Moolah Blog!

Hello Moolah Heads!

So, I’ve been wondering how I should approach this subject, seeing that I will soon be looking for a car myself. At first, I started to day dream about myself jumping right into a brand spankin’ new Honda Civic! Oop! There went gravity, snapped back to reality! Whoa, I felt a little dizzy thinking about how I was just sucked into that consumerist train of thought! So I’ve decided to do that right thing, at least for me, and Up Buy my way to a Luxury Car!

Now, how exactly am I going to do that? Here goes nothin’. Seeing as I’m not a great big fan of credit cards, especially cause I’m tied in a pickle because of them, I’ve decided to set up a plan to purchase and upgrade automobiles using cash only. Lets hope I can stick with it!

(Side note: Recently I received an email from a Credit Card Merchant Equipment company asking to advertise on my blog! Can you believe that! I said “Heck no, its-a-no-go!” lol )

So, back to the car…first things first!

1. Save money! I’m looking at perhaps saving up enough money to get a car that is going to save me money on consumption of oil. So, maybe something like 5-7 grand for an Acura, Honda Civic, or something of the like. Now, Once I’ve saved that much money I could either outright buy a used vehicle or I could go into some debt and use it as a down payment. I would prefer to buy the used car but something tells me that I could go into some debt and still pay less in repairs and such things if I were to use my money as a down payment for oh lets say a 15Grand car. Oh and lets not forget that you could buy something like the new Tata ‘Nano’ which retails for about 3grand brand new! Check out Gizmag - Tata Nano

2. Used:

If you decided to go with the option of buy a car outright you goal is to try and continually save money to upgrade to something better. (It would help to purchase a car that doesn’t depreciate as quickly as other vehicles in the market. I think Honda is good with that as well as other imported vehicles.

Your goal in this step would be to save enough money to upgrade to your next desirable vehicle of choice. And continue to upgrade and haggle your way through good deals until you reach your goal of having the care you dreamed of. A good thing about doing this is that over time you really start to gain a genuine interest in the car you are looking to have in the future. Things may change and you’ll realize that you wanted something completely different. This gives you a chance to really explore a few cars out there and appreciate your dream car in the end even more! I would personally up-buy to a Luxus or Nissan Altima (great on gas as well!).

2. New:

If you decided to opt for the new car here is my advice to you. Pay the loan on your car as quick as possible to avoid some of that interest you are paying. If you do decide to purchase a new vehicle , again purchase one that does not depreciate so quickly. The reason is that when you decide you would like to upgrade, you will either sell your car or trade it in. The trade value and sell value will remain higher if you get a car that is either widely sought or has an amazing track record like the Honda Civic (these things last forever)! Plus, because there are so many out in the market it is practically inexpensive to fix one of these babies up!

Two things to keep in mind:

A. (New) You could buy the new car and upgrade every two years (stats show that your car starts to depreciate in value more and more after the two year mark).

B. (Used) Remember, you are only with that car for a temporary period to try and hold its value. Use the car as a utility to get more income. Without a car these days you can’t really do much unless you are in a public transportation happy place like Austin!

Here is an example of Up-Buying over time:

in 2000 I bought a honda prelude for 7 grand that had 118 thousand miles on it. I continued to save money and buy the second year I had 10 grand saved up. Now, I had to replace the clutch and that cost about 500 bucks! So I have about 7.5 + potentially 6 grand (selling my current car) grand to up-buy. I’d like a car that is more reliable. So I Bought a New Honda Civic (just not a year model) after taking the time to sell my Prelude which I got about 6 grand for beforehand! The Honda Civic cost me

I’ve been enjoying my brand new car but I’m approaching 50 thousand miles (first major expense period for tune up) and I’m looking to get something slightly bigger for a family down the line in the future. The value of my car is is roughly the same give or take a few hundred dollars and I’ve been saving up for a new vehicle. I’m not able to purchase, in cash, a car that is valued around 20 thousand dollars after selling my Honda Civic.

It goes on and on and on folks. Eventually, Wallah! Its my Lotus!

Somethings to keep in mind about Cars is that you have periods, counting the mileage, where you might want to sell your car to avoid some maintenance that is suggested.

I fist maintenance is at about every 50,000 miles or every 3 and a half years!

Hopes this makes sense. Let me know what you think!

Respectfully,

Tony Tovar

Does anyone know if “up-buying” is an actual phrase? Could I have coined the phrased?