Need advice! Context: Make 160k in LCOL area, 28M. Living at home with no rent and paid off car for last 3 years. Monthly expenses add up to 1500, invest/save about 8K a month. At a point where I’d like to move out, I’ve been living at home because it’s mutually beneficial to my elderly parents and me. We get along really well and I help them, they help me. My car with 180k miles recently broke down. I would like to move out and also finally buy a nicer car.

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You live once bro/sis, try to enjoy some of what life has to offer (reasonably) before you expire.

Don’t be wasteful, also don’t not live your life to the fullest.

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I would get a nice used car that is around 4 to 5 years old. A lot of the depreciation has already hit but it should work well for many years. If you are going the Tesla route, I might actually consider just getting a new one as my understanding is that they don’t really depreciate in the same way most cars do (and waiting for a few months to see if the EV tax credit is lifted on Tesla in the new infrastructure bill that may or may not pass).

With respect to buying vs renting. I think buying could make a ton of sense, if it is the right deal. I wouldn’t feel pressure to buy though. Nothing wrong with renting for a year or two and then finding something your really really love. Worst case scenario in my mind is to force yourself into buying a property without finding a good deal and then selling it a year or two later (that would most likely be a mistake).

Really good job on your savings rate! 8k a month is amazing! For what it is worth I would do a car loan, too. With interest rates for auto loans so freaking low I think your capital would be put to better use in the market. Make sure you set up the auto loan before going to a dealer as the deals the dealer financing departments give you are usually a lot worse (at least in my experience)!

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Really appreciate your response. Lots of logic in what you said, I’ll take your words into consideration.

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YOLO

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Invest/saving 8k a month? Do that for a few more years and retire lol

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300k. Prior to last 3 years I was in debt from college. Also I had tremendous career growth these past few years.

Since you’re saving that much a month why not pay cash for a nice used car so you don’t have a monthly payment?

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At the current interest rates borrow everything you can and keep your nest egg in some kind of a reasonable investment. Money is too cheap right now not to borrow. Do the math for yourself, but it makes way more sense to pay the interest on the loan than give up your likely returns on the same money invested. Now, if you weren’t a saver my advice may be different.

It’s time to get your own place... you are 28.

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Lol this is the real answer. Living at home stops being about saving money and becomes an inability to be an adult when you have a steady job.

Goes for men and women. I worked with a girl who drove 90 minutes each way to live with her parents until she was a manager while everyone else her age had a <15 minute commute in what at the time was a pretty low COL city. She even bought a new car because her commute required something comfortable. Everyone thought she was a weirdo. Come to think of it, most people still think that.

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Cont.

It’s been drilled into me that rent and a nice car is a waste of money, I can invest elsewhere. I’d like to purchase a place as opposed to renting, but I don’t want to rush into the wrong property and would like to move out within the next couple months. I feel like once I take on a monthly car payment and ~2k monthly rent I’ll have bad buyers remorse. How do people justify these types of purchases and at the same time preach it’s not financially responsible?

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Rent isn’t as much of a throwaway as people say. For example, I own in NYC, and my property taxes + HOA fees + insurance + maintenance costs + mortgage insurance all add up to about what it would cost to rent my unit.

If you’re in a place with little to no property tax and the cost of ownership isn’t that great, buying could be good, but also remember LCOL tends to stay LCOL so your home won’t appreciate much. In that case, your down payment would grow faster in a fund like VOO or QQQ than leveraged as a house.

It’s never as simple as “renting bad.”

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A nice new car is a waste of money but a pre-owned semi nice car when needed is not a waste of money. Rent is also not at all a waste of money when compared to high cost of home ownership (aka in HCOL). Compare what it costs to own vs rent in your location and see if owning makes more sense. Answer is likely it’s smarter to buy bc you’re in LCOL.

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A few things from my perspective: first, don’t rush your living situation. Sounds like there is no pressure to move quickly other than that you are imposing on yourself. Take your time, research places and areas you may want to live. Look at those places, do research, only pull the trigger when the time is right. For cars, consider gently used. You won’t take the depreciation hit but you can still find a nice new vehicle.

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If you buy, consider a hiuse hack situation where you live in one place and rent the other (i.e 2 family home )

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Put everything into GME

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Buy a used rental car. We did that and works great.

They don’t have any great used value.

You should use some of that saving to move out, reward yourself for the hard work you put in. Also help with your dating life if you have your own personal space when you are meeting a person of interest. I would suggest putting money on purchasing a property, as you can rent the property later on if you want to move. Sounds like you are a saver and will be asking what to do with your savings soon, so investment property is perfect

Considering the goal of the purchase is not for investment I think it will be still be an better choice to buy than rent. The money you pay for rent could be equal out to the “premium” on the housing market right now. Who knows, the price could stay inflated and money is always depreciating sitting in the bank

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