4 months into a 30 month car loan, need new engine, can't sell any body parts
"Without knowing the details of your financial situation, I can only offer general advice.  It might be worth having a financial counselor look at your finances and offer some custom advice.  You might be able to find someone that will do this for free by asking at your local church. I would advise you not to try to get another loan, and certainly not to start charging things to a credit card.  You are correct when you called it a ""nightmare.""  You are currently struggling with your finances, and getting further into debt will not help.  It would only be a very short-term fix and have long-lasting consequences.   What you need to do is look at the income that you have and prioritize your spending.  For example, your list of basic needs includes: If you have other things that you are spending money on, such as medical debt or other old debt that you are trying to pay off, those are not as important as funding your basic needs above. If there is anything you can do to reduce the cost of the basic needs, do it.  For example, finding a cheaper place to live or a place closer to your job might save you money.  Perhaps accepting nutrition assistance from a local food bank or the Salvation Army is an option for you. Now, about your car: Your transportation to your job is very much one of your basic needs, as it will enable you to pay for your other needs.  If you can use public transportation until you can get a working car again, or you can find someone that will give you a ride, that will solve this problem.  If not, you'll need to get a working car. You definitely don't want to take out another loan for a car, as you are already having trouble paying the first loan.  I'm guessing that it will be less expensive to get the engine repaired than it will be to buy a new car at this point.  But that is just a guess.  You'll need to find out how much it will cost to fix the car, and see if you can swing it by perhaps eliminating expenses that aren't necessary, even for a short time.  For example, if you are paying installments on medical debt, you might have to skip a payment to fix your car.  It's not ideal, but if you are short on cash, it is a better option than losing your job or taking out even more debt for your car. Alternatively, buying another, functional car, if it costs less than fixing your current car, is an option.  If you don't have the money to pay your current car loan payments, you'll lose your current car. Just to be clear, many of these options will mess up your credit score.  However, borrowing more, in an attempt to save your credit score, will probably only put off the inevitable, as it will make paying everything off that much harder.  If you don't have enough income to pay your debts, you might be better off to just take the credit score ding, get back on your feet, and then work to eliminate the debt once you've got your basic needs covered. Sorry to hear about your situation.  Again, this advice is just general, and might not all apply to your financial details.  I recommend talking to the pastor of a local church and see if they have someone that can sit down with you and discuss your options."
You want to have 2-4 credit cards, with a credit utilization ratio below 30%.  If you only have 2 cards, closing 1 would reduce your credit diversity and thus lower your credit score.  You also want at least 2 years credit history, so closing an older credit card may shorten your credit history, again lowering your credit score.  You want to keep around at least 1-2 older cards, even if they are not the best. You have 4 cards: But having 2-4 cards (you have 4) means you can add a 5th, and then cancel one down to 4, or cancel one down to 3 and then add a 4th, for little net effect.  Still, there will be effect, as you have decreased the age of your credit, and you have opened new credit (always a ding to your score). Do you have installment loans (cars), you mention a new mortgage, so you need to wait about 3 months after the most recent credit activity to let the effects of that change settle. You want both spouses to have separate credit cards, and that will increase the total available to 4-8.  That would allow you to increase the number of benefits available. Yes, you should be saving for retirement. There are a million ideas out there on how much is a reasonable amount, but I think most advisor would say at least 6 to 10% of your income, which in your case is around $15,000 per year. You give amounts in dollars. Are you in the U.S.? If so, there are at least two very good reasons to put money into a 401k or IRA rather than ordinary savings or investments: (a) Often your employer will make matching contributions. 50% up to 6% of your salary is pretty common, i.e. if you put in 6% they put in 3%. If either of your employers has such a plan, that's an instant 50% profit on your investment. (b) Any profits on money invested in an IRA or 401k are tax free. (Effectively, the mechanics differ depending on the type of account.) So if you put $100,000 into an IRA today and left it there until you retire 30 years later, it would likely earn something like  $600,000 over that time (assuming 7% per year growth). So you'd pay takes on your initial $100,000 but none on the $600,000. With your income you are likely in a high tax bracket, that would make a huge difference. If you're saying that you just can't find a way to put money away for retirement, may I suggest that you cut back on your spending. I understand that the average American family makes about $45,000 per year and somehow manages to live on that. If you were to put 10% of your income toward retirement, then you would be living on the remaining $171,000, which is still almost 4 times what the average family has. Yeah, I make more than $45,000 a year too and there are times when I think, How could anyone possibly live on that? But then I think about what I spend my money on. Did I really need to buy two new computer printers the last couple of months? I certainly could do my own cleaning rather than hiring a cleaning lady to come in twice a month. Etc. A tough decision to make can be paying off debt versus putting money into an investment account. If the likely return on investment is less than the interest rate on the loan, you should certainly concentrate on paying off the loan. But if the reverse is true, then you need to decide between likely returns and risk. Presumably you need a car to get to work, so let's start with the assumption that you need to buy something to replace the car you just lost. The biggest difficulty to overcome in buying a car is the concept of the monthly payment. Dealers will play games with all of the numbers to massage a monthly payment that the buyer can swallow, but this usually doesn't end up giving the customer the best deal. The 18 month term is not normal for a lease, typically you'll see 24 or 36 months. You are focusing on another goal of paying your student loans by then which would free up much more money for other wants (like a car) but at what cost? The big difficulty of personal finance is the mental mind game of delaying gratification for greater long-term benefit. You are focusing on paying your student loans now so that you can be free of that debt and have more flexibility for the future. Good. You're tempted to spend another $5400 (assuming no down-payment or other surprise fees) to drive a car for 18 months. That doesn't sound any wiser than $5,000 for an unreliable used car that gave you more problems than you bargained for. Presumably you got some percentage of that money back from the insurance company when the car was totaled, but even if not, the real lesson should be finding a car that you can afford up-front, but also one that you can still use when the loan is paid off (like your education--that investment will keep giving even when the loans are a distant memory). My advice would be to look for a car that has about 30k miles on it and pay for it as quickly as possible, then drive it at least for 70-120k more miles before replacing it. You may wish for a newer car, especially in 3 or 4 more years when it starts to show its age, but you'll also thank yourself when you can buy a newer better car with cash and break out of the monthly payment game that dealers try to push on you. You might even enjoy negotiating with car salesmen when you see through their manipulations and simply work for the best cash price you can get. I know an answer has been accepted, but you need an emergency fund, ideally enough to cover at least 3 months of after-tax basic living expenses. As a free-lancer, 6 months would be even better. This isn't a fun way to tie up your money, but it is a prudent way. What if you lose your job, or decide you want to change your line of work? What if you're told a close family member has only months to live and you want to take significant time off unpaid? What if your car breaks down and you need a new one? What if your freelance business hits a dry patch for a few months? What if you want to move but can't sell your next house quickly? I've known people who had these types of situations come up unexpectedly. Some were financially prepared and had the freedom to make the choices they wanted to make, others didn't and now have regrets. Once you have a basic emergency fund in place, then go for investing with the rest of the money. Best of luck! You should have her sell it to you for the amount of the outstanding loan. You take out a loan in your name for the amount (or at least, the amount you have to come up with). You then transfer the title from her to you, just as you would if you were buying the car from someone else. While the title is in her name, she has ownership. This isn't a technicality, this is the explicit legal situation you two have agreed to. You are really showing some wisdom here, and congratulations on finishing college.   Its a lot about likelihoods.  If you buy a new car, there is something like a 99.5% chance you will get a car that will not need repairs.  If you buy a car for $1200 there is probably a 20% chance that the car will only need minimal repairs.  So the answer is there is no real guarantee that spending any amount of money you will end up with a car with no repairs. You also can't assume that with buying a car it will immediately need repairs.  Its possible, that you could spend 1200 on a car and it will need an oil change.  In three months it might need brakes and in 6 months tires.  If that is the case, you could save up the money for repairs. Have you looked for a car?  It will take some work, but you might be able to find something in good condition for your budget.   If you shop for a loan, go with a good credit union or local bank.  Mostly you are looking for a low rate.  However, I would advise against it.  You worked so hard on getting out of school without debt, why start now?   Be weird and buy a car for cash.  Heck someone may be able to loan you a car for a short time while you save some money. You will not be able to.  Here is why you don't have the collateral.   You have a car that is probably not worth 10k.  Also you probably do not have a simple interest loan.  You have to look at your contract.  Make sure that there is not early payment fee.  Also look for the rule of 78's   Explanation of Rule of 78's I can't sugarcoat this chances are you were ripped off because you had bad credit putting you into an even deeper hole. The simple solution here would be to either sell or give the car to your family member.  The answer depends on whether they can afford to buy or you can afford to give.  Transferring ownership gets rid of any of the liability considerations you outline, and also gets it out of your driveway!  It also saves you from having to deal with any relationship issues that could arise if they borrow and something goes wrong (they damage, fail to return, etc).  Your gut is telling you that there could be issues with lending a car to you family member, and i would trust your gut & transfer ownership one way or another.