It’s been a great week for us financially, still I’m feeling a little guilty about being so stingy. I’ve definitely been ungenerous this week. As much as I like to help people, especially family, it’s hard to help financially when we aren’t debt free.
You have to know the whole story to fully understand, so here it goes.
Tom got a fabulous interest rate at a credit union in order buy his brother’s SUV. At 1.75 percent interest the most we will pay in interest over the life of the loan is $700. And the credit union paid him $200!
We currently have 3 cars at our house while we are figuring out how to sell my 2005 Toyota Corolla. I worked so hard to pay off that car. Getting the title in the mail was one of the most satisfying moments of my life.
Neither of my little sisters currently have a car. Isabel is in college and would love a car to drive home to visit us, and Tori really needs a car to get to work. Currently she and my mom are sharing a car which means sometimes I end up being the chauffeur.
Common sense would make you believe that if we have 3 cars and my family needs one, we should generously gift them the car, right? I don’t need three cars, and they need it.
Here’s the last piece of the equation: the car is worth roughly $3,000. The same amount that we currently owe on the last of Tom’s law school debt.
Selling this car would mean that we could officially be finished with this monstrous debt that had a crazy high interest rate (as high as 8%).
So, we are opting to be stingy. We’ve offered to sell the car to family for $2,200.
As guilty as I feel for not helping my family, I also feel good about our decision.
We made a goal 6 years ago to pay off $180,000 in 7 years or less. We are so close to the finish line that I can’t possibly give up now.
Here’s what I’ve learned this week: It’s okay to be stingy with your money when you are working towards a goal. It’s not being stingy, it’s being smart. If we want to be financially fit, we have to make tough decisions like this.
[bctt tweet=”You can’t help people financially if you aren’t financially fit yourself. ” username=”eatdrinkandsave”]
Maybe I’ll look back one day and think differently.
As far as financial successes and failures go for the week, I think it’s a great success that we bought a new (to us) car with a 1.75% interest rate. No room for financial failures this week!
What do you think about being stingy with money?
I don’t agree that you should feel in any way stingy about this. It would not be reasonable to gift someone a car of that value. You provided them with a great transportation option at a price they could afford and took an $800 loss in the process. That was very generous and kind of you, I think.
Thank you! I need that kind of validation (I guess that’s why I blog).
I hate those charity checkout donations. I donate directly to charity. So often I’ll say no to charity checkouts.
Exactly, but I still feel guilty! I need to get over it!
Good for you!! You absolutely have to make the right choice for yourself and I certainly hope that your family understands! I have extended family members that take a fast glacé at my life and how little I spend and they assume we’re sitting pretty financially. I just want to scream “we are in debt!”
I’m so glad you made the right choice. And congrats on being so close to your debt payoff goal!!
Thank you! It’s really hard not to help family, but I have to remind myself that my husband and my kids are the ones I have to take care of first.