HAHAHAHA..LOL

 

In all seriousness here's what I would do.

From what you've said your parents are pretty much buying the car, making payments and you've got 2 years too come up with a plan?

So, in reality your only concern is a.) can you find a job after you graduate...and b.) will it be the kind of job that allows you live & drive the G35?

First off mate, why are you looking 2 years down the road..at that point anything might have happened? Will you still like the car, will you have graduated..there's too many what if's.

Let's say you graduate, get a decent paying entry level job, take over payments and don't know what too do.

Buying a house over renting...if you plan on a purchase, even at 23 you need to get your credit scores in check now & maintain them. Forget about income initially too do this, just make sure you create a paper trail of monthly payments (made dilligentley on time) for the next two years. If you need a higher credit score & your parent's have one, get on their credit cards as a "named" holder and if they're golden you adopt all the traits of their good credit.
If your buying a house, with today's creative financing, you can pretty much get a 100% mortgage, if you need a down payment, piggyback 2 loans, 80% /30% use the second as a down and roll the lot in after closing. If your worried about making payments after that, take in a roommate/lodger..if you just want the house as a future investment, rent it.

As regards buying the car, like I already mentioned you've got no worries for the next 2 years..

 

Thanks for the insight... you're wisdom is unparalleled.

 

Hey HE asked and got some great opinions. And don't buy a car before you buy a house is the moral of most people's story and your illustration makes that quite clear. IN fact renting is worse than buying a car economically, as you point out, so buying a house should be a priority (if you're asking for advice).

When you put your earliest dollars into equity and leverage it into alot of equity, it's easy to understand why delaying paying rent and buying a depreciating car that results in short term satisfaction is just not prudent. When you turn the conrer financially, understand how to make debt work for you and get to a place where your money works harder than you do you'll wonder why you waited and realize the power of your youth. Doing things at a young age can make things very easy for you later for little effort when compared to the effort to getting by if you spend too much too early and get into the "me too" lifestyle.

"fer sure" is valley not ebonics and anyone suggesting that cars put you over other people seems to distract from your otherwise meaningful comments and seem 12ish. Just my take tho

 

Wow.. here's my 2 cents on this whole thing.

I live in Miami, FL (not the most expensive place to live in the US, but its up there) and I have lived alone for the last 5 years (most recent of 2 has been owning my condo.)

I AGREE you should buy a home before even thinking of this car. For a point of reference, my mortgage is about $830/mo for a 15 yr mortgage. I make a tad over 50k, so I used to drive a 2000 Nissan Sentra SE (whose payment was $315 a month)

I came to this conclusion which helped me decide to buy my G. When I bought the Sentra, I was making in the low-mid 30s. It was the most affordable decent car I could get for the money back in 2000. I decided after long hours of doing numbers, that my G payment (5 yr purchased $500/mo) that the difference was under $200 a month, and it was a much better car. Was my sentra paid off or near payoff? Yes. Was my insurance more expensive? A tad ($16 a month roughly.) So when I put all the pieces together, with my increased income, I could swing it and still have money to spare.

To go back to the house thing... I bought my condo for 89k back in 2002. It's now worth on the low end at the very least 130k.

 

What would you do if you were in my position: I'm 23, made over $60K my first year out of school but work in Manhattan and live in Fairfield County, Connecticut (two of the most expensive places to live in the country). The cheapest condo in NYC is in the high $400,000's (for a TINY 1br) and the cheapest condos in any safe town in CT is in the high $300,000's (1 to 2 br's). What would you do? I can't take in a roommate with a 1 bedroom apartment and finding a mortgage for $400,000+ at the ripe age of 23 is an impossibility! I refuse to spend $1,500+ a month on rent and happily live with my parents in CT (we have a second home on Cape Cod where they spend most of their weekends).

PS - I already have a girlfriend and she doesn't give a flying **** if I live at home so no need to give me the "good luck picking up chicks" garbage.

 

lease the condo in CT, put a down payment on it, take in a roommate and switch off paying rent and utilities with him every month. see if your parents will throw you some money everymonth for food/rent/utilities. other than that, live with your parents rent free while you still can.

 

Not sure how I could put a downpayment on a condo that someone owns and is leasing to me...? That aside, I refuse to rent. I would much rather save for a sizable ($40K to $100K) downpayment. The problem is that even if I buy the condo in CT and try to rent it out later, the rents are actually less than mortgage payments so I would be losing money... it's really a strange market right now. Even at the lower end of the downpayment scale I would have to put $40K down, That's almost 2/3 of my annual income! what a pain...

 

see the first part i had no idea what i was talking about, i'm just taking the idea from what my sister is doing currently. you could also just take out a huge mortgage. but then again, why would you want to do that on a condo. another idea, move out of fairfield county.

 

Does that make sense to anyone? If you bought a place now for, $2000 per month and held onto it for 3 years, in 3 years your rent would still be $2000 per month (plus insurance increases and property tax increases) but the average person buying your home would have to pay much more than $2000 each month due to the house and property appreciating. With the way the housing market has been since the late 80's the odds are good that you should buy NOW! Buy whatever you can afford!

I bought my house in 1999 and today it is appraised at just over 180% more than I paid for it. My mortgage payment in 1999 is the same that I'm paying now (in 2005) but if I bought the same house today I'd be paying almost 180% more each month FOR THE SAME HOUSE!!! Don't you think I could rent it out for a nice profit and not lose money???

 

What Neffster said. You can't really go wrong with investing in real estate. You need to be thinking long term. Not to mention that even if it didn't appreciate and stayed even you wouldn't be losing money because it translates into equity in the house.

 

That doesn't really help me GET the house... that is where the problem is.. I was a finance major in college and work in finance currently. I've taken real estate courses out the wazoo... I KNOW I SHOULD BUY A HOUSE NOW, that's obvious, the problem is how the hell can I afford anything when the BARE MINIMUM I would be paying is in the $300,000's... FHA loans don't even come close to covering this type of purchase.

"Buy whatever you can afford!"

The burning question is: What do you buy when there IS nothing affordable?

I make great money (for someone my age) and I could buy a great place anywhere in the country... except where I live! My goal (which I think is reasonable) is to own a place by my 26th birthday, that gives me 2.5 years... I just don't want to save for 3 years and have prices double AGAIN!

 

The simple Buffet answer is you dont have to buy now. Never buy when you feel YOU NEED to buy. Especially with real estate being at the levels they currently are. I bought my first duplex at 24 and moved on to others from there, and am now currently renting. Buying is not ALWAYS better than renting. There are many variables to consider.

cheers,

 

KING OF JERICHO!!! Listen too me my man.

Here's what I would do in your shoes. I would not buy any property in what's really a falsely inflated market, especially at the top end of the curve in a highly desirable area.

You might consider this though, stay at home ,but start putting your money too work now.

1.) Pick up an inexpensive rental property in or around where you live. Look for a decent "High-rent" area. remember, all you really need to do here is cover your monthly P&I..that's it.

2.) Depending on affordabilty, bear in mind that any rent from the first house will be qualified as income so as to give you more borrowing leverage, buy a second rental.

3.) Make sure the first is your "primary residence", go with 0 money down (easily done) and if you can qualify opt for an FHA loan.

Okay, worst case scenario, you've got a tangible asset, covered by rental income, that's generating equity for you..over the course of the next 2-3 years, with appreciation your ahead of the game by whatever % growth that area is experiencing.

Best case scenario, you have two properties doing this for...oh, by the way..for the extra tax deuction give yourself a nice title..."Building Manager" and pay yourself a decent salary and write this off to offset income taxes.

Even better again, suddenly when it comes time too buy "THE" house that you plan on living in, you have an increased income ( rental income+ property manager salary+ your own salary), which gives you more borrowing power. You also have 2 properties building equity, which will be as ASSET and you at 26 are Golden.

I typed this rather quickly, but my point is I've been doing this stuff for awhile & of course it can be tweaked, dependant on where you live, but it's the way too go.

 

Bloke, Check PM!!