Dear blogging family members,
I like Mark's idea of having a network of family blogs. I started this blog over a year ago but I didn't really tell anyone but Dana about it. I'm not sure why, but I just didn't feel like sharing it with many people. Mark pointed out to me that it is an obvious contradiction to create a blog that you don't want anyone else to see. I am aware of that and I can't really explain my feeling, but the beauty is, I don't have to...this is my blog and I make the rules! The older I get, the more I realize that I am a man of many internal contradictions, some of which I am only slightly conscious. I'm working on myself. The important part is, I am sharing it now with anyone who cares. (is there anyone?)
Anyway, I thought I would try a little experiment on this blog and solicit financial advice from my financially-savvy family members. Here is our family (WA Fosters) situation on which I need input:
We want badly to buy a house this year, but they ain't going cheap as I'm sure you all know. We own two cars and on both we are still making payments :-( I've done the math and in order to afford a house that we can be happy with, we can only afford to make payments on 1 car. I bought a bike and will be able to ride to work 3-4 times a week so that Dana and the baby will not be stranded at home.
Some info about our current automobiles:
2000 Honda Civic (Buster B)
- payment: reasonable
- remaining payments: a little more than 2 years
- quality: decent and reliable, but higher mileage
- worth: just a little bit more than we owe
- payment: almost twice the payment on the Honda
- remaining payments: a little more than 4 years
- quality: very nice car, very reliable, low mileage
- worth: $2000 - $3000 less than we owe (i.e. we are upside-down)
Our current plan is to sell the Sonata, eat the amount that we are upside-down and try to pay off the Honda in about a year and a half. At that point we could afford to buy another car and remain with one car payment. I like this plan because it involves up-front sacrifice (getting by with one car) on our part to achieve better financial positioning later on which seems to ring true to me. Unfortunately, we have been advertising the car for 3+ weeks and have had almost no responses. I'm sure we would get more responses if we dropped the price lower, but we are already asking $2100 less than we owe. We are not sure how much lower we are willing to go...
Any ideas about what we should do? We have a few that we are mulling over, but I would be interested to hear if any of you have any brilliant ideas.
5 comments:
First of all, thanks for endorsing the Foster blog idea. You, Wendi, Matt, and Jeff seem to be excited about it. Still no word from the Big Man.
I think that your plan sounds pretty good, but if you can't find a buyer, then what about this scenario?
Go to a dealer and trade in your Sonata. If you drive a hard bargain, you may get a dealership to eat some of your negative equity in their hopes of getting a car off the lot. You also trade in your Honda--sounds like this would be essentially a wash, but you'd get rid of the montly payment. You then lease a new vehicle for a low monthly payment--a Saturn or something cheap but reliable. (Leasing has its plus and minuses, but in your case, it will give you a new, reliable car for the lowest possible monthly payment.)
We leased our Saturn for about a $200/month. It's not fun dealing with the mileage restrictions, but this plan would give you the financial room to make both a house payment and a car payment. You'll then have a reliable, new car under warranty for 3 yrs, and then when your lease is up, you'll be able to upgrade into a newer, larger vehicle for your expanding family.
This plan is pure genius. Admit it.
Now go make a comment on MY blog. It's getting lonely out here in cyberspace.
Mark, you give such sage advice, really. Remind me to confer with you when I finally inherit those mad millions that some erstwhile unknown weathly relative is certain to leave me in their will. ;-)
Ty,
Create a false identity on the "net." Sell the Hyundai to "Fred" on ebay(for that you'll need to steal an actual person's credit card). Go park the car far away. When the Feds catch up with "Fred the identity thief," what have they got? Nothing. Lay low for awhile and let things blow over, then start to drive the Hyundai again.
Your welcome,
Jeff
Ty i will buy your car for $31.47 ok?
Good day !.
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