First Steps to Solvency

curtains174

Morning, you say in the same post that you’ve struggled and had a dose of reality around your debt level, yet are still talking about more debt to buy a car?

Your wife’s idea of an electric mini through the business makes financial sense and is also a car she would like to drive. Compromise on this and you are a step closer to owning your RR.

enthusiasticsaver

Ok you need to rein in the anger again. You have a lot of debt but you have your own business, good income,  two incredibly expensive cars and a nice house plus a son in private school. Yes you have had to make some lifestyle adjustments due to overspending but you still live a privileged life even with cutbacks. You still have a RR and a BMW and a good LTV on your house. 

Why on earth are you worrying what sits  on your driveway. An electric mini sounds ok if your wife wants that. If you don't want to drive it then don't. 

stymied

That would be an amazing gift, letting your wife get her dream car.

ladyholly

You might as well get used to an electric car as if you want to keep having new cars there will be no choice soon. If you need to justify it to anyone tell them you are doing it for the planet.

RelievedSheff

ladyholly said:

You might as well get used to an electric car as if you want to keep having new cars there will be no choice soon. If you need to justify it to anyone tell them you are doing it for the planet.

We were discussing this last night over dinner and trying to decide what we are going to do for cars in the next few years. We know my 2005 Nissan Almera is going to the scrap yard sooner rather than later but we are trying to decide what will replace it. The plan had been for the Hyundai I30 to be a long term car much like the Nissan has been (We have had it for 15 years now!) but we are now leaning towards replacing it with a newer I30 just before the ban on diesel and petrol cars comes in.

As for what I will get we still don't know. I wanted a Mini Cooper S but we now don't know if that is such a good idea. 

warby68

What they all said
Also you're in fantasy land again with true costs. An XJS on loan or credit card - say £30k. All that does is replace your current £1k pm card clearing amount with another 2.5 years to clear a new debt and nothing for your RR balloon. So at least 5y on this budget and with no RR balloon. You can only spend that £1k pm once. Plus you've already said you spent £600 in a single month on non business fuel when being a 'car guy'. You can't afford that again either. Even if you termed it out to the max its unlikely to be less than the BMW.
Telling your wife what to drive is still unattractive. 
You need to get a grip on this 

getmore4less

XJS will end up costing(still from net) more than the BMW from your numbers, another one of those thoughts that should stay in your head for a few years.

Swapping depreciation for maintenance does not solve the problem.

Don't forget the RR maintenance is going to tick up once you get a few years on it.

I still think the look at the car options should be for all the cars in the business to see what you can do to reduce the costs to the business and in effect more money for you in the longer run.

Having one sensible car in the pack (even if that is just 2 for now) is the right thing to be doing 

alt80

Strange morning. Done the counselling and am back to the conclusion the stress that comes with being in perpetual debt is just not worth it. Some of my problem is not knowing anything else - it’s normal to me. I know it’s actually far from normal to be getting into the amount of personal debt I have in the past tbh. I’ve got nice things but have to push it all the time to get slightly better things. Still reading and nodding along to the book @enthusiasticsaver lol. Actually really interesting and enjoying reading it used to enjoy the sciences at school and something different from property/ cars so thanks for the heads up.

Just ended up with so much personal debt I don’t know where to turn next and panic/ refinance/ lose the !!!!!! plot entirely. It’s not worth it. 100 need to earn well now just to service the debt so doesn’t feel amazing when I’m reading news articles probably going into further period of recession and both comm/ res markets seem very uncertain. Not gonna lie I’m in a real mess if the property market tanks. Obviously things are already pretty grim in the office/ retail sectors. I personally think the office sector will somewhat recover - people fed up of wfh / lot of people without a proper home office etc. Retail idk been in decline for a while and covid just accelerated the inevitable there IMO.

The debt sometimes just seems hopeless- I can’t throw much more than the original minimums, then that just becomes clearing the RR balloon in my head so no chance of saving towards the XJS for 3/4 years. XJS at current prices more like £15-20k rather than £30k @warby68. Half seems like end of my world, having to forget about cars. I’ve had a toy for so many years and something I’d like to share with my son/ bit of a social scene in summer. Sorts the second car issue out too. Maybe a £7-8k MGB as he likes them ha. Or maybe I just need to forget about it, accept it was part of my life in the past but not now. Stop looking and drop off the radar.

Mini not really much good as a car for wife; boot is tiny. Won’t be able to put dog in etc etc. So no better than an XJS or BMW we have - no point apart from cheaper. Not my wife’s dream car either lol she’s not even that bothered about cars so doesn’t really care. If I had a new Vantage, it’d be a good opportunity to just share the cars and forget about buying more. Tbh wouldn’t even look at cars again, that’s my perfect two car garage I could just run them forever. Thing that makes me angry with myself if I had no cards and RR paid for I could easily afford one on HP rather than end up with a massive balloon. Actually got wife looking into staff cars obviously will run by accountant and deal with when the time comes. Low CO2/ electric good for the CSR lol. 

Only get a once a month hit on the debt when I move the money around unless any sales are made. Sales seem scarce right now which annoys me further as those little boosts were really keeping me going that first month. Glad to have cleared a card completely, that felt amazing tbh a weight lifted. Hard to keep the motivation but does still feel good to know it’s going in the right direction. 

RelievedSheff

So long as the debt total is going down that is all that matters. It doesn't matter if some months it goes down more than others, so long as it keeps going down.

Compare the debt owing from a couple of months ago when you started this process to the debt total now and I think you will be genuinely surprised at what you have achieved in such a short space of time. 

warby68

Another point I meant to make is your admission that you sometimes drive dangerously on purpose when feeling angry.
That's probably the best reason of the lot to have a break from that sort of car as it involves risk for other people, not just you.