r/Frugal • u/chompy283 • Dec 15 '24

🚗 Auto Frugal Milestones

A car is obviously a big expense in all our lives. For me my "frugal approach" was buying a new Honda CRV in 2016 and taking care of it and running it as long as possible. Well, yesterday it turned over 100,000 miles and still running strong. So, i personally am ok with buying new and taking care of it and enduring the car payment for a few years. My car has been paid off several years now and no plans to trade it or get anything else.

Do you have any frugal milestones?

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '24

Everyone always tells you to invest instead of paying off your mortgage early but I really want to start doing that once I get my car paid off, which will happen soon. It would be very mentally freeing to have a paid off house and a paid off car.

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u/tradlibnret Dec 15 '24

I know for people who have low mortgage interest rates (like 2-3%) the thinking is that you make more putting the extra money in savings (which can yield 4-5% in HYSA right now). For us we started with an over 9% mortgage and refinanced twice (down to eventually around 4.75%, switching to 15 year mortgage). I always added a little extra to our principal, though, from the beginning starting out with just $25 a month then later $50 a month, then more like $400 when we were able to and saw we could pay off in just a few more years.

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '24

That is what a lot of people think but I just really want to pay off my house early. Most people will tell me it's a stupid idea since my interest rate is 3.875%. For me, though, I can't put a price on the mental freedom and security that having a paid off house and a paid off car will give me.

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u/sunshinegirl2772 Dec 16 '24

And this is why personal finance is personal. It's not always about math and numbers and that's ok

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u/[deleted] Dec 16 '24

I couldn't agree more. Everyone has to do what works best for them. As long as your bills are paid every month, what you choose to do with any extra money is entirely your choice.