Author Topic: 2 cars or 1 car??  (Read 5409 times)

doneby35

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2 cars or 1 car??
« on: October 20, 2016, 09:09:52 PM »
Here's the situation,

I work from home 75% of the time, my fiancee works from home 100% of the time, I have a car, she has a car, mine is a sports car that I bought in 2015, hers is a compact that she bought in 2015. I could sell mine for $20,000 and save on insurance and drive hers for the 25% of the time that I do have to drive to work.

Am I being too obsessive/aggressive with this approach?

JLee

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Re: 2 cars or 1 car??
« Reply #1 on: October 20, 2016, 09:14:20 PM »
That seems perfectly reasonable to me. What's she think about it?

doneby35

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Re: 2 cars or 1 car??
« Reply #2 on: October 20, 2016, 09:17:20 PM »
The only thing she's worried about is, if anything happens to our dogs and I happen to be at work, how would she get to a vet without a car.

iluvzbeach

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Re: 2 cars or 1 car??
« Reply #3 on: October 20, 2016, 09:27:25 PM »
We were faced with this exact dilemma one year ago and decided to sell the extra car and bank the money. Haven't regretted it at all. Not even once.

Now instead of having a depreciating asset (plus associated expenses), we are investing the money. We're probably 5K ahead so far.

Go for it.

doneby35

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Re: 2 cars or 1 car??
« Reply #4 on: October 20, 2016, 09:30:28 PM »
That definitely helps! All i have to do is convince her that nothing is going to happen to the dogs :P

JLee

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Re: 2 cars or 1 car??
« Reply #5 on: October 20, 2016, 09:30:47 PM »
The only thing she's worried about is, if anything happens to our dogs and I happen to be at work, how would she get to a vet without a car.

Uber? Taxi? Neighbor?

How many times in the history of your/her dog ownership has she had a pet emergency that required an immediate trip to the vet?

iluvzbeach

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Re: 2 cars or 1 car??
« Reply #6 on: October 20, 2016, 09:44:17 PM »
Figure out how much the 2nd car is costing per month between insurance, depreciation, maintenance and payments (if any) and then ask yourselves whether that "insurance" of having a second car in the event of the odd dog emergency is worth it. What are the odds you couldn't find some alternate way to get them to the vet quickly?

doneby35

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Re: 2 cars or 1 car??
« Reply #7 on: October 20, 2016, 09:58:01 PM »
You're absolutely right. Thanks everyone for the responses.

torbisen

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Re: 2 cars or 1 car??
« Reply #8 on: October 21, 2016, 01:40:31 AM »
You sell the car!!!! What if the world goes under tomorrow? For the dogs you get a car, rent one or what ever!
I lost my licence a year a go, and by then we had for the only time in our life had two cars for about 2 years. We had to because i worked 100km away (every day, can you believe it.....) and my wife 25km away and had the kids when i was away for a week and so. Well, i quit the work that i had to go to every day, and started (again as always before this 2 year with two cars) working shif again. I fly Search and rescue helicopters and have a weeks watch.
The second car was a leasing car Volkswagen Golf 1.6litre gasoline, nothing special. I managed half a year without my license and I at once thought we must sell the car. I went over all the costs for that car during our two and a half years ownership. Here in Norway cars and fuel are taxed heavily, so i think in America you can half this number, but the numbers for the 30000km we had put on it was 22000$.......... in 2,5years............0,75 dollar per km or 1,2$ pr mile for you Americans. It so BAD!!!!
Sell your car ;-).

kimmarg

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Re: 2 cars or 1 car??
« Reply #9 on: October 21, 2016, 05:21:32 AM »
The only thing she's worried about is, if anything happens to our dogs and I happen to be at work, how would she get to a vet without a car.

Uber? Taxi? Neighbor?

How many times in the history of your/her dog ownership has she had a pet emergency that required an immediate trip to the vet?

This If she's really worried put aside cash (say $100 for vet and taxi) and a taxi phone number in a bag/envelope marked 'pet emergency' then you know you have the cash to pay a taxi if you need it.  Put the other $19,900 in the bank.

Enigma

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Re: 2 cars or 1 car??
« Reply #10 on: October 21, 2016, 05:28:39 AM »
I would sell the car and then buy an older car for under 5k...  Maybe a 2010 with low miles.  Two brand new cars might be excessive and it sounds like you could use a contingency plan.

KCM5

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Re: 2 cars or 1 car??
« Reply #11 on: October 21, 2016, 07:23:07 AM »
Your only potential conflict is a dog to vet emergency the 25% of the time that you have to go into the office? Sell the car!

A $20,000 car for a contingency plan is unnecessary. A $5,000 car for a contingency plan is also unnecessary. A contingency plan is this: money for an Uber/taxi, neighbors/friends that are generally around to help out, a stroller/bike trailer that you can fit your sick dog in to get it to the vet, or simply giving you a call at work to come home and help out.

I have an actual small human that I take care of daily without a car in a not-super-bike-friendly city. I'm sure you guys can make do with one car and two dogs. Now, if you didn't want to do that its another story. But you're asking the question, so do it!

mskyle

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Re: 2 cars or 1 car??
« Reply #12 on: October 21, 2016, 07:40:03 AM »
Do your dogs have a lot of urgent vet visits? Like are they very old/sick and/or prone to running out into the street?

Also, how far away from work do you live? Could you drive home and pick up the dog(s) in case of emergency?

But really, yeah, this is something you should be able to work out with a taxi company or a neighbor. Not a big deal unless it happens very frequently.

onlykelsey

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Re: 2 cars or 1 car??
« Reply #13 on: October 21, 2016, 07:52:32 AM »
The only thing she's worried about is, if anything happens to our dogs and I happen to be at work, how would she get to a vet without a car.

Uber? Taxi? Neighbor?

How many times in the history of your/her dog ownership has she had a pet emergency that required an immediate trip to the vet?

This If she's really worried put aside cash (say $100 for vet and taxi) and a taxi phone number in a bag/envelope marked 'pet emergency' then you know you have the cash to pay a taxi if you need it.  Put the other $19,900 in the bank.

Yeah, do this.  I got three pet cab phone numbers, put them on my door, and stuck $100 cash in the house in case I needed to get my dog to the vet. 

financialfreedomsloth

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Re: 2 cars or 1 car??
« Reply #14 on: October 21, 2016, 08:09:53 AM »
Sell it.
10 years from now the car is not going to be worth a lot anymore.
Invest the 20.000 and at an average market return of around 7% that money is going to be worth 40.000. Add 10 years of saving on insurance, maintenance, gas … and you can easily make it 50.000.
So keep the car and in 10 years you have 0, sell the car and invest and in 10 years you have 50.000 USD!
Agreed with the rest: phone number of pet taxi + some cahs in an envelope and possible emergency is solved.

doneby35

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Re: 2 cars or 1 car??
« Reply #15 on: October 21, 2016, 11:48:31 AM »
Great stuff. Will put it up for sale this weekend on craigslist. Thanks everyone.

AutoZealot

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Re: 2 cars or 1 car??
« Reply #16 on: October 21, 2016, 12:48:18 PM »
  I work from home 75% of the time, my fiancee works from home 100% of the time, I have a car, she has a car, mine is a sports car that I bought in 2015, hers is a compact that she bought in 2015. I could sell mine for $20,000 and save on insurance and drive hers for the 25% of the time that I do have to drive to work. 

It sounds like the you have the opportunity to have a fairly cheap car meet your needs for a long time.  If you only one of you commutes, essentially one week per month, a car with 100K when you buy it, would last a decade or more. 

You say the fiancee bought the car in 2015 but didn't state cost, etc ... if that car is quite new, you might consider selling both and finding a good solid 100K accord/civic/insert bland commuter car here.

zephyr911

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Re: 2 cars or 1 car??
« Reply #17 on: October 21, 2016, 02:11:16 PM »
I plan on going to one vehicle as soon as our work schedules support it. Plenty of people make that work.

BlueMR2

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Re: 2 cars or 1 car??
« Reply #18 on: October 21, 2016, 05:00:33 PM »
Heh, I love cars, they're one of my hobbies.  Even I see us as a 1 car household in the future.  My wife plans on working part-time for a long time, so I will probably retire years before she does.  We'll only need 1 car.  I *may* keep a motorcycle though for having fun on nice days though, but realistically everything I want to do on my own can be done by bicycle...

Metric Mouse

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Re: 2 cars or 1 car??
« Reply #19 on: October 23, 2016, 11:47:19 PM »
The only thing she's worried about is, if anything happens to our dogs and I happen to be at work, how would she get to a vet without a car.

Uber? Taxi? Neighbor?

How many times in the history of your/her dog ownership has she had a pet emergency that required an immediate trip to the vet?

This If she's really worried put aside cash (say $100 for vet and taxi) and a taxi phone number in a bag/envelope marked 'pet emergency' then you know you have the cash to pay a taxi if you need it.  Put the other $19,900 in the bank.

Yeah, do this.  I got three pet cab phone numbers, put them on my door, and stuck $100 cash in the house in case I needed to get my dog to the vet.

Pet taxis are a thing?

Totally go to one car. This was an easy question.

Ebrat

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Re: 2 cars or 1 car??
« Reply #20 on: October 24, 2016, 06:52:26 AM »
I've never heard of a pet taxi! We've been a 1-car family for a while, and the pet emergency thing has been my only concern (although luckily it's never actually been a problem).

onlykelsey

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Re: 2 cars or 1 car??
« Reply #21 on: October 24, 2016, 07:44:04 AM »
I've never heard of a pet taxi! We've been a 1-car family for a while, and the pet emergency thing has been my only concern (although luckily it's never actually been a problem).

They've been a thing every where I've lived in the last 8 years.  I'm in Manhattan now, so they're a pretty big business since no one has a car, but even in smaller cities/more suburban areas they've existed.  In my experience they're mostly sole proprietors, so I'd collect a few numbers in case one is busy/asleep/on vacation/etc.  That's also why I keep cash, they usually only take it.

Metric Mouse

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Re: 2 cars or 1 car??
« Reply #22 on: October 25, 2016, 08:59:21 AM »
I've never heard of a pet taxi! We've been a 1-car family for a while, and the pet emergency thing has been my only concern (although luckily it's never actually been a problem).

They've been a thing every where I've lived in the last 8 years.  I'm in Manhattan now, so they're a pretty big business since no one has a car, but even in smaller cities/more suburban areas they've existed.  In my experience they're mostly sole proprietors, so I'd collect a few numbers in case one is busy/asleep/on vacation/etc.  That's also why I keep cash, they usually only take it.

It's amazing the things that exist that one would never know about if one never looked for them.  Probably why I don't run a business; I would never know to look for oportunities to make money filling needs like this.

onlykelsey

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Re: 2 cars or 1 car??
« Reply #23 on: October 25, 2016, 09:05:12 AM »
I've never heard of a pet taxi! We've been a 1-car family for a while, and the pet emergency thing has been my only concern (although luckily it's never actually been a problem).

They've been a thing every where I've lived in the last 8 years.  I'm in Manhattan now, so they're a pretty big business since no one has a car, but even in smaller cities/more suburban areas they've existed.  In my experience they're mostly sole proprietors, so I'd collect a few numbers in case one is busy/asleep/on vacation/etc.  That's also why I keep cash, they usually only take it.

It's amazing the things that exist that one would never know about if one never looked for them.  Probably why I don't run a business; I would never know to look for oportunities to make money filling needs like this.

I have semi-seriously thought that I could enter what I think of as the "idiot handyman" space.  There are companies here who will come and assemble your furniture, swap your doorknob, put up curtains, etc.  I have a great handyman that I use for what I consider real handyman work like wiring (plus, how would I keep real tools in my tiny walkup), but 2 of my 3 last roommates have been wildly impressed with my ability to swap out one doorknob for another (in a pre-drilled door). 

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!