Overheard on Facebook

lbonga1

"That moment you get approved for a sick bmw 328i twin turbo but you're too upside down on your 350z to trade in and you're trying to talk yourself into thinking you can afford both loans <insert emojis> the struggle is so real."

Yikes. At least she said in the comments that she wasn't actually going to do it, but it wasn't the only new car post in my feed today.

hoffse

Yeah I mean... I really don't have a problem with people buying stuff they can afford.  Plenty of people can afford those kinds of cars, and if cars are a priority then more power to them.  We have a good friend who sold his 5-series when his company offered him a company car.  He downgraded to a Ford.  He hates it, but he did it because why wouldn't you.  He was somebody who could actually afford his 5-series.  It was paid off.

But framing it as a "struggle" is ridiculous.  No, it's not a struggle when you live in the US and you have a vehicle that takes you from point A to point B safely.

als1982

People are dumb. I always wonder where people with attitudes like this will be at age 60. Likely ready to retire with no savings, but lots money still owed on stuff they no longer care about.

Xstatic3333

What a weird thing to post on Facebook! Glad she made the less-disastrous decision.

brij2006

*Head - Desk*

julieanne912

Good lord, even if you are going to make a decision like that, you don't put it on Facebook.

H and I are both notorious for bad car decisions though, so I can't say much.  

simplyelise

Totally thread-jacking with this, but on the theme of crazy financial sh*t people broadcast to the world...

The receptionist at DHs work always airs out her business loudly on her phone at her desk. Usually it's drama with her adult daughter, but it's also frequently finance related. She recently complained to the office about only being able to afford 2 tires at a time on her vehicle when they really need a whole new set. She also loudly set up a payment plan for a medical bill last week. 

So on Monday she gushed that she and her husband found a great deal for a Harley Davidson for under 10k so they had to take it. She left work for a couple hours to go to the bank and get the loan. Meanwhile her car has almost 200k miles on it and they are going to need to replace it soon. She makes 33k (state employee public info) and her husband does not have a high paying job either. They might break 80k gross and apparently have a fairly high mortgage that she's complained about before.

And now DH just sent me a message this morning saying that "JaneDoe has to take an emergency trip to Myrtle Beach on Friday where her mother lives because her mother ordered furniture that arrived unexpectedly early, and so that means JaneDoe has to go there. for some reason." Round trip flights from either STL or KC (our closest real airports) are $800. 

Mostly makes me glad that I've avoided this level of financial stress.

cbee817

And this is yet another reason why I'm not on Facebook! 

lbonga1

The even sadder thing is the women who posted this just survived breast cancer for the second time. I can understand that maybe she wants to treat herself, but I can't imagine those bills were cheap.

@simplyelise It seems like people with that mindset always try to spin things as a dire need or an emergency. I laughed at the last part..why would you need to take an $800 flight because your mother's furniture arrived early? Maybe the mom was out of the country(?) , but you'd think she could have called a neighbor or friend in her area to keep it safe until she got back or something.

short+sassy

Some people are funny like that with cars.  I've known three people who "HAVE" to go buy a new car every 1-2 years...and think "luxury" or what's the point, lol.

One of them was my former boss and, though I inwardly rolled my eyes at it, he could easily afford to do that.

One of them was a former coworker who, I'm guessing made somewhere in the $60s, but she was also young and single with no kids and new cars were one of her priorities.  She told me she just can't stand to drive a car for longer than a year or two because it gets so boring.  She had just bought a new BMW when I started working there and then sold it 18 months later to get an Escalade.  Ugh.

My friend's ex-b/f was my favorite though.  He bought a brand new BMW or Mercedes every two years because "he is an attorney and that is what's expected".  Yeah, dude, whatever.  Ironically, although he made a high salary, he lived paycheck-to-paycheck.  He sometimes had to borrow money from my friend...who made less than half the money he did...to make it through to the next check.  She might have made less, but has always lived below her means and is a saver.  He at least always paid her back on time, but it was just pathetic.  Can you tell I wasn't a fan of his? lol.

vlagrl29

I don't know how people can live in that much financial stress and I would never air it out to the FB world.  The only time I've mentioned something financial on FB was when we paid off our credit cards and finally had an e fund.

jtmh2012

short+sassy said:

One of them was a former coworker who, I'm guessing made somewhere in the $60s, but she was also young and single with no kids and new cars were one of her priorities.  She told me she just can't stand to drive a car for longer than a year or two because it gets so boring.  She had just bought a new BMW when I started working there and then sold it 18 months later to get an Escalade.  Ugh.

Sadly, I know people like this.  They think of their car payment as just another bill like one would pay their electric or water bills.  So if they're always going to have a car payment, why not drive something new.