Not sure if anyone here can relate, I'm not even sure if this is the right subreddit to post about the "mental aspect" of frugality with money.
So I took a lot of time the past year and a half to really focus on getting my financial education right. A big overall financial goal with me was becoming debt free. I just kept thinking about how good it would feel to be free of my only debt at that time, which was my student loan debt. 3 years ago when I graduated it was $33k, right now I've chipped away at it to get it down to $24k.
I worked on being very frugal, saving up, and priding myself in knowing how to manage my finances.
Earlier this year, I was able to get into a new field in my career that really boosted my finances. So much so that I'd be able to pay my loans off as a lump sum by the end of june.
Until my car started breaking down, then it got into an accident, then it broke down again after repairs. Now it was too point where it wasn't safe to drive. And I had to get a new car.
"Ok." I thought to myself, I'll shop around for the best deal, and get a car that's inexpensive but reliable.
I settled for a 2022 Hyundai Accent, and the dealership I went to offered it at $9000 over MSRP (MSRP was only $19,000). Leading to a total of $28,000. (say hello the 2022 car market)
Looking back, the mistake of going through with this is possibly the biggest financial mistake I've made since picking up these student loans, was going through with this bad deal.
At this time I wasn't looking at the blindspots in my thinking of falsely assuming that this must be what it's like everywhere due to the car market, even for cheap cars like Hyundai Accents. I later find out on reddit that some dealerships weren't charging over MSRP (although they're rare)
It didn't help that my dad was there with me, and also giving me false advice that this "just is the way it is right now".
I put a 5k down payment, and traded my run down 2009 civic for another 2.8k. Leading to what was originally $21,000 to finance.
My monthly was going to be $350, however, I negotiated a monthly payment of $286 (my good credit helped with this). Overall, I'd still be financing 20k something.
I went through with this deal (part of it was what I mentioned about false assumptions/failing to realize I could walk away, and other factors that lead me to needing a car quite quickly)
So here I am now, another 20k in debt. Feeling like shit.
I still plan to pay off those student loans as a lump sum later. But knowing that I now have that car debt feels so defeating (despite $286 a month being really affordable for me, just the overall feeling of not getting out of bad debt feels shitty, and I feel worse by knowing that I agreed to a bad deal from the car dealership).
In my quest to become more financially frugal, I ended up in a position where I just feel upset about not being able to be debt free sooner than I wanted to.
This was a mistake and I know it, I know people are reading this and thinking I'm probably so stupid for going through with this.
I guess I wrote this because I needed to vent, and maybe need some advice or someone to tell me I'm overreacting. I just put so much emphasis on myself to work to be debt free that being in this situation just sucks.
May 25, 2022 at 12:33AM
