Among Friends

[pommom]

Congrats!!! When I paid off my credit cards and car, I considered each one as that of being a "raise" - more $ in my pocket.

[CareBears]

@makena SHHHHH do not say that out loud, the walls have ears.

[blackhole99]

Vehicles are a very poor, but for most of us necessary investment. We always buy new and keep them forever. When your car payment is over 500 dollars a month you want to pay it off real fast. Our last new vehicle was paid off last fall and it's wonderful to be able to save that big chunk of money every month.

[Rockycoast]

WooHoo Nightowiz! Congratulations!.  We also just paid off the car loan last week. Now we can start lowering our mortgage years length too. The extra money we now have will go towards extra principle payments. Isn't paying off debt a great feeling! Love it. Not to mention it helps with increasing credit scores also. Well done!

[2blonde]

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@Nightowlz wrote:

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@2blonde wrote:

@Nightowlz  Congrats to you!  I had my previous car for 13 years, so it was a little tough buying a new one and having those payments again.  My old one wasn't worth much because it had some rust, and I had saved some money for the new car, but I still had to finance it for 5 years.  It just went out of warranty on 6/14 (3 years old), so I'm hoping everything will continue to be good with it.  I do love the car, so I'll probably keep it for awhile after it's paid off.  I also want to be payment free!

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@2blonde I was driving a Dodge Dynasty that I bought new in 1991. Finally got rid of it in 2013. I now wish I had kept it. It was a good car with no problems. It only had over 73,000 miles on it. It did have a gas leak that DH did not want to fix or pay someone to fix it. He said I needed a new car. We keep our cars for a long time because they are low mileage. DH has a 2005 PU with some place over 50,000 miles on it. I love my Toyota Avalon Limited but I really don't need all the bells & whistles. I don't even know how most of it works. LOL!!!  DH will be buying a new PU or SUV type vehicle in the near future.

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@Nightowlz  Mechanics tell me it's more about the age than the miles, and I tend to believe that.  My cars are always low miles because I only live 2 miles from work, but there are 13 red lights!  Freeway driving puts on the miles, but they are easier on your car than the stop and go (around here it's zoom, then slam on the brakes...ha!).

My 13-year-old Cougar had only 46,000 miles on it, but it was visibly rusting over the rear wheels.  My 3-year-old Mustang only has 9,900 miles right now.  I like that it was the last year (2014) before they added all the bells, whistles, flashing lights, and computer screen.  When I'm driving I don't need all those distractions.......I just watch where the heck I'm going and who's around me!  I like being in control of the car.  Not only that, but all those extras are adding many $$$$ to the prices!

[151949]

I always bought my car and paid them off then drove them until they died. My DH, however, insists on leasing his cars so we will always have that ugly payment to make. 

[RedTop]

Best cars ever are the ones that are paid off!   

[AuntG]

Excellent job.  Keep that Avalon for a long, long time.  It would be a cold day before my husband would demand we continually lease a car, see @151949.  I'm pretty sure I could convince him to see the stupidity of that idea.  Our vehicles are SUV's, purchased new in 2015 and 2016 with cash.  We got great deals and plan to keep them a long time.

[GCR18]

Congratulations.

[VaBelle35]

I just paid mine off on the 7th.  I did a 60 month loan but paid it off in 24 months (?).  

I could have paid cash, but in this economic climate, I never know if I am going to lose my job, so I would rather keep my cash, get a very low payment and pay it off early.  Should something have happened to my job, having a very low payment would be manageable while unemployed.

My interest rate through the credit union was .9% and in 24 months I paid something like $82 in interest.

My car is a 2004, and while it only has 70,000 miles on it, it will start aging to the point of needing big parts.

But I will enjoy my free months while they last.