Newbee... and of course in debt!!!

xlt_hunter

S_a_r_a wrote:

Tim.. I'm not sure any under 25 year old could get insured on anything for £250!!!!

Wrong - I am grand age of 23 years as well and my motor - FIAT Seicento, comes to £220 fully comp this year (okay it beats the £250 by £30) I was toying with a brand new KIA this morning - but going to scrap that idea until I am in a better position in the new year after I have my mortgage resorted to give me 100% freehold of my home.

I am somewhat impress that at 23 years that I am prepared money sense - I know whats coming in and out now (thanks to the guys on the OS board)

I "would" like to have a nice 17k flash car - but its a car designed to get you to A to B. Maybe in a few years time I can afford a flash motor - but without the cost of the interest.

S_a_r_a - without causing more harm - could you for the interst of the board as asked earlier in the thread post what your total loan/credit card amounts are and the APR please?

ie - mine at the moment

Barclaycard = £680 - 0% (9 months)

M

SkippyB

Sara

I know exactly where you are coming from with the cars, I have an italian sports car (group 19 on insurance) that I own outright and costs me £500 per year on Insurance (full no claims and a specalist insurance company) and is a complete and utter frivoulous purchase. I also own a small runaround that is sensible and costs next to nothing. The sports car comes out for 3 months of the year and the rest of the time I use the cheap car!

However, I have absolutely no debts at all and if I had to, would sell my car to raise capital. Please believe me when I say that although you may think that it's your pride and joy and that you could never live without it, the lifestyle that I think you are leading with it at the moment will pass and you'll wonder why on earth you wasted so much money on a piece of metal.

For what you have paid for that car, you could have had one very nice car and one runaround for the high milage and saved yourself a lot of money. I know that when people look at what I drive they think I am mad, but with careful budgeting and shopping around, I probably pay the same for 2 cars as many people do for 1 family saloon!

Think seriously about your car.....and getting rid...if it's already lost £10k depreciation, then it wont be worth anything at all in a year or so.....

tomstickland

I just want to assure you that the price of car and the fun are not related. I was/still am a bit of driving addict (less intense now) and I managed 10 years on £1.5K cars with no reliability problems. That included going out on "scenic drives" with Elise's Boxsters, Imprezzas and other fast road cars and keeping up with them. Beware of the car industry, it wants you to associate cars with aspiration and dreams, but really they are just big washing machines that lose value at a frightening rate. LOL. Sorry, I'm not intending to be harsh here, just how I see it.

You mention your car being your social life. I can undertstand that. Most of my local friends I met through car club things, but we've moved out of that area now. The world of car tuning is a black hole for money swallowing and, whilst fun, is mainly about people paying silly money.

If you really want to keep it then that's your choice, BUT I think that you means that you haven't really felt the dread of debt properly. If you had really had that moment then you would be feeling impelled to sell it and put the money into the debt.

Anyway, since you have a good perception of what the numbers are I suggest that you run some spreadsheet simulations of various plans and look at the rate of clearance and total amount you end up paying back..

Oh yes, one friend of mine spent nigh on £30K over 2 years buying parts for a crazy turbo engine, car was off the road for 2 years, never made it back onto the road and he spent a year selling all the parts back on Ebay. I ran up £3K of debt via a respray and some other tuning that I HAD to do right then. I've sold all the parts now and still have fun in a totallty std car. Another friend did things like spending on a must have £1.5K throttle body and engine management system and £500 on an exhaust system before realising that he couldn't afford to do it. Alll examples of cash taking a second seat to dreams.

Dumbledore55

Sara

Of course you don't have to be in a dire mess to have some help but with the help comes buckets of advice from those that probably started out like you. I remember saying things like 'its my only pleasure' but that was about holidays!! Now look at the mess I ended up in!

In your original posting you say you can't wait to move out, so that's your goal and the only way you can do that is by getting debt free. You couldn't run a home on the money you have left whether you have a mortgage or you rent.

So, you are young, but the choice is yours. Do you want to have a comfortable life living with your parents - then carry on with your plan.

Or, do you want to move out, then you need a radical overhaul of your finances in order to do so.

Having said that, I wish I'd even had a semi-lightbulb moment at 23 - it took me until nearly 43 - although there were other family difficulties that led to my debts becoming so big.

The decision is yours, but please don't be upset when you get some harsh advice, people on this site want to help you not make the mistakes they did.

Best of luck, and the 0% credit cards have got to be your priority no matter what you decide.

black-saturn

Are those figures monthly or weekly?

System

Sara,

I know you love you car. Hell I did/do. I currently dont have a car but I did make the mistake of buying a nice but costly flat 4 turbocharged Subaru. It was a brill car to drive round in and burn off the wannabes. The insurance was fairly cheap for me (only cost £20 more than my Peugeot, god only knows how) However the running costs were horendous. As an example, I got about 180 miles to one tank of Optimax, if I put drove carefully without the turbo. However if I put my foot down I got single figures for mpg. It ate into my credit cards for the fuel bills and when i went back to my old runabout I realised how much I had actually spent on fuel. Yes it was good,yes I will get another one, but when the debt has gone.

Also, if you sold the car, you could immediatly reduce youre debts by a third !

jcr16

ok i can fully understand how u feel about your car. i hate the term but my husband and i are boy racers. ok we never speed as we have kids . but we have pimped up cars and just love tinkering and tuning them.were 24 and 25 so i guess the term now is car enuthiasiats.
my husband had spent hundrends and hours and hours on his r19. back in 1999. it was his pride and joy. but we hit some very hard finiacal times , so the car went. we ended up with a 1.1 fiesta. we had it a few months and if it wasn;t for that we wouldn't be where we are now.
since then my hubby has had an escort rs turbo which was really tuned and paid for with cash. and i now own and extremly gorgeous pimped up golf. again all paid with cash.
now i won't lie it was hard at the time getting rid of the r19. but looking back it was the best thing we did.u can have a car worth 1k that is still goregeous than a car that cost 17k but now worth only about 10k.
just think if you don't spend as much as u do on your car , your be debt free even sooner and u could be on your way to buying a fab car of your dreams with cash. it does take time granted. but the feeling of paying cash for something that you have worked hard for , gives u such a feeling of great pride

K9cuddles

Hi All, Thanks all for the advice TBH some of my close friends and family have the attitude that if you want it get it, and that's what I've been doing.. not very sensible if you can't afford it!! But sometimes you don't realise the influence around you!

My car was my only dream and I've achieved it (dunno maybe something to do with dropping out of Uni!??), okay not the best way of doing it but I wouldn't got back on it now. Timstrickland your totaly right the money I have seen wasted on cars and I agree with you it's all wasted money if you start meddling with them there just a method of transport, I paid 8k for my last car plus prob about 8k on modding it and sold it for 3.5k i lost serious money that's why I thought if I bought a decent car from off I won't WANT do to anything to it! Okay I've spent a little bit and so far have resisted a £600 engine remap cause I know I'm lucky to have the car and that now I have it, my bills are priority before mods.

I guess I want my cake and eat it!!! I couldn't justify 2 cars, I just wanted 1 decent one and I don't plan to be selling it once I've paid for it, it's a 5 door 1.8 okay group 17 but it is a very practicle car (part from the cost at the moment!). I see what your all saying but I maddly enough I don't see it as a debt as I get something from it.. if that make crazy sense! Your right could be denial!!

Anyway.. will post some figures in a bit, but yes they are Montly figures. And will be sticking round to see how I cope doing things my way of course with your advice (if I listen or not!!!).

newmum1

hi all right i dont wanna sound harsh but at the moment you say you still live at home with your parents, but if you were to have to move out for what ever reason then remember that you cant live in your car, also i love sorry loved my car too but its now gone because i was at the stage where i would go to the cash point on pay day and it would tell me that i had insufficient funds it was then that i knew i had to do something. To be fair you say that you have had a lightbulb moment it sounds as though its actually only half a lightbulb moment. (sorry to sound awful)

buzz123_2

S_a_r_a wrote:

My car was my only dream and I've achieved it (dunno maybe something to do with dropping out of Uni!??), okay not the best way of doing it but I wouldn't got back on it now.

Hi sara,

You've totally done the right thing by posting on the boards and it's pretty brave to put your finances up for the scrutiny of others, and I don't want to sound harsh either but you've achieved your dream? really? how is that achieving anything? anyone can walk into a bank or a car show room buy a car on impulse and finance it with credit. Saving up, working your !!!!!! off to buy the car outright - now that would have been an impressive achievement and well worth it if cars are your thing. I'm still living at home with my parents trying to pay my debt off accumulated at uni and my treats are going out with my friends and the occasional cd not a £17K car!!

If you're adamant about keeping the car then fair enough but i think you're gonna find your self in deep trouble in a few years time! Sorry for the rant but it's something I feel quiite strongly about (not before reading these boards tho!)