(US) Made a stupid decision and bought a new vehicle. Pay it off or sell it?

26k, @5%, for a term of at least 60 months. You’ll be paying roughly 35k for a vehicle that’ll be worth roughly 8k at the end of the loan term (plus Fiat/Chrysler repair tax once your 3 year basic warranty ends). So you’ll be underwater on this loan for about 4 more years at this rate and paying about 5k/year for the privilege of being the first owner of a rebadged Dodge Dart. Think about what an extra 5k/year would do for your student loans.

Step 1 is getting educated on finances in general. Open the calculator app on your phone and don’t close it until you’ve figured out how I got the loan term and total payoff amount from the info you provided. Do the same thing next time you’re about to sign a loan so you know what you’re actually getting into.

Your best bet in this situation is, unfortunately, not to sell the car (as you’ve already eaten the worst of the depreciation) but to pay it off ASAP. The damage from the 5% rate is the only thing you have the ability to limit at this point.

/r/personalfinance Thread Parent