We are now a TWO car family...again

Back in October, we made the decision to go down to one car in our lives. There were two main reasons, ONE is that my Grand Prix was starting to approach 100K and we wanted to get some money back out of that car, and TWO we needed to get rid of some high interest debt in our lives. Selling the car worked and we are really on the right track now. After sacrificing and living with only one car for about 4+ months we realized it was time to get back to two again. The last few weeks, we've been doing some research on different cars in the mid-size sedan marketplace and narrowed our list down a little based on what we liked and didn't like. We had out list narrowed down to an Accord, Camry, Malibu (only if we could find a good deal on a used 08 though), Grand Prix, Sonata, Impala (maybe), Milan (maybe), or a Mazda6. We liked all of those and a few others but price was going to be a very important factor for us...the new improved Rasmussen's are bound and determined to make smart financial decisions and live well within our means.

We ended up buying a 2006 HYUNDAI SONATA. Its funny cause I (we) never would have imagined I (we) would be in a Sonata, but Hyundai's have come a LOOONG way since their early days. The 2006 and newer models are getting GREAT reviews from consumers and from editors at various car publications. We went out to look at cars yesterday and drove an Accord and an Altima, and looked a few others. We kept going back to this beautiful Hyundai at the dealership though. We loved how it looked so we asked to take it for a ride. Wow it was SMOOTH and had great acceleration!! We loved it! So, you ask, what do we like about this car?

Here are our top highlights

1. Stylish looks...yeah that matters :-)
2. Great gas mileage, we read review of people who get over 30 mpg with the car
3. Sweet price, well within our budget :-) :-)
   
4. Low miles and in great shape
5. It fits in our garage! Sounds like such a minor thing but we BARELY fit the Grand Prix and Monte Carlo in the garage...the Sonata fits just right.
   

Overall we left the dealership pretty excited. The new car gives us new flexibility in life and will allow for us to have a little independence from time to time if we want it! We found a car for well under the target price we were looking at and we are both very happy with it! Hopefully we'll be saying the same thing in 5 years!

Getting on the right track!

Meghan and I know how much of a strain money can be on marriage...I heard about it for years in my single life and now as a married man I've already seen it. We made a decision to do something drastic to get ourselves off on the right foot though. Last night we sold my Grand Prix. Woh right? Those of you that know me well know this was my baby! I loved that car, but I love the idea having no credit card debt in our lives more. I hate credit cards, I hate debt.

Anyway, we made the decision to sell the car months ago but finally got a started a few weeks ago. Our first interested person turned out to be a scammer...GREAT...luckily I know all their tricks. Well we had an ad in cars.com and also in Craigslist. On Wednesday I decided to knock the price down 500 after really no real responses on our first price (it was really high, but worth a shot, right). Anyway, that same day I get an email from a student at Purdue that wanted the car...badly. To make a long story short, we ended up agreeing on a price that she could afford and that was fair for us and last night she came to buy it.

It was a very sad and happy time but I feel good about it. Its going to be a struggle having only one car, but with Meghan working from home I think we'll be fine! During the car ride home we talked about how amazed we are that we are going to have so little debt in such a short time given what we've been through so far in our three months of marriage. Somehow we managed to spend over 10K remodeling the entire lower level of our rental house in Rochester and not be out a dime. Our God takes such great care of us...we are so thankful for him. We made the decision together early this summer that we will always tithe no matter how tight it was...knowing that he'd always take care of us and I have seen him do it so many amazing ways already, even when I doubted! I have such a great feeling about things now!