Looking for serious advice.. Should I sell my Truck? Struggling.....

Man my head hurts reading - haha. Life is too short. You are responsible enough to even think of all the scenarios so don't stress about it man.

 

NOOOOOOOO!!! horrible advice. never touch that 401K. only in life or death type of situations... even paying yourself back with interest you will never earn that money back..

talk to a financial planner as soon as possible..

 

So I can't respond to some of the questions you have, but push your extra cash towards paying off the student loans, not the car loan. The car loan operates on simple interest, so paying any extra money per month now is saving you zero money in the long run. You've essentially already signed up to pay a certain percentage on the truck, and that percentage won't change. Paying it off early is the same amount of money out of your pocket as it would be if you were paying it on time. Student loans (and homes) will usually run on compound interest, so paying those off sooner WILL save you money in the long run. Recommendation, pay off the student loans asap (don't kill yourself, but make it an emphasis).

With that said, I think your retirement is more important than a truck, and if you're having to cancel 401k contributions to pay for it, then you have to reevaluate things. If you really want the truck, I guarantee there are places that you can find to cut money from. Biggest savings for us - cutting off the cable bill. I pay $10 for Netflix, $12 for Hulu, and Amazon Prime (whatever it's called). There's another $100 - $200 in your pocket every month that you can use to put towards the truck if needed.

 

ok off topic some.. what do you use for internet connection for those services? i have to look into it further but man just internet gets expensive too..

 

So we're paying $55/month for 40mbps Century Link. I've configured our router to ensure that we're actually getting that full strength (changed the channel), because otherwise the service would give me around 15. It's plenty for us. We're becoming increasingly less reliant on tech as we've been trying to save money, and it's been great.

Also, you might consider your phone plan, which was a huge savings for me. I switched to Project Fi by Google. I essentially pay around $35/month for my bill, rather than a $80+/month unlimited plan from somewhere else. It works for me because I can't have a cell on me most of the day, so I really only use it when I'm in transit or when I'm at home, and when I'm at home I'm on wifi.

Hope that helps

 

And no equity.

 

If its in the interest of OP and of others towards saving money and ease the financial burden, I'll take a stab at it, y'all can chit on me later!

Over the years, I've had cable, and two satellite services, and got rid of them all some 4-5 ago, because they kept rising rates faster than the cost of living and they weren't cheap to begin with.

I now use an OTA antenna set up in the attic and catch around 40 channels, the main ones in full HD that then get upscale to near 4K by my Samsung 55" 4K hdr TV all free. It's a beautiful picture!

The antenna feeds four TV's and I'm about 30 miles from the towers. I used antenna.org (I believe that's what is called) to line it in the sweet spot line of sight. For live recording & later recording I use the Tablo OTA dvr with the free TV guide. My smart TV also has a free TV guide, and there's Titan TV guide on the net too as if that weren't enough lol!

On top of all that, I also use Roku TV, tons of movies and show options via the net there too.
I don't miss the cable bill or any subscription TV bill at all, but the internet service bill is starting to hurt as they keep increasing it also. I have a plan to get rid of that too, but its still in the works.

Hope that helps
Cheers!

 

Absolutely never ever. You are totally screwing yourself in your sixties if you do this.

 

yea i see thats coming.. so many people are getting rid of the cable that they will start raising the internet prices.. i have a small cheap over the air antenna hooked to my 60" tv for when we lose cable and it workd very well.. i know with a better one i'd get more but it works for how i use it.. problem is to use my roku, firestick and chromecast to access netflisxand th elike i need a damn internet service..lol

 

So much financial advice in this thread, so little of it usable.

The decisions on how much to pay on loans and to contribute to 401k really depends on knowing the whole picture / budget.

I've had people argue each of the following cases in reading financial advice:

• Contribute to 401k Vs Don't Contribute to 401k
• Pay off biggest loans vs pay off smallest loan
• Pay off smallest loan vs pay of highest interest rate
• Borrow money and pay it off slowly vs borrow money and pay it off as fast as possible.

A case can be made for each one of these, but other factors are at play such as "other investments, life goals, family factors, etc".

To argue over the differences based on the info we have is futile.

 

I don't seem to see "restart 401k and maybe restart roth contributions" in here. That seems shortsighted to me, considering you mentioned you make really good money. At the very least, you should restart the 401k (can you? Why do I think these are governed by enrollment periods, or is that health plans?), and at the very least contribute the minimum to get the max matching rate from your employer. Not only are you losing out on that free money, but I'm believe your 401k contributions reduce your taxable income.

 

I'd like to consider myself a car guy, and maybe not as much as the fine people here. My advice is responsibility overwrites fun. And the one action is to save. SAVE and live reasonably below your means. So allocating your money look like this in order of priority:

- Support your family
- Invest in your retirement
- Tacoma

I'd ensure the top 2 are well straightened out. I'm trying to guess your financial situation by your post, and I'm guessing you're in a good enough spot to not have to compromise these 2 priorities. And honestly, I think a $100k in retirement great at your age! Keep it up!

I'd get rid of the payments of the Tacoma, there's many other avenues for fun. Or find a way to have a financing plan that works for you. Debt and interest rates don't have to be so evil.

Besides... We all hope outlive our Tacomas right? So money put into retirement sounds like a wiser choice than paying for the truck. Crude way of comparing but hope it makes some sense.

 

I think the decision at this point though is, he already bought the truck. If he plans to keep it, the worst move would be to sell it and lose all the taxes he already paid on it when purchasing.

People talk about depreciation being the killer when you sell a car compared to when you buy it, but the tax $$$ is 100% gone. That's why my school of thought is buy a dependable vehicle and buy brand new. Keep it for 8, 10, 12 years or longer. You pay for it for 5 or 6. You have it free and clear after that and it's actually an asset at that point which is worth more than you'll sell it for.

Don't be paying taxes on new vehicle purchased then dumping every year or two. That's your worst mistake.
A lot more $$$ going there than you will get on a measeley 401k match from your employer.

Is the 401k match vesting right away?

 

It's definitely nice not having a payment but at 35 you still have at least another 25 years to save for retirement.

Are you sure you can sell the taco for enough to clear the loan? If you didn't have a decent down payment it might not work out.

It's a tough spot to be in. I've never really been in the position since I always live within my means. That said I also don't have kids. But I do see how hard it can get from my sister who has two boys 5 and 3.

I don't know what you make and what your savings range is. So it's hard to say but generally I wouldn't put much of my savings into it unless I could get them back easy. Like I know I can save 10k relatively easy but that's because I make decent money and don't have a lot of expenses. I also don't worry about a retirement savings as much because I have a pension where I work.

That said being in construction and job security does not exist. Take right now I'm working at a factory expansion for Mondelez, where they make Oreo and crackers. After this job I have no idea where I go. I work for a large company sure we just got a new office tower going up and to hospitals in the greater Toronto area. But I don't know if I'm going there or not. That said I always like to keep 3 months worth of bills saved. I can hope I go to the hospital or something but I've seen it happen where job ends and you're just given a lay off.

So I would suggest don't stretch yourself too thin on what money you keep saved in case something happened.

I think what it comes down to is if you do not feel you can comfortably afford the truck and it could come between care for the kids and family I would get rid of it.

Are you locked in at your wage? Could you be moving up to get more? Things to consider. Five years can go fast. Hell I feel like I just got the truck 2 months ago yet I've had it over a year already.

 

Please don't do that.......

 

As I'm sure someone on here has said (I didn't read it all... too lazy!) take the hit on the Tacoma and get something to get you debt free. Take the pride hit; never finance anything you don't HAVE to (house, land). I'm not saying don't treat yoself; just live comfortable. Eventually it'll pay off.

 

Yes. Sell it OP. #Noonecares

 

^^ This. My kids are now 12, 9, 7 and we had a mini van their whole lives until last year. We miss it when traveling.

 

Minivan is definitely the way to go, but if I had to do it all over again, crew cab pickup and minivan would have been the two vehicles of choice to buy and hold long term.

Selling a vehicle you just bought recently is in my opinion the dumbest thing you can do since you just paid the tax and you'll take the hit on the depreciated value when you sell.

I find it amusing when people are too proud to own a minivan. "Oh, NO MINIVAN!" they say. So they get this oversized, gas guzzling SUV for nearly twice the price. Good choice. And their kids still can't open the doors.

 

First off. I would like to thank everyone that contributed to this thread. My contributions to the forum are not always positive, but the vast majority of the contributors in this thread were positive. I just want to let everyone know that I greatly appreciate all the great advice that I received. In return, I am going to seriously up the quality of my own posts.

Well guys. Just to update. I started listening to Dave Ramsey. And I got on the debt snowball.

I paid of my student loan in full ($6K), and this month I am going to pay-off my wife's debt of 10K on the mini cooper. That will leave us only with the $26K.

My Tacoma's total value represents less than half of my gross income, and reading up on Ramsey's tool kit, he says that's okay. In fact both our cars together don't come close to half of our Combined household income.

I went off the 401k this month and next month to get my wife's debt paid off. After than I will only up to the match.

I got some budgeting tools, and I think I can pay-off the whole Tacoma with 6-8 months. Depending on my bonus this month, it could actually get paid off much quicker. Going to have to cut back, but I shouldn't spend so much money eating out for lunch and breakfast anyways.

I can't convince my wife to go with a Van, but we are looking at 2012-15 highlanders, which I believe I can pay for in cash.

It's going to be a tight 2-3 years, but I think with discipline, we can remedy the mistake I made (buying a new car), and build wealth even faster with increased cash flow.