terrasmak

iTrader: (8)

First of all , how long have you owned it and can you refinance it to a lower payment. Second of all feel free to PM me any quesntions you have about the AF , i've been in for 11 years and even from San Diego.

JoshuaJJackson

Im just an E-3 in the USMC an can afford the car and insurance fine. If you want to keep the car, its possible just might have to sacrifice a little bit of beer money.

Strider619

Great stuff guys, I really appreciate the input. I will pm some of you if I have specific questions. I'm really low maintenance, I just need food, shelter and the gym. I'm drunk after 1 bottle of corona, 2 bottles and I'm hammered so I don't worry much about spending money in a bar =]

sofa king

iTrader: (25)

whats the point in living in the dorms with a nice car but no money to go out? all your friends and hot females are wanna go out, but not you. youve got a cool car that gets you to work & back.

dont put yourself in that position early. it MAY seem 'worth it' to you, but when you wanna go do ****, you wont be able to. when you wanna mod it, you wont be able to.

heres what you SHOULD do. join. live in the dorms enjoy life, put save money. but down a huge down payment and save yourself the headache of living check to check. good things come to those who wait.

sofa king

iTrader: (25)

from reading this thread and looking @ those who responded i think theres a BUNCH of military guys with good heads on their shoulders. id say about 90%+ said you should save your money first.

weve all been where youre asking and know first hand its not a good idea. use your head.

nickZ33

iTrader: (8)

all i know is, if im only making 800 a month and 500 is going to my car, i wouldnt be keeping it. im only 19 but ive accumulated quiet a bit of wealth (from several business ventures and a few investments) and if it wasnt for the fact that i couldve paid for my Z in full (which i did) i wouldnt own it. I am also planning on joining the reserve for the sake of serving my country not for the money. the only logical and mathmatically sound way of doing this and keeping your car, is to live perm. on base for at minimum a year and hopefully recieve a rise in rank to make a little extra $ so you can afford your car. or take out a nice student loan and use it on ur car

KManZ

iTrader: (8)

If you can be disciplined enough to efficiently budget, you may be able to keep it as long as everything else (housing, food etc) is provided to you. Seeing as you are just going in, this shouldn't be a problem. But if you have to pay for food and you are broke, after a week of eating Ramen you will wish you didn't have a damn $500 car + insurance payment to make!

Someone mentioned living off base: if you are lucky enough to be stationed somewhere that allows this. And even then, you have to be married or achieve a certain pay grade. In other words, don't count on it.

KManZ

iTrader: (8)

Not giving financial advice, just an example:

Based on how much KamAkaze (E-3, AF) makes: $681 every two weeks.

Z payment: $500, or $250 every 2 weeks
Insurance: Lets just say you pay $200 a month (under 25, single, male... may even be more these days).. thats $100 every 2 weeks.
Cell Phone: $50 (assume), $25 every 2 weeks.

This is assuming you keep the car and take it with you... ie. you need insurance.

Just for these basic requirements, you'd need to fork over $475 every paycheck... that leaves you with about $200 to live on for 2 weeks. This isn't including any food you may need to buy (if necessary, you could just eat at the chow hall). And if you have any other bills, you can see how much your money will be impacted.

$200 to live on for two weeks? And this is calculating as an E-3! Bro, thats miserable! Painful to even consider! But hey, its your choice, if you can hack it, go for it!

BurnMac42

strider why not join the air national guard?? If you want to "hurry" your education up why not go through them....my buddy is in the guard and he pulls in 17-20g a year in school benefits (our school only costs 6400 a year by the way). Pockets the rest. You will also get a 15g sign on bonus (7 upfront when you return from basic/tech and then the other 7 spread across your 6 year enlistment). This will allow you to now have your school paid for (unless you already do then you can litereally pocket ALL that money), afford your Z comfortably, still be able to set money aside, and be an automatic bamf like being in the US military makes you ;-)

BurnMac42

No offense to the army guys but if his main focus is on speeding up his education, joining the army would probably not be in his best interest. My roommate was active duty army and just got out last August it was a NIGHTMARE for him to get his school benefits and everything that was owed to him. He is still struggling to recieve his GI bill payments......plus you have a much greater chance of being deployed before school is done.....

sean10mm

This is incredibly stupid. You have to be a clinical retard to think that's a good idea. Half your income would be paying for your car and insurance. Nobody in their right mind does that.

dTor

iTrader: (27)

+1 on what everybody has said.

There is no point in keeping and paying for a car that you're not going to drive. You'll have more fun taking the bus with your buddies then sitting in the dorm writing a payment for a car that, by the time you can afford to drive it again, will be worth half as much as when you stuck it in the garage.

Don't let your emotions overwhelm your common sense. You're not going to hear what you want to hear (i.e. - go ahead and keep it, it's worth it...) and for good reason - it's a stupid idea for you to keep it. A car is a car. There are many others out there that will be available when you can afford it.

terrasmak

iTrader: (8)

Hey thats more than i had when i first came in, E2 pay when i got to my first base was $315 a check. $180 of it a month went to insurance, i'm glad i owned my old MX-6.

Terror

iTrader: (1)

i am an e-4 in the air force. I was an e-1 when i got to my first base. I made $650 bucks every two weeks. $1300 may not be alot of money but when you live in a dorm and all you have to worry about is some food like macaroni and tv dinners to feed you. That leaves some decent cash left over. I had a 2002 camaro ss when i was an e-1. I had so much free cash to do mods. Every month was something new on my car. You make way more than 800 bucks. Guess what if you get deployed like i do every few months. You make about 3-4 thousand dollars a month just doing what you do stateside without having girls and fast food around. Thats when the free money comes from or a huge down payment on my Z like i did.

Anyway i am now an e-4, i live in a fairly decent apartment, have the nicest car in the parking lot, have a huge tv and a decent amount of cash coming in for a 22 yr old with no college at all.

KManZ

iTrader: (8)

Macaroni dinners... I said the same thing about Ramen noodles. If you have to live off of sh1tty food to have a car, you are in over your head.

Terror

iTrader: (1)

i chose to eat macaroni dinners and tv dinners i didnt say you were gonna be held to that. I was trying to say i had decent amount of cash and didnt care what i ate i was 18 and ate anything anyway. I could of ate at restuarants every day if i wanted to, but i would rather save my money for something like my mutual funds or my savings account. Lets get real alot of people who are young and in the military or college eat cheap food its just a way of life.

terrasmak

iTrader: (8)

Chow hall, if your in the dorms you get free food and dont have to spend your hard earned $$ on it. I ate there as much as possible when i first came in , i did the same thing when in Japan.

JoshuaJJackson

Well i guess i cant say much, Married and my wife works.

But i have a buddy or 2 that lives in the barracks and owns a Z and doesnt have any problems with money

Terror

iTrader: (1)

exactly my point. Especially with deployments every year. Ive been deployed twice in the last 6 months and came home with almost $5k the first time and then came home with $6k the second time. Everyone thinks military guys dont make much and we may not but we dont have to worry about healthcare,dental,food,losing our jobs,repairing the house,gas,electric bills because i get paid extra for all those things. So i may only make $2400 bucks a month but what do i have to cover nothing except my car and insurance and my car payment is NOT $500 bucks a month and my insurance is about $150 a month. Believe me us military guys drink ALOT and its not cheap haha. Id say if you want a Z and wanna be in the military you can do it, its not hard i know a few guys including myself who have 350's evo's STI'S. I know a staff sargeant(e-5) who has an amazing ZO6. He put a huge down payment with his some of his deployment cash and now his payments are a normal car payment like the rest of us.

But also you could go and just save money throw it in mutual funds,TSP, savings or just plain save your money and buy a nice car out right! which is what i wish i woulda done.

Arondos

I'm retired military.

Avoid the go out boozing and blowing everything scenario so many military guys do. While it may seem fun you get nothing out of it in the long run. Have fun, party, but don't make it a full time job.

My advice. Sell the car. Take the $500 a month and do an IRA or 401k or thrift savings plan. Get set up so later in life you will have the time and money to have fun.

Just my .02