Just go for the reverse “status”, strive to get the cheapest stuff and then brag about the deals you got…
Anyways 10 years ago I bought a car and to date it still gets the job done, cant beat german autos, it will probably hold well for another 10 year
Believe me bro, just buy it and enjoy it. I owned cheapo cars my whole life, and when I can afford it I buy the car I wanted. Keys were that I could afford it, and getting in the driver seat everyday made me happy. Isn’t that what it’s all about? If you enjoy cars spend your fun money there, don’t spend it on fancy wine, gadgets, or moncler jackets.
i think of all my hobbies. im kind of glad im a gamer. it is a super cheap hobby that you cna play for a long time without getting hurt. an expensive gaming laptop is like 1000 that will last 5 years. a gamign system is like 200 bucks that will last 5 years. 15 games for each at 30 bucks is like 900. add 100 bucks for accessories. add 300 for online gmae play. not sure on energy costs, but that’s prolly just 100 bucks per year so anotehr 500. so 3000 bucks all in for 5 years. so about 600 bucks per year. not even 1 monthly payment for a car.
LOL, I guess if you want to have that much money lying around not invested to earn return go for it. Unless you are retired that car is literally costing you your life. I hope it’s worth it. It much better to buy a van…vanguard that is. Percent of income saved over 80% FTW!
what’s an acceptable car price for everyone here?
If I needed a car - I would not settle for super cheap. I have not worked this hard to come away with zero quality and more in savings. Savings are never going to make you disproportionally wealthy. The savings will build wealth, certainly, however if you want the type of money where you can save and buy sports cars (Astons, Porches) you need to take more risks. I.E - Equity stakes in business, Your own business, etc. Alternatively you could push for CEO level at a large corporate and that may/may not happen.
I would be the car that is nice enough to allow me to make the payments required, still save a decent percentage, still have money to blow on holidays/suits etc. So price all the add ons and work backwards to your car.
Finally, a nice house is worth far more than a nice car.
^I don’t know about price, but I look for a used car in the style I want. And I’m a mid-size SUV kind of guy, so Ford Edge/Explorer, Toyota Highlander, Nissan Murano, Honda Pilot. Whatever I need to pay to get one is what I’ll pay. Then I’ll drive it until it becomes unsafe/unreliable, and the cost to make it safe/reliable is more than it would cost to get a new car.
Case in point - I bought my 2004 Mazda Tribute brand new in 2004. I still drive it every day, and I have about 210k miles on it. I’m going to try to get twenty years out of it, just because I think that will be cool.
i hate to admit it, but i cant drive cars without bluetooth. id be like dude where’s my car. also without a backup camera i guess in a way its kind of unsafe. lol
BBG quote of the day, “money dignifies what is frivolous if unpaid for.” Virginia Woolf
haha i love those quotes at login
AF is full of pragmatic, intelligentsia folks but not complete in their vision. Sure, cars depreciate in value but are there any intangibles that you’d want to factor in? I.e. when I was comparatively poor making <100k (still comparitvely poor btw) I bought an audi. With said audi, I entertained many lovely women and had a lot of fun on the dating scene. I’m not saying every girl I dated is a gold digger but Im guessing at least one of my experiences would have been different if i showed up in a jalopy.
The same can be said with penny pinching when you are young. You can spend money while you’re at the height of your physical being, the pinnacle of your existence, or save it and use it when youre older and all you want to do is stay home, blare the news and fight with the commentators.
As it is with everything, relativity is the essence of understanding. If you’re young, single, looking to have some fun why not buy a nice car and live/spend frivolously? Finance no longer == material things?
you got a good point there. Gold diggers gotta be the number one selling point for fancy cars, specially if one lives on a place like south america or asia where women prospects are not that good. But if the car is doing all the talk how is the young professional going to practice his salesmanship?
you can catch a lot of flies with honey, but quite honestly, you can catch more honey’s looking fly.
“I’m come to an age where I am ready for a true commitment. I’m looking for a girl who wants to one day have kids and a family. Btw, I hope you dont mind, i have a puppy who is very playful…” It works until it turns true
I’d think there would be a negative correlation between car cost and quality of females attracted, assuming other details like education background, family, and general wealth of the guy are known. The car might be an initial signal of financial success. However, once all financial information has been revealed, women probably prefer a guy who did not splurge on a luxurious car. It ties into their preference for a stable and generous mate.
my buddy on here used to say, you can lose money chasing women, but you won’t lose women chasing money. #freecvm
compounding wealth vs joys of youth! i have thought about this a lot and have been heavily criticized for being a miser.
anyways my thoughts differ a bit. Money > Joy
some say, when you are old, you dont feel joy anymore, cuz ur dick dont work. but perhaps when your old, the importance of your dick matters less.
when you are young, you are more likely to be poor, hence you can more likely get away with being cheap, and just use the average person as a benchmark. the old “but everyone else got an F, so a D is ok!”
younger people are more attractive, hence they can get away with being cheap. as you age you are uglier, hence you must pay up to have premium things.
lastly 100 years from now, what does joy even mean. it is meaningless as you are dead. what matters is the money you accumalate as that is fungible and transferrable to the next generation.
my buddy who is a bio eng phd at northwetern argued for joy, while i argued for money. he argued that he will make more money in the future hence he should just go into debt spend money and enjoy with vacations, exp food etc etc. whats ironic is that he was studying and working as a fellow, and he compared the job to being a slave. so harder work for shittier pay. he also had less time to party cuz he was doing both, whereas i partied twice a week. he went for longer vacations and cant wait to get away, i went for numerous vacations spread out just goin to the same place: vegas. i definteily think i had a more fun and exciting life as i was banging more and better looking women. while he just travelled the world to “experience” joy. so i am confused as to why i was getting this lecture from him
in any case, a year later he came back with dick cancer. so in a way i guess he was right. sieze the day for we might die tomorrow. anyways if i died today, i have a mil insurance, so my family coming up on a tuesday! got your girl in the club she aint choosy!
The money you are fully investing…do you ever have plans to spend it? If so, when? If my household income is $1 million per year, and housing costs are relatively modest, should I deny myself the pleasure of a nice ride or the utility that having a large luxury SUV provides me? What if every year, I’m able to invest more than the typical analyst makes as his entire salary in a year? Is the marginal utility from the extra $200-300 per month, which is, let’s be honest, a peanuts amount of money, going to materially change my life when I’m 67?
Agree with dow completely. But imo better to focus on net worth rather than an income metric. it’s important to be cheap at beginning but once you hit your net worth number. Then you can spend on stupid things equivalent to 4 percent of your net worth. Personally I look at my peers and see where they spend it on. I spend enough where it’s not embarrassing. I do the same for gifting shit.