Bank the $ you would have paid.
It will reward you more than you know.

quote:

Originally posted by wreckdiver:

Luckily my van loan is through Citizen One, they called me because I was late with a payment, I explained why and they gave me 3 months of no payments to ease my worries.

This is a good point. If you encounter difficulty making your payment, call the lender and they will often work with you. It is really not in their best interest to repo the car. Toyota Financial Services worked with me in a similar fashion when I had some problems circa 2009. That car has been paid off for some time now and I'm still driving it.

Wife and I have always kept cars 10+ years. Couldn’t save during residency, but in the two years after, we bought two used cars on credit. Paid both off, kept driving them. But, most importantly, kept saving that money as if we still had a car payment. Low and behold, the next three cars have been paid with cash. You have no idea how much fun it is to work with a dealer, get them down to a price point you agree with (them thinking they’re going to get it on the interest) and then whip out your check book. Had one say that they couldn’t do the price without a loan, however, he changed his tune one I told him that I didn’t care about anything but the price, he had given me one, and I would walk if he did anything that increased my check from that amount.

At first, we put money into a specific car purchase savings account, same as our previous payments each month. We saved money into several different savings accounts for cars, home repairs, vacation, and general savings for expenses should we lose our jobs. After years of this, and driving vehicles well past the average person’s replacement timeframe, we had more than we needed for our goals. So now, it all goes into the taxable brokerage account (we maximize everything we can non-taxable first). Yes, there is more risk there, but we no longer fear a drop in the market would prevent us from purchasing a needed car. I will say that we have a separate account with 6 months of expenses in it, safely in an FDIC insured savings account.

Seriously, continue to pay your car payment, just pay it to yourself. Financial independence is a goal we all should strive for.

Woo-hoo!

I had no car note for about 18 seconds after I paid off my RX-350 in May, which I promptly traded in for a Tacoma...

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
Just wrote the check to pay off the wife's car.
Sold my Mercedes earlier this week (and had to pay the negative equity).

First time since 2014 that we've had no car payments.

Now we can start whittling down other debt.

quote:

Originally posted by john crusher:
Bank the $ you would have paid.
It will reward you more than you know.

Yep. The only thing better than getting rid of your current car payment is never having another one.

I know people who will get close to paying a car off and then go right out and trade it for a new car. It's as if they want to stay in debt. All they did was restart the loan.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:
Congratulations, it's amazing how much free cash you have every month, once you don't have debt payments taking most of it.

It's like getting a raise.

Congratulations. I paid everything off early last year and it's amazing how much money piles up now with no effort on my part.

Congrats ~ getting (and staying) out of debt is a great lesson to learn.
Last Financed car was 1989 and paid it off in two years, ever since only paid cash even for new cars, paid off the house shortly after that with paying down with every paycheck.
Great feeling isn't it?

Awesome!! Every little bit of debt off your shoulders is a positive lift in your life both mentally & financially!