Post Your Wins

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Huge win! After the house, the second biggest tangible asset I inherited was an antique car (a 1960 Corvette). Selling that was the single biggest source of stress for me. It's just totally out of my wheelhouse. My cousin told me it should go for about 45K. Shortly before he died, a dealer offered him 30K and he turned it down. That dealer was still interested and still at 30K. A couple of people have come to see it through word of mouth but nobody was interested. Two days ago, a friend of a friend came to check it out and seemed very interested. He called back yesterday morning and offered 20K. Clearly I said no.

My lawyer had put me in touch with a team he has dealt with many times that buys collectible cars. I gave them details and sent photos and they offered 40K and the lawyer was able to talk them up to 45K, so they bought the car for my full asking price! They came out last night to look it over and came first thing this morning to pick it up. We just have to go to a title agency on Monday and do the final paperwork. The payment is currently in escrow with the lawyer until the title is transferred.

I'm thrilled to have it sold and even more thrilled that we actually got 45K for it.

Why not post a photo of it? I'm curious how pretty it is and glad the company that bought it will probably sell it to someone who really loves it.

[bjl584]

Huge win! After the house, the second biggest tangible asset I inherited was an antique car (a 1960 Corvette). Selling that was the single biggest source of stress for me. It's just totally out of my wheelhouse. My cousin told me it should go for about 45K. Shortly before he died, a dealer offered him 30K and he turned it down. That dealer was still interested and still at 30K. A couple of people have come to see it through word of mouth but nobody was interested. Two days ago, a friend of a friend came to check it out and seemed very interested. He called back yesterday morning and offered 20K. Clearly I said no.

My lawyer had put me in touch with a team he has dealt with many times that buys collectible cars. I gave them details and sent photos and they offered 40K and the lawyer was able to talk them up to 45K, so they bought the car for my full asking price! They came out last night to look it over and came first thing this morning to pick it up. We just have to go to a title agency on Monday and do the final paperwork. The payment is currently in escrow with the lawyer until the title is transferred.

I'm thrilled to have it sold and even more thrilled that we actually got 45K for it.

Nice win.

The car guy in me would have probably kept the corvette.

[kork13]

Not sure where this fits otherwise, so I'm just calling it a financial "win."
I keep most of our liquid cash savings (partial EF, sinking funds, general savings) in Ally, and recently decided to simplify things a bit & moved our primary checking account under them too. In the process, I setup what they call "surprise savings," where they connect to your checking account (wherever that lives, Ally or elsewhere) & based on your typical/current balance, they'll pull small amounts of money into your savings account.

So after setting it up in April, it started making small transfers in May. For us, it's only been between $25-$50 per transfer, happening 3-4 times a week (with a checking balance between $3k-$6k). Now ~6 weeks later, it's brought in $823 that otherwise would have been sitting in checking. I honestly haven't noticed it much in our budget (it's only ~4.5% of our total budget) & haven't had to adjust for it, but over time it definitely can make a difference. It's not really that the savings account is earning a whole lot of interest either, though it is a bit more. The bigger deal is that it's helping to beef up some of our sinking funds faster than planned.

I'm generally just impressed by the feature. I like that it adjusts somewhat intelligently to the current & typical balances. And for folks that have trouble saving, it could definitely help to facilitate regular savings without wrecking their ability to pay for daily essentials. Based on what I've seen, if the checking balance was low, like <$1k, it would probably only take maybe $5-$10 at a time. It's a bit gimmicky, but also kinda neat to see what it's done.

[disneysteve]

Why not post a photo of it? I'm curious how pretty it is and glad the company that bought it will probably sell it to someone who really loves it.

Here you go.

[QuarterMillionMan]

That is great getting $45k but I cannot understand why people have such a hard time letting go of their belongings. On his last days he turned down an offer for $30k. I would have taken $30k. Jesus was right saying it is so hard for a rich man to sell his belongings and follow Jesus.

[QuarterMillionMan]

And I'm not some religious zealot.

[disneysteve]

That is great getting $45k but I cannot understand why people have such a hard time letting go of their belongings. On his last days he turned down an offer for $30k. I would have taken $30k. Jesus was right saying it is so hard for a rich man to sell his belongings and follow Jesus.

I don't really see the problem with that. At that point, he wasn't really negotiating for himself but rather on my behalf. Why should he sell it for 15K less than it was worth? He was protecting my interests. I'm quite glad that he didn't take 30K as I ended up with 15K more.

He also had another antique car. He sold that back in March. He was asking 40K and sold it for 38K which was a very reasonable price, but coming down 33% wasn't. Maybe the guy was trying to take advantage of him knowing he was dying. Who knows? My cousin wasn't about to fall for that. He wasn't desperate to sell for any reason. He certainly didn't need the money.

[Nutria]

So after setting it up in April, it started making small transfers in May. For us, it's only been between $25-$50 per transfer, happening 3-4 times a week (with a checking balance between $3k-$6k). Now ~6 weeks later, it's brought in $823 that otherwise would have been sitting in checking. I honestly haven't noticed it much in our budget (it's only ~4.5% of our total budget) & haven't had to adjust for it, but over time it definitely can make a difference. It's not really that the savings account is earning a whole lot of interest either, though it is a bit more. The bigger deal is that it's helping to beef up some of our sinking funds faster than planned.

This seems to solve the savings problem for people who don't know why their money is where it is.

[disneysteve]

I setup what they call "surprise savings," where they connect to your checking account (wherever that lives, Ally or elsewhere) & based on your typical/current balance, they'll pull small amounts of money into your savings account.

I think Bank of America had a feature kind of like that called Keep the Change where they would round off purchases and put the change into your savings account. So if you used your debit card to put $22.49 worth of gas in your car, they would round up to $23 and put the 51 cents into savings. I think that's how it worked.

[QuarterMillionMan]

It must be just me but I would not want to burden my loved ones with extra work to do on my behalf. That said yes you were able to get $15,000 more and you earned it with the extra leg work. But while he was alive he could have signed his own name on the title, maybe negotiate up to $35k or $32k or any amount and be done with it. Especially if I knew that I was near death, I would be practically giving away my belongings.

Edit to add: unless I knew ahead of time that you were okay with doing extra work for a higher sales price then by all means yes.

[kork13]

I think Bank of America had a feature kind of like that called Keep the Change where they would round off purchases and put the change into your savings account. So if you used your debit card to put $22.49 worth of gas in your car, they would round up to $23 and put the 51 cents into savings. I think that's how it worked.

Not quite. Ally does have an identical option for that as well (they call it "Round Up".... I set it up too just to try out), but as infrequent debit card users, it does very little for us -- just $9 in those 6 weeks.

This one has nothing to do with your spending, and instead everything to do with your daily & typical balance. The idea is to slowly move "unused" money into savings, but in small amounts that won't be missed. I like the concept if nothing else, and it's increasing the amount going into our cash savings by 30-40%.

[disneysteve]

This one has nothing to do with your spending, and instead everything to do with your daily & typical balance. The idea is to slowly move "unused" money into savings, but in small amounts that won't be missed. I like the concept if nothing else, and it's increasing the amount going into our cash savings by 30-40%.

That is different. I wonder how they decide how much you want your balance to be. Can you set parameters? I like to keep a few thousand extra in our checking account. I know it isn't earning anything but I want instant access.

[kork13]

That is different. I wonder how they decide how much you want your balance to be. Can you set parameters? I like to keep a few thousand extra in our checking account. I know it isn't earning anything but I want instant access.

No, I do wish it would let you set a floor for these transfers, but it's not presently an option. But it does seem to be informed somewhat by what is "normal" for you. I keep $2k as my "minimum balance," normally around $3k, and the system has yet to take me down close to those. As my current balance ebbs and flows (in these 6 weeks, $3.5k-$10k), it adjusted the amount & frequency of the transfers in relation to my higher or lower balance.

As to how, there's probably a rudimentary algorithm that it follows. It tracked my checking account for a full month before it actually started making transfers, probably to tune the algorithm.

[disneysteve]

It must be just me but I would not want to burden my loved ones with extra work to do on my behalf. That said yes you were able to get $15,000 more and you earned it with the extra leg work. But while he was alive he could have signed his own name on the title, maybe negotiate up to $35k or $32k or any amount and be done with it. Especially if I knew that I was near death, I would be practically giving away my belongings.

Edit to add: unless I knew ahead of time that you were okay with doing extra work for a higher sales price then by all means yes.

Yeah I think it's a very case by case sort of thing. I tend to think I would be like my cousin and not let someone rip me off or take advantage of me just because I was dying. He knew it was a 45K car and wasn't about to sell it for 30K, dying or not. But he knew he was leaving it behind to someone responsible who would get it sold for a fair price. If it was an item that was super hard to sell, maybe he would have accepted the offer but that wasn't the case.

[Forumfan]

I decided to buy some I-bonds after reading a recent thread on bonds here. I tried to open a new account on the Treasury Direct website but found I already have an account with over $11k in I-bonds that I purchased in 2011 and forgot about. I started keeping records of all my assets 5 years ago and just missed this one so I'm pretty happy for the reminder!