To sell the car or not to sell the car?
(I am a fool and have made vain mistakes!)
Total household income is $190k. Most comes from husband (engineer) but some mine (elementary teacher.) Monthly take home is $9000 + husband gets ridiculous tech stock payouts and bonuses and such.
I had a paid off 2007 Passat wagon that I LOVED but sold in 2017 because it needed $4,000 repairs twice a year and I wanted something with a 3rd row. Bought a brand new Hyundai Santa Fe Limited for $38,000 but it fell victim to dangerous transmission problems. NHTSA inundated with complaints and class action lawsuit is pending - no joke! After 9 months of owning it (and 12 multiday repair shop trips on the brand new vehicle), we cut our losses and “upgraded.”
Got a certified preowned 2018 Audi Q5. Paid about the same as the Hyundai. I love the car, it’s literal perfection on wheels, no complaints and it super safe, response, fun to drive, sexy, etc.
I’ve known about Dave and MMM for years but am only just getting serious about it. This much income is new to us - family of 4 on 45-90k is where we have spent most our time. Frankly, I ignored my debt because I didn’t feel like I could tackle it so why bother.
So, here we are 9 months later, with a car I love but kind of want to sell and get something with more room (for a dog, kids’ friends - both our kiddos are school aged and active in scouting and sports, and family camping trips as we live in the pacnw and camping is life). I’m thinking I get over myself and suck it up and get a 5ish year old Sienna with AWD (our hills make this a must).
Husband about had a coronary when I brought it up; I think mostly he’s sick to death of talking about cars and car transactions after what we went though with the Hyundai. Car shopping 3 times in 3 years IS awful so I don’t fault him.
Our other vehicle is a paid off 09 VW GTI (which now has many dents because the Santa Fe was way too wide for our kids to handle in the garage - sliding doors would be helpful.)
Debt is down to $62k in student loans (from $100k - all mine from my masters). Other than that we just have the house (again, this is a newish situation for us. Most of our 14 year marriage has had credit card debt).
In June, we anticipate a ~$30-35k payout of stock/bonuses. We are in disagreement for how to budget this.
Husband wants to pay off the Audi (current balance $32k @ 4.9%) and put the extra $585 a month to student loan (in addition to my entire salary.) I believe his reasons are: we like the car, we can afford it, it’s very nice, we deserve it after years of scraping by etc.
I want to sell it for a modest amount of equity ($7k what we put down), save 2-3 months of my salary up and get a $15kish Sienna in cash.
If we can’t reach an agreement on my idea, then my second preference would be to still put the $35k to my student loan (7.9%) due to the interest and emotional baggage.
I’ve carried my student loans since 2007 - I was completely unable to get hired full time due to the recession and budget cuts. I worked part time as much as I could for 4 years then stayed home when we had children for 5 years. I’ve been back in the full time work force for 1 year and 11 months now. I don’t qualify for income based repayments or public service loan forgiveness unless I want to restart the clock to 0 and make 10 more years of payments (nope!) The minimum is $600. We’ve paid $38k in the last two years but could’ve paid more...
My oldest is 8 and I want to start working on their college funds and quit paying for mine already!
What should we do??
I’m 36, husband 37. I have PERS and he has a 401k but I have no idea how much is in it other than not enough! House is worth $475k but our mortgage is $299k @ 4.9% 27 years to go.