As you mentioned that a $1200 car note a while ago would be "just another bill," work hard and continually network yourself so that $808 will be "just another bill" as well, as ArmyOfOne stated. Just have to ride this one out.

 

Better to be in debt to the wife than to a bank.

 

That will be my opinion as well. Stay the course unless it becomes the very need to be dropped. Look for better interest rate if you want to buy and finance it for a long term if you can. There will be no minimum payments, so when you have money lying around, pay lump sum to mitigate your long term burden.

Have you considered Lexus/Toyota finance in the whole mix? When I was getting close to finance my Toyota, I was told Toyota would be happy to convert a leased product to finance within the lease period. You have to pay a one time $300 approx. for the transfer related paperwork, and Toyota would charge the prevalent finance interest rate a the time. I am not saying that will be the best offering around. But do whatever can give you a respite from the high monthly costs. And wish your business becomes a huge success.

 

That's what she gets for robbing the cradle.

Wait, your lease is a 0% APR? If so, why would you buy it out before term? Ride it out until end of term, if you can. If you finance, even at 3%, then that's interest you would pay the bank that you are not paying right now. I know it doesn't help you with total monthly cash outlay, but at least, all the cash is going towards paying off the car and the negative equity with almost no interest. Silver lining I guess.

 

Fair enough, I was just throwing out suggestions. My wife and I keep things separate too but if one needs help, the other helps. Maybe your wife could help you with your payment until more money starts coming in. Pretty simple to me.

I also wasn't sure if you could share a car as that is usually tough to do. Maybe if you got a cheaper car you could use hers when you have to do a photo shoot? Again, just throwing ideas out there. The bottom line is this, you need to do whatever it takes to get back on track. It is that simple. I am a CPA but when you don't know all of the facts it is like throwing darts so it is not the easiest to give solid advice.

As for a photographer, my brother in law is a professional photographer in NYC and drove a beat up old RAV4 until a month ago when he bought an Exterra. Maybe it is because in the city he doesn't have to drive to shoots or maybe because he is usually flying all over to different locations for shoots, who knows, but a nice car was never necessary but as you mentioned, you are in a different city.

 

CPA huh. Yeah, my former CPA never told us (myself, and my business partner) that we needed to charge sales tax on photography back when we started 5 years ago. He always told us, that it was no needed as it was a service we were providing and never any books / albums or anything like that was given.

except...

He was wrong, and now my new CPA (who is a formal IRS agent) corrected us, and educated that we DO need to charge sales tax on photography, because they get a dvd. This makes it "tangible" and then the ENTIRE contract needed to be taxed.

Great. So what did I do? Well.. I did the "right thing" and was honest, and we told the state.. and did the whole disclosure program.. and this is going to end up going back and having to re-pay sales tax on THREE YEARS OF BUSINESS. 25% has already been paid, and now I wait for the final word on the payment plan for the balance. Talk about living and learning.

So, at the time.. I had no idea as this was no discovered until a few months ago. Perhaps, now it all makes sense why I am NOW second guessing the $808 a month LOL. I have this bomb dropped, and I am still waiting to see what the outcome is.

LOL, the most costly thing I have ever done in my life.. was hire the *wrong* CPA and trust what he told us. Much more then ANY Lexus would have.

But, this is not the place to go into details. Just understand there is always more to it then what it appears, and it's ironic when you said your a CPA. ;-)

As for your brother in law.. Yeah, well I have done shoots in NYC (in fact we actually did one where we shut down times square!) a car is really not needed up there. Completely different market, and dynamic. If I lived there, a car is the last thing I would be looking for.. or I would have a little sporty one to "get out of town" on the weekends with low miles. haha.

 

I think you have most of the options covered? We are now just picking at the scars and it's bound to get infected.

 

Yes! thanks so much to everyone :-) I appreciate all the feedback, and I will continue the best that I can. Thanks for taking the time.