conversation: User (ObitoHata): "I want to take out a $2500 personal loan for miscellaneous expenses. Namely, car insurance, post graduation expenses, as well as money for a brief vacation with friends (it's senior year and I've never gotten to travel with them so...)\n\nMy Financial Situation\nI am 21 years old.\nI'm currently attending school (Computer Science Major) and I'm on my final semester. I have no expenses to cover at school.\nI make about $400 a month via work study (it is directly deposited into my account since I've already paid my school in full)\nCurrently I pay $145 for my car every month (it is almost paid off in full, I expect this to be a non issue once I start my full time employment). I also pay $168 for car insurance every month. Lastly, I pay $25 a month for a credit card.\nMonthly Expenses: 338\nMonthly Earnings: 400\nNet: +62\nSince I have a full meal plan and I have some money saved up from my summer internship I generally end up getting by just fine.\nI accepted a job offer starting at $70k + $10k bonus in my town.\n\nMy Goal:\nTake a $2500 personal loan and use that money to pay for a trip (I expect my trip expenses to be no more than $600), and to cover my car insurance for the rest of the year ($923 as or right now)\n\nThat would leave me $977 in excess to cover graduation expenses and other miscellaneous expenses.\n\nMy Tentative plan\nUpon Graduation I will stay with my mother for 3 months (Jun-August) and use the money saved there to fully pay off my car, (~$1600 left upon graduation), My credit card (~800 left upon graduation), and this personal loan (~$2500). In total that means I expect to pay off $4900 of my debt over the course of this upcoming summer [the 10k bonus is rewarded after 3 weeks, it is taxed down to about $7k). Accounting for taxes this shouldn't present any financial burdens. Afterwards, I will begin to pay off student loan debt (about $24k, I have not yet decided the rate at which I will be paying off this debt, but I was thinking 3-5 years is more than enough time. Obviously if I lose my job (I don't expect that to be the case, but shit happens) that puts a wrinkle in my plan.\n\nSo my question to you all is: Does taking out the 2500 seem like a really risky plan? Also any suggestions on my plan are appreciated!\n\nNote: I know life doesn't always workout exactly as plan!\n\nThanks for reading all of this!!!"
  Self: "Don't take out a loan to go on vacation. This is as good a time as any to learn an important life lesson: if you cannot afford a luxury, you go without that luxury. Maybe you just cannot go on this trip at this time. Doesn't mean you can never vacation with these friends, just that it may have to be further in thr future.\n\nAnother important life lesson: if you want something, earn the money to pay for it. If you wanna go on this trip, find a way to earn $600 extra in the next 6 months. That's only $100 a month you have to earn/save ($25 a week). If you stop paying interest on your credit card, you only have to earn $75 a month.\n\nOn a more realistic perspective, who do you think will loan $2,500 to you?"
  User (ObitoHata): "The vacation is in 26 days not 6 months. In 6 months none of this would be an issue!\nAs far as getting the loan. The same credit union that gave me my auto loan will give me the money (pre-approved). I have impeccable payment history with them and my credit is pretty good I suppose. I'm here to decide if I should go forward with getting the loan. So far its a bunch of nays that don't really address the question I asked (they approach an answer of course!). Note I believe I forgot to mention my job starts in June!! I basically just need funding to help me get by for the next 5-6 months (insurance, the vacation/trip, misc expenses that crop up)"
  