Dont go broke trying to look rich.


For most of my adult life, I have driven new vehicles. I had convinced myself that I work hard and I deserve to drive a new vehicle. It became a symbol of my success.

At one point I realized that my vehicle payment was more than I was paying in rent. I don't live in my car, I just take it back and forth to work and run errands.

What am I doing? Although I did not make an immediate change, it was not too long after that I lost my job so I sold my car. I was appalled by the new value of the vehicle after depreciation!

The realization that I lost money by buying a new vehicle hit me hard. After doing some math, and calculating the rate of depreciation I decided instead to drive an older car that we had that needed a little work but was paid off and still in good shape.

I didn't hate it. I was familiar with the car, the kids learned to drive with it, and after a couple of hundred dollars into it, it ran like a champ.

I was able to find employment right away and as I was making good money again I decided that I enjoyed the peace of mind that I owned the car I was driving and did not owe anybody anything.

I took the amount that I had been used to making for a car payment and opened a new savings account for "vehicle".

Eventually, the old car did poop out and it was going to cost more to fix it than it was worth so I was forced to buy a "new" vehicle.

Although I did not have enough saved yet to pay cash for the "new" car, I did have a significant down payment.

We found a used one that we loved, put a large down payment, financed the rest and it was still way less than I was paying before, so I was able to double up on my car payment and pay it off faster.

After it was paid off I went back to putting that payment into our "vehicle" savings again so hopefully, we will have enough next time to pay cash.
#budgeting #financialfreedom #financialfriday