I have concluded that, in the USA, most ordinary folks have, much to their detriment, never heard of Dave Ramsey.
https://www.daveramsey.com/blog/the-truth-about-car-payments
https://www.daveramsey.com/blog/the-truth-about-car-payments
> If you were to invest that (...) into a good mutual fund with a 12% rate of return, you would have over $100,000 in 10 years! At 20 years, you would have made $470,000. And at 30 years? That mutual fund would be worth $1.6 million!
Maybe I'm not savvy enough but I have not encountered mutual funds that will reliably sustain 12% over three decades.
Nevertheless, I haven't had a car payment for so long that I can't remember the last time I paid one. Trips to the mechanic are frequent and costly, but at least I'm not uselessly paying interest.
I'm surprised Ramsey can have a successful national brand saying little more than infinite variations on "spend less than you earn", but there he is, and I guess some people need to hear it like that.