My son, Big A, called the house at 3:30 Thursday afternoon. He was intending to speak with his mother but she was out taking her walk. So he got stuck with me.
He informed me that he was planning to take money out of Schwab account to buy a hail damaged 2013 Honda Civic with 38,000 miles on it. He is also going to take money out of his Roth IRA even though he would have to pay a 10% penalty.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! What is the hurry? Why do you have to buy a car right away?”
It turns out that buying gas for his 1997 F150 4X4 is devouring his wallet!
I then got into the financial details of how he planned on doing it.
“I am pretty certain that you can take a 90 day loan from your Roth with no penalty. And I’m pretty sure that you can also withdraw money that you originally deposited into your Roth with no penalty.”
He did not sound convinced. I mean, who am I? And what do I know? Am I a financial professional? Hardly!
“Call your financial guy and ask him.”
He called back 45 minutes later. I was right… 😎
Two hours later, he called back again! While we were on the phone, he groaned…
“The car is sold! That’s why I am in a hurry!”
Talk about “panties all in a knot”…
wait…that doesn’t quite fit…
hmmm…
Dude’s underwear is tooooo tight!
Anyway, I woke up very early the next morning. I figured that since Big A’s hair is on fire to buy a car, I should at least give him some tools to enable him make a better decision. I sent him a text with some websites that I refer to when I am in his situation.
As I was closing out of the various web pages, I noticed on a 2106 Ford Focus with 6,000 miles on it for a very reasonable price. And it was at the same dealer that he was going to buy the Honda from!
I visited the seller’s site…the car actually had 11,000 miles. I sent him another text with the link to the actual listing.
A few minutes later, he called me…
“What’s the hurry?”
“What do you mean ‘What’s the hurry?’ You called me four times in three hours last night! I’m just trying to join you!”
I told him what I had learned about the Focus. He decided to drive down to Colorado Springs to look at the car after work. He arrived too late to take a test drive but when he looked at a Focus, he didn’t think it had enough rear seat leg room.
When I woke up this morning, that Ford Focus was on my mind. I went back to the dealer’s website and looked at the AutoCheck history.
7/19/17-the car was purchased from the Ford dealer.
7/28/17-a claim was filed with the insurance company for hail damage.
8/18/17- the insurance claim was settled.
12/17/17-this used car dealer bought the car from the insurance company.
Then it dawned on me…
Those 11,000 miles were put on the car in 10 days!!! That means that they were all freeway miles! And this car has been driven a total of one month!
THIS IS HIS CAR!!!
I immediately got dressed and headed down to his house. An hour later, I knocked on his bedroom door to wake him up. Half an hour later, we were on the road heading to the dealer.
He went in and inquired about the car. It wasn’t even on the lot yet! They had to go get it!
While he was waiting, he test drove a Hyundai Accent. We smelled burning oil and turned around and took the car back.
About 10 minutes later, the Focus arrived. It drove beautifully! It still smelled new! He made an offer and put down a deposit!
Big A is getting a lightly hail damaged 2016 Ford Focus that has been driven for a total of one month with less than 12,000 miles on it!
