Hi Everyone
About 8 months ago I got a headache that still hasn't stopped. I am no longer working, but I am being covered by mortgage protection insurance and have really good heath care insurance so that isn't an issue. The doctors keep trying different medicine, but each takes at least 3 months to know if it will work or not and so far there has been no change, so I could be better in two months time, I could never get better, or somewhere in between, the doctors just don't know. I don't feel safe driving, so I am currently not using my car. It is a Nissan March 1997 with about 70Ks on it which doesn't use a lot of fuel. I have been the only owner since it was imported from Japan, so it has been well looked after mechanically but has a few scratches and dents from when I learned to drive, I've had it for about 10 years so far, and was planning on driving it until it died.
I am at the start of my FI journey, 26 years old and have about $25K($NZ) in investments other than my house, $15K in a retirement account and own a home with my partner where we are paying down our mortgage rapidly, with the aim to be mortgage free in 3.5 years time, other than the costs of running the house (food, electricity, mortgage etc), we keep our finances separate. We have part of the mortgage on revolving credit, which seems to be a cross between a transaction account and what you call a HELOC, so I have access to money if I need it urgently at an interest rate of about 5% (this is good for NZ, we don't seem to get the low% car loans that the US does).
If I keep the car I can put the registration on hold for no ongoing fee, during which time it wouldn't need a WOF, and I can start the registration again when I get better. If I do this I could either have it uninsured, and if there was a fire or it got stolen I would need to spend about $5,000 to get another car when I get better, or insure it for third party, fire and theft (No option for just fire and theft) for about $200 per year (it is currently on full cover).
If I sell the car it would probably go for about about $2,500. I live in a part of New Zealand where public transport is a joke and I wouldn't feel safe biking, so when I get better I will need a car to get to work again, and it would probably cost about $5,000 to get a similarly small and economical car with 80-100Ks but a bit newer, as you can't usually find cars this old with less than 150Ks. If I sell the car I could either keep the money in a savings account at around 2%, or invest it in the stock market which is what I am leaning towards.
My mother thinks I should keep the car and insure it, and her main arguments seem to be biased by the fact that she really hates buying and selling cars, and is overly hopeful that I will get better sooner rather than later. They are that it could take me awhile to find a suitable car, but it would probably take me longer than that to find a job again, so it probably isn't an issue. That it would cost me more to buy a car than I would get selling my car, even for a similar car, and that you don't know how careful the previous owners have been with their cars. None of my family are car people, so I have to pay a mechanic for repairs if anything goes wrong with the car.
If I look at the cost of keeping the car as $200/year + $175/year (7% of $2500 as an average return of the stock market), then I would need to be sick for about 7 more years to justify selling the car as it would cost about $2,500 more for another one when I am better. However, this doesn't take into the fact that I would end up with a newer car or that my car is getting older and having it sit in the garage unused for years might cause issues with it. At some point I will sell the car if I don't get better, but I just don't know when I should draw the line.
I am leaning towards keeping the car for now, and having it insured but it seems silly to keep it indefinitely, and I need to decide on a time when I should sell the car. I would really like some other opinions, as I feel like a lot of the reasons for keeping the car are based in fear and there may be some points that I have overlooked.