Minus $426 In My Bank Account And Getting Worse!

[zertek]

Hey guys,

Need this off my chest!

Im sure a few of you would all know this situation all to well...

24-7 thinking about cars. I mean, at work you cant concertrate, cause your thinking about cars the whole time, cant sleep some nights cause your thinking about mods and different driving techniques, both go to sleep and wake up thinking about cars, spend all your free time and all your money on tinkering with your car?

This is my situation and has been since i was 13 years old!!! I am now 19. At first i thought it might be a phase.... but things like when i got my L's, i had a calander and marked off EVERY day before i went to bed until i got my P's, have made me realise im obsessed.

I now realise that this is a dangerous addiction... its keeping me broke and owing way too much money! My goal since i bought my first car (I'm now on my 10th car) has been to get to the track. Till this day i havent made it any further than to watch from the side lines at mallala...

I own a R32 gts4 decently modified. I bought this car from queensland (I'm from Adelaide) and knowing it wouldnt pass regency i kept it rego'd in QLD and ended up travelling to QLD and transfered my licence to a QLD one just so i can drive my 32 down here 'on holidays'...

Not a moment went by where i didnt drive it with a smile... im talking from ear to ear. Anyway, my 6th time driving it, sadly i blew a head gasket and who knows what else... cyl 3 was full of coolant, compression test showed 5 out of 6 cylinders were screwed, and i had heaps of oil all through my intake system.

I ended up adding more to my car loan and bought a half cut with a 25det... since then (4 months ago) its been nothing but nightmares trying to get this thing on the road.... Today i got a call from the bank to basically ask what was going on with my account situation. -$426 dollars in my account and all my savings etc are already long gone, im getting over draw charges every week and its only getting worse, on top of that i have a loan over $20,000. They said taking my car might have to be an option All the money i get i dont spend on anything but my car... i have no life anymore. Ive really lost my shit...

Will i ever make it to the track!?!?

I'm so far away from my goals and yet its not possible to keep this up. The bank will take my car if i cant miraculously make thousands of dollars out of nowhere....

I'm usually a really happy guy and nothing can keep me down... but the fact that i may have to face my car been sold and being left with nothing but debt is really keeping me down...

[K_E_V_I_N]

Yeah, i know that kinda pain.... Keep ya head up champ.

[zertek]

cars are my only passion... but at the same time they are wrecking my life!

[dmr]

thats really sad to hear man. hopefully you can sort something out and live your dream!

[Beer Baron]

the only advice I can give is this: "when you have money troubles, earn more money." It has served me well over the years. best of luck keeping those wolves from the door.

[Necx0]

Your choice of car was a big mistake.....as was borrowing money. If you are going to track cars you WILL break things, the more powerful the car the more you will break.

Must sound harsh, but them taking the car could be the best thing to ever happen. Clear some debt get yourself in the black then start with something a bit more realistic to your budget.

[GUN_METAL_GTR32]

buddy im in the exact same situation but way worse

i owe 20k on my gtr

i owe 10k to credit cards

i owe 2k to telstgra

i owe 5k to civic compliance

and 2k to ge credit

all up thats 39k

but dont worry u have to be strong buddy im only 22 as well and this is my 4th car but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

stop building your car for a little while and u have to write your self a realistic budget and stick to it ok.

i earn 900 a week after tax and every week i pay back 850 to bill/debts etc. i have had many letters from banks/credit companys saying they are gonna take my shit but u just play cool ok son. go hard at paying your loan back and get a cpuple thousand a head then spend a little bit on to your car then do it again.

atm im probz not gonna spend any thing on my car till april next year when i will have paid all my shit off except my car. once u get stuff out of the way ur head will be clearer. dont worry about the track it will always be there ur only a boy still u have plenty life left in ya

hope that helps

reards

julz

[tjandriesen]

the only advice I can give is this: "when you have money troubles, earn more money." It has served me well over the years. best of luck keeping those wolves from the door.

Part 2 - "When you have money troubles - spend less money". Give up the car (yes I know that hurts) and save up to buy something that you can afford to keep in parts and running on the track. At this point in your life you do not want to screw up your credit any more as at some point when you want to borrow for a house or whatever you won't be able to. If you have a good mate, split the cost of a track car. Being on the track and in a slower, stockish car beats watching.

[MANWHORE]

The question that comes to my mind is why is your loan 20k if you only have an r32?

Lets say the car is worth 8k, half cut 4k, that's 12 k.

You're not the first one to get into this situation. I've known of many of my friends who have taken out too big a loan.

Don't borrow more than you can afford to pay back.

At the moment, I suppose all you can do, is halt spending money on your car (you shouldn't have gotten into that much debt anyways), and put all your wages on repaying the car off

Selling it isn't really an option for you either, because if you sell it, you'll get maybe 8 k for a non working r32with extra parts and still be 12k in debt

[legend01]

There's some sound advice in this thread for you ,none of them easy and all will take time .Its not just a matter of getting rid of the car for if they take it back they will sell it for what ever they can get , be $2 or $2000 they dont care, you will still be left paying the rest of and no car as well .The money still owing if you dont pay it back will be on your credit referance so you find it very hard to get another loan in the future be it car or home

Its good to have dreams of driving your car on the track but you might have to put them on hold a while your only young so you have plenty of time for this .

There's a few way you can go to help you reduce some of the debt you have ,! as baron has said earn more money ,get a casual job as well as the one you have for a little extra cash ,sell of some performance parts you might have or maybe other things you might have that can earn some extra $$$$$

Another option that might help too is to go to a you bank or who-ever you have borrowed from try to consolidate all the money's you owe into 1 loan spread ot over a lengther time period so repayments are more managable for you .(I would go for this option only if all else fails as it will just cost you more in the long run )

Lastly work to a budget it you keep the car ,it will be no good to you if you cant afford to run it , repair it ,or drive it .A stock car will get you anywhere you want to go even a race track

[mid life crisis]

shit happens move on

[zertek]

The question that comes to my mind is why is your loan 20k if you only have an r32?

Lets say the car is worth 8k, half cut 4k, that's 12 k.

My 32 is worth a bit more than 8k I recently sold my R33 series 2 to be able to afford this car. Alot of money and time has been spent on modifying this car. The last offer i had was 14k (and no i wasnt trying to sell), and on top of this, we all know how much money is lost in modifications. Also i mentioned how this car is from QLD, i had to pay transport + stamp duty and also went through all the crap of going there to get my license transfered to a QLD one.

Anyway my car has definately been put on hold.... i still spent all today working on it, but only doing things i can with out needing to spend money. Simply spending the day working on it has cleared my head alot and cheered me up.

I was thinking maybe i should try and find a track car i can help out with at the track (for free of coarse)... might it be just changing tyres or what ever, anything to be a little more involved would be great. And i wont be blowing any money... atleast till i can get back on my feet and get my own car on the track :PBJ:

Anyway cheers for the support guys, I've had time to clear my head and now its only a matter of time before ill be back on top of things!

P.S if anyone has or knows of a track car that i could help out with in anyway, let me know, im very keen!

Edited July 28, 2007 by zertek

[swanny180]

Hmmm doesnt really make sense why youve borrowed 20k when you didnt even need to spend any money other than what you already had to buy your 32...

If you had an S2 R33, you should have been able to sell that and buy the 32 with some cash left over.

If youve borrowed money to spend on modifications, thats pretty stupid dude...

You need to set yourself a budget, FORGET doing ANYTHING to your car for quite a while, except for the absolute essentials. Oil changes, petrol, fixing something if it breaks - thats it.

Focus on paying off your debt before spending any more money unneccessarily, its that simple.

[HotPlates]

I'm amazed how banks are so blase with handing out loans to so many young people. But rest assured you are not alone! The best thing you can do is work your butt off for a year and pay off the loan with every cent you earn. It will be really hard.... but with a $20k loan the interest is not pretty so the sooner you pay it off the better!

I've got a loan of $10k and that is huge for me! I fret over it all the time! But I'm trying to build a credit rating so even though I have the money to pay it off now, I just pay it off periodically. It's good for when I want a home loan later on.

Good luck and keep your head up!

[psybic]

Don't buy a house. Just did that and lost my job two days before settlement. As much money as I've wasted on cars, they've never done that to me.

Cars FTW!

ps- i bought the cheapest 125cc thumpstar i could get my hands on. this is much cheaper to tinker with and ride hard than it is to muck around with cars. I do still have a 180sx ( and an FZR250 ), but for example, someone broke into my car a few months ago, its going to cost around $800 to fix the damage, my little thumpstar was $520 delivered.... so maybe try and get stuck into cheaper forms of motorsport than street cars...

if u can find somewhere to ride a thumpstar, u can drift it all day long, fall off and hurt yourself, snap the chain, replace it, fill up the tank a few times, and it all costs less than one weeks worth of fuel in the car.

[moonus]

mate my advice to you is to take your focus off getting your car on the track at the moment and start trying to fix your car and the financial situation your in. If all you care about is taking it to the track, your debts are going to be so much worse than what you are in now. Just take some time out, clear your debts, reapair your car and then start talking about the track.

My 2c

[MANWHORE]

The track should be the last of your concerns right now. Going to the track is the easiest way to lose all your money. No matter how careful you are, there is alwlays the risk of you coming back with no car, or with a blown motor, shagged gearbox etc. Everytime I go to the track, i'm prepared to come back with nothing.

But what you're doing now is perfectly ok. There's no problem how you spent time working on your car. The problem is spending money working on your car. e.g. If you have some parts at home, there's no problem installing them into your car.

The problem is still spending money while you're majorly in debt. There's no point spending money, because the bank will just take your car off you anyways.

PS: Its better that you come to the realisation, that although the car may be 'worth' 14k+ to you, it is not worth 14k to the bank.

I just put your car into redbook and got these results:

Average Private Price+ $8,250 - $11,250

Trade In Price Guide+ $6,550 - $9,000

The bank will not try and do a private sale and spend 12 months looking for an enthusiast. They will flog it off straight away. Keep in mind, this is for a working car. If they were to sell your car off now in its current condition, my guess is that you'd get less than the lowest trade in bracket (i.e. <6550). Sad but true.

As I said above, even if they take your car, it won't help you. This has happened to many of my friends who have over borrowed or friends who have written off cars they've borrowed money for. They end up with NO CAR repaying money on SOMETHING THEY DON'T HAVE.

[Thunderbolt]

Well you are on the way to recovering, as you have admitted to yourself that there is a problem. When you do this, it sends a message to the subconcious mind, and the subconcious will start working on the issue until you have it solved. What this means in simply terms is that you may get some ideas suddenly appearing in your head. Don't ignore these messages as they will be there to help you.

The first thing I would do is to bring your account back into the positve. Overdrawn fees are to be avoided at all costs, as they can get ridiculously large for a small amount of money. Do you have anything that you could sell that would be worth more than what is owing? Once this is out of the way, then you can deal with the rest later.

[Silver-Arrowz]

Sell the car. It's not worth the headaches. Cut your losses and pay off what's remaining. Better than having the car repo'd and a bad history. There's plenty of time for cars later in life and also plenty of track days to go along with it. Race track isn't going to close tomorrow.

Not having a skylines doesn't mean instant death. You may suffer withdrawl symptoms but you'll live. Trust me... I know.

[zertek]

Yes im actually spending today weighing, measuring and packaging parts, from my half cut ready to post off incase i get an interstate buyer. Hopefully if i can sell a couple of items + next weeks pay will come in on thursday i should be on the +

From there ill only be spending money if i absolutely have to for a while.

Thinking back now it was so easy to lose control... couple of hundred here and there really adds up big! Hopefully ill get time today to go over my receipts of car items and start a budget diary. Might be slower but atleast i know ill get there in the end.

Atleast ive learnt a lesson!

P.S cheers for all the support (I'm supprised at how much i recieved!!!). My head was so clogged i couldnt think straight so all the advise was really helpful.