Debt Beat
This time two years ago, we were a two-vehicle family with finance payments of around $1,000 per month. As of November 2005, we still have two fully-functional, perfectly running vehicles and we owe $0 - Zip, Zero, Zilch. There's nothing magical to this success and we still have a long way to being completely debt-free (including the home mortgage), but we systematically paid off Lisa's minivan after 5 years and, with the help of our buddy Dave Ramsey, I saw the folly of keeping my SUV payment. I sold the Isuzu Rodeo, paid off the note and am currently driving a purple (yes purple) Ford Ranger that's been in the family for 12 years, but runs like a champ.
Lessons learned:
We will never again have a car payment.Because:
We will always save and pay cash for a car.
We will always buy used from a private-party sale (better deals)
A car is not worth 5 years of debt.
New cars are not worth the amount of depreciation 5-minutes after the sale.
People really don't care what you drive.
posted by Stuart Cowen @ 12:36 PM
3 Comments:
Hey what happened to my comment here? Did you even see it? Maybe it didn't post right or maybe you were offended by my dissing you for driving a purple Ford Ranger.
It's all in fun, man.
Good job on getting debt free, at least as far as the vehicles go.
What did happen to your post? Honestly, I didn't see it or delete it. My brother--n-law calls it the "Barney Mobile" - Hehe.
It seems like I said something about how I always pictured you driving some big macho vehicle and my image of you was shattered now. You may think people don't care what you drive, but I do.
Back in '95 or '96, I was truck shopping and the salesman steered me to a purple S-10 and said this is the hot new color. I disputed his claim and wouldn't even go near it. Of course I ended up buying a blue Sonoma that I always referred to the color as Ruffles blue because it was that bright blue like a bag of ruffles chips.
The coolest thing is that your vehicles are paid for and that's probably justification enough for driving a Barney mobile. Both of my cars are paid for and at that point, you seem to not care much what they look like, as long as they keep running.
Good stuff, man!
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