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When he gets a new box I get a new box.

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mmb617

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My son from an early age if asked what he wanted to do when he grew up would answer "I'm gonna work on cars". His high school had a good automotive technology course and during his senior year he was a co-op student at a local Ford dealer. He did a good enough job that they offered him a full time position as soon as he graduated, which he accepted.

Of course he started out on simple jobs and he didn't have a lot of tools so he used a small cart for their storage. That first year my wife and I bought him his first rollaway box for Christmas. Since techs are always buying more tools over time it got pretty full.

A few years later he decided to take a job at a different dealership, and since he was moving his tools anyways he upgraded to a bigger box and brought his old one to my garage. I'd never had a rollaway before and that made organizing my tools much easier.

He's been working in that field for 12 years now and has a lot of tools but recently went on a buying binge for a lot more. Since he works flat rate he always wants to have whatever tool gets the job done most efficiently on hand. He has a lot of tools I never even knew existed. At any rate with all the new tools he upgraded his box once again. And brought his old box to my garage again.

I'm not sure how I'm going to use the new to me box as I have most of my tools where I can find them. If I start moving them around I won't remember where they are. I'll have to review some of the hints in the label your drawers thread. :lol_hitti
 
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CraigStu

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"Since he works flat rate he always wants to have whatever tool gets the job done most efficiently on hand."
I worked flat rate for 20+ years and this is definitely true. I have a $65 SnapOn bent needle nose 10" long pair of pliers. Bought them for one recall where we had to replace a heater hose w/ one of those spring clamps that you squeeze the ends together to loosen it. A 3 foot 1/2in drive extension to remove starter bolts for another recall. A 17mm combination wrench that I cut in two about 1 inch from the box end and welded back together at a 45degree angle. A bunch of my fellow techs saw it, cut theirs and asked me to weld it back together. Sounds to me like your son is an excellent tech who thinks a lot about how he can do things better.
 
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nadogail

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I call those things "Hand Me Ups" as opposed to "Hand Me Downs". Every once in a while my son will acquire some new thing and offer his old one to me; if it fits I am glad to have it.
 
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joey1320

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As a flat rate tech at a German dealership, I concur, regarding the random unusual tools we use. Luckily our tool room has plenty of those weird tools but I still have a drawer full of tools I got specifically for one job or made myself to cut the labor time.

Seems like your son is doing good in the field, that's good to hear.
Enjoy the "new" box.
Post pics.
 
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jd_1138

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Nothing better than using and cherishing a toolbox that someone you love has used. :)
 
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Model A Fan

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How does retirement work for someone like him? Is it all based on his contributions or does his employer have something? Seems like jumping around between employers (which lots of techs do) is a risky move.

Pics of box?
 
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KEH

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I'm not a professional mechanic but i have found a extra long extension to be occasionally useful, as mentioned by CraigStu above. One in particular I used on a starter job I considered to be well worth the used price I paid for it and in fact since at the time i was employed and did not need the hassle of taking time to use unsuitable tools to do the work on the wife's car. I would have paid new tool truck prices cheerfully to get the job done quickly.

KEH
 
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joey1320

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Model A Fan said:
How does retirement work for someone like him? Is it all based on his contributions or does his employer have something? Seems like jumping around between employers (which lots of techs do) is a risky move.

Pics of box?
Click to expand...

Retirement??? What's that???

Joking, but not really, aside, most employers offer a 401k which can be moved from one account to the next. Besides that, hardly any offer a pension.

What I have seen working in the field is that techs will pretty much work until their bodies no longer can and then try to survive off social security.

I have different plans and am using my 401k to my advantage. Others in the shop have no clue how to even login to their accounts.:eek:
 
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mmb617

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Model A Fan said:
How does retirement work for someone like him? Is it all based on his contributions or does his employer have something? Seems like jumping around between employers (which lots of techs do) is a risky move.

Pics of box?
Click to expand...

He does have a 401k at his current job. When he moved from his previous job he converted the money he had in that 401k into an IRA, so he has two separate accounts he's building for retirement. He contributes what he needs to receive the maximum employer match to his current 401k and also has set up an automatic monthly contribution from his bank account into his IRA.

He knows his job wears out a body and is working towards being able to retire at 55. The key to that is starting early and although he's only 29 years old now he's already been contributing to his retirement accounts for 11 years. Barring unforeseen circumstances I think his goal is quite possible.

NUTTSGT said:
Talk of a new box to your garage and no picture ? Your son getting a bigger box and no pic ?


C'mon, we need pictures.
Click to expand...

I kind of knew I wasn't going to get away from posting pics, but that requires me to get off my *** and go to the garage. It's a lot to ask, but I promise I'll post some later. :3gears:

joey1320 said:
As a flat rate tech at a German dealership, I concur, regarding the random unusual tools we use. Luckily our tool room has plenty of those weird tools but I still have a drawer full of tools I got specifically for one job or made myself to cut the labor time.
Click to expand...

He's currently doing VW's, and I'm sure there are a lot of one-off tools.

bri_man57 said:
Pics or it didn't happen [emoji6][emoji6]
Click to expand...

I'd laugh at you guys being picture whores but I'm the same way myself.

joey1320 said:
Retirement??? What's that???

Joking, but not really, aside, most employers offer a 401k which can be moved from one account to the next. Besides that, hardly any offer a pension.

What I have seen working in the field is that techs will pretty much work until their bodies no longer can and then try to survive off social security.

I have different plans and am using my 401k to my advantage. Others in the shop have no clue how to even login to their accounts.:eek:
Click to expand...

It never ceases to amaze me that some people don't plan for their retirement at all. I worked with a guy for years who although the company had a decent 401k match he never participated. Now he's retired and only has social security as income. I don't have to tell you that's not enough.

I've done all I could to impress on my son the importance of planning to fund your own retirement and I think the message got through.
 
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NUTTSGT

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mmb617 said:
I kind of knew I wasn't going to get away from posting pics, but that requires me to get off my *** and go to the garage. It's a lot to ask, but I promise I'll post some later. :3gears:




I'd laugh at you guys being picture whores but I'm the same way myself.



.
Click to expand...



Mike Mike Mike.. . . .

I've seen your weight lifting thread, you're no lazy ***. You're probably in better shape than most here.

:beer:
 
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kbeefy

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Model A Fan said:
How does retirement work for someone like him? Is it all based on his contributions or does his employer have something? Seems like jumping around between employers (which lots of techs do) is a risky move.
Click to expand...


In my Experience, a pension is a dinosaur that you just don't see anymore.

An employer backed 401k is a weaker but better than nothing replacement, and can be converted to and IRA as mentioned above fairly easily.

When I was young(er) and working hard, I did as mmb617 described that his son did and maxed out my employer contributions. I think that should be the bare minimum if it's available.

I'm now in a position that I might be able to make an early entry into 'semi-retirement' at age 49. I am very pleased that I took advantage of all the 401Ks that were available to me and learned from my wife to not carry any debt.

As the saying goes, toolboxes have wheels for a reason....
 
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csi123

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Model A Fan said:
How does retirement work for someone like him? Is it all based on his contributions or does his employer have something? Seems like jumping around between employers (which lots of techs do) is a risky move.

Pics of box?
Click to expand...

I hope no one is silly enough to rely his whole retirement on a single dealership. What if the dealership close door when you are 1 year away from retirement? What if it happens after you retire?
 
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mmb617

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captain14 said:
Not only pictures of the “new” box but how you lay out the tools in the drawers.

Like some kinda garage/shop decision making choices and therapy.
Click to expand...

You wouldn't benefit from seeing how I lay out the tools in the drawers as I'm no expert. My son on the other hand is very meticulous about that kind of stuff but his box is at work and I don't have pics of how he stores tools in the drawers. I know he mentioned that the drawer liners in the new box are really nice.

Now as promised a few pics. This is his first box, the one we bought for him when he started in the trade years ago which now resides in the lift bay of my garage:


51012088852_80de401bf5_b.jpg




This is the box he moved up to when he changed jobs. It's substantially bigger although it's hard to get an idea of scale from the pics. I haven't decided on a permanent home for it yet:


51011990216_a21ee1b7a7_b.jpg




I don't have pics of the actual newest box, but it's this one. From just looking at the pics I didn't think it was all that much bigger and thought he might need to keep the top of his old box on the wood top of this one to have enough room, but when I saw it in person I realized it's a lot bigger than I thought. He had his computer on the workbench at his station and was able to move it onto the top of this box which made the workbench more usable. He says it's adequate for now.


51012090362_fa9d038a30_b.jpg




Some of the guys he works with have $10k boxes but he doesn't see the need for that. At least not right now.

It's a good crew of guys he works with. He had me pick it up and bring it to work the day it arrived and since it weighs over 600 lbs the HD employees loaded it onto my pickup with a forklift. When I got to his work they had me back in to the garage and about 8 guys came over and muscled it off, then they all took some time hanging out and oohing and aahing over Bob's new box. And of course a few crude remarks were made because, well, we're guys.
 
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mmb617

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csi123 said:
I hope no one is silly enough to rely his whole retirement on a single dealership. What if the dealership close door when you are 1 year away from retirement? What if it happens after you retire?
Click to expand...

Money an employee puts into his 401k plan is always his regardless of what might happen to the business he works at. The employer portion is usually rated in a vestment schedule, typically 20% per year worked with that company. The vested portion also belongs to the employee even if the business goes bankrupt as those funds are deposited as they are earned. So typically after 5 years an employee owns all of both his contributions and the employers match and won't lose them if the business closes.

The only way the employee would lose money is if he left before he was fully vested, in which case he would lose the employer match of what he wasn't yet vested in, but he still wouldn't lose any of his own contributions.
 
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logical

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csi123 said:
I hope no one is silly enough to rely his whole retirement on a single dealership. What if the dealership close door when you are 1 year away from retirement? What if it happens after you retire?
Click to expand...
That's like worrying about a resturant closing after you've eaten.

A 401k isn't held by the employer. Yes, there could be stipulations on matching funds that the employer contributed by any money the employess puts in and any gains in value are untouchable by the employer.

Back in the good old days when companies had private pensions, and especially before the government addressed some of the laws surrounding them, there were risks. But that isn't at play here.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 
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captain14

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Mike

Your son is doing well at his profession and he likes it.

I think it’s good he understands about where his money should be invested. I wonder how Many of his Coworkers are having second thoughts now About their tool truck toolbox investments?

Thanks for the photos. The first photos is about the same size I have. I did add a second stack because I have more tools....
 
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joey1320

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Nice looking boxes.

His new Husky box is a phenomenal deal. I considered buying one but don't need it. Glad he didn't fall down the "I need a $5k+++ toolbox" mentality.

Couple of the guys at work have over $25K in toolbox alone. Both of them have said they'll work till they die cause they can't afford not to :(
 
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mmb617

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NUTTSGT

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mmb617 said:
Yeah that's the one. Those crude remarks I commented on earlier by his co-workers were centered around the concept of Bob getting his wood up.

Get a bunch of guys together and you can almost predict some of the ball busting that will naturally occur.
Click to expand...

LOL, I can already imagine some of the comments.


All in good natured humor . . . . I thought more of the lines of guys bashing his new box when you said crude comments.
 
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