How do so many young families have $80k SUVs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any financial advisor will tell you that one of the worst purchases you can make is an expensive car. These people are buying them for show. The really wealthy and smart people are buying Hondas and Toyotas for cash and keep them for ten years.

This. People who buy these luxury cars to make other think that they're high rollers are usually the ones who are financing them up to their eyeballs. People with real wealth don't need an $80,000 Lexus to show it. They stick with the $35,000 Camry and invest the rest.

OP, don't be jealous of these people.

I don't really agree with this. If someone makes $1m+ a year, buying an $80k lexus vs a $35 camry will not alter their future financial trajectory one bit. And why would someone who has obviously worked hard to get to that level want to drive around in a cheap, ugly, low-performance car like a camry? Treating yourself with a nice car that you spend a lot of time in and want to be safe and secure makes a lot of sense.

Lol, go ask any mechanic what type of car someone should buy who does not want to spend time in repair shops. Toyota is number one, and Honda is (a very distant) second.

Anyone with real money doesn’t care if the car has to go in the shop. You get a loaner when you drop it off.

I’ve even had the dealer drive my car to the service center and drop off the loaner at my house so I don’t have to bother.

I have real money, about $10m and while I enjoy high performance cars, I don’t prefer it over reliability. My time is valuable and getting to know your Porsche, audi or whatever service advisor on a first name basis is a place I never want to be. I drive an older Lexus - it just runs and runs and my private mechanic strongly advise I hold it as long as possible vs getting one of these newer junk with a laptop screen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think a lot of it is spouses with high paying jobs plus family money. My kids public school is filled with these families. We live in an old tiny house in Bethesda, and I’m always amazed at all my kids friends who live in $2.5 million plus houses, drive expensive cars, send kids to sleepover camp that’s at least $15k per kid, mom’s have multiple expensive purses, fancy vacation etc. I assume spouses are making big salaries and grandparents help too.

We know people who grew up wealthy and jointly make around $250-300K and live like they make $1M, because they want to maintain the type of lifestyle they grew up in and are able to use family money to do so (ie, supplement their HHI income). If you don’t have family money, or a lot of it, accept that it’s not going to be an apples to apples comparison.

Most SAHMs who are under 35 and have kids in elementary school (ages 5+) didn’t make tons and tons of money between the ages of 23-30. Most college grads are not going to Jane Street or Citadel immediately following graduation.

Inherited wealth is definitely the biggest driver of the inequities you may see. My husband and I are always in awe about how parents of our kids friends have these glam low paying jobs, or are SAHP, and send their kids to private school despite having limited income that we can discern. But these kids have wealthy grandparents who gifted them their homes outright and pay the grandkids' tuition, while we pay a big mortgage each month on a home we paid for ourselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any financial advisor will tell you that one of the worst purchases you can make is an expensive car. These people are buying them for show. The really wealthy and smart people are buying Hondas and Toyotas for cash and keep them for ten years.

This. People who buy these luxury cars to make other think that they're high rollers are usually the ones who are financing them up to their eyeballs. People with real wealth don't need an $80,000 Lexus to show it. They stick with the $35,000 Camry and invest the rest.

OP, don't be jealous of these people.

I don't really agree with this. If someone makes $1m+ a year, buying an $80k lexus vs a $35 camry will not alter their future financial trajectory one bit. And why would someone who has obviously worked hard to get to that level want to drive around in a cheap, ugly, low-performance car like a camry? Treating yourself with a nice car that you spend a lot of time in and want to be safe and secure makes a lot of sense.

Lol, go ask any mechanic what type of car someone should buy who does not want to spend time in repair shops. Toyota is number one, and Honda is (a very distant) second.

Anyone with real money doesn’t care if the car has to go in the shop. You get a loaner when you drop it off.

I’ve even had the dealer drive my car to the service center and drop off the loaner at my house so I don’t have to bother.

I have real money, about $10m and while I enjoy high performance cars, I don’t prefer it over reliability. My time is valuable and getting to know your Porsche, audi or whatever service advisor on a first name basis is a place I never want to be. I drive an older Lexus - it just runs and runs and my private mechanic strongly advise I hold it as long as possible vs getting one of these newer junk with a laptop screen.

Idk if I’d call $10M “real money” in this area but you do you

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any financial advisor will tell you that one of the worst purchases you can make is an expensive car. These people are buying them for show. The really wealthy and smart people are buying Hondas and Toyotas for cash and keep them for ten years.

This. People who buy these luxury cars to make other think that they're high rollers are usually the ones who are financing them up to their eyeballs. People with real wealth don't need an $80,000 Lexus to show it. They stick with the $35,000 Camry and invest the rest.

OP, don't be jealous of these people.

I don't really agree with this. If someone makes $1m+ a year, buying an $80k lexus vs a $35 camry will not alter their future financial trajectory one bit. And why would someone who has obviously worked hard to get to that level want to drive around in a cheap, ugly, low-performance car like a camry? Treating yourself with a nice car that you spend a lot of time in and want to be safe and secure makes a lot of sense.

Lol, go ask any mechanic what type of car someone should buy who does not want to spend time in repair shops. Toyota is number one, and Honda is (a very distant) second.

Anyone with real money doesn’t care if the car has to go in the shop. You get a loaner when you drop it off.

I’ve even had the dealer drive my car to the service center and drop off the loaner at my house so I don’t have to bother.

I have real money, about $10m and while I enjoy high performance cars, I don’t prefer it over reliability. My time is valuable and getting to know your Porsche, audi or whatever service advisor on a first name basis is a place I never want to be. I drive an older Lexus - it just runs and runs and my private mechanic strongly advise I hold it as long as possible vs getting one of these newer junk with a laptop screen.

Idk if I’d call $10M “real money” in this area but you do you

The median net worth of an American family is $192,000. What definition of real money are you using?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any financial advisor will tell you that one of the worst purchases you can make is an expensive car. These people are buying them for show. The really wealthy and smart people are buying Hondas and Toyotas for cash and keep them for ten years.

This. People who buy these luxury cars to make other think that they're high rollers are usually the ones who are financing them up to their eyeballs. People with real wealth don't need an $80,000 Lexus to show it. They stick with the $35,000 Camry and invest the rest.

OP, don't be jealous of these people.

I don't really agree with this. If someone makes $1m+ a year, buying an $80k lexus vs a $35 camry will not alter their future financial trajectory one bit. And why would someone who has obviously worked hard to get to that level want to drive around in a cheap, ugly, low-performance car like a camry? Treating yourself with a nice car that you spend a lot of time in and want to be safe and secure makes a lot of sense.

Lol, go ask any mechanic what type of car someone should buy who does not want to spend time in repair shops. Toyota is number one, and Honda is (a very distant) second.

Anyone with real money doesn’t care if the car has to go in the shop. You get a loaner when you drop it off.

I’ve even had the dealer drive my car to the service center and drop off the loaner at my house so I don’t have to bother.

I have real money, about $10m and while I enjoy high performance cars, I don’t prefer it over reliability. My time is valuable and getting to know your Porsche, audi or whatever service advisor on a first name basis is a place I never want to be. I drive an older Lexus - it just runs and runs and my private mechanic strongly advise I hold it as long as possible vs getting one of these newer junk with a laptop screen.

Idk if I’d call $10M “real money” in this area but you do you

The median net worth of an American family is $192,000. What definition of real money are you using?

Reading is your friend here, I said it’s not real $ in this area specifically. 1/100 households in the DC area make $1M+ HHI. 10/100 make $500K+

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any financial advisor will tell you that one of the worst purchases you can make is an expensive car. These people are buying them for show. The really wealthy and smart people are buying Hondas and Toyotas for cash and keep them for ten years.

This. People who buy these luxury cars to make other think that they're high rollers are usually the ones who are financing them up to their eyeballs. People with real wealth don't need an $80,000 Lexus to show it. They stick with the $35,000 Camry and invest the rest.

OP, don't be jealous of these people.

I don't really agree with this. If someone makes $1m+ a year, buying an $80k lexus vs a $35 camry will not alter their future financial trajectory one bit. And why would someone who has obviously worked hard to get to that level want to drive around in a cheap, ugly, low-performance car like a camry? Treating yourself with a nice car that you spend a lot of time in and want to be safe and secure makes a lot of sense.

Lol, go ask any mechanic what type of car someone should buy who does not want to spend time in repair shops. Toyota is number one, and Honda is (a very distant) second.

Anyone with real money doesn’t care if the car has to go in the shop. You get a loaner when you drop it off.

I’ve even had the dealer drive my car to the service center and drop off the loaner at my house so I don’t have to bother.

I have real money, about $10m and while I enjoy high performance cars, I don’t prefer it over reliability. My time is valuable and getting to know your Porsche, audi or whatever service advisor on a first name basis is a place I never want to be. I drive an older Lexus - it just runs and runs and my private mechanic strongly advise I hold it as long as possible vs getting one of these newer junk with a laptop screen.

Idk if I’d call $10M “real money” in this area but you do you

The median net worth of an American family is $192,000. What definition of real money are you using?

Reading is your friend here, I said it’s not real $ in this area specifically. 1/100 households in the DC area make $1M+ HHI. 10/100 make $500K+

I can both read and analyze data but unfortunately you can do neither, and you’re confusing the definitions of annual income and net worth.

The median net worth in the Dc area is 188k (slightly less than the US average).

The top 1 pct of Dc earners with respect to Household Income do earn 1 million plus but the top 10 pct in no way make 500k+ plus a year because the distribution of earners is right skewed. The top 10 pct in DC make 187k a year.

Whatever you’re attempting to say, $10M is not “nothing.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any financial advisor will tell you that one of the worst purchases you can make is an expensive car. These people are buying them for show. The really wealthy and smart people are buying Hondas and Toyotas for cash and keep them for ten years.

This. People who buy these luxury cars to make other think that they're high rollers are usually the ones who are financing them up to their eyeballs. People with real wealth don't need an $80,000 Lexus to show it. They stick with the $35,000 Camry and invest the rest.

OP, don't be jealous of these people.

I don't really agree with this. If someone makes $1m+ a year, buying an $80k lexus vs a $35 camry will not alter their future financial trajectory one bit. And why would someone who has obviously worked hard to get to that level want to drive around in a cheap, ugly, low-performance car like a camry? Treating yourself with a nice car that you spend a lot of time in and want to be safe and secure makes a lot of sense.

Lol, go ask any mechanic what type of car someone should buy who does not want to spend time in repair shops. Toyota is number one, and Honda is (a very distant) second.

Anyone with real money doesn’t care if the car has to go in the shop. You get a loaner when you drop it off.

I’ve even had the dealer drive my car to the service center and drop off the loaner at my house so I don’t have to bother.

I have real money, about $10m and while I enjoy high performance cars, I don’t prefer it over reliability. My time is valuable and getting to know your Porsche, audi or whatever service advisor on a first name basis is a place I never want to be. I drive an older Lexus - it just runs and runs and my private mechanic strongly advise I hold it as long as possible vs getting one of these newer junk with a laptop screen.

Idk if I’d call $10M “real money” in this area but you do you

I’m the PP. it’s very, very real to me. First gen immigrant, nothing got handed to me my friend…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think a lot of it is spouses with high paying jobs plus family money. My kids public school is filled with these families. We live in an old tiny house in Bethesda, and I’m always amazed at all my kids friends who live in $2.5 million plus houses, drive expensive cars, send kids to sleepover camp that’s at least $15k per kid, mom’s have multiple expensive purses, fancy vacation etc. I assume spouses are making big salaries and grandparents help too.

We know people who grew up wealthy and jointly make around $250-300K and live like they make $1M, because they want to maintain the type of lifestyle they grew up in and are able to use family money to do so (ie, supplement their HHI income). If you don’t have family money, or a lot of it, accept that it’s not going to be an apples to apples comparison.

Most SAHMs who are under 35 and have kids in elementary school (ages 5+) didn’t make tons and tons of money between the ages of 23-30. Most college grads are not going to Jane Street or Citadel immediately following graduation.

Inherited wealth is definitely the biggest driver of the inequities you may see. My husband and I are always in awe about how parents of our kids friends have these glam low paying jobs, or are SAHP, and send their kids to private school despite having limited income that we can discern. But these kids have wealthy grandparents who gifted them their homes outright and pay the grandkids' tuition, while we pay a big mortgage each month on a home we paid for ourselves.

Our friends don’t even have glam low paying jobs. They’re just definitely not paying multiple tuitions, $25K in property taxes, a nanny for $70K, and a mortgage on a $2.5M house as a GS-14 and a part-time therapist or librarian or volunteer coordinator. And our friends were not in investment banking or inventing computer chips in their 20s. They were drifting in and out of low paying jobs and begging their parents to pay for their car insurance and expensive hair treatments, and they’re probably still on their parents’ phone plans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She doesn’t need an suv to drive two kids around.

What’s even more questionable imo is when you go into the exurbs (e.g. western Loudoun County) and see the large numbers of high-end oversized pick-ups functioning as family vehicles.

Yes! I'm laughing about the 150K Ford Velociraptor always parked at Target. You know who you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any financial advisor will tell you that one of the worst purchases you can make is an expensive car. These people are buying them for show. The really wealthy and smart people are buying Hondas and Toyotas for cash and keep them for ten years.

This. People who buy these luxury cars to make other think that they're high rollers are usually the ones who are financing them up to their eyeballs. People with real wealth don't need an $80,000 Lexus to show it. They stick with the $35,000 Camry and invest the rest.

OP, don't be jealous of these people.

I don't really agree with this. If someone makes $1m+ a year, buying an $80k lexus vs a $35 camry will not alter their future financial trajectory one bit. And why would someone who has obviously worked hard to get to that level want to drive around in a cheap, ugly, low-performance car like a camry? Treating yourself with a nice car that you spend a lot of time in and want to be safe and secure makes a lot of sense.

Lol, go ask any mechanic what type of car someone should buy who does not want to spend time in repair shops. Toyota is number one, and Honda is (a very distant) second.

Anyone with real money doesn’t care if the car has to go in the shop. You get a loaner when you drop it off.

I’ve even had the dealer drive my car to the service center and drop off the loaner at my house so I don’t have to bother.

I have real money, about $10m and while I enjoy high performance cars, I don’t prefer it over reliability. My time is valuable and getting to know your Porsche, audi or whatever service advisor on a first name basis is a place I never want to be. I drive an older Lexus - it just runs and runs and my private mechanic strongly advise I hold it as long as possible vs getting one of these newer junk with a laptop screen.

Idk if I’d call $10M “real money” in this area but you do you

+100, lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any financial advisor will tell you that one of the worst purchases you can make is an expensive car. These people are buying them for show. The really wealthy and smart people are buying Hondas and Toyotas for cash and keep them for ten years.

This. People who buy these luxury cars to make other think that they're high rollers are usually the ones who are financing them up to their eyeballs. People with real wealth don't need an $80,000 Lexus to show it. They stick with the $35,000 Camry and invest the rest.

OP, don't be jealous of these people.

I don't really agree with this. If someone makes $1m+ a year, buying an $80k lexus vs a $35 camry will not alter their future financial trajectory one bit. And why would someone who has obviously worked hard to get to that level want to drive around in a cheap, ugly, low-performance car like a camry? Treating yourself with a nice car that you spend a lot of time in and want to be safe and secure makes a lot of sense.

Lol, go ask any mechanic what type of car someone should buy who does not want to spend time in repair shops. Toyota is number one, and Honda is (a very distant) second.

Anyone with real money doesn’t care if the car has to go in the shop. You get a loaner when you drop it off.

I’ve even had the dealer drive my car to the service center and drop off the loaner at my house so I don’t have to bother.

I have real money, about $10m and while I enjoy high performance cars, I don’t prefer it over reliability. My time is valuable and getting to know your Porsche, audi or whatever service advisor on a first name basis is a place I never want to be. I drive an older Lexus - it just runs and runs and my private mechanic strongly advise I hold it as long as possible vs getting one of these newer junk with a laptop screen.

Idk if I’d call $10M “real money” in this area but you do you

The median net worth of an American family is $192,000. What definition of real money are you using?

Reading is your friend here, I said it’s not real $ in this area specifically. 1/100 households in the DC area make $1M+ HHI. 10/100 make $500K+

I can both read and analyze data but unfortunately you can do neither, and you’re confusing the definitions of annual income and net worth.

The median net worth in the Dc area is 188k (slightly less than the US average).

The top 1 pct of Dc earners with respect to Household Income do earn 1 million plus but the top 10 pct in no way make 500k+ plus a year because the distribution of earners is right skewed. The top 10 pct in DC make 187k a year.

Whatever you’re attempting to say, $10M is not “nothing.”

+1. The DCUM money forum tends to attract several posters who talk a big game but know very little.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:99% of the people in my McLean neighborhood are dual income doctors, lawyers, tech executives… they can easily afford those 80K cars. Speaking of cars, I just bought my wife a 130k Lexus SUV and paid in cash. She needs the SUV to take my two kids around. I am going to buy her a Porsche Panamera 4 as a fun car, will pay it in cash.

This has to be a troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any financial advisor will tell you that one of the worst purchases you can make is an expensive car. These people are buying them for show. The really wealthy and smart people are buying Hondas and Toyotas for cash and keep them for ten years.

This. People who buy these luxury cars to make other think that they're high rollers are usually the ones who are financing them up to their eyeballs. People with real wealth don't need an $80,000 Lexus to show it. They stick with the $35,000 Camry and invest the rest.

OP, don't be jealous of these people.

I don't really agree with this. If someone makes $1m+ a year, buying an $80k lexus vs a $35 camry will not alter their future financial trajectory one bit. And why would someone who has obviously worked hard to get to that level want to drive around in a cheap, ugly, low-performance car like a camry? Treating yourself with a nice car that you spend a lot of time in and want to be safe and secure makes a lot of sense.

Lol, go ask any mechanic what type of car someone should buy who does not want to spend time in repair shops. Toyota is number one, and Honda is (a very distant) second.

Anyone with real money doesn’t care if the car has to go in the shop. You get a loaner when you drop it off.

I’ve even had the dealer drive my car to the service center and drop off the loaner at my house so I don’t have to bother.

I have real money, about $10m and while I enjoy high performance cars, I don’t prefer it over reliability. My time is valuable and getting to know your Porsche, audi or whatever service advisor on a first name basis is a place I never want to be. I drive an older Lexus - it just runs and runs and my private mechanic strongly advise I hold it as long as possible vs getting one of these newer junk with a laptop screen.

Idk if I’d call $10M “real money” in this area but you do you

The median net worth of an American family is $192,000. What definition of real money are you using?

Reading is your friend here, I said it’s not real $ in this area specifically. 1/100 households in the DC area make $1M+ HHI. 10/100 make $500K+

I can both read and analyze data but unfortunately you can do neither, and you’re confusing the definitions of annual income and net worth.

The median net worth in the Dc area is 188k (slightly less than the US average).

The top 1 pct of Dc earners with respect to Household Income do earn 1 million plus but the top 10 pct in no way make 500k+ plus a year because the distribution of earners is right skewed. The top 10 pct in DC make 187k a year.

Whatever you’re attempting to say, $10M is not “nothing.”

+1. The DCUM money forum tends to attract several posters who talk a big game but know very little.

Agreed. The “real money” person probably doesn’t even have the 10M like person they were mocking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She doesn’t need an suv to drive two kids around.

What’s even more questionable imo is when you go into the exurbs (e.g. western Loudoun County) and see the large numbers of high-end oversized pick-ups functioning as family vehicles.

Yes! I'm laughing about the 150K Ford Velociraptor always parked at Target. You know who you are.

Why are you laughing? Do you work there? Does the owner of the car work there or are they just shopping for their home goods? I think it’s silly to have a car that expensive but for some reason they chose to.

[Anonymous]

Lots of debt. Leasing like idiots. 8+ year loans.