ff4930

I wish I have that much money back from taxes. This year I had to pay *sniff *sniff.

1black_seven

iTrader: (2)

Get lojack installed.

94eg!

Ya know, it's not like he's won the lottery or anything you guys. It's his own money he's getting back. The dumb part is that the Gov doesn't even pay interest for holding onto it for you all those months. Not the best way to save up your own money if you ask me. You could have already used that money to pay down your loan throughout last year thereby costing you less in interest on your auto loan.

McCollins23

Truer words have never been spoken, bravo!!!

paperboy42190

iTrader: (7)

are you located in socal? I have some ideas for you.

paperboy42190

iTrader: (7)

nvm you are in NY

I hate cars

Very true! I won't get a tax return for many years. I owe about $29k to the IRS. My tax lady is in jail and had to pay a couple million back but the IRS went after all of us individuals as well. Some people were getting back 15k+ but I got my normal amount because I used to claim 0 and I had half the income I do now and she was taking the rest. It was easy to prove I recieved no additional money but they didn't care since she used my social to do it. So I set up a payment plan to buy me some time which happens to be $400 a month and I'm still fighting it. I could claim 0 and have them eat up each tax return but that's not happening when I have a good chance of winning. They will never get my money interest free. But they will steal and bully money from people.

Noel Persaud

LOL this made my morning

94eg!

Modding your own car is one thing. Modding someone else's car (ie: The Bank's), is something else entirely. I own all 4 of my cars. Priority 1 should always be paying them off. The only car I've riced/raced out is my cheapo Civic hatch. All in all that car makes a nicer & cheaper sports-car than most people's "disposable" commuter cars they purchased new.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

I only have $3k left on my car!
6mos and it'll be paid off and all mine!

SharksBreath

iTrader: (33)

geekybiker

Well its more than that. I went over 10k into modding one of my cars before. Turbo kits, ecu, suspension, wheels, etc, etc. modding a car generally devalues it, or at least makes it harder to sell. Even then if you revert to stock or sell the mods on the car you're lucky to get half your money back out of it. Its a terrible ideal financially to put a ton of money into a car. Especially when you could take that money and just put it towards buying the faster/nicer car you wanted in the first place. Lesson learned for me. I wish someone had smacked me upside the head before I spent that much modding.

hofiveo

I say buy a dashboard, sooner or later it will crack, I hope for you is alot later.

94eg!

Yeah that's a tough lesson. I watched several friends do similar things on more than one occasion. Each of them wanting some sort of racing machine to rule the street/track. The worst was when my best friend spent over $7k on a brand new 1st run US Evo only to blow the warranty out the window. Of course it ended up with typical 1st year bugs and he was forced to ditch it.

Fortunately for me I learned from their mistakes. I only went the modding route with the Civic in a sensible fashion. I've been working on for fun & education over the last 14 years. Using it as a learning tool more than anything else. 14 years?!?!?! Crap I'm getting old. :S

I hate cars

Back when I was 17 my father told me not to race/mod my daily driver. Great advice but I didn't listen and the last 3-4 years before I bought the TL I was commuting in a mid 10 second car, sometimes 210 miles round trip. While it was fun for bragging rights, it was not easy on the wallet. Plus staying up all night to keep the car running so I could get to work or having to make alternate plans because I broke something and would not have a car for a week was too much stress. I did it from 17 to 28yrs old when I bought my TL. Toward the end I was just too old to work on it weekly. Keep the daily driver that you're making payments on almost stock and mod the secondary car. I didn't get serious with even the audio in the TL until it was paid off a few years ago.

AZP-TL

Yeah, I don't get a third of that and I pay a lot in taxes.

Cars are black holes, you'll never get back what you put into them, with few exceptions.

Undying Dreams

iTrader: (3)

If you still owe, add that money to paying the loan off, if not, wheels, tires, suspension and exhaust will surely blow through $6k in a flash.

anx1300c

iTrader: (2)

Whines pretty loudly. Turbo is more discreet.

Shoot2Thrill

What would I do:

18-18.5 Gunmetal Enkei Raijins with quality 255/40/18 (summer wheels or nice all the time) Nice to have a spare set of wheels and they can be sold.
nothing else except a high quality RADAR detector
You need to go from a to b and it is nice to have a decent car but they are depreciating assets and a liability.

at 40k per year
traditional 401K - get all the free matching money
traditional IRA - buy ETFs
If your car loan is 7% or less leave it and buy ETF stock funds they will do 10%

Enjoy life but try to 30% plus of your gross income minimum in retirement or other investments.

LaCostaRacer

^ Agreed. At this age of car, I would simply keep the car looking good. I would buy the car a full detail every year as a birthday present and keep on top of all the other maintenance. I think the TL is pretty good as-is. I would save up for the next ride instead.

I drove an IS today at lunch and my 6.5 year old TL is a much nicer car in many respects. I did like the ventilated seats it had though.

tengtengvn

Save it for a better car.

Noel Persaud

I learned my lesson as well. thats why I want to do small things. Performance mods really arent going to happen until AFTER my warranty is over. When I purchased my car these were my future plans:

A-Spec
Coils
Rims
Tint

AND THATS ALL + minor crap like lighting etc. I know 1st hand the issues of modding a car that is my daily.

Noel Persaud

My loan is @ 1.99% so its tempting to get some ETFs. As far as 30% into the 401K I get matched 100% of the first 5% I put in by company and also I get a yearly profit sharing which is sent directly to the 401k. I really cant put in that much im still 24 LOL

350

iTrader: (4)

Pay the car off. The only thing I owe money on is my house, it doesn't bug me writing a large check for a car but it would piss me off paying a few hundred a month on something that is depreciating. Also the reason I'll probably never buy a brand new car is I don't wanna take out a loan on it.

Or just rice the bish out. My TL will only get minor mods, nothing that will affect the reliability/drivability, I have another car for that stuff.

KaotikPlaya

I would say definitely start modding some performance if you haven't yet. Intake and exhaust at least. Then suspension and aspec kit and lights

june_june_0912

damn i slipped i meant to write performance....curses!!!!!

Fatfrii

just throwing my thoughts out there knowing nobody gives a shit lol but i would get a sport bike with that 6K

IamaTL

go away, troll.

MissAlyyTL

If you think 6k is alot, you would shit yourself if you found out how much I got back LOL!
Not to mention since my husband works management in a major wheel/tire retailer, every time some dummy wants to blow his tax return on new shoes it brings him one step closer to hitting sales goals which equals bonuses. Chaching! Tis the season LOL.
Ahemmm... buy some shoes OP!!! lol

Seriously though,
OP- applaud you on the thread, I will be checking in from time to time for a one stop shop for brainstorming.

Jackass

30%? Don't think I could (or willing to) swing that much into savings/investments. Although it would be a great goal to strive for. Not sure how one pays for cars, education, utilities, house, and entertainment yet can still manage to put away 30% of their income? I'm sure we could eliminate our entertainment budget and maybe get close to 30%.....but what fun is that?

I started my 401k when I was in my early 20s and it grew quite nicely...until the market tanked in '08. I lost over 50% of my IRA and 401k value in 3 months. For the most part, it recovered over the next 2 years and continues to grow. I think the most important thing to remember is to for SURE get your employer match and start contributing as early/young as possible.

Best plan right here.

MissAlyyTL

It certainly is doable, but it depends on the cost of living in your area. My husband puts away the max, but our house and 2 out of 3 cars were paid in full and having kids we don't go out to eat as much as we did before them. (No one wants to be that person with the rowdy kids at the table next to them). We are able to do it since housing down here and local taxes are so cheap, compared to other areas of the country where houses START at double what our house was. Granted utilities are more expensive than those areas but not enough to offset much. And at least here in NC wages do not vary much in comparison with states who charge more for homes, rent, etc. so you get more bang for your buck.

30% might sound like a big height but I must agree, its well worth it. Might hurt at first but eventually you will not miss money that you do not see.

PrimeTiime

I got 6.5k return. Job + Student Loan Interest + Baby + Babysitting + Donations =

But as everyone else said; Put a lot of the money towards your car payment and save the rest. With mine I bought a nice TV, Put 3k towards my car payment and saved nearly 3k.

Be smart with your money as things come up and you may need it later; especially with cars.