How are you going to spend your stimulus money?

Well, when I'm tsar president, my first two executive orders:

No mortgage can be longer than 15 years.
No auto loan can be longer than 3 years.

When you're finished paying that mortgage, THEN you can use the equity to buy the bigger house you wanted before but really couldn't afford.

 

Jeep.
84 months.
No interest.

 

Of course, the life expectancy of a Jeep is 83 months . . .

 

I followed much the same formula when I bought my new (well, two years old now) Subaru Forester with a couple exceptions. Did most of the work online, and waited two weeks for a dealership to get a car with the color I wanted.

 

Maybe I'll use the stimulus payment on the summer vacation I planned but haven't booked yet. Or something over Winter Break.

I wonder how essential companies are going to handle employees who are suddenly not taking time off now, leaving a lot of people owed PTO and no way to use it. Unless they are taking vacation because they can't work from home while homeschooling their kids?

I financed my last two cars, because it was zero percent and I could build my credit rating. I didn't realize I was doing the salesman a favor.

Has anyone mentioned the joy of car shopping while female? I have brought male friends with me on more than one occasion -- including at least one who knew cars! -- and instructed them to answer every question with, "It's her money and her car, ask her." One dealership that was particularly egregious about that, we walked.

Many years ago, a salesman found out what I do for a living -- I do test drives near the office and buy near home -- called me Lois Lane, and then sent me a thank-you note afterward asking me out. Not only did I not buy that car, I got the business reporter to do a story on crappy car dealerships in the area.

 

I once had a Finance Guy tell me the monthly payment., which seemed high.

I pulled out an iPad, called up a website, typed in X for the price, Y for the interest and Z for the length of the term. Looked at Finance Guy and confirmed the numbers with him. He agreed, I hit calculate, and it was $8 a month less.

I showed FG the monthly payment, and he scoffed and wanted to know where I came up with the number. Told him the website, then offered to check on a different website. Put in the same numbers, and came up $8/month less again.

FG actually points to his computer and says that his computer is telling him what the monthly payment is, with the same numbers. I counter that my iPad is telling me differently, ask him why his computer should take precedence and I ask to see what is in his computer and how he calculated it, and he refuses.

Then he excuses himself (which I always find funny with car deals), comes back, and actually says, “It’s just $8 a month. Are you going to lose this car for $8 a month? And if the eight bucks are a big deal, we can work to make the monthly cost lower.”

So I reply,”Yeah, it’s $8 a month. That’s $96 a year. Why am I paying $96 a year extra, which will be about $400 extra over this loan, when two websites tell me I don’t have to? And I’m not interested in extending the loan further.”

He goes back again to his manager or whomever, comes back, and starts tapping away on his computer. After a few minutes, he prints out the sheet, and hands it to me to sign. The payments were $8 less per month.

He also was an unhappy Finance Guy.

 

We went looking for a new minivan years ago. We found what we wanted at a bad dealership that we would never buy from and planned to have our friend’s dealership get the car for us.

But I couldn’t resist seeing how dishonest the bad dealership would be.

We drove the car and the salesman told us there was a special 0 percent financing available. He came back with numbers. Sticker was $23,500. His financing math worked out to $24,000+.

Our friend’s dealership got the car for us the next day. Paid just over $18,000.

 

My wife bought a new Honda in 2017 with a seven-year loan at 0.9 percent interest, the monthly payments were amazingly low. Interest rates were significantly higher for shorter-term loans. She easily made double or triple payments and had it paid off in less than three years, having paid almost nothing in interest. Pretty smart move.

 

At 0 percent interest, why not?

 

Thank you. I've been receiving multiple phone calls and emails lately from the dealership where I got my new 2017 Ford Fiesta three years ago, encouraging me to extend the original three-year warranty. I haven't responded but have been wondering if maybe I should do it. Just in case, like you said.

But I think I'll go with my initial instincts and not get it.