So my week took a turn I wasn't expecting. I saw on Tik Tok that many leases have equity w/ the insane used market. So I looked into mine. I have a 2019 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Carvana was offering me $29k (of course that was before seeing it). To buy my lease was about $22k.
I decided to look into what my local dealerships would offer. I should add my jeep had grill damage and a HUGE scratch down the entire drivers side, plus dents. They also said I would likely have to buy new tires at trade in (May 2022). I managed to get a new 2021 Jeep, which about $2k more in features (safety stuff so nothing exciting). They offered to "pay off" all the damage and give me the exact same payment/deal (15k miles, 36mos). I had to put $1k down (yay, money towards my CIU MSR). I call it a win....I had damage I was going to need fixed somehow. The pricing I got for my current lease (2019) was employee pricing. I have NO leads on employee pricing! So I was looking at $70/mo more on the current leasing offers. I was ready to walk when the sales manager said if I took the Jeep right then I could have it! So I may have lost out on some equity, but I made up for that loss by keeping the same employee pricing and not having to worry about the damage. I kinda wish I knew how much the grill and scratch would have costed me to fix. But I'm going to assuming at least $2k.
Also in good news, we finally got a new contract w/ raises! My district hasn't had a payscale raise since 2009! They were only giving step raises. I finally will hit the top of the scale, so I'm getting about a $7k raise for next year. I took a freeze this past year, so it'll be nice to have more in the budget! We also managed to get a 1% raise for the next 3 years. My "3 highest years" towards my pension will now be higher and result in at least $3k/yr more, if I retire in 3 years. And nice knowing I now have 3 more years of a Jeep payment under $400, LOL.
Oh and my credit score was 802! So I'm back over 800, LOL.
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