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Even Paid Off Vehicles are Expensive

04.24.2011 by Matt Jabs //

Tomorrow I’ll publish a more robust and detailed article on this subject but given how high gas prices are threatening to go, wanted to touch briefly on it today.

Vehicles are expensive to own!

Understanding that financing vehicles is more expensive than paying cash, let’s consider how much it costs Betsy and I to own our “paid off” vehicles… perhaps we should be riding our bikes more!

We currently own a 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix (hers) and a 2000 Jeep Cherokee (his).  Both vehicles have been paid off for years… but despite that fact how much are they costing us each month – and do we really need to own both?

No, we don’t need both, but will most likely hold on to both until one dies.  We will not, however, be replacing both.

Adding up our costs of insurance, maintenance, fuel, etc… we found that our 2 “paid off” vehicles are costing us roughly $750/month.  As mentioned above, I’m publishing a detailed article on the topic tomorrow so watch for that.  In the meantime, check out these other personal finance articles from around the web.

God bless.

Other solid personal finance articles

  • Save Money Purchasing Beef In Bulk – Betsy and I purchase a 1/4 of grass-fed beef every year and highly recommend it for savings and higher quality meat.
  • How Much House Can I Afford? – With the mortgage rates at their all time lows and the housing market still favoring buyers, this may be a good time to buy. But how could you tell how much house you can really afford and that you’ll be ready for homeownership?
  • YNAB 3 Budget Software Review – Here is another solid review of YNAB, the same budgeting software I recommend.
  • Where is My Tax Refund? – How to check the status of your tax refund.
  • Can you get a mortgage after Bankruptcy? – 3 years after filing Bankruptcy Debt Kid looks to find out if it’s possible to buy a house.
  • The Best Ways to Save for Retirement – Phil weighing in on helping you save for your nest-egg.
  • Save tax on RESP withdrawals – If you’re looking for info on RESP’s, Mike is the go-to-guy.
  • How Social Security Benefits Are Calculated – I’m glad Mike is writing about this… because I certainly wouldn’t want to!  🙂
  • Do You Need to Make a Will? – I think everyone should have a will, it greatly simplifies burdens on loved ones and allows you to give where you’d like.
  • How much do you (really) need in your emergency fund? – David helps us determine how much to save for emergencies.

Categories // Money Management, Rally Tags // automobile, cost

Comments

  1. jmd says

    April 24, 2011 at 2:16 pm

    Both of our vehicles are older than yours and we finally traded off the one that was breaking us on repair bills. We have the other one advertised and will go down to one vehicle. We have spent over $1,400 in repair bills this year only. Time to let go and move forward. Good luck to you.

    • Matt Jabs says

      April 24, 2011 at 3:36 pm

      Wise choice JMD. While we aren’t looking to let one go right now… I’m definitely considering it more and more. We need my Jeep to tow our pop-up camper around, but we use her car for most everything else because it gets far better gas mileage. Perhaps I should sell both and buy a vehicle that will work well in both situations… like a Subaru or something similar.

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