I would guess that if you don't pay, the dermatologist would be within their rights to undo the $950 decrease in the amount you owe. Then the $1300 bill will be reported to the credit agencies and will ruin your credit.

It really seems like you can live just fine without a car... You can incorporate into your budget Ubering to meet up with your friends a couple of times a month.

Pay it off ASAP

You are, of course, perfectly within your rights to ask them. They're just going to say no, though. Have a nice day.

Are you planning on accusing the dealership of charging you for a repair they didn't perform? Do you have any evidence whatsoever of this fraud?

It's far more likely there was a leak and it may or may not have needed fixing, but it was fixed and you were charged for that. Again, the mechanic doesn't guarantee that the repair they perform is the only one the car needs. That's not how car repairs ever work.

A personal loan from a bank is likely the best way to borrow unsecured.

You should not waste your time. You have nothing at to indicate that they "broke it in the first place".

They charged you for a repair that they performed. They didn't guarantee that the repair was going to fix the check engine light. This is simply the nature of having your car repaired. Usually the mechanic is correct about the issue and the repair is sufficient to address the problem. Sometimes it is not and additional repairs are required at additional cost.

No. It's at the top of the amount you should consider, though. Also, you should strongly consider selling your car and buying something far less expensive.

It depends on the student loan interest rate.

If you work full time and you go to school for a CS degree, you're not going to have time for a lot of "fun" unless you just blow off the studying part of being a student (and, in my opinion, having a CS degree without actually having studied is going to be largely worthless in the marketplace as it's pretty straightforward to determine programmer who can do the work and those who cannot).

That was my entire point.

Either do the degree and spend both your time and money on school, or don't do the degree and spend your time and money on fun. But you don't have enough time to do all 3 (and you also don't have enough money to do all 3.)

Are you going to be continuing to work while you're in school? Your original post sounded like that was where you were getting the money to live and pay for school was coming from.

You should spend 1400 a month on tuition instead of fun if you're actually interested in pursuing this degree because working and going to school is going to take all of your time if you're serious about studying.

Otherwise, don't pursue the degree and you've freed up 1400 per month and time to have fun. You've already got a job making a very respectable salary without this degree.

4% is typically the dividing line recommended on this sub. Pay off debt above 4% aggressively. Keep debt below 4%. Obviously there's got to be some gray area where the "personal" part of personal finance comes into play.

If you can finance at 4%, then after you've started the job, that is a rate worth taking the financing. I haven't seen many 4% car loan offers lately though. At a rate higher than 5%, I'd recommend just paying for the car out of savings. (Mathematically, an 8% speculative return isn't worth as much as a 5% guaranteed return.)

You may need to finance the car for 1 payment period because a lot of new car incentives are through the dealer financing and not the dealership directly, but just ensure that there is no prepayment penalty and you can pay the car off when you get the first statement.

Edit: Also, unrelated to your question, make sure you have a 6 month emergency fund in a savings account beyond what you are spending on this car since you say most of your savings is in the stock market.

Then making a zero sum based budget is your first step. There are several templates in the wiki that are straightforward to use.

Do you make a budget in advance for each month on your budget app?

Is this a traditional or Roth IRA?

Nothing happens. Deposit the money.

>I'm seeking advice on how to float for a bit after quitting since I won't be able to switch to the next job.

You get another job before you quit the one you hate.

>Im 27 and want to enjoy my life a bit with this car.

You won't enjoy life with how much you spend each month on your lease payment and insurance.

Do you have a job?

That advice essentially means that if you could go out and buy another (not broken) 15 year old Prius with similar mileage for less than the repairs cost, it doesn't make sense to repair the car.

Have you actually looked around the see if you could replace your car for $3k? In the current car market, I'm very skeptical about that.

I wouldn't rush to pay off such low interest rate debt.

I'd recommend you move out and rent. Buying a house is a long and stressful process that requires a lot of planning and a lot of money upfront. You didn't mention anything about having tens of thousands of dollars sitting in the bank, so you probably shouldn't be looking to buy a house.

We're you happy about buying stocks last November? The same number of dollars buys more shares now than it did then.

Saving for a property down payment is fine. Doing so not because you have reconsidered your priorities and want property but solely because the stock market is down is just timing the market.