Reducing monthly unnecessary expenses is the key to financial wellness. With COVID we are not driving very much. With two fairly new cars sitting in the driveway depreciating makes no sense. Especially with a fairly new car in good condition, I want to sell it while the depreciation is slow(er).

The car is a 2018 Audi Q5 with 14K miles on it. It is an easy car to sell. However I am willing to trade time and effort with selling it for less by going the wholesale route. I went onto carmax.com. Used their online appraisal tool to get an “offer”. I also went to the Audi dealership that I brought the car from and they were happy to buy the car back also, but at a lower offer than what carmax quoted. I was surprised. After some negotiations they up the offer by $100. Not enough.

I made an appointment the next day on carmax.com. They appraised the car for me and actually came back with an amount that is $500 more than the online appraisal. Since I brought my auto loan info and the second car key with me, they were able to complete the entire transaction within 40 minutes. They did all the paperwork, and I walked away with a check.

If I spend some time I am certain I can get one or maybe two thousand more by selling the car privately. I would need to spend many hours answering inquiries, arranging test drives, sanitizing the car each time, and eventually deal with the paperwork needed. While technically investing that amount of time is still worth it from a pure financial point of view, this carmax way is far less stressful.

Reducing monthly unnecessary expenses is the key to financial wellness. Take a look at your monthly spending.