A new car represents a lot more than just a physical car that we use to drive back and forth from work to home. It’s something that shows people that we’ve made it in life. Now, that might seem a bit odd to you if you’ve always had a car from the very beginning, but there are plenty of people that have honestly never gotten a car in their lives. This means that they end up dreaming and hoping for the day that they can actually drive, only to find that it’ll be hard for them to get into a car. Without a car, you’re either at the mercy of friends and family, or you’re trying to take public transit. This will vary from city to city. Major city centers have great public transit, but try getting from place to place in rural Kansas — what a nightmare!

Getting a car loan can be just as tricky, really — it might not seem that way, but it’s actually quite difficult to get a car loan if your credit isn’t really up tot par. Now, if you really don’t care what type of interest rate you’re going to have, then by all means — get the car loan. But more and more people are deciding to opt out of the standard car loan system, choosing instead to pay in cash. Is that something that you think would be too over the top? Not at all. In fact, it’s a nice touch really — instead of having to be bound by interest rates and fears of not being able to make the car loan, you get to rise above all of that simply by knowing what you really want to accomplish with your car — a debt free life.

Some people are burned out by the idea of having to take on more cash. We stress the importance of great credit so that you really can go out and get that car loan when you want it, but that doesn’t mean that you have to go along with what we said just because we said it.

So, the question that you might have right here right now is whether or not you really can save up for a car outright. Not just a down payment, but a full out car. The answer is definitely eyes.

First and foremost, you might have to lower your desires a little bit. Is it going to be feasible for you to save up for a Mercedes? Depending on your income, the answer is “probably not”. However, are you going to be able to pick up a reliable car that will get you from point A to point B within 2-3 years? You can definitely do that.

If you don’t already have a budget, now is the perfect time to make sure that you have one. You don’t want to wait till the last minute to start saving, but you can’t figure out what to save if you don’t have the ability to actually create your own source of savings income. This is what ends up getting a lot of people discouraged, and why would you even want to go through that?

Looking at your budget gives you another income source — the savings you get from cutting down on your expenses. If you know that you’re buying a lot of junk food and products that you don’t use to the fullest, then it’s time to downsize a great deal. You can also look around your house and start getting rid of the things that you really don’t use. That’s going to unlock even more savings.

When it comes to choosing a savings vehicle, you really want to make sure that you’re getting your money as liquid as possible. Treasury bills work well for this purpose, but a lot of people also turn to CDs as well. You ultimately want to choose something that’s going to help your money grow without a lot of risk. The problem with the stock market is that the best returns come from long term investments, not short term ones.

Overall, now is the perfect time to start saving up for a car. Once you hit your goal, you can rest easy knowing that you don’t have to deal with a car loan — you skipped that and can enjoy your car loan-free!