How to Pay Cash for a Porsche
My first car is what would be categorized as a beater: a 1979 Chrysler LeBaron. I was born in ’85, so if you do the math you’ll see that by the time I was sitting behind the wheel, the LeBaron had seen better days. Beyond its age, it had some aesthetic issues. So when I inherited the car from my parents, my mom had the brilliant idea to give it a fresh coat of paint. Spray paint, that is. So during the summer after I turned sixteen, my mom and I spent a week taping off, sanding, and spray painting the LeBaron. It looked incredible from about a block away. But if you got within ten feet of it, you’d see the heavy stripes of an obvious spray paint can job. But that car brought me something that changed my life forever: freedom.
I’ve been looking back at old photos and came across several of cars we have owned throughout the years. It’s been an interesting journey. When Cecily and I got married, she owned this old 1985 Porsche with 200k miles on it and I had a ‘97 Wrangler that I owed about $5k on. In 2011, we got serious about getting out of debt, so we sold the Wrangler to pay off a credit card and bought the Saturn for $2k. I have to be honest: the shift from mobbing down the highway in my Jeep to puttering along in an egg with wheels was tough. It was an ego hit, but a reminder to me that my poor decisions have repercussions. We worked hard, paid off debt, and in about a year I upgraded to another Wrangler for which we paid $6500 cash.
Around that time, we began to be concerned that the Porsche could start becoming expensive in repairs, as it was nearing 250k miles. Literally two weeks later, a random person left a note on the car offering to pay cash for it. The next day, we got $11,500 cash in our pocket and waved goodbye to Cecily’s first 911. She had only paid $12,500 for it originally, so we felt great about what we got from it several years after purchasing.
The next day, we picked up a 2000 Audi TT for $8k. She loved that little car. Around this time, I decided I wanted to move into a truck. So we sold my Jeep for $4500 and paid cash for an ‘02 dodge Dakota, $5500.
Two years later, I decided I wanted a longer truck bed so I found this ‘03 Ram for $2200. I threw on some new tires and a leveling kit, bringing the price up to around $3500, and we saved the rest.
Over the next year, we continued to save and set aside money beyond our giving, investments, and retirement, and were able to pay cash for Cecily’s current 911, $26,500. We had been saving and watching cars together, but I surprised her by buying this one for her while she was away for a month teaching in Fiji. I’ll never forget seeing her face of disbelief as I rolled up to the Tom Bradley terminal at LAX in her new car with a bow on the hood.
We have always enjoyed cars and have been forever grateful to Dave Ramsey for giving us the system to slowly upgrade: pay cash for a car, set aside what you would be paying in payments, sell the old car and combine with the savings to make a small upgrade. Rinse and repeat.
Other than the Saturn, I’ve loved every vehicle we’ve owned. They have taken on us wild rides, off road adventures, canyon runs, and to the doorsteps of people we love. Our cars have never made us happy, but we have had incredible experiences in them that have brought us great joy. Most importantly, cars have been one way in which we have both lived out our core value of freedom. We have avoided the bondage to debt and have intentionally chosen cars that we love.
