Hey all, I wanted to pose this one to the group and get some opinions.
Fairly recently I became 100% debt free, the last debt being a car loan that I paid off. However, that debt free state was short lived as my wife is going back to (trade) school so she can re-enter the workforce. Debt for a good cause, but debt nonetheless. So the current situation is:
School Debt-$10k@12% APR (Credit card)
Vehicle #1: 2009 VW Tiguan-65k miles-$11k est value
Vehicle #2: 2013 Jeep Wrangler-14k miles-$20k est value
Current non-401k or stock based savings is $1000-1500 a month. So I could pay it off in 7-10 months which is the current plan. However I was thinking about possibly doing something with the vehicles. Such as:
Sell Jeep, pay off school immediately. Take remaining $10k and buy a cheaper 2nd vehicle. I do love the jeep and do use it for work transpo (when I don't ride my bike), bike hauling, offroading, kayak hauling and 4wd to get to the mountains for snowboarding. However I'm sure I could find something to do most of that save offroading which is fun but not a true passion.
Sell Jeep and go single vehicle? Get some nice investment $$. This would be doable but remove a ton of flexibility from our life. Shuttling kids places almost every day would strand either my spouse or I. I'd be locked into bike commute or very slow bus commute. Weekend activities would require a lot more planning, for instance I take the vehicle for mountain biking and she's stuck at home for half the day.
Scour the house for stuff to sell. Off the top of my head I have around $6k in a couple of watches (put on flameproof suit), some guns, maybe some of the wifey's shoes and so on. This plus burning some stocks (capital gains tax) and savings could wipe out almost all the debt. I'd still have vehicles but would be pretty tapped out on savings and non-401k investments. One of the watches holds some sentimental value though and I hate thinking of selling it. The other not so much so maybe the more expensive one could go.
401k loan? Better interest rates than 12% but that $$ not earning interest while paying it off. Kind of want to avoid this.
Some other combo? Suggestions are welcome, because I'm on the fence when it comes to the jeep. I love driving it, it's paid for, I know it'll last a decade or more. OTOH it gets crap mileage and I hate debt.