Adventures of being a youngster in these times...

[earlmck]

This has nothing to do with leverguns other than the sheckels that might have gone toward another one that got diverted to a "grandkid rescue".

So one of my favorite granddaughters (are we allowed to have such?) moved out of her home about three years ago in a huff over her mom's "rules for living here". Snagged a waitressing job right away and has been making her way in the neighboring town. Time and distance has much improved relations with her mom and at Thanksgiving dinner I was visiting with her about how life is going. Biggest struggle has been rent which is now running her 1200/mo plus utilities for her half of a two-bedroom apartment. Hard to find alternatives because present rent plus high-interest car loan makes her look unqualified on what she has applied on. Plus she left the waitressing job for a more promising job with benefits but a lower monthly income for the present (no tips).

I knew she financed a car a couple years ago with the idea it would establish some credit record so she could qualify for... you know how that goes.

But the car loan outfit doesn't report to TransUnion, only to Equifax and for reasons I don't understand TransUnion is what counts for her applications. So knowing she'd paid a bit over 7 grand for a car a couple yeas ago I said "let's just pay off your car and you at least won't have that payment dragging you down". So... turns out 2 years paying on a 7K car she now owes 8k on it. Yikes! I assured her this couldn't be right "Let's go talk to loan outfit".

The story is -- for a kid with no credit history to buy a car the loan outfit can not only charge 36% interest (35.99% -- much be something about not exceeding 36%) but in order to get the loan they forced her to take other "services" such as a supplemental insurance and a warranty and some nebulous stuff that brought the total loan to nearly 11k. All garnering that 35.99% interest! And that's how the kid still owes 8k on a 7k automobile after two years.

I mentioned to the lady that I'd once worked for a loan-sharking outfit many years ago (in my early post-Nam days), but we were pikers compared to her outfit. She kinda' huffed at me that she was not a loan shark. "Lady, you're a Great White"!

[GunnyMack]

It's a wonder anybody can get ahead in the blue collar sector !

[horsesoldier03]

Lots of folks out there are ready to kick people when they are down. Glad to see you helped her out. My youngest became a single mom a little over 5 years ago. I told her to move home, live in my basement and let me take care of all expenses for eating and she did not have to pay rent. She got a decent job and saved her money and she was able to buy her own home at the end of that year. Today she still remains doing great and has a nice little savings despite having to put a new roof on that house.

[Bill in Oregon]

Earl, that's heartbreaking. Bless your heart for helping out your granddaughter.

[JimT]

Lots of folks out there are ready to kick people when they are down. Glad to see you helped her out. My youngest became a single mom a little over 5 years ago. I told her to move home, live in my basement and let me take care of all expenses for eating and she did not have to pay rent. She got a decent job and saved her money and she was able to buy her own home at the end of that year. Today she still remains doing great and has a nice little savings despite having to put a new roof on that house.

THAT is the definition of FAMILY!!
Bless you.

[Griff]

Lots of folks out there are ready to kick people when they are down. Glad to see you helped her out. My youngest became a single mom a little over 5 years ago. I told her to move home, live in my basement and let me take care of all expenses for eating and she did not have to pay rent. She got a decent job and saved her money and she was able to buy her own home at the end of that year. Today she still remains doing great and has a nice little savings despite having to put a new roof on that house.

THAT is the definition of FAMILY!!
Bless you.

+1.

[marlinman93]

We went through a similar situation with our oldest granddaughter. Her single mom had given her an old Mazda at 21 that was once my wife's and we gave it to our daughter, and she to our granddaughter. I had been keeping it up for all three generations, but overdrive went out on the automatic transmission at around 240,000 miles and I told her she needed to get something better.
We began looking around and although she had a decent job and still lives at home, she helps out with bills and her mom's house payment, so a fairly new car was beyond her affordable payment range. Most with under 100,000 miles were $10,000 or more! And even cars with 150,000 miles were $6k-$7k or more!
I finally located a 20 year old Saturn car that had 100,000 miles on it, and looked like new, except for some scratches on the rear bumper. The owner said it had gotten bumped in the rear and insurance totaled the car because of the age! So it had a "branded title", but a very mechanically sound car at just $2200. We tried to get her financed, but the loan companies needed me to cosign. I refused to do it because of the stupid interest rate and told her I'd just buy it for her and she could pay us back whatever she could afford monthly and no interest. After a year of her paying $100 a month I told her the rest was her Christmas present and she could start saving for upkeep on her new old car.

[jeepnik]

Car wise I never bought one for my boys. They started "working" quite young and learned that you have to save to get what you want. Both got their license at 16 (lots of hoops to jump through in this state). And, they could use the "family" cars as needed.

But my eldest decided he wanted a CJ-7 (he'd been helping me wrench on mine for years and knew CJ's pretty well). Bought one fairly cheap because the rear diff was toast. The rest was rough but functional. He drove the thing with the rear drive shaft removed for a few months until he could afford parts. And so it went, save money fix things. HIs younger brother put in quite a bit of sweat equity (close as they were when they were younger that Heep, err, Jeep built quite a bond) and when the eldest enlisted it became his younger brothers.

Since both enlisted out of high school they had an income. Much to my wife's horror, they both got motorcycles. But for a young GI a bike is a pretty good means of transportation.