Am I being unresonable?

choir-girl

My husband has a love of nice cars. He is self employed in the building trade and up to 10 years ago he earnt in the region of 35/40K a year. He had bought several nice cars in that period, cars which I felt we couldn't afford but he was earning the money and felt he could justify it!

Now 10 years hence, his income is steadily dropping, partly due to his age and the fact that there just isnt the work available. He still likes nice cars, his current car is 2.5 years old, cost more than I felt we could really afford but he felt it was justified because it would see us into retirement and it came with a long warrenty, and also being an SUV it could cary all his work stuff and double-up as our family car at weekends.

He now wants to change it because he has to remove all his work stuff at weekends to be able to put his golf-clubs in, and then vice-versa on Monday (if he has work). And he needs an automatic vehicle as he had issues with his foot (callous on sole).The new vehicle is £26K, now bearing mind that he only eant £17K last year and has only earnt £5K so far this year, I have said this is unreasonable and we cannot afford it.

He disagrees and says it is his decision and he will do what he wants. I should point out the all the cars are bought on finance over the longest period he can get, usually 5 years. The vehicle he is trading in will give him a deposit of about £2K so the finance is going to be about £24K. I' feel like walking away!! Am I being unreasonable??

Sorry for the long post!!

balletshoes

on the face of it, yes, 24k is a lot of money - how is he going to afford to pay that for the new car and keep the household expenses paid too, for the duration of the 24k finance term? Does he know how he is going to be able to do that?

What else would you both be doing with the money he'd pay towards his new car? Is that financial commitment depriving you both of something else you could be doing with the money?

gingin_2

choir-girl wrote: »

My husband has a love of nice cars. He is self employed in the building trade and up to 10 years ago he earnt in the region of 35/40K a year. He had bought several nice cars in that period, cars which I felt we couldn't afford but he was earning the money and felt he could justify it!

Now 10 years hence, his income is steadily dropping, partly due to his age and the fact that there just isnt the work available. He still likes nice cars, his current car is 2.5 years old, cost more than I felt we could really afford but he felt it was justified because it would see us into retirement and it came with a long warrenty, and also being an SUV it could cary all his work stuff and double-up as our family car at weekends.

He now wants to change it because he has to remove all his work stuff at weekends to be able to put his golf-clubs in, and then vice-versa on Monday (if he has work). And he needs an automatic vehicle as he had issues with his foot (callous on sole).The new vehicle is £26K, now bearing mind that he only eant £17K last year and has only earnt £5K so far this year, I have said this is unreasonable and we cannot afford it.

He disagrees and says it is his decision and he will do what he wants. I should point out the all the cars are bought on finance over the longest period he can get, usually 5 years. The vehicle he is trading in will give him a deposit of about £2K so the finance is going to be about £24K. I' feel like walking away!! Am I being unreasonable??

Sorry for the long post!!

I'd be horrified, too. I can't believe someone would take on £24k debt for a metal box on wheels that gets you from A to B, even more so given his income. I don't really know what to tell you to do but if he can't listen to your opinion, it shows a complete lack of respect for you and your judgement.

Gingin ( who plans on never buying a new car in her life )

tinkerbell28

So he is taking out fiance on a car, for a whole lot more than what he earns in a year?

I don't even see him being accepted. Car fiance requires pay slips, bank statements, etc.

sassyblue

Course he's being unreasonable, he hasn't earned enough to cover the costs this time. what sort of savings do you have put aside? (You don't have to tell us it's just another thing to think of, if you have enough to cover you should he become unable to work).

Funky_Bold_Ribena

Un-F-kin-ing-believeable.

With you on that!

Bennifred

So - HIS money, is it? :think: What happened to the vows he made when he married you?! He sounds totally selfish and unreasonable to me - and reckless to boot!

tea_lover

Tell him you're going to buy something (not sure what your interests are but sure you'll think of something!) for 5 times your income and see how he responds.

valk_scot

I suppose it might also depend on what you earn? If you're on 100k joint a year, the mortgage is paid off and the savings accounts are swilling with money then why not get a new car? On the other hand I suspect most folk aren't in this happy situation and big buys like this have to be carefully considered. And I definitely feel both partners should agree to this sort of purchase, once they've gone over the finances to see if it's affordable.

What I want to know though is how big a set of golf clubs has he got that he can't put them into an SUV without clearing it completely first? Speaking as someone who drives an estate car, has an allotment, two kids, vast amounts of sporting and camping gear and who regularly carries up to four spinning wheels as well as all the above mess I really can't see why one would need a new car just to carry a set of golf clubs. Why can't he just put them along the rear seat?

Georgiegirl256

No, I don't think you are being unreasonable at all. He sounds very much like my OH actually in regards to money Although he has got a lot more sensible over the last few years. I have though heard that saying "It's my money I'll do want I want with it" more than once :mad: It's infuriating! Then in other ways, he can be totally sensible. He is the main wage earner, and doesn't drink and doesn't smoke, so I do feel some treats are justified, but if he were to say he was buying a 24k car, I would be spitting feathers! :eek: Especially if he has only earned 5k so far this year.

What are your savings like? Could you manage to keep up with the repayments on the finance should business dry up altogether? If the answer is no, then he really shouldn't be looking at buying something so expensive, especially when to be blunt, his excuses for doing so are pretty lame....sorry, no pun intended!

lostinrates

It's hard for me to empathise with your OH tbh. We earn a fair bit more than him in his good days and I cannot imagine spending so much on a car we didn't intend to run for several years. I certainly cannot imagine putting us in financial difficulty over it.