How I can piss someone off in a hurry

Warning: This might make you not like me. 

I’m not short on opinions. You ask my opinion, I’m gonna give it. And sometimes I give unsolicited opinions. 

As a middle-aged husband with kids, I often find myself in conversations about money and family with my fellow parents. 

The one topic I have found makes the room quieter than a church is that of cars.

More specifically: Car payments and the belief system that surrounds them. 

As a real estate agent, most don’t realize I get a look at one’s finances during the process of buying a home. 

This means I see assets, income and liabilities of my clients. 

I often choke when I see some of these car payments you all have. 

The average car payment in this country is $724 per MONTH! That is up almost 60% since before COVID. 

This is real money that crushes financial freedom slowly and methodically.

Even if you’re not buying a house, I know people with $1100 lease payments on cars they definitely cannot afford. 

Financing a car is one thing, but the car lease is perhaps the worst financial instrument commonly used by the American consumer. It is a luxury that most cannot afford, but are sold as a “need” instead of a purely discretionary “want”. 

Some people are very fancy these and they really haven’t earned the right to be. 

Now, I can talk all day about how the economy has stacked up against younger generations and loaded us with debt. Costs of goods and services have outpaced wages since the 70s resulting in a massive transfer of wealth. 

But let’s not pretend like the American consumer is not making some unforced errors of their own. 

Sorry, not sorry. It’s just the way I see it. 

Is your car worth your car payment? Any remorse or have you not looked back?