🚗💸 Balancing car enthusiast spending with broader financial goals and decisions?
🚗💸 Balancing car enthusiast spending with broader financial goals and decisions?
From this Reddit thread:
For context: I'm a car enthusiast. I grew up working with my dad on his C4 Corvette. Spent tons of time in the American Racing magazines, etc.
I know that a car is a poor financial decision, but I'm also wondering for the people in the group (the group overall seems sensible) is there ever a balance where you can balance your fun hobbies with savings elsewhere? I.e. I love cars, but I shop at old navy, travel on a budget (I love domestic travel and road trips), save as much as possible for retirement and also have an emergency fund. I have a few nice watches (think Seiko, not rolex) and also my other hobbies aren't expensive. I cook our family meals at home. I feel like a fool for loving automobiles so much, because the prevailing sentiment is to drive your car into the ground.
I have a paid off Cx-5 and an audi s5. I have found a low mileage x3 m40i that I absolutely love and would like to be my daily. I know that its awful to think about (the cx-5 I want to keep around). I'm struggling because I've worked really hard to become financially literate (didn't grow up with much) and now I'm feeling the weight of every major financial decision I make.
Of note: Salary (290k, my wife also makes 130k so total around 420-430k). I have no cc debt, but do have medical school debt (however, I worked it into my current contract that it is being paid off by the hospital I work for). Our spending is pretty reasonable and we live in a LCOL area. My wife and I own our forever home (modest, affordable on my fellow salary before ending training). She also saves/invests well and her car is soon to be paid off (not in a rush as its 1% interest). She told me that this purchase is fine, but i'm just doubting myself. I think i've watched way too many financial videos and just feel more terrible about myself every time I watch them.
From this Reddit thread:
For context: I'm a car enthusiast. I grew up working with my dad on his C4 Corvette. Spent tons of time in the American Racing magazines, etc.
I know that a car is a poor financial decision, but I'm also wondering for the people in the group (the group overall seems sensible) is there ever a balance where you can balance your fun hobbies with savings elsewhere? I.e. I love cars, but I shop at old navy, travel on a budget (I love domestic travel and road trips), save as much as possible for retirement and also have an emergency fund. I have a few nice watches (think Seiko, not rolex) and also my other hobbies aren't expensive. I cook our family meals at home. I feel like a fool for loving automobiles so much, because the prevailing sentiment is to drive your car into the ground.
I have a paid off Cx-5 and an audi s5. I have found a low mileage x3 m40i that I absolutely love and would like to be my daily. I know that its awful to think about (the cx-5 I want to keep around). I'm struggling because I've worked really hard to become financially literate (didn't grow up with much) and now I'm feeling the weight of every major financial decision I make.
Of note: Salary (290k, my wife also makes 130k so total around 420-430k). I have no cc debt, but do have medical school debt (however, I worked it into my current contract that it is being paid off by the hospital I work for). Our spending is pretty reasonable and we live in a LCOL area. My wife and I own our forever home (modest, affordable on my fellow salary before ending training). She also saves/invests well and her car is soon to be paid off (not in a rush as its 1% interest). She told me that this purchase is fine, but i'm just doubting myself. I think i've watched way too many financial videos and just feel more terrible about myself every time I watch them.
1 Answer
This one's a pretty easy yes, but if you want to look at a car financing rule of thumb check this out: https://finfam.app/mahmoud/views/car-splurge
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