Every couple of months, I get an itch to buy a new car.

And Sean, seeing as I'm about to pay off my car note that I've had for, I don't know, maybe four years now, I want a new car. Elizabeth, I'm going to say paying off your car is the best reason to not get a new car because you'll have no car payment. And how nice is that? Honestly, I've been daydreaming about it. So we'll see where I land. Well, this episode, we're going to talk about what happens if you have a never-ending car payment through leasing.

Welcome to Nerd Wallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we

answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Sean Piles. And I'm Elizabeth Ayola.

Now, Sean, I want you, I need some motivation from you.

I need you to tell me or give me some reasons why I should not buy a new car at the beginning

of next year.

I have so many reasons for you, Elizabeth.

First of all, how much is your car payment?

I'm paying extra payments.

So with the extra payments, it's about $450 without the extra payment, about $350. Okay. That's a lot of money each month that you could put towards so many things. I'm sure that there's something in your house that your son has broken. I'm sure there is something on your favorite website, Zara.com, that you want to buy. I'm sure there's a nice trip that you have in mind that you'd like to go zip lining on. There's so many things that you could do with $450 each month. And think about how this is going to add up month after month. And a little wild, you'll have thousands of dollars by not having a car payment. Now, I think that you're selling me on the thousands of dollars for fun money, not for saving. Of course,

I like saving, but the fun money. I don't know if I told you, but my itch really is coming from. I have been driving the car for a while. This was my first big girl car. And when I say that, I mean, I would drive in a hoop dee of the hoop dees before this one. And when I drove on the highway, the car used to shake, like, if I drove.

Oh, yeah. I've had a car like that before. It feels very scary.

Yeah. It does. And when I drove on the highway, the car used to shake, like, if I drove... Oh, yeah. I've had a car like that before.

It feels very scary.

Yeah.

It does. So then I got a letter in the mail about a recall and some kind of defect with the car, and I was like, well, maybe it's time to get a new one. And I got my first finance car, which is this one. Ayo has grown up in this car, my kid, and he has, there's gum, there's melted crayons.

He took a raw. one. Iyo has grown up in this car, my kid, and he has, there's gum, there's melted crayons.

He took a rock and scratched the back of my trunk the other day. Oh, no. So my poor baby is really,

really beat up. So I don't know. I don't know. Your poor baby being your car, not your son.

Exactly.

Well, hey, here's an idea.

...