Curious, how much as a % of your take home do you pay for your car?

[budfox]

Or used to pay if its paid off?

[budfox]

Monthly expense to Monthly net

[1ScientisT]

12%

[lencho1500]

if its just the car payment its around 10% net income, more if adding insurance, gas, maintenance.

Why the question?

[texasboy21]

Paid off as of 2007 My Mazdaspeed was about 20% but I paid that bitch off in less than a year.

[Myst420]

13% here....And only 2 payments left!! Can't wait till I can say she's officially mine!

[olstyn]

Usually approximately 13-14% just for the car payment, but that varies a bit; it depends on how many hours I get in any given pay period and whether or not there was any holiday pay or overtime involved. As was mentioned by lencho1500, insurance, gas, and maintenance add to that. Gas alone comes close to doubling it a significant amount of the time, and insurance is not quite 5%, so add in a few bucks a month for oil changes and other random maintenance stuff and I'm probably at about 30%. Man, why did you have to make me calculate that? :(

[budfox]

Haha sorry man. Im thinking about a new car, and FEELlike i might be stretching it too thin but id be around 15-18%(have 2nd job where my income fluctuates). I just wanted to see if that was the case relative to others.

[KFizz]

I think most of my money goes into the car at the moment. No Joke.

Averaged over the year though, I'd say about 25%. But my car is also my #1 hobby, I like spending money on it.

[drjonez]

Paid cash for it....3 years ago.

[sandspeed]

My R32 is 8%, the A4 is barely 4%.

[the sheriff]

car payments? what are those? I'll never go back to those things....pay cash or find a car you can.....

[achilleas101]

when i bought it new in 03 it was about 10.5-11% of take home, after tax income, after putting 12k down from selling my old car. i also owned my condo then which took about 50-52% of my monthly take home after condo fee and property tax . So if you're considering what is stretched too thin, you have to consider what your other expenses are, rent/mortgage being the biggest.

[achilleas101]

car payments? what are those? I'll never go back to those things....pay cash or find a car you can.....

if you can get a low interest loan like what is being offered out there, that's just silly. it's all about opportunity cost. If you're paying 1, 2, 3% interest for 5 years, allowing you to take that cash and invest it in something that would have a return of more than that, you're better off taking the loan and investing the cash. Now if you are the type to just stuff the cash under a mattress, then paying all cash would work for you. Its just not the best money management advice to give. :)

[the sheriff]

if you can get a low interest loan like what is being offered out there, that's just silly. it's all about opportunity cost. If you're paying 1, 2, 3% interest for 5 years, allowing you to take that cash and invest it in something that would have a return of more than that, you're better off taking the loan and investing the cash. Now if you are the type to just stuff the cash under a mattress, then paying all cash would work for you. Its just not the best money management advice to give. :)

technically, you're correct.....to a degree. However, this is the real world and in the real world - how many people would truly end up investing the cash on a monthly basis into something more interest bearing? Slim to none.....the math supports your theory, human nature doesn't though.....

[AudiA4_20T]

paid all my projects off free and clear.

[KFizz]

technically, you're correct.....to a degree. However, this is the real world and in the real world - how many people would truly end up investing the cash on a monthly basis into something more interest bearing? Slim to none.....the math supports your theory, human nature doesn't though.....

But even if it's not invested, it's money in your pocket as opposed to the dealerships. For most people financing allows people to afford a significantly more expensive vehicle. What if my wife and I both need new vehicles? Are we supposed to wait until we save up $70k+ ?

There is nothing wrong with financing something, providing you can legitimately afford the payments. The problem is financing beyond your means. And this is common unfortunately.

[the sheriff]

But even if it's not invested, it's money in your pocket as opposed to the dealerships. For most people financing allows people to afford a significantly more expensive vehicle. What if my wife and I both need new vehicles? Are we supposed to wait until we save up $70k+ ?

There is nothing wrong with financing something, providing you can legitimately afford the payments. The problem is financing beyond your means. And this is common unfortunately.

well, if you both need new cars and don't have cash to pay for new cars, don't buy "new" cars, or even cars that cost $35k each......each buy used vehicles for cash. problem solved :)

[olstyn]

well, if you both need new cars and don't have cash to pay for new cars, don't buy "new" cars, or even cars that cost $35k each......each buy used vehicles for cash. problem solved :)

Must be nice being rich so you can buy (decent) cars for cash. As long as you're not borrowing beyond what you can afford to pay back, there's no problem. Couldn't have bought my A4 for cash even though it was used, but affording the payments hasn't been a problem for me, and in fact, I now have more cash than my remaining debt on it. That said, my interest rate is pretty low, and I only owe a few thousand more on it, so the remaining interest to pay is not huge. I'd rather have the cash on hand in case of emergency...

[IVRINGS]

I'm only at about 10-11% with only like 2-3,000 left. The downpayment on the house took all the fun money away, and lets not forget about the house stuff that we keep doing.

[daihashi]

I was paying about $300. I guess that would be 6-7%? Yet I'm still always broke lately. 2012 has been a bitch :(

[daihashi]

Paid off as of 2007 My Mazdaspeed was about 20% but I paid that bitch off in less than a year.

Very nice, that's my plan for the next car I purchase. I've gotten so used to living poor this year that I think I could do this and not even be phased

[B6A4Dave]

Bought my A4 out right...no payments...

[the sheriff]

Must be nice being rich so you can buy (decent) cars for cash. As long as you're not borrowing beyond what you can afford to pay back, there's no problem. Couldn't have bought my A4 for cash even though it was used, but affording the payments hasn't been a problem for me, and in fact, I now have more cash than my remaining debt on it. That said, my interest rate is pretty low, and I only owe a few thousand more on it, so the remaining interest to pay is not huge. I'd rather have the cash on hand in case of emergency...

who said anything about being rich? hardly! I went from owning an 06 B7 A4 to a titanium edition 08 B7 A4 to getting sick of throwing money away and bought a used '03 Avant with 119k miles on the clock in clean running order for $7,500 (some may say I over paid, here in the NW, that's a deal). $7,500 isn't a lot of money for a used car and certainly doesn't imply being rich. Regular maintenance costs like any other vehicle and I've got an extra $500 in my pocket every month......I'm not saying financing is bad, clearly I've done it. However in a day and age where it's tough to get a head, regardless of your income status, needless expenditures are hardly the way. Just my opinion.

[daihashi]

who said anything about being rich? hardly! I went from owning an 06 B7 A4 to a titanium edition 08 B7 A4 to getting sick of throwing money away and bought a used '03 Avant with 119k miles on the clock in clean running order for $7,500 (some may say I over paid, here in the NW, that's a deal). $7,500 isn't a lot of money for a used car and certainly doesn't imply being rich. Regular maintenance costs like any other vehicle and I've got an extra $500 in my pocket every month......I'm not saying financing is bad, clearly I've done it. However in a day and age where it's tough to get a head, regardless of your income status, needless expenditures are hardly the way. Just my opinion.

Yep, paying cash up front doesn't mean you're rich. Just means you don't want to pay 50% more for the car (in the form of compounded interest) than what it's worth. ;)

[olstyn]

Yep, paying cash up front doesn't mean you're rich. Just means you don't want to pay 50% more for the car (in the form of compounded interest) than what it's worth. ;)

Something about the way he said it made it sound that way to me. Anyway, I'm certainly not paying 50% more for my car than the purchase price. I'll have paid under $1000 in interest over the total term of my loan, which IMO isn't too bad for the convenience of not having had to pay $11K in one shot. Now, with higher interest rates, it could certainly be problematic, but with rates where they've been for the last few years, the interest really isn't a big deal.

[daihashi]

Something about the way he said it made it sound that way to me. Anyway, I'm certainly not paying 50% more for my car than the purchase price. I'll have paid under $1000 in interest over the total term of my loan, which IMO isn't too bad for the convenience of not having had to pay $11K in one shot. Now, with higher interest rates, it could certainly be problematic, but with rates where they've been for the last few years, the interest really isn't a big deal.

True, everything is different depending on a person's situation or how far out they are able to plan for it. 50% was way overboard, I'll admit... no one is paying that much... at least I hope not, but $1k over the life of a loan is still 10% higher than the worth of a car that will only depreciate from the moment you buy it. It's 10% more of the loan, but by the time you pay off the loan that $1k can be more like 25% of the value of the car (again, when paid off).

Just depends on how you look at it. I keep the two amounts separate, there is the loan amount to purchase the car and the interest amount. Even though you pay the interest throughout the life of the loan, I apply it against the value of the car once you paid the loan off. I've heard people refer to it as the "stupidity tax", which I've been guilty of paying on more than one occasion.

[KFizz]

So I assume you've applied this same principal towards the purchase of your home.

[the sheriff]

lets be honest.....none of us are financial wizards, some of us may be in favorable financial situations however any of us, myself included - that mod cars - we're throwing away cash. Yes, you can see it as an "entertainment" expense, but it's lost money with no return value. So, I guess you can view ones interest paid on a loan the same you can as mod purchasing. It's all about perception. I just feel better about modding when the title is in hand :)

[daihashi]

So I assume you've applied this same principal towards the purchase of your home.

I could, and I do pay alot more per month than is required by my mortgage in an attempt to put more money towards the principal instead of the interest.... but I can easily scrape together 10-15k to buy a decent used car. Trying to scrape together 150k or more is quite a bit more difficult, especially as a first time home buyer; making a mortgage almost the only way to get into a house.

Everything is relative to the situation at hand; which in turn is specific/different for each individual.

[KFizz]

lets be honest.....none of us are financial wizards, some of us may be in favorable financial situations however any of us, myself included - that mod cars - we're throwing away cash. Yes, you can see it as an "entertainment" expense, but it's lost money with no return value. So, I guess you can view ones interest paid on a loan the same you can as mod purchasing. It's all about perception. I just feel better about modding when the title is in hand :)

Agreed.

I could, and I do pay alot more per month than is required by my mortgage in an attempt to put more money towards the principal instead of the interest.... but I can easily scrape together 10-15k to buy a decent used car. Trying to scrape together 150k or more is quite a bit more difficult, especially as a first time home buyer; making a mortgage almost the only way to get into a house.

Everything is relative to the situation at hand.

I dont expect anyone would be buying their first home, or any home likely, without a mortgage. I was just being cheeky. I guess my view on the situation is a little different. For me, the added interest in the long run is a fair tradeoff for having more spending money day to day. In other words, financing allows me to purchase the things I want (car), while not drastically effecting my standard of living.

I hope that came out right. Anyhow, getting a little off topic now. I guess there are 2 streams of thought here. Thats fine.

[32_d3gr33s]

of just my take home or my family's take home?

if its just mine, its about 20%. but then again my payment is damn near 500 bucks...

[daihashi]

I dont expect anyone would be buying their first home, or any home likely, without a mortgage. I was just being cheeky. I guess my view on the situation is a little different. For me, the added interest in the long run is a fair tradeoff for having more spending money day to day. In other words, financing allows me to purchase the things I want (car), while not drastically effecting my standard of living.

I hope that came out right. Anyhow, getting a little off topic now. I guess there are 2 streams of thought here. Thats fine.

Oh I know.. and everyone is different. Part of my mentality is that I grew up really poor; even though I make a great salary now, part of that way of thinking has stuck with me even though I know in a lot of cases the savings benefit is marginal overall. I really do want to pay off my House as soon as I can though. With the amortization schedule I think I end up paying like double the amount of my total loan... House loans are crazy!!

Everyone has their own way of thinking and none of them are wrong. :)

[Bische]

Uhm, 90%.

cant wait to get everything up and running, then some months spoiling myself with like clothes and maybe buying some good whiskey...