Financial Tug-of-War
There has been a financial tug-of-war going on in our family for months and months. Up until last week, the “rope” was the stupid truck (yes, the now-infamous “stupid tax on wheels”) that sits in our driveway and is our last debt. I have been on one side, asking hubby to sell it. Hubby has been on the other side, refusing to sell it up until last weekend.
Now, hubby is the rope. I of course am still wanting to sell the stupid truck. On the other end of the rope are my in-laws. They are actively trying to persuade hubby to KEEP the truck and pay the $13,682.01 still owed on it. Now, I have not spoken directly to my in-laws about this matter, but hubby says these are their reasons they want him to keep it.
- Space: the stupid truck is a four door crew cab, with a pickup bed.
- Safety: the truck is new, big, and mostly metal. Sort of like a stylish tank on wheels with the gas mileage to match when compared to my little 2000 Ford Escort ZX2.
- Reliability: Hubby learned this one from his parents, and they all firmly believe that a new vehicle must be reliable simply because it is new and hasn’t had as long to wear out.
- It’s halfway paid off already…why not just finish it and keep it? My projections say if we keep the truck and make monster payments on it we can have it paid off no later than April 2008.
I have one simple reason for why I feel we need to sell the stupid truck: pharmacy school tuition starting next fall is $27,100 for the first year. Scholarships for pharmacy students don’t start up until the second year of graduate school, so we will be “on our own” for the first year’s tuition. Given our income, we can probably max the pell grant, but I have read that even at max it will only be around $5,000-6,000 which leaves us still over $20K short.
If we sell the truck right now, we will be able to save up over $20,000 between now and August 2008 when the first semester of tuition is due (plus of course the textbooks and fees), even with paying my spring tuition bill in late November. But every month we keep that truck represents $2,000 less that we can save towards tuition. If we keep it and pay it off, then that will mean we will only have $8,000 at the most to pay on my tuition, which will not be enough.
I have known that truck note has been holding us back since January, when I did the first budget. It wasn’t until last month I knew how much pharmacy school was going to cost, and that’s when it became an urgent high priority mission to convince hubby to sell it. We are truly at a critical turning point for our immediate and long-term financial future here…and the outcome will all depend on whether we sell or keep that stupid truck out in our driveway.
