Overly Generous or Just Plain Stupid

February was a very busy month for me. My older car broke down. I bought a new car. Then I bought a used car for my little sister (97 Saturn). I had gone from no car to 3 cars in a two week time span. Unfortunately my sister didn't follow through on her end of the deal when we bought her car, so I had to repossess it from her 2 weeks later. It nearly broke my heart when I did that.

When I repossessed her car, Joe (a.k.a. gay boyfriend) helped me. He also decided that he wanted the car for himself. We found it with a flat tire. Joe placed the spare tire on it and I drove it down to Discount Tire. I had them replace the 2 remaining old tires (one of them having been the flat). Since purchasing this car, I have replaced the brakes, the speakers and two of the tires.

Since the repossession, Joe has had the Saturn parked in his drive way. He's done some minor repairs on the vehicle. He got the interior light working, placed the front license plate on the car, got the interior power locks working and helped lower the engine noise and run a little better. Of course the very first thing he did was put a rainbow sticker on the rear window. He can't have a vehicle without announcing that it belongs to a gay man.

In the mean time, the maintenance man of my apartments began bugging me to sell him my 96 Tracer. He desperately needed a vehicle and had always admired my car. After much deliberation, I decided to sell him the vehicle at blue book price. He gave me a down payment of $400 with the promise of paying me the remaining difference in the next few weeks. I told him not to over extend himself trying to pay me off which I now realize was a HUGE mistake.

Shortly after Joe took the Saturn, his other vehicle was totaled in a car accident. The gentleman responsible's insurance company paid Joe's car off but left Joe with the Saturn as his only vehicle. While waiting for the insurance check to arrive, Joe went in search of a newer vehicle. He had to use the money he set aside for his property taxes, leaving paying me for the Saturn on the back burner. He ended up purchasing a 2006 Kia Rio. Nothing powered or fancy. Hell, the car is small enough to fit in the trunk of my Accord. Joe gets offended every time I mention that, by the way.

Anyway, Joe's luck did not get any better. One night driving home from work, he hit something odd in the road swerving away from some idiot on the highway. Whatever he hit, flattened his tire, damaged his rim, threw off the alignment and messed up his CD player. He hadn't even made his first car payment. Several hundreds of dollars later, he got the tire, rim & alignment fixed on his car. The CD player is still messed up, but that is not a priority for him.

The plate renewal came due on the Tracer. I went ahead and paid for the sticker since the car is still in my name. I tracked the maintenance man down and gave him the new sticker. It hadn't even been a month yet since he had the Tracer so I didn't ask him where his next payment was. He thanked me profusely for the new sticker and said he would add it to the price he still owes me for the car.

Then Joe must have pissed off the powers that be, cause then the hot water heater in his house broke down. I offered to help him buy a new one, but he refused. He said he already owed me enough money and he could handle taking cold showers for a while. He eventually broke down and bought a new water heater dipping even more into his savings for his property taxes. Since the taxes are due in June, Joe has been saving every penny towards making his payment on time.

At the end of April I asked Joe how I should proceed with the maintenance man. I had been over 2 months since he bought the Tracer and I had not seen a dime since the initial $400 he gave me. Joe advised me to be firm. So on May 1st I contact the maintenance man on his cell. He happened to be off work that day in protest to the immigration laws. He asked me to give him 2 weeks to pay off the entire amount he still owes me. I reluctantly agreed.

Today it has been 3 weeks since that phone call and I have not seen hide nor hair of the maintenance man. My mother asked me if I was going to repossess this car too. The last thing I want to do is repossess another vehicle. Plus I have no clue where the man lives. I did ask Joe and another co-worker if they wanted to come over and intimidate him into paying me. They both are over 6 feet tall and he is barely 5 foot.

The big question is, am I overly generous or just plain stupid? When I initially told the maintenance man not to over extend himself, I was thinking he would pay me $100 to $200 every other week or so until he had paid me in full. I understand everyone has problems. But as long as he made some sort of effort to pay me, that was all I was expecting. Three months and not a penny more paid, seems like he is taking advantage of the situation.

When Joe realized that he couldn't pay for the Saturn right away he offered to give it back to me stating that the money he already invested in it could be considered payment for a rental. I told him I totally understood and for now he should keep it. He has since promised the vehicle to his dad and is hoping to have me paid off by August. Although Joe has not paid me any money, he has always made it clear that he is going to pay me. Plus he has helped me by putting visors on my Accord and fixing my mother's computer.

Besides Joe is my friend and co-worker (not to mention my gay boyfriend). Plus I know where he lives! He can't hide from me.

In the meantime, I just got to figure out how to handle the maintenance man. Unfortunately this is one of those "adult" lessons I am having to learn on my own. Just another reason why being an adult really sucks some times!