Jan 12, 2008 -
Ask Dub Schwartz!
Dear Dub,
I need your help... not really your help... more like a little friendly advice. I had bought a nice new car that was nothing special... well it was really a nice color that I liked a lot... but then a year or so later I found my dream car and I just had to have it! So I traded for the Volvo wagon and carried over the first car loan onto the wagon loan. I loved the car but two years down the road the payments are killing me... not to mention the cost of any repairs! So I finally decided to give up my dream car... not actually my dream car, but it was SO cool... and get something a bit more practical. I have my eye on a nice new small hatchback... or is it a wagon? Unfortunately I find that my loan payoff is over $10,000 and the trade in is only $5700. What in the world should I do?
Hank Kimball
Just a wild guess Mr. Kimball, you have about seven credit cards maxed out, right? You're about to learn a hard lesson, but if you trade for another new car now, that new car is going to cost you about $5000 more than whatever it says on the window sticker.
You owe the money on the loan and that's not going to go away, but you seem to think there's some trick that's going to get you out of it.
Doesn't matter if you get a cheaper car, try to finagle some kind of lease deal to come up with a lower payment, or just keep your car and don't trade. You wanted to dance, you have to pay the piper.
Of course, if you want to add another ball to your juggling act, by all means go right ahead. But to stop, at some point you have to catch the balls or they'll crash to the ground.
Personal responsibility's a pain, ain't it?
Dub
