Murphy's Law - Financial Edition

[auron]

So for the last 3 months I've been planning and saving to get a new (used) car since my old Mazda keeps having issues that are simply not worth continuing to pay for.

I have been looking to buy a car next month with a sizable down payment once end of the year bonuses were handed out (already know the amount). Then, yesterday I find out I likely have a blown head gasket and my current car cannot run.

Now I will be buying a car a month earlier but will likely have 1/3 the downpayment I was wanting to have. Annoying but not devastating.

Anyone have a similar plans to buy something soon to have that thing fail just before purchase?

[Bades]

So once you get your bonus just use that and pay off a large chunk of the car right away.

[bjl584]

So once you get your bonus just use that and pay off a large chunk of the car right away.

This.

[reedda]

It seems this kind of stuff happens to me all the time...I sometimes feel like I have the worst luck. In my case, I'm looking forward to some bonus money in March and had planned to pay off some more credit cards and put more away in the emergency fund, but then...

car troubles this week too...BOTH of our "good" vehicles went south, how's that for luck? Got one running-ish today, took it in to get the tires rotated and they gave us a hard time about needing new tires (of course they always say we need new tires when we get them rotated, I think this company trains all their employees to say that automatically). But I digress...the car isn't fixed, just running and hopefully we'll be able to figure out what the problem is (an electrical short, somewhere, that is draining the battery).

So...it's likely my bonus money will go towards car stuff, along with the emergency fund I JUST set aside. Grr...

I know this is because I DON'T have adequate emergency funds. But some days, like today, it feels like as soon as I get something put together, something bad happens to take it away again.

Oh, and the clothes dryer is about to die too...

This too shall pass....

[thesimplemoneyblog]

For the OP, as the others indicated, it may make sense to take out the loan now, and then pay it in full (or most of it) when you go get your bonus - especially since it's only a month away.

For reedda, it sounds like you've had a bit of a setback recently. Just keep building good savings habits, and once you build up the emergency fund, you will be able to take these unexpected items in strides!