Today...has been a day of WTFs.
Got t-boned while turning at an intersection going to work by a chick running the light. She hit the passenger side of my car probably doing what felt like 55 to me. Spun me 360 degrees in the intersection. Miraculously I'm unharmed. Every air bag along the passenger side went off. WTF #1 that I walked away from that. My car is totaled. She drove her's away from the scene. I want to say she was 100% at fault but I can't say for certain. I'm generally pretty good about being aware of traffic from all angles and I don't think today was an exception. But I guess if I had truly seen her and judged her speed correctly, I wouldn't have gone.
The cop apparently came to the same conclusion, because he decided to write me a citation for failure to yield since neither he nor witnesses could prove her speed or whether she ran the red. I get it, but that's WTF #2. Given the disposition of the accident and the lack of skid marks on her side, I think "no fault" might have been closer to the truth. My insurance is gonna love this one.
Because I don't deal well with sudden and unexpected life changes, my general strategy is to figure things out immediately so I don't wallow in self-pity or get anxiety from uncertainty. So I get home, since this happened about 2 blocks from where I live, call all my people, file my accident report and insurance claim. It's about 11am at this point and I clearly can't focus on anything else. So I start looking for a new car.
Anyone that's tried to buy a used car in America lately probably knows that the market is crazy. There are so few used cars out there they're all bringing in top dollar. Pretty much the worst time to buy a car.
And yet I find one I can easily live with pretty readily. A certified pre-owned 2019 Honda Civic with 23,000 miles for....$23k dollars. 1 owner. That's WTF #3. In this market, at this time, of that year, with that low of mileage, that car should be going for wwwaaayyyy more than that. Several thousand at least IMO. The only thing I hold against it is that it's a very vibrant shade of dark blue rather than black.
So I figure, let's hash out what it would take to buy this car. I'm not sitting on nearly enough cash myself to just buy it. So I called my bank and talked to a loan officer. Mind you, I've never known what my credit score is. Not even once in the 25+ years I've had one. I've had one whole loan my entire life, and I rarely ever use my credit cards. Cash and debit, and debt free is how I've always lived. I have always stayed well away from unnecessary loans. I don't own a house, haven't had a lot of the "adult" financial arrangements most people do. I didn't go out and shell out for a 3070 even though I could afford it. I wouldn't say I'm super frugal. But I'm very deliberate about spending more than a few hundred dollars in one sitting. So I was nervous to hear the truth about what the credit system thought of my life style, and learning again how to navigate debt and make smart financial choices like loan durations and what not. I'm not good with numbers unless I sit down and really work through it. If I'm honest, I dread it. This car marks the single most expensive thing I've ever considered purchasing.
The loan officer tells me my credit score is 804. WTF #4. I have a significantly above average credit score despite never following people's advice of using a credit card for daily stuff, maintaining a balance, taking out a loan I don't need etc..... I was expecting to hear high 500 at worst, a low 700 at best.
So getting a loan for the car was totally doable and yet wouldn't really help my credit out that much.
Lastly, and probably the most important bit. I have money in a trust fund that was set aside for me by my grandparents since before I was born. I've always endeavored to just leave that money alone. Mostly against a rainy day like this one and because, I dunno, I've always wanted and still want to feel like I'm self-sustaining for my lifestyle instead of needing the family to fill the gaps. On calling my dad to tell him the news, he said he was going to "give me my Christmas gift early." Which apparently was going to be a sizable disbursement from that trust fund for each of the kids (who are all now grown adults.) So I guess that's WTF #5, his timing. He's never done this before but he said he "felt we (the kids) seemed to need it." My brother disagreed, but his timing couldn't have been better for me.
I could take out a loan and just use a small amount of a disbursement and go into debt for.....I don't really have a good reason. I've got money that I've never felt is mine that I've almost never used. My brother and my cousin have pulled out 10x the amount of money from there that I have over the course of their lives. I could do this the "adult" way. But I don't have to. And so I won't.
So tomorrow I'm going to the dealership to put a down payment on my new car to buy it in full by week's end or next week, before it gets sucked up by someone else. Hopefully it's still there. That's WTF #6. Going from outright owning one car to another in the span of one day. That's fast even by my standards but when you see a good deal you don't drag your feet.
WTF #7 I guess would be the sales contact at the dealership trying to get me to finance despite me already considering it and telling them I wasn't interested. They were going to take a whole $500! off the car. That barely even covers the interest on the loan I was looking to take out. I guess because I've never had to go into debt to make ends meet these never seem like good deals to me. I think that's kinda the point.
What. A. Day. I'm sure the next few weeks will be turbulent as well.
As I stand back and look at things though, from every angle and now that the adrenaline and shock has kinda worn off.....I'm a stupidly lucky SOB. Make that WTF #8.
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Topic: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O (Read 14891456 times)