djphatmatt

Hey folks! I am waiting tables to Chili's here in the Dallas area and have decided I am finally going to stop making payments on my car, sell my DJ equipment (about $3200) and set my focus on backpacking!

I have posted a few entrys on Craigslist looking for someone to take over my car and buy my DJ equipment but I have now decided I am going to just stop paying on the car and let it get repoed ($575 a month, payment and insurance I will be saving) if I dont find someone to take it over. I know my credit will be screwed for 7 years and I might even owe money to the loan company in the long run. But I keep putting this off more and more and if I continue to do so I will never accomplish this. I will be in my late 20s DJing every few months and waiting tables, with not much else going for me but bills and drunken nights with friends in Dallas. I want to experience the world! Not stuck on this continent called North America when there are tons of other continents I have never even been close to.

Just in the past weekend I have made $400 in tips and that will all be gone if I send it for my car payment. I can just as easily put it in savings and not touch it! If I save $1000 a month until end of April I will have $6000 plus $3000 from my DJ equipment. That would do me great for a 2+ month trip through East and West Europe and Morroco. Plus I will still have some money to come back home to.

Without my car, the only bills I have are 3 credit cars I pay $60-$70 a month each on, cell phone, and some money I owe my mom. I am sure I can make this happen especially since I can get rides to and from work from family and friends and the other bonus is I live at home with my mom (I give her a bit every month to help out but it covers food, internet, cable, water, laundry, room, etc).



Phat Matt
www.myspace.com/xphatxmattx

AIM/Yahoo IM: djmattj03

joe7f

Congratulations man!

--Joey

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marc873

My best advice for you is to do the trip for sure, but REALLY be careful with how you handle your car. After the 2 months, you will come back to a bitch of a time. I have been through turning a car in, in the far past, and its not a pleasant thing to recover from. Do everything you can to get someone to take over the payments, or sell it, pay as much of the loan off as you can, then make payments on the rest.
Thats my advice. The trip is first, just plan smart

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DC_Jessica

I agree with Marc. Unless you plan on just not coming back, make sure that you don't regret your marvelous trip because of the nightmare you come home to.

But, as they say, audacity, audacity always audacity! Sounds like you're at a turning point.

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lauren313

I'm very excited for you, because I can sense how excited you are from your post!!

I'm a cautious one, though, so I'm agreeing with Marc and Jess about the car. Try and sell it, even if you don't get quite the amount you want for it. Try and sell by any means possible. Put a notice in the car window, tell your friends/workmates, put an ad in the paper, etc etc.

But, yay!!!

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benna2

Ya, I am all about the spontaneous travel but would be extremely cautious on the car thing...It's not worth getting screwed on your credit for a trip. I don't care if it is the trip of a lifetime! Eventually you will want to enter the real world again and want to get yourself a car or an apartment or even a mortgage.

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djphatmatt

Thanks guys. I am going to see what I can do about the car. And well see what happens.

Matt

pinknic38

hey man congrats on the trip, but I am with the crowd on the car thing. it seems like the simple solution but bad credit is no joke and it has taken me like 2 years to fix the stupid credit card debt that reaked havoc on my credit score, so I can only imagine what kind of shit a repo-ed car would do to a credit score.

good luck man!

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djphatmatt

Thanks again for the input... I have posted alot of ads on classifieds and things like that and I am prolly going to go to Car Max tommorrow morning and see what they would offer me for it.

mbo108

put it in the lake and call it in stolen. Duh. then leave town immediately. I defy anyone to find a flaw in that plan.

sorry, i'm being really sarcastic in all my comments today. i actually agree with the aforementioned plans of selling it before you take of.