I bought a Tacoma for work because I let my father in law talk me into it. I was able to easily afford the monthly payments but the job I was at went under.
Now I work from home but for $5 less an hour. I owe 35k on this stupid thing but I can only get 22.5k at the dealership or maybe 30k if I private sell. The issue is I don’t qualify for the loans I would need for the remaining balance after the sale.
I really really don’t want to default on the payment cuz I know it will wreck my credit score and I don’t know what my payments will be for the balance left after they auction it. Any help or advice would be much appreciated
Alright, listen up—this is a mess you walked yourself into, and it’s a mess you’re going to have to dig yourself out of. Nobody forced you to buy that truck. You let someone else’s opinion steer your decision, and now you’re the one stuck paying for it. Own that. Take responsibility, because nobody’s coming to bail you out.
If you can’t sell the truck for at least what you owe, and you don’t have the cash to cover the difference, then your options are limited. You either keep the truck and make sacrifices somewhere else, or you find a way to make more money. Complaining about the situation won’t make the payments smaller or the gap disappear.
For now, keep making the payments. Grind it out while you save up the difference—$5K, give or take—and then sell the truck. Until then, every dollar you spend on something unnecessary is just you choosing to stay stuck longer. Cancel the streaming services, eat beans and rice, and stop spending like life is normal. It’s not.
And about that second job? Get one. This isn’t forever—it’s a short-term, all-out effort to get yourself back on track. Amazon deliveries, walk dogs, flip burgers, I don’t care. Just find a way to stack cash faster. Yeah, it’s going to suck. But you know what sucks more? Staying in this situation, drowning in payments for something you don’t even need anymore.
Here’s the deal: life is going to keep throwing you curveballs, and this won’t be the last time you’re tempted to blame someone else or feel sorry for yourself. Don’t. Use this as a chance to grow. Make the hard choices now so you don’t find yourself in a mess like this again. You can fix this, but it’s going to take some grit. Step up, do the work, and don’t make the same mistake twice.