Main > Everything Else

there were two born that minute...

(1/8) > >>

danny_galaga:


so yesterday at work i overheard one of the guys (not the brightest spark funnily enough) talking about a car he was thinking of buying. the car is a 90s model holden commodore. cant think what international examples would be (maybe 3.5 rover, 2001 chevrolet impala etc), but its a large V6 family sedan. it only has 125,000km on it he was saying. how much? 24000! bloody hell! a car like that wouldnt be worth more than say $5000...

only a minute later another guy (sparks much brighter) asked if id seen his new car. no. which one? the mitsubishi lancer. oh, yeah. how much? 14. 14 thousand! i say, joking because im sure he meant 14 hundred. then i realised he was serious! 14 grand for a 94 model lancer. the reason he paid that was he has a  bad credit rating and went through one of those dodgy car dealers with instant finance.

now its hard for me to imagine (because i could NEVER have a bad credit rating) but if i did, i would be catching buses/trains/riding bikes until id saved some cash. my car cost 2500. still going strong after two years. i guess though if there werent guys like this born every minute id never stand a chance of getting rich off them!

shardian:
People with bad credit usually don't have the sense to realize the seriousness of their situation. My dad and sister have both been in major credit debt multiple times. At one point, my dad was paying on a car, a van, and a boat that he didn't even have anymore! Luckily, I got my mom's sense when it came to money.

danny_galaga:

yeah, my housemate is like that. her card is maxed to ten grand. and shes just getting her place evaluated so she can shuffle around the debt AND buy a new car. she earns nearly twice what i do and yet i have more. theres no point telling her that it doesnt matter what angle she looks at it from, shes still in debt...

patrickl:
I can understand people borrowing money to purchase an expensive item, but I don't understand people having a debt last longer than the "life" of the item purchased. If you buy a car the loan should end when you don't own/use the car anymore otherwise you just go down in debt further and further.

ChadTower:

I don't see the wisdom, really, in financing luxury items that depreciate quickly.  A car is a necessity, but only a reasonable car if you cannot afford an expensive one.  A house, same thing, but most people seem to overstretch there too.  Other than that, crap like $1500 televisions and $2000 PCs, vacations, putting consumables (dinners, entertainment) on credit are just bad personal finance.

What seems to get most people is financing things that quickly depreciate in value.  Then they can't figure out why they don't have all that much of value yet are paying 100% of their income out every month.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

Go to full version