paying cash for car

Simple Secrets to Buy a Car All Cash

An automobile is a major purchase—becoming more “major” all the time as prices for new and used cars are skyrocketing. More than that, it’s the consumer purchase most likely to throw a major kink into anyone’s financial situation. But it doesn’t have to be that way. What’s required is a modicum of radical thinking and forethought.

paying cash for car

These are the Three Rules to follow when buying a car:

Rule 1: Pay cash

Hang on. I know you may not be able to do that right now. Just be patient and I will teach you how. This principle is so important that I will repeat it: Pay cash for your car.

Rule 2: Opt for a late model

Make sure you are not the first owner. Let someone else take that 20 percent depreciation hit. Your goal is to drive the best late-model, previously owned car you can afford paid for with the cash you have. Repeat: The best you can afford with the cash you have. Got it?!

Rule 3: Always make payments

I hope that got your attention. On the one hand, I just told you always to pay cash for your cars. And now I am telling you always to make payments. Both principles are true.

You must adopt the attitude that as long as you intend to own a car you must cover the the cost by making monthly payments to yourself ahead of time—in anticipation of your next car. This way you are always in a position to earn interest, never paying interest (because you hold that money in a savings account), not paying it.

Even if your current car is doing well I can promise you this: That car will not last forever. This is the reason I challenge you to start today so you can pay cash for your next car. 

Create a real account

Open a special savings account somewhere convenient, a credit union or local bank. Your sock drawer may appear to be a great place to save money, but don’t believe it. That is way too casual. That money is not safe because your access is way too easy. Get it? Back to opening an account You can do this right now. My favorite place is SmartyPig.com. This is very fun, super friendly, online savings bank with all of the protection and safety of an FDIC bank. You can open an account with $0 money to fund it. Really. So, just do it!

Set up monthly deposits

Now brace, because this may be shocking: Begin making regular monthly payments into this account. Now. This month. Regardless any excuses you may have. Pay $300 to yourself every month and funnel it directly into that account—just the way you would have to pay that to a finance company if your current car dies a tragic death tomorrow before dinner. Should that happen, somehow you would figure out how to make $300 car payments! You would! So right now start living as if that has happened. That’s right, make these payments to you—straight into your new savings account.

Your strict inner parent

Be strict with yourself—rigid and unbending! This is your chance to parent yourself. Get tough. No late payments, no slacking.

Wash it, polish it, keep driving it

Nothing else changes at this point. Continue driving the car you have now as long as you can, even if it is a real clunker. Take care of it, keep it going. If you’ve done the math, you know that one year from now, you will have accumulated $3,600 cash plus interest in your account in the Bank of You. Not bad!

In One Year: Sell the clunker

I don’t know what you have or what it might be worth, so let’s say you can sell it for $2,000. Put that money with the $3,600 in the savings account and buy the best car you can find for $5,600 cash. By now, you’ve become used to making $300 payments to yourself. Don’t stop. Not now, not ever. It’s a habit and a very good one at that.

In Two Years: Do it again

At the end of another year, sell your current clunker for say $4,800 and put that money together with the $3,600 you saved during the year by making those payments to yourself. Now buy the best used car you can find for your $8,400. Then continue making those payments.

In Three Years: Yep, again

At the end of year three, sell your current car for say $7,800 and together with the $3,600 from your savings buy the best $11,400 car you can find. Your selection of good, used cars is getting better each year. You have graduated from clunkers to much more respectable automobiles.

You know the routine

After year four, sell your most recent car for say $11,000, add the $3,600 from savings, and buy a $14,600 used car. By year five, you have at least $17,000 cash to upgrade to an even better car. By year six, you should have at least $20,000 cash to buy a car.

Sell, upgrade, repeat

Keep repeating this process once each year—upgrading and paying cash for a better car. As you become more adept, you will lose your fear of buying and selling cars. And imagine your confidence and personal power knowing you are not at the mercy of a salesman, bank, or finance company as you look for a car. You can negotiate because you have plenty of experience.

New car, all cash

After five or six years, buying a brand-new car will certainly be an option. But I predict you won’t. Why? Because by this time you will be so good at buying late-model, low mileage cars for a fraction of the price of a new one that you will scoff at the folly of buying new and feeling that big depreciation hit on the front end.

Still, you will have that option, And who knows? You just might take it.

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4 replies
  1. Mary Swanson says:

    I just bought a new car – 11 years newer than the last car I insured and the insurance went down $400 a year. All the safety features on these new cars will drive you nuts at first, but apparently they do pay for themselves!

    Reply
  2. Patricia Goff says:

    I use my income tax refund to fix the house or buy a car when needed. Every year we sit down and figure out what we need to do with the money. I try to save money throughout the year and usually manage to save 500 during the year to add to it. I have never made a car payment. Love it.

    Reply
  3. Canide Wiser says:

    We had a similar situation of both cars (one we had 19 years) biting the dust. Total payments for 2 cars came to $700.00 a month. Let me tell you, I could barely sleep or breathe! I realized I had a lot of equity in my house and rates were at 3%. So I refinanced adding only the amount I needed to pay off both vehicles. I refinanced from a 30 yr to a 15yr, My payments went up only $40.00 a month. I have sent $400 extra with my house payment every month and will have my house paid off next year, 5 years early!

    Reply

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