Important info: I am divorced. With my ex, we share a kid. With my new wife, we do not share finances. She contributes in ways, but I pay the house and bills. "Her" car is "my" car and vice versa, but ultimately we have split finances for the most part and we keep it that way for various reasons that aren't related to the topic. I would kindly ask for you to not get engulfed on how we happily make things work and rather give advice at what's on the table here. I am welcome to interesting ideas/thought processes.
My wife has a 2021 Camry xse. Fantastic condition. Family owned since nearly new. 80k on it. Red, black rims, leather heated seats.
We need an suv so she is going car shopping for a crv and planning on using her Camry as a down payment. Kbb says her car is worth 18-22k and she would let it go at the dealership for 20k so she can put that down and finance the remainder 10-15k on the crv she is looking at.
I have a 2010 Camry, 204k in it. I am almost considering selling my car, and giving her 20k and taking her Camry. I believe since we are spouses, we can avoid paying all of the taxes and such like that by changing titles.
I just…don't know if it's a good idea still. Yes, my car is old, has high miles, but there isn't anything super wrong with it. I drive a company truck and hardly drive my personal car unless I'm picking my kids up from school or going somewhere with them (movies, mall, etc) I think I put about 6-9k on it a year. Judging by what I know of my car, I'm probably good for another 2-3 years, easy, before another 3k+ bill is needed.
The thing is, I have 16k in the bank. My wife suggested to get a car loan from a credit union for about 10k, which allows me to pay her the 20k and to also keep a remainder sum in my savings in case of emergency.
I don't know what to do. I am 37 and have always bought private sales, no more than 6k. Oddly enough, I have driven a Camry for the past 15+ years ðŸ˜ðŸ˜…. I always look for "unicorn" cars. My current car I bought 10 years ago for 6,000 dollars from a Mormon fellow who wanted to move back to utah. Since then, I have done regular wear and tear maintenance and put over 100,000 miles on the car. This Camry my wife drives gives me peace of mind because I know the history of it, it's a Camry, and it's a hybrid so it gets 40-50mpg.
If I don't "buy" the car:
I'll eventually get an SUV like her. Primarily because it'll be higher up and I don't have to bend down as much to pull baby out of the car seat and I'll have room for stroller. I'd be looking at an older rav4 or highlander, but in my more recent searches with 60-100,000 miles, I'm looking at 22-26k, plus dealer fees/taxes, now it's at 26-32k. It seems like buying her car from her is the most fiscal responsible way in the long term.
My other concern for this specific circumstance is my savings reserve. I currently input about $150 a week into savings (I could and should put more) into my account. We are expecting a new baby in 2 months and I am going on family leave for 3 months.
Should I "buy" my car from my wife?
byu/-NotEnoughMinerals inpersonalfinance
Posted by -NotEnoughMinerals
16 Comments
I genuinely think this makes absolutely no sense. You pay 100% of the bills? So why would you give her any money at all when you are going to need that money to pay for your new baby?
Didn’t you just post this and get torn apart by the fact that you and your wife don’t share finances. Don’t buy a new car unless absolutely necessary. If it is urgent for whatever reason sell your car and you and wife work together to pay for new cars.
If your wife didn’t have this Camry, or she wasn’t about to trade it in…
Would you be shopping for this Camry with a $20k budget right now? If the answer is “no” or “probably not”…. Then I wouldn’t buy it. Is it a terrible idea? Not really.
But a good deal on something you weren’t planning on buying or already shopping for doesn’t mean it’s a good idea or a no brainer.
You guys don’t ‘need’ anything. That Camry she has is more than enough right now and plenty of people use it with a newborn.
> not get engulfed on how we happily make things work
That’s fine.
But you need to actually complete the “If I don’t “buy” the car” plan.
Like, what will you do with the money if not used to “buy” wife’s car?
Prioritizing one goal means delaying or giving up other goals. So you have to define what goals are being delayed/given up. You do this by completing the options.
As an aside… With a baby in the mix, what’s the plan for baby expenses? Will there be any reimbursement of lost earning potential during leave? How about retirement?
Doesn’t sound like much need. But it is a push. Give her the 20k and keep it. Get rid of yours.
Or just stay out of it since you guys keep finances separate. It is fine either way.
This doesn’t make sense brother. I’ve been in similar situations and when you’re running this type of financial model, you find a way to round things out even if certain people own certain things. This is a scenario where if you’re housing and paying all of her bills, I’d think it’d be fair for you to sell the beater, buy her car off of her at a good price (maybe $15k if it’s worth $20k), and she can contribute extra towards a down payment or monthly payments with the money she’s paying on you fielding her living arrangement financially. Otherwise, it’s a dumbass plan for you and you should just ride the Camry into the ground and look at vehicles once that need becomes immediate.
Edited to add: really, you’re too broke in your situation with a baby on the way to do this. Ride the Camry into the ground, get your wife contributing more to household finances, start adding slowly to build up the nest egg.
I know that you really don’t want too deep dive into the marriage/finance part but this is really important. If you are in a community property state and you do not have a very clear prenuptial agreement than any debt she takes on to purchase a new car is also your debt.  That impacts the overall debt that your family unit has even if on paper you keep your finances separate. That means if something horrible happens and you end up as a single parent of an infant, you have all that debt. The personal loan you took out for your car, the loan she took out for her car, hospital bills, all of it.
Personally, I would let her sell her vehicle outside of the family (or trade it in) in order to reduce the overall debt owed. Your car works fine and you have access to a work vehicle. It meets your needs. You are looking at taking time off and having increased expenses with a new baby. This feels like a time to minimize the debt you take on to give you and your wife more flexibility with the new baby.Â
This question is 18 paragraphs longer than necessary. I got divorced and remarried in the time it took to read
Not sharing finances works great without children.
Not sharing finances doesn’t really work with children, especially a baby. You are seeing exactly why. She is getting am SUV so she can easily transport your children. Meanwhile you hardly use your personal car except for transporting your children, which you make it sound like you seldom do.
She is making a sacrifice for your family, many, but in this circumstance specifically a financial one by taking out a car loan. You are not sharing in that. You are trying to figure out trading assets.
I would argue that a CRV is a tall car and not really enough of a difference for all this hoopla
There will always be Camrys available if you decide in the future you want to get a Camry for 20k. I would just keep yours if you don’t even use a personal car that much
At 16k savings, no retirement, and baby on the way: you can’t afford this. Honestly I’d say she can’t afford the SUV either, but separate finances and she’s not on the thread.
It might be worth discussing whether her SUV loan could be one of your few shared expenses;
 you trade in your car, and you get her old car and pay the KBB or dealer trade in offer of her Camry over time at the same interest rate as she gets on the SUV. Together, you have 1 car loan and you’re both driving solid cars and have an intact emergency fund.
Why do people want to purchase debt? That is how you stay poor.
Not sharing finances is one thing, but asking you to take a loan and buy her car at KBB if you want to keep that car over yours? It just feels a little extreme. Even if your finances are separate, marriage ought to be a team sport. If the only way she can buy this new car is to sell hers for the full value, then I guess that’s what’s going to happen, but you shouldn’t buy it.
Does your wife travel a lot? An EV might save her a few hundred to 2k+ a year in gas costs (and insulate against further price increases) and a bolt EUV would be about 15-25k used, and potentially cost quite a bit less long term than most other cars. I do think that when you have a young baby you’re probably driving more because of small errands, day trips, etc.
Though if you’re not doing that I don’t really see a pressing need to change anything. A compact fits four people easily even if you don’t like it all that much.