<prompt> Human: I keep seeing posts where people are struggling with their budget but have some ridiculous car payment. Lets have a little discussion for people who are looking to buy a car. Heres some advice Ill give. Your mileage may vary oh yes I went there. This advice is in USD but works anywhere. Dont get stuck holding the bag on a car that depreciates faster than you pay it off. Ive done the math at a bunch of different interest rates, and the bottom line is that 48 months is the magic number for loan terms. At 4 years or below, youre typically safe. Maybe you can push the boundary at super low interest rates, but there are other reasons not to finance for too long, including risk of financing a used vehicle for longer than expected reliable service life. Next, write out your full budget and see what you have room for. Heres where young folks get trapped: maybe if youre still in school or fresh out of school and have super low living expenses, it will appear like you have tons of room for a fancy car. As soon as you become fully independent with a real place to live and food needs and all that jazz which will very likely happen within a few years, that magic car budget will vanish before your eyes. Be realistic. Account for all the standard living expenses, fun budget, savings, and then be honest - what do you really have to spend on transportation each month? For a lot of people, itll probably be a few hundred bucks. Then, subtract what insurance and gas and other associated fees will cost you, and multiply what youre left with by 48. Thats what you can afford to finance including interest! Does the number come out well under 10,000 or equivalent low amount for whatever country youre from? For many people, it probably does. Dont be discouraged, for you can get a great reliable car under ten grand. Does the number come out to less than 5000? Very common! Save up and buy a car in cash.I feel like people tend to look at 20K as cheap for a car, but its not cheap at all. Include taxes and fees, finance over 5 years at 5 and youre looking at well over 400mo. Then tack on insurance easily 200 for a young driver, and then tack on gas. That 20K car costs you 500-700 per month! If you arent bringing home 5K each month, that probably doesnt fit in your budget. The reality is, even a 20K car is not realistically affordable for the majority of income earners. What about 30K cars? Radio commercials make them sound so affordable, but cars in the 30K-40K range should be seen as luxury vehicles. Were talking six figure income required. Yet, so many people buy 30K SUVs and get screwed by the monthly payments. Please dont let it happen to you. I work in a respectable profession and make a fairly decent wage. People always ask me why I drive a 10 year old car. Its because thats what I can realistically afford! Society in general has inflated expectations on what they can afford. Its time to fix this and save people from ruining their budgets.Edit: Thank you to the user who gave me gold! I appreciate it  <response>: I wish someone had brought one of your first points to my attention earlier. I was living with my parents, had very little expenses, and a pretty good job when I decided to buy a luxury car. Fast forward to a couple years later when I moved out of my parents house and had all kinds of bills on top of my expensive car payment. I definitely had to learn the hard way. 