Friday, August 22, 2008

The Price of Driving

Beth keeps talking about buying her own car. She's been looking and trying to figure out what the payments would be and what she thinks she can afford. Right now she has it pretty good, because she gets to drive one of our cars. We pay her car insurance, as long as she maintains a B average in school, and we pay for maintenance and repairs on the car. If she buys her own car, she'll have to pay all that. The only thing she really has to pay for now is the gas she puts into the car, and actually she's not doing a very good job of keeping track of that and paying for it. When she started driving, we got her a Discover card on our account, so she would always be able to pay for gas and not get caught without gas and without cash to pay for it. Also, we get 5% back on the gas purchases. Probably not the best idea because using plastic just doesn't feel like spending real money, and even though she knows she's responsible for paying it, she just doesn't keep track and spends her money on other things before the bill comes due.

So, basically, she owes us quite a bit of money for the gas she's been putting in the car. How does she think she can actually afford a car payment, insurance, registration, and maintenance on her own car? We told her to figure out how much it will cost and start paying herself - putting that amount into her savings account every month. Then she'll get into the habit of paying it and figure out how much she can really afford, before she gets tied to a car payment. Besides, she's not 18 yet and couldn't get a loan, and even though we love her, we're not risking our credit score by co-signing a loan or whatever she thinks we should do. Not without some demonstration that she really can and will handle the payments.

2 comments:

  1. One day (when she's paying rent and insurance and buying her own cloths and food) one day she'll realize just how good she had it :-0

    Happy Friday!!! :)

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  2. ok not sure if you were around when fawn had her car reck... but they totaled it and now she has a brand new car and the payments are over 400 bucks a month along with the insurance 400 bucks a month... LIKE WAS GOOD when she had a job making 12 bucks an hour with comition.... BUT NOW SHE HAS NOT JOB AND THE MONEY IN THE BANK HAS RUN OUT.... not a good thing you can loose your job in a heart beat... and be stuck... good luck love the kitty pictures.

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