A BROKE NIGERIAN GIRL'S GUIDE FOR BUYING YOUR FIRST CAR

YES!!! It's been over a year since I bought my first car.
It took me longer than most people, I was 25 at that time and I sincerely always thought my dad would at least make that happen but at 21, I faced reality and accepted that I was going to have to make my life's magics happen by myself.

So let me give you a brief and honest history into my finances and breakdown how you can buy a car if that is what you want.

I have an average paying job and so I'm going to illustrate this with N100,000. which might be less or more than your salary but you can still work with it.

Before I continue to illustrate, Here are a few adviceS I got from people prior to buying a car along with my opinion;

People:

• Buy a new car
• Buy a used car
• Don't buy a car
• Only buy a car when you have at least 3X the money in your account

My opinions:

• If you want it, buy it. #Yolo
• If you need it, buy it. #Moneymovesonly
• Buy a pre-owned car, preferably tokunbo (American used) some naija used cars are alright as well.
• If you can afford it and maintain it and fuel it, buy it.
• Buy a low maintenance car from experience, i will say a toyota.
• If you find a good offer, Buy it.
• Lastly, make sure you have a savings plan if you buy it 

Financial Overview: 

• Spending 100,000 
• Total after 2.5 years

 Moving forward, Here are the factors that influence my salary.

• I am a member of the cooperative where I save about 40% of my salary
• I presently live with my mum, she takes most responsibilities when it comes to running the house and I occasionally spend 15% of my salary on home & miscellaneous.
• I enjoy a good outing relatively two times in the month and spend about 15% of my salary, you know what they say, You only live once.
• Before I had a car, I set aside #3000 weekly on transportation which doubles to about 15,000.
• We get complimentary lunch at work.
• I always invest at least 10,000 to 15,000 into my business (started with accessories and vintage as they are cheaper to fund) and target 50% to 100% profit.
• Work comes with three incentives & bonuses every year (performance, leave & 13th month bonus)
• I am also eligible for a few loans (cooperative, salary advance & even car loan)
• I bought my car after I had worked for two and the half years.
• I am also eligible to housing upfront which is basically like 30% of your annual pay in bulk.
• Over the 2.5years, I paid school fees and obviously bought a new phone, laptop, camera and a few small gadget. I also took a west African holiday.

 

    How I bought my car:

So with the pictorial break down you see above, you see how much one would have spent and invested in 36 months.
Here are the options I had,

1. Take a car loan
2. Take a cooperative loan (I could get as much as 2.4 million)
3. Take my housing upfront, leave bonus, 13th month and part loan from cooperative.

What I did:
I took my housing upfront, a little of the profit from my business and I took about a million naira loan from the cooperative.

Why?

• I still live with my mum so i could use my housing allowance without the fear of rent.
• I wanted to make sure that I had more than I owed the cooperative in my savings account, in case I ever needed to leave my job impromptu.
• Which is the major reason I didn't take a car loan even though that would be the smart move if you plan on being at your job for at least three more years.
• Thanks to heartdictions, I had some money to register and do my car papers.
• I avoided using my leave bonus or my performance bonus because I needed to make sure my finances were still going to be a bit stable and I wouldn't drink garri or change my lifestyle drastically.

What changed:
I upped my cooperative savings so my splurges and entertainment reduced till I found my balance again. It takes about 9 to 12 months to do that.

Why I bought a car:

• I was frequenting sales parties and selling without a store and I had started producing planners so I needed something for movement and comfort.
• The fact that my need is/was productive helped in terms of having money to fuel and service my car.

What Kind of car I bought:

• I bought a 2007 Toyota Yaris

How:

• I bought it off a friend of a friend who ordered it from America and needed money at that time, It was still in cotonou when I part-paid.

  Maintenance:
I have serviced twice, sprayed once (Nigeria wahala), fixed a few things here and there but all in all everything is good. Which is why I recommend Toyota.

Fueling:
About 6,000 naira (previously like 4,300) for full tank and that runs for about 5/10 days if there is no unnecessary waka.

In conclusion:

Please understand that buying a CAR is not an investment, It depreciates over time. It is however an asset because you can sell during emergencies. 

It is also a necessary purchase not a compulsory one.
I have detailed how I bought my car for you, and even given you a loose preview into both my lifestyle and my finances. I hope this helps all you broke asses like me.
This is a first (actually second) out of many finance 101 posts to come.

Check out my post here to read about FINANCE 101 || 10 WAYS TO SAVE FROM AN 8 TO 5 or 9 TO 5 JOB and don't forget to leave your questions and comments.

For those of you who are privilege and won't ever have to buy your cars with this struggle, I envy you.

xo,
Dee.