Am I Creating a SSM Part IV

[heatherg]

I was going to mention this in my responding post to MrsNops, but since so many have mentioned getting rid of my truck, I need to respond.

I am not so stubborn that this idea has never occurred to me! I lease my truck, I cannot just 'get rid of it'. I have checked into trading it in and actually looked into it yet again this weekend after I read MrsNops' post. H went with me to a Nissan dealership and we test drove a Pathfinder, the sticker price is about 6k less than the vehicle I drive now. The problem is the trade in value on my truck is crap, no surprise there, dealers never give you what it's worth b/c they need to be able to sell it and make a profit too. But I thought they'd offer me more than they did-I was expecting 20k and they offered 16k. So, in two years, my vehicle has lost half it's value?! Whatever. My payoff is 26k and banks don't carry that much negative equity. I don't have 10k to part with over this. When you lease a vehicle, you pay a lower payment than you do when you buy it and there is a residual value at the end of the lease that you can pay to purchase it or just turn in the keys. Because of the lower payments and the residual value, the monthly payments pay very little toward the vehicle itself and you end up getting stuck with some serious negative equity if you try to turn it over early. The only other option is to try to sell it to a 3rd party for around 22-24k, which I will probably try. That will still stick me with a few grand negative equity, but I'd be willing to accept it if it would get rid of this issue.