Debt...and a plan

I HATE DEBT! We try to avoid it at all possible means. We have no credit cards and I let debt scare me so much that I am no where ready to think about purchasing a home yet (well that, and the fact that Josh is still in school).

When we bought our car almost 3 years ago it was a bitter sweet moment. We finally we established enough that we could take out our own auto loan! It was so exciting. Then we signed the paperwork. I hate the hold that has put on us. Adding a truck loan made the stress even worse.

When we purchased our computer we did a loan with the company so we could establish some credit. But we paid the loan off 3 or 4 months later. We have tried to be realistic each time we have taken out a loan, although that is something the car company had a hard time with. When we decided to buy a car we sat down and decided just how much we could spend. We had some money set aside and decided that we would use that for our down payment and then we could finance a loan that would keep our payments around $120.

So off to the car lot I went. I walked in and told the guy that we were interested in a car and we wanted to spend X-Amount of dollars. He proceeds to tell me about this car that is $XXXX. Um, no, that is $4,000 more than I just said. So then he tries to tell me about a car that is $XXXX. Still no, that is $2,000 more than I said. I was starting to get frustrated. Maybe most people don't think this through as well as we had.

Finally after some arguing he tells me that he thinks they have one car that just might work. He was kind of talking down to me, trying to belittle the car like it wasn't anything even worth looking at. Let me back up, when I first got there I saw this car and just fell in love with it, but it looked so nice I knew we could never afford it. IT WAS THAT CAR HE WAS TALKING ABOUT!

I took it home for a test drive that night and the next day we were at the bank signing papers and then on to the dealership where we signed papers again and presented the two checks (ours and the banks) to pay for the car. He seemed surprised that we already had the money. Seriously, how unprepared is the common car buyer?

There is a point to this story. I have 12 payments left on the car. I want to be giddy with joy, but that is still 12 more payments! So I have set a master plan. I will have this car paid off before the year ends. No, before Thanksgiving! The one important thing I learned while working in real estate is that is pays to pay extra each month. Since we started the loan I have tried to pay a little extra and really I am probably closer to my goal than I think I am, but I am going to increase my efforts!

Maybe after the car is paid off I can feel better about having to possibly take a loan out for an adoption.