Maybe you have tired of riding city transit and you want to buy a car, or perhaps you have an older car that has started to nickel and dime you. You might be wondering how you can save up for a car. Let's have a look at how to plan your budget so that you can really own a car. When you save to buy a car, you minimize how much you have to borrow from the banks, saving money on interest and fees.

How Much Will the Down Payment Cost?

For a new vehicle, you should aim to put 20 percent on the down payment of the car. For a used car, you will want to put a 10 percent down payment on it. Putting down more on the car will put you in a better situation over the long term.

Not to mention, dealerships will offer you a better deal because of how they gain more cash upfront. Dealerships want to make the sale.

Dishing out more cash will help you to qualify for better loans that have lower interest rates with lower monthly payments.

How to Budget Your Next Car

How to save up for a car will ultimately look at several factors. Once you have considered these factors, you can figure out how to proceed. If you want to save fast, you might look at cash for junk cars. Sell an old beat-up car sitting in your yard for some extra dollars to add to the banking fund for a car. Simply Google, "Junk cars near me," and you will identify some potential sources for selling your old junker.

To save up for a car, you should tailor a realistic budget. You don't want to set too hard of goals for yourself, but you want to set aside enough to make progress on your goals. If you want to know how to save up for a car fast, you will most likely have to set aside a higher amount of cash with each paycheck.

How much you set aside will depend on the cost of the car that you want to buy and how fast you need it. Once you have figured out the total cost of the down payment, take the monthly payments and divide it by your total.

You will come out with how many months it will take for you to achieve your goal. If you don't like the time frame, you can allocate a higher monthly amount for the budget.

How Much for the Down Payment?

You will pay an estimated 10 to 20 percent for the down payment. That means that if you want to buy the new Ford Mustang, you will pay $26,670 in total. You will need to make a down payment of $2,667 at 10 percent down payment. For a 20 percent down payment, you will have to make a down payment of $5,334.

Those who need a car fast might buy a used car at a lower price. For example, 10 percent on a used car at $5,000 will cost you $500 in down payment. If you want to know how to save up for a car fast, you may have to skip buying the fancy car and put money down on a more practical used car.

Always Keep Budget in Mind

You can't overestimate your budget, but you can certainly underestimate it. With finances, you want to adopt a more pessimistic approach because you will find that you always have cash left over.

When you go to buy a car, you have to look at several elements of the total cost of ownership, such as:

• Insurance
• Fees and tags
• Gas mileage
• Taxes on the car

Look at the big picture before you hop into a purchase. You can consider what you want in a car, but you also have to look at the practical end. Can you afford it? How to save up for a car looks at every angle to carefully plan your steps.

You don't want to buy the car only to have the dealership repossess it because you couldn't make the payments on it. A lack of realism becomes the enemy in all financial situations.

Open a Separate Savings Account

If you want to know how to save up for a car, you may want to open a separate savings account to stash the cash. You automatically put the set monthly amount into the bank account without looking too deeply at what you put in. In this way, you don't feel tempted to spend the cash that you saved.

How to save up for a car often comes down to discipline. If you want to make progress, you will have to forego other expenses. You may consider opening an online savings account because many of the online banks will give you a much better interest rate on your money than if you did this at the traditional banks.

You want to leave the reserves untouched as much as possible, until the time comes to buy the car. You can automate the savings so that you never even have to know too much about the contributions and what you have in this account. You might check it briefly every six months to see your progress.

Work a Second Job

A second job can pad your savings so that you will save up for a car much faster. How to save up money for a car has many angles that you can approach from, but most of it comes down to having a set plan and not spending your money. You might do freelance work as a graphic designer, artist or musician. Freelance work hands you the advantage of working flexible hours when you want to put in the time. You don't have to work when you don't feel like it.

In this way, you can slowly move in the direction of owning a new car.

Progress Comes with Discipline

You won't get too far without discipline. You need to set a budget and work toward it. If you struggle with budgeting your money, this can turn into a fun way to learn how to save your cash with a worthy reward at the end. When you save up for a car, you can dream about the reasons that you want to keep putting money away. As much as possible, you want to automate the process without thinking about it too much. This will lead to better results.

If you want to know how to save up money for a car, you will need to know how to regulate and put your emotions in check. You can't let your emotions rule you. In this way, when you feel the impulse to spend, you can resist the desire. You also have to let go of the limiting fear that you won't be able to save enough, or you will always be behind on savings and never arrive at your goal. Look at it like a fun game where every dollar puts you closer to your ultimate goal.