Car Debt | America's Largest Addiction

Help grow this channel with just TWO cups of coffee a month:

_______________________

My filming equipment:

_______________________

Sources:

**Disclaimer: neither this video, nor any content produced by Caleb Hammer should ever be considered investing advice or official financial advice. All content is made for entertainment and educational purposes**
_______________________

Give this video a like and leave ANY comment below so that YouTube recommends this video to more people. Subscribe and stick around for more. Thanks!

[CalebHammer]

What do you think? Are American's obsessed with cars in such a way that always perpetuates aggressive and bad debt?

[Wamkazow]

The creeping length of auto loans and dealers actively selling people on “what monthly payment are you looking for?” instead of the overall total cost of the vehicle are honestly a little horrific.

[bigisrick]

Giving up on what my car looks like was one of the most financially liberating things I've ever done.

[scottwickwire-brock]

Its always blown me away how much money people who don't even like to drive will spend on a car.

[harmorehorń]

Car guy here, and I would NEVER consider taking on a auto loan now. The fact that dealers can up-charge whatever they want and hide behind the “good luck finding one somewhere else” attitude combined with the length of the loans now is sickening.

Ill keep my early 00’s shitboxes.

[rugdg]

To make matters worse, when i was searching for cars, the salespeople KEPT TRYING to steer the convo to be about monthly payments whenever I would try to negotiate the full price.

When I grew fed up and told them IM PAYING IN CASH - I DONT NEED TO BORROW ANYTHING....They tried to convince me to JUST take the loan because it was "safer"..."what if something happens and you need that money?" - I have an emergency fund already, but thanks for your concern.

If you are weak-willed, even if you walk in with the best intentions to be responsible they will social engineer you into making decisions that you weren't planning on... DO NOT FOLD.

(I walked from 3 dealerships until I found one to stop wasting my time....and 3 weeks later, 2 of them called me back...wondering if i was still interested and willing to agree to my terms. NOPE.)

[Ryan-sqsk]

My main issue with car loans is that people grow accustomed to always having one, so the moment they pay off their car they just turn around and sell it and buy a new toy. Instead of just sitting on the paid off car for another 5-10 years and saving the money they used previously on the car loan.

[Austin_Shredder]

Commercial lender here. I’ve been in the credit analysis/commercial lending side of banking for over 6 years now, and I can say that most high net worth clientele don’t drive the most expensive cars. I typically see nicer cars (with huge payments hiding on the credit reports) to lower net worth individuals. Actual wealth is more important than the *appearance* of wealth. Way to spread the word! 👏🏻 great video.

[DCBoo]

I think some people are obsessed with looking good in front of everyone’s eyes even if they’re financially struggling behind closed doors. You said it, it adds value to their status, specially among those ppl who lack financial knowledge.

[tylerdean]

I went to buy a car and was extremely frustrated when the starting questions was “what is the maximum monthly payment you can afford” when I specifically said I’m looking for a car for X dollars. I left that dealerships and never looked back.

[Phystetic]

100% right, I bought an $8k car about 5 years ago after my mom talked me out of buying a $40k car (thank god for that) it’s been paid off for about 4 years and I don’t even want another car because honestly I hate payments. It baffles me when someone pays off their car and then a couple a months later they land themselves in another auto loan, screw that.

[nancyruvalcaba]

I had never heard about financing a down payment either. I didn’t know that was possible! I’m definitely staying with my current car as long as possible. Loving these videos ! Thank you.

[blueblur]

The first time I heard somebody talk about rolling "negative equity" from their 3 year old car to their new car my mind was blown. How agressively you can screw up your finances in the US is astounding.

[drondiwe]

it is so satisfying to be absolutely debt free... and don't worry about how old your car or phone is

[thomashansknecht]

I remember when I was 21 and about to finance 30k on an expensive car because I wanted it but my father told me to stop being an idiot and convinced me away from doing it. It feels so much better to have a less expensive car but no car debt. I even had student loans, was still in college, and still thought financing an expensive car was a good idea 😂

[nancyjones]

While I hate car payments, it is a necessary evil in some cases. We live in the country with nothing within walking distance, so a car is absolutely a necessity. You could not pay me enough to live in the city. I like my privacy and being away from crowds. Not everyone feels this way and that is perfectly okay. Since I work from home and my husband is provided with a company vehicle we were very selective on how much debt we wanted to go into for a vehicle and made a purchase based on our budget. We did not want to limit our saving potential due to an over priced car. Not everyone looks at their finances before purchasing and that is a huge mistake. Sadly, we live in a society that tries to impress with bigger and better. I taught my children that if someone isn't paying their bills, then that person's opinion does NOT matter. Thankfully they listened to their momma.

[Nik.No.K]

I live in Michigan so a lot of this is spot on. Most people here spend more on their car payment than their mortgage. You see so many people who live in trailer parks or crappy apartments but you’d better believe they’ve got a sleek Dodge Charger sitting in the driveway. It’s so stupid. They’re handicapping their financial future for a status symbol. These people will be poor forever.

[tiwarani]

I think Americans are obsessed with looking rich with these new cars. If you can't even afford the down payment, you shouldn't buy the car!!! Stop borrowing against your future earnings!!!!

[Frankillz]

I remember buying my first car at 26 years old and then Getting it repossessed 1 year later. BEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED TO ME. It made me realize that when you can’t afford something. Don’t buy it. I change my ways of handling money for the better. Now almost a decade later I’m better than 95% of the people i know.

[charielperez]

When my wife and I got married we bought a reliable used car for 14k we paid it off in one year, commuted to work together and just made our schedules complement each others, some days I drove some days she drove. In 2020 our neighbor was selling their car we bought it for $2, 000, it needed some fixes but it was much cheaper than buying a second car from the dealer. This month we just closed on our home, we were temped many times to buy a new car but we decided to fixed our cars. having a monthly car payment keeps you broke.