A Series of Unfortunate Events - The Cataclysmic Car by Emma

Okay. Where to begin.

Hiii I'm Emma in case you don't know me! I'm a psychology student finishing up a degree that should have been finished years ago (thanks quarantine + a premature decision on my part about not wanting a degree), and I am set to graduate this December!

In case you don't know me well enough to have heard firsthand, or seen the dumb jokes I've made on social media to try to cope, the past few years have been the hardest of my life, and it's not even close. I won't list all the things that went wrong, but please believe me when I say my perfect angel dog Dash is probably the reason I'm alive in more ways than one.

In early 2022, I was all set to have the best year of my life. I wanted to get more serious about savings and investing and I had the bright idea to trade in the car I had literally just bought in August of 2021 for one with a lower car payment to help with those goals. What I didn't know was that would actually be the worst financial decision of my life. A little bit of negative equity going in, plus the natural depreciation of a car's value, plus the insane state of the car market post the height of covid, plus what a lemon this car has turned out to be.... and there you have me owing way, way embarrassingly way more than the car is worth.

Please know, I know that this is ultimately no one's problem but my own. Despite me wishing with all my heart that the people at the dealership had given me better advice and told me that "hey maybe this isn't a good idea", I know this. This is my burden to carry, and I am the one that is going to continue making the payments until the year 2029, when I will finally pay it off. The car will likely be long gone then, assured by the dealership themselves after the fact that it will probably not last even close to that long.

I've done everything I can possibly think of to be able to work this out. Besides making extra payments when I'm able to, and taking part in side hustles, I've looked into selling the car, I've gone back to the dealer to see if there was anything on God's green earth that they could do to help me, I've looked into surrendering it, I've even looked into bankruptcy to be able to move past this because again, I can't quite describe just how much of a gash this has been in my financial life that I'll be unable to heal as long as this loan hangs above me.

I also can't express just how embarrassing this whole thing has been. I'm humiliated over the naivete that I showed in getting this car in the first place, humiliated over the sheer amount I still owe (did you see that number up there?!) on a car that's worth $4500 on the best of days (I'm so beyond serious), and more than anything, I'm mortified to be making this GoFundMe, but I figured anything is worth a shot at this point. If you're familiar with the term, this car and this loan are my Roman Empire. There's nothing that I think about and worry about more. Nearly every moment of every day, I am thinking about how backwards this is, and how utterly out of control I am in terms of making it better in my situation right now.

As I mentioned, I know that this is no one's responsibility but my own, and I will keep making my payments and doing all that I can to pay it off. Truly, I feel so silly making this. I feel so bad asking for help for something like this when there are horrific things happening worldwide, as we speak. I feel dumb because I know people have it so much worse than me. But as my brilliant friend Ashlee recently reminded me, just because other people need help, doesn't mean you don't deserve it either. I'm not expecting much to happen, and that's okay. Maybe all I needed to accomplish in making this was getting all this off my chest, and to let anyone in a similar situation know that they're not alone and it is tough out there! If you've made it this far, I love you i love you i love you, and if by any chance you have a wealthy aunt whose husband just passed away and she doesn't know what to do with her fortune and is feeling charitable? I love her I love her I LOVE her!!!