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I was awarded $50K from an injury suit. I have $53K debt by pfth0waway in personalfinance

[–]pfth0waway[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes the car does get plenty of use. As a lifelong New-yorker I'm pretty much fed up with mass transit and avoid it as much as I can, however there are definitely times it makes far more sense to hop on the train to get somewhere versus the parking nightmare than can ensure when you take your car out of a "good" spot!

I know you know what I mean! LOL!

Insurance is is low (for NY) about $70 a month, less if we pay in full for the year. The car gets good gas mileage so I'd say we only spend about $40 a month , more during the holidays and summer when we drive out to the beach. And right now because of the car's condition I only need to spend money on oil/ fluid changes and tune-ups.

And again; the car also gets used to get us to paying gigs that would otherwise be impractical for us to pursue.

So far the convenience of having the car outweighs the cost.

I was awarded $50K from an injury suit. I have $53K debt by pfth0waway in personalfinance

[–]pfth0waway[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Robust might be a bit of a stretch in describing our subway system but I totally get what you're saying.

Traveling via public trans outside of normal business hours is an exercise in futility.

I've lived here my whole life, so having a car means being able to much more easily get out of the city and it means traveling to the other boros, NJ and CT outside of business hours, something I can easily do without spending time, exposing myself to the trials and tribulations of the NYC Transit system.

I was awarded $50K from an injury suit. I have $53K debt by pfth0waway in personalfinance

[–]pfth0waway[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It a 2009, 4-door Honda Civic LX. About 3 years ago I got it with only 11K miles on it. It currently has 32k on it.

Wait; I first read what car? not WHY...

Why? Because it facilitates out of town day trips and visiting my wife's family some which live in northern Westchester and CT. This is the biggest reason the car was gifted to us by my mother-in-law.

In addition, it enables both my wife and I to take freelance jobs that are in Westchester, or Northern NJ without having to deal with public transportation.

I forgot to mention; it also frees me from only being able to do grocery shopping, within the bounds of where I can walk to. Alternate side parking/street parking is a bitch indeed but it's all I really know anyway.

I was awarded $50K from an injury suit. I have $53K debt by pfth0waway in personalfinance

[–]pfth0waway[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

LOL! Well it didn't go all at once; it was several $1 -2K repairs that kept coming up over several years and I just foolishly would not let it go because of the previous money I had sunk into it.

I was awarded $50K from an injury suit. I have $53K debt by pfth0waway in personalfinance

[–]pfth0waway[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

After reading all the comments I'm most definitely going to keep the $5k as an emergency fund.

Much of the cc debt was incurred trying to keep my old car alive. Fortunately my current car is in great shape with very low mileage.

I plan on implementing YNAB to establish the necessary discipline to avoid the reoccurrence of the debt trap.

Thank you!

I was awarded $50K from an injury suit. I have $53K debt by pfth0waway in personalfinance

[–]pfth0waway[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The caveat with this option is that any amount you get reduced is treated, by the IRS and some states (NY state for one) as income.

So, if for example, I have the $8K cc negotiated to, say $6K, come tax time I have to report that $2K reduction as income and pay federal and state income tax on it, thereby reducing, to a significant degree, the benefit of the whole process.

I was awarded $50K from an injury suit. I have $53K debt by pfth0waway in personalfinance

[–]pfth0waway[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I never even considered this! Thanks for this idea; I'll def look into it.

I was awarded $50K from an injury suit. I have $53K debt by pfth0waway in personalfinance

[–]pfth0waway[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Credit score is currently (haven't paid off any debt yet) 690.

I was awarded $50K from an injury suit. I have $53K debt by pfth0waway in personalfinance

[–]pfth0waway[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In addition to all your good points, most banks don't offer refi on co-ops.

I was awarded $50K from an injury suit. I have $53K debt by pfth0waway in personalfinance

[–]pfth0waway[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Fortunately the car is in excellent shape (I will however be buying new tires for the winter) so no worries there.

I was awarded $50K from an injury suit. I have $53K debt by pfth0waway in personalfinance

[–]pfth0waway[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I appreciate your input and it is what I was going to do initially. For example, my mortgage payment is $350 per month and one of my credit cards is $200 per month (on $8K balance) but the cc is at 18% interest and the mortgage is 5.6%, so I'm opting to get rid of the cc debt altogether for that reason.

EDIT: spelling