Fair. I read that in his quoted OP and didn’t notice that he mentioned rent in the new post.
This is assuming that one is: -In mid-late 20s -No debt -Living with parents or No Mortgage/Rent payment
Should be doing Keogh or SEP which allows up to $56k for 2019.
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You need to figure out what your priorities are and start planning ahead. With so little to your name in savings and earnings (assuming you live in a major metropolitan area), it’s wise to be frugal about your spending (unless you come from money or live in a small town with your parents and have zero expenses). I’d focus on saving and putting my money in places where it could work for me. The combination of “mid-20s” and “write off available” suggests that you’re young and unfamiliar with tax law, so find a good CPA that you can talk to about money management.
I certainly wouldn’t be stacking my garage if I was just starting out and had just barely earned my first $100k. Find a $300-$400/month commuter and see where you are in 2-3 years.
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Stop making sense Dukez😁
Lots of good advice here already. I’ll just add:
Get a financial planner (reminds me, I owe mine a callback) if you don’t have one, never too early. If all of this is income, work with them and CPA on your tax strategy (everyone has advice but in my experience it never takes your whole picture into account).
I’m a Consultant and do pretty well on write-offs, including my lease. The annual lease payments (without insurance or fuel) is 0.16% of my gross. I can drive something much more expensive, I choose not to. Driving is utility.
Now: loud and clear, be young and have fun. The trick is not to flex an i8 for $1000/mo, it’s the GTI or WRX or 4series unicorn with M package. The car itself doesn’t provide the fun (unless you are taking it to track or autocross), the experiences you have in it do. You can drive a wrangler AND a convertible for an i8 payment. I’d rather have more cars than one more expensive car when we’re talking those kind of numbers.
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at 400/mo that puts your gross at $3mm, impressive.
I agree with you, but it sounds like his gross is closer to $175-200k than 100k. based on netting 10k a month after tax and rent
Personally, your situation feels like an amazing way to get yourself up for an early retirement and/or much more sustainable wealth in 10-15 years. I’d say get something fun but not outrageous (the above listed GTI / WRX / 4 series are a good start), find a financial planner and start thinking about your financial plans for the future. Good old boring 401k / IRA / index funds as a basis, maybe get some money ready for investment properties in the near term (next 2-4 years), grow a portfolio and live comfortably.
But then again I’m sure if I had my current salary when I was in my mid 20s I would have not made such smart decisions. Hindsight is 20/20.
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Speaking of which, I have the perfect 4 series for the OP! 
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Annual income to annual lease payments, not monthly. And my gross isn’t most people’s gross (meaning I run a lot of reimbursable client expenses through, but airline miles and hotel points 
). Last, without getting political, my effective tax rates 2008-2017 were 25-28%, for 2018 it was 39% (within a couple thousand of prior 5 years).
If you have crazy income that’s taxable as ordinary income, maxing out tax sheltered retirement plans is a given. My SEPIRA caps around 49k a year (income dependent), but north of what I’ll ever make are those insurance based tax loopholes. Eg your “life insurance” is $2000/yr, give us another 28k a year for 10 years, and it will accrue 4-5% interest and allow tax free loans from your policy, and the surrender value will be 
. We need a hackr site for that: if I knew my agent wasn’t getting a new boat when I sign, the math pencils out.
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I tee’ed that right up for you
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Netting 8k-10k/mo. 
That $2000/mo can pay for a lot. But glad we agree. 
I mean, @BSMUSTANG, if this is the first time you’re making this kind of $, you don’t have debt, and you don’t plan to spend $ on much else, then, yeah, feel free to live a little. But I still wouldn’t get something more than a MB C43 or a BMW 340i. I’ve never had the “fun” of leasing or owning a full AMG or M, but I honestly imagine full AMG/M cars can be a PITA as a daily driver. And the C43 or 340i is still maybe half the upper limit of your budget?
In all seriousness, I personally wouldn’t feel comfortable spending $1000-1500/mo on a lease unless I were making $500k+. And if I were making that much, I think I’d rather sink the $ into real-estate investments to earn some addt’l passive income.
Soon as I find a M340i to hack, the 440’s getting posted openly but any of my cars is up for transfer to whoever wants em. 
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Okay I’ll bite hard on this.
All our bills, including 2 houses ( North Scottsdale and Sugarhill area of Salt Lake City) and 2 BMWs/Maserati isn’t even 20% of our income.
I save incessantly. You’ll need more than 10k a month to feel comfortable living ‘the lifestyle’.
You should max your 401k, HSA, do a Roth IRA (this phases out at ~129,000, so you’ll have to do a backdoor roth IRA). And then put a % back into your savings account.
Wait on the cars. You need to GET A SOLID SAVING BASE FIRST. I got a job as an engineer making 50 grand a year and maxed my 401k and lived at home right out of college. That strategy has paid itself off.
I have everything in S/P ETFs or invested via the Bogel method, and I have a separate six figure account I trade on for fun.
The point is, I never drove anything nice till I had a solid base of savings/investments, now it doesn’t feel so empty driving an Italian car around ,but I"ll get REALLY MAD about paying a lot of brakes.
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I was doing ok in my 20s but made safe career moves when the first tech bust happened, and saw a lot of high flyers I knew go bust. Made me too conservative in some ways.
2005-2008 I knew guys who BARELY escaped high school with diplomas: one making 250k in Audi F&I and another making 300-400k depending on year brokering mortgages. These guys could not see how good they had it, spent every penny they made (mortgage guy had three Mb leases for him and family members), they kept out-doing each other and spending. What they never asked was “when will it end, and how”? Mortgage guy ended up back in Mom’s basement, Audi guy threw a lavish wedding and ended up divorced and broke.
YOLO and enjoy it, but have perspective that we move in cycles. We are now today in the longest period of economic expansion in recorded history, so eventually…
Financially I did best on the stuff I bought in 2008 after the financial crisis, only because I had money to invest then that I didn’t spend before. I will need to work forever but I don’t worry nearly as much as I used to.
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4800 per year (400 a month) / .0016 = 3,000,000
was my point.
Yep. Not just techies, but a lot of people felt the pain of the 2008 financial crisis. People living fast fell hard, and I also became overly cautious. I took some time off, reset my career, lost a lot of progress but now I’m not doing too bad.
However, three months of straight yield curve inversion has me on edge. That cycle might be kicking in sooner than later.
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Just get a 2019 7 series for $500-700/month. That’s a $1000-1500 car lease for less than half hackr style. 
Bottom line be frugal but remember you can’t take it all with you. Enjoy your life and try to leave anything you do and anyone you love better than when you got there.
First off, good for you. Second, what is your intent. Is it to “fit-in” with your circle? It’s better to stand out but not in a bad way. So don’t get a conv. yellow vette (watch Silicon Valley TV show on HBO). Better yet, work backwards. Spend your money, invest in your 401K profit sharing, etc… then invest in yourself. Start-ups, Real estate, bitcoin are many options people put their money into. What money you have left is what you should spend on cars, vacations etc… This is not financial advise so do your own research but they all have a chance of appreciation, cars do not. If its to feel like “hey I made it”, don’t do it. You haven’t made it, you’re accepting a plateau, don’t, work harder, smarter and better yourself. If you can’t, work for others with skills you have.
I was in the same place as Ted Turner a few times. Certified Billionaire and he drove a Ford Taurus for the longest time.
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That’s just bad taste. Would rather have a Camry or an Accord.
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