While buying a home and cars, I felt like too much emphasis was put on the "monthly payment" and how much you can afford. I was more concerned about the interest rate, opportunity cost of downpayment, car depreciation and total cost of ownership.
Or by stretching out the payment period to 60, 72, 84, … months.
> The average loan term for a new car also hit a record high of 70.6 months in March [2020]. The most common term currently is for 72 months, with an 84-month loan not too far behind. In fact, nearly 70% of new car loans in the first quarter of 2020 were longer than 60 months — an increase of about 29 percentage points in a decade.
* https://www.edmunds.com/car-loan/how-long-should-my-car-loan...