Get out of debt brehs

[DJK]

In the middle of 'Rona season, had $140K left to pay off on a home outside Atlanta, GA.
Moved to Florida and sold house for a profit.
Invested the profit in stocks and bitcoin.
Took too long to find home and watched as prices went sky-high
Now owe $340K on the Florida house.
Damn.

 

[winb83]

I disagree. I stated that you should buy a car if you can comfortably afford the monthly payment + maintenance. Beyond that threshold, it's about your overall financial goals, not just the car.

If you do not live in New York or a few other metropolitan areas in the US, a car is a necessity, not a luxury. It is a depreciating asset but it's presence in your life can provide you with more opportunities and leave you better off than if you didn't have the depreciation, but was limited to a crappy bus route.

Given that a car is a necessity, the last thing you need a car to be is unreliable. Cheap cars that have a lot of miles on them will more often than not fukk you over and have you paying a lot in maintenance fees. Should you option the car out? Life is too short to buy things just for function, and most people spend hours of their day inside their vehicle, so if you can option a car out within your means, and it makes you feel good, then why not?

Now should you finance a car or pay it off? It depends. I'd rather put as much money as I can in long term investments that average 10% per annum. So if I have a car loan with a 5% APR, I am better off financing the car than buying it outright, because my long term investments have me coming out ahead in the long run. And I would argue that for most people that can get a decent car loan rate, they are better off building an emergency fund, flooding their 401ks and Roths and investment accounts, and investing in themselves, rather than rushing to pay off a depreciating asset to save cents in interest and gain a "feel good factor".

Now if the option is between paying your car off and blowing the extra money on bullshyt, then yes, pay off your car. But if those are your two options only then you probably don't have the financial maturity to buy a car.

A car is a tool to get you where you're going. Buying a car doesn't require a message monthly payment either. Really in life the only things people should finance long term are a home and assets that appreciate in value. Especially any toys you buy should be set trivial to you that you can cut a check and pay them off without batting an eye.

When you talk about feeling good about a car purchase that's all marketing and brainwashing from corporations. I get in my 2016 Honda Civic EX-T and it has all the features that need and gets me where I'm going. I could have gotten a much better car but it's like any other material purchase. After a while you'll get bored with it and want something else. I'm already bored with it but I can't justify the purchase of another car just for the short-term rush it will give.

People live in a constant state of lifestyle inflation and I'm not trying to go down that route of can I afford the payments and as my income increases suddenly thinks I was glad to have when it was lesser aren't enough anymore.

 

[Swirv]

Does it make sense at all to pay off credit cards in collections for years that have been charged off? I can't see a reason why.

Depends on how much time has passed on the statute of limitations and what you're trying to do in the short-long term.

 

[winb83]

I was buying too much shyt and my debt grew by a few thousand. Starting to pay it down now to about $3400 in CC debt ($2600 of that is on 0% interest and the rest is what I pay monthly for bills and stuff) and my car debt is $3900 left but I'm not paying that off early due to the payments being $162 and come change a month and the loan helping my credit balance. I'm bout to get all that CC debt wiped out in the next few months.

 

[FistofJustice]

This is the closest I've ever been to being debt free. I have spent all of my 20's being consumed by this and there is finally light at the end of the tunnel. My Credit score is now considered excellent, never would have thought I'd reach this. I only have around 3K left. I wanted to be debt free before my bday next and start off my 30s completely debt free but it's cool. I will have everything paid off before the end of the year. Been grinding and killing myself with OT but soon I'll have a nice break. Then I'm gonna stack like crazy.

 

[Atlrocafella]

hopefully everyone is still doing well on their journey to debt free. I’m finally paying off that dumbass Best Buy Credit Card this month

 

[phcitywarrior]

Gotta stay at it folks, those increasing IR are gonna make CC debts very costly. This ain't the time to take your eye off the ball

 

[Redguard]

My car is finally paid off today.

Now I'm going to focus on knocking out my credit card debt.

 

[Digital Omen]

My car is a 2017 that I bought used right before the pandemic (dec 2019 w 17k miles) at 3.29 % on a 4 yr loan.
Got 14 months left to pay it off, but it's now at 54k miles and starting to front on some bullshyt
First, WFH means I barely drive. I thought I was getting over on the high gas prices because I was filling up every 2-3 weeks
But now I need to get new tires, not only because it's over 50k miles but also sitting in the garage for 4-5 days means all the weight fukked up my tires.
I was getting the low air pressure light on one of them. Pumped air, and 2 days later the light came on again.
Took it to the shop, and turns out the inside of the tire was cracked and could have fukkin exploded while I was driving.
Got it replaced and just when I thought I was saving money on gas now I gotta spend that on new tires

I was thinking keep it til I pay it off then sell it and lease something
However, maintenance costs are only going to increase. This month it's the tires. Next could be some other shyt.
Should I sell it now (Carvana quoted me 15k), pay the loan off (5.5k balance, save the difference, and cop a lease now?

 

[phcitywarrior]

2023 is here brehs, what’s the game plan for knocking out any debt? Interest rates are rising so that variable rate consumer debt is gonna get more expensive.

I paid off all my cc debt end of last year. Still have this personal loan of under $4K left and that’s it. Would have paid it off during the holidays as well but that holiday family spending man.

But my positive cashflow looks good so gonna knock the personal loan out by end of Feb, mid March max.

How’s it looking brehs?

 

[Bboystyle]

2023 is here brehs, what’s the game plan for knocking out any debt? Interest rates are rising so that variable rate consumer debt is gonna get more expensive.

I paid off all my cc debt end of last year. Still have this personal loan of under $4K left and that’s it. Would have paid it off during the holidays as well but that holiday family spending man.

But my positive cashflow looks good so gonna knock the personal loan out by end of Feb, mid March max.

How’s it looking brehs?

I got myself into a little hole but i should be out of it by May. I have a personal loan at 3k and about 7 cards to pay off. About 8k in debt right now. Once i get that settled, i should be straight for the remainder of the year. Had a down year in 2022 so hopefully this is the bounce back year.

 

[adexkola]

If you can, look into getting another job to kill debt faster. Also a cheat code for flooding your investment accounts and racing ahead with regards to retirement.

 

[DeuceZ]

I'm torn between paying off debt, starting saving for a house, investing, as well as saving for an international trip this year

One thing for sure is i need to cut out discretionary spending (mostly alcohol).

 

[MoneyTron]

Have $75K in student loan debt. Will try to pay off at least half by 12/31/2023. Wish me luck.

 

[winb83]

My car is a 2017 that I bought used right before the pandemic (dec 2019 w 17k miles) at 3.29 % on a 4 yr loan.
Got 14 months left to pay it off, but it's now at 54k miles and starting to front on some bullshyt
First, WFH means I barely drive. I thought I was getting over on the high gas prices because I was filling up every 2-3 weeks
But now I need to get new tires, not only because it's over 50k miles but also sitting in the garage for 4-5 days means all the weight fukked up my tires.
I was getting the low air pressure light on one of them. Pumped air, and 2 days later the light came on again.
Took it to the shop, and turns out the inside of the tire was cracked and could have fukkin exploded while I was driving.
Got it replaced and just when I thought I was saving money on gas now I gotta spend that on new tires

I was thinking keep it til I pay it off then sell it and lease something
However, maintenance costs are only going to increase. This month it's the tires. Next could be some other shyt.
Should I sell it now (Carvana quoted me 15k), pay the loan off (5.5k balance, save the difference, and cop a lease now?

Mine is a 2016 I got in 2019 with 21K miles on it. It's at 34K miles now. I did buy new tires in 2021 though. I don't drive it except for the weekends. I'll be keeping it until it falls apart. I just wanted a new set of tires on it since it had the stock ones when I bought it.