sir captian

My 450 dollar a month car note is about 15% of my monthly income,that's what is so great about the Z,its one of the only affordable,reliable true sports cars on the market....But if I made more cash I would be pushin a 2006 M3 for real...

dhays

iTrader: (10)

Spending 15% of your income on a car payment is financially disastrous. You should get that % down to under 5% ASAP and preferable never carry a loan on a car.

Mike@Blackline

iTrader: (37)

100%, because its the only thing I dont own. i guess my only other bill of significance is rent. but insurance, etc for the Z is pretty much my only bill i have to think about every month, not to say im hurting and cant afford it haha

sir captian

The car will be paid off in a couple years and only has 28K miles on it.Sorry dude some of us have to sacrifice a little to have a decent car...

dhays

iTrader: (10)

I understand what you are saying, but another way to look at is is that some folks have to sacrifice a nice car to have decent financial security.

sir captian

Yeah,I definitely know what you are saying too.I have a pretty secure job and when I have this car paid off it will probably have less than 60k miles on it.If the economy was like this 3 years ago I would not have bought this car...

boosted99gst

iTrader: (1)

Extremely well put! My old DSM was basically a money pit. Not a "nice" car, in many aspects, but it'd creep away from 750's on the highway(closed highways of course, in my much younger, stupider, days). Considering i was making good money, I never really felt the hurt on what I was spending. Before getting rid of the car, I sat down one night and started adding what I had into it. (3 different turbo set ups, SMIM, 2 different cams, 2 trannies, EMS, fully built long block (after buying and blowing up a 6 bolt, etc, etc..) Including the price of the car when I bought it almost new: $21,000+interest paid+mods I was near $45,000...all for a car worth $7k according to KBB.

Lesson learned. I bought a POS Civic hatch and drove it for a year, saved up some money, created a cushon for my self, then bought my Z. It currently takes up 7% of my montly income. Won't spend any more on mods until I have enough in personal (non 401k) savings to carry all my bills for 8 months.

dhays

iTrader: (10)

8 months living expenses is a great goal. I commend you. If you do that, you are so far ahead of most folks in the US. Most would be in a lot of trouble after just one month.

boosted99gst

iTrader: (1)

Myself included at one point not too long ago. I focused on paying down credit card debt and eliminated other expenses during my Civic year. It's amazing what not spending $600/mo between insurance and car loan can do for a person in a short time. I was fortunate to recieve a promotion recently, and considering I'm nearly debtless, this is the most ideal time for me to save and do it quickly. I believe the old rule of thumb was 3 months of stability in the bank was a good goal. In today's jobless economy, I decided to up the ante. I'm hoping the cushion will eliminate the guilty feeling that pours over me everytime I click "view cart" on our vendors websites.

Spike100

If you can avoid paying interest, it's amazing how quickly you come to a comfortable financial position.

Not everyone can pay ca$h for a car, but the closer you come to ownership, the better-off you are.

Avoid any mods until you have paid for the car. The worst thing to do is borrow on the car, and then borrow again for mods.

--Spike

PerfZ

iTrader: (3)

We should all keep in mind that everyone's priorities are different. And while you are never too young to start saving instead of spending, ya gotta spend something to enjoy life. There are worse choices than a car even if it is a depreciating asset. Also, keep in mind that the title of the thread describes two entirely different financial conditions. Net worth tends to go up as we get older. The trick is to keep your spending each month to a level that contributes at least a dollar to your net worth, ideally, of course, more. It is all about total debt, not the car.

3-fifty-WeEe

I too have a Nissan Z33 350Z V6 300hp/tq VQ35 3.5L DOHC I can feel the burn everytime I hit the gas pumps.

MulhollandDrive

One way to look at this is to try to keep your current car until it is paid off. Now instead of now going out immediately to buy a "new" car on credit, keep your current car and save the "monthly" car payments until you can purchase a "new" car on a cash basis. Say it takes three or four years, whatever. You only need to do this ONCE. For then on, you can go back to your buying cycle, but paying in cash! And saving on interest too.

dhays

iTrader: (10)

You make a really good point. I've had three car loans in my life. Sometimes they just can't be avoided. The trick is to keep your debt for depreciating assets as low as possible. Car finance companies recommend no more than 15-20% of monthly income. I don't trust their opinion on the matter do you? Most financial advisers not connected to the banking or auto industry recommend closer to 5-10% max.

Another great point. I'm a strong proponent of paying cash, however there are times when a loan is unavoidable, even on a subsequent car. I've bought about a dozen cars in my life and only have had three car loans. Of course, only two of those cars were purchased new and one was a business vehicle.

scotts300

iTrader: (46)

That's a huge generalization. The average price for houses 1/2 mile from where I'm sitting is about 3mil, with the cheapest being about $900k and the most expensive, jeez, 25mil easy. Condos are $500k 20 miles south of here.

2nd. I own my coupe, but it's value is very small compared to everything else added up. We have a loan on my wife's vert, but that was because borrowing $ to refinance was much cheaper via car loan (4.5%) versus a HELOC, and it's still deductible because of a small business that I run.

Monthly gross or monthly net?

london2012

My Z % is high. I'm in college, but I'm also married. My wife is out of college and makes double my current income. I graduate in 7 months so things will probably change. A couple of years ago when I wanted to buy a brand new 350z, I started listening to Dave Ramsey. He said never buy new unless you are a millionaire. That seems a little extreme, but I decided that I would wait and buy a used Z. I bought a used 08 enthusiast with 8,000 miles for $21,500 (almost $10k in depreciation saved right there) 4 months ago. My monthly payment is supposed to be $300/ month for 6 years. But I'm currently dropping $1k a month on the loan. I will have it knocked out by the middle of 2011. I'm way ahead of the depreciation so worst case scenario, I could sell the car if I had to.

silvertouringz

im in college..20 years old just bought a Z from cali and shippin it to beirut where i live...its a '04.5 touring with 62k miles, got it for $13.8k plus $1.35k for shipping and taxes around $7k all fully paid cash (by my dad LOL)

scotts300

iTrader: (46)

QFT.

bigpow

Yeah, 100G will get you a house in the boonies, dream on!
I've a lot of Cannucks co-workers that moved from Ontario, CA to CA (state) and they always complain about NOT being able to afford a decent house here (even after they sold theirs).