..... a car and a house is a lot of monthly payments....
And that is why we don't drive new cars. Everything we drive is paid for. They might not be the most luxurious vehicles and they might have some miles on them, but they're paid for.
I think the most I ever paid for a vehicle was $15k and that was A LOT more than the next most expensive vehicle I ever owned. We are looking at buying a Honda Odyssey now. I'm looking in the 2007-2010 range because I can not justify the price difference between that and something newer.
I also grew up working as a tech in dealerships and doubt that I would ever buy a brand new car. I've worked on way to many of them that were built on a friday, or a monday after a holiday. Besides, they lose to much value as soon as they roll off the lot.
I'm cheap too but honestly can not imagine spending $40-$50k on just a car. I've bought a lot of houses for less than that.
I agree with every word of that. Cars lose a lot of their value in 3 years. I know people who just can't stand driving something that someone used to own though. So buying new is worth it to them. That would be my only exception, but at the moment I'm ok with used cars.
there are soooo many great cars out there now used.... a little patience and cash .....
I made a fix.
There are sooo many great cars out there now new.... a lot of cash .....
Here is what we did. 2 years ago we had Saturn and a Grand Cherokee. We traded in the Saturn and bough a new Grand Cherokee. So we have one note on the new car, and nothing on the old Grand Cherokee. We will be replacing my piece of shit this upcoming fall with a nice used vehicle, paid in full, so we only keep the one note outstanding.
You would have to try hard to not find a very good used car at a great price the way the car market is now.
And if you can get a low interest rate it's sometimes not a bad idea to take a loan so you can keep more of your money liquid if there's an emergency. I wouldn't consider it "good debt", but maybe, "not that bad of an idea debt".
Re: Let's talk cars, already
I made a fix.
There are sooo many great cars out there now new.... a lot of cash .....
Here is what we did. 2 years ago we had Saturn and a Grand Cherokee. We traded in the Saturn and bough a new Grand Cherokee. So we have one note on the new car, and nothing on the old Grand Cherokee. We will be replacing my piece of shit this upcoming fall with a nice used vehicle, paid in full, so we only keep the one note outstanding.
You would have to try hard to not find a very good used car at a great price the way the car market is now.
And if you can get a low interest rate it's sometimes not a bad idea to take a loan so you can keep more of your money liquid if there's an emergency. I wouldn't consider it "good debt", but maybe, "not that bad of an idea debt".