itrsteve

You're already off on on the right foot.

Manifold

Honestly, for a combined family income of a govt mech engineer + ICU nurse, a Porsche costing over $75K may not be the best use of your money. Nice used Porsches can be had for a lot less than that (e.g., 987 Cayman or Boxster, 997 C2 or C2S), and just about any sporty Porsche is amply fun for public road use. I have five Porsches in the garage, and I don't always reach for the keys of the expensive ones (or at least I didn't in the pre-pandemic days when I had somewhere to go!).

itrsteve

Great suggestion. Personally, I feel a little silly that I convinced myself that it was a GT3 or nothing for my first Porsche and shot directly to it.

In retrospect, I should have been open to the idea of a decent 997 C2S or something of the sort much earlier and then reassessed if a GT car was absolutely necessary after having tastes and requirements refined from an existing 911 ownership experience.

parkerfe

I'm an attorney, been practicing for 35+ years now.
Quit high school and joined the US Navy at 17.
Then, college and law school followed.
I love what I do and always told my children to do what you love... telling them that I graduated from law school in 1985 and haven't worked a day since!
Six Ferrari's, six Porsche's and 4 BMW M cars later, I'm thinking of retiring within a few years.
IMHO, if you consider what you do to earn money "work" or a "job", find something else to do.
With the rare exception, people who are financially successful got that way by doing what they love doing.

sdm100

Older doctors who cared about patients, were independent minded and ran there own businesses could do well and afford their toys. Unfortunately now it’s all corporate have patient quotas, less time for patients hell some don’t even touch the patients and do a physical exam. That dealing with insurance and Obamacare will drastically reduce physician income. I still love the profession but not the system. COVID will push many docs who considered retiring out the door. Now we will be able to enjoy our Porsche . Good lunch to the patients

rsbenfield

Still trying to figure out what I want do when I grow up, currently in the IT business, but fortunate enough to afford a few toys along the way through hard work, living beneath our means and patient/consistent investing.

My saying..."You only fly around this planet one time, might as well enjoy it while/if you can!"

Great thread...enjoyed everyone's stories...very inspirational!

k1wi

really thought about getting the 987.1 CS. However, I don't really change cars and I always go with do it right the first time so I don't do it again motto up to the means and budget. Even if my wife and I do not move up in career, we will make low 200's. I just hope to buy this GT4 and keep it until I can't drive it anymore. What really scares me is that all these cars are switching over to electric. I feel like there won't be a good sounding flat 6 porsches in the near future...

k1wi

I do agree that 75K could go into a good investing where it'll benefit me in 20 years... However, I wanted to ask, you probably have 0 regret on buying the GT car as your first P car though, right?

k1wi

" never forget your values and the people that care about you" that is so true. Moved to the US when I was 13. Didn't speak any English and somehow came to this day. Lately working with COVID, I've been reflecting on how important people around me are.
Also, this forum is very much different than the BMW forum (wanted an E92 m3 since I was in highschool but now moved onto Porsche). While BMW forum is active and energetic, this forum seems filled with gentlemen.

k1wi

I would love to drive it daily, the only issue is I live in Michigan and I cannot live with the idea of getting salt on the car. I picked up a 17 Acura TLX (good ol ka20 engine) with 16k miles +CPO for dirt cheap as soon as Dealerships reopened (may ish) and they cut 9k off the car to move it so I jumped on it. Plan to ride it till this car falls apart.

bigdog1250

Don't need to be saving people's lives to earn respect...

tgavem

I purchased my first Porsche at 40, since a toy, decided to wait until I could pay cash. Then at 43 had 3 Porsches.
now at 50, newer Porsches (back to two + Q5 for wife and Jetta for daughter) and all paid for. Ocean engineer and work in oil and gas, yes we still have jobs and hopefully for 13 more years.

Thought I had good career but a friend of a friend just purchased a Senna, owns and operates car washes in Houston area.

Agentorange

37yrs old, Wildland firefighter (hotshot) for the Forest Circus (sorry, Service) that works 6mo of the year.
Wife is a travel nurse that makes 3x my income.

No kids.

Im basically a trophy husband that takes care of cats and invests our money.

🏆🕺🏽➕👩🏼‍⚕️🐈🐈🐈‍⬛

k1wi

LOL If my wife was okay with me doing travel nursing for COVID ICU, I could go out and buy this GT4 this year.. but sadly she's not letting me leave, not even to downtown Detroit where I am 35 min away as she sees it "dangerous"...

Manifold

Newer Porsches are more refined and have a higher performance limit, but for the road the older Porsches can be just as much (or more) fun. Personally, I think the GT cars (we have a 991.1 GT3 and 981 GT4) are a bit too much car for the road. You mentioned the 997 GT3 - you would pay a collectors premium for that one, and can get most of the pleasure of it for about half the price with a 997 C2S. My lowly manual 997.1 C2S, bought for about $40K used, is my favorite Porsche for the road.

Low $200s is a good income to accumulate savings and eventually get to a point of being able to buy some toys with the pleasure of not being concerned about the cost. Too many people stretch to buy an expensive Porsche, then hardly drive it because of fear of losing resale value. I find that cars are generally more enjoyable when driven, rather than admired in the garage as art objects.