Quote:
Originally Posted by Fishstix
I don't see what's so hard to understand. Anyone living at home doesn't have a mortgage and other costs such as food and utilities are slim to nonexistent. It's pretty easy paying off a car in such a situation. After paying for my car ($440), insurance, phone bill, and credit card charges I still have $2k every month.
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Ok, let me see if I understand this.
You're saying your cash flow is something like this:
440 - car
100 - insurance (a guess on my part)
50 - phone (also a guess)
100 - credit card (a guess)
2000 - left over cash each month
That means you have a net inflow of 32.3K a year AFTER tax. Based on 2008 tax schedules you're making about 38.5K gross. Which begs the following question:
If you're making this much money at age 19, why are you still living at home off your parents?
But let's put that aside for a moment. Your argument is a common one. But what happens when you're 19 and on a 5 year loan paying this much money and you decide at age 21 you no longer want to live at home? You may not have a mortgage when you move out, but rent and utilities in NJ for even a craphole apartment are easily going to set you back 1K to 1.5K a month. Plus, you now have to buy food. And you still have 3 years left on a car loan that looked great when you were at home but not so great when you decide living at home wasn't as great as it used to be.
Suddenly your extra 2K a month is gone.
And now we have a problem. Why you ask? Because you've grown used to driving a fairly nice car. Why is that a problem? Becuase the prospect of stepping down on a replacement car never appeals to people. So you don't. And then we fast forward just a few more years and you're posting on a forum about how you're 25 and in debt and etc, etc...
Oh well. I'm sure I don't know what I'm talking about and haven't come across this more times than I can count.
Good luck.