juntsky

sorry, but I'd never sell an S2000 for a GTR. GTRs are fast, but good lord they're boring.

First things first, have you ever driven them? I mean around town and in anger. I've done both. The ride is terrible around town and the experience of driving one on the track is lack luster. You'll get more smiles per mile with an S2000.

Not to mention they look awful, but that's entirely opinion.

seoulbro

No doubt that the GTR is a monster. For me, I don't think I can ever give up the manual trans. Recently had a pleasure of driving a friend's Carrera cabrio and I pretty much fell in love with the car after the first 5 minutes of driving. I loved everything about the Porsche especially that torque. I'm debating an upgrade to a 981 Boxster S, but I'm having a really hard time letting my CR go. I'm still in love with my CR but I don't want to lose too much value by putting on a lot of miles.

Mr.E.G.

You're not going to want to hear this, but you don't make enough money to buy that expensive of a car. I'm not terribly familiar with the used GT-R market, but they've got to be $60k or more, right?

You do well for your age, but the biggest mistake you can make is burning through your money. That girlfriend / fiance of yours is going to want a wedding. Then a baby. Then a house. She might even want to eat at restaurants and go on trips and buy clothes every once in a while. Her $35k contribution to your household will likely go away as babies start coming. At $35k, you can guarantee that the narrative will shift to, "You know, by the time we pay for daycare, it's like I only make minimum wage. Maybe I should just stop working altogether."

Now, I'm not trying to be a jerk. I'm only seven years older than you, and when I was your age, I contemplated all the same things. I'm very glad that I never pulled the trigger on an expensive car. By not doing so, I was able to put 20% down on my house, pay my wife's $90k in law school debt in about two years, max out my retirement, make extra payments on my house, always have enough in the bank to cover a year's worth of expenses if I were to lose my job, fly my wife and daughter up to visit my wife's parents four or five times a year, and, most importantly, never have to worry about a damn thing financially.

Do I make a good living? Sure, but I don't make anything to write home about. You make more at your age than I did at your age, but most of what I described above stems from choices that I made when I was your age, combined with a willingness to save. All my friends that took the path that you're considering all had much nicer cars than me and they looked like they were doing much better than I was. Guess what. They all still live paycheck to paycheck. Maybe my Corvette isn't that impressive, but I could cancel my insurance and push it off a cliff and be little more than minorly inconvenienced. That is a good feeling that only comes from being frugal.

To each his own, but our generation is going to live to be a jillion years old (God willing). You'll have plenty of time to enjoy life. You know, provided that bunk ass rollbar doesn't kill you in a rollover. Seriously though, think about it long and hard before you pull the trigger. And remember, I'm just some dude on the internet, so maybe I'm entirely full of crap.

Mr.E.G.

Oh, hell. That's a lot of money, man. Run.

profit_child

Thanks for the fast replies... I have saved a good amount of money I haven't touched in a long time.... Thank god. After much thought and thankful I made this thread. Will continue with my s and actually finish it... One day I'm sure il sell it but not being so uncertain... Maybe a cayman s 991 in a few years

jeffbrig

I'm going to pile on to what Mr EG said. I'm a little older still, I've got 12 years on you. You'd be a fool to buy a $66k used car at your income level. And I mean that in the nicest way possible. A lot of people get into an expensive lease or house payment and end up "house poor". You'd end up "car poor", which is something I've never even heard of.

Let's say you can clear $30-$35 if you clear out your parts and your s2k. That $66k GTR is going to cost you another $5k in sales tax to register in FL (assuming you still live here?). So your actual cost is $70k+ to buy this car. To put it into perspective, that's what you make in a year, before taxes. So say you clear enough from selling stuff to put down $36k and take out a loan for the remaining $35k. Over 4 years (remember, this is a USED car) at 3%. That's nearly $800/month. OUCH!!!

On top of that, are you prepared to also drop $1500 every year on tires? Are you ready to drop $10k+ if the motor or transmission grenades? Because it CAN happen. These are things you need to be prepared for when you buy an expensive car. Otherwise you'll be dumping it for pennies on the dollar when something goes wrong and you can't afford to fix it.

Girlfriends can up and leave, wives can stop working to have babies. When you buy a house, you're in for more surprises. Utilities are more, home insurance will shock you (trust me on this one), and home repair projects will always be more than you expect. Any idea what a new AC unit will set you back when yours conks out in July? Again, trust me on this one. As cool as it sounds right now, you can't afford this car...yet.

Are you saving for retirement yet? I can't emphasize how important it is to start early. You should aim to sock away at least 10% from the start, and aim to increase that every year until you are maxing out your 401k or whatever's available to you. Cars are cool and all, but so is being able to buy food when you're old and don't want to or can't work anymore.

To put things further into perspective for you, my wife and I combined earn not quite 3x what you guys do, an I'm not yet comfortable with the idea of dropping $70k on a car. The most we've ever spent on a car was low $40s (used).

Mr.E.G.

Excellent points, especially about the house repairs and maintenance. I bought a relatively new house and have replaced a fridge, dishwasher, God only know how many pool parts and doodads, an AC unit, various plumbing catastrophes, etc.

Mr.E.G.

Again, OP. Don't be discouraged. The fact that you asked means that you were having reservations, which puts you ahead of the game. Also, you're starting out making good money. Just keep doing what you're doing because it's working, and eventually you'll look back and say, "Man, what was I thinking back then?" as you pay cash for whatever toy catches your fancy.

evoq007

I agree with all the above OP. I am 4 years older than you and 4 years ago I was in about the same position as you are financially. The best move I ever did was tone down my car buying escalation (I went from a 16k car to 24k, 30k, 35k, 40k etc and actually realized I was never any happier with the more expensive car.

I decided to take all my extra investment income(stock market) and go and get an advanced degree at night while I was working. That was the best decision for me personally.

Now everyones situation is different, but looking back on it I kinda regret buying all the expensive cars that only made me happy for 6 months and then I got bored. I could've used that extra cash flow to make more investments in my future.

My general rule of thumb for financially responsible car buying is as such:

- Non car enthusiasts should spend about ~30% of yearly gross income on a vehicle (ex: Income = 100k, buy a 30-35k car)
- car enthusiasts view this differently as a hobby so i suggest no more than ~40% (40-45k car per 100k income)

(I do financial planning as a hobby, i am no expert and do not pretend to be one)

jeffbrig

Hahaha. I just got my pool light working again last weekend, and I'm about to have to replace the pump motor...and don't even get me started on the sprinkler system, lol...