Hello and thank you in advance from a noobie to the forums. I really enjoy the blog and and now hoping to become a little more interactive. I have searched through the old postings and didn't find my question exactly, so I apologize in advance if the veterans around here find this question tedious.
Income: $246K/year gross (DINKs) + $20-30$K/year in stock/cash grants, at least for the next 2 years
Expenses: Since I am just starting on my mustachian journey, I am not ready to have the details scrutinized yet. I know what your responses are going to be anyway based on reading so many case studies! :)
Average spending from 2013 is ~$4870/month. We save $6700/month (cash + retirement), not including 401(k) matching.
Assets:
Townhouse value ~ $500K
2 cars value ~ $26K(is it even fair to count them since they depreciate?)
Retirement accounts (for 2 people) ~ $465K
Emergency fund ~ $33K
Cash (down payment) ~$202K
Liabilities
Mortgage $330K, 5/1 ARM, currently 3.375%, will reset in 2 years but we most likely will have sold by then.
Car loan $10K, 2.49%
Detailed Question
We have a car loan that could clearly be wiped out 5 minutes from now if I chose to do it. Why have we not? Mainly because our main goal for the last few years has been to hoard as much cash as possible so we can buy our "forever home" when the perfect place comes on the market. We are in no rush to buy, but are thinking in the next 0.5-2 years we will. Since we are in no rush, we are waiting patiently but want to move immediately should we find that perfect place. What we are looking for is extremely specific so not many properties come on the market meeting our desirements.
Since we really like sitting on cash and seeing that savings balance grow, we are having a hard time coming up with reasons to pay off the car early. If I paid it off today, I would save a little under $1000 over the life of the loan. The plan for the next house is to (likely) sell the condo which is rented out anyway, and buy some sort of multi-unit place that will allow us to continue our current savings rate. That will put us at financial independence in 9-11 years, depending on average market return. I am comfortable with this timeline.
So my main question: what are compelling reasons to get rid of the car loan early?
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Update: I went back through my spending 2013 spreadsheet and realized that I was essentially double-counting housing with line items for both mortgage (covered by renting the townhouse out) and rent on the place we actually live in. That makes a big difference! Monthly spending reduced from $6400 to $4870. That said, what I also didn't include in income was ~$30K/year in rental income. However you calculate it, our monthly housing expense is $2400 and our townhouse is pretty much cash flow neutral.