I guess my difficulty with this is I am generally fiscally conservative. My tendency is to just rebuild what I have and run it. We have bought one new car in our life, and that was just because no used cars could be found that met our requirements at the time.  Never bought a new pickup.

But experience has taught me farmers tend to have this philosophy of spending 25 cents to save a dime.  Last year I spent $7,000 on combine maintenance. The year before I spent $14,000 (rebuilt the transmission).  This year I am way ahead ... if you don't count the new front tires I put on it (I kept my old ones so they can be removed if I trade it).  If I spend $10-$15,000 rebuilding it my annual costs would hopefully go down quite a bit ... unless I lose an engine or final drive.

Let's say I amortize that and over the next 7 years I average $6-$7,000 a year in maintenance.  Would I be better served putting that $40- $50,000 toward a new machine?  Or am I spending $100,000 to save $50,000?

There is a passage in the Bible (I'm not going to look it up right now) that basically says the worker sleeps well but the boss tosses and turns all night (BIG paraphrase).  I kind of understanding that.