My monthly transit pass is $99 with the student discount.
He makes $300 and drives a 30k car.
Lol I think you didn’t read the other guy’s post. 25% of your annual income in car payments. This should be after taxes and include expected expenses. You said you make $30k a year so that’s around $2,500 a month less we’ll say 20% in taxes + another 10% for benefits vision, health, 401k etc. So your take home is probably around $1750. You said rent is $700 and other bills are $500, which means you only have $550 in spending money for the month? You want to spend $500 of that on a car? That’d leave you with $50 a month for miscellaneous expenses. If you spent $300 a month on a car at 5% over 5 years you could afford a $20k car. Just something to think about.
I’m shit at math, but I make 34K/year and bought a mini cooper for about 28K…
It’s all paid off and currently sitting in my moms garage with a blown engine because I don’t know how to shift properly. Meanwhile I’m looking for a weekend job to make the 10 grand I’ll need to get it running again. Buying a new car fucking sucks :mad: get used.
Spending 50% of your income on a car is ridiculous. You must not want to save any money at all. A car is a horrible investment and continually loses value - not saying don’t get a nice one if you can afford it, but it’s not smart to spend that much on a car. Saving and waiting for a year or two can make a big difference. Just save up so you can put a larger down payment on it when you want it.
2 cars paid off (both our college cars, 05 Scion tC and 05 Honda Accord)
I know all that. Although I want a house for my own and a stacked saving account, I still realize that you gotta live your life. Following rules and working your ass off while spend little on yourself is just… miserable. The only thing I want out of life is happiness.
I feel grinding every day and saving for years and years is “smart” but will you be happy? I know I wouldn’t be. Knowing you can die at any moment (drunk drivers, random accidents, etc), adds to this.
In the end, nothing really matters. So just be happy while you can!
I also think for my future happiness as well. Otherwise I’d buy a new M3 and be broke for the rest of my life.
Have you thought about leasing a car instead? Not quite as high a monthly payment, plus if you get a 3 year lease you can get a new car every three years. Obviously you’re “flushing money down the drain” as someone is going to say. But you sound like the type of individual who wouldn’t mind swapping out cars every few years. Leasing would also be A LOT cheaper than buying and selling a new/used car every 3 years.
I never really considered leasing… And I never owned a car for more than 3 years… Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Anyone here leasing a car? If so, what car and how much per month?
10gs??? cot damn
I’m in the low 60s atm :bluu: … my car was 33k ('10 AC TL)…so, no - its not 25% of what you make annually. However, I get paid once a week, so 4.5 times a month. My car payment is 585 roughly a month (.9% interest rate rocks)…add in gas (about 200 a month realistically)…and maintenance…and insurance…its a little over 900 a month spent on driving. Well if I take what I make per week and multiply it out, its just a tick over 25% of my income per month/year.
In short, I’m fine with and somewhat agree with 25% as a MAXIMUM for total cost. Once you go over that 25%, even if you can pay it off, you get salty…as someone who was making 10k less, with a car payment 50 bux higher on a car that was only 24k (not .9% interest sigh)…I def was salty. If your making 37k before taxes, figure out what your take home is every 4.5 weeks. Divide by 4 and thats your alloted monthly budget for a car at max.
Now do NOT go to the dealership and mention that you have a budget setup, cause they will do everything in their power to use all of it thus not getting you the best deal, but YOU need to know what and where your limits are. Don’t forget to get a quote on insurance ahead of time to subract from your monthly income, figure out mileage so you can guestimate cost of gas, find out your credit score, and then take that score to a bank of two to get interest rate guestimates. Find a car loan calculator and use that to figure out what you can realisticaly finance.
- :bluu:
more than 50% for sure
bought a 2010 Shelby GT500 ($50k) 6 months ago. Previous two cars owned had tens of thousands of dollars worth of modifications done. Well worth it for me. But I can understand if non-car enthusiasts think it’s ridiculous.
this thread should be merged with the why we are in a recession thread
As someone who thinks almost identical to this, I’ll let you know right now that the joy you’ll get from your car…won’t compare to the saltiness of your situation if you buy something that absorbs more than 30% of your income. Some people (see Ultros) have mitigating circumstances, but for the average joe…when you figure out that you can’t go buy MvC3 cause you don’t have the scrilla for it, or the gas money to go hang with your friends, or the money TO hang with your friends…its just not worth it to break the bank. I’m all for spending a little extra…when it got down to it I was looking at two cars at the end of my search - the 2010 Accord or the 200 Acura TL. I could get the Accord and cut my monthly payment from where it is now (585) to around 400…maybe less. that some good scratch saved for a car that for my purposes will function the exact same AND take normal gas as opposed to premium. But I could stomach the extra money with no issue and, like you I wanted to enjoy my car more, so I’m very happy with my purchase. With that said though, the TL wa well within my finacial means.
- :bluu:
^ Pretty much what I was getting at. I know a lot of people who want the status of having a nice car but end up not having money to take it out anywhere. They talk about pulling up to the club in a nice whip but don’t have money to get into the club because of their massive car payment/insurance draining all their money. That’s pretty much why I still haven’t bought the 5 series I want. I already have a few cars (paid off) and will be selling them off to get it, but after saving the money for the car for so long, I don’t know if I really want to make the splurge especially since I’ve been living fine without it.
I love cars, and owned my share of decent sports cars, but I have to say, blowing 50% of your income on a car is just plain stupid.
You can go out with friends and drive there, but you’ll be buying the cheapest meal and having a crappy time. Don’t even get started on other necessities, like groceries, internet, etc
So I just bought a 97 Dodge Neon! Yay meeeeeeeeee!
$800 to get me to work and back. I’ll use this for a year or so and save up for my 2012 Genesis Coupe!!!