I know this goes against the grain of almost all financial independence guru’s. This is part of the reason why I wanted to start this website. The only thing I’m going to say is that based on our budget, we are still going to be saving over 40% of our income each month even with this purchase. Learn more about our savings rate here. We don’t spend on much outside of necessities, so we can drive nicer, reliable vehicles. It’s something that we both enjoy and it still allows us to work towards our goal of financial independence.

Never Buy New Cars

I learned this lesson the hard way back in 2013. We lived in Kansas and were looking at cars in the $15,000 price range. What we found was the majority of the cars were prior rentals with 50,000 plus miles on them. We saw an ad-leader 2013 Chrysler 200 Touring for $18,000. We figured it was smarter to get a brand new car for a few thousand more than one that had a lot more miles. WE walked out the door financing about 15,000 and the rest was a down payment.