Jkiku808's Personal Finance Blog

Ever since I graduate in May, I have been thinking about getting a new car. My current car isn't in bad shape, but it seems to constantly need minor repairs here and there. Whenever I fix something, there always seems to be another minor thing that I need to fix.

The main benefit a new car would give me is reliability, since it would have a 5 year warranty. It also doesn't hurt my self-confidence to drive around a new car.

I went to the Toyota dealership a couple weeks ago and test drove a new Corolla S. I really liked the style, gas mileage and reliability. But didn't want to make payments for 5 years, so I decided to fix up my car ($550) and ride it out.

This week, I started feeling vibrations out of my front tires. Today, I took it into the mechanics and they told me some wheel bearing or something is deteriorated and would cost around $1k to fix. If I don't fix it, it may lead to other things breaking.

So, I'm in a dilemma. Either I spend a grand to fix my car (after just paying 550 for my brakes) and hope it will last another year w/out repairs. Or, sell this headache (probably around $3K) and start over with a brand new car, but have $350 monthly payments for 5 years.

Here is where I currently am financially. I didn't start saving until the last six months of my five year college career. During college, I had scholarships for my first two years, paid out of pocket my third year, and took out Stafford loans for my last two years. I currently live at home and pay $400/mo rent to my parents.

My checking account has around $1000.
My online HSBC savings account has around $7000, although I have earmarked around $1500 of that for my vacation in December.
I have a Roth IRA w/ Fidelity, which I had funded $2000 in March 2008, but due to market conditions, it is not worth that much anymore.

My only liability is my student loan that I will start paying down in September. The balance is $11,000.

This is my first blog...EVER...so I'm just seeing what it is like and to get my thoughts out. We'll see where this goes.