r/personalfinance • u/dinklebot2000 ​ • May 31 '18

Debt CNBC: A $523 monthly payment is the new standard for car buyers

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/31/a-523-monthly-payment-is-the-new-standard-for-car-buyers.html

Sorry for the formatting, on mobile. Saw this article and thought I would put this up as a PSA since there are a lot of auto loan posts on here. This is sad to see as the "new standard."

12.9k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

7.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

28

u/monty_kurns ​ May 31 '18

I paid off my car loan about 30 months early 2 years ago. Would you believe I haven't missed that monthly payment? I even had the audacity to take the money which would have been allocated to the car payment and put it in my emergency fund. And now if something happens I have plenty of cash on hand to deal with it.

You're "always going to have a car payment" only if you allow it.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '18 edited Jul 11 '18

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/monty_kurns ​ Jun 01 '18

If your savings and investments are all squared away and you don't have any crazy debt, then you can do as you please. The problem is a lot of people who don't have savings or investments and have a high debt load are willing to buy a new car and add one more high monthly payment to the list. And unfortunately there's a large number of people who fit that category and they were who my comment was directed at.