Hi everyone! I am so happy to have found this forum. I REALLY wish I would have learned about finances and such when I was younger! I am going to try to keep this short and sweet.
I am currently leasing a 2015 Honda Civic. The lease is up in March. I was very ill when I leased this vehicle, and had absolutely no knowledge of savings, finances, retirement etc! I am going to have to make a choice. I will need to buy a vehicle in March. I was wondering if it would be best to buy this car, or try to find something else. I really would love a larger car, but know its probably not going to be easy for me. I am not good with cars, and dont really have anyone who can come help me look at them to determine if it will be a good buy. I actually was at the dealership looking at brand new CRV's before I was welcomed to this whole new world of MMM lol!!! UGH!
2015 Honda Civic Sedan 21,000 miles.
Lease is up in March
Gross Income- 100,000-115,000 ( commission, it varies)
Buy out on lease will be $12,800 not sure if I can get this any lower or not.
Household is Myself (31), My husband(37) and a 4 year old.
Our biggest want in life right now is to save 20% for a new home. We live in an older ranch home and paid 148,000 on a 30 year mortgage. The ones we are looking at are around $230,000-$250,000 We won't consider this until we have at least $60-75k to put down and can do a 15 yr mortgage.
Checking=5,000
Savings= around $28,000
Retirement combined= around $21,000 ( Just started a year and a half ago. Thankful to have learned about this stuff now!)
Emergency fund$17,350
( learned MMM doesnt support this, but I am very new to this, finding out a lot of what is best)
We have no other debt besides our mortgage. We are pretty frugal. We don't go out to eat, don't go on vacations, no useless or random spending. The most we spend on is food, which is around $650-750 a month
We work from home so do not need the car for work travel. We do however use it to see my family who lives 30-40 minutes away at least once a week, and to grocery shop ( too far to bike or walk, we live out in a more country area) and to go various places. I have a lot of anxiety, so will not feel safe/confident with us and our kid in a much older car with a ton of miles.
What do you guys think? Buy the CRV or shop around for something else? I really would love a car with more room, or even a smaller SUV, but it just may not be in the budget. I know nothing about cars, so this is pretty foreign for me, and I even feel silly asking this here.
Thanks for reading, I appreciate it !
