A December to Remember
I'll never fully understand the ease with which people make car purchase decisions.
One of my friends decided to visit the dealership on a boring Saturday afternoon "just to look around," and walked out with a $0 down, $45,000 car loan with a $750/month payment.
Another friend was having a few issues with their 5-year-old SUV. It was going to cost a few thousand to fix it, so they elected to purchase a new $65,000 SUV less than 48 hours later. This one came with a $900/month payment.
One of my former youth group kids graduated from college and started his first adult job. At the encouragement of his parents (you know, to get something "reliable), he immediately purchased a $30,000 vehicle with a $600/month payment.
Another friend had their second child and decided a family of four no longer fit in a mid-size SUV. They quickly traded in their paid-off vehicle and purchased a new slightly larger model.....with a $525/month payment.
See the consistencies between stories? Each person acted swiftly and ended up with expensive monthly payments. Oh yeah, there's one more: All four families are now experiencing financial stress and turmoil due to these decisions.
One of my favorite parts of the holiday season (besides AE Egg Nog....IYKYK) is the ridiculous array of car dealership commercials. You know what I'm talking about! The commercials where one spouse tells the other they have a surprise for them (often while romantically standing under the Mistletoe), then leads them outside to reveal a brand new vehicle with a bow fixed atop (with powdery snow wafting through the air). The recipient spouse, overwhelmed with joy, falls into their partner's arms and gives them a gratitude-filled smooch.
Has anyone ever stopped to think how absurd these commercials are? They exemplify our culture's very real casualness of buying cars, but are completely unhinged. "Merry Christmas, Honey! Here's a car you'll get bored of six months from now, with daunting payments that will haunt us for the better part of a decade!"
For a long while, I roamed this earth believing I was the only soul who thought these commercials were insane and reckless. But then, Saturday Night Live stepped in and affirmed me by producing this hilarious skit a few years ago:
It has everything! Financial self-sabotage, unilateral decisions, financial illiteracy, status-seeking behaviors, out-of-whack priorities, marital strife, buyer's remorse, and a hint of adultery. It's a more hilarious and twisted version of how my brain envisions what the consequences of A December to Remember actually looks like. It's a mess!
The truth is that while this is a hilarious parody skit, it doesn't stray too far from what's actually happening in people's homes. People regularly defend these types of insane financial decisions because, well, they've been normalized in our culture. But I have the luxury of meeting with people on the back side of them once the financial and relational consequences set in.
Don't let your household resemble a sketch comedy. Ignore our culture's push toward flippant financial decisions and instead choose intentionality.
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