M3 affordability

[M3NACE90]

Thanks everyone for your input. Also when I say 40k on a car that is after taxes, that being said I feel that what better place to ask then a place where everyone owns m3s. Everyone's opinions still have me in the middle, but the way I think of it is I can enjoy the car save for another year or 2 and be able to put a nice down payment on a home as well

[FType22]

There are a lot of smart people on the forums and in this thread who are able to think rationally about your question. They don't have the passion or excitement you currently have when considering the very real possibility of owning such a bad ass machine.

Here's my opinion: do it. Not for YOLO or because why not, but because anyone responsible enough to save that kind of money at that age is obviously smart enough not to ruin their financial future on a car. When I was 22 I made peanuts but still found ways to buy cars I wanted. For some it's cars others is clubs and bitches. You'll have plenty of time to buy a house and I'm sure enough money. You may have to skip going out with friends or work OT. Whatever you choose, I say go with the heart in this one, follow the passion because money will always be there for you to earn.

[617E90M3]

Why Buy a house? Because that's what society tells you to do? Market now is such that you should only be buying a house If you want to live in it / Own it for the next 7-10 years. Unless you are in some booming upcoming town, a house isn't what it was for people in their 40's and up.

I know I will NOT be in my current state in the next 3 years. What about you?

[simonc1]

Congrats on being able to save that money and making a $100k+ salary at 22 years old. Really impressive.

I would vote against getting the car since you could do so much with that money early on. If you do decide to do it however you should look into financing it since you make more than enough to comfortably afford the payments and while you will be paying a little more over the long term you could invest the funds that you would've used to pay the car in cash. Freeing up that capital is essential.

Remember that that $40k M3 is quickly going to depreciate. Buying real estate can be a good investment but my personal opinion is that the market overvalued right now and that it's probably cheaper to rent. Plus at 22 y/o it'd be nice to not be tied down to one place because of a mortgage.

[STooK]

You are doing better than me and I'm almost a decade older. According to what everyone says I made a poor choice buying a M3 for over $50k but I disagree. Sure it might not have been the smartest purchase but I'm happy with it and that's all that matters.

You can more than comfortably afford a M3 so if it's your dream car and it's all you're thinking about then definitely get one. Put $10k down and finance the rest and pay it off in a few years. That way it you don't blow all your savings, get the car you want, and have the best of both worlds.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

[KFN]

All the major points have been covered: Depreciating asset vs. investing wisely, maintenance costs, delayed gratification, etc. Cars are almost never the rational choice, but if we all made the smart choice, we would be driving Camrys. We're enthusiasts, and made the M3 decision based on our own very subjective calculations.

Another thing to consider is what kind of driving you (can) do. I have yet to get my car to the track (ask some of these guys what happens to maintenance costs with regular track use), which leaves my daily commute as the only way to enjoy it. Chicago is not a very exciting place to drive, and I find myself frustrated by the fact that the M3, along with most high performance cars, doesn't really get fun to pilot until you are well into illegal/asshole/dangerous territory. Sometimes I wish I were driving something that is more engaging at lower speeds. Don't get me wrong, the M3 is a fantastic car, it's comfortable, well built, and you know the rest, but I often question if I really needed 400+hp to get to work (the answer is, of course, YES).

I agree with the other posters who suggest talking to a financial advisor. Make sure you have your fundamentals in place, then make an educated decision.

Good luck!

[M3NACE90]

I did it

[KFN]

Originally Posted by Babatsikos321

I did it

Congrats and welcome to the club! Did you end up with a sedan?

Now get over to the general forum and post some pics!

[SpacegrayMe90]

Wow, 22 and making that kind of salary. You really had good fortune finding such a high paying occupation right out college? Ten years ago at your age, I was not remotely making close to your income. Good luck to you in any event, as you seem to be "young and doing it"(slang talk) lol

[BimmerRookie]

Originally Posted by SpacegrayMe90

Wow, 22 and making that kind of salary. You really had good fortune finding such a high paying occupation right out college? Ten years ago at your age, I was not remotely making close to your income. Good luck to you in any event, as you seem to be "young and doing it"(slang talk) lol

Tbh, with the proper college undergrad degree (and value-adding summer internships) and GPA it's fairly common these days...Not saying everyone can, but if you work hard enough, it's attainable

[Iyzmi]

Originally Posted by BimmerRookie

Tbh, with the proper college undergrad degree (and value-adding summer internships) and GPA it's fairly common these days...Not saying everyone can, but if you work hard enough, it's attainable

It also depends on the area. If you're in San Francisco with an IT degree for example, that salary would be pretty normal.

[M3NACE90]

Picking it up saturday, space gray on fox red e90,still having second thoughts lol. As for the job its union, pays well, worked hard in a lot of trades and the right people noticed and it got me where i am now.

[car_craft]

i would have said buy the m3 but maybe an e46 or e36 since there is a ton of aftermarket support for them and they are cheaper to buy and cheaper to upgrade than the e9x platform at the moment. and equally fun to drive. i would have also said finance the car at a comfortable payment, and buy a rental property with the remaining savings so that you can generate additional income, and buy a second or third rental property down the road and start a real estate empire. then you can be asking the question which Mclaren should i buy, lol. but since your young you could still do that anyway i guess.

[617E90M3]

Grat's on the purchase man!!

[aris21]

Probably have been said by other members already.

Move out of your parents house and buy/rent a property first. You did well saving 50K in such a young age but don't blow it on a car which is one of the fastest depreciating asset ever. Invest your money and if you really want an M get a loan with good interest rate so that the value of your well saved money doesn't depreciate with the car.

I know its tempting and it's soooooo affordable right? However, it also depends on your priorities. This is just my 2 cent


LOL - I NOTICED YOU BOUGHT IT ALREADY! CONGRATS! POST SOME PICS.

[abc.xyz]

CONGRATS! that makes two of us

I was in a similar situation as you half a year ago. 23, have ~70k (CAD) saved up from internships and a bit of gain from investments. I was lucky that I didn't have to pay (most of) my undergrad tuition. I secured a job at abc.xyz () before graduating, so I knew I'll be going to the states; with comparable salary as yours. having driven ever since I legally can, I knew I'll need a car. Can't lease without US credit, so I either buy a new car outright, or most likely some 5k 15yo honda accord (they're great reliable). with CAD tanking compared to USD, I decided why not, and bought a great condition low mileage stripper 08 e92 m3 6mt for under 40k CAD after everything.

I then drove that from Toronto to the SF bay area by myself in 7 days visiting all the possible touristy places along the way. Lately I have been thinking about investment properties. Rent isn't the cheapest where I'm at, but with this shack being sold for over 400k in SF, 30k (USD) isn't gonna make a big difference in the grand scheme of things, whether it be how long it takes to save that up, and how much power it has in terms of buying a place.

I've always wanted an m3 ever since having test driven one of my friend's. I started with the family Sienna; when that thing died at 350k km got a sh!tty used chevy venture, which promptly died not long after, and family leased a 14 accord v6. I've test driven reasonable cars like the toyobaru twins and the audi s4. none compared to the m3 (obviously). although I like to gawk at P cars, the m3 still puts a smile to my face every time I get in it, whether for commute or weekend trips.

relax, your situation is by no means a bad situation

[OneSickM]

Originally Posted by aleck

CONGRATS! that makes two of us

I was in a similar situation as you half a year ago. 23, have ~70k (CAD) saved up from internships and a bit of gain from investments. I was lucky that I didn't have to pay (most of) my undergrad tuition. I secured a job at abc.xyz () before graduating, so I knew I'll be going to the states; with comparable salary as yours. having driven ever since I legally can, I knew I'll need a car. Can't lease without US credit, so I either buy a new car outright, or most likely some 5k 15yo honda accord (they're great reliable). with CAD tanking compared to USD, I decided why not, and bought a great condition low mileage stripper 08 e92 m3 6mt for under 40k CAD after everything.

I then drove that from Toronto to the SF bay area by myself in 7 days visiting all the possible touristy places along the way. Lately I have been thinking about investment properties. Rent isn't the cheapest where I'm at, but with this shack being sold for over 400k in SF, 30k (USD) isn't gonna make a big difference in the grand scheme of things, whether it be how long it takes to save that up, and how much power it has in terms of buying a place.

I've always wanted an m3 ever since having test driven one of my friend's. I started with the family Sienna; when that thing died at 350k km got a sh!tty used chevy venture, which promptly died not long after, and family leased a 14 accord v6. I've test driven reasonable cars like the toyobaru twins and the audi s4. none compared to the m3 (obviously). although I like to gawk at P cars, the m3 still puts a smile to my face every time I get in it, whether for commute or weekend trips.

relax, your situation is by no means a bad situation

Out of topic question, so how people manage to buy a house in SF when the median income for single person is $80,875 (according to this website). How people can afford buying a house??!!

[-BEASTMW-]

Originally Posted by OneSickM

Out of topic question, so how people manage to buy a house in SF when the median income for single person is $80,875 (according to this website). How people can afford buying a house??!!

No idea. I live in the area and my wife and I are DINKs (double income, no kids), both MBAs making 6 figs and with only my student loans for debt and pretty responsible spending. We pay $2,400/mo for a 1990s 1bd apartment in the suburbs and could barely afford a 3-bd townhouse in an okay area with crap schools (which we won't because we think the market is overheated and I can't stomach paying $700/sq ft) It's downright depressing. I've been campaigning to move back to Seattle, where it may not be as sunny but you can get a freaking palace with 9/10 or 10/10 rated schools 15min from downtown for the same price. And Seattle is not a cheap place, either!

[Bucki14]

Originally Posted by -BEASTMW-

No idea. I live in the area and my wife and I are DINKs (double income, no kids), both MBAs making 6 figs and with only my student loans for debt and pretty responsible spending. We pay $2,400/mo for a 1990s 1bd apartment in the suburbs and could barely afford a 3-bd townhouse in an okay area with crap schools (which we won't because we think the market is overheated and I can't stomach paying $700/sq ft) It's downright depressing. I've been campaigning to move back to Seattle, where it may not be as sunny but you can get a freaking palace with 9/10 or 10/10 rated schools 15min from downtown for the same price. And Seattle is not a cheap place, either!

Wow reading that made me cringe...its like 3rd world country type shit going on over there in the housing market. I pay like 950 where I am for a 1600sqft (New Development) townhome. I couldn't fathom those cost! and your both well off too sheesh...

Also, to that point I heard Seattle was not far off from turning into a SF fiasco

So sad too because i'd love to experience the west coast living.

[-BEASTMW-]

Originally Posted by Bucki14

Wow reading that made me cringe...its like 3rd world country type shit going on over there in the housing market. I pay like 950 where I am for a 1600sqft (New Development) townhome. I couldn't fathom those cost! and your both well off too sheesh...

Also, to that point I heard Seattle was not far off from turning into a SF fiasco

So sad too because i'd love to experience the west coast living.

Prices in the very central areas of Seattle are Bay Area level now. BUT the difference is you can go 10 miles in any direction and still get, say, a brand new 3k sq ft house for $700-800k, or a 2k sq ft older house for $400-500k easy. In the Bay Area, the peninsula is 50 miles long and there are great tech jobs all along, so anywhere along there is very expensive. East Bay (Oakland, Fremont, etc.) you might pay 15-20% less but have a horrible commute. A pretty high-ranking guy in my office (which is in San Jose) gets to work at 6-6:30am just to miss an awful commute. No way to live, IMO.

The worst part is with rent so high, building the savings to climb that mountain of buying a decent house is that much harder. We might have to move into a 2-bd next year, which will be $3k/mo if you don't want a pretty crappy place. Not to mention everything else is really expensive. You pay ~8% state income tax, ~9% sales tax, and also property tax (WA has no state income tax! I took a several-hundred-dollar a month cut just moving here). Gas is maybe $0.50 more than in WA. You go to the grocery store and nothing is on sale. Hell, taking the commuter train up to SF for a bi-weekly meeting costs me $25 each time. $25/day for public transportation! Oh, and a couple years ago in my corporate housing in SF, metered street parking was $7.50/hr. You could see a movie and the parking would cost more than the movie ticket.

But hey, it was 70 and sunny last weekend, in late November. So there's that. Granted, no offense to your hometown but there's a lot of cool stuff to do vs. Ohio. /rant

[abc.xyz]

Originally Posted by -BEASTMW-

Prices in the very central areas of Seattle are Bay Area level now. BUT the difference is you can go 10 miles in any direction and still get, say, a brand new 3k sq ft house for $700-800k, or a 2k sq ft older house for $400-500k easy. In the Bay Area, the peninsula is 50 miles long and there are great tech jobs all along, so anywhere along there is very expensive. East Bay (Oakland, Fremont, etc.) you might pay 15-20% less but have a horrible commute. A pretty high-ranking guy in my office (which is in San Jose) gets to work at 6-6:30am just to miss an awful commute. No way to live, IMO.

The worst part is with rent so high, building the savings to climb that mountain of buying a decent house is that much harder. We might have to move into a 2-bd next year, which will be $3k/mo if you don't want a pretty crappy place. Not to mention everything else is really expensive. You pay ~8% state income tax, ~9% sales tax, and also property tax (WA has no state income tax! I took a several-hundred-dollar a month cut just moving here). Gas is maybe $0.50 more than in WA. You go to the grocery store and nothing is on sale. Hell, taking the commuter train up to SF for a bi-weekly meeting costs me $25 each time. $25/day for public transportation! Oh, and a couple years ago in my corporate housing in SF, metered street parking was $7.50/hr. You could see a movie and the parking would cost more than the movie ticket.

But hey, it was 70 and sunny last weekend, in late November. So there's that. Granted, no offense to your hometown but there's a lot of cool stuff to do vs. Ohio. /rant

It's a capitalist market really. IF you can afford to buy a place here as a young, single professional (i.e. with parents' help etc.), then you can save on rent yourself as well as make money renting out part of your place (even if it's the living room). This should be more than enough to offset mortgage rates, and assuming housing prices will keep going up, this is definitely the way to go if it's an option.

Now will housing prices keep going up? This seems likely assuming rent continues to go up (high investment high return). And rent will continue to go up just because it can. Baring a tech crunch, big companies will always pay enough to justify new hires to come to the area; with the available opportunities here, it's much easier to find something in the area with a bigger take-home paycheck even after rent than it is in other areas. opportunities and culture are also other major pluses for those in tech.

It's basically an ever-increasing equilibrium. Big companies grows fast enough and make enough money to support the higher salaries needed for the ever increasing rent increase, which supports the housing price increase. who ultimately wins? people with enough money to buy investment properties.

[M3NACE90]

Originally Posted by aleck

CONGRATS! that makes two of us

I was in a similar situation as you half a year ago. 23, have ~70k (CAD) saved up from internships and a bit of gain from investments. I was lucky that I didn't have to pay (most of) my undergrad tuition. I secured a job at abc.xyz () before graduating, so I knew I'll be going to the states; with comparable salary as yours. having driven ever since I legally can, I knew I'll need a car. Can't lease without US credit, so I either buy a new car outright, or most likely some 5k 15yo honda accord (they're great reliable). with CAD tanking compared to USD, I decided why not, and bought a great condition low mileage stripper 08 e92 m3 6mt for under 40k CAD after everything.

I then drove that from Toronto to the SF bay area by myself in 7 days visiting all the possible touristy places along the way. Lately I have been thinking about investment properties. Rent isn't the cheapest where I'm at, but with this shack being sold for over 400k in SF, 30k (USD) isn't gonna make a big difference in the grand scheme of things, whether it be how long it takes to save that up, and how much power it has in terms of buying a place.

I've always wanted an m3 ever since having test driven one of my friend's. I started with the family Sienna; when that thing died at 350k km got a sh!tty used chevy venture, which promptly died not long after, and family leased a 14 accord v6. I've test driven reasonable cars like the toyobaru twins and the audi s4. none compared to the m3 (obviously). although I like to gawk at P cars, the m3 still puts a smile to my face every time I get in it, whether for commute or weekend trips.

relax, your situation is by no means a bad situation

Haha I try to remind myself that I'm stressing over the fact of owning an m3 when there are millions of people who couldn't even imagine doing so, I am damn grateful for that. Another topic I was thinking of posting was the daily driving factor and if its worth dailying the car, I told myself I was no doubt going to daily drive it but was secretly thinking of getting a p.o.s daily with liability only.....