Nervous about spending

My advice: Buy the car and direct in your will that you be buried in it. Then count the cost in your long term budget as a prepaid funeral expense. Presto.

-BB
 
You know your finances. If your finances support spending the money on yourself, then spend it on yourself by buying the car if you want to. I'm of the opinion that my finances dictate how much money I can afford to spend on discretionary items and I decide what discretionary items to spend that money on.
 
The most we have ever paid for a vehicle was $35k for a new truck... I can't ever see me spending $53k for a car when so many god cars are available for so much less... and I like cars and plan to get a used sports car someday soon... but there are lots of used two-seaters that would be a lot of fun available for less than half of that $53k that the OP plans to spend.
 
Well, that $53K car is used. Maybe it costs more than $100K new.
 
As another poster wrote, I think it's critical to have the car inspected by a trusted mechanic. I won't say whether he SHOULD buy the car -- that's his choice, maybe factoring in the opinions given here. But a $53,000 used sports car may need repairs. If OP is buying this with eyes open and recognizing that possibility, so much the better.
Right or wrong, I have an impression of the prior owner really pushing the car to its limits, and that might mean a need for immediate and costly repairs.
 
I would buy a new car. It's just me, I have not bought anything used.
 
daylatedollarshort said:
I don't get that part either. Expensive travel doesn't get deemed as wasteful here usually but cars often are deemed frivolous purchases, yet cars have resale value. A car kept for ten years could have a very frugal cost per hour of enjoyment.
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(emphasis mine)
Well, sometimes I insinuate that expensive international travel is a giant, bottomless black hole into which one can throw infinite amounts of money..... :blush: But usually there aren't many who agree with me. :LOL:
 
W2R said:
...
Well, sometimes I insinuate that expensive international travel is a giant, bottomless black hole into which one can throw infinite amounts of money..... :blush: But usually there aren't many who agree with me. :LOL:
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Actually, I agree with you. But, it is our drug of choice--and we are looking forward to determining if there are safe dosage limits! :LOL:
 
IMG_0226.JPG I'm going to vote in favor of the car. For some of us, that is our "thing".
 
Well I am going to put this to a rest. Everyone has been great. I don't golf, I don't live a lavish lifestyle, i don't have a vacation home, I put one son through college and our income more than covers our living expenses. i did pay off the Cadillac as it was bothering me to have that debt even though the interest rate was less than I was earning on my money. i ran the numbers through firecalc and I still have a 100% rate with the $50k reduction so I bought the car. My wife and I are looking forward to hitting the road next week to Nashville and ft Walton in it.
 
Chief322 said:
Well I am going to put this to a rest. Everyone has been great. I don't golf, I don't live a lavish lifestyle, i don't have a vacation home, I put one son through college and our income more than covers our living expenses. i did pay off the Cadillac as it was bothering me to have that debt even though the interest rate was less than I was earning on my money. i ran the numbers through firecalc and I still have a 100% rate with the $50k reduction so I bought the car. My wife and I are looking forward to hitting the road next week to Nashville and ft Walton in it.
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Good choice, Happy cruising!
 
Enjoy the car! I just gave myself a "raise" by increasing my withdrawal rate in order to up my entertainment budget. I ran the numbers and we still end up in good financial shape even if we live to be well over 100. So I'm going to enjoy a few extra outings each month.
 
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deadshort52 said:
The OP didn't ask whether he could afford to buy the car. He asked, How any of the others dealt with spending their savings or if there were any regrets.

I would not look at it as spending $53,000.00. I would look at it as an entertainment expense. Lets just say you buy the car and lose interest in a number of years and you are able to sell it for a decent price (you may even make a little) because it is a desirable car. You may only spend what adds up to a few thousand dollars a year. I am sure the people that golf, fish, take pictures, travel or whatever spend a couple thousand a year and they are fine with it. In other words if you were to come on here and ask if you should spend $2000.00 a year to golf you would get a lot of approval. It's all how you want to spend YOUR money. Your wife is still working with her own pension and it seems like your needs are met and the bills are paid If you are comfortable with reducing your portfolio for what could be temporary, do it. It is really no one else's business to tell you if they would do it or not.
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Well said. I was actually thinking along the same lines.

Although I wouldn't be able to sleep with the thought of spending that kind of dough on a car, I could spend it in a heartbeat if the right vacation home/condo came along. That's because the vacation home thing "floats my boat" (as former college roommate said) and spending on cars does not.

OP will not likely lose all the money he is planning on spending if the fun wears off and he sells. $10k-15k may be cheap to scratch that itch.
 
A vacation home usually costs a lot more than $53K though. And the operating expense is a lot more than that of a car also.

The consolation is that a home usually does not depreciate to nearly zero as a car usually does. Still, the total amount going into a home dwarfs that expense for a car, over the car's life of say 10 years.
 
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The point being, we all have our hot button items. Could be golf. Could be extensive travel. Could be expensive booze....

We all justify our hot buttons. And if we express them on a forum, any forum, we are going to find people who think it is a crazy way to spend retirement stash.

But it works for us.
 
True. We all like to spend our money in our own way. And we tend to shake our head at the other guy's choice.

I did not see that this $53K expense is going to ruin the OP's finance the way some other posters did. He will be OK. I just wonder how long he will stay pleased with the car. Will he like something different after a while?

Hey, travel is the same. You go visit some place this year. If your health permits, next year you want to go somewhere else. When is it going to stop? :)
 
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NW-Bound said:
True. We all like to spend our money in our own way. And we tend to shake our head at the other guy's choice.

I did not see that this $53K expense is going to ruin the OP's finance the way some other posters did. He will be OK. I just wonder how long he will stay pleased with the car. Will he like something different after a while?

Hey, travel is the same. You go visit some place this year. If your health permits, next year you want to go somewhere else. When is it going to stop? :)
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The problem with comparing travel expenses verses the expense of owning a car is you pay for a vacation and when you are done you have nothing but the memory. If you decide to scratch the itch with a different car you have the old one to trade/sell to cover part of the cost. A lot of good memories can be created with the car too.



"The consolation is that a home usually does not depreciate to nearly zero as a car usually does. Still, the total amount going into a home dwarfs that expense for a car, over the car's life of say 10 years."


The car that the OP bought is used so the value already took its biggest hit. Higher end sports cars generally don't depreciate into the toilet like a normal passenger car.
 
Chief322 said:
Well I am going to put this to a rest. Everyone has been great. I don't golf, I don't live a lavish lifestyle, i don't have a vacation home, I put one son through college and our income more than covers our living expenses. i did pay off the Cadillac as it was bothering me to have that debt even though the interest rate was less than I was earning on my money. i ran the numbers through firecalc and I still have a 100% rate with the $50k reduction so I bought the car. My wife and I are looking forward to hitting the road next week to Nashville and ft Walton in it.
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Congrats! Where's the pic? :D
 
Do whatever you want...bottom line is you have a lot of debt for someone who is retired. Good luck.
 
exnavynuke said:
Congrats! Where's the pic? :D
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+1

deadshort52 said:
The problem with comparing travel expenses verses the expense of owning a car is you pay for a vacation and when you are done you have nothing but the memory. If you decide to scratch the itch with a different car you have the old one to trade/sell to cover part of the cost. A lot of good memories can be created with the car too...
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True.

But with travel, the experience is frozen in your memory. With a car, eventually it breaks down and needs repair. People often forget the past good memory, and are constantly reminded of the present problems. It can be like with a divorce; people tend to forget about the happy past, and only think of the current dispute.

I am not trying to sway anybody from buying any toy. I was among the ones who cheered the OP on. Just trying to describe the other side of the coin.

ponyboy said:
Do whatever you want...bottom line is you have a lot of debt for someone who is retired. Good luck.
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He has enough retirement income to carry the debt.
 
NW-Bound said:
True.

But with travel, the experience is frozen in your memory. With a car, eventually it breaks down and needs repair. People often forget the past good memory, and are constantly reminded of the present problems. It can be like with a divorce; people tend to forget about the happy past, and only think of the current dispute.

I am not trying to sway anybody from buying any toy. I was among the ones who cheered the OP on. Just trying to describe the other side of the coin.
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Travel isn't a guaranteed golden experience either. If you have bad weather hampering activities, an unpleasant hotel experience, get sick, lose something or get robbed, or have major travel delays, you're likely to have that frozen in memory, exactly like you say car problems make you forget the happier times.

btw it's been 18 years and I still haven't hit that breakdown with my toy. I can also remember the big trip I went on right around the same time, but it's been a long time since I've thought about it, and I'm not reminded daily like I am when I go out to my garage.
 
Enjoy the car ! We all have something we spend money on and isn't that why we saved all those years .
 
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