Paid!
Caution: This blog is not a personal finance blog. It is not a “I paid off ___ dollars of debt in ___ years on an income of only ___ blog.”
But I have big news worth sharing because it shows my thrifty ways have finally paid off!
MY CAR IS PAID OFF!!!
I am so excited to have completed this goal.
Here’s my car story:
I went to community college for two years and then took a semester off to “think” and earn extra money. During that time I paid off my 1997 Buick Century, which was great because I wanted a paid-off car before I moved on to 4-year college. I hit a deer, which turned out to be a blessing. I collected a $2300 insurance payment. I used that payment to replace a headlight, buy a $1000 certificate of deposit, and save the rest for a down payment on a new car.
I was happy to drive a dented car through the rest of college in order to avoid an expensive payment.
Then, one week before it was time to move to Ames, my car overheated and I found that it needed a $1400 repair. My car was not worth that much! I made the decision to purchase a new car to make the weekly 3 hour trip to Ames.
My 2005 Hyundai Sonata cost $10,600 with license and registration. I took a loan from my bank and applied the $1,200 insurance payout as my down payment.
I diligently made my $250 payments and applied all of my extras including a hail damage insurance payment (barely visible), tax refunds, and $500 from selling my Buick.
This summer I cashed in my CD that had gained $50 over the 3 years. I also applied my summer tips to make the final $565 payment.
I paid off $10,600 in 34 months. Not too impressive, but thanks to my thrifty ways, in that time I:
- Was a full time college student
- Took most weekends off to visit Spencer
- Took a SPECTACULAR 3-month summer internship that paid only a $2,500 stipend
- Enjoyed two four-week winter vacations and one 6-week summer vacation
- Worked only one night each week during my semester-long student teaching experience.
I do truly enjoy frugal living but it is nice to have concrete evidence of a reached financial goal. This success has given me extra encouragement to attack my student loans in a similar fashion.
Read more:
- This is the snowball debt payoff spreadsheet that I use to track my debt payments
- Working through college was tough, which encouraged me to write my Burnout series
- The Story of Stuff and Amy Dacyczyn’s interview provide frugal living encouragement.
congrats on such a big accomplishment. Isn’t it nice to know that bill is not hanging over your head as your start this new chapter in your life? Don’t know if you have other debt but you can snowball these payments to whatever else you owe.
Keep up the good work!
Dear Kayla!
Congratulations on paying off your car! My name is Ben and I am the author/creator of the debt snowball spreadsheet you linked to in your post! I’m glad it helped you out!!
Ames, huh? Sounds like you and my father share the same alma mater.
Congratulations on not having a car payment! Now, have you started a vehicle replacement fund?
BTW, I think the Hyundai Sonata is one of the best looking cars out there. Though I would choose functionality and frugality over aesthetics, it’s nice when all three come together!
I was filling up one day and this guy walked by and gave my car the once over. He said, “That is a nice car for a young lady.”
He thought it was a Jag!
Thanks so much! It is very encouraging to see my Pay Off date. I especially appreciate that I can enter extra payments and it will be recalculated.
This has been so helpful for me the past few days. It is so awesome Kayla blogged about this or I would have been taking days to figure it out. Now I know my husband and I can get out of as much debt as we want in a year without being to pushy with our budget. This will help us add a house payment to the new debt load :)!!!
Not too impressive. I would say it is very impressive especially that most people nowadays take 48 to 60 months to pay off their cars. Great job!!