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Originally Posted by Thymeclock
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Strictly speaking, one enters into any investment expecting to make a financial profit (AKA a 'return'). Otherwise it is not an investment. If the term is used so very broadly as to call vehicle ownership a financial investment, it is a very poor financial investment indeed, since the financial return will be a negative one or a loss. Unless you are a used car turnaround specialist it is difficult or impossible for the average vehicle owner to profit financially from ownership of a motor vehicle.
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That seems to disagree with portions of the "What is Investment" link you provided. Or maybe you are intentionally slotting vehicle ownership into a "financial" investment cubby? The page you linked has other investment categories besides purely financial ones:
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Investment in terms of Economics
According to economic theories, investment is defined as the per-unit production of goods, which have not been consumed, but will however, be used for the purpose of future production. Examples of this type of investments are tangible goods like construction of a factory or bridge and intangible goods like 6 months of on-the-job training.
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Investment in Terms of Business Management:
According to business management theories, investment refers to tangible assets like machinery and equipments and buildings and intangible assets like copyrights or patents and goodwill.
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Money is not spent on a factory or a bridge with the expectation that the factory or bridge itself will be worth more in x number of years. A business does not spend money on "Machinery, equipments and buildings" in order to turn a profit off that machinery, equipments and buildings. In fact, those assets are guaranteed to lose value (tax code gives the business a tax break because of it) so they are (strictly speaking) a very poor 'financial' investment. But the assets don't have to provide a return themselves in order to have a positive ROI. There is benefit to the community (which can be measured in $$) for having a bridge. The business must weigh the benefit the purchased assets provide (generally in higher production which hopefully translates to greater sales or lower per unit costs), not how much they can get for the asset if they sold it. In this sense, I think the ROI analogy for vehicles is valid.
If you only focus on the portion of the Investment definition that has to do with financial instruments, where the asset you purchase does not do anything for you (that is, does not reduce your manufacturing effort, save you time, reduce your fuel consumption, etc) except increase or decrease value (and maybe pay out some $$ occasionally), then you are absolutely right... vehicles and FE modifications are a very poor 'financial' investment. But I believe the full definition of Investment is already broader than that, per your own link.
Hobby or not, it seems the ROI term is applicable... any time you are looking to spend money or time (which equates to money) on something, you are typically looking to get some 'return' on it. If you translate that return into a monetary equivalent, you can calculate an ROI. Of course, what you think the return is worth probably is not what I think the return is worth, but that doesn't matter in the case of hobbies... If you think it's worth it to you, then it is ... This is stated similarly at
Return On Investment (ROI) Definition | Investopedia:
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Keep in mind that the calculation for return on investment and, therefore the definition, can be modified to suit the situation -it all depends on what you include as returns and costs. The definition of the term in the broadest sense just attempts to measure the profitability of an investment and, as such, there is no one "right" calculation.
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