Posted on 03/23/2024 6:49:10 PM PDT by nickcarraway
With a $650 payment for 72 months, this is going to be one expensive Toyota Camry
Your twenties are the perfect time to screw up and try to get your xxxx figured out. Sometimes it takes getting to the rock bottom before you can dig yourself out of it. For the sake of everyone involved here, I hope this young woman on Caleb Hammer’s Financial Audit show has reached her bottom and will find a way to get her life turned around. Right now, it seems like the best first step would be to sell her car and find her way into something less expensive. At 23-years-old, there’s no reason to owe $31,000 on a Toyota Camry. Especially when you can’t afford it.
This young woman’s financial situation is a real mess, and she’s going through some rough stuff with a pending divorce from an abusive military man. Her short-lived marriage stuck her living with her parents, driving a car she can’t afford, and working part time. Unfortunately, this downward spiral came with a bunch of self-destructive coping mechanisms, including hundreds of dollars of in-app purchases, lots of fast food, vaping, and over-drafting her bank account.
It seems like she’ll be headed back to college, so she will definitely need some good solid reliable wheels. Living in Texas means public transit isn’t really an option, but spending 30 percent of your income on a car payment isn’t really an option either. This 2021 Camry came with a 72-month note at nearly 12 percent interest.
At the end of the day (er, month?) the payment runs her $646.33, despite only working 33 hours a week at $15 an hour. She has to work more than 43 hours at her retail job just to afford the car payment. No wonder she’s drawing too much on her accounts and racking up credit card debt!
To make matters worse, it doesn’t seem like she and her former paramour spent much money on the car’s down payment, as she still owes $30,656 (the equivalent of 2,044 hours at her current job) on the note.
Saving up for a couple of months, or borrowing from her parents, and buying a cheap-but-reliable beater would give her a lot of opportunities that this Camry just isn’t delivering. I hope she gets it turned around. This was a rough one to watch.
No maintenance and gas was inexpensive.
She will be pregnant in 6 months with that brain.
At the time I didn’t have any of the aforementioned so I just put a floor mat over it
Funny, but people who can figure out how to stay married seem to have better lives. Must be a coincidence.
Car ownership, wise usage of the vehicle, maintenance I used to do my own oil changes when I was young that saves money.
Yep.
VAPING ISN’T helping her decisions
Neither of my parents gave me a nickel for any vehicle I owned.
84 years old & most I ever paid for a vehicle is $4000 for used 1976 1 ton 4 speed Chevy truck. Had 90,000 on it then. Has over 348,000 on it now. TOWING horses.
AT 18 in 1957, I had a 1957 Pontiac. Fellow employee got drafted-—credit union let me take over payments.
At 23 I was driving an 8 year old Ford Maverick. I suggest this young lady give the car to the repo man and start over with a s**tbox that’s reliable and very, very cheap.
“We lived at or below our means.”
Bingo. I did that from age 21 to age 64 and was able to retire with no financial concerns. I now buy two year old fleet cars from Hertz. I haven’t bought a new car or motorcycle since I was 20 and in the Navy. I shouldn’t have done it then either. The 65 Fairlane I had was way more practical than the new ‘72 Toyota Land Cruiser.
1. Honor your man
2. Honor that choice
How’d she get this way?
I had a car payment ONE time in my life I bought a brand new car, I swore I would NEVER, EVER get under a car payment again mine was $400.00 a month!! I have always purchased pre owned vehicles and paid cash!! I purchased the vehicle in 2005 have never missed a maintenance when due and will have this SUV until the day I die!! I don’t know how young people today make these HUGE car payments AND pay thousands in rent and utilities every month!! I am so damn happy I lived my life when you could go out on your own at 18 and actually survive comfortably!! I work part time at Home Depot EVERY young person I work with is working 2 full time jobs and STILL struggling it is very sad to see this!!
Obviously we need a government program to pay off car loan debt. It is only fair.
My thinking is she is a Dependapotomus. Got in with a lonely, naive, E3 to score the benefits then realized how crappy military life can be.
Years ago my wife was a Loan Officer and Collections Agent for our base Credit Union. She never used names but told me story after story of dependent wives thinking that if there were checks in the book then they could just write one for whatever they wanted. They were also the same people who though the money that came out of ATM's was free.
My current car is a 2015 Nissan Versa, a 5-speed manual transmission with 60.5k miles on but in very good condition/ one owner when I bought it in 2020 but it has no frills (my windows have manual cranks, no power door locks, but I do have a radio and A/C LOL!) that I bought for 9k less a 3k downpayment.
This was during COVID and I was desperate to replace my much older clunker that died (blown engine and other problems) that wasn’t worth repairing.
Unfortunately, my credit wasn’t so good at the time so I’m paying a higher interest rate than I’d like and since it was sold “as is” I opted for a 24-month extended warranty and gap insurance, but with my new job, I started more than doubling up on payments to get it paid off early, 2 years early and by the end of this year I hope.
But I get nearly 40 MPG highway and 35 city, and my maintenance costs and insurance are low. My only complaint is that it is so lightweight, it’s not good in the snow or even in heavy rain (although a manual transmission helps, and I have no problem driving a stick shift).
But I have to say I’m an absolute sucker for new cars, with the bells and whistles and that “new car smell” 😊
I figure once I pay this car off and no longer paying $200 a month and saving with my now higher income, if I can keep driving this car for another 2-3 years, assuming no major problems or repairs, I’d be able to put down a substantial down payment on a new car or a newer certified previously owned low mileage car and perhaps with my improved credit, keep my monthly payment below $300.
I’ve found there is a cost/benefit analysis that can come into play with old cars.
Sure, you paid off your car or paid cash for it and have no car payment so that saves a lot of money. But at some point, even with routine maintenance, things, very expensive things sometimes start to need repaired or replaced. If in a year you are spending more $ to keep the car running that what it is worth, it’s not worth it.
Many years ago my oldest son bought a Mazda hatchback brand new. Not long after he'd picked it up from the dealer, the car died, and it turned out the timing chain had slipped off. He's been a VW guy for at least 30 years now, and only leases them. His biggest problem is where he lives. It's a one way street in Troy, NY, and at least during one winter, the snow plow came through and took his side-view mirror out. Then last year, a drunk driver went on a rampage, and hit a whole bunch of cars parked in front of his brownstone. He had a VW Tiguan at the time, and it got pushed right up onto the sidewalk and into the car in front of him. Six months later, he was parked on one of the side streets across from where he lives, and someone else smashed into his front bumper. And even thought they had to do both body and work on the car's computer after the first accident, the second accident cost more to fix. We can probably thank Biden for that. He's lived in that same area for well over 20 years. He's since traded the Tiguan in for another model.
...little by little “entities” are stealing away the minds of our most emotionally vulnerable.
Finally on and on, leached away, they’ll bite on the “Bernays”, not only for hard assets, but other dire connections. The “airwaves” of “Bernay connections”. However, The Law of Sowing and Reaping is unavoidable.
Two most noticable consequences. Hers, and ours.
Ours as follows:
Notice the lender allowed this. Most likely knowing bundled securities facilities are a final MBS backstop. We become the final bailout.
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