People who make under $300k hhi: do you really have over $1000+ per mo in car payments?

[Anonymous]

Nearly because both of our cars died within a year of each other.

HHI 300K - 2 car payments for one new domestic and one 4y old Honda ($500 and $400.) We typically try and space it out, but the universe had other plans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A good rule of thumb is to pay no more than 20% of your gross HHI on a vehicle purchase. That's assuming you keep a car for seven years.

Wow, no way. We pay cash and no more than about 7% of gross income. Keep cars at least 10 years.

20% of gross means if you make $100K/year you keep your car purchase budget to $20K. I think that’s reasonable.

Numbers like that are made up by the really rich who can then call poor people profligate when they are unable to follow them. The average income in Fairfax County is 55k. That means the average resident of Fairfax county should be driving an 11k car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We make just over $300k. Unfortunately, both our cars are falling apart at the same time (one is 13 years old, the other 15). If we can’t get one to last, we will probably have close to $1k in car payments (though realistically we’d probably buy one with cash and then “only” have $5-700/month.)

Still a lot to swallow after 10 years of no car payments at all.

We are in a similar situation and have a child 2 years from driving age. My nightmare is having three car payments at once. One car needs repairs and if we put in $2K or so, it could go for another 40K miles but the other part of me says to just cut our losses now and buy a new car in cash so at least one is taken care of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A good rule of thumb is to pay no more than 20% of your gross HHI on a vehicle purchase. That's assuming you keep a car for seven years.

Wow, no way. We pay cash and no more than about 7% of gross income. Keep cars at least 10 years.

20% of gross means if you make $100K/year you keep your car purchase budget to $20K. I think that’s reasonable.

Numbers like that are made up by the really rich who can then call poor people profligate when they are unable to follow them. The average income in Fairfax County is 55k. That means the average resident of Fairfax county should be driving an 11k car.

Huh? The median HHI for Fairfax County is $134K.

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/fairfaxcountyvirginia/PST045222

So they are looking at a $26K vehicle. You can get a solid certified pre-owned vehicle for under $30K with a very good warranty from the dealer - RAV4, tons of sedans including hybrids, pickup trucks, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A good rule of thumb is to pay no more than 20% of your gross HHI on a vehicle purchase. That's assuming you keep a car for seven years.

Wow, no way. We pay cash and no more than about 7% of gross income. Keep cars at least 10 years.

20% of gross means if you make $100K/year you keep your car purchase budget to $20K. I think that’s reasonable.

Numbers like that are made up by the really rich who can then call poor people profligate when they are unable to follow them. The average income in Fairfax County is 55k. That means the average resident of Fairfax county should be driving an 11k car.

Huh? The median HHI for Fairfax County is $134K.

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/fairfaxcountyvirginia/PST045222

So they are looking at a $26K vehicle. You can get a solid certified pre-owned vehicle for under $30K with a very good warranty from the dealer - RAV4, tons of sedans including hybrids, pickup trucks, etc.

That's the median HHI. If two people work and each needs a car, median income matters, not HHI. Even if you want to use HHI, that 26k for a car needs to be split across two drivers. 13k will not get you much

[Anonymous]

We make about $320k combined, unmarried, no kids. My car is $1300/mo, his is $1000. We like nice cars. *shrugs* We save for retirement, have a very reasonable house since we don't have children, and choose to spend our money on other luxuries like cars and travel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A good rule of thumb is to pay no more than 20% of your gross HHI on a vehicle purchase. That's assuming you keep a car for seven years.

Wow, no way. We pay cash and no more than about 7% of gross income. Keep cars at least 10 years.

20% of gross means if you make $100K/year you keep your car purchase budget to $20K. I think that’s reasonable.

Numbers like that are made up by the really rich who can then call poor people profligate when they are unable to follow them. The average income in Fairfax County is 55k. That means the average resident of Fairfax county should be driving an 11k car.

Huh? The median HHI for Fairfax County is $134K.

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/fairfaxcountyvirginia/PST045222

So they are looking at a $26K vehicle. You can get a solid certified pre-owned vehicle for under $30K with a very good warranty from the dealer - RAV4, tons of sedans including hybrids, pickup trucks, etc.

That's the median HHI. If two people work and each needs a car, median income matters, not HHI. Even if you want to use HHI, that 26k for a car needs to be split across two drivers. 13k will not get you much

Vast majority of families are not buying two cars in a year, so that point is moot.

I said what I said.

If you can keep your car purchase price to 20% of gross HHI for any given year, you're living within your means. And then keep that car for at least 5 years. I think this is reasonable.

[Anonymous]

HHI: 140k. No crazy car payments here. We just paid cash for a used VW EV which we will keep for as long as it lasts. Prior to that, bought a used Subaru Forester (which we kept for 10+ years) when interest rates were crazy low and paid off early.

[Anonymous]

I make 100K. I am not sure what I could get that cost 20k, will endure my 18k mile/year commute without spending $$$ on repairs and will last 10y.

[Anonymous]

Hhi of $275 here. We have 1 2018 Honda, 1 2020 Toyota, and one 15 year old Toyota for the teen to drive to school.

We try to only have 1 car payment at a time, of less than $500/month, and if we buy a $35k car, we put like 10-15k down on it.

Also, we keep our cars for 10+ years. More like 15-20.