Forgive me if this is long winded...
I have a few life changing events on the horizon, I proposed to my GF this last Xmas, we are getting married in fall of 2015, and we are about a year away from purchasing our first house. We are not expecting and help financially for either the down payment or the weddings so we have started saving for both. I'm also working on our Debt to income ratios, my fiance's only debt is student loans, while I have student loans, a Car Payment and CC bills. Nothing can really be done about the S.loans, and the CC debt should be gone within a year but the car loan is the one that really pisses me off.
I bought my 2008 ridgeline 3 years ago with 60k miles a week after I took a new job with a great salary. I was a site supervisor for a construction company and the job required a truck so I traded in my car which had payments of 280 a month for the truck which have 420 a month payments. At the time I was stupid and didn't care about the increase in payments because I was making 10k more a year. The truck has been fantastic and was exactly what I needed when I was at that job, but I'm now at a new construction job that doesn't require the day to day use of a truck. One of my co-workers with the same job title drives a 96 Jeep with 300k miles, and another has a chevy pickup with 280k miles and in a weird way I'm envious. Lately I've been questioning if I'm really getting much out of the 420 a month payment, especially considering I'm at 130k miles and I'm bound to start having bigger maintenance bills. At this point I think I'd rather have the occasional maintenance issues on a car I don't have a payment on.
So I owe 13k on the Ridgeline and it's worth about 11ish. I obviously have to deal with the negative equity one way or another, but my loan is with the local credit union and they are very easy to work with. I've been considering an early 90's Land Cruiser as a possibly vehicle. They have pretty good reliability record, are fairly easy to find and can be found for 2-5k. I've also been looking at Cherokee's, but the Land Cruiser has a lot more cargo room.
TLDR: Anyone get rid of a car payment and buy an older vehicle to avoid payments?
Anyone done something similar? Will I end up regretting an older vehicle? Should I stop spending money on bikes?
I have a few life changing events on the horizon, I proposed to my GF this last Xmas, we are getting married in fall of 2015, and we are about a year away from purchasing our first house. We are not expecting and help financially for either the down payment or the weddings so we have started saving for both. I'm also working on our Debt to income ratios, my fiance's only debt is student loans, while I have student loans, a Car Payment and CC bills. Nothing can really be done about the S.loans, and the CC debt should be gone within a year but the car loan is the one that really pisses me off.
I bought my 2008 ridgeline 3 years ago with 60k miles a week after I took a new job with a great salary. I was a site supervisor for a construction company and the job required a truck so I traded in my car which had payments of 280 a month for the truck which have 420 a month payments. At the time I was stupid and didn't care about the increase in payments because I was making 10k more a year. The truck has been fantastic and was exactly what I needed when I was at that job, but I'm now at a new construction job that doesn't require the day to day use of a truck. One of my co-workers with the same job title drives a 96 Jeep with 300k miles, and another has a chevy pickup with 280k miles and in a weird way I'm envious. Lately I've been questioning if I'm really getting much out of the 420 a month payment, especially considering I'm at 130k miles and I'm bound to start having bigger maintenance bills. At this point I think I'd rather have the occasional maintenance issues on a car I don't have a payment on.
So I owe 13k on the Ridgeline and it's worth about 11ish. I obviously have to deal with the negative equity one way or another, but my loan is with the local credit union and they are very easy to work with. I've been considering an early 90's Land Cruiser as a possibly vehicle. They have pretty good reliability record, are fairly easy to find and can be found for 2-5k. I've also been looking at Cherokee's, but the Land Cruiser has a lot more cargo room.
TLDR: Anyone get rid of a car payment and buy an older vehicle to avoid payments?
Anyone done something similar? Will I end up regretting an older vehicle? Should I stop spending money on bikes?
