Pay off Taco early??????

Keep the 10k in savings if you don’t already have a nice cushion

 

Pay it down or save for a house.

 

DONT spend it on new tires.

 

Putting 10k as a principal payment to pay down the car loan is nice, but your only reducing the time it takes to pay down the loan. You're still paying the same monthly. So it doesn't benefit to put the money on the car in the short term.

Put the money towards something fun or make this money make you more money.

 

Put a chunk of money towards the the principal. Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Make Over" has made a huge impact on my finances. I have no debt other than my house, which i will pay off in 5 years (bought in 2018) and make max contributions to my 401k. Just look up his podcasts on youtube. He makes a ton of sense about building real wealth and financial freedom. Just my opinion though.

 

DO spend it on new tires.

 

10k down on a house. I’m 24. Sure wish I owned and wasn’t renting. Now that I have a 3 year old and we live on basically my income. It’s hard to save up for a down payment

 

Isn't that the guy who recommends getting rid of all your credit cards? Not saying he doesn't have good advice, but might be best to take it with a grain of salt, a lot of research, and a second opinion.

 

This.

 

Do you have other debt that you could pay off?

 

Save it for a house....My father who served 32 years in the US Army always told me to buy everything cash. I’ve done that my whole life except for a house. Then he advised that every time I had the cash to buy whatever, to save it for a house. I did this too. This was the best advise I had from anyone and while my 20’s and 30’s were probably boring by today’s people in there 20’s and 30’s, when I hit 40 I had a house and no other debt. My wife and I bought a home and lived within our means buying stuff that we “needed” using cash. There is nothing better than being debt free...a mortgage is kinda a way to get there as you need the tax write off to enhance cash flow. When we hit 50, the mortgage was paid off (yes, 10 years) and we bought our first to “want” things, 2 new Mercedes...and then at 55 Porsche’s. Now we are looking to move to Texas when my son gets out of the Navy in a few months and hopefully joins Lockheed in Ft. Worth. We will follow him and the soon to be grandkids and start the whole cycle over again with his family.

As for memories of vacation, our bbqs in our back yard and the kids in the pool with their friends was the best and we would never change that for a two week blow out vacation anywhere in the world. Lift kit and tires? No thanks, I’d save that for when you buy your 2040 Tacoma.

 

Take some and go vacation with your family. Time waits for no one, enjoy time with your family.

Put rest in a growth blue chip like aapl or Amzn and just let it sit until you are ready to buy your first home. You’ll have you full 10 back and more in a few years.

Unless you have a crappy loan deal. Don’t rush to pay off a loan with low interest rate.

 

@CREM_808 I just want to be sure you didn't miss Charles post. This guy gets it.

 

^^

Sound plan for OP here.

I haven’t taken a loan on a car in 12 years now. At some point I got tired of being sick and tired and what’s her name was really good making sure all I earn got spent on stupid stuff. What’s her name isn’t around any more. And life I guarantee it, will have it’s ups and downs job or no job, what’s her names or not.

What I’m getting at here son is making sound financial decisions now will have a profound affect later. Live on less of what you earn, and invest the rest that’s great. It’s a start. But if I had the choice to pay off a vehicle I would. The excess have excess cash from the car payment will quickly grow that stash back.

 

You pay off the highest interest rate debt first. Nothing else matters here. You do everything else after you stop giving your money away to high interest stuff you couldn't afford in the first place.

 

Agreed, his plan is not for everyone. I also have financial adviser that has a different point of view than Dave's. I have not carried ANY credit balance in over 15 years....but i didnt cut them up as i build airline points on them for free flights (have not paid for an airline ticket in years). His "program" enabled and to pay cash for 2019 Taco (and all mods) and i have 12 months of living expenses set aside in an emergency fund. So while not for everyone and i dont follow all of his advice, i think alot of what he says makes really good sense.

 

+1 to this, credit card comes first. If you car loan is below 2% then you should open a cd for your 10k. Pretty much the interest on that would pay your loan interest.

 

Put it into a short term investment. (GIC)

Read your own post. You have a bunch of money and want to be responsible for it. Your spouse wants to blow at least some of it. You also speak of investing or starting a business. Sounds like you have money and want to put it to use but don’t have any real plan or need. If you really wanted to start your own business you would find the money to do it instead of just taking money you happen to have laying around. If you really were into buying a house you would know this is the direction you wanted to go. If you really wanted to pay off your truck it would already be done.

My point is the money isn’t hurting you just sitting there. Yes there are things you could do with it to grow it. Yes buying a house now vs later has some benefits. Yes a vacation is a reward for the work that went into earning the money. But it seems like it is burning a hole in your pocket. Whether spending it or investing it you seem to want to do something just because it is there. That’s why I would go with a term investment. Your money will grow. Your money has to stay for the specified term to get the interest growth. IF you need it NOW you take remove the cash and only lose the interest. It forces you to chill and think about what to do next. Once invested you really should wait the term out to get the interest and it gives you time to really think things through before spending or committing to longer investments.

 

Moderation is the key to happiness.

Which could translate to; spread the funds out to cover a few if not all of your topics or spend it all on mods.

 

Why did you tell your wife that you have $10,000?