Let’s face it; most Americans love cars. Unfortunately, most Americans also have way too much car debt.

In an article from Auto Blog posted just a few months ago, they cited increases in new car pricing, and the effect those prices are having on family finances.

A study by Comerica Bank shows that the average purchase price of a new vehicle went up $300 in the second quarter versus the Q1, bringing the average transaction price to $26,300. The upward swing in prices came at a time when the average household income remained stagnant. The average family needs 22.1 weeks of median family income to pay for their new vehicle purchase…

It’s true; cars typically represent one of the largest expenses in a household budget. Only housing costs the average family more each month. Factor in gas, maintenance, taxes, repairs and insurance, and the cost of owning a car pushes even higher.

The most significant expense most people neglect to factor is depreciation.  New cars go down in value like a rock. Some new cars can lose as much as 20% of their original value when you drive it off the car lot. This quick depreciation, and the accelerated depreciation that often follows, leaves people owing much more in car loans than their car is worth.

If you find yourself in an upside down car loan, it is a safe bet your situation could be improved if you sell that “new” car and buy a much cheaper used one for your work commute. You may still owe money, but you’ll owe much less money, and that is almost always a good thing.

How to Get Out of An Upside Down Car Loan

1. The very first step to getting rid of an upside down car is to evaluate how much your current car is worth. Using sites like Kelley Blue Book and Edmunds, try to determine the amount of your current car’s private sale value (not trade-in, which is often much lower). Be sure to be honest about the condition of your car, and enter the exact mileage to get a good valuation.

2. Save $2,000 to buy a “beater” to get back and forth to work. If you really want to get out of your upside down car loan, now is the time to swallow your pride, and put aside your love of shiny cars. Over the next couple months, try to scrape up a couple thousand dollars to buy an old, ugly (but mechanically reliable) car to get you to work. That’s the only requirements. No sex appeal; no bells and whistles (and no car payment!).

3. Get an updated loan balance on upside down car. Contact your bank or auto finance company and get the current “pay off” balance on your car. Compare this figure to the estimated sale price from step one. Often times car owners discover that they are not really upside down after all. However, if you bought new with nothing down, and/or rolled the balance of your previous car loan into your new one, chances are you are in fact in an upside down car.

4. Contact local bank or credit union to pre-qualify loan for the difference. Let’s assume you owe $22,000 on a car estimated to be worth $17,000. Unless you have $5,000 sitting around, you are going to need help paying off the car loan when you sell the car (this is a required step to clear the title for the new owner).  Discuss options for a personal loan in the upside down amount. This step is a lot easier if your loan is already financed at a local bank or credit union. Simply explain to the loan officer that they are already exposed to $5,000 in unsecured liability based on the figures you’ve obtained.

5. Consider alternate sources of funding. If your bank or credit union won’t budge, or your car is financed through the manufacturer, you will have to look for other ways to fund the difference. If you have good credit, Lending Club is a potential source of financing. Tell your story as part of the borrower profile and ask for help in dumping your upside down car loan.

6. Get your car detailed, inside and out. Back when I was in the market for a car I was amazed to find so many dirty cars for sale. It doesn’t take a lot of money or time to give a car a thorough cleaning, and clean cars bring more cash, so there is definitely a return on your investment.

7. Advertise your car is for sale in every legal place you can think of – and include pictures. Pick up a “For Sale” sign at an office supply store and stick it in the windshield with your cell phone number. Place a flyer with color pics (take a couple good photos, design your own flyer in Microsoft Word or Photoshop, and get a few color copies made) on your gym’s bulletin board, at work (where allowable), and post on Craigslist, community classified sites, etc. Tell your Twitter followers, friends on Facebook, email distribution…everyone you know that you are trying to sell your car.

8. Create a bill of sale to provide buyer, and immediately drop your insurance coverage on old car. Since it might take a while to deposit the money from the buyer, and close out the financing on your loan for the difference owed to pay off your car, prepare a bill of sale for the new owner to show proof of transfer of ownership. Bill of Sale forms for your state can be found online at places like LegalZoom.com. Be sure to also get new owner’s mailing address (if different than listed on the bill of sale) so you can forward the title to them when the finance company returns it to you after loan is paid in full. Also, be sure to contact your insurance company immediately following the sale to update your policy.

With your upside down car gone, and the huge car payment replaced by a smaller loan payment, start a car replacement fund to prepare to buy your next car with cash. Over time, you will eventually be able to trade up in car, but only do so when you have the cash to pay for it. Who knows; you might even find yourself driving a million mile car one day and skipping car payments forever.

Photo by ozjimbob

“Geraldine”, a sassy lady portrayed by the late Flip Wilson, answered her husband thusly when he demanded an explanation for yet another new dress: “The Devil made me do it! I was walking down the street minding my own business when he snuck up behind me and pushed me into that dress store. He MADE me try on! Then he pulled a gun on me and forced me to buy it and sign your name to a check.”

Geraldine’s humor is timeless because so many of us can relate to it. For example, have you ever bought a new car and then wondered what possessed you to do it? I doubt if it was the devil, but the devil’s first cousin, car fever, will have the same results.

Do you currently own a car you wish you had never bought? Are you asking yourself if you should try to sell it or just live with it? This post is designed to help you think through this dilemma.

Start by asking yourself these questions:

How much do I owe on it?

If you paid cash, then you are probably not facing a financial crisis necessitating the sale of the car. If you simply don’t like the car, then take your time, sell it and pay cash for another one. If you are in debt, move on to question two.

How big a burden is this car on my budget?

If one hiccup in your life will cause you to start missing payments, then you need to amputate this car before that hiccup occurs. Even if you are easily making your payments, you still might be deceived into thinking all is well. Long term debt on a depreciating asset such as a car is a formula for staying perpetually in car debt. To break that cycle, you need to get the car paid off in 24 months or less and then keep driving it while you save cash for your next car. If you are on track to do so, then keep the car and enjoy it. If not, you should seriously consider getting rid of it.

If I am seriously considering selling, how do I go about it?

Knowledge is power. First, you need to learn if you are upside down (owe more than the car is worth). Check http://www.kbb.com/ to learn the private party value* of your car. If this value is less than what you owe, you are upside down. *(Use private party value because you are money ahead selling the car yourself).

But how does this work? Here is an example: You owe $22,000 on your “Geraldine” car and you could sell it for $18,000 (private party sale on www.kbb.com), thus putting you $4,000 upside down. If you decided to buy a $3,000 car (we will call the “beater”), your new debt would be $3,000 plus $4,000 = $7,000. You are still upside down, but you have eliminated $15,000 of debt.

How do I go about selling a car I am upside down on?

Unless you have an extra $4,000 available, you will need to borrow it in order to get the title released. So where do you borrow the money from?

Start by checking with the title holder. You have done your homework, so explain your rationale. In effect, you are asking for an unsecured loan on your upside down amount. Most lenders are not thrilled by this, but explain that this same amount of the current loan is already unsecured and you are simply asking that they move this amount from a more expensive car to a less expensive car.

If the title holder balks, don’t give up. Try your credit union or your home town bank, explaining that you will be moving your business to them. If you simply can’t find financing, consider other options such as selling stuff (Craigs List or Ebay or yard sales) or temporarily working a part time job.

REALITY CHECK: Are you ready to get your Geraldine car out of your life? Good! Doing so will not only be a huge relief, but will teach you to never again succumb to car fever. Still, you need to go into this decision with both eyes open, so the following pros and cons will help you preview the reality of your decision:

The Good

• LESS DEBT. You have just reduced your total debt by $15,000!
• OUT OF DEBT QUICKER: From our example, with an 8% loan and monthly payments of $400, your Geraldine car will be paid for in 5 years and 9 months. Your “beater”, on the other hand, will be paid off in only 19 months.
• STAY OUT OF DEBT: Once the beater is paid off, you could save $4,800 toward another car by making payments to yourself for one year. Assuming your beater would bring $2,000, you could upgrade to a $6,800 paid for car. Had you stuck with your Geraldine car, it would have depreciated to about $12,000 by now and you would still owe $13,300 on it.
• PEACE: You will know that you have taken the steps to undo that Geraldine decision. This is a great feeling.

The Reality Check

• INCONVENIENCE: Selling your car and buying another is a hassle.
• A DOWNGRADED DRIVE: Face it: your Geraldine car is nicer than a beater will be. Be prepared for it.
• LESS DEPENDABILITY: No doubt your beater will have some issues. You need to be realistic in assuming that it will not be as dependable as a newer car.
• MORE MAINTENANCE: With less dependability comes more maintenance.
• FRIENDS WON’T UNDERSTAND: Reality? Yes. Negative? Not really. Just be prepared for it.

One Final Reality Check

You may not be able to arrange the necessary financing. Why? Either your credit score is not adequate or you are too far upside down. Should this be your scenario, you will need to strategically pay down all other debt in order to free up enough cash flow to make huge car payments. Keep the car until it is paid off or you will be swimming in car debt for years to come.

Readers: Have you ever regretted a car purchase? What did you do and how did it work? What tips would you offer?

In a recent post I reported that the Frugal family was nearly debt free. Well, we’ve crossed that pinnacle point, and are now enjoying life after debt. A comment from that post, and my initial experiences, have me wondering if life really is any easier after crossing over from being in debt to enjoying a life without it.

The first thing we did after reaching debt freedom was realign our financial goals. The first, of course, was to secure a fully-funded emergency fund, one that represented about six months of expenses. Admittedly, it was tough to keep up the same intensity towards saving money as we had for paying off debt. That brings me back to the thought-provoking comment left by Rob from PassionSaving.com. Here’s a portion of that comment that struck me:

If your experience is like mine, it won’t be all smooth sailing from this point forward. I say this not to be discouraging, but to point out what might be a basic reality of human life — it is a journey of ups and downs no matter how skilled one becomes at handling one’s money issues.

What I believe today is that accomplishing a big money goal like paying off one’s debt does not so much solve all your problems as open you up to a higher class of problems. The old problems truly are solved. But solving them provokes you into taking on new adventures, which lead to new problems. You will continue to find yourself frustrated and stuck and in pain and in fear in days to come.

My initial reaction? Yeah right! What could possibly be any more painful, financially, than going through the motions of paying off debt? What money struggles could we face that are even close to the struggles faced in the past? I suspect most people still deep in debt probably had that same reaction. But as I thought more about Rob’s comment, and began to experience life after debt, I understand his point.

Yes, we no longer have to contend with debt, but that doesn’t mean more daunting financial challenges aren’t ahead. My oldest child will soon be ten years old, which apart from terrifying me as a father, also serves as a wake-up call to get her college savings in order. Because we spent so many years toiling with debt and trying to get on solid footing, her college savings have suffered. The good news? Without debt we can afford larger contributions to her 529 plan, which should help us make up ground.

It’s a similar story for our own retirement plan. I diverted money we could have, and probably should have, used for retirement savings to pay down debt. Unfortunately, this means we missed a great opportunity to invest in our 20’s and let that money compound for a few decades. Are you reading 20-somethings? Make long-term savings a priority now!

In the final analysis, I would have to admit that yes, life is easier after debt. Paydays are now an exciting event because it means making more contributions to savings, rather than distributing most of your income to credit card and auto finance companies. But life after debt is not without challenges. And those challenges can conjure up the familiar fears and anxiety felt when looking at a pile of debt.

How will I even save enough to retire? How much will my kids need for college? Will I ever be able to save in taxable investments to chart a course to early retirement? I’ll approach these new challenges the same way I approached, and overcame, the ones related to debt. We’ll tackle them head on, and remain disciplined through the same frugal approach we take towards nearly all of life’s ups and downs.

I made the mistake yesterday of sharing a link with Twitter followers indicating the Cash for Clunker rebate would be treated as taxable income. Astute followers quickly pointed out that the link I shared was from a site spreading a false rumor about the Cash for Clunkers tax implications for buyers.

Instead, I should have checked out the C.A.R.S. government-run site, which provides the following answer to the burning cash for clunker tax rules question:

Is the credit subject to being taxed as income to the consumers that participate in the program?

NO. The CARS Act expressly provides that the credit is not income for the consumer.

While I wasn’t fond of the Cash for Clunkers program from the get-go, I concede that it spurred on many more sales than I expected. In fact, it might be the first program with any real stimulative effect since the passage of over a trillion dollars in bailouts and stimulus packages.

It seems Americans are always up for a $4,500 rebate. However, the suspicious consumer in me wondered if the manufacturers suggested retail price (and dealer price) didn’t go up in advance of the deal. After all, an increase in consumer buying power, especially when generated artificially as in the case of a government rebate, is often followed by higher prices.

I also wondered if consumers would be trading in cars for a rebate when they could have received much more money via a private sale. But that is always a risk when trading in a car at a dealership. The dealer is not going to give you top dollar because he has to leave a little room to make that when he resells the car (not a problem under Cash for Clunkers since they were ordered to be destroyed) he turns a small profit, or at a minimum breaks even.

Debt is also a concern. How many people trade in a paid-for clunker for a shiny new car with a big auto loan? It might be better for the environment, but is it better for your family finances? That remains to be seen. Might be a good time to be in the repo business, though.

All this is water under the bridge now, as the Cash for Clunker program ended Monday night. However, it sure would have been quite the surprise to learn Cash for Clunker tax rules meant the rebate you received was treated as taxable income. From my web research, it sounds like there still may be an issue for dealers, and even buyers may not be completely out of the woods when it comes to state taxes on Cash for Clunkers. At least it appears Cash for Clunkers will not negatively impact buyer’s federal taxes.

Additional Resources:

• Cash For Clunker Payments – Tax Rules
• Cash for Clunkers Tax Rules – The Truth
• (More) Cash for Clunkers Tax Rules
• Does Cash for Clunkers Affect Your Taxes?
• Tax Rules And Consequences Of The Cash For Clunkers Program

Fans of the Dave Ramsey Show probably recognized that line in the title. Dave’s got a few variations – pay off the Tahoe, amputate the Tahoe, etc. Over the last few weeks I’ve been hinting at how close we were to paying off my wife’s Tahoe (our family vehicle). My old van was paid off long ago, but our family ride has been dragging a debt payment behind it for the last four years. I’ve been personally dragging around car debt even longer, and I can’t tell you how good it felt to make the last payment on Friday.

It might not seem like a big deal to some, but for me it represents finally freeing ourselves of the bondage of car debt. It was a journey that’s taken over a decade. I’ve gone through the sordid history of my ill-conceived car purchases in the past in great detail, so I’ll simply summarize them here.

• My first car was a 1985 Buick Century, handed down from my grandparents. It was a nice car, but it wasn’t a “cool” car, so I didn’t fully appreciate it as a teenager. However, it didn’t have a payment, and the insurance was relatively cheap, which is a big bonus for teenagers. I drove that Buick until the wheels fell off, almost quite literally. It developed serious electrical problems, and one night while parked in my dorm room parking lot in college it caught fire under the hood. We tried to replace some of the wiring, but it was cooked…literally.

• At 21 years-old, and newly married, I leased a brand new Isuzu Rodeo. It was a stupid decision considering the annual salary I was earning at the time was only a fraction more than the lease amount!

• At 26 years-old I was still driving the Rodeo, having paid off the lease by taking out another loan, extending the payments another three years.

• At 27 years-old our family was growing, so we bought a used (the only thing smart about it) 2001 Chevy Tahoe. Since I still owed money on the Rodeo, the bank was nice enough to roll that into the loan for the Tahoe since the sellers were letting it go for far less than Kelly Blue Book.

• After a number of months of trying to sell the Rodeo via private sale, I made the mistake of stopping by a car lot and started stalking a beautiful, gently used Chevy Silverado pickup truck. The salesman worked his magic and talked me into trading in the Rodeo and driving off with the Silverado (and even more car debt).

• It only took a few months of making both payments for me to realize something had to give, and that something had to be my Silverado truck – as much as I loved that truck. I put a “For Sale” sign in the window, and advertised it in the local credit union bulletin. In two weeks she was being backed out of my driveway by the new owner for $1,000 less than what I paid.  I wrote that $1,000 off as stupid tax.

We diligently kept up payments on the Tahoe, but at some point I just got downright tired of having a car payment. I told my wife in April that I wanted to move the Tahoe up in our debt snowball, following what I now know to be the Debt Tsunami style of debt snowballing. It didn’t make sense mathematically, as it was an incredibly low interest rate, and it wasn’t our lowest balance. It was personal. I had decided we had been dragging around a car payment long enough, and since we were within a few thousand dollars of paying it off, I wanted to make a final push and be done with it.

Last Friday we did just that, making a final payoff of about $700, which I scrounged up from freelance work, and from Friday’s paycheck from my full-time gig. The budget will be a tighter for the next two weeks because it was a stretch to pay it off, but I couldn’t wait another two weeks. The instant I pressed “submit” for the final loan payment online I felt the load of eleven years of car debt being lifted.

Now I look forward to receiving the title from our credit union, and for the first time in my adult life, being car debt free. Dave Ramsey’s right; they do drive better when they aren’t towing a car payment!