don't last very long."
The 70-year-old Clinton County native graduated from Frankfort High School in 1956 and went to work at the Kokomo-based Chrysler plant the same year.
Thirteen years ago, Brant bought a car and a truck from Kincaid's of Lebanon. That purchase cost him $36,000, he said, which he surrendered in coins - 100 percent quarters.
After that, while he continued to stash away his quarters for the eventual purchase of his next vehicle, a couple tellers at The Farmers Bank notified him that they had plenty of rolled, gold dollars available, if he wanted to buy them. He did.
"I just took them home and threw them in the jug," he said.
Keith Gephart, a sales consultant for Raisor, said he'd been after Brant for all those years to do it again, this time at Raisor's. With the numerous spectators and news people milling about the showroom, Gephart said the publicity will likely be good for business.
The truck, with several extras added on, retails for about $35,000, he said. Brant's price reflects his Chrysler employee discount and rebates, plus taxes, he explained.
As for how Raisor's cashier planned to handle $26,670 in coins, Gephart said, "No bank wants to take them. We've got a Loomis armored car coming."
Loomis personnel will count the change, he said, and let Raisor know the total within three days.
"Their count is final," he said.
Vending machines.
You had ~$900 after 3 years, and I’ll lay odds you used a LOT of that change when ordering in, or needed a soda, etc.
I used to save my silver but gave up once my tenant decided that in addition to the empties, any coins in the house also belongs to him.
Before anyone starts in on the “charge him, toss him out” stuff, he’s mentally disabled. Besides, the joys he brings to the house outweigh a few coins.
I do the same thing, I never pay exact amounts and I usually have 2-3 dollars a day average in loose change that I put in a 3 gallon water jug, its almost full and its time to start another. I read somewhere that someone was saying its illegal to hoard cash like this because its not traceable or taxable.
I can almost promise you that if he was pulled over and cops found all the money in his truck, he would never see it again. It appears now that if you have lots of ‘cash’ then its a bad thing.
Anyway, I always put anything less than a five into my ‘coin’ jug and it adds up quick. At the end of the day, all the ones, and any coins go there.
Not that there's anything wrong with that but this guy was doing more than just emptying his pocket of change each day. He was going out of his way to get change.
I think that is what everyone should start doing, at the end of every day all loose change and all $1 bills, start a new day and bring home the small stuff no exceptions.
I hate charge or writing checks so I carry cash. I also hate to dig through my pocket for change when I buy stuff.
I also hate to wait in line at the post office so I buy stamps from the machine outside which gives change in “gold” dollars and other change.
I have two coffee cans, one for pennies and the other for the “Big” stuff.
It does add up rather quickly.
It generally gets raided around the $500 mark and I start all over again.
If he had invested that in something that gave a 4% return (like a US savings bond) he would have ended up with nearly $35,000
When I worked at my pop's Sunoco station during college, a man would come in and get $5 and an odd amount of gas every few days. He'd immediately dump the change in the gas tank. That was his down payment on the next car, he said.
We often wondered just how much money was in there and how much it weighed.
Judging that 1500 lbs in the rear of most cars would flatten the tires I would say when the tires are half flat buy a new car!
That is so logical in its act its funny.
I doubt any reasonably trained cop would think that jugs filled with quarters and dimes were the result of drug transactions.
This is why there is a shortage of coins.
This guy did more than just save his coins.
He had to have been trading some bills for quarters.
No matter how he did it, I am impressed with him.
Someone might want to tell him about interest and compounding. His coins could have been worth more over that number of years. Amen.
***The SBA dollar failed because it pretty much looked and felt like a quarter, right down to the milled edge.***
No, no! The SBA failed because women didn’t want to carry all that extra weight around in addition to all the other things we HAVE to stuff in our handbags. And men found it put holes in their pockets. The only people who are interested in dollar coins are collectors.
Pay all cash: Expenditures * .5 = $ value of coins (assuming an average of 50 cents change).
If you spend money 5 times a day you will bank about $2.50 a day. 2.50 x 365 = $912 a year.
I’d get a new car about every 25 years. . .
Now he forgoes compounded interest at say 4% if he bought a decent money market, he’s forgoing a huge amount of interest . . . an amount that is over half his total savings. So he’s an idiot.
Our beach parking requires quarters. I pay .75 an hour for a day at the beach. That’s a better use of the change . . .
$5.48 / day in change.
Assuming an average of $.50 per transaction, that works out to 11 transactions per day.
I can't square the story of being "thrifty" and buying something, on average, every hour of your waking life for 13 years.
This guy is probably a little "off center".
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