Should I pay cash for a new car or almost new?
I recently sold my home and have $60,000 left. My bills are paid, all credit cards are 0.00 balance. I want your opinion on paying cash for a decent car with a warranty which is about 17,000. That leaves me 43,000 and my expenses are $3,000 per month. My salary is only about $1500.00 per month and I start Social Security next September at 1,600 per month. My credit won't get better any time soon so what would you do?
Terry Says
If you're buying a car that you plan to keep for around 10 years, I'd pay cash. After all, there is no place you can safely earn more on your savings than you would be paying in interest -- even on a loan from a credit union. However, you need to make sure you are getting the best deal on the car price! Go to www.kbb.com -- the Kelly Blue book website -- or www.edmunds.com, a similar site, to check out the prices that are really being paid for cars in your area. And I might suggest that this is the stage of life to not only do your research carefully, but to buy a new car just to avoid any problems -- especially since you want to keep it for a long time. Yes, you get a better "deal" on the used car -- but then you'll face this situation again that much sooner!
