Backstory:
My sister got herself into a bit of trouble, and I'm hoping you can help. My sister is trying to escape her abusive home, and our messed up family. I could go into depth about the fucked up shit in my family, but I'm worried about them somehow finding this and it getting bad for us. The more important take away from this is that Sis cannot live at home, or with any family. She has lived in 3 different apartments, trying to live on her own since 18, but she hasn't mastered solo stability yet (she's 18, so I get it). After the last one I had her move in with me rather than stay with her parents (we share a Dad). I live in a large top 10 city that has affordable rents, she's more likely to get a job out here, and I have a few survival life skills she was never taught, so I'm hoping she can pick some of this up and find a more stable way to live outside of them.
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That brings me to my questions:
We've worked out her finances into an clear budget, we've detailed a few contingency plans, discussed therapy being a priority, and gotten most of her life out from under her parents thumbs. The one thing I can't figure out is what the freaking hell we do to fix her car situation. Her Mom took her to a dealership and kinda told her she needed to pick something out because she couldn't borrow her car anymore, and then pressured her for it to look a certain level of niceness (because that matters at 18?), and then didn't even haggle the price. My god, you guys.
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The numbers:
The car: 2017 Hyundai Accent (Value Edition)
Price paid: 19,600
Loan term: 73 month
Interest rate: 13.77
Paid interest: 1,439
Paid principal: 985
Car payment: 403/month
Insurance: 364
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Car MSRP was only 17,300 (she over payed). Within the past 4 months of her having it she has driven 17k miles, there was a hail storm, and her friend rear-ended a luxury car in her car. Front end paint is chipped and the car is very mildly dented from hail. She didn't report the hail because her insurance has already gone up to $364 over the fender bender (we've already priced other policies). Car is now valued GOOD on KBB, worth $7,200 trade-in or $10,300 privately sold. That can't be right though, right? The car still looks impeccably new, you have to bend over to eye-level out with the surface of the car to see the hail dents. The paint chipping in the front is very minor.
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Is there anything this child can do to lower her car costs, and be able to live on her own? Before we knew it was this bad we were going to downsize and trade her car in, but now I'm not even sure that's possible/smart. What do people do in these situations? Can she sell it back to the dealership? Can she sell it back without buying a car from them? There's so much I don't know in this respect.
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Having a car is required in this city, as well as the only thing that makes her feel safe (she can always run if she has a car). She can't stay in my one bedroom 600sq/ft apartment forever (cramped), and the longer she stays the more likely her cat is to get thrown out of my Dads house. [EDIT: He's apparently already done that now, but kitty came back crying, so I'm now trying to find a foster home for her cat.] Simply put, the car is her safety, the cat is her love. I just need to find a way to get her in her own space with a mode of transport. I know there will be some tough love here, but please remember she's been given little to no life skills from her parents and the ones they did bestow upon her are actually quite regressive, but in sum she is doing her very best to run from her abusers. I'm doing my best to help her. Any kind advice you can give will be beyond appreciated. I tried to search Reddit, but I'm new myself and couldn't find what I was looking for, so if it's already been asked please forgive me.
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TLDR
Abused sister underwater in a car loan, and trying to figure out how to afford living on her own.
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Thank you. .
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[EDIT: hope I fixed the formatting.]
Submitted October 05, 2017 at 08:28AM by JustThisOneQ http://ift.tt/2yYRwA1
