War chest?

[Deliberate1]

I am curious to know what you guys do with the sales proceeds of a guitar or other music-related item.

It strikes me that the most "sensible" thing to do is to place the dough in a dedicated, cloistered account, Swiss or off-shore - to acquire future music-making companions. Name the account whatever you like -
"BRW CSH," "DTO (deliver to office),""PICK COIN." You get the idea.

Seems to me that the money that you used to buy the thing you sold has already been properly spent, and "laundered," and should not be sullied by co-mingling it with other money that might be subject to repeated "supervisional" vetting and approval. Certain assumptions made here.

Moreover, since you have already spent that money once, it like, does not really even exist as "money" - more like chit for barter. The best kind of chit.

I might add that pouring the money back into your kids' college funds is commendable, though, perhaps ultimately regrettable. I put three kids through college. And buying guitars is way more fun.

Have at it.

David

[Talk2Me]

The only reason I sell a guitar is to get a different one (limited living space) or to cover living expenses that I can't manage any other way. I think that answers OP's questions though.

[rllink]

Points well taken, but that is way too much thinking about money for me. I'm not rich, but I don't have to play money games. My brother, who is pretty much the same not rich as me, and he loves it. Money games and coming up with justifications for spending it is his hobby I think. That said, I do have my own checking account and credit card for buying my own stuff.

[srick]

David - our financial planner is fond of saying, "It's all an equation."

[Steve-arino]

I'm a bachelor (happily divorced, still friends with the ex). I do whatever I want whenever I want to, within limits that I decide upon :-).

Now that I've blown a bundle on guitars, I'm fine with keeping that bundle in a 6 string format. I do have a set limit on overall guitar expenditures and I've reached it.

The problem for me is that I have other expensive hobbies as well, photography, audio, some traveling. Being retired, I really do need to keep some sort of a limit on my (future) hobby expenses :-). I ain't rich either.

My kids are self supporting and my debt is low.

[Slothead56]

Before retirement I kind of didn’t have a budget for musical gear and did whatever I wanted. That amounted to 15 or 20 guitars of various shapes and sizes come and gone over the past 15 years.

I’ve been focused on getting down to the right guitars and am there with 4…three 6 strings and a 12 string. I have all my bases covered.

Having said that I still get the itch to re-visit some of my prior models. (Just this weekend I was looking at 000-15sm’s, J-15’s and a CEO-7, all of which I’ve owned in the past (twice in two cases) but ultimately decided that the concept of “collecting” no longer appeals to me.

As far as the money, it never went in a separate fund….again because I had a bunch of disposable income.

I’m trying hard to enjoy a simpler lifestyle at this point.

[Dirk Hofman]

I dump the cash into quickly depreciating assets called carbon-fiber mountain bikes.

I'm here for all your investment questions.

[Mandobart]

Since I've only sold two instruments in the 50+ years I've been playing, that wouldn't be much of a source or fund for further purchases.

Houses have been fully paid off for many years. Likewise cars, trailer, camper, boat , motorcycle. Put both kids through college and they're both on their own and doing fine. Not making any payments on anything.

I figure I've spent around $25 k on musical instruments and gear over mostly the past 16 years. If I actually had to sell all of it, I would likely net less than half of that. For a few years I didn't spend any more on instruments/gear than I earned gigging, but I haven't been doing much of that for a while.

I'm newly retired so I don't plan to start spending more money on anything, but any future instruments/gear.purchases will come from the general fund.

[Methos1979]

I do the 'War Chest' thing for guitars and music-related gear. Leading up to retirement two years ago I had acquired my 'dream guitar' - a Froggy Bottom H12 Deluxe that was everything I'd hoped it would be. But after retiring we ramped up our gigging (acoustic duo with my wife) and since the Froggy Bottom was not something I was willing to take out gigging it started to bug me to have 'all that money hanging on the wall' only to be played acoustically at home. So I sold it off.

Since it was a high-dollar item AND I knew that being retired meant not having the expendable income to buy new guitars and other gear at will, I decided to just keep the proceeds in my PayPal account. I then sold off a few more items that were just laying around collecting dust. This account is now my music gear War Chest. Although I did just recently tap into it for some gear for my other hobby, pickleball. But my plan to keep at least $2-3k in it to try new stuff as I want.

[Mr. Jelly]

I have a "War Chest" also in the form of a dedicated savings area. Our money is all in the same account but split up in the form of different savings accounts and checking account. My wife can see it but she doesn't care. It's growing but I don't see another guitar in my future. I've been there and done that with guitars and now I can't seem to get excited about any guitar available. Except the ones I have. There are probably two that I might pop for, but I don't see those coming on the market and I'm not that interested to special order one.

[Deliberate1]

Originally Posted by Dirk Hofman

I dump the cash into quickly depreciating assets called carbon-fiber mountain bikes.

I'm here for all your investment questions.

My friend, OP here. On the bright side, with just the right bike, you may be able travel fast enough to keep up with the rate of depreciation as you both plummet downhill.

Well done.

David

[Dirk Hofman]

Originally Posted by Deliberate1

My friend, OP here. On the bright side, with just the right bike, you may be able travel fast enough to keep up with the rate of depreciation as you both plummet downhill.

Well done.

David

As luck would have it, I recently threw some guitar money at another, bigger, longer, faster, bike. I did get it at a 40% discount. Still depreciating, however.

Hanging on for dear life as I plummet toward the inevitable crash...

[Deliberate1]

Originally Posted by Dirk Hofman

Hanging on for dear life as I plummet toward the inevitable crash...

My quip above was offered with empathy. Every time I go into my garage. I am confronted by a box O'skis, with, perhaps 12-14 pair that I have accumulated over the years - rather like the rings of a tree. Many were priced at more than $1k when new. Now, it might be best to offer up the Rubbermaid crate for, say $15, with the stipulation that the buyer must also take the skis.

Ride hard.
Fall softy.

David

[Dirk Hofman]

Originally Posted by Deliberate1

My quip above was offered with empathy. Every time I go into my garage. I am confronted by a box O'skis, with, perhaps 12-14 pair that I have accumulated over the years - rather like the rings of a tree. Many were priced at more than $1k when new. Now, it might be best to offer up the Rubbermaid crate for, say $15, with the stipulation that the buyer must also take the skis.

Ride hard.
Fall softy.

David

I appreciate that, I understood.

What are O'skis? O'Brien waterskis?

[Rumblefish]

I keep extra cash in an indexed mutual fund. It makes you think twice before buying a guitar.