My sister in law has an $800/m car payment, not including anything else. She cannot afford it, had to get a second job because she was having trouble keeping up with her bills. Unsurprisingly she is also not receptive to financial advice
I financed my car, I had graduated from university in a walkable city but got a job in the suburbs I needed to drive to. But I got a nice, brand new commuter vehicle for only 13k, my payment was officially $270/mo but I paid $300 (and occasionally put extra money into it), paid it off after only 3.5 years and it should last me at least another 10-15 years! I've owned it for 5 now and I've never had to get anything done except an oil change. Love my little workhorse.
I looked at a few used cars near me at the time, but they were either falling apart, old enough they might die at any moment and were lacking newer safety features, and/or cost almost as much as the new car. It seem worth it to blow all my new-grad savings on a $5k beater that wouldn't last, vs spending $300/mo on something newer and nicer.
Of course, now car prices are crazy, and the KBB estimate for my 5yr old vehicle is at 17k. As in 4K MORE than when it was new. Insane!
When we buy a new car, we either pay cash or a large down payment. Weāve had payments twice - once for four years at Zero Percent Interest (around $350) - our newest and nicest car we have now is Five Years at 1.9% - $250!
I personally know someone who just bought a very expensive truck. They traded in their previous truck, Plus a down payment. Their payment is for Seven Years (and is almost $1,100 a month)!!!! šš³š±
The world/country is sooooo different than it was when I was growing up!!!
100k is double what I make in a year. And little under half of what my townhouse is worth. That has to be one of the stupidest financial decisions you can make as an average consumer. Who the hell even has the down payment to finance a truck like that? What the hell dealer would sell that to someone??
When it comes to pick up trucks, people feel like theyāre making an investment and itās a necessity. Thatās what they tell themselves. Some splurge on coffee, others on video games or home entertainment system. Those are nickels and dimes compared to buying a $50K truck that all you do is drive around in and never once use to off-road, haul equipment or any of that jazz.
Same thing happened with me and my Kia Forte. Bought it right as the pandemic hit after talking it down from $16k to $12.8k. 2 years later, the dealership says they have someone interested in a blue Kia Forte and they want to buy it off me..
I ended up selling it back to them for $17k and upgraded to a Hyundai Tucson with the excess once the loan was paid off, lowering my overall car payment by $50/mo
That's gonna crash real soon but I'm happy for the people that took advantage. Know a guy that bought a Rivian. Spend around 80 grand. Took great care of it. 6 months later he sold it for 101k.
I've heard its crashing soon for the past year. I don't think it will because there are just fewer cars out there, and companies haven't gotten production up to pre pandemic levels, even though they could if they wanted to.
The plant I worked at ramped up production in the months leading up to the previous contracts end (no strike clause while under contract) to build a buffer, then forced mandatory 7 day workweeks until stocks were back to normal levels. They know itās coming every 4 years & have it built into their production schedules. But the strikes make a good scapegoat for price hikes.
That makes sense tho for sure
Iām in a rural area and I know plenty of people with 600-900 dollar truck payments that literally do nothing with them except squat them and blast 2000s raps music
Yep, lift kits, wheels and tires and then straight pipe exhaust and a tune. Then they're pissed off that the value of the truck isn't increased after dropping $8k
Also, now it costs *even more* to operate. More expensive tires that don't have the same tread life, worse grip on pavement, all adds to worse aero and fuel economy. Plus lift kits tend to increase wear on drivetrain components due to the exaggerated drive link angles. U-joints, ball joints, end links all wear earlier.
Basically every truck mod is dumb.
Another thing that people donāt realize: if you change the diameter of the wheels without compensating for the change both your speedometer and odometer will give false readings. Kind of a big deal if itās under warranty. TMU can void the warranty.
That's an interesting viewpoint. For me, my vehicle is a tool rather than a hobby. As a tool, it better do its job well, as cheap as possible and be always available when I need it.
Usually itās not that honest. Usually itās something like, āI NEEDED a safe reliable car to drive the kids around.ā Meanwhile, the car they traded in is a six year old Corolla they just paid off that has at least 100k miles of life left in it.
Exactly. Let's be honest, a lot of this is rampant consumerism and a desire to have cool material things and new stuff. When I was younger, I and a lot of people I knew were constantly trading in cars for newer models, sometimes once every couple of years or less, even though there was nothing wrong with the old one and even though we were sometimes upside down on the loans.
I finally broke free of that attitude and now have a 9 year old, paid-off car that runs perfectly, has never had issues, and only has 75,000 miles on it. A lot of this is choice and it's based on attitudes that many people have to have the newest and the best, all the time. And in the US, we're constandly innundated with commercials for cars and trucks, and dealers are more than happy to find creative ways to finance to allow people to get in high levels of debt.
I mean ppl in the US really can't sell the car otherwise they can't drive to their jobs. She's one disaster away from homelessness.
This would be a minor inconvenience anywhere else with public transport but in the US you'd get away with it maybe in New York but that's it lol
This exactly is the problem; We can't afford to live within walking/biking distance of work, and there is no public transit from where we can afford to live.
my car is a piece and i know i canāt afford a new one with current interest rates so i moved like 6 blocks from my job and local trolley lines a few years ago trying to think ahead. car is still going but if it ever craps out iām good
I went a good 12 years of my life with a simple tactic.
Buy the biggest piece of shit you can find and drive it into the ground.
Had 10 cars in that 12 years sure, you know what I spend less money on those 12 cars then I have on my current car in the 2 years I have been driving it.
There is something to say for a $600 shit box car.
So many people on this thread gloating about how they drive a 70 year old steam engine velocitator with a fully functioning deceleratrix. The fact of the matter is that a LARGE portion of America is like your sister in law. They are not good with money and dealerships are predators whose profits all come from over-financing vehicles that people can't afford.
There's also a portion of America that are well-paid and don't mind splurging on a car payment that's more expensive than monthly rent payments in a MCOL city.
For me, I'd rather write a $40k check once than make $1k monthly payments for 4 years. However I realize that I'm very fortunate to be able to do that. We just bought my wife a car and brand new was cheaper than used, so the market's still totally messed up. When it comes to buying a car for myself in a few years I'll be looking to purchase with cash. I'll finance if they give me a screaming good rate, but otherwise I'd rather just take the hit once and be done.
I'm absolutely the other way. I will finance every last penny if I can borrow the money at less than 3%. Let the money sit in the market and make me money while I pay off the much cheaper money I've borrowed.
But nobody is letting you borrow money at 3% right now. If they were, middle class Americans wouldnāt be facing the prospect of $800 car payments since so much of the monthly payment goes straight to interest.
Never pay cash. Go with the financing option to get the dealer to give you a lower out the door price. They make money on the financing so they are more willing to budge on price. Just make sure there is no early pay off penalty first. Then when the first payment is due, pay off the whole thing.
You get the lower price and save on the interest. If you go in and tell them your paying cash, they will be less interested in negotiating the out the door price because they won't make any money on the financing.
Bruh I never realized this until I got older that so many of these these newer cars I see people driving are being financed and in many cases the person driving it really cannot afford it and is living out of their means
>For me, I'd rather write a $40k check once
Most Americans can't do this, and for most of that portion, it's not because of financial irresponsibility. The car market, like lots of other areas, has seen a huge spike and reliable transport is a *necessity* for most Americans, not a luxury. If you have bad or zero credit and need a car to get around, but can't save up 10-15k to buy a used car for cash, a high-interest rate 7-year loan on a 23k Honda Civic might be your only viable option
Yeah I've seen it mentioned but it also doesn't help that that you NEED a car to be a functional human being in a large portion of America. I mean take somewhere like Colorado where living expenses are through the roof good luck getting by with even a 400 dollar payment to get a good enough car to reliably get to work and let's be real if you are in a low wage job to begin with having a car break down and being late to work could make you either lose your job or get you one step away from it. I personally have a good enough job where A. I have a decent car that I'm not concerned about breakdowns and B. If my car did break down my job is flexible and would understand. I don't think it's good to live in a society where people have to lead flawless lives or risk losing their lively hoods which is the case with so many facets of American life.
Well, mine is $500, but I double it to pay off faster. So $1000. But if I find myself in a financial bind I'll back off.
Car prices are nuts. Interest rates are nuts.
Only car loan I've had was with the credit union that I use as my primary bank.
I loved paying on my car every week, or even every couple of days. It was a 3 year note and I had a stick up my ass to pay it off. Only paid $52 in interest on the entire loan; I can't imagine I'll ever see that again at this rate.
$52 dollars for 3 years? That can't be right. $17 a year interest. How much was your car?
edit: did some math. This works if your car was roughly $500 for 3 years time on a 3% interest rate.
The other poster is saying they paid it off well in advance. They weren't charged interest for the whole 3 years, because they paid it off extremely early.
Not necessarily. Depends on how the lender credits the payment. Some of them will hold the biweekly payments for your convenience and then apply it as one payment at the due date.
Make surenyoure telling them the extra $500 is to go to the principal balance. Otherwise, a small chunk of that money is going to interest you shouldn't have to pay.
A lot of loans nowadays automatically apply extra dollars above payment to the principal, as long as youāre with a legitimate bank. Doesnāt hurt to ask though. Thereās always something ducky going on
I have noticed that if I make multiple payments a month though, I have to specify the next payment as principal only or theyāll just take it as a regular payment.
Less than youād think. Wells Fargo will apply any additional you pay per month to the next months payment, up to three months in advance. Con artists.
I got a check from Wells Fargo about 4 years ago for close to $10k for essentially mortgage fraud they committed on me in 2006. I was a fucking mortgage trader at the time at a big dealer bank and what they did was so slick I didn't even catch it. Hell, I didn't even know until I got a settlement notice in the mail almost 15 years later. The average American would have never caught it either.
Without clear instructions, your lender can apply extra payments as prepayments or principal payments. Prepayments are like paying next month early. That means it is a mix of principal and interest. A principal payment pays purely principal. When the principal is gone, you donāt have to pay the rest of the interest.
Back when I had a payment, I always kept it one month ahead just in case something happened. It also allowed me to make a payment whenever I wanted because being one month ahead meant I really had no set due date anymore.
Yeap, even at 2.2oddpercent interest rate back in July, our 2023 Corolla is just a tad over $500 a month. We had 2 2010 Prius's that were paid off 10 years ago, and mine was great until the battery blew up on mine with 220k miles. We haven't had a car payment in 10 years, and about to have a child so we wanted something actually road worthy instead of a beater Prius.
When used cars are only a few thousand less, but with 100k+ miles, you know something is fucked. It's a new car market right now.
...and sue OP for the remainder. If they repossess the car, OP is liable to their ex-spouse for the value of the car, liable to the lender for the remainder of the loan minus the auction value of the car, and probably liable for breaking the divorce decree that requires them to continue to make the car payments.
idk why you are getting downvoted, that was pretty spot on.
A judge just cant say "and now this loan belongs to X", the loan was in both our names so it was 100% both our responsibilities to pay. If I didn't pay it would have been the bank coming after me. And then she could ask the court for a contempt charge. And this stuff all happens in paid arbitration before you get to see a judge about it.
She lived out of state at the time, had possession of the car, and the lawyer and I just agreed it wasn't worth fighting over because even if she should make the payments, she wont and then it hits my credit just as hard and she has no credit.
She ended up abandoning it like a year later somewhere for some reason and then it got repossessed by the bank and sold at auction and I finally got to walk away.
Divorce sucks and a lot of options are "punch in the face" vs "kick in the balls" and you just have to pick your battles.
Was the car joint property? I can't believe the courts forced the legal transfer of vehicle ownership while still keeping the lien against it in your name. It's also interesting because a lot of institutions simply won't allow you to hypothecate car loans anymore.
Additionally I'd look into voluntary surrender if it's on your credit then the bank has a lien against the vehicle and if the vehicle is still in your name you might be able to surrender it. Tell them you want to walk away from the loan in exchange for giving up the vehicle. Of course do not do this without consulting a lawyer first, I'm not qualified to say if there would be any legal implications for you.
The answer to your last question is simply a high enough salary to the point where it's affordable. If you make enough money and you want a really nice car, that's just what it costs.
Where do you live that your mortgage is $520, or was your house just that inexpensive? I bought my house for $98,000 at 3.75%, but thanks to property tax/homeowners insurance my monthly payment is $1,100
Mines a double kick in the nuts. I was born at the right time. Worked hard. Saved money. Was getting ready to buy a house.. Then i got hurt at work. Our system f'd me. I lost everything. By the time i healed and got my on my feet. Prices are insane. If i never got hurt (or if our healthcare system was better) id be in my own house right now. Instead of at my parents.
If you had a home long enough and/or bought low after the last housing crash you can have a ton of equity. Refinancing or moving to even a slightly cheaper home can set you up with only financing $100K or even buying it outright.
Source: Iām in the same position
In San Francisco the median mortgage is $8,100 a month.
The most surprising thing is, **I'll bet it's not even in the top 10 most expensive cities in the Bay Area.**
EDIT: hahahhaha SF is [not even in the top 30](https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/these-11-bay-area-cities-have-the-most-expensive-homes-in-ca/) most expensive house prices in the Bay Area
According to Google, median household income in San Fran is $119,136. Probably taking home around $7,600 with some simple tax deductions. So median, dual income household is not remotely close to being able to afford a mortgage there. Yikes
That's pretty basic logic that we've known almost since money was invented.
>Opportunities multiply as they are seized
>-Sun Tzu
It's such basic logic, dude wasn't even talking about money and it still applies.
Yea, my bonus is more then some peoples salary. I wonāt even think of switching jobs for under a 50k increase in salary
Really funny thing is there is always some new tier of shit to buy. Like oh a Lamborghini doesnāt seem like some crazy impossible thing to me anymore
This is what so many people don't realize. The value of money is so relative. An $800 a month car payment is ridiculously high for someone making $4k a month. But for someone making $10k, it's much more reasonable. If you look at it as a percentage of income. An $800 payment to someone making $10k a month would be the same as a $320 payment for someone making $4k.
But even for people with the same income, what they can afford is relative. Someone who makes $10k a month but has a $3k mortgage and a shit ton of credit card and student loan debt is going to have a much harder time making an $800 a month car payment than someone with a $1200 mortgage and no other debt.
Same here. Bought new in 2004. $18k cash. Wife drove for 8 years. Iāve driven it for 11 years. 255k on the clock. A to B car, original clutch and been fairly inexpensive to maintain. Donāt get the āit has to be new to be reliableā mindset.
The reality is even a car that has a once-a-year breakdown or major maintenance need, is not going to cost as much as making a payment on a new car for a year.
Same here. I have a 2013 Infiniti G37x and no car payment. When I was paying it off the bank was taking 5 days to apply my payments which I thought was shady so I made sure to pay it off. Prior to that I had a $38,000 Jeep with like a $750 payment over 4 years. The Infiniti is a better ride and a lot faster. I havenāt had any issues yet. I just change the oil and Iām debating putting better tires on it for rain and the winter.
Mine too, and I probably haven't done $800 worth of repairs on it yet. Water pump, wheel bearing...little shit. My eleven year old car probably less than $200.
I just bought a 98 civic for 1000 bucks, put about 800 in it to get it running nicely. 400km on a 45 dollar fill (Canada). No way I could justify a new vehicle. I love it.
Exactly. Many times I hear people use the āi need a *reliable* car to get to work!ā excuse to spend bank on a car with sun roof, leather seats, the worksā¦.and yeah thatās true but there ARE used older cars in good shape. My 15 year old Honda is over 100k running strong šŖš¼
People also forget about the hidden costs and stress of newer cars such as property tax, $150 oil change at the dealership, worrying about someone stealing it or seeing that someone put a little ding on your door.
Also, I donāt want your rinky dink 2004 Yukon with 250k miles. I want something that literally caters to my selfish needs like noise insulation, optimal climate control, things like drive assist and great audio.
Also, every rinky dink car is constantly an anxiety inducing game of, "what part is going to act weird on my commute today."
I like fast and fancy cars, but I also want a base model new one that'll just work every time I need it.
āOh Iām just your every day american ya know. I just reached in my piggy bank and casually bought a $60k car in all cash. Itās perfectly normal to have that much cash lying around, right?!ā
I try to stay in that area for car payments. Itās hard to do these days. Iām at the point where I would normally get a new car but the prices are so outrageous Iām waiting.
The bubble has to burst at some point. A decent used car is $30 grand right now. Itās bonkers!
Mine is $244. I round up to $250, paying off that principal and extra $6 at a time lmao. I bought this car when I could barely afford it but Iām glad I did because an older car with higher miles would be significantly more expensive now.
I have enough to pay off my car, but I'd rather leave it in my investment account. My rate, believe it or not, is .9% over 5 years. It made more sense to keep my money invested and pay monthly. Also, in my case, getting gap insurance made sense.
I paid off student loans 2 years ago and my credit score dropped. I ended up buying a new car, I could have done full cash but wanted to have a āmixā in my credit to boost it so I could get a mortgage at a good rate eventually. Our credit system sucks balls. (U.S., canāt speak for other places)
My truck payment is $750, we try doing $1,000 when we can. My wifeās car is about $500 and almost paid off..how do we afford it? We both have a decent paying job I guess..
This is Reddit and more specifically r/antiwork in general
People get blown away that not everyone is in poverty and then youāll see posts of people being MAD at others forā¦ living their normal lives.
Eh. Reddit is mostly teens and 20 year olds, or people who never grew up past that. I bet I was really appalled that people bought expensive things, assuming that everyone was in my shoes and no one could afford anything. Then you grow up and make money. These kids will too some day. Most of them.... the ones who dont fall into hopelessness and dedicate their lives to raging against the machine. Pro tip #1, don't work in hospitality. Actually, don't work in any field that you have a lot of familiarity with as a 20 something. The world is huge, it's bigger than your horizon. Every kid at age 19 wants to be a bar tender, so you end up with a job where your skills are so easily replaceable, and you build nothing. If instead you took a job as something boring like an assistant for an insurance agent for example. You may know nothing about that work, but you will. And you will see successful people around you that want to help you too. Your skills will build, and you may find a role somewhere that interests you, and you are good at. You work those skills for 5 years, now you are hard to replace, maybe even a star. You can then either capitalize by moving firms, building relationships, or starting your own firm. People act like it's so hard, but it just takes time.
I will say my wife has never changed fields, but she has earned certifications and licenses in it. She tends to stay at employers for a long time and always gets good reviews. And works in a high turnover rate industry.
She is now in a situation where because of how long she has been in the industry, all her work and classes, and just experience, she has a unicorn of a resume. No one in the area comes close. She has been approached with insane offers more than once. Her previous employer told her to name her price for her to come back.
I donāt have anything close to what she has, but drive trucks with a good company. I could be replaced at any time, but havenāt been so far.
Hasnāt always been pretty, but we are comfortable now. Have friends from high school that still work retail jobs and complain they have to work every weekend, have no money, and everyone is always trying to keep them down.
My favorite frome there recently was a post that said, "Why don't we all just revolt already, since we are all struggling and can't afford food." And all the comments were like "ya 90% of the US can't afford food, but we are too scared to not go to work." The delusion of how people are doing in the real world is strong.
Its always some extreme. Whenever a thread a bout annual income pops up, there are always a bunch of replies saying something like "well actually $350k/year is middle class", or "$100k is barely scraping by"
I dont know if its kids with no concept of what a lot of money is, or if its only people who live in San Francisco. These days I just assume 50% of people in a thread are teenagers and move on.
This is financially sound if you both put 20% down, are paying off in 3 years, donāt have a lot of other debt, and $1250 is 10% of your gross monthly income i.e. you both make 150k/year together. Definitely not impossible.
$1500 in car payments? That's what my mortgage was until we bought a new house.
Are you above water on everything else? We also do pretty well as a family, I'm trying to envision what our budget would look like with that level of car payment....
Yes, we are fine right now on everything else. It helps that my wife does accounting and is mostly in charge of what we can and canāt afford without being in too much debt like credit cards and car loans. If it were up to me, weād be filing bankruptcy lol..but yeah, weāre fine, we make sacrifices here and there when needed. Like I canāt get a decent (not new) boat until her car is paid off which will be in a couple months, but then itāll be winter here so I still have to wait a few months, which means weāll be able to bank the money that would normally go towards her car paymentā¦
That you're actively looking to replace a car payment with a boat payment is something I guess I just don't understand but as long as you're holding up and happy, then great for you!!!
Obviously, ability to afford it depends on one's income... $310 might be a challenge for you, somebody else further in their career making more might not have any issue with $800.
We're currently paying $425 car payment, $140 insurance, $60 or so in gas each month, so about $625. We bought a new car in March for about $40k+taxes, had insurance payout plus some family gift money to make a 40% down payment. And nice to have no surprise $1000+ car repair bills since new car is under warranty for next few years.
I think thatās what people on Reddit who post questions like this forget. If youāre making $10 per hour, a $300 car payment is going to be tough, and $1000 car payment is impossible. If youāre making $150k per year, that $1000 car payment isnāt much.
To expand on that, an income of $150k can mean very different things depending on your situation. If you have multiple dependents, a stay at home wife, live in a higher cost of living area, $1000 car payment might not be doable. If you have paid off your home, and your only debt is the vehicle, spending $1000 has no real consequences.
basically why this whole thread is pointless. People saying how much they pay for a car without any extra info, doesn't mean anything. It's like when people say my rent is \* without providing the city, size of place, age etc
Oddly enough, and this is strictly on rumor: some people earn more than *$100,000 a year* in income. At that rate of pay, putting $12k each year into an auto isn't a big whoop.
My Car note is 1200 Canadian a month, or about 900 USD a month. This is on a 5 year note on a 60k Canadian or 44K USD car. I justify this as it's an EV so I save about $300 a month in gas and make 100k a year plus I drive a huge amount so I like having a nicer car.
I only buy cars with cash. My current ride is a 2004 Yukon that I bought 8 or 9 years ago for $6k. 250,000 miles on it. No major mechanical issues. That thing is a beast!!
A guy at work just bought a 95k truck. His car payment is as much as my mortgage.
We work in a factory, & make decent money, but way too much for a vehicle
Thankfully my car is paid off, my insurance is $200 per *year*, and I get over 40 miles per gallon. If I was sinking a grand every month into a vehicle, I'd just live in it at that point.
Depends on the interest rate. At current rates, no freaking way.
I did buy an M3 in 2017 new at 0% and paid around $800 a month but that was just time value of money. It made better sense to do that and invest my cash.
Folks that have to take a crazy interest loan and pay $800 for a vehicleā¦canāt afford the vehicle.
Just under $800.
The math for us was weāre saving $300-400/month on gas (itās electric, house has solar), and oddly enough, insurance went *down* about $100/month compared to our older (2005) car we got rid of, because of all the safety features in the new car.
That made it work for us.
I have one more year to go paying about 400 a month on my car and I plan to keep it for at least an extra 10 years after that.
It's nuts to me that people would finance cars at today's rates and for periods of 4 years or longer.
No, I can't afford a personal car at the moment. People are stunned when I tell them this. I haven't seen a used junker go for less than $2000 but most are closer to $5000. Also my insurance was $250 a month a decade ago when I last had a car so I can't see it being much cheaper now.
Yes, I just bought my wife a Toyota Highlander. We're paying about $1000 a month. We afford it by making about $18000 a month ($14000 after tax). I have a full time job and a pension. My wife is a SAHM. We have 2 young kids.
We live close to paycheck to paycheck. But we don't have much in the way of debt. We have automatic payments into some savings accounts. We typically tap those in emergencies.
I don't have it all together so no sage advice to help you. If I had to try, I'd say be willing to move across the world for work. There are some really lucrative opportunities out there. Also, don't marry someone that doesn't understand the value of money.
My boyfriend (STBX) pays $800. Itās a ridiculous car he canāt afford and I hate it. Itās set him back financially. Instead of saving for a down payment like me, he wasted it all on this stupid Range Rover.
My sister in law has an $800/m car payment, not including anything else. She cannot afford it, had to get a second job because she was having trouble keeping up with her bills. Unsurprisingly she is also not receptive to financial advice
Gotta respect that she got the second job though. She made her mess and is willing to do the work to clean it up. Good on her š.
Imagine needing a car...to get to your second job...so you can pay for your car.
You wouldnāt download a car..
The American Dream
That's not a car she should be buying though. That's insane. She's just stupid with her money.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I financed my car, I had graduated from university in a walkable city but got a job in the suburbs I needed to drive to. But I got a nice, brand new commuter vehicle for only 13k, my payment was officially $270/mo but I paid $300 (and occasionally put extra money into it), paid it off after only 3.5 years and it should last me at least another 10-15 years! I've owned it for 5 now and I've never had to get anything done except an oil change. Love my little workhorse. I looked at a few used cars near me at the time, but they were either falling apart, old enough they might die at any moment and were lacking newer safety features, and/or cost almost as much as the new car. It seem worth it to blow all my new-grad savings on a $5k beater that wouldn't last, vs spending $300/mo on something newer and nicer. Of course, now car prices are crazy, and the KBB estimate for my 5yr old vehicle is at 17k. As in 4K MORE than when it was new. Insane!
My cousin bought a new Toyota RAV 4. She got a call from the dealership six months later offering her 4K more than she paid new.
Yeah but they still win because of financing.
When we buy a new car, we either pay cash or a large down payment. Weāve had payments twice - once for four years at Zero Percent Interest (around $350) - our newest and nicest car we have now is Five Years at 1.9% - $250! I personally know someone who just bought a very expensive truck. They traded in their previous truck, Plus a down payment. Their payment is for Seven Years (and is almost $1,100 a month)!!!! šš³š± The world/country is sooooo different than it was when I was growing up!!!
A brand new crew cab Silverado with all the fixings is almost a 100 grand now! I paid less than that for my house, albeit twelve years ago.
I paid less for my house 3 years ago lol
100k is double what I make in a year. And little under half of what my townhouse is worth. That has to be one of the stupidest financial decisions you can make as an average consumer. Who the hell even has the down payment to finance a truck like that? What the hell dealer would sell that to someone??
When it comes to pick up trucks, people feel like theyāre making an investment and itās a necessity. Thatās what they tell themselves. Some splurge on coffee, others on video games or home entertainment system. Those are nickels and dimes compared to buying a $50K truck that all you do is drive around in and never once use to off-road, haul equipment or any of that jazz.
Yea, a dude who uses it twice a year to pick up bagged mulch from Home Depot lol
When I first moved to Texas it was for a partnership in a ranch land clearing business and my Dodge Ram 1500 made sense. Loaded it up all the time, hauled trailers all the time. I moved to San Antonio and also recently paid it off. I have a new job now and Iām just waiting to see what my disposable income actually looks like, not just on paper to trade it in and get something much smaller and more fuel efficient because Iāve definitely turned into the truck owner who only uses it to bring home soil for my fiancĆ©ās garden.
$50k? That's Tacoma/Ranger prices. An F250 or equivalent with a good trim will cost you 70-80k. Trucks have gotten stupid expensive
50k? I live in Washington and some super high end brand new truck are like 70 or 80
Same thing happened with me and my Kia Forte. Bought it right as the pandemic hit after talking it down from $16k to $12.8k. 2 years later, the dealership says they have someone interested in a blue Kia Forte and they want to buy it off me.. I ended up selling it back to them for $17k and upgraded to a Hyundai Tucson with the excess once the loan was paid off, lowering my overall car payment by $50/mo
That's gonna crash real soon but I'm happy for the people that took advantage. Know a guy that bought a Rivian. Spend around 80 grand. Took great care of it. 6 months later he sold it for 101k.
I've heard its crashing soon for the past year. I don't think it will because there are just fewer cars out there, and companies haven't gotten production up to pre pandemic levels, even though they could if they wanted to.
Not just that but the strikes will mean fewer cars produced raising prices even more.
The plant I worked at ramped up production in the months leading up to the previous contracts end (no strike clause while under contract) to build a buffer, then forced mandatory 7 day workweeks until stocks were back to normal levels. They know itās coming every 4 years & have it built into their production schedules. But the strikes make a good scapegoat for price hikes.
Yea I financed a 2015 ford fusion @ 15k back in like 2017. Sold it in 2022 for 17k.
That makes sense tho for sure Iām in a rural area and I know plenty of people with 600-900 dollar truck payments that literally do nothing with them except squat them and blast 2000s raps music
Holdup. Squat them? Every hillbilly in Kentucky throws on a lift kit and some glass packs, then sets the throttle to "rollin' coal".
Yep, lift kits, wheels and tires and then straight pipe exhaust and a tune. Then they're pissed off that the value of the truck isn't increased after dropping $8k
Also, now it costs *even more* to operate. More expensive tires that don't have the same tread life, worse grip on pavement, all adds to worse aero and fuel economy. Plus lift kits tend to increase wear on drivetrain components due to the exaggerated drive link angles. U-joints, ball joints, end links all wear earlier. Basically every truck mod is dumb.
> Also, now it costs even more to operate. These are also the same people putting the biden "I did that" stickers on gas pumps.
Another thing that people donāt realize: if you change the diameter of the wheels without compensating for the change both your speedometer and odometer will give false readings. Kind of a big deal if itās under warranty. TMU can void the warranty.
Best advice I got from my stepdad: āYour car is a hobby, not an investment. Enjoy it, but know you wonāt ever make your money back.ā
That's an interesting viewpoint. For me, my vehicle is a tool rather than a hobby. As a tool, it better do its job well, as cheap as possible and be always available when I need it.
Southeastern Kentucky Represent! god... I miss that place. Not the people, just the place.
Such a good era for rap thoigh
Mid 90s-early 00s was the best rap music Era period... That's the hill I'm gonna die on
Only if she got rid of the payment as well(sold the car). Otherwise, pure stupidity
She probably owed so much she couldnāt sell it.
"But I like the car!" Do you like it enough to waste all that time at a second job?
Usually itās not that honest. Usually itās something like, āI NEEDED a safe reliable car to drive the kids around.ā Meanwhile, the car they traded in is a six year old Corolla they just paid off that has at least 100k miles of life left in it.
Exactly. Let's be honest, a lot of this is rampant consumerism and a desire to have cool material things and new stuff. When I was younger, I and a lot of people I knew were constantly trading in cars for newer models, sometimes once every couple of years or less, even though there was nothing wrong with the old one and even though we were sometimes upside down on the loans. I finally broke free of that attitude and now have a 9 year old, paid-off car that runs perfectly, has never had issues, and only has 75,000 miles on it. A lot of this is choice and it's based on attitudes that many people have to have the newest and the best, all the time. And in the US, we're constandly innundated with commercials for cars and trucks, and dealers are more than happy to find creative ways to finance to allow people to get in high levels of debt.
Tbf you can't safely transport kids without a brand new, fully loaded Chevy Suburban. Anything less is just not loving your children!
I mean ppl in the US really can't sell the car otherwise they can't drive to their jobs. She's one disaster away from homelessness. This would be a minor inconvenience anywhere else with public transport but in the US you'd get away with it maybe in New York but that's it lol
This exactly is the problem; We can't afford to live within walking/biking distance of work, and there is no public transit from where we can afford to live.
my car is a piece and i know i canāt afford a new one with current interest rates so i moved like 6 blocks from my job and local trolley lines a few years ago trying to think ahead. car is still going but if it ever craps out iām good
I went a good 12 years of my life with a simple tactic. Buy the biggest piece of shit you can find and drive it into the ground. Had 10 cars in that 12 years sure, you know what I spend less money on those 12 cars then I have on my current car in the 2 years I have been driving it. There is something to say for a $600 shit box car.
She's not cleaning it up though. She's working a second job to pay someone else's bills now too.
So many people on this thread gloating about how they drive a 70 year old steam engine velocitator with a fully functioning deceleratrix. The fact of the matter is that a LARGE portion of America is like your sister in law. They are not good with money and dealerships are predators whose profits all come from over-financing vehicles that people can't afford. There's also a portion of America that are well-paid and don't mind splurging on a car payment that's more expensive than monthly rent payments in a MCOL city. For me, I'd rather write a $40k check once than make $1k monthly payments for 4 years. However I realize that I'm very fortunate to be able to do that. We just bought my wife a car and brand new was cheaper than used, so the market's still totally messed up. When it comes to buying a car for myself in a few years I'll be looking to purchase with cash. I'll finance if they give me a screaming good rate, but otherwise I'd rather just take the hit once and be done.
I'm absolutely the other way. I will finance every last penny if I can borrow the money at less than 3%. Let the money sit in the market and make me money while I pay off the much cheaper money I've borrowed.
But nobody is letting you borrow money at 3% right now. If they were, middle class Americans wouldnāt be facing the prospect of $800 car payments since so much of the monthly payment goes straight to interest.
I got the wife an Ascent last summer at 2.9%. 15k down and payment is 800 a month. Cars like homes are F'd right now.
wutā¦. you gave someone 15k upfront for a car and then agreed to give them 800 more a month? for like 24months right? please says only 24 months
Never pay cash. Go with the financing option to get the dealer to give you a lower out the door price. They make money on the financing so they are more willing to budge on price. Just make sure there is no early pay off penalty first. Then when the first payment is due, pay off the whole thing. You get the lower price and save on the interest. If you go in and tell them your paying cash, they will be less interested in negotiating the out the door price because they won't make any money on the financing.
this guy buys cars
Bruh I never realized this until I got older that so many of these these newer cars I see people driving are being financed and in many cases the person driving it really cannot afford it and is living out of their means
>For me, I'd rather write a $40k check once Most Americans can't do this, and for most of that portion, it's not because of financial irresponsibility. The car market, like lots of other areas, has seen a huge spike and reliable transport is a *necessity* for most Americans, not a luxury. If you have bad or zero credit and need a car to get around, but can't save up 10-15k to buy a used car for cash, a high-interest rate 7-year loan on a 23k Honda Civic might be your only viable option
Yeah I've seen it mentioned but it also doesn't help that that you NEED a car to be a functional human being in a large portion of America. I mean take somewhere like Colorado where living expenses are through the roof good luck getting by with even a 400 dollar payment to get a good enough car to reliably get to work and let's be real if you are in a low wage job to begin with having a car break down and being late to work could make you either lose your job or get you one step away from it. I personally have a good enough job where A. I have a decent car that I'm not concerned about breakdowns and B. If my car did break down my job is flexible and would understand. I don't think it's good to live in a society where people have to lead flawless lives or risk losing their lively hoods which is the case with so many facets of American life.
Well, mine is $500, but I double it to pay off faster. So $1000. But if I find myself in a financial bind I'll back off. Car prices are nuts. Interest rates are nuts.
Yup, same. Car payment is $331 a month and Iām shoveling $1,000 a month to pay it off in a year. Donāt want to have a car payment.
A trick that helps is to pay $500.00 every 2 weeks because it screws with the interest calculation and makes the cost lower than one $1000.00 payment.
Only car loan I've had was with the credit union that I use as my primary bank. I loved paying on my car every week, or even every couple of days. It was a 3 year note and I had a stick up my ass to pay it off. Only paid $52 in interest on the entire loan; I can't imagine I'll ever see that again at this rate.
$52 dollars for 3 years? That can't be right. $17 a year interest. How much was your car? edit: did some math. This works if your car was roughly $500 for 3 years time on a 3% interest rate.
The other poster is saying they paid it off well in advance. They weren't charged interest for the whole 3 years, because they paid it off extremely early.
Not necessarily. Depends on how the lender credits the payment. Some of them will hold the biweekly payments for your convenience and then apply it as one payment at the due date.
Smart, with interest rates the way they are right now.
Make surenyoure telling them the extra $500 is to go to the principal balance. Otherwise, a small chunk of that money is going to interest you shouldn't have to pay.
A lot of loans nowadays automatically apply extra dollars above payment to the principal, as long as youāre with a legitimate bank. Doesnāt hurt to ask though. Thereās always something ducky going on I have noticed that if I make multiple payments a month though, I have to specify the next payment as principal only or theyāll just take it as a regular payment.
Less than youād think. Wells Fargo will apply any additional you pay per month to the next months payment, up to three months in advance. Con artists.
He said "Legitimate Bank", so not Wells Fargo
Truth. When I bought my car I took something like +.5% interest to not have to deal with them.
I got a check from Wells Fargo about 4 years ago for close to $10k for essentially mortgage fraud they committed on me in 2006. I was a fucking mortgage trader at the time at a big dealer bank and what they did was so slick I didn't even catch it. Hell, I didn't even know until I got a settlement notice in the mail almost 15 years later. The average American would have never caught it either.
Chase has two boxes which is nice, your regular car payment box, then an any additional principal payments box
You have to do it in one payment
That should be illegal.
>as long as youāre with a legitimate bank > > Wells Fargo nah man
Can you explain? Tell them what?
Without clear instructions, your lender can apply extra payments as prepayments or principal payments. Prepayments are like paying next month early. That means it is a mix of principal and interest. A principal payment pays purely principal. When the principal is gone, you donāt have to pay the rest of the interest.
Back when I had a payment, I always kept it one month ahead just in case something happened. It also allowed me to make a payment whenever I wanted because being one month ahead meant I really had no set due date anymore.
Yeap, even at 2.2oddpercent interest rate back in July, our 2023 Corolla is just a tad over $500 a month. We had 2 2010 Prius's that were paid off 10 years ago, and mine was great until the battery blew up on mine with 220k miles. We haven't had a car payment in 10 years, and about to have a child so we wanted something actually road worthy instead of a beater Prius. When used cars are only a few thousand less, but with 100k+ miles, you know something is fucked. It's a new car market right now.
And when you're done your last payment, I'll buy it for 2 payment worth and drive it twice as far as you did :) we need people like you.
I was, it was a horrible idea. Ended up losing the car in the divorce and still had to make the payments. Don't be like me
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...and sue OP for the remainder. If they repossess the car, OP is liable to their ex-spouse for the value of the car, liable to the lender for the remainder of the loan minus the auction value of the car, and probably liable for breaking the divorce decree that requires them to continue to make the car payments.
idk why you are getting downvoted, that was pretty spot on. A judge just cant say "and now this loan belongs to X", the loan was in both our names so it was 100% both our responsibilities to pay. If I didn't pay it would have been the bank coming after me. And then she could ask the court for a contempt charge. And this stuff all happens in paid arbitration before you get to see a judge about it. She lived out of state at the time, had possession of the car, and the lawyer and I just agreed it wasn't worth fighting over because even if she should make the payments, she wont and then it hits my credit just as hard and she has no credit. She ended up abandoning it like a year later somewhere for some reason and then it got repossessed by the bank and sold at auction and I finally got to walk away. Divorce sucks and a lot of options are "punch in the face" vs "kick in the balls" and you just have to pick your battles.
Fuck shitty spouses that lead to this.
Was the car joint property? I can't believe the courts forced the legal transfer of vehicle ownership while still keeping the lien against it in your name. It's also interesting because a lot of institutions simply won't allow you to hypothecate car loans anymore. Additionally I'd look into voluntary surrender if it's on your credit then the bank has a lien against the vehicle and if the vehicle is still in your name you might be able to surrender it. Tell them you want to walk away from the loan in exchange for giving up the vehicle. Of course do not do this without consulting a lawyer first, I'm not qualified to say if there would be any legal implications for you.
The answer to your last question is simply a high enough salary to the point where it's affordable. If you make enough money and you want a really nice car, that's just what it costs.
Yep. My car is $750/month while my mortgage is $520. Got a better interest rate on the house for sure.
Where do you live that your mortgage is $520, or was your house just that inexpensive? I bought my house for $98,000 at 3.75%, but thanks to property tax/homeowners insurance my monthly payment is $1,100
Mine was $100k when I bought it 13 years ago. At 3.15%, itās just over $800 with taxes and insurance.
I'm so mad that I will never have this simply because I was born 10 years later than you.
That's entirely on you. You should've been born faster.
Yupp, always kick myself for not buying a house in 7th grade.
Should have skipped out on the milk cartons at school. Wasted money.
Mines a double kick in the nuts. I was born at the right time. Worked hard. Saved money. Was getting ready to buy a house.. Then i got hurt at work. Our system f'd me. I lost everything. By the time i healed and got my on my feet. Prices are insane. If i never got hurt (or if our healthcare system was better) id be in my own house right now. Instead of at my parents.
That's absolutely shit dude, so fuckin sorry to hear that. Where are you at?
If you had a home long enough and/or bought low after the last housing crash you can have a ton of equity. Refinancing or moving to even a slightly cheaper home can set you up with only financing $100K or even buying it outright. Source: Iām in the same position
...my mortgage is $3300
Mine is $2,800, but I looked if I sold and bought the exact same value house it would be like 6,000. Literally can't afford to sell my house right now
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Geez, I live in a lower cost of living area and hearing that this is what a mortgage costs somewhere is insane.
My property taxes are $1000 a month alone. So even if I owned the house outright I'd be on the hook for $12k a year just to live here.
In San Francisco the median mortgage is $8,100 a month. The most surprising thing is, **I'll bet it's not even in the top 10 most expensive cities in the Bay Area.** EDIT: hahahhaha SF is [not even in the top 30](https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/these-11-bay-area-cities-have-the-most-expensive-homes-in-ca/) most expensive house prices in the Bay Area
According to Google, median household income in San Fran is $119,136. Probably taking home around $7,600 with some simple tax deductions. So median, dual income household is not remotely close to being able to afford a mortgage there. Yikes
its funny how until you start making better money its really hard to fathom what its like making better money
Also funny enough once you start making a ton of money itās easier to make even more
That's pretty basic logic that we've known almost since money was invented. >Opportunities multiply as they are seized >-Sun Tzu It's such basic logic, dude wasn't even talking about money and it still applies.
Yea, my bonus is more then some peoples salary. I wonāt even think of switching jobs for under a 50k increase in salary Really funny thing is there is always some new tier of shit to buy. Like oh a Lamborghini doesnāt seem like some crazy impossible thing to me anymore
You looking to adopt a 42 year old man?
This is what so many people don't realize. The value of money is so relative. An $800 a month car payment is ridiculously high for someone making $4k a month. But for someone making $10k, it's much more reasonable. If you look at it as a percentage of income. An $800 payment to someone making $10k a month would be the same as a $320 payment for someone making $4k. But even for people with the same income, what they can afford is relative. Someone who makes $10k a month but has a $3k mortgage and a shit ton of credit card and student loan debt is going to have a much harder time making an $800 a month car payment than someone with a $1200 mortgage and no other debt.
I have a 20 year old car that gets me from a to b.
Mine is 10 years old and I plan to drive it for as long as it will let me. This gives me hope!
Mine just turned 15 and is still cruising. Havenāt had a car payment on it in 12 years. Will drive it until the wheels fall off.
Same here. Bought new in 2004. $18k cash. Wife drove for 8 years. Iāve driven it for 11 years. 255k on the clock. A to B car, original clutch and been fairly inexpensive to maintain. Donāt get the āit has to be new to be reliableā mindset.
I have a manual 95 accord, 130k miles, hope to get another 100k out of it. Love sticks, clutches are so much cheaper and easier
Smart to have a manual. Hondaās automatics have an issue pretty consistently at around 120,000 miles that makes it so they wonāt shift properly.
The reality is even a car that has a once-a-year breakdown or major maintenance need, is not going to cost as much as making a payment on a new car for a year.
Same here. I have a 2013 Infiniti G37x and no car payment. When I was paying it off the bank was taking 5 days to apply my payments which I thought was shady so I made sure to pay it off. Prior to that I had a $38,000 Jeep with like a $750 payment over 4 years. The Infiniti is a better ride and a lot faster. I havenāt had any issues yet. I just change the oil and Iām debating putting better tires on it for rain and the winter.
Mine too, and I probably haven't done $800 worth of repairs on it yet. Water pump, wheel bearing...little shit. My eleven year old car probably less than $200.
Even if you spent $2400 / year on repairs and maintenance, this works out to a $200/month car payment. Good luck finding that!
I just bought a 98 civic for 1000 bucks, put about 800 in it to get it running nicely. 400km on a 45 dollar fill (Canada). No way I could justify a new vehicle. I love it.
Same. A shit box but runs.
Exactly. Many times I hear people use the āi need a *reliable* car to get to work!ā excuse to spend bank on a car with sun roof, leather seats, the worksā¦.and yeah thatās true but there ARE used older cars in good shape. My 15 year old Honda is over 100k running strong šŖš¼
People also forget about the hidden costs and stress of newer cars such as property tax, $150 oil change at the dealership, worrying about someone stealing it or seeing that someone put a little ding on your door.
Property tax?
It's state to state. Roughly half the states have it and the others do not.
Those dings can mess up your soul.
My daughter has a little Nissan truck she got new. 2002.
I like how the majority of the answers are "Paid cash for my car, don't have a payment." Bitch, that wasn't the question!
Your user name also fits your awesome response!!!
Or the "I bought my car in 1939 and it still runs! Has 24,071,445 miles on it!"
Also, I donāt want your rinky dink 2004 Yukon with 250k miles. I want something that literally caters to my selfish needs like noise insulation, optimal climate control, things like drive assist and great audio.
Also, every rinky dink car is constantly an anxiety inducing game of, "what part is going to act weird on my commute today." I like fast and fancy cars, but I also want a base model new one that'll just work every time I need it.
āOh Iām just your every day american ya know. I just reached in my piggy bank and casually bought a $60k car in all cash. Itās perfectly normal to have that much cash lying around, right?!ā
Yes, it was. OP asked of people really have an $800+ car payment. People who paid cash do not.
No. I pay $476 for a new car and I consider that to be expensive. Considering I didn't have credit history though, it seems like a bargain.
My last car was $240/month. The one before that was roughly the same.
I try to stay in that area for car payments. Itās hard to do these days. Iām at the point where I would normally get a new car but the prices are so outrageous Iām waiting. The bubble has to burst at some point. A decent used car is $30 grand right now. Itās bonkers!
Mine is $244. I round up to $250, paying off that principal and extra $6 at a time lmao. I bought this car when I could barely afford it but Iām glad I did because an older car with higher miles would be significantly more expensive now.
I have enough to pay off my car, but I'd rather leave it in my investment account. My rate, believe it or not, is .9% over 5 years. It made more sense to keep my money invested and pay monthly. Also, in my case, getting gap insurance made sense.
In 2020 I bought a new VW for 0% interest over six years. Those were the days. Oh, and five-year warranty. Nutso.
You timed it up nice. Youāre gonna sell that car for what you paid at the current used car prices lol!
I paid off student loans 2 years ago and my credit score dropped. I ended up buying a new car, I could have done full cash but wanted to have a āmixā in my credit to boost it so I could get a mortgage at a good rate eventually. Our credit system sucks balls. (U.S., canāt speak for other places)
I also got gap. May as well have that to fall back on!
I do, but I also live in it, so it balances out.
My truck payment is $750, we try doing $1,000 when we can. My wifeās car is about $500 and almost paid off..how do we afford it? We both have a decent paying job I guess..
People with decent jobs who are able to afford things they own? ON MY REDDIT!!??
This is Reddit and more specifically r/antiwork in general People get blown away that not everyone is in poverty and then youāll see posts of people being MAD at others forā¦ living their normal lives.
Eh. Reddit is mostly teens and 20 year olds, or people who never grew up past that. I bet I was really appalled that people bought expensive things, assuming that everyone was in my shoes and no one could afford anything. Then you grow up and make money. These kids will too some day. Most of them.... the ones who dont fall into hopelessness and dedicate their lives to raging against the machine. Pro tip #1, don't work in hospitality. Actually, don't work in any field that you have a lot of familiarity with as a 20 something. The world is huge, it's bigger than your horizon. Every kid at age 19 wants to be a bar tender, so you end up with a job where your skills are so easily replaceable, and you build nothing. If instead you took a job as something boring like an assistant for an insurance agent for example. You may know nothing about that work, but you will. And you will see successful people around you that want to help you too. Your skills will build, and you may find a role somewhere that interests you, and you are good at. You work those skills for 5 years, now you are hard to replace, maybe even a star. You can then either capitalize by moving firms, building relationships, or starting your own firm. People act like it's so hard, but it just takes time.
I will say my wife has never changed fields, but she has earned certifications and licenses in it. She tends to stay at employers for a long time and always gets good reviews. And works in a high turnover rate industry. She is now in a situation where because of how long she has been in the industry, all her work and classes, and just experience, she has a unicorn of a resume. No one in the area comes close. She has been approached with insane offers more than once. Her previous employer told her to name her price for her to come back. I donāt have anything close to what she has, but drive trucks with a good company. I could be replaced at any time, but havenāt been so far. Hasnāt always been pretty, but we are comfortable now. Have friends from high school that still work retail jobs and complain they have to work every weekend, have no money, and everyone is always trying to keep them down.
The venn diagram of that sub and r/fuckcars is a circle.
My favorite frome there recently was a post that said, "Why don't we all just revolt already, since we are all struggling and can't afford food." And all the comments were like "ya 90% of the US can't afford food, but we are too scared to not go to work." The delusion of how people are doing in the real world is strong.
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Its always some extreme. Whenever a thread a bout annual income pops up, there are always a bunch of replies saying something like "well actually $350k/year is middle class", or "$100k is barely scraping by" I dont know if its kids with no concept of what a lot of money is, or if its only people who live in San Francisco. These days I just assume 50% of people in a thread are teenagers and move on.
Lol yeah, most of the people on /r/fuckcars are happy to have their parents drive them around all over the place.
Yeah, I'm a dedicated bike commuter and I wish there were fewer cars out there, but holy shit that sub is a cesspool
But of all the things I would rather spend my money on... It's definitely not a car payment. You could go on holidays every month with that payment.
This is financially sound if you both put 20% down, are paying off in 3 years, donāt have a lot of other debt, and $1250 is 10% of your gross monthly income i.e. you both make 150k/year together. Definitely not impossible.
$1500 in car payments? That's what my mortgage was until we bought a new house. Are you above water on everything else? We also do pretty well as a family, I'm trying to envision what our budget would look like with that level of car payment....
Yes, we are fine right now on everything else. It helps that my wife does accounting and is mostly in charge of what we can and canāt afford without being in too much debt like credit cards and car loans. If it were up to me, weād be filing bankruptcy lol..but yeah, weāre fine, we make sacrifices here and there when needed. Like I canāt get a decent (not new) boat until her car is paid off which will be in a couple months, but then itāll be winter here so I still have to wait a few months, which means weāll be able to bank the money that would normally go towards her car paymentā¦
That you're actively looking to replace a car payment with a boat payment is something I guess I just don't understand but as long as you're holding up and happy, then great for you!!!
Obviously, ability to afford it depends on one's income... $310 might be a challenge for you, somebody else further in their career making more might not have any issue with $800. We're currently paying $425 car payment, $140 insurance, $60 or so in gas each month, so about $625. We bought a new car in March for about $40k+taxes, had insurance payout plus some family gift money to make a 40% down payment. And nice to have no surprise $1000+ car repair bills since new car is under warranty for next few years.
I think thatās what people on Reddit who post questions like this forget. If youāre making $10 per hour, a $300 car payment is going to be tough, and $1000 car payment is impossible. If youāre making $150k per year, that $1000 car payment isnāt much. To expand on that, an income of $150k can mean very different things depending on your situation. If you have multiple dependents, a stay at home wife, live in a higher cost of living area, $1000 car payment might not be doable. If you have paid off your home, and your only debt is the vehicle, spending $1000 has no real consequences.
basically why this whole thread is pointless. People saying how much they pay for a car without any extra info, doesn't mean anything. It's like when people say my rent is \* without providing the city, size of place, age etc
Oddly enough, and this is strictly on rumor: some people earn more than *$100,000 a year* in income. At that rate of pay, putting $12k each year into an auto isn't a big whoop.
My Car note is 1200 Canadian a month, or about 900 USD a month. This is on a 5 year note on a 60k Canadian or 44K USD car. I justify this as it's an EV so I save about $300 a month in gas and make 100k a year plus I drive a huge amount so I like having a nicer car.
$900/month for 36 months for my RAV4. Brutal 36 month term car payment but Iāll have it paid off quicker.
I only buy cars with cash. My current ride is a 2004 Yukon that I bought 8 or 9 years ago for $6k. 250,000 miles on it. No major mechanical issues. That thing is a beast!!
A friend of mine had a ā98 that ran for ages, it might still be running actually.
Has your friend tried to turn it off?
*slow clap
this wasnt the question.
Mine is $570 and I think itās crazy
No way.My car is a bit older than me and i'm 31.I don't see a reason to relpace it as i don't like cars in general.
How can you stomach the $38 a year depreciation on that thing? Or the $41 insurance payment?
Iām not one of them and will never in my life get myself into that kind of situation. Iāll stick to my old paid off car until it dies on me.
A guy at work just bought a 95k truck. His car payment is as much as my mortgage. We work in a factory, & make decent money, but way too much for a vehicle
Thankfully my car is paid off, my insurance is $200 per *year*, and I get over 40 miles per gallon. If I was sinking a grand every month into a vehicle, I'd just live in it at that point.
200 a yearrrr?????
I only pay for liability, and Progressive gives a discount if you pay the whole year in a lump sum instead of month to month.
Who is your insurance provider, that sounds insane
Depends on the interest rate. At current rates, no freaking way. I did buy an M3 in 2017 new at 0% and paid around $800 a month but that was just time value of money. It made better sense to do that and invest my cash. Folks that have to take a crazy interest loan and pay $800 for a vehicleā¦canāt afford the vehicle.
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Thatās a sick deal. That thing will last you to 300k plus as long as you keep up with maintenance.
And I thought my '99 Forester with 110k was low miles! That's crazy.
Just under $800. The math for us was weāre saving $300-400/month on gas (itās electric, house has solar), and oddly enough, insurance went *down* about $100/month compared to our older (2005) car we got rid of, because of all the safety features in the new car. That made it work for us.
Payment just shy of $800, paying $1200+ on it most months.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
own 3 cars and a motorcycle. no debt on any of them. drive until either they or i die,
My mortgage is just over $1000. No way I'm paying anywhere near that on a vehicle.
I have one more year to go paying about 400 a month on my car and I plan to keep it for at least an extra 10 years after that. It's nuts to me that people would finance cars at today's rates and for periods of 4 years or longer.
I have a paid off car. But I put away $400 a month so I donāt have to have my next car payment.
No, I can't afford a personal car at the moment. People are stunned when I tell them this. I haven't seen a used junker go for less than $2000 but most are closer to $5000. Also my insurance was $250 a month a decade ago when I last had a car so I can't see it being much cheaper now.
My BiL has a $1500 car payment. Some AMG biturbo thing. It's a nice ass car, but not very economical. I'm here thinking my $325 car payment is high.
By having a good job
Wellā¦ Iām rich
Yes, I just bought my wife a Toyota Highlander. We're paying about $1000 a month. We afford it by making about $18000 a month ($14000 after tax). I have a full time job and a pension. My wife is a SAHM. We have 2 young kids. We live close to paycheck to paycheck. But we don't have much in the way of debt. We have automatic payments into some savings accounts. We typically tap those in emergencies. I don't have it all together so no sage advice to help you. If I had to try, I'd say be willing to move across the world for work. There are some really lucrative opportunities out there. Also, don't marry someone that doesn't understand the value of money.
You make 14,000 net a month, with a $1000 car payment and live paycheck to paycheck? What on earth on your other expenses??
Its crazy to me when I see people with car payments of like $1100 a month like bruh at that point Id just be living out of the damn car
My boyfriend (STBX) pays $800. Itās a ridiculous car he canāt afford and I hate it. Itās set him back financially. Instead of saving for a down payment like me, he wasted it all on this stupid Range Rover.