First, I'm sorry about your husband being out of work. Tough situation I am sure and work is not easy to find. Second, I am glad that you are thinking about this. Not many people even consider selling their cars to improve their finances.
To answer your question, I say sell the car(s) if you don't need them. If you need only one, keep the most reliable one to minimize breakdown and repair costs.
Whether or not you should use it to pay down your mortgage, the answer is depends. Will you be able to pay it completely down? If not, add the money to your emergency fund and keep it in a savings account. Here's a lit of high interest savings accounts if you haven't check lately. I prefer the EF route because if you don't completely pay off the mortgage, you still have the risk of foreclosure if you can't come up with the monthly payment on a later date.
Answered by
Pinyo
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Jul 17, 2009 09:26 AM
I'd think you might open a can of worms by going down to a Junk car. If you can live with one car, fine, but don't take on a potential clunker.
"Debt free soon", is your balance very low on the mortgage? I'd continue to make the minimum payments and put 100% of your efforts into getting employment. While he's not working, can you work part time? This is the time to think of every way you can to raise some extra money. Can you provide coverage for another child or two? Can you rent out an extra room? Any skills that you can work from home?
There's a great list of alternate money making ideas, 40+ Alternative Income Ideas and Resources, you should take a peek at that, I can vouch for its author. Best of luck to you.
Answered by
JoeTaxpayer
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Jul 17, 2009 12:31 PM
You need to figure out what you can realistically sell your cars for and what you will realistically spend to get another RELIABLE, if ugly vehicle. You can use http://www.kbb.com (Kelly Blue Book) as a guide, but you'll also want to check local ads, too.
Once you know how much you'd probably get from selling the vehicles, subtract how much you'll likely spend on another vehicle. Is it worth it to you? It may well be if you really just need one vehicle. So, at the very least you should sell one vehicle if you really do not need two. But remember, selling a vehicle may also take time and work, and if you're buying a used vehicle there is a risk that you could be buying an unreliable vehicle. At the very least, find a friend or family member who is good with vehicles and have them check it out as best as they can before you buy it.
Also, I agree with Pinyo, you should put any money you make into your emergency fund right now until your husband is feeling secure at a new job. I hope that you can make it till then smoothly. Certainly, it will help if you can make some money selling your vehicles and I applaud you for considering that.
At times like you're going through, it is very important to work on cutting as many costs as possible (check out FruWiki for some tips) and making extra money however you (legally) can, whether by selling vehicles, doing odd jobs, selling plasma (if your beliefs allow it), working online, etc. It's tough to find a job right now and it's taking many people longer than they expected to find one, so I hope your husband views working to find a job his full-time job -- and perhaps you can help him with that, too (even just going through classifieds and proof-reading resumes can really help).
Good luck!
Answered by
FruWikiMeg
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Jul 17, 2009 12:31 PM
Sorry to hear about your tough situation. I hope your husband finds something soon.
I think I would consider selling either one or both of the vehicles, especially if the outlook for finding another job in your husband's field isn't great right now. We all know that the economy is in the dumps, and sometimes it can take awhile to find a new job. Having a bit of a cushion provided by selling your vans, and downgrading to something cheaper - at least for now - may be what you need to get by.
With that said, it would be important to really check and make sure what you can get for your vehicles - realistically. I would check sites like these to figure out what you can expect to get in a private party sale:
- KBB.com
- edmunds.com
- carsoup.com
- cars.com
If the price you can get for your vehicles isn't that high, it may not be worth it to sell them. If you can sell your vehicles (or even one of them) for a decent price, and the cost of a reliable cheap car isn't too great, you may want to move ahead on it.
If you do sell your cars, and buy a cheaper car - you may want to consider building up as much of an emergency fund as you can with any extra cash, in case your car breaks down - or other eventualities.
Some tips for you in your situation:
Answered by
biblemoneyma...
at
Jul 17, 2009 05:30 PM
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