We’re not car people. We don’t get it. We do have our dream cars.
Don’s dream car is a Morris Mini.
Anything goes for me. I do notice the difference in comfort between my car and Don’s car though hehehe… beda pisan, mobil gue gradag grudug banget. I think one day when we can, I’d like to drive a Merc (heu3 coincidentally it’s my Mum’s dream car too… like mother like daughter 
)
Don & I buy cars base on ‘love’.
We love the design, we love the colour, we love the way it looks… we buy.
Silly eh?
This is our story…
We had been talking about buying our first car for such a long time. 4 years dating… and now finally married for 4 months… we were really in desperate need of a car.
We rented a tiny house (my Dad called it 4L house, Lu Lagi Lu Lagi heheheh) in Kota Wisata Cibubur. Don got his mum’s car to drive us across town… so you can imagine the gasoline bill… hehehe sesek boss… dengan penghasilan berdua di bawah 5 juta… lumayan kriting.
The perks of working in a bank is having low interest loan. The bank allowed Don to buy a car through an low interest subsidised KPM. Without looking at our payment capability, we happily bought our first car. It was a super duper light blue automatic Korean city car. For the next 4 years, Don drove the car with pride – it became his signature look.
Financially however, we couldn’t afford it. Gaso bill was fine compared to mum’s fancy European sedan. The monthly installment gave us headache. We had to pay the loan installment up to 50% our joint salary.
Then, the baby came, I quit my job. Mungkin ini yang disebut rejeki anak, karir meningkat, penghasilan meningkat. Shortly after Azra was born, we bought our first house – so our loan installment expense increased significantly. Ups…
Saldo rekening kami Rp 119.200… Those were the days when we decided to change the way we work with our finances. Enough was enough. We had a boy together, we needed to save money desperately. Things became better after the wake up call… we still laugh about it and regret every single Rupiah lost in that period.
By 2004 there was no more room in the cute Korean car. The babystroller, a baby car seat and 2-3 bags of extra clothes and milk. Before Dena arrived, we decided to sell the Korean car for more room in a Japanese family car. Kata teman kita Bram, mobil sejuta umat hehehe. This one is my car. The one I drive to take my children to school. I asked Don specifically that this car is mine and insisted on paying the loan installment myself. He loved the idea that I want to be independent, still tease me about it but approve that I take money from my our account for this car.
Don have changed car twice. He drove a Japanese sedan – courtesy of the foreign bank. Just a month ago he changed it to a Japanese SUV – courtesy of the local bank he is currently working for.
Both our cars are fuel efficient, not exactly super efficient but not so bad. 1:10 lah… (ok deh mobil Don 1:8 kalo kena macet ;p). Both cars have low maintenance cost. We only have one car installment since Don’s car is part of his fringe benefit.
Alhasil… we manage to ‘save’ a lot money for our investments! This is just one of the many ways you can challenge yourself, keeping up with your lifestyle without sacrificing your investment portfolio… lho bukan the other way around ya? Hehehehe
TIPS ON BUYING A CAR :
- Punya DP nya 30% dari harga mobil
- Mampu bayar cicilan nya – ditotal dengan cicilan lainnya 35% dari penghasilan per bulan
- Mampu bayar bensinnya… coba itung deh ngabisin berapa juta per bulan
- Regular maintenancenya gak bikin repot
Harga mobilnya gimana kalau dijual?
Kalau belum mampu, jangan beli mobil yang harganya langsung ngedrop. Tapi kalau mampu, gak masalah kok beli mobil baru terus atau beli mobil yang harganya cepat ngedrop…
I’ve said it many times before.
If you can afford it.. just GO FOR IT! so can you afford it?
Ligwina Hananto
