I’m Seventeen With Savings From My Weekend Job. Should It Go on a Car or a Piece of Land?

A reader writes:

Hi. I’m seventeen and in upper sixth. For almost three years I have worked Saturdays and some Sundays at my uncle’s hardware store, and in the summer I do full weeks. I don’t spend much because my mother still feeds me (thank God), so I have been saving in a credit union account since I was fourteen. It is not a fortune but it is more than anybody my age I know has.

Here is my problem. All my friends who are turning eighteen are getting cars, or their parents are. I get my licence soon. With what I have plus a little more I could buy a decent used car. It would mean I could get to the store without two taxis, and I could maybe do deliveries for my uncle and earn more. Also, honestly, I want one. I’m tired of being the one who always needs a ride.

But my grandfather keeps telling me, “Buy land, boy. Car is a liability, land is an asset.” He bought his first piece of land when he was twenty-two and built on it slowly, and it is the house the whole family still meets at every Christmas. He says if I put all my money in a car now I will be forty and still renting. My mother says it’s my money and my decision but she agrees with him, I can tell.

I don’t want to be foolish. But I also don’t want to wait ten years for a piece of dirt I can’t even use while everybody else is living their life. Is there a right answer?

— Kemar, Clarendon

Our response

Kemar, first, well done. Saving steadily from fourteen shows more discipline than many adults manage, and asking before you spend shows wisdom. Your grandfather and your friends are both telling you something true. The job is to work out which truth fits your situation right now.

Your grandfather is right that land usually holds its value in a way a car does not. A car starts losing value when you drive it away, and it keeps costing money: insurance, licensing, fuel, tyres, repairs. Those running costs matter as much as the price. Before you decide anything, sit down with your uncle or a parent and add up what a car would cost you each month to keep on the road, not just to buy. Some young people find the car is affordable to buy but not to own.

But you are also right about something. A car you need for work is not the same as a car you want for show. If a vehicle would genuinely let you earn more, through deliveries for example, it could pay for part of itself. Ask your uncle plainly whether that work would really be there and what it would pay. Get the answer before you buy, not after.

Land has its own realities. At seventeen you may not be able to buy property in your own name without an adult involved, and buying land properly means checking the title, getting a survey and paying legal and transfer costs on top of the price. That is not a reason not to do it, but it does mean land is usually a longer project than it sounds. Talk to an attorney-at-law and your credit union about how young buyers typically go about it.

A few questions to think about:

• What are your plans for the next three years? University, training or a job far from home could change what you need.
• Could a cheaper, reliable car meet the real need and leave most of your savings untouched?
• If you keep saving at your current rate, roughly how long before you could buy land, and are you willing to wait?
• Are you tempted by the car mostly because of what your friends have? Be honest with yourself.

There is also a middle path many families take: keep a separate, untouchable land fund that you add to every month, and only spend on transport what the rest of your savings can bear. That way your grandfather’s advice keeps working in the background while your everyday life keeps moving.

Proverbs says that wealth gathered little by little grows (Proverbs 13:11). You have already proved you can gather little by little. Whatever you choose, keep doing that. And ask your grandfather to tell you the whole story of that first piece of land, including the hard parts. You will learn more from it than from any advice column.

This article is general information only and is not financial, legal, tax or other professional advice. Please speak to a qualified professional about your own circumstances.

Reader letters may be edited for length and clarity, and names and identifying details are changed.

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