@FR,
Many years ago my former mother-in-law carefully explained what's wrong with younger married couples: Kids get married and want to start off, day one, where their parents are.
Added by edit: She also was famous for saying "You don't know who your true friends are until the second kid." 
My saying about kids has more to do with parenting, LOL!
Starting Score: 675
Looking through the auto loans board some more I see people who are in tough spots, students with little income, people trying to get caught up on bills, ect and they are looking to finance a brand new car, even with a good down payment 5 - 7k they are still looking at using that as a down payment.
They don't seem to be open to the idea of buying a used fix er upper out of the newspaper classifieds or a car off one of those used car corner lots straight up with cash for that amount instead.
My very first car was an old beat up Mazda truck. My parents bought it for me in high school not from a standard dealership but one of those used car lots. It cost 2,000 and the reason it was that cheap was it needed a bit of work. After we bought it we took it to our mechanic and had 800 worth of repairs done to it. It had some periodic trips to the mechanic, a few years later had to replace the radiator because some idiot put in a plastic radiator, that wasnt even the correct size, and it cracked and was squirting anti freeze everywhere. Then a few years later had a few hoses and the thermostat replaced, then later had a leaky oil gasket replaced. Routinely changed the oil about every 4 months. Routine maintenance. Probably spent about 4k total on that truck including the price of buying it, plus regular maintenance. It had 110,000 miles on it when we purchased it.
I drove that truck for 10 years and the only reason I am not driving it still is my mom got a new car a few years ago and gave me her old one. A car will last a long time if you treat it well. Especially check the oil regularly. Anything on a car can be repaired with not too much pain in the wallet, but if you need to rebuild an engine, you are better off just buying a new car. Oil is the most important thing to pay attention to.
High mileage = cheaper price. I have no problem buying used cars for cheap then fixing and maintaing them as necessary. A whole heck of a lot cheaper than a brand new car. I may never even go to a standard dealership my whole life. Just buy an old, but well taken care of, used car with high mileage at a used car lot, have it looked at and inspected of course, and I figure 5-8k is plenty for a good car, paid outright with cash, no financing.
Some people are perfectly happy taking out 30-40k auto loans every 5 or 6 years and rotating through cars like that. Not me. The less I spend on cars, the more money for saving, retirement, and travel. I have 11k in student loans, in the last year I have paid them down to about 8k now and I can't wait until that debt is no longer hanging over my head. After that the only loan I will be taking out the rest of my life is a mortgage.
@drkaje wrote:Ever read a thread and have to back slowly away because your response would be inconsistent with forum norms?
It happened to me a few years ago. Was reading a thread where someone complaining about an old medical bill posted the doctor didn't need the money and would only use it for a Benz payment. I started typing something along the lines of "Keep that in mind next time you get sick", actually it may have been a little worse and then quickly deleted, LOL!
What are the responses you couldn't type?
Whenever someone say's they "have to, or need to" revolve a charge and pay interest to establish a relationship with the bank...This makes me want to jump through my computer and give the poster a friendly V8 juice style bop on their forehead!
I'm also a bit perturbed when someone speaks ill or give detailed opinions on how to obtain a product that they have never had themselves. Makes me want to say "Are you sure? How do you know? You've never had this product!!!"
@ Teen,
I find that odd, too. Last year, when activating USAA Amex, I asked directly about how they decided to grant higher limits and was told 'use the card and pay in full every month'.
When I see comments such as
"I've never carried a balance in my life".
"I've never paid a penny in interest".
Now I'll take them at their word but I roll my eyes and move on. In a perfect world I would never do either of those and I continue to recommend that folks try to avoid either one but I also know that it's not a perfect world and I believe most all of us at one time have carried a balance from month to month or paid interest.
Really? Not one penny of interest? Ever?
@ MVV,
That's a tough one to believe. I guess if they paid cash for house, car, boat, etc... and never floated anything on a credit card that would be true.
I also can't really figure out why someone needs to apply for everything but a library card.
@Booner72 wrote:
@drkaje wrote:Oftentimes, I feel people would have been be better off finishing credit repair before house/mortgage hunting. It's just better to deal with creditors, old debts, or almost any other situation from a position with a little leverage instead of being deperate.
Of course.... But you don't know how bad your credit really is until you get into "it" (Buying something major). At least I didn't, and I'm sure it's true for many people that end up here.I learned all too quickly that the last time to repair credit is when you NEED credit......but I was under a short sale and boy, was I determined to make it happen. I will never go back there again.
I think it's more a matter of we aren't faced with knowing until a situation arises and we're forced to deal with it. Within extremes, it's pretty easy to ignore credit and let stuff age off or still have some access by being an AU.
Wanting a house is cool but I don't see how people handle the stress of looking out for zombies. When it's really the right time, I want the experience to be relaxing and not stress too much over scores.
A guy in my town sent out wedding invitations before the divorce was final. Needless to say, he didn't get married on time.