Task 20 - Pay off Car Loan

When I bought my current car I had a choice between 36 and 60 month terms. I opted for the 60 month term since my bank was running a promotion for used cars reducing the APR to the same as the 36 month loan. There was no early payment penalty so I figured why not take the longer term and I would just plan to pay as if it was a 48 month term. 

I take very good care of my vehicles and keep up with preventative maintenance. I knew I had a timing belt coming soon so I took the car in early to get it done. I even paid cash to get a better price.  It was a mechanic I had used before and that my parents had used for years. Unfortunately shortly after that maintenance the timing belt skipped and ruined the engine. It was very disappointing that a bad mechanic could throw such an expensive wrench in my plans.

I managed to find a new mechanic who was honest and fairly priced who put my car back together at a more affordable price then the dealership wanted to charge. This however significantly slowed my increased payment stream since I first had to cover the 2800 engine I just had installed. I decided to slow my payments to the required amount only and replenish my savings account I had just drained.

While that slowed me down about 7 months I am happy to report that the car is paid off and the title in hand. It’s a great feeling not having a payment anymore. I have 120k miles on the car averaging 30k+ a year and hope to get a couple more years before needing to replace it. I plan to continue to pay myself the car payment to savings as a future down payment on a new car to keep the next loan as small as possible and also to help fund my Murphy Fund.
 

Task 15 - Create a Murphy Fund (25$ per Pay Check)

You no doubt know about Murphy’s Law, the suggestion that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. And of course there are the corollaries that go along with it like the one that says that when something does go wrong it will be at the very worst time. Lately I have felt cursed and have watched my savings account dwindle while attempting to stay ahead of all my troubles. We all go through rough patches and all have felt a certain amount of despair where we feel like we can't catch a break and this is sadly my time to feel this way.

First it was the car. After putting nearly 3000$ into general repairs and preventative maintenance (brakes, timing belt, etc), I was not prepared to have to come up with 3000$ more to replace the motor as a result of a poorly installed timing belt. Thankfully the silver lining here is that I found a very capable and honest mechanic who replace my motor and did so with out me feeling taken advantage of. Hopefully I can get the mechanic who replaced the timing belt to cover some of the costs related to the motor repair.

Next came my roof rack. Everyone knows that I love to be active in the summer and often have my lime green mtn bike or kayaks on my roof. Especially on the weekends when I'm on search for the perfect place to launch or ride. Sadly those days have come to an end both as a result of the weather and the theft of my roof rack. Last Sunday or maybe Monday morning someone pilfered the fairing and rear half of my roof rack right off my car. I guess the statement that if a thief wants something he will find a way to take it. It was locked down but 400$ worth of rack is now gone. The silver lining with this one is that no damage was done to the car. I do not plan to replace the rack however since the lock's on the rack clearly failed and I am not willing to risk another one being stolen. Until Thule can make a lock that can't just be ripped off the car I will avoid putting a new unit on my car. Additionally my car is getting older and it will likely be replaced in the next year or two.

The same night my roof rack was discovered partly missing I found myself increasingly frustrated as I was doing laundry. I filled the washer with towels and right before bed it was time to put them in the dryer. Well sadly my condo looked like a hobo village that night with towels laid out all over drying. The dryer was not cooperating and wouldn't turn on. It is finally fixed but 200$ later.

With all of this going wrong I thought what better time to have had an emergency "Murphy" fund setup to cover the expenses without feeling like I was collecting all my quarter's to cover these costs. Anyone who is a saver can tell you its hard to save and very frustrating to watch money go out the door unnecessarily. Hopeful that things will improve and I won't be faced with more nightmare expenses but I must be a realist and plan for the worst. I have made an adjustment to my direct deposit to put 25$ a pay cycle into an account that I plan to use for nothing more then unexpected costs like car repairs. Being paid by weekly that means it should generate a Murphy Fund of  $650 a year. That isn't much but hopefully it will compound over time and I'll have a few years where I don't have to dip into it.