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Poor / middle class want to appear rich while the truly rich want to appear normal. People who have nothing want to look like something while people who have something want to appear as nothing.
Please don't speak for all of us. I don't like driving and spend very little time in my car. I deliberately designed my life that way. I hate car-centrism. I get a kick out of swimming against the tide--not to mention a lot less stress and expense.
Agreed that there's a diminishing return. I completely disagree that it's 70k to 80k. Holy cow! People drastically overestimate how much happiness material things will bring them.
70k to 80k is probably reasonable for people with 2+ kids in HCOL areas. It just depends.
Maybe they just love cars, I'm a car nut myself and the feeling I get when I'm carving curvy roads, rowing through my gears in my perfectly balanced Cayman is almost better than sex. That said, I bought my car used, do all the maintenance myself along with most repairs. I spend less on my cars than most people who drive new econoboxes will, I payed about the same as a new optioned out Camry, though to non car people they would think its a brand new $60k car. Apart from my cars, I live a pretty frugal lifestyle, I shop at discount grocery stores, go to thrift shops, don't own any high end clothes and so on. It's something I like so that's where I choose to splurge.
I got to drive my Honda S2000 for 3 years and ended up selling it for more than what I originally paid for it, I was also considering a BMW 1M which have also gone up in value like crazy. The cars I like tend to depreciate slower, compared to most dime a dozen luxury cars that depreciate rapidly. I don't buy cars with that in mind, and it's rare that it happens but it certainly does. The old NSX, Supra, 1M, S2000, e30 M3, Elise/Exige just a few cars that used to be fairly affordable and now are expensive.
I'm sitting here reading through the post scratching my head. I just managed to save 1x my yearly income of six figures at age 27. In fact, I just managed to save 60K this year.
That 60K car is just too much even when I just got a raise of another 40k next year. Even leasing doesnt make sense to me, you are just perpetually paying the highest payment of the car which is the initial depreciation cost. Meanwhile, trying to keep my 1,000 dollars car running for an extra 3 years (fixing myself). Personally, i dont understand how anyone can afford to spend so much money. People dont worry about savings or loosing their job?
Economy is going to crash soon based on historic data. People will loose their jobs. Most of my friends drive better than me and earn way less. Just voicing my frustration for being poor.
This weekend I was driving around my city and just noticed how many expensive cars there were around. For example, this one lady was driving an Infinite QX56 which tops off around $80K. Basically, all these people in my city also own houses.
Even at my work, most people start with at least "low end" car around $35K and many get $60K+ cars. I think I am one of few guys my age at my work who doesn't have BMW or a fancy car to show off. I still driving my almost 5 year old Hyundai still. Don't think I would get a car over $50K+ unless I was a millionaire with extra cash lying around.
I know most people at work or at my city don't earn that much more than me. But how could they afford these expensive cars? I really wonder what their budget looks like since most have houses or luxury apartments too!
Low interest rates, easy lease terms, no desire to ever actually own the car.
Most people as their incomes rise continue living check to check. Me personally I'm not really into cars so retiring a few years early to me is much more valuable than driving around a nicer car, however most people seem to enjoy the cars more. Nothing wrong with either way of doing things, it's their money, we all have different priorities.
Wow I can't believe the haters on this forum because others can afford things they can't. Set your goals higher people
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