Car spend appropriate to my earnings!

MrViking said:
No I don’t, but interested in your views if I did meet clients…
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I’d agree with Steven’s assessment re Porsches!

My view, rightly or wrongly, is that for someone who meets clients, a balance needs to be struck.

The car should be nice, but not too nice.

Some brands should be off-limits (e.g. Porsche) but my view is that if the car is too old or wrecked, that’s not a great look either.
 
I drove an old car accidentally for many years I bought a 2 yr old car in 2001 and loved it so much that I never changed it until it finally was uneconomical to repair in 2015, at that stage the model had been discontinued since 2002 but by chance I spotted a 02 model on local FB page for sale for 800 quid a couple of miles from me and in the required colour! Had it in my driveway by that evening and got nearly 3 yrs out of that car until the insurance started becoming an issue with older cars, bit the bullet and used a generous scrappage scheme to buy new. Not an expensive car by any means, quite a small basic one and it actually broke down last year and stranded me far from home, something none of my old cars had ever done and not what I was expecting from a practically new car!

While I was not a high earner I was in the financial area processing and approving loans for those who wanted to buy cars etc Certain family members could not believe I would not just buy a 'good' car as I was often told considering finance should not have been an issue! But I couldnt' care less as I liked my car, the newish one I have is fine but I'd still love my old model back if it came with more bells and whistles like this one has, I must say the speed limiter thingy is the handiest yoke ever and of course air conditioning is nice to have too for the occasional hot weather we get!
 
MrViking said:
Lol!! If he had pulled up in a 12 year old car, do you think it would have negatively impacted his perception of the quality of advice he would get?
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I think it might have. A financial advisor is expected to have a decent car and wear a suit. Covid 19 has changed all that though and suits may not be a required thing anymore (as a banker mate of mine said "once you've had a zoom call with a partner of a big law firm who's sitting in the spare room in shorts and t-shirt, there's no going back").

Another long term client who is a very high earner said when he first saw my low key office "Don't worry about it, a fancy office means I'm charged big fees to pay for it".
 
As much as I hate admitting it, I agree with your latter point……unless you are happy to target a much smaller (albeit like-minded) segment of customers! But that segment probably does not need much financial advice!
 
for the majority of my financial planning clients, cars aren't a thing. They don't buy new cars, no PCP and pay cash for them. They drive them until they don't work anymore. While they tend to buy decent makes some drive absolute bangers.

For full disclosure, I drive a 161 Audi A6, which I bought 3 years ago and will drive until it starts costing me money. I don't think I will ever own a brand new car.
 
I'm lucky enough to be nearly at that income level. We have 2 cars:

- An 11 year old MPV which is hand because we can fit the kayaks on the roof (and even fit one inside).
- A 13 year old decent hatchback

All our neighbours have nicer and newer cars and I simply don't care (and to be fair the neighbours don't seem to either).

The one compromise we made to keeping up appearances is that we payed 1k to deal with some of the more disgraceful dents and scrapes on the MPV. Even I was getting a bit embarrassed.

In the next year, we'll probably get rid of the hatchback any buy a 1 to 2 year old EV (maybe a Leaf). I used to get the odd comment about my really cheap Android phones as well, but have now bought an iPhone SE 2020 .

It's not that I'm mean (honest!), I just don't see the value in some of these items, and really don't care what anyone else thinks, including what someone / society thinks is 'appropriate'.

2 to 4 year old car is decent enough advice though.
 
I'm earn a nice salary, as does my wife (albeit she works part-time). We have no children and have a nice house. I have little interest in cars, and drive a 09 Hyundai i10, which I love as it is practical, and has carried 16 bags of firewood (to the amazement of onlookers as I loaded and unloaded it - comments regarding the Tardis were made). It can, and has, driven to Belfast and back. Most of the time it's only carrying me, so is plenty big enough.

I get a great kick of always finding the car parking space in a full carpark where most other cars don't fit, because someone has parked badly.

I also only drive around 10kms on a daily basis, pre and post covid.

My friends make fun of it, but they know me and know the score. Doesn't stop them getting into it when they want a lift home from the pub.

And for anyone who asks me, "Buddyboy, how come you have 3 holidays a year, one of which is going around Italy for 3 weeks staying in nice hotels" I say - have you seen my car? It costs around 1.5K € a year to run, including petrol. How much does your Audi/BMW/SUV cost to run?
Sometimes you see the lightbulb moment.

I was thinking of changing it for an electric (I really like the Zoe - I even find the leaf a bit too big). But it doesn't make financial sense as it would cost too much to run, including depreciation. I'll wait until the i10 starts giving trouble (which it has yet to do).
 
There have been a few Money Makeover threads where the poster is saving and saving without realising they've saved enough and they should stop and enjoy their money and life a bit more. It's often called out, which some people need to prompt them to take stock.

Personally I think that's the only scenario where grumbling at a sibling about the car they drive might be appropriate and actually for their own good (assuming they're into cars, otherwise something else might be a better subtle cue). Dying of over work at 50 with the biggest account balance is a waste of a life.
 
For full disclosure, I drive a three year old German car and before my car becomes NCTable (i.e. four years old), I change it for a two year old car.
 
My view is that dying of over work at 50 with the fanciest car is a waste of a life. The happiest I have ever been at work is when I've had a 3 or 4 day per week gig.

I'm sure many of you are familiar with bangernomics https://www.bangernomics.com/ but it's worth a look if you're not.
 
If you have the money and get enjoyment from driving an expensive car then buy one. If you won't get the enjoyment from it then don't buy it.
The same goes for art and wine and trips to football matches and fine dining and Cuban cigars and clothes and watches and just about everything else.
Don't buy anything fancy if you can't afford it or don't want it. Seems quite obvious to me.
Buying a car for status alone is like those shallow people who post pictures of their dinner on social media to gain the validation of strangers.
 
Funnily enough this conversation came up the other day with a friend of mine. He's a very high earning doctor (so comfortable salary) no kids etc so one would assume he can afford a top of the range car. His car is approx 15 years old. He rents an apartment so no mortgage. His response is that unless he can purchase a car or house in cash (no loans, mortgage etc) he doesn't bother. He doesn't like owing money to anyone.

So suppose everyone is different.
 
 
Fair enough if that's how he feels. But likely makes no sense economically for renting housing.
 
Pre Covid, I used to drive around 40k km a year and used to change my car every 2 years before the mileage made the depreciation too much. I always got a decent car (Peaugot, Opel or Toyota) as opposed to anything fancy. As long as it was safe, clean, comfortable and had a decent stereo and bluetooth, it didn't really matter what I was driving when I was stuck on the n7 roadworks. Always got through 3 free services as well before changing so never had to think about paying for that, no NCT and reliability with my mileage was crucial. And I always paid cash on top of the trade in value, no loan, no PCP etc and often got a demo model at a good discount

I genuinely don't understand why people insist on big cars, especially around Dublin. As for the comment on meeting clients, I've never sat in the car park to see what the next salesman visiting me is driving.

Having said that, I couldn't go back to driving a 12 year old car, too dependent on blue tooth and the rear view camera
 
Always went for the older basic cars. But then got A/C, that then became a must have, then the Bluetooth, then the reversing camera, then the heated seats. Only bought new once and never on finance.
 
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