My new ride, while staying debt free

I have been following the Dave Ramsey way for probably over six years. I paid off my current minivan in 1.5 years thanks to Baby Step #2 and I have been driving the van payment-free for a good 4 and 1/2 years and it feels so good not to have a car payment hanging over my head.

I’ve been slowly trying to save money for a newer car since the van is getting up there in miles and making some interesting noises. It’s my #DaveRamseyCar 😀 Yup, I’m proud to be driving one of those for over 4 years.

So for 3 years I’ve been saving money here and there and about 2 months ago I started to really look for a new-to-me car that was below 1/2 of my annual income – per Dave Ramsey. Now that I had the magical number, I wanted to stay well below that number. I also wanted to make sure this new-to-me car was about 3-4 years old, and had less than 40,000 miles on it because the game plan was to have this car around for 10 years. I had the van for 7 years so 10 years seem reachable, right?! (I’d settle for 7 years though… 😉 ..if I had to.) I also wanted to stay under my max budgeted amount. So when I started looking at vehicles on line, I worked within the limits listed above.

After 2 months of hard core looking (I didn’t want to rush anything….) I was told by my other half that I needed to pick a car already. lol

I found the car below under my budgeted amount – 4 years old with 20,135 miles on it!

And guess what I did?!!?! 😀

I paid CASH for the car!!!!!

Yes, you read that correct! CASH!!!! No car loan – no debt, no monthly car payment for this gal!

How many people do you know who pays for a car via cash and not through a car loan? 1? 2? More than that? None at all?

Why get a car loan and pay for interest and put that burden on my monthly cash flow like that?!

Isn’t she a beauty?!?!   😀   😀   😀

Let me tell you though – it was SUPER DUPER HARD letting go of that much money I was use to seeing in my savings as it slowly grew. There’s still money in my saving, of course, but not that nice number I was accustom to.   I think the fact that it took me 3 years to save up for the money instead of spending it on other things, the fact I didn’t get a loan but felt the “pain” of giving up that much money makes you realize the sacrifices made to get the purchase.

So I’m still in a “surreal” state right now over the past few days every time I slide into it and drive or just looking out the house window, seeing it chill in the driveway. I can’t believe I’m getting great gas mileage now (one of the reasons I downsized from the minivan to the car) and am excited to see what kind of monthly impact that will be to my gas budgeted amount – hopefully savings.

The downsize of getting a newer car that will be with me will the increase in car insurance. 😦 I will be definitely insurance shopping now before that increase occurs to ensure I’m not over paying for the coverage I need (again per Dave Ramsey).

If you are thinking, hey, I want to be able to do that too! I can help. Let me know here what you are looking for and I’ll be glad to help. 🙂 If you are interested to see what services I offer before reaching out to me, you can go here first if you like. 🙂