With all the credit being used nowadays, it's no wonder people having nothing left at retirement. And the temptation is often too great to just make the minimum payments on the cards and let the interest and finance charges and late fees ride. You probably need to use a mortgage to buy your first house, but using the Debt Free and Prosperous Living principles, your mortgage can be paid in 5-7 years instead of 30, saving you 10's or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Car loans, don't buy a new car, ever. I'll never forget pulling up to a stop light in my little home town in the Midwest in 1970.
Cars are money traps, particularly new ones.
Most of them lose of their value in the first two years. Car salesmen sell Americans on monthly payments, because Americans think that way. Then they boost the sale with extended warranties, credit life and disability, then manipulate the interest rate, while ripping you off for hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Auto dealership finance managers actually take seminars on how to get more of your money. People would sign a 10 year car loan if they could.