Three Tips for Our First Purchase If You Are a Student

Buying a vehicle is an important step, especially when it comes to our first vehicle or when we buy our first car and we are students. In such a situation, planning is essential, and we must make sure that we look beyond our current needs.

Indeed, the purchase of a vehicle when we are studying involves different considerations than buying a car and we are stable in our career.

When we are a student, our budget is generally smaller, but it is likely to change in a few years. Our needs are also likely to change in the short and medium term. A car, on the other hand, is usually a long-term investment, especially if we finance the purchase.

That’s why it becomes very important to plan our purchase to avoid being caught with a car that suited us when we were a student, but no longer fits our needs after. So here are three tips when we are a student looking for a car.

Avoid Getting Into Debt

Debts accumulate when we are studying, we all know this. Getting a student loan was probably necessary, but we have a choice to not get too big of a loan when buying our next vehicle. The idea here is to plan ahead and buy a car that will not stretch our budget and that will give us some flexibility down the road.

Financing terms of 72 or 84 months should be taken only if we know our vehicle will meet our needs for that period of time, That said, it’s a fact that you will be making more money after you graduate and your budget will increase. The best case scenario is to take out a loan that will be paid off when you graduate, or maybe a year or so after. That way, you will be free to do what you want and get a better car when you get a job and have a bigger budget. 

Think About Space

You may not need a lot of space now, but that could change when you start a family. Even if you follow our first advice and your car is paid at the end of your studies or soon after, you do not necessarily want to sell the car immediately. So, try to get a vehicle that can meet your changing space needs over the next few years. In doing so, you will maximize your investment.

Reliability Should be High on Your List

Finally, the last thing we want is a vehicle that breaks down the morning of our exam. We also do not want to pay every month to fix various problems on our car. In short, do some online research on the reliability of different models available to you, and choose the least risky option.