Okay - Advice

[snarlingcoyote]

Our truck (third vehicle used for hauling things) is on its poor old last legs.

DH has an obscene amount of overtime coming up in the next 2 months, and we had decided that he would pay for a new (to us) truck with that money.

Well, he has found a really good deal on a used truck - about 8K less than what all the auto websites say the truck should be worth, and it would last probably 10-12 years for us. But it's for about 5K more than what we were planning to spend.

DH and I are thinking seriously about refinancing our home (getting quotes now). If we did that, our payment would drop enough that if we financed the truck entirely, we would still be paying less per month than we are now.

DH will put the money we would've spent on the truck into my rainy day fund and I will pay off pay forward on the truck whatever I'd like. (Our rainy day fund got wiped out in some financial things earlier this year. I have been simultaneously rebuilding it and my Disney fund. Disney is done. Rainy day funds though. . .I never stop with those. If they get too large, I invest some of it. . .it's a thing with me. And I am DANG glad I had it - kept us out of financial ruin last year!) We'd pay the truck off in 3 years without my putting extra money on it, and I plan to have it paid off in 1-2 years.

It would mean giving up my bathroom remodel for a while, as I'm not spending money on a luxury bathroom unless our only bill is our house and the remodel is paid for and I still have my rainy day fund and my Disney fund.

It goes against my Dave Ramsey lovin' ways to do this though. But we need a truck and I like to keep my vehicles forever, and definitely COULD do it with this one. I thought about selling my car to pay for the truck, but my car gets good MPG (better than an F250 4X4 diesel crew cab, at any rate) and isn't depreciating much.

Oh. We have managed our expenses so that we could survive on one paycheck - if we had to. DH & I are in stable career fields. The house is our only debt.

 

[wdwfan16]

I guess you are asking should you refi the house and finance the truck.

From what you said I would do both.

 

[ceecee]

I'm not sure what you mean, but if refiancing with a lower interest rate and putting that saving onto a truck loan that would be fine. However, if you mean doing a HELOC for a truck...no way. Put off the remodeling of the bathroom until you pay off the truck or get a cheaper truck. We did no home improvements until we had our mortgage paid off. The house was 3 years old when we bought it, the only things we did were put on a deck and replace the furnace until we paid it off in 16 years.

 

[sylvenmaid]

I'm a little confused about what you are asking as well. My house is paid for and we were thinking about taking out an equity loan to do some remodeling. Well with dh's income being so low right now, we decided not to take out any loans. I feel really good about this decision and we do live off one income as we have some family stuff going on. I can't work outside the house right now.

So we did buy an almost new car back in Jan for dh. He needed a newer vehicle for work so we bought a Yaris that was almost brand new. It gets excellent gas mileage which is great since dh drives about 250 miles a week. It's our only debt and at $200/mo it's not breaking the bank. I do agree with Dave for the most part, but we bought a very affordable car that will easily last him for 10-12 years. I do own my car which is 7 years old and plan on keeping it for at least 4-5 more years. That newer car will be paid for in cash. We are also remodeling on a cash basis. Our WDW trip is already paid for which we are taking in April. So I do think there are times when it makes financial sense to get a loan and save the cash esp in this economy. We are also working on building up our emergency fund.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Thanks for the answers.

No, we'd be refinancing a fixed rate for a much lower fixed rate with almost no closing costs. That I'm doing.

It's the dang' truck thing. I don't want to make payments on a truck as we are followers of Dave Ramsey now.

I meant to get back mid-morning, and then again at lunch and then again before dinner, but work. . .well.

DH has almost talked me into truck payment. I'm still hesitant. A friend has told me that I should work this to my benefit. IF we get the truck (more a Dh than a me thing - he's all for it. I'm hesitant.) then I should somehow work this into club level at WL in October. WL is enough of an extravagance, I think, but I've been wanting to do club level for a while. . .


Argggg we need this truck. I just hate paying for anything on installment!