if you cannot pay your car off in 18 to 24 months I want you to get rid of your car if your car loan is more than half of your annual income you have too much car okay so these are times that you're going to have to sell your car if you're underwater you may have to take out a small loan to get out of the car payment all of that is worth it if you get a loan for the difference and maybe a couple thousand do more to buy another car and then start there I mean I would rather have a $8,000 loan than a $38,000 loan right so there is something powerful about not having that car payment