REVscene Automotive Forum - View Single Post - Student loan repayment... sell the car? grind it out? your advice is appreciated.

4444 · 06-02-2015, 05:34 AM

personally i'd do the following:

1) keep a $5K emergency fund, use rest of $22K ($17K) to pay down a portion of loan
2) if your car is that worth it to you, personally, keep it - you only live once. for me, i'd sell it, but i'm not you and do not appreciate it as much.
3) set up a budget, track it weekly (fill it in) and review it quarterly. as part of that budget, minimize your expenses and maximize your free cash - budget to use every penny of that free cash to pay off your loan.
4) based on 3) have a date set to pay off your loan, and meet it.
5) that $5K emergency fund is just that, emergencies only.

the great thing about doing the above is that once you have paid off your debt, you can continue to budget and save the excess, instead of using it to pay off loan, put it in an investment account every month, buy a diversified portfolio of stock and be a millionaire when you're old. just remember that when you get a pay raise, a disproportionate amount of that extra income goes towards investments.

06-02-2015, 05:34 AM	#25
4444 I contribute to threads in the offtopic forum Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: not vancouver Posts: 2,642 Thanked 1,941 Times in 765 Posts Failed 532 Times in 202 Posts	personally i'd do the following: 1) keep a $5K emergency fund, use rest of $22K ($17K) to pay down a portion of loan 2) if your car is that worth it to you, personally, keep it - you only live once. for me, i'd sell it, but i'm not you and do not appreciate it as much. 3) set up a budget, track it weekly (fill it in) and review it quarterly. as part of that budget, minimize your expenses and maximize your free cash - budget to use every penny of that free cash to pay off your loan. 4) based on 3) have a date set to pay off your loan, and meet it. 5) that $5K emergency fund is just that, emergencies only. the great thing about doing the above is that once you have paid off your debt, you can continue to budget and save the excess, instead of using it to pay off loan, put it in an investment account every month, buy a diversified portfolio of stock and be a millionaire when you're old. just remember that when you get a pay raise, a disproportionate amount of that extra income goes towards investments.