sleepy

Thumbs up on planning your finance carefully before diving in.

But like others have pointed out, in your situation it's wiser to spend money on assets that won't depreciate as fast as a sports car, like housing or 401k. When I was 30, I had $120k saved up in my bank and had been dreaming about a 911 for years, but eventually I followed my dad's advice and put that money toward a home while driving a Volkswagen.

Looking back, I'm glad I did. Taught me a valuable lesson on financial stability.

beden1

I really hate the "live for today" mentality of today's millennial generation. For my money, if you don't work hard and smart, save your money now until you can afford to buy toy cars on top of everything else (food and a roof over your head along with savings, etc.), you're just kidding yourself.

You're not there yet. Pay your dues like most of us have done, and when you can actually afford a Porsche, you'll know it because the money is not even an issue.

Until then, may I suggest getting a new Subaru WRX which is something that you can actually afford.

myw

ouch, i think the OP is definitely on the right track for his age, just not quite there yet.

i have seen some youngins (and adults) jumping into expensive cars without their feet firmly planted financially with regards to the bigger picture of their life/family situation. one way or another it never fails to bite them in the a$$...


we must be cosmic twins. back during my day job years; it was all about save + sacrifice. it was getting embarrassing at 31 y.o. still in my 16 year old high milage acura integra (compete with rattles+tailpipe smoke galore). cheers and congrats brother.

CAA

I've read through all the constructive and informed responses so I'll play devil's advocate. You're single, relatively young, and make $64k a year. Who needs a $34k Porsche? The GT3 RS is clearly what you need. ; )

myw

there's no universal rule or answer for this; but the trick is to imo purchase stuff FIRST that depreciates the least and/or has the most returns (ie. home and shelter, or retirement savings). but because this path normally requires the most money, the most discipline+patience and delayed rewards its obviously much easier to go the opposite direction.

the problem is the opposite direction with cars means buying a car that is an absolutely enormous percentage of a young persons net worth, not to mention the cash hemorrhaging for years afterwords (payments/maintenance/depreciation and repairs in the worst case scenario) which further inhibits the accumulation of wealth/assets. while i LOVED the awesome expensive rides some buddies blew their entire paychecks on during their 20s and early 30s; its those same people that have the highest debt/equity positions, and a few of them (reluctantly) do admit that it was a huge mistake now that they are older (mid 30s).

there are threads like this on every forum and from what ive read, the majority of older successful (almost retired) guys say you should have 7 figures net worth before buying cars like this, while alot of the younger guys (understandably) disagree.

would you rather be poor driving a porsche today or rich driving one tomorrow? its really up to your own personal goals, your stage in life and standards for yourself.

TommyV44

I agree with John!!!!!!! Go for it! You only live once…….plenty of time for the other sh*t!

Tom

DareMightyThings

i'm going to say that if you're making 64k, but only plan to dump $100/month into your 401k, you're WAY underfunding your retirement. I don't know how old you are, but the sooner you start setting money aside, the more you gain over time.

Most planners recommend setting aside at least 10-15% of your pretax income for retirement. For you, that's minimum $6,400 a year, or $533.33 a month. If your employer offers any sort of 401k match, you're literally throwing money away by not maxing out whatever they match.

As others have noted, these may be 35-40k cars used, but they're still 80-100k cars to maintain. A set of tires alone can run $2k. With the savings you mentioned, it doesn't seem like you have much of a safety net if anything goes wrong.

sleepy

And the years of patience really brings out the joy of finally owning a Porsche. Cheers!

Jake951

Since you're asking for thoughts, here's my $.02 and it's quite simple. Let's understand that a Porsche is a luxury item. It is *not* a necessity of life. If you cannot afford to pay cash for it, then wait until you can. Take your money and invest it wisely. Before long, you will be able to pay cash. Just because you can manage the payments on a loan doesn't mean it's a wise decision for the long term. The kinds of things you can and should borrow money for are a house or a college education for your kids.

provoste

I'm really surprised that no one has suggested the obvious- buy a less expensive low mileage Porsche. If you have a good chunk to put down towards a mid 30k 997; why wouldn't you look at a clean, well maintained low mileage 944s2, 968, or 986? There's something to be said for buying a car with most of the depreciation out if it.

A new WRX STARTS at 26k and insurance on any turbo car like the WRX is insane! Buy a low miles Boxster S for 17k pay dirt cheap insurance and call it a day.

AFhokie

Buy a 30K 3.2 Carrera that won't depreciate and DD a 7K 2009 Civic. You've got the best of both worlds. I looked at many a 997, but I couldnt rationalize DDing a car with such high mx costs. I make roughly 100K annually.

cluster_fsck

As with almost everything, it depends. I just got my first P-car (997.2 C4 - pix coming) and it's been something I've wanted for quite some time. I'll be 42 this year and have been working my *** off for years, with my first focus on saving: maxing out 401(k)s, IRAs and putting any bonus money into our retirement portfolio and kids' 529s. On top of that, I have an emergency fund of ~$100K and regularly contribute cash into our investments. This is not bragging (I don't make a pile of money) -- these were the inviolate rules I set before I bought my car. Buying my P-car couldn't result in defunding any of these activities. I did finance part of the car because I got such an insanely low interest rate that it made no sense not to.

Do not mortgage your future to buy a car, any car, no matter how badly you want it. Figure out how to rewire your brain to watch your nest grow and get joy from that.

WellDressedCar

Gotta agree with others about paying yourself first, then getting the car later. You should be maxing out your 401k every month. That means $17,500 a year, which is $1,458 you should be contributing every month. You won't get approved for a mortgage without enough money to cover your closing costs and down payment. So, you need to save for that too, which will take you a couple of years. Be disciplined and don't buy the car. You simply can't afford it if you want to stop working by the time you're 60. Check back in a few years when you've built a cash reserve and have your financial house in order. You'll be making more money then and hopefully will have invested any bonus money or promotion money.

richard181

How about a boxer?? good one can be found in the low 20's

dasams

Huh? The stock market has been appreciating since it's creation. Agreed there have been ups and downs but the S&P 500 hit an all time high today.

Historically, houses have been one of your best investments although it's painfully clear that the recent bubble was an oopsie.

IMO, you shouldn't buy a P car or similar high priced, high maintenance sports car unless you have a min net worth of $1M. I realize that the majority of Porsche buyers aren't in this camp but a lot of them won't be driving P cars in retirement either.