Am I missing something here on car payments?

[BehindBlueI's]

Who really wants a factory job?

There are thousands of openings for factory jobs right now and they aren't being filled because nobody wants to fill them.

...at the wages being offered.

[mmc45414]

And I loved this comment, it caused me to start laughing in Boomer:

I cannot remember exactly what the rate was when we first bought, but it had been 17%. Obviously stuff cost less then but I remember it getting DOWN to 6% and it was a BFD.

And another trend I think is a big impact is people do not buy what they can afford and improve, they want "move in ready" so they can come home and sit around all weekend and watch football. Now admittedly, I look back on this house when we bought it and wonder WTF were we thinking, but pretty sure it has been paid off for ten years now.

This discussion was about cars, but I think just in general people buy shit they cannot afford. We just bought what I think is a nice boat, and we get many complements on it so it must be, but it is twenty years old and we didn't buy it until everything else was paid off, and if we really wanted to we could pay it off. But we both get a car allowance and no car payments, so we are shoveling that off into a boat we paid for with our LoC.

But my wife needs another car, and if/when Ford will take our money and build us a Bronco we might just pay off the LoC, but that looks like it will be 12-18mo anyway.

Years ago I heard my wife’s friend and her husband refinanced their house and added on the two car payments to the mortgage to consolidate their debt. I’ll bet those cars have been through the crusher and they are still paying on them.

Same here, back when things were coming back down from the highs and people were refinancing faster than they were changing socks, a friend rolls up in a brand-new conversion van, boasting about refinancing their house, paying off their bills, and buying the van. Right away I says "Do you expect that van to last thirty years?", because you know, I am an asshole like that. That let the air out of her balloon and she admitted she never really thought about it that way. I didn't mention that she bought a fucking conversion van that probably depreciated 30% in the first 30 hours and is financed for 30 years, I guess I am just not that big a asshole.

[mmc45414]

...at the wages being offered.

Intel might make things interesting...

[Wise_A]

My truck was just shy of $70k and my payments are less than half of what the klutzes in the video are stating. With the sale of my prior car, cashing in my comp bank after my next raise and contract renegotiation, and a bunch of overtime between now and then, I'll have the whole thing paid off by Jan 30 of next year.

I also got a lecture from some halfwit who was concerned that I, as a "young person" (I'm fucking 36), as he had a six-figure job and considered the payment on his $30k used truck to be recklessly large. He was paying over a grand a month, as he had put just two thousand dollars down. He did not appreciate it when I asked how a financially-responsible person making over a hundred thousand a year couldn't put more than $2k together in one place.

[BehindBlueI's]

Of course, if you truly believe inflation is going to sky rocket long term, debt is your friend. Borrow and pay for an item at today's dollar value, and use the inflated dollars to pay it back. I've always been in the habit of just comparing interest rate on the loan vs interest rate on safe investments/cash parking spots but when inflation is 10% then really that's the bigger drive, isn't it?

In a market where used cars sell for more than you paid for them, it's no different than leveraging a more traditional investment. It'll work until it doesn't, then the heavily leveraged get fucked like a house cat. I'm too conservative/scared to play that sort of game but good on the folks it works out for.

[Nephrology]

Last time I had a car payment it was under $300/month. What the fuck.

Nobody sees your sweet Platinum F250 when you drive to work at 0345 every day anyway

[LittleLebowski]

My girlfriend has the same drive as you guys with pivoting around and learning new stuff, but for a different reason: she's still a contract employee, and wants to make herself attractive enough to get a direct hire position. She wants the stability....especially as an H1B still waiting on her green card.

@TGS send me a PM with her core strengths, experience, and what she wants to do. We’ve got some FTE fed jobs open at my org.

[SecondsCount]

...at the wages being offered.

The wages are what they are. Because we trade with other countries, fair or not, there is competition which sets the payscale.

[Borderland]

Last time I had a car payment it was under $300/month. What the fuck.

Nobody sees your sweet Platinum F250 when you drive to work at 0345 every day anyway

And even if they do they think you're an idiot with the fuel prices where they are. It's just a ride.

[Borderland]

Well... their car payments are less than my now monthly mechanic bill and I bet their car doesn't drop dead 20 miles from the nearest cell signal or town (true story, long walk). So there is that.

Regarding factory jobs, I was talking to someone about money stuff and his observation was that the post WW2 and the subsequent boomer generation is the only generation that on a large scale could afford their own homes and live that middle class lifestyle as an average. Most families prior, were multi-generational homes or Un-married kids stayed with their parents often until their passing and inheriting what little was left.

After WW2 Europe was largely bombed back into the stone age with next to zero manufacturing, which gave the USA a huge advantage in manufacturing and the job market. We also already had the bones for high volume export. Allowing for even low end line workers to make solid wages. However over the decades, Europe has rebuilt and China was also able to benefit from this and is able to out-compete on cost due to forc...voluntary low wage labor.

We are now at the point of returning to a pre-WW state where the average person just isn't able to have there own home and car without massive debt. On top of that, a grossly over priced college degree is now practically mandatory if you don't want to work pouring coffee.

Boomers are the last generation with any wealth. I'm speaking about the average boomer that's worked their entire life and saved some money. They paid off a mortgage, have a pension and have no debt. That's impossible for most people with an average income, say 50-60K, these days. We do fine on 120K a year but we have no debt and enough in the bank to buy anything we need with cash, including a new vehicle.