Usually I see bloggers posting questions from their readers about what they should do in certain situations. No one asks me any questions so I thought I would lay my own dilemma out there for you. My wife and I own two cars both of the are paid in full. I love the fact that I have the title to both of these cars and aside from fuel and maintenance they don’t cost me anything. I know a lot of people who wish they didn’t have a car payment and let me tell you I love the hell out of it.
Recently my wife has decided it is time for her to pick up a new car, the old one is just old to her now. Not only does she want a new car but she wants a 2007 or newer Black Chevy Tahoe. I don’t know if you have ever priced out a Tahoe before but a 2007 with decent miles costs at least $10k more than we paid for either one of the cars we own now. I attempted to explain how ludicrous it is to even consider such a thing as buying a new car, “why the hell do you want a new car the one you have is fine, I won’t have it PERIOD.”
For those of you married men out there, telling your wife she can’t do something is the equivalent of punching them in the face with a brick in your hand, they don’t like it. I still haven’t completed recovered from this little misstep although she did soften her resolve for a few months. We had discussed the option of a car swap, where I take her car and she takes mine. That way the cars are new, to us anyway. To me this was the best solution to the problem and one I embraced wholly. The only things I need to take care of are some new tires and window tint which I have been dragging on but plan to take care of soon.
Thinking that was the end of it I forgot about the dilemma entirely, until recently. I have caught my wife once again perusing the ranks of CarMax in search of the perfect used Tahoe with the occasional “Oh, look at this one Kyle it is only $36k.” Which usually results in me coughing and choking on my beer.
The way I see it is that I am failing to adequately support my desire for not wanting another car payment, these are the facts I think lean most towards us not purchasing, with a loan, a new car:
- Both Cars are in good working condition
- Out of the two of us working I am the only one contributing to a retirement account
- With two children we are saving $0 per month for higher education
- Student loan has not been paid off
- Second mortgage has not been paid off
My wife really wants a new car, and I don’t want her to be unhappy I just don’t think it is the best thing for us financially right now. The fact that this hasn’t been worked out yet is probably 90% my fault for failing to communicate adequately. What would you do in this situation? What should I do?
No bashing my old lady, she is entitled to her wants just like anyone else, help us out an weigh in on the problem.
A lot has been said across personal finance books and blogs about the danger of debt and how the elimination of debt can speed you on your way to “financial freedom.” While debt is certainly a hurdle which could prevent you from maximizing your earning potential I don’t think it is THE reason you aren’t where you want to be financially.
The mere presence of debt is not the reason you aren’t reaching your financial potential. You have made choices in life which have determined where you are today. Those choices may have been to travel constantly on borrowed money which resulted in a large amount of revolving credit debt. The debt is not the reason but the result. The choices we make everyday affect our financial future. Getting ahead and on track requires a change in the way you think about your spending and how you interact with money.
Just waking up one day and deciding you are going to pay off your debt and start saving isn’t going to get you to financial freedom. It is certainly a step in the right direction, but it is only a step and not a solution. There is a reason you have so much debt, some you can’t control like medical bills others are entirely your doing like cars and credit cards. The key to improving our finances is to identify the underlying reasons for what is keeping us back and then altering our behavior and mentalities.
I have seen many people question the need for budgeting and several bloggers who talk about budgeting who don’t do it themselves. In the progression towards mastering your finances budgeting has a role to play but doesn’t have to be permanent. Budgeting forces you to analyze your spending so you can track your progress in each of your budgeted categories. This is the real benefit of budgeting. By forcing you to analyze your spending you will start to realize what habits are costing you the most. This will allow you to start to change how you think about those categories so you affect a change in the way you spend.
I am a firm believer that you can’t figure out where you are going with out knowing where you have been. Budgeting and tracking your spending let you figure out where you were. Once you have figured out where you were determine where you want to be. If you don’t know where you are going you can’t develop a plan to get there. Setting goals for the future doesn’t necessarily have to mean you are 100% debt free it may be part of the means to get there but isn’t a necessity. Don’t assume that you have to be debt free to achieve your goals. I understand the reasoning behind being debt free and I hope that one day I can say I have the option to be either debt free or not. Don’t let the dream of being debt free keep you from achieving the things in life you want to accomplish. It could be one of your goals, but it doesn’t have to be. Debt doesn’t have to be bad, if you don’t abuse it you can use it.
When you owe people money you want to hide in a corner and hope that something happens to change your situation. Hey that ten dollars worth of lotto tickets is going to come through this time. A lot of people take the road of avoidance as a way to deal with past due bills in hopes their creditor may not be able to get at them. In three years of collections I found people who would go to amazing lengths to avoid paying a bill. The most creative people would actually move their house with out notifying us – we collected on mobile homes. The most common ways are to move and install renters, cancel your phone(s), and change jobs. When a debtor goes AWOL(Absent Without Leave) collection companies and creditors don’t give up, they get down to some good old fashioned skip tracing.
Skip tracing is the art of locating the unlocateable. Commonly used by bounty hunters as well as collectors it is as much an art of social engineering and ingenuity as it being a private investigator. To succeed at skip tracing you have to walk a fine line between legal and illegal to determine the location of the debtor. Most of the time the process is a lot easier than you would initially think but sometimes you really have to work at it. People who really don’t want to be found can make it down right impossible to get ahold of them.
Common Methods of Skip Tracing
- Whitepages - This may seem to simple but a lot of people just don’t tell you when their numbers have changed. The easiest way to check it out is to look them up in the phone book. This method is a little more difficult now with so many people relying on their cellular phones as a means of communication. The phone book can help locate people who moved as well, especially if you know the city they moved to.
- Old Phone Numbers – It seems counterproductive at first but moving backwards in time through old phone numbers you have on file will usually produce a few good leads. People may have been living with their mother, or used their mom’s house as contact number for a bit of time.
- Employer – While not entirely a skip tracing method it is a viable means of contact. In some cases you can scroll back through old employers numbers in attempts to make contact. People can jump back and forth between jobs or you may get lucky and catch someone who is still a friend and give you a good contact number.
- References – Do you remember when you filled out that loan form and they asked you for two-four references. Those lenders didn’t ask because they wanted to call and check up on how you acted when you were a kid. They got those contacts so they can hound them if you ever decide to go AWOL. Once the phone book has been exhausted it is time to get on the references. The initial numbers will be tried first, if those numbers are disconnected then it is back to the phone book to try there. If you still can’t find them it is time to expand your search.
- Neighbors – When the references are all used up you can move outward towards neighbors. You can actually pull neighborhood searches based on an initial address. If you know where the debtor lives they pull addresses, names, and numbers for the surrounding residents. You then begin to call each of those contacts asking for contact information for the debtor. You can’t really talk about who you are or why you are looking but the inference is there.
- County Tax Office – The county tax office keeps records of the updated address for anyone paying/owing property taxes. When renters move in the county will typically still maintain a valid address for the property owner so they can continue to collect taxes. A skip tracer will then take that information and start back at the beginning to try to locate the debtor at the new address.
- Credit Reports – When everything else fails you can pull a credit report. The credit report will disclose any new accounts the debtor has opened. The report will typically include the last reported employer as well information on other debts owed including information on how to contact those creditors. Using the newly gleaned information you can contact the debtor at work or start contacting additional creditors in hopes of sweet talking a contact number out of them.
- Field Agents – When all else fails it is time to take to the field. Back when I was doing collections we saved the agents for the farthest past due accounts because it is expensive and takes a lot of work to get someone out there knocking on doors. The field agents are going to visit the home, leave notes, and in some cases knock on a few neighbors doors.
The true art of skip tracing is the ability to deal with people. When you get someone on the phone who you have no real business with you have to be able to gently persuade them to give you the information you need. The saddest part of this whole process is 3/4 of the time the contact is to help the debtor out of their situation not make it worse. Just know even when you go AWOL the creditors are going to work to find you and collect their debt. When all else fails there is always court, and in extreme situations wage garnishment.
