Who has done a financial no-no in order to buy a classic?

[PocketThunder]

I thought I'd bring this topic back from the dead since anyone answering Bull's original question now might do it differently. The reason I went looking for this thread, was I got a statement at work the other day showing the vested amount I have in two 401K plans. We have profit sharing here & my employer contributes to the plans. Kind of made me feel sick, but it would have been worse if it came right out of my own pocket.

Without actually posting the amount that disappeared on me, if I took the money out myself, I probably could have bought a brand new Challenger SRT8 & still had enough money to go get a crate Hemi for one of my old clunkers.   

Yep, took about 40% hit myself, but i've got another 40 years to work before i can retire so i should be able to absorb it.  I should have cashed it out at the peak of 2006 and payed the 30% fee's.  I'd still have more than i do now.  But that stock will be worth something again some day... right?..??   

In thread topic relation.  When i was young, dumb, and full of bubblegum i used my credit card to buy parts for my ongoing 55 Chebby project.  When i got it done i had a nice car but i just didnt feel good about it because i still owed $5000 to the credit card on it.  I finally paid that off and then i felt like it was really my car. 

Now its cash and carry, if i dont have the cash to buy the parts then i have to wait, just like the old old days.

[Charger_Fan]

Now its cash and carry, if i dont have the cash to buy the parts then i have to wait, just like the old old days.

Same here. That's why my Charger isn't done.

[Old Moparz]

Now its cash and carry, if i dont have the cash to buy the parts then i have to wait, just like the old old days.

Same here. That's why my Charger isn't done.

Wouldn't it be nice if your cash was so heavy you couldn't carry it?   

I decided after charging some parts like PT did 25 years ago, that I wouldn't do that ever again. Mine was only about $1000, but it still bugged me.

[69charger2002]

If you think about it, the act of buying one of these cars is a financial no-no...unless the car you buy is already restored, chances are pretty good you're gonna spend more on the resto than the car is actually worth.

Having said that, if you are gona borrow the money to buy one of these things, I would say that a home equity loan or line of credit would be the way to go...at least if you do that there is a tax break on the interest you pay.

I actually do something that everyone advises against with my taxes.  I have more money withheld every month which I wind up getting back at the end of the year.  I know that what I'm basically doing is providing the government with an interest-free loan, but it saves me from actually having to write a check to uncle sam every year AND I usually get 2 or 3 grand back which is basically "mad money."

i do the exact same thing. i get 7-8k back each year and i use that as mad money to buy something good. this year it was a pontiac ram air trans am.. yes yes i know.. try finding a good looking 98-02 dodge car like the trans am with 325 hp dead stock. ok case closed.. and no a SRT-4 pile-o-crap neon does NOT count
trav

[bigcountry]

I bought my Charger and Road Runner with cash in '07 and '08 respectively.  I have been saving up to do the restos.  I lost enough last year on my 401k to do a rotisserie resto on both cars. I was always hesitant on the 401 contributions and just upped my contribution to the max a few months before it all went to pot.  Hopefull It'll recover soon. Whatdda you do?

[richard pettys 73]

I dont have alot of money but to buy my first charger (i just bought it last week) i used some money from an accident that i was in instead of paying off all my doctor bills . however i did call the doctors and they said they would settle for three grand less....so i dont guess i did to bad . Now i am hoping to pick up another charger if everything goes right just got to finish up some minor details i hope.

[BigBlockSam]

howdy

Yep ,a lot of things have changed since last time i posted in this thread .  i rolled my 401k into an IRA . i was forced to retire from my job of 28 yrs . for medical reasons .

then hotrod  told me he was willing to sell me his b5 blue superbee  that I've was asking him to sell me for several yrs . i discussed it with my wife . she told me , take the money from the IRA , i got me a great wife . everybody else told me not to mess with my retirement money . we did it anyway . since I'm disabled there's no penalty . it's just treated as income .

THANK GOD I DID IT!  That money would have been gone by now . i lost about 50% in my IRA  but i got me my #3 car in the top 5 cars i  want to own .

i still can't seem to get enough money to get the #1 car  i want to own. a superbird . maybe someday . Rene

[jaak]

Now its cash and carry, if i dont have the cash to buy the parts then i have to wait, just like the old old days.

Same here. That's why my Charger isn't done.

x3..... what these guys said.

Jason

[bull]

They always tell you not to mess with your 401k accounts but then you look like a fool now if you didn't mess with it. I thought long and hard about cleaning mine out a few years ago (about the time I started this thread) to finish the Charger once and for all but finally decided to "do the right thing" and leave it in. Now it's worth about half what it was when I was going to liquidate it and my Charger's still not done .

[BlueSS454]

I have always paid cash for any of the cars I have....none of which have netted me over $500.  Of course, all the cars I buy are rusty junk.  I save $$ to blow on the parts during restoration...labor is free for me since I can do it all myself.  Bottom line for me is, if I don't have cash on hand, it can wait.

[TheGhost]

I took out a high interest loan to buy the Barracuda.

When I sold the Barracuda, I still didn't have enough money to pay off the loan completely.

[1969chargerrtse]

I have no idea what money I have lost in my 401 and I don't want to know.  There's nothing I can do about it.  For those that took money out before the crash, that's like buying a Hemi car back in the day and still having it.  Who knew?  I was shocked to get about 9,500 back this year.  Last year it was 7,000.00.  I spent about 3,000.00 on the Charger on parts ( lets not go there ) and the rest for bills.  Were doing well in my company with elevators, but sometimes I worry, you never know what can happen an then it's bye bye Charger as the family and keeping the home comes first.  I just want to get to the point where I can say it was fun while I had it.  It's all back together, if I can get a whole spring and summer out of it, I'm cool.  I bought my car with some 2nd mortage money and have no regrets.

[68charger383]

I lucked out, the boss has been tinkering with setting us up with a 401K for the past four years, but never got around to it.

I bought my charger last year with a classic car loan from my credit union at 5.75% interest. So I pay something like $45.00 month to interest for the car loan.

I don't know if they still do classic car loans, but at that rate, I'll do it again for another car. I'll have to check the next time I go in to pay my loan payment. 

[89MOPAR]

   Well, depending on where you work, you may not incur any penalty.   I borrowed money about 3-4 years ago from our version of a 401K  [ thrift savings plan for gov't workers ].
So i paid myself back at about a 4% interest rate.  Since i kept my job, there were No penalties.  But if i had gotten fired or quit, yes probably 35%.
    Point being depending on how your plan is structured, if you keep your job until the loan is payed off, there might not be any penalty.

I'd also suggest getting a home equity loan vs a "line of credit" . I haven't seen one line of credit without a variable interest rate.  Right now funding rates are at an extreme low, so if you got an "equity line of credit" , you can only expect for your loan payment to go up,up,up.   With the "loan" your interest rate is fixed.  What you pay now is what you'll pay in a few years.

Wife and i called my retirement plan loan the " former car sin loan " .  Since i had sold or traded the cars it had funded before the loan was payed off.
  Payed back about $3700 last year on normal payments.  Plus about another $6000 i paid extra towards it , from tax return / overtime/ budgeting/ etc.
Well my retirment plan account lost at least double that amount last year !!  So it all sort-of went down the drain....
    But at least it's paid off now !!      However the wife will not agree to borrow money again      I believe once you are married, the spouse has to sign the loan papers also.

[SFRT]

I saved up and paid cash.

[Mike DC]

I'm smart about not getting into any debt to purchase vehicles, but I'm dumb about how much I'll eventually spend on them after the initial purchase.

[mauve66]

only if her name is on it, if its from work the only way her name is on it is as benificary, soooo if you piss her off she COULD get the car AND whats left in the account

[Mefirst]

Took a loan for 2/3 of price when I bought my Charger. Later I bought an apartment, the apartment value today is allot higher than what I payed for it, so if I sold my apartment Id get enough cash to pay off al loans, have enough over to pay 10% cash for a new apartment loan. So in that regard my Charger is payed for.

Today I save money from my salary to pay for parts needed, I wont take any more loans for it. If I would sell the Charger, it would bring in about double of what I originally payed for it...

/Tom