Monthly Payments!

[Vidman]

The interest rate on my house back from 1976 till I paid it off was 11.5 percent.. pretty cheap rates now

Sponsored

 

[Stringburner]

I will more than likely pay it off before the end of the year. The interest rate is 3.75 through Toyota Financial Services.

 

[DENNISD]

lol the amount of grandstanding from those who didn't have to to finance their car is hilarious. As if that makes them a better or smarter person. If you're privileged enough to have no debt, at least recognize that's hardly possible now, compared to 1995. Cost of living is so high that the majority of people can't save up to buy a used car outright, let alone a new one. The system is set up to keep you in debt.

Also, I don't know what the point of asking is. Monthly payments are wildly different based on the car, the interest rate, the down payment, the trade in, the taxes. One person $500 payment is not the same as another.

The "privileged" people you refer to are often those who made sacrifices when they were younger.


I can only speak from my own experience, but I bought my first car in 1978 for $1,350. I was just 14 years old. I saved diligently until I had enough cash to buy a used car. At the time, I earned about $2.50 an hour. Adjusted to today's standards, that's roughly equivalent to $15 per hour. I worked around 20 hours per week—about 10 hours on the weekend and 2 hours a day during the week—earning roughly $50 a week back then, or about $300 per week in today’s wages.


I saved at that rate for around four years. While I didn’t work every single week, I worked most of them—let’s say about 45 weeks per year. That added up to around $2,000 annually in 1978. Using today's wages, that would be about $13,500 a year.


The point is, with hard work, discipline, and by living within your means, it's entirely possible to achieve similar results today. The so-called "privileged" often just worked hard, saved diligently, and avoided spending more than they earned.


After graduating from college, my mother gave me wise advice: don't buy a car until you can pay cash. She suggested I calculate what a loan payment would be and put that amount into a “car account” instead. Once I had saved enough, I could start looking for a car that fit within that budget.


Unfortunately, many people today—let’s call them the “underprivileged”—see a credit card as a ticket to freedom. The sad reality is that relying on debt can lead them deeper into a financial hole that’s very difficult to escape.

 

[RokeHi]

zero...paid cash for a new ride..saved a little each month since 2007..

 

[RokeHi]

The "privileged" people you refer to are often those who made sacrifices when they were younger.


I can only speak from my own experience, but I bought my first car in 1978 for $1,350. I was just 14 years old. I saved diligently until I had enough cash to buy a used car. At the time, I earned about $2.50 an hour. Adjusted to today's standards, that's roughly equivalent to $15 per hour. I worked around 20 hours per week—about 10 hours on the weekend and 2 hours a day during the week—earning roughly $50 a week back then, or about $300 per week in today’s wages.


I saved at that rate for around four years. While I didn’t work every single week, I worked most of them—let’s say about 45 weeks per year. That added up to around $2,000 annually in 1978. Using today's wages, that would be about $13,500 a year.


The point is, with hard work, discipline, and by living within your means, it's entirely possible to achieve similar results today. The so-called "privileged" often just worked hard, saved diligently, and avoided spending more than they earned.


After graduating from college, my mother gave me wise advice: don't buy a car until you can pay cash. She suggested I calculate what a loan payment would be and put that amount into a “car account” instead. Once I had saved enough, I could start looking for a car that fit within that budget.


Unfortunately, many people today—let’s call them the “underprivileged”—see a credit card as a ticket to freedom. The sad reality is that relying on debt can lead them deeper into a financial hole that’s very difficult to escape.

I am not privileged either, sacraficed a lot to stay out of debt, got the same advise from my mom and dad.

 

[bsquaredMTB]

Friends,
I meant to keep this light. I find it very impressive if you can pay it in cash. That's probably the smartest thing. Gotta agree with the "old timer" in that people want instant gratification so they get into debt but that's definitely not the case for everyone. And yes, I totally recognize loan length and interest and other factors go into monthly payments. Again, just wanted this to be a light conversation. I'm just happy we can all share in our Tacoma stories here on this forum. Cheers!

 

[The Dude]

Pick mine up tomorrow. First new vehicle in 20 years. I did finance about half, but I need to get out of the old rig, getting to be too many problems. I will likely pay it out faster than the term, but I also have no mortgage, paid off this year.

$500CAD/month on 5 years. Canuck prices be “stoopid yo!”

 

[crepr12]

NO...

 

[crepr12]

lmmfao....wrong forum street taco...OP asked

 

[maxx075]

The interest rate on my house back from 1976 till I paid it off was 11.5 percent.. pretty cheap rates now

Oh boy, I love this take.

Yes, interest rates were higher, but the cost of a house were a year's salary then. Not the average cost of 400k+ that they are now, on an average salary of 63k.

The problem with people like you is that you're so out of touch with reality and want to spew the whole "BACK IN MY DAY" BS trope that has no standing in today's world.

 

[gpburdell]

Oh boy, I love this take.

Yes, interest rates were higher, but the cost of a house were a year's salary then. Not the average cost of 400k+ that they are now, on an average salary of 63k.

Bzzzt. Wrong.

Median home price in Q3 1976 was $44,400, and median family income was $14,960.

Interest rates can't be ignored either - ratio of mortgage payment to household income was 53% in 1981 compared to 31.4% in 2024.

(Need to look at median not average. Averages get skewed by outliers, median is simply the point between upper and lower halves.)

The problem with people like you is that you're so out of touch with reality and want to spew the whole "BACK IN MY DAY" BS trope that has no standing in today's world.

This shows you've missed the underlying point being made. Life's always been tough, and poor financial discipline makes it tougher.

 

[soupy1234]

I am not privileged either, sacraficed a lot to stay out of debt, got the same advise from my mom and dad.

Yeah, my "privilege" came from 10 years of putting every extra dime against debt. No new cars, no air travel, no resort vacations...
Started that before I'd even heard of Dave Ramsey.

 

[maxx075]

Bzzzt. Wrong.

Median home price in Q3 1976 was $44,400, and median family income was $14,960.

Interest rates can't be ignored either - ratio of mortgage payment to household income was 53% in 1981 compared to 31.4% in 2024.

(Need to look at median not average. Averages get skewed by outliers, median is simply the point between upper and lower halves.)



This shows you've missed the underlying point being made. Life's always been tough, and poor financial discipline makes it tougher.

You're also missing the point.

According to your numbers a house on average was almost 3x a yearly salary (in 1976).

Now today, the median household income is $75,580. Median home sales price is $407,200, yielding almost a 5.4x yearly salary.

The problem is that the housing (as well as everything else, 50k basic Toyotas for instance) is increasing far faster than wages, making your money worth less.

Pretty easy for you old timers to say oh life has always been hard, all ya gotta do is work harder and sacrifice. Well back in your day the dollar went a lot further. I'm sure if my money was as valuable as yours I would be saying the same thing as well.

Edit - I'm not disagreeing that poor financial decisions make it harder either. My household makes close to 200k/year and I have >800 credit in my early 30s and it's still almost impossible to buy a house.

 

[SilverSurfer]

I lean Ramsey, but factor other life realities and personal realities into financial decisions. I think that for most, time is the great equalizer. Some here are in their 20’s and some in their 50’s and the 30 year span makes a huge difference in possibilities. I think everyone here has an honest, well meaning perspective on the challenges of buying motor vehicles. Personally, I’ve bought way too many but I’m a major petrolhead so it’s a need and my hobby, so I spend more in this area. I’m also in the last 10 years or so of my career and am socking away a lot for retirement, as I should and have been all my working career, so there’s a balance in it all.

 

[Toy@home]

Ah you're one of those old timers that has it easy and got all your shit paid of before y'all wrecked the economy. Lucky you!

Stick a sock in it !! Us old men pay our bills.

Sponsored