Is buying a $24k car on $50k salary dumb?

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Is buying a $24k car on $50k salary dumb?

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Personally I wouldn't do it but it's not the worst decision in the world. I would look in the 15k range.

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It would be a 5yo german car with 50k miles.

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This is a much worse decision.

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ve read some websites that say don't spend more than 20% of your annual salary on a vehicle. I've read others that talk about not spending a certain percentage of your take-home monthly income on car expenses. I would be within the latter guideline, but not former.

$24k seems reasonable to me for a vehicle. It would be a 5yo german car with 50k miles.

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Very dumb. Go get a 10-15K vehicle and when your are financially stable then go for a bigger purchase.

I wouldn't do it

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Is buying a $24k car on $50k salary dumb?

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yes

I'd buy a new 24k vehicle if I had a 50k salary, but wouldn't buy a 5 year old 24k vehicle.

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I've read some websites that say don't spend more than 20% of your annual salary on a vehicle. I've read others that talk about not spending a certain percentage of your take-home monthly income on car expenses

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Of course, these are simply quick-and-dirty rules of thumb. Not bad ones but your situation may be different. Besides, buying new can be perfectly fine if you are willing to drive it into the ground before replacing it. You can get a new Jetta for about that much and expect it to last 300k miles if you take care of it, that isn't a bad buy at all.

The #1 rule when you're making $50k is to buy what you need, not what you want. Everything else comes second.

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$24k seems reasonable to me for a vehicle. It would be a 5yo german car with 50k miles.

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Prayers sent. $24K on a new economy car would be smart. On a 5 year old money pit, not so smart.

I have a 7 year old German car I'll let you have for 15k it only has 103k miles.

OP, do whatever the frick you want to do. It is necessarily the smartest thing, no.... But if you have the money and are able to continue contributing to your retirement and paying all of your other bills, do it.

Some people throw hundreds of dollars away each month going to bars. If this is your vice, so be it. As long as you aren't taking away from your retirement and other, more important needs, do it. Do what makes you happy. You only live once and its not guaranteed that you will see all the money you saved making sacrifices now.

Again, I am only saying to do it IF you have have no other major bills, you have 6 months of living expenses in an emergency fund, and you are able to put a substantial amount towards retirement.

If shite hits the fan or if you regret the decision, you will be able to sell that Audi and take a minor hit in depreciation.

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$24k seems reasonable to me for a vehicle. It would be a 5yo german car with 50k miles.

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I'd advise against it

If you can find something in that price range that's more like 2-3 years old it might make more sense. But a 5 yr old German auto at that price sounds like a bad idea. What model is it?