Does anyone have a plan for never having another car payment? I know Dave Ramsey has a plan for this, but I was wondering if any of you have figured out how to do this. Our goal is to pay my van off this year. Dh's truck has been paid off for years now. What do you do to prepare for your next car w/cash? Especially when there are two cars in the family. Thanks!

We do. We bought our van in cash in 2001 after we moved. We made a bit on our house when we sold, our move was paid for by the government and we had been saving. We decided to pay cash for the van, but "pretend" we had a $400 car payment a month once our other car was paid off in 1/2003. So, we have been putting away money since then so that our next car will be paid in cash, too. We try to put it away and just don't touch it. Unfortunately, this week we have had $1200 in maintenance/repair on both cars hit us at once so some may have to come out of that account, but I am trying to tell myself over and over again, "We don't have a car payment, we don't have a car payment."

At least that is our plan. We are probably going to get a new car in a couple of years unless something happens in the meantime. And, when I say "new" I mean our second to and from work car will most likely be a newer used car.

This is pretty much what we did. Our first car we bought for $750. It was a junker but it did the job. Every month we made a 'pretend payment' on it by depositing money into an ING savings account (internet bank meant good interest and a little bit harder to get at fast). That car lasted us years and by the time it died, we were ready to buy a gently used car - two years old for $11,000. We still have that car, but every month, we still make an automatic payment into the ING account to buy the next gently used car. I'd love to hear what others are doing.

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WE did this a year ago on 1 car but could not on the new truck. The truck was $52,000 and there was no way. The mini van was MUCH less so we paid cash on that one. I love knowing I own the van free and clear. Now to just get the truck paid off!

we have not had a car payment in over 7 years and plan never to again...we are lucky my fil sells used cars so we can go to the auto auctions and buy a decent used car at a fraction of retail...we usually can get together enough to buy a new to us used car...heck dh's saturn we bought for 150.00 and it only needed a missing bolt in the engine it now has over 300,000 miles on it and still runs like a charm he likes to drive a beater to and from work that gets good gas mileage that thing gets almost 30 miles to the gallon on the highway and its a 1994...we are trying to build up a little more in savings so that if and when fil sees a really good deal on something we can get it to have even though we may not need it at the time...i like the idea of making a car payment to yourself that a good idea...

My car will be paid for by 6/07. I too plan to never have another car payment. Right now I'm making 2-3x the monthly car payment (it's only $200) every month and will use my tax refund to apply to the car payment as well to get it paid off so sooner. I bought it in 6/04 so it's only 3 years old. I plan on keeping this car forever and letting my DS - who's now 9 drive it to school and then I will get a new car. I do prefer buying new just because I don't know very much about cars and this way I know everything works well for a few years and know what's been done to the car.

When I pay the car off this summer, I will continue to make the car payment to myself as well. I had been wondering where was the best place to keep the $$. I'm not sure just a bank acct or even a CD is the best place to keep a lot of money that I won't need for another 5-6 years. I have a meeting with a financial advisor who does my retirement stuff in April so was planning on asking him. Where do you guys keep that $$??

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Better to give your kids the values you have
than the valuables you can't afford.

We paid off both of our vehicles several years ago. We were then lucky and blessed to get an early "inheritance" from my in laws. So we took the $$$ and bought outright a one year old minivan. We now save $350 a month and put it into an ING account. We want that money accessible to us in case we need it for vehicle repairs or some other emergency and the ING makes more interest than our bank or CD.

I keep ours in a MMA that is earning 5.6% right now. It was some special they had at Navy Federal Credit Union last year. I love it and have made a ton of interest so far!

We keep ours in a regular ING Savings Account at 4.6% right now in the US
http://www.ingdirect.com/osa_work/
They have really good interest and we can get it whenever we need it.

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My DH and I have never had a car payment. In 2003, I bought a 2000 Suburu Outback Limited (no, not brand new, but very nice) out right. This past December I traded it in for a Toyota Sienna minivan, and had to pay money on top of that. We could have financed, but chose to use savings.

DH is kind of a different story--his Jeep is older (a 96) but still really nice and he has done a lot of work to it (to make it big, and scary and manish) and we paid for that outright as well in 2005.


I am hoping to keep this up