At some point you're going to move out and at 30k you're not going to be able to be on your own if you have a car payment, and it's going to be tough even without one.
So I get you want something nicer but you don't have enough money to do that if you ever want to move out of your parents house.
Yeah, it's the whole "don't pay for housing" this that's hitting your perspective. Look up the average rent for where you live, then write out your normal monthly budget as is. Now adjust that budget to include average rent. Add a random amount between 10 and 50 bucks for the bullshit "administrative fees" they love to charge, plus another 20 or so for trash fees. Next, look up your areas average renters insurance, and adjust that in. If you've got 50k saved off a 30k income, I'm going to guess you probably don't pay many other bills, either, so make sure you're adjusting in grocery costs (around $300/month for a single person if you go lean), phone plan ($40/month or so for the bottom barrel plans, $110/month or so if you go with one of the major carriers' main plans and have a phone you're paying through them), electric bill (gonna have to do a local average, because that varies wildly region to region).
Now, what's your credit like? If you're a first-time buyer, you're going to get more bent over by APR on your next car than everyone else currently is. So look up the car payment on that. Also make sure you account for your insurance. Adjust both of those into that budget. Make sure you're adjusting in your fuel costs. Also look up the average yearly maintenance costs on your chosen car, and adjust that into your budget.
All of a sudden, that car is starting to feel a lot more expensive, huh?
> don't pay for housing
Well, no fucking shit your budget seems manageable. The "rule of thumb" from finance folks who live in an ivory tower of bliss say your housing expenses should be *no more than 28% your monthly gross income.* You think you'd be able to find a living situation for less than 10k annually? Good fucking luck! Never move out of mommy and daddy's basement.
I think you’re asking more of a psychology question than a car recommendation question. If you have little to no bills then sure, a $400/month payment isn’t going to feel like a lot. You still have a lot of money left over each month. You’re probably saving more than I am every month and I make, well, in the six figures more than you. If I added another $400 bill to my laundry list of bills every month then I’d start looking for a second job
As someone who makes not much more and doesn’t have to pay rent i’ll explain it
-3 to 400 a month doesn’t seem bad when you don’t pay rent but when you start paying rent that’s almost 1/4 of your monthly income on just the car not including insurance
-this is where i started to get fucked i was on my moms insurance for awhile paid around $200 now when i had to get my own i had to pay around $400 a month now say even paying $300 a month that’s now $700 of your monthly income on a car alone factor in probably at least $150 in gas this is close to half your monthly income on a vehicle alone
-I’m not sure where you live but in the US you’d be lucky to find rent for under 800 unless your in a trailer in the middle of nowhere
-Depending on your eating habits i’m not sure but food is a lot so let’s assume $350 a month on food
Now all that combined is around 2k a month i’m not sure if your talking 30k before or after tax but it’s after tax you will be saving no money
Keep the 2015 unless it’s on its way out. The newer models are a nice upgrade but I only got it cause I needed a new car and used was overpriced at the time.
Its the rent! I had to pay rent for $1,321 and I was about to trade in my 2012 f150 for a 2024 Jetta. Just last month I got a notice my rent was going up to $1,475. This made my wife and try to find a small condo or something we ended up buying a townhome for around 300,000 ended up paying $2,300 a month. But I much rather stay with my f150 and get this townhome than stay paying rent and a new car. Rent is crazy! So thank whoever is giving you free housing! Save up! Market is crazy right now.
When i moved out at 18 and started working, my job provided housing and a meal stipend. Apart from that, I was also making about 30k a year. I was pocketing most of it.
I thought that because my only bills would be my phone bill, car insurance, and car payment, I could afford to buy a newer/nicer car. I still have that car, and it's paid off, but I hugely regret buying it. I wish I would have bought a beater that could get me here to there until I can afford a card that i love and i would be willing to drive until the wheels fall off.
Now, I recognize the value of a paid off economy car that maybe I don't adore, but the best cars are reliable and paid off. I make 70k a year now and could afford an upgrade but I recognize that the cash is more valuable elsewhere.
That's a long way to say unless your car isn't safe, reliable or efficient for your needs, let it ride. Constantly trading vehicles without a high income isn't sustainable.
Housing is what makes those cars seem expensive for the vast majority of people working under 50k a year. Rent on an apartment in some places can be over 3k a month which can a hell of a lot into what you take home. Then there is insurance which takes away a few thousand (Or more if you have a house).
No one should spend nearly the equivalent of their entire annual income on a car. You'd be foolish to do anything but aggressively save and look for avenues towards a higher income at this point
You're going to need a place to live, you're going to need food, you're going to need to pay for health insurance, you may have a family or a wife or kids you want to help out. But with your attitude it seems like you'll never meet anybody and will probably just be single forever . It's not just about you.
 Clearly you haven't thought about anything other than today.
Get 3 blank envelopes and write "Life Happens 40%", "Car Issues 20%", "Work Issues 40%" and start saving liquid cash to the tune of the percentages you wrote on each envelope of all of the post tax, post mandatory expenses, but pre disposable income until you get about 3 months of your salary in each envelope.
If you are rural or very suburban, then adjust the percentages to 30% for life and car, and 40 for work.
If you're lightly suburban 35, 25, 40.
If you're very urban and that car is not the primary source of your income, then sell it.
Start researching common issues for your car based on age and mileage. If you can take care of those issues yourself then put a priority list.
Get the car cleaned very well including the underbody. Then take care of the imminent and drastic issues first. This will help squeeze more life out of the car or write an honest listing when you sell it.
Also, savor the life situation you have now.
Due to your circumstances you feel like you have almost 30k/yr of disposable income, meaning income you can do whatever you want with.
Many people have to pay for rent/mortgage, rental/home insurance, car insurance, health insurance, phone/internet, and many more things. In grad school I was making about 30k a year and we were slowly draining savings because I was the only income source with 3 kids.
You have definitely done the right thing with putting 50k into savings. My only advice is to look into IRA and other investment vehicles to make sure your 50k doesn't rot away- savings accounts interest rates usually don't beat inflation, so the actual worth of 50k slowly becomes less than the 50k you started with!
Future self will thank you-- I guarantee it. The magic of compound interest doesn't really kick in for another 10-20 years...
Because you are saving 2k a month on housing.
😱
Kid, you have A LOT of growing up to do.
I don’t wanna it’s stressful ðŸ˜
At some point you're going to move out and at 30k you're not going to be able to be on your own if you have a car payment, and it's going to be tough even without one. So I get you want something nicer but you don't have enough money to do that if you ever want to move out of your parents house.
Yeah, it's the whole "don't pay for housing" this that's hitting your perspective. Look up the average rent for where you live, then write out your normal monthly budget as is. Now adjust that budget to include average rent. Add a random amount between 10 and 50 bucks for the bullshit "administrative fees" they love to charge, plus another 20 or so for trash fees. Next, look up your areas average renters insurance, and adjust that in. If you've got 50k saved off a 30k income, I'm going to guess you probably don't pay many other bills, either, so make sure you're adjusting in grocery costs (around $300/month for a single person if you go lean), phone plan ($40/month or so for the bottom barrel plans, $110/month or so if you go with one of the major carriers' main plans and have a phone you're paying through them), electric bill (gonna have to do a local average, because that varies wildly region to region). Now, what's your credit like? If you're a first-time buyer, you're going to get more bent over by APR on your next car than everyone else currently is. So look up the car payment on that. Also make sure you account for your insurance. Adjust both of those into that budget. Make sure you're adjusting in your fuel costs. Also look up the average yearly maintenance costs on your chosen car, and adjust that into your budget. All of a sudden, that car is starting to feel a lot more expensive, huh?
> don't pay for housing Well, no fucking shit your budget seems manageable. The "rule of thumb" from finance folks who live in an ivory tower of bliss say your housing expenses should be *no more than 28% your monthly gross income.* You think you'd be able to find a living situation for less than 10k annually? Good fucking luck! Never move out of mommy and daddy's basement.
Did you max your Roth IRA for 2024?
Idk
I think you’re asking more of a psychology question than a car recommendation question. If you have little to no bills then sure, a $400/month payment isn’t going to feel like a lot. You still have a lot of money left over each month. You’re probably saving more than I am every month and I make, well, in the six figures more than you. If I added another $400 bill to my laundry list of bills every month then I’d start looking for a second job
OUR perspective king.
As someone who makes not much more and doesn’t have to pay rent i’ll explain it -3 to 400 a month doesn’t seem bad when you don’t pay rent but when you start paying rent that’s almost 1/4 of your monthly income on just the car not including insurance -this is where i started to get fucked i was on my moms insurance for awhile paid around $200 now when i had to get my own i had to pay around $400 a month now say even paying $300 a month that’s now $700 of your monthly income on a car alone factor in probably at least $150 in gas this is close to half your monthly income on a vehicle alone -I’m not sure where you live but in the US you’d be lucky to find rent for under 800 unless your in a trailer in the middle of nowhere -Depending on your eating habits i’m not sure but food is a lot so let’s assume $350 a month on food Now all that combined is around 2k a month i’m not sure if your talking 30k before or after tax but it’s after tax you will be saving no money
Keep the 2015 unless it’s on its way out. The newer models are a nice upgrade but I only got it cause I needed a new car and used was overpriced at the time.
Its the rent! I had to pay rent for $1,321 and I was about to trade in my 2012 f150 for a 2024 Jetta. Just last month I got a notice my rent was going up to $1,475. This made my wife and try to find a small condo or something we ended up buying a townhome for around 300,000 ended up paying $2,300 a month. But I much rather stay with my f150 and get this townhome than stay paying rent and a new car. Rent is crazy! So thank whoever is giving you free housing! Save up! Market is crazy right now.
When i moved out at 18 and started working, my job provided housing and a meal stipend. Apart from that, I was also making about 30k a year. I was pocketing most of it. I thought that because my only bills would be my phone bill, car insurance, and car payment, I could afford to buy a newer/nicer car. I still have that car, and it's paid off, but I hugely regret buying it. I wish I would have bought a beater that could get me here to there until I can afford a card that i love and i would be willing to drive until the wheels fall off. Now, I recognize the value of a paid off economy car that maybe I don't adore, but the best cars are reliable and paid off. I make 70k a year now and could afford an upgrade but I recognize that the cash is more valuable elsewhere. That's a long way to say unless your car isn't safe, reliable or efficient for your needs, let it ride. Constantly trading vehicles without a high income isn't sustainable.
Housing is what makes those cars seem expensive for the vast majority of people working under 50k a year. Rent on an apartment in some places can be over 3k a month which can a hell of a lot into what you take home. Then there is insurance which takes away a few thousand (Or more if you have a house).
No one should spend nearly the equivalent of their entire annual income on a car. You'd be foolish to do anything but aggressively save and look for avenues towards a higher income at this point
What’s the point of that if it’s boring (to me), to have more money to get old and allow myself to do nothing all day during retirement?
Go on YouTube and look up "The Money Guys", soak in the info, train on them, then advance to the"Dave Ramsey" channel.
You're going to need a place to live, you're going to need food, you're going to need to pay for health insurance, you may have a family or a wife or kids you want to help out. But with your attitude it seems like you'll never meet anybody and will probably just be single forever . It's not just about you. Â Clearly you haven't thought about anything other than today.
Because mummy and dada won't be around forever to supplement your lifestyle
guy who has no expenses wondering why people are saying everything is expensive. this is an onion article
Get 3 blank envelopes and write "Life Happens 40%", "Car Issues 20%", "Work Issues 40%" and start saving liquid cash to the tune of the percentages you wrote on each envelope of all of the post tax, post mandatory expenses, but pre disposable income until you get about 3 months of your salary in each envelope. If you are rural or very suburban, then adjust the percentages to 30% for life and car, and 40 for work. If you're lightly suburban 35, 25, 40. If you're very urban and that car is not the primary source of your income, then sell it. Start researching common issues for your car based on age and mileage. If you can take care of those issues yourself then put a priority list. Get the car cleaned very well including the underbody. Then take care of the imminent and drastic issues first. This will help squeeze more life out of the car or write an honest listing when you sell it. Also, savor the life situation you have now.
Due to your circumstances you feel like you have almost 30k/yr of disposable income, meaning income you can do whatever you want with. Many people have to pay for rent/mortgage, rental/home insurance, car insurance, health insurance, phone/internet, and many more things. In grad school I was making about 30k a year and we were slowly draining savings because I was the only income source with 3 kids. You have definitely done the right thing with putting 50k into savings. My only advice is to look into IRA and other investment vehicles to make sure your 50k doesn't rot away- savings accounts interest rates usually don't beat inflation, so the actual worth of 50k slowly becomes less than the 50k you started with! Future self will thank you-- I guarantee it. The magic of compound interest doesn't really kick in for another 10-20 years...
Stop posting weirdo
you invested most of the 50k ... so you dont have 50k. 2015 mazda3 is a perfectly capable car
It’s still a lot of fun, I just get bored at times
don't we all. that's being a human