Jlogged

When my husband and I were first married we both had two paid for cars.  Aaron’s car was a pitiful Chevy spectrum called Rudy.  When Rudy began to have issues that were beyond our budget’s capability we sold him for 400.00 to a kindly mechanic with a missing front tooth, and then we became a one car family.

Our other car was my beloved 1988 Acura Integra.  I taught Mr. Lea how to drive stick in that car when I was 6 months pregnant.  We experienced more jerks than a Jamaican spice factory, and I wondered if the unborn could be affected by shaken baby syndrome in utero.  He learned.  The babe was fine.  We still laugh about that afternoon.  Does anyone else get emotionally attached to their cars? The Integra was good to us, and we drove it until the transmission finally blew up (or whatever it is transmissions do when they die.)  R.I.P. Integra.

It was then that we purchased a one year old 1999 Pontiac Grand AM with its low, low payment of 289.00 per month.

We were both thrilled to have such a beautiful, shiny new car.  We were still a one car family, and did need a dependable vehicle since both of us worked.  The clincher was that by the time we wrote the check for our last car note the grand total paid for the Pontiac was just over twenty one thousand dollars, and that readers is how I learned about the power of interest.  A new transmission would have cost me 500 bucks.  Instead we paid almost 2340.00 in interest. Not to mention the cost of full coverage insurance. Yee-ouch!! Lesson learned!  Ten years later we are still driving our grand AM (and plan to for ten more years.)  We have added to our cars a 1995 Ford Minivan that we paid $1,500 for in cash almost six years ago, and-most recently- a 2000 Nissan Frontier we purchased for $750.

If I budget 2k per year for maintenance on three vehicles it breaks down (no pun intended) like this:

2000.00 vehicle repairs (this is a liberal projection)

1680.00 insurance

280.00    oil changes

Total = 3960.00 per year total car budget for three vehicles

(2) New Cars would cost us the following:

7200.00               Car payments (300.00 per mo. payment x 2)

3600.00               Full coverage insurance

200.00                  Oil Changes

Total= 11,000.00 per year (not counting uncovered warranty maintenance)

Difference per year= $7040.00

That equals a lot of vacations, groceries, retirement fund, etc…  Sure, I love that new car smell just as much at the next guy, and I would also love to spend less time at the mechanic, but those luxuries are not worth 7K a year to me.    The funny thing is that the only time we ever had a car payment we were making about three times less the income we are now.  Currently, we could comfortably afford a car payment but we choose not too.  Because we choose not to spend money on new-er cars, we have been able to pay down virtually all of our consumer debt, go on vacations without charging them, and pay cash for college tuition + books.  We live a richer life by living small.

And, just for fun: Ten cars you can live in after your home has been repossessed.

*Correction: 2340.00 in interest paid on the Pontiac, not 6K. Oye!  But still a lot of $$ to throw out the window.

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