Dear Cousin,

I hope all is well. I thought about you a lot this week. Funny thing, right after my last letter about emotions, life seemed to put mine to the test. It’s almost like when we speak on something, life shows up to see if we really mean it. Maybe that’s why it’s best to stay close to God and pray often. At the very least He never leaves us to face things alone.

Anyway, I’ve got some tea. Though since it’s about me I guess it’s more of a confession. Remember the gray Honda I bought about six years ago? Sunroof, all the perks. I got it with only 14,000 miles for under $17,000. At the time, I thought I had made the smartest decision of my life. The woman approving the loan even told me she was proud of me. She said most people my age wanted a sports car or something flashy, but I was making a responsible choice. We talked for a while and became pretty cool. She even tried setting me up with her daughter who was going to school here. Sweet girl, not really my type, but I met her just to humor her mom.

Truth is I chose the Honda because I heard they last forever. And after owning thirteen different cars in six years, I desperately needed something reliable. But here’s the part I didn’t understand. The car was about $17,000. On paper that should have been around $236 a month for six years. My payment was $500, and yes, still for six years. So if you do the math that comes out to about $36,000 for a $17,000 car (THIS WAS THE PRICE BEFORE I LEFT THE LOT).

What I didn’t realize at the time was that my credit was terrible. My interest rate was over 20 percent. At first the payments were manageable, but life happened. I was serving and bartending, trying to grind my way forward, and I missed payments. Not one or two, multiple. Each time I called they were happy to help. They would roll the missed payments to the end of the loan and restart the schedule.

What I didn’t understand was that with interest that high those missed payments were costing me an arm and a leg. At one point the interest being added to the loan each month was nearly as much as my payment. By the time I reached what should have been my final year of payments I still owed almost $17,000. Now how in the hell? After four to five years of making payments I’d finally purchased the privilege of paying for the car. (All that money was going towards interest and penalties).

When I finally sat down and did the full math I realized because I’d done things this way, I would end up paying over $42,000 for that $17,000 car. That moment changed something in me. Roughly 3 years ago I started getting serious about my finances and desire to be free. A year and a half ago I really dug in. I doubled down and started attacking the balance.

In one year I paid the remaining amount down to about $1,000(along with other debts). And if you’re reading this now, it’s officially paid off. The crazy part is the car still runs like it did on day one. “You better believe I’m driving it until the wheels fall off now”.

So why am I telling you this embarrassing story? It’s not for you to laugh at me, although I honestly wouldn’t care! But, Because I know I’m not the only one. We come from generations of bad money habits. Nobody really sat us down and taught us how these things work. But just because something runs in our family doesn’t mean it has to run our lives. Breaking those patterns is hard, but if we want real freedom we have to face the music and clean up the messes we made along the way.

For me that means two things. First, I will never let my credit fall that low again. Second, I will never rush into deals with predatory lenders just because I’m impatient. “Sometimes patience is the most profitable decision you can make”.

I don’t know where you are on your journey, but hopefully this breadcrumb helps you avoid a trail I had to learn the hard way. Mistakes are part of life, but we’re grown now and some mistakes we have to clean up ourselves. That’s part of becoming who we’re meant to be.

As always I love you. Tell your mom I said hello and give her a hug for me. We can never say I love you enough.

Talk soon,

“oh yeah, before I forget. When I bought the Honda I also found it was a common car that millionaires buy. Not that I am a millionaire but I will be someday so I wanted to get started in that direction. Not because they are cool cars (hardly), but the reliability and affordability of the brand. So I dug deeper and what I found actually was that Honda is the 2nd most common car amongst the group. And guess what number 1 is. Yep.. it’s TOYOTA. So we plan to stick with those two brands and maybe a Lexus later on. I don’t know if youre interested or want to plan for the future but, heres the article that lists them out maybe it’ll be some use to you”. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/dave-ramsey-says-millionaires-drive-230035549.html

Earl

P.S. I’ve been reading a lot lately, so I packed some of my favorite books in a crate and shipped them your way as a thank you for reading these letters. They should arrive in a week or two. Keep an eye out.