Your salary versus value of your car

onrail

Given that I'm about to have my first child in the next few weeks, I'm in the market for a new car, really out of practicality more than anything.

Going through the used car adverts here is bloody terrible when you're trying to strike a balance between what you want and what you need - then weigh that up against what you can afford. There's no right answer.

Now I'm aware that what people can afford to spend depends on far more than salary, but as a sense of scale, what do people spend on cars relative to what they earn? Forgive me if I'm being nosey here btw.

Myself - my wife and I currently earn roughly €100k gross between us and share a 12 year old VW golf. Currently rent, but have a deposit ready for buying a house when the market seems right. Obviously finances are going to take a fair hit when the babby arrives!

So currently, the ratio of Gross salary Vs. Car value is about 100k to 1.5k or 1:67. Is a spend of 15-20k on a second car unreasonable in this instance?

Crock Rock

onrail wrote: »

Given that I'm about to have my first child in the next few weeks, I'm in the market for a new car, really out of practicality more than anything.

Going through the used car adverts here is bloody terrible when you're trying to strike a balance between what you want and what you need - then weigh that up against what you can afford. There's no right answer.

Now I'm aware that what people can afford to spend depends on far more than salary, but as a sense of scale, what do people spend on cars relative to what they earn? Forgive me if I'm being nosey here btw.

Myself - my wife and I currently earn roughly €100k gross between us and share a 12 year old VW golf. Currently rent, but have a deposit ready for buying a house when the market seems right. Obviously finances are going to take a fair hit when the babby arrives!

So currently, the ratio of Gross salary Vs. Car value is about 100k to 1.5k or 1:67. Is a spend of 15-20k on a second car unreasonable in this instance?

Regardless of what my salary is or will be, I could never justify buying a car for €30,000+.
The moment you leave the forecourt it deprecates in value.

I'll never buy a car that I can't buy straight out for cash. If that means driving an inferior car then so be it. I'll be debt free.

My current car is 4 years old but she's reliable and gets the job done. Nothing fancy.

To each their own though. I won't begrudge others but interest and debt gives me the shivers.

TrailerBob

Judge it on what you can reasonably afford each month and buy whatever suits your situation, and preference. There are those who will bemoan the purchase of a bigger car when a baby arrives and tell you that you don't need it... I think the bigger the better of you want. Our lad is 6 weeks and space is certainly one factor, but height of rear seats, door aperture openings and safety are more so. Best of luck with the new arrival.... and the baby

onrail

TrailerBob wrote: »

Judge it on what you can reasonably afford each month and buy whatever suits your situation, and preference. There are those who will bemoan the purchase of a bigger car when a baby arrives and tell you that you don't need it... I think the bigger the better of you want. Our lad is 6 weeks and space is certainly one factor, but height of rear seats, door aperture openings and safety are more so. Best of luck with the new arrival.... and the baby

Thanks. Much the same, I'm hearing both sides of 'The golf will be grand' Vs. 'You'll need a bigger car'... I'm thinking of either going for a Passat type saloon or a compact SUV, but sure it's impossible to know how much to spend.

To be honest, I'm thinking of going straight cash rather than repayments - difficult to know what's best really.

onrail

Crock Rock wrote: »

Regardless of what my salary is or will be, I could never justify buying a car for €30,000+.
The moment you leave the forecourt it deprecates in value.

I'll never buy a car that I can't buy straight out for cash. If that means driving an inferior car then so be it. I'll be debt free.

My current car is 4 years old but she's reliable and gets the job done. Nothing fancy.

To each their own though. I won't begrudge others but interest and debt gives me the shivers.

Aye, I'm of the same opinion. Setting aside the house deposit, I probably have €20k cash that I could spend. Could being the important word!

Salary Negotiator

A lot depends on where you are in life and what other debt you have.

I bought my first house in late 2018 and in July 2019 bought a new EV on HP with only a 7% deposit. The cars purchase price was close to 40% of household income.

Total debt is less than 2.1 x household income and the increase in monthly expenditure when buying the car was less than €400 so I was quite comfortable taking on the extra debt.

Wildly Boaring

It's a terrible question.

More pertinent is your lifestyle.
1. Ye share a car, will 1 car do after baby born.
2. Where will you drive with this child? 100km a day or 1km a day.
3. Will you load and unload the child often?
4. Will you carry buggies often?
5. Will you go away for weekends often?

Basically the golf could do just fine.
For example my wife had a Leon for first year of child and was happy out.

Was in and out with buggy and child 3 or 4 times a day so got her a crossover to make it all handier. Now with 2 kids she'll drive nothing else.

screamer

Cars are worthless. I drive a 7 year old car ATM, I could drive a brand new very expensive car but I’d rather save my money. I view them as a necessary expense to live much like insurance but overall worth nothing. Have something reliable to get from a to b and save the rest for your kids college fund.

onrail

Wildly Boaring wrote: »

It's a terrible question.

I knew as much when writing it!

Cheers for the pointers though - I suppose the balance between practicality, reliability and prestige is a personal choice ultimately.

Atlantic Dawn

My last 3 cars have cost less than a months gross salary each, bought outright in full, no repayments, high tax but never been let down by either.

jmreire

onrail wrote: »

Thanks. Much the same, I'm hearing both sides of 'The golf will be grand' Vs. 'You'll need a bigger car'... I'm thinking of either going for a Passat type saloon or a compact SUV, but sure it's impossible to know how much to spend.

To be honest, I'm thinking of going straight cash rather than repayments - difficult to know what's best really.

Go Skoda, you will find one to suit your budget, and the Baby. With a Baby, space is paramount, and Skoda will give you that, plus reliability and economy.

cute geoge

jmreire wrote: »

Go Skoda, you will find one to suit your budget, and the Baby. With a Baby, space is paramount, and Skoda will give you that, plus reliability and economy.

+1
skoda all the way

TeaPot918

Well I spent my house deposit on my car.

monkeysnapper

We always spent within our means , and bought cars that were generally older with cash .

In 2012 I lost my job and we had one child and another on way and I'd just got a new job when my engine blew up on car so we took a credit union loan and bought a 3 year old citroen grand picasso and I took my mrs older car...

The wife's sister went off the head that we were spending so much money on a new car and I'd only just got job ....even tho I was only out of work for 6 weeks which back then was pretty good. Ohh my god what a fuss .... i told her to mind her own god dam buisness.

Anyway 2020 and cars still going strong and its 11 years old , looks as good as the day we bought it and with 3 kids, 2 dogs and myself and wife was well worth the money.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

This comes up again and again and generally ends in a mess of a thread.

I know people who have 500k annual incomes that finance cars. They dont tie their cash in cars.
I know people who have small salaries and finance large amounts on cars and love them, its a hobby. These people put their money where their mouths are when it comes to being a petrol head.
I know people that buy cars outright with cash.
I know people that do both

People get all righteous about this, and they generalize their own financial situation onto everyone else. Mostly the righteous people are the salary men. The world is so simple when you get a paycheck each month. When your self employed or a company director is starts getting more complex and interesting. Often finance interest can be written off to tax, as can depreciation depending on your circumstances.

If you bought a 30k car for cash that great. But if you had put down 5k and financed the rest and put the rest of your cash in a basic EFT or better yet Tesla shares 3 months ago, you would have made money. Some people see risk in finance, and some people see oppertunity....

If your pension is in order and your house is in order, you have health insurance, holidays and food on the table and some savings. I dont see why you cannot do as you please, and even if you dont do as you wish.

bazz26

Nothing wrong with debt as long as it is properly managed.

If you can get a loan or finance at a very low interest rate then it makes more sense than sinking your own money into something that you might otherwise need or want to use elsewhere at short notice.

CianRyan

If you’re applying for a mortgage the banks won’t look too kindly on a €20,000 car loan so consider that.

I’m in a similar position to yourself and I just bought a car for €1800, it’s perfect and will do me for years to come. I’d much rather have the cash to spend on a nicer house or to furnish it. Each to their own though.

sk8board

Abraham Wailing Milk wrote: »

If your pension is in order and your house is in order, you have health insurance, holidays and food on the table and some savings. I dont see why you cannot do as you please, and even if you dont do as you wish.

This was me - i had a few great years and in 152 the pension was in order and the house was paid, so I traded a car worth €15k for a new one for €57k, no finance (it would have been about 2/3 of my basic gross salary in 2015). It’s still outside the door and I absolutely love it. It’s probably depreciated €35k in that 5 years, so €7k pa was perfectly acceptable to me.

To the OP’s query about people saying you’ll need bigger than a golf, don’t listen to those people. We have 3 kids (13,11 and 1.5) and we use a mk7 golf as the family car and never once needed more space.
We’re pretty minimalist, so we tend to pack light and don’t have much ‘stuff’

You sound pretty level headed, so do whatever you want to yourself and definitely forget about other people. We’re all different.
I know a senior banker who drives a ‘00 corolla to the train station every morning.

We all know ‘someone’ who doesn’t appear to drive the car we box them into

drunkmonkey

I've 3 kids (ages 1,4&5) and a GTI, A golf is fine with one kid. Granted we have another car but your a bit off trying to stuff 3 bikes and all there luggage for a week into a car yet.

If I was buying a home soon I’d just hold onto the golf until that’s sorted but If Ya really wanted to get a newer car 5-6k would get you a decent 11/12 diesel Passat i think which upgrade on model and year?..
but with child expenses and possibly mortgage in the way you’d have to look into running costs too

mickdw

No mortgage, no kids, reasonable income.
Spent over 50k on my last car new in 2008.
Looking at spending 35k on next car any day now.
Current car is working out at 4k per year over the entire ownership which is ok cause if I'd bought cheaper I'd probably have gone through 3 or 4 cars since.

ToxicPaddy

My current cars value is about 1.5% of my gross salary. Its 19 years old, low mileage and apart from a couple of rust spots it's grand. However I'm only doing about 5-8k miles a year, to and from the train station and the usual runs into Dublin and to/from supermarket and shops on weekends. I get the train to work so the aul barge does me fine for that and it's not a necessity to have a big comfy car for high mileage or long distance commuting.

We are thinking of buying a second car for herself to use now that we have moved outside of Dublin so setting our budget around €20k. I'm more interested in fairly new, max 3 years old, safe and reliable. A smallish petrol/hybrid engine, auto and a decent bit of boot space are our other requirements. The car will be kept for up to 5 years.

If my old barge dies, I'll set a budget of up to 30k, requirements are for max of 5 years old, big car, possibly an estate, auto so she can drive it too which will be used for all big journeys including ones on the continent for holidays or visiting family.

Like some here, the thoughts of dropping €50k on a new car are off putting atm. As nice as it would be to have a big flash luxury barge in the driveway, my financial commitments are towards clearing as much of the mortgage as possible and putting a nice lump sum away for a rainy day.

The luxury barge will come, but in a few years when my other commitments are sorted.

CianRyan

CianRyan wrote: »

If you’re applying for a mortgage the banks won’t look too kindly on a €20,000 car loan so consider that.

......

Plenty folk get mortgages whilst having car loans

ToxicPaddy

Augeo wrote: »

Plenty folk get mortgages whilst having car loans

Yeah they do, just make sure it's something in line with your earnings. If you're earning 40k a year but have a 50k car with a big chunk of the finance outstanding, they would have an issue. A 15k loan over 5 years wouldn't bother them too much

The OP mentioned 100k gross household income and Banks not looking kindly on a 20k car loan was mentioned.

It's all relative of course.

sk8board

ToxicPaddy wrote: »

My current cars value is about 1.5% of my gross salary. Its 19 years old, low mileage and apart from a couple of rust spots it's grand. However I'm only doing about 5-8k miles a year, to and from the train station and the usual runs into Dublin and to/from supermarket and shops on weekends. I get the train to work so the aul barge does me fine for that and it's not a necessity to have a big comfy car for high mileage or long distance commuting.

is the annual tax your biggest cost? Pre ‘08 cars strike me as a bad car to buy now, as even a 12 year old ‘08 will be in most people’s budgets.

Running costs on cars are the lowest they’ve ever been, especially new(er) cars.

Andrewf20

Young kids tend to destroy the inside of cars so I wouldnt be going too mad price wise. We spent 3 grand on an old C max petrol. Great car and not an issue in 2 years of driving thankfully.

Its mad how much cheaper you can by an older version of a car when fundamentally its pretty much the same car as the newer version.

CIP4

As someone said it really depends on so much other than just what salary you earn. Personally I like cars and enjoy owning and driving them. My last 3 cars were in the 20k-40k price bracket. I never thought spending that kind of money on a car as being an issue. I am mid 20's no kids and don't own a house yet but will likely buy one in the next year or so.

The way I see it I can afford it and if its ever a case I need money I can sell my car and buy a cheaper one not the end of the world. Apart from me enjoying cars the big benefit I see in having a newer car is reliability I have done the cheap car broke down on the side of a motorway thing and its not very nice. If I had no interest in cars I would probably look at it differently but I think I would still keep a reasonably new car for the reliability factor. I know older cars can be reliable but if you are buying one for a couple of thousand though you are very much relying on how well it was cared for by all of its previous owners which is unknown and unpredictable in most cases.

Lia_lia

Similar situation here. On similar salary, renting but ready to buy when house comes up, have an 8 month old baby. We have a 2005 Fiesta between us. Honestly it’s done us grand so far. Just a bit stuck for space when going on weekends away at our parents etc..

Not sure what car to get next but definitely won’t be spending more than 10k. Will probably get an estate for the big boot as we are planning to have another baby in a few years and will need the space. Will give the Fiesta to himself.

Salary is rubbish but the vehicle is free. It cost them €27k last year.
The not having to care about it is worth a million quid to me.

Millionaire only not

Abraham Wailing Milk wrote: »

This comes up again and again and generally ends in a mess of a thread.

I know people who have 500k annual incomes that finance cars. They dont tie their cash in cars.
I know people who have small salaries and finance large amounts on cars and love them, its a hobby. These people put their money where their mouths are when it comes to being a petrol head.
I know people that buy cars outright with cash.
I know people that do both

People get all righteous about this, and they generalize their own financial situation onto everyone else. Mostly the righteous people are the salary men. The world is so simple when you get a paycheck each month. When your self employed or a company director is starts getting more complex and interesting. Often finance interest can be written off to tax, as can depreciation depending on your circumstances.

If you bought a 30k car for cash that great. But if you had put down 5k and financed the rest and put the rest of your cash in a basic EFT or better yet Tesla shares 3 months ago, you would have made money. Some people see risk in finance, and some people see oppertunity....

If your pension is in order and your house is in order, you have health insurance, holidays and food on the table and some savings. I dont see why you cannot do as you please, and even if you dont do as you wish.

This is the only decent reply to op ,not forcing there opinions on someone else telling them I drive a banger that gets me from a to b and I’m minding my cash for next generation! Telling us ur happy

Yer a miserable shower life will pass u by and wether u have had the experience of a nice car but don’t make your opinions some one else’s !

Oh some people would make u sick I’ve cash in my bank I’m happy but I drive a piece of **** and begrudge anyone that drives a nice car u can hear it in yer reply’s !

pwurple

What;s your commute / parking situation at work? We got a new nissan leaf when our youngest was a baby. Loads of space in them for baby gear, and economically made a lot of sense when we were being crucified with childcare costs. No petrol, low tax, low maintenance. Paid for iteself in a few years of savings. I'll keep it til they learn to drive in it hopefully.

Some grants available etc.

But as you're renting I'm assuming that you are in a flat, or you don't have reliable parking, so would be looking ideally for work charging spot?

masterboy123

Annual salary 80k

Value of car 30k

anewme

Its not what you earn but how you are financially. You could earn 100k and owe 99 or earn 35 and owe nothing.

I like having a new car so I change quite often.

It depends on what you want OP.

I've a skoda karoq costs about 37k. Paid cash. Love it.

CianRyan

Millionaire only not wrote: »

This is the only decent reply to op ,not forcing there opinions on someone else telling them I drive a banger that gets me from a to b and I’m minding my cash for next generation! Telling us ur happy

Yer a miserable shower life will pass u by and wether u have had the experience of a nice car but don’t make your opinions some one else’s !

Oh some people would make u sick I’ve cash in my bank I’m happy but I drive a piece of **** and begrudge anyone that drives a nice car u can hear it in yer reply’s !

Not one person has told the OP not to spend the money or what kind of person he/she is for wanting to spend the money.
A question was asked any people replied, that is what was wanted from tai thread.

Chiiiiill dude, life will pass you by and all you will feel is hate and hate is the path to the dark side.

diggerdigger

I was told of 10% rules before:
1. Car should be no more than 10% of gross income to buy
2. aim for it to average no more than 10% of net income to run including depreciation

So effectively, buy a good second hand car, maintain it and drive it a long time.

Personally, with 2 good salaries, we drive a 10 and 16 year old cars, both have been owned since they were 18 months old. They're effectively free now, owe me nothing, and the 16 yr old one has had a single bulb in last 3 years of NCTs.

You see lots of lads with 70k cars, not a chance they earn enough, but it's their money; let them off.

McCrack

Abraham Wailing Milk wrote: »

This comes up again and again and generally ends in a mess of a thread.

I know people who have 500k annual incomes that finance cars. They dont tie their cash in cars.
I know people who have small salaries and finance large amounts on cars and love them, its a hobby. These people put their money where their mouths are when it comes to being a petrol head.
I know people that buy cars outright with cash.
I know people that do both

People get all righteous about this, and they generalize their own financial situation onto everyone else. Mostly the righteous people are the salary men. The world is so simple when you get a paycheck each month. When your self employed or a company director is starts getting more complex and interesting. Often finance interest can be written off to tax, as can depreciation depending on your circumstances.

If you bought a 30k car for cash that great. But if you had put down 5k and financed the rest and put the rest of your cash in a basic EFT or better yet Tesla shares 3 months ago, you would have made money. Some people see risk in finance, and some people see oppertunity....

If your pension is in order and your house is in order, you have health insurance, holidays and food on the table and some savings. I dont see why you cannot do as you please, and even if you dont do as you wish.

Are you a self employed dentist?

sk8board

diggerdigger wrote: »

SNIP
You see lots of lads with 70k cars, not a chance they earn enough, but it's their money; let them off.

you might think that, but the garage didn’t sell the cars for free - either they could afford the car for cash, or else the monthly repayments were affordable. even if it’s all their disposable money it’s still their choice.

These days with PCPs, cars are a commodity and a €70k car is not that hard to finance.

Everyone is different. It’d be a very boring place if everyone was sensible, and your 15-20 year old cars all had to be bought new by someone.
This circular conversation happens here every single day! You should be thanking your lucky stars for those lads with new €70k cars - you can have it in 16 years time for next to nothing once the first few owners are done with it.

sdanseo

I earned just over 40k last year, car bought for 31k. Hire Purchase so north of 500 a month.
Everyone (including occasionally me) thinks I'm mad. Although got very good value, like above poster mentions, the original owner paid nearly twice that.

But here's the thing. Live at home, contributing some up of course, but very few other overheads. Also still saving €1k a month towards a deposit. Life's too short not to have some nice things while you can afford them.
By the time the loan is halfway up in another 23 months, I'll have enough for a 10% deposit on an apartment and change left over to clear the remainder of the car loan.

haydeyhi

When i was in Ireland. Salary 60K. Mortgage 1K a month.

Value of Car: 5000 paid outright for an Octavia. Never gave me any trouble over the five years I had it. Could afford a new one but its just a waste of money and want to retire as early as possible.

In the US now for three years:

1000 Dollars up front and 215 dollars a month for 36 months for a 2 litre VTec Civic Saloon on hire purchase.

I will never spend more on a car than I need too. I plan on retiring at 50 and want every bit of money I have to do that.

diggerdigger

sk8board wrote: »

This circular conversation happens here every single day! You should be thanking your lucky stars for those lads with new €70k cars - you can have it in 16 years time for next to nothing once the first few owners are done with it.

I said I bought them at about 18 months. you are making the assumption that I'm driving sh1theaps. I buy large premium marques that hold value when maintained.

I think the money spent on PCP is pissed away, but like I said it's their money, so I don't care. Personally, I prefer to not borrow for a car, though I'd consider free finance. But rolling a new car in every 3 years is expensive.

Yes it's easy to finance 70k, even at 0% in some cases, but it's an upfront, a hefty payment of 750 per month, and nothing at the end of 3 years. make no mistake, they are wearing the 50% depreciation in the period, even at 0%. Sit down and work it out for a lifetime, and you'll probably find that you'll work for 10 years to pay for car depreciation.

My post was just to share the 10% rules with the OP, who maybe is looking at things a little differently with a nipper on the way.

Atlantic Dawn

sk8board wrote: »

You should be thanking your lucky stars for those lads with new €70k cars - you can have it in 16 years time for next to nothing once the first few owners are done with it.

My biggest worry is with the cheap tax they will never go cheap to buy as they do now. Anything over a grand a year in motor tax keeps the rifraf away, sub €500 will have a market for them and so keep the initial buy price high.

anewme

diggerdigger wrote: »

I said I bought them at about 18 months. you are making the assumption that I'm driving sh1theaps. I buy large premium marques that hold value when maintained.

I think the money spent on PCP is pissed away, but like I said it's their money, so I don't care. Personally, I prefer to not borrow for a car, though I'd consider free finance. But rolling a new car in every 3 years is expensive.

Yes it's easy to finance 70k, even at 0% in some cases, but it's an upfront, a hefty payment of 750 per month, and nothing at the end of 3 years. make no mistake, they are wearing the 50% depreciation in the period, even at 0%. Sit down and work it out for a lifetime, and you'll probably find that you'll work for 10 years to pay for car depreciation.

My post was just to share the 10% rules with the OP, who maybe is looking at things a little differently with a nipper on the way.

What is 10 % rule. apologies if ive missed it,

diggerdigger

anewme wrote: »

What is 10 % rule. apologies if ive missed it,

1. Car should be no more than 10% of gross income to buy
2. aim for it to average no more than 10% of net income to run including depreciation

Maybe too prudent for some.

anewme

diggerdigger wrote: »

1. Car should be no more than 10% of gross income to buy
2. aim for it to average no more than 10% of net income to run including depreciation

Maybe too prudent for some.

Ah no. That's just nonsense.

My car costs just under 40k and I dont earn anything near 400k

TheBoyConor

I earn €54k in public sector. I am a single man, no big responsibilities.

My car is a 2004 Nissan Almera. Simple basic car, very very reliable and cheap to run.
I bought it for piss money, €900 cash I think, in 2014 for B repair because of a slippy clutch. Gets me from A to B as good as any €30,000 car would.
Being reliable and such cheap motoring, I have absolutely no intentions of wasting money on another car until this one is either incapable of passing an NCT at a reasonable al cost, or implodes from neglect and abuse.
I've no desire to keep up with any of the Joneses nor make any materialising statements by "investing" in number plates or particular brands.
If people judge me on the basis of the car I drive, then they shall be judged for their materialistic shallowness.

A fail to see how a 12 year old VW Golf would be insufficient to move a baby around. Why does a baby necessitate a new car? Its a little baby, not a baby elephant! Many many families have one or more children while having a smaller or older or indeed no car.

I hate this talk of people "investing" in a car. Lol. An investment is supposed to have some sort of paypack. A car literally is haemorrhaging value by the minute once it leaves the showroom. Stupid investment of you ask me.

If I were you I'd stick with the Golf and get your money's worth out of it. Sweat your asset for all out is worth and keep it going on for at long as practical until it's no longer serviceable and then scrap it and then look at replacing.

haydeyhi

Basically the same as you Conor, I had one person ask me before why don't you get a decent car.

My reply was why would I spend 30,000 on a piece of plastic that costs 10 euro and be worth a euro after a few years.

They had no clue what I was on about until I told them 30,000 was a lot to pay for a number plate.

People basically buy new cars to show off when no gives a ****.

I'll be happily retired at 50 while people keep spewing money on new cars.

diggerdigger

diggerdigger wrote: »

1. Car should be no more than 10% of gross income to buy
2. aim for it to average no more than 10% of net income to run including depreciation

Maybe too prudent for some.

That's very low. A minimum wage worker could barely afford a scooter with that rule.

jonny_b

If its a 5 door, not a 3 door golf then that should be adequate for now. I changed from a 3 door golf as it was a pain trying to get our Newborn in and out at the time. I went for something practical. A second hand estate. Plenty of space and I don't see how I could go back to a hatchback or a saloon type car. And that's coming from a guy that hates the look of estates but the practicality and space beats the look.

mistress_gi

I changed my car because it was giving me issue,s, I did a large commute and it was killing my back.
I decided to go for finance because I wanted to start a credit history in Ireland (I would like to buy a house in the next 5years).
It's a great car but it kills me having to pay nearly 500 a month. So this will be the only time I'll do finance again.
Next time I'll save maybe twice that a month and pay cash for a "new" car.
If it was up to me I'd buy and older, fun car but I'm not sure if insurance would be a problem.
I guess we'll see in 2 years!
It doesn't help that I have expensive tastes but don't like to pay too much for stuff

listermint

Abraham Wailing Milk wrote: »

This comes up again and again and generally ends in a mess of a thread.

I know people who have 500k annual incomes that finance cars. They dont tie their cash in cars.
I know people who have small salaries and finance large amounts on cars and love them, its a hobby. These people put their money where their mouths are when it comes to being a petrol head.
I know people that buy cars outright with cash.
I know people that do both

People get all righteous about this, and they generalize their own financial situation onto everyone else. Mostly the righteous people are the salary men. The world is so simple when you get a paycheck each month. When your self employed or a company director is starts getting more complex and interesting. Often finance interest can be written off to tax, as can depreciation depending on your circumstances.

If you bought a 30k car for cash that great. But if you had put down 5k and financed the rest and put the rest of your cash in a basic EFT or better yet Tesla shares 3 months ago, you would have made money. Some people see risk in finance, and some people see oppertunity....

If your pension is in order and your house is in order, you have health insurance, holidays and food on the table and some savings. I dont see why you cannot do as you please, and even if you dont do as you wish.

The real petrol heads aren't spending 60k on one cars.

They'd have 6 cars at 10k each


Driving an Audi R8 you know very little about doesn't make you a petrol head.

Got a waft of righteousness off your salary men quote