Car replacement schedule with older kids

[Sum Dum Gai]

This is kind of a spin off from the other car thread, but totally unrelated to helping a relative buy a vehicle. It's just gotten me thinking about the timing of replacing vehicles.

So, here's our situation. We bought two new cars in 04. Mine has 120k miles on it right now, and Loop's has around 90k. The plan was to drive them both into the ground, and replace them whenever we hit that point. It's a solid plan.

However, cars tend to hit that point around 200k miles. Our kids are 10 and almost 12. I'm starting to worry that our cars are going to crap out right about the time both girls go to college. Our income will be just high enough that they won't qualify for much financial aid, but we sure as hell can't afford to pay for college out of pocket. Especially if we'll be replacing vehicles at the same time. There's also the issue of potentially helping them buy cars.

Would it be worth it to replace our cars a little early, solely to make sure we don't have car payments while they're in college, which will leave us able to help a little more? Or, should we just drive our cars into the ground and deal with replacement whenever it comes up? I know in my gut it'll happen just before the girls go to college, or while they're in college though. They're both in 6th grade now, and I don't see either of our cars lasting another 10 years. Not at the rate we put miles on them.

Am I worrying needlessly, or do other parents worry about the same thing?

[Sum Dum Gai]

Oh, and if we were to buy new cars a little ahead of schedule, ours wouldn't be totally shot and we could give them to the girls when they're 16. Potentially. It would depend on how early we replaced them and what it would cost to keep them registered and whatnot waiting for the girls to hit driving age. And whether or not I could handle teaching a teenage girl to drive a manual transmission without having a heart attack.

[Deleted]

We have actually thought about it, and decided that we would give DS3 our car when he finishes HS. It will be eight years old.

This said, we only run one car. I understand that you and Loop need two cars.

I would never replace both cars at the same time. I wouldn't have done it in 2004, and I wouldn't do it now.

When we did run two cars (and we did for many years because we have four kids, so we needed a seven-seater) we had one smaller newer car, and one "old beater seven-seater".

You say this thread is unrelated to the other one. Sorry Dark but I'm totally calling BS on that LOL. If you want to sell a car to your bro, do so.

Also, both of your cars are a LONG way off from 200K.

So, call a spade a spade. My logic would say to sell your car to your bro since it's older. But if getting Loop on board with providing a car to "Jimmy" entails selling her car to your bro instead, and her getting the newer car, that's life.

ETA: In fact, I'd sell your car to Jimmy. Then I'd take Loop's car. Then I'd buy a new (ie recent used car) for Loop.

[Sum Dum Gai]

Also, both of your cars are a LONG way off from 200K.

Not as much as it seems like. I put 20k a year on mine. So I'll be at about 250k when the kids graduate high school, and Loop puts about 12k a year on hers, so she'll be at about 170k. They'll both be 15 years old at that point. To avoid replacing them while the kids are in school, they'd have to last another 4 years beyond that.

I don't see either car lasting that long to be honest. Maybe Loop's because she puts fewer miles on it. 19 years is a long time to keep an economy car running. These aren't diesel engine trucks, know what I mean?

[thyme4change]

When I bought my car, my daughter was 1. She is now 10, and my car only has 70k miles on it. So, if I can make it, driving that old boring thing, for another 5.5 years, then she gets that car and I can get something new. My son has been told that he will get his Dad's car when he turns 16 (2 years after my daughter.) I think it is a great plan.

That said - why not just put the car payments away "a little early" and then buy the car cash when it actually poops out? Oh wait - that would be a logical way to handle money, but gets rid of your awesome excuse/logic to buy a new car.

[Deleted]

ETA: In fact, I'd sell your car to Jimmy. Then I'd take Loop's car. Then I'd buy a new (ie recent used car) for Loop.

I added the ETA as you were posting Dark.

[wvugurl26]

To me I'd look at what it costs to keep them insured, registered, all that jazz. That being said while I think it would have been a harder way to go, being able to drive a manual transmission is a good skill, one I wish I had.

[Deleted]

Thyme has a great idea. If you can afford the payments for a new car, you can afford to put them in the bank for now.

[Deleted]

You want to deplete your cash assets in the year before they go off to college. 2 new cars should do the trick!

[thyme4change]

You want to deplete your cash assets in the year before they go off to college.

Actually, I think it is 2 years before. I was reading a Wall Street Journal article about this last week - and then I had a panic attack and threw the paper away. So, you need to deplete your assets their Junior year of high school.

[Loopdilou]

Sept 17, 2012 16:54:10 GMT -5 @debthaven2 said:

Thyme has a great idea. If you can afford the payments for a new car, you can afford to put them in the bank for now.

I like this idea. We suck at saving even if we're awesome at making payments. Somehow we just have to become awesome at paying our savings account.

[thyme4change]

We suck at saving even if we're awesome at making payments. Somehow we just have to become awesome at paying our savings account.

It is harder to stay true to your savings goal, then to follow through on a contract with legal ramifications. Also, I saved up a bunch of money so we could buy a car, and then we still financed it. I was so happy to have that huge bank balance, and the financing was .9% - so I just couldn't bring myself to drain my savings. But, I'm glad we went through the exercise. Now we have the money and the car payment. Otherwise, I think we would have just had the car payment.

[wvugurl26]

Sept 17, 2012 16:58:42 GMT -5 Loopdilou said:

Sept 17, 2012 16:54:10 GMT -5 @debthaven2 said:

Thyme has a great idea. If you can afford the payments for a new car, you can afford to put them in the bank for now.

I like this idea. We suck at saving even if we're awesome at making payments. Somehow we just have to become awesome at paying our savings account.

Some accounts let you set it on auto. I can send pieces of my paycheck to 5 different accounts.

It has been awhile since I had to do one but doesn't FAFSA ask for current value of checking/savings accounts?

[Sum Dum Gai]

That said - why not just put the car payments away "a little early" and then buy the car cash when it actually poops out?

Even if we had cash I'd rather make payments. Every three months I get 0% financing car purchase pre-approval letters from the financial institution we had our car loans through, that we still use for our insurance. Why pay with a lump sum of today's dollars when somebody is practically begging to loan you money for nothing and let you pay with tomorrow's inflated dollars? Hell, if I could get 0% APR personal loans I'd finance my groceries, gas, insurance, and cable bill.

That aside. Any cash you have sitting in a bank account is money the college figures you have available to help cover tuition. The only thing they don't consider is retirement savings. For now anyway. With the way tuition keeps climbing I'm half expecting to see legislation float around in Congress that allows you to raid your retirement accounts penalty free to pay for junior to go to college.

[thyme4change]

Keep $40,000 in a shoebox under the bed and make the payments from that.

[Sum Dum Gai]

No way. I've been there. I got reamed for having cash in the house. Everyone said I'd be a moron not to have that in an account somewhere. You just can't win.

[thyme4change]

Why even ask - you already said that anyone who makes decisions based on the advice of a message board is a frickin' moron.

[Sum Dum Gai]

Not true. I said anyone who makes decisions solely based on free internet legal advice is a moron. That solely word is important. It's not that I don't value your opinions, just that I'm not going to rely solely on them when I don't really know any of you, what qualifications you have for offering said advice, etc.

[t-dog]

Keeping the car registered but Non-oped is cheap even here in crazy CA

[973beachbum]

Our income will be just high enough that they won't qualify for much financial aid, but we sure as hell can't afford to pay for college out of pocket.

You don't realize that you are already making way too much to get any aid.

I have a thread about expected family contributions. There is a calculator on Finaid.org your can use to find out what they think you can pay right now.

[Deleted]

We suck at saving even if we're awesome at making payments.

Same here, alas. Sometimes I wonder if I set up a savings account named "Yourself" things might get better?! Because everybody here knows you have to pay Yourself first LOL.

[Sum Dum Gai]

You don't realize that you are already making way too much to get any aid.

That's not completely true is it? I don't really make that much, especially for California, and both kids will be in school at the same time. Besides, maybe I'll get lucky and my wages will stagnate, coupled with tuition inflation, so I'll be broker in 7 years. Or something. When I write it out that way it doesn't sound much like getting lucky.

I have a thread about expected family contributions. There is a calculator on Finaid.org your can use to find out what they think you can pay right now.

I know. I went and looked at the calculator. Even started putting in my info. Then I broke out in a cold sweat and realized I really don't want to see that final number. I know it's going to be something ginormous that we can't even hope to come up with, so why do I need to actually see it? Not worth the stress.

[Deleted]

Sept 17, 2012 17:28:41 GMT -5 Sum Dum Gai said:

You don't realize that you are already making way too much to get any aid.

That's not completely true is it? I don't really make that much, especially for California, and both kids will be in school at the same time. Besides, maybe I'll get lucky and my wages will stagnate, coupled with tuition inflation, so I'll be broker in 7 years. Or something. When I write it out that way it doesn't sound much like getting lucky.

I have a thread about expected family contributions. There is a calculator on Finaid.org your can use to find out what they think you can pay right now.

I know. I went and looked at the calculator. Even started putting in my info. Then I broke out in a cold sweat and realized I really don't want to see that final number. I know it's going to be something ginormous that we can't even hope to come up with, so why do I need to actually see it? Not worth the stress.

ummm yeah, you make too much to qualify for aid unless they go to some crazy expensive private school.

[Sum Dum Gai]

Alright, so back to the question. Would it be worth replacing the cars a little early, so they'd be totally paid for and we'd have more available cash while they're in school. Or should we try to get maximum value from the vehicles we already have by keeping them as long as possible?

Does the parents debt load even factor into FAFSA stuff or is it just based on your income? Say we had car payments for the two years before the kids go to college, would that lower our income for those years, or do they not care?

[midjd]

According to someone wise (Phil? 2kids? Tskeeter?) 99.9% of the time it's cheaper to keep the vehicles you already have, unless they get 2mpg or are facing a ridiculous amount in repairs.

But you might want to just Google it.

Seriously though, you've got almost a decade - no reason you have to either replace them now. You could trade in one of em in a few years (or give it to your oldest) and the other a year or two later and still have a year or two before college.

[Deleted]

Sept 17, 2012 17:48:19 GMT -5 Sum Dum Gai said:

Alright, so back to the question. Would it be worth replacing the cars a little early, so they'd be totally paid for and we'd have more available cash while they're in school. Or should we try to get maximum value from the vehicles we already have by keeping them as long as possible?

Does the parents debt load even factor into FAFSA stuff or is it just based on your income? Say we had car payments for the two years before the kids go to college, would that lower our income for those years, or do they not care?

don't care about your payments on anything....

[midjd]

Does the parents debt load even factor into FAFSA stuff or is it just based on your income? Say we had car payments for the two years before the kids go to college, would that lower our income for those years, or do they not care?

They don't care about debt (or retirement). If you make $100K and pay $15K in taxes and put $20K into retirement and have debt obligations totaling $65K, your EFC is still going to be like $40K. But maybe the system will be different in 6-7 years, it's totally possible

[Deleted]

I don't think I would run out and replace the cars today, but maybe in 4 or 5 years replace your car and then 2 or 3 years after that replace the other car.

[Loopdilou]

Community college FTW!

[Sum Dum Gai]

Seriously though, you've got almost a decade

That's how I felt as recently as a few months ago, and now it feels like my babies are growing up too fast. Talking about the younger one skipping a grade, and how that might effect her in high school, made me realize how close they are. Six years from now they'll be starting their senior year of high school. The last six years flew by, so basically I have what will feel like 2 years left with my kiddos. It's depressing.

- no reason you have to either replace them now.

Now doesn't work anyway. If anything we'd keep them both for 18 months. Then replace them both with 0% APR 60 month loans. So we'll make the last payments the summer before the kids go to college. We'd have to decide whether to trade them in or keep them for the kids, but that seems like a long time to keep a car. Or we save up for the next 78 months and pay cash for two cars the summer before the kids start college, assuming mine runs that long. Or we save up what we can in the mean time, give one car to our oldest on her 16th birthday, and buy one car. Then give the second one to my younger daughter when she turns 16 (15 months later), and replace the second one. If we do that, we'd pay cash since they'll start college a year after the younger one turns 16. The older one is almost 12, so we need to start saving now if we're going to have enough cash to buy a car in 4 years, and a second a little over a year later.