How to pay off your car in two years

How to pay off your car in two years

In today’s “Money Mistakes I made” blog post series, we talk to fitness blogger, Samantha Dube who lives in Johannesburg.

I’ve been on Samantha’s hikes last year and I’m definitely joining her again – it’s a way for me to keep fit in an inexpensive way. It’s also an excuse to take my two-year-old daughter out of the house and into nature.

RELATED POST: My hiking experience

On her blog, Samantha wrote of her experience of doing home exercises – this is another way of saving money. You can also read about the fitness experts on YouTube she follows, here.

Yesterday I wrote about why I still haven’t paid off my car yet and today Samantha shares how she paid off her car in two years. Well done Samantha!

RELATED POST: 5 Benefits of Working Out at Home

Samantha Dube pay car off money
Samantha Dube

Anyway, let’s get into the Q&A with Samantha Dube.

Melissa Javan: Where are you from?
Samantha Dube: I’m from Zimbabwe but I’ve been living in South Africa for almost ten years.

MJ: Tell me a bit about yourself.
SD: I’m a financial administrator for a manufacturing company full-time and a part-time fitness blogger over at dumbbellsanddelights.com. I have five sisters.

MJ: What are the worst money mistakes you’ve made?
SD: I’ve always been thrifty with money. It’s funny that the worst and best decision I made was buying my car. I realised it soon enough and I have since paid the car off in less than two years.

Being a foreigner meant that my interest rate was higher than what I had calculated I would pay for – the monthly installments ended up being double. I rounded off the amount so I paid extra each month, I actually called the bank to make sure they deducted the rounded off amount so I wouldn’t spend it on myself.

MJ: What lessons have you learned regarding money?
SD:

  • You need to know what is happening with your money (how much you have, how much you owe, how much you earn) to be able to make sound decisions. I’m not earning a lot but I don’t worry about money because I keep track of it well.
  • Paying a little extra towards your debt will help you clear your debt faster.
  • Budgeting is not as hard as people have been lead to believe and you really don’t need to be an accountant to learn and understand money.
  • Women earn about 20% (or more) less than men but live close to 15 years longer than men, yet many women are not financially educated. So we as women we will be poorer for longer. Taking charge of your life begins with equipping yourself correctly.
  • Life is very unpredictable so prepare for the unexpected expenses – by setting aside something each month. I have an item on my budget called miscellaneous which comes in handy when I have to buy extra fuel or medicine or whatever that might crop up.

MJ: Who (or where) taught you about making good money decisions?
SD: The first person to teach me about money was my mother she taught me to budget and to save. These are the basics of money. My mother actually had an account set up for me and we used to go to the bank together. I’ve since learned more through experience and through my profession about investing, interest and of course discipline.

MJ: Please share your blog URL and social media handles.
Blog: http://dumbbellsanddelights.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dumbbellsndelights/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DumbellsDelight
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dumbbellsndelights/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqIkL4ZJSfqDwjFSEpQ_DQg

Thank you Samantha for sharing your story. For more tips on how Samantha saves money, read her blog post here.

Readers, what stood out for you about this blog post? Let me know in the comments section below.

10 Comments

  1. An interesting read on being money savvy. We are thinking of buying a new car but if you look at the prices and what your monthly installment will be it is exorbitant. Both our cars are finish paid years ago so we have no car payment expenses other that maintaining it. So will hang on to buying a new one till the need arises. Love the paying extra on installments – we do that with our home bond and it really works. Thanks for sharing.#lekkerlinky

  2. I love this. Women definitely do need to be intelligent when it comes to money and I never really considered all the reasons why.

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