New Car Fever Again!

Ahhhhh.  The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the temperature is approaching the 60's and 70's on some days and you have New Car Fever!  You know what I'm talking about.  We all catch it, don't we?  That urge to go to a car lot to test drive our latest dream.  To smell the "new car smell" as we drive down the road, blasting our favorite song with the windows down.  To feel the rush of the sale as we "negotiate" with the new car salesman.  Well let me take the opportunity to stifle your addiction here and yell, "DON'T DO IT"!  I know, I know.  You've probably heard all your life, "you'll always have a car payment".  Maybe it was even said by your mom or dad, maybe even your grandparents, but probably not your great-grandparents as they used to "save" for a purchase before they bought it.  Now there's an idea.

Save for a car?  Seriously.  Track with me for a minute now.  The average price of a new car is about $26,000 which means the average car payment in America is around $460 per month and most family households have two.  Wow!  Anyway, instead of paying the auto finance company the $460 per month and paying them interest, let's put that money in a savings account and in just twelve months you will have saved enough to purchase a good used, low mileage car that's just a handful of years old for $5,520 cash!  Correction, when people see cash something happens to them and they get nutty.  You could probably actually purchase a $6,000 to $7,000 car for that same $5,520.

So now you're driving your $6,000 car that you paid $5,520 cash for and you again save $460 per month in a savings account and in 24 months you will have $11,040, saved for another car plus you can sell your current $6000 car that you bought for $5,520 for about $5,000 and add that to your saved money and you will be able to purchase, in cash, a great $16,000 car.  If you keep doing this and purchase a car once every 3-10 years, you will finish well.