Prestigious cars or retire early

motorguy

fred246 wrote: »

The reason I wrote the thread was the man opposite has a new Range Rover Vogue every 3 years. Probably company car. Probably leased. I imagine he ( or his company) has lost £150k in a similar time in depreciation. Always has a different colour which is the only way you'd know it was different. I just thought you could have a few years retirement for that money.

Chances are yes its a lease car / company car and is written off against tax by his company.

A colleague of mine whos currently an IT Contractor too has been lured in to a permie role again by a prestigious company. He currently has a 14 year old X3 on its last legs. They've told him to pick out pretty much whatever company car he wants so i think hes chosing between a Rangie, top end X5 or top end Volvo XC90 Hybrid.

They'll change it every three years and its fully maintained and fully expensed.

It works for him as his car is on its last legs anyway and no doubt the company will be getting a very preferential lease deal and be offsetting the cost of it against tax.

I dont think theres any option for him to get the £80,000 or so in cash instead though.....

Sea_Shell

I'll take a paid off mortgage and early retirement against a flash set of wheels any day.

motorguy

Sea_Shell wrote: »

I'll take a paid off mortgage and early retirement against a flash set of wheels any day.

Again that binary statement that doesnt really stack up in the real world - i dont think theres too many that simply by not having a "nice car" at their door for a number of years can suddenly have their mortgage paid off and can retire years early.

TheMoonandBack

motorguy wrote: »

Again that binary statement that doesnt really stack up in the real world - i dont think theres too many that simply by not having a "nice car" at their door for a number of years can suddenly have their mortgage paid off and can retire years early.

Agreed, from 2007 to 2015 I had what I consider to be a stupid car phase and ran new or less than 2 year old cars. I changed them regularly, eventually saw the light and stopped doing it.
Even so when I worked out everything I’d spent buying and selling motors it came to around £2000 per year, or £166 per month. In that time I had no cambelt changes, no breakdowns, minimal repairs and probably bought 6 tyres.
That would not have made a major difference to my mortgage.

Sea_Shell

I guess it's more of a mindset against unnecessary over spending, whether that be cars, clothes, holidays. It all adds up. Of course, one person's unnecessary is another person's must have!!!

fred990

Retired recently at 54, I didn't get the car thing other than as a means of getting from A to B. A cheapo old VW works for me. My old workmates regularly drove £80-90-100k cars, funnily enough only the blokes though.
They phone/email me and tell me how 'lucky' I am that I could afford to go early! YMMV

bugslet

I 've had one (for me) really flash car, VX220 turbo. OK, not a wildly expensive car, but I could have got something cheaper and not bought it brand new. Loved it, still smile at the thought of driving it, just great fun!

Before and after, vehicles have been second hand, just a way of getting from A to B.

I haven't had holidays at apart from a few long weekends and three Xmas breaks in the UK since 1991, but then again I'm one of those people who gets bored after two days on holiday.

I really do not like children, the maternal gene completely passed me by, though I like dogs and they'be cost me more than makes sense.

reeac wrote: »

I see so many contributions here from people whose main ambition is to retire early ...pretty sad really that they have jobs that they just don't enjoy. I also read articles about people who retire early and then don't know what to do with their newly acquired leisure ...again pretty sad.

I could have retired 18 months ago at 52. I work now because most days I enjoy it, and I want some more money to make retirement comfortable. I'm self-made, own business, so I've grafted for every penny. What I would like I more time and just work for myself with no employees and less responsibilities. I have so many things I want to do, and I can't do all of them in the weekends.

Life is about finding what suits you and living accordingly.

tony541

reeac wrote: »

I see so many contributions here from people whose main ambition is to retire early ...pretty sad really that they have jobs that they just don't enjoy. I also read articles about people who retire early and then don't know what to do with their newly acquired leisure ...again pretty sad.

I don't think many people who retire early get bored. I retired at 52 and spent a lot of time in Spain and have never been so busy. Spent a lot of time doing houses up for family and my partner. Fair enough if you enjoy your job but I didnt, but each to his own.
I too never had posh cars, rather laughed at peeps which their shiny new cars, again each to his own. My last car a vw bora I bought for £1200 7 years ago and done 60000 trouble free miles in it since and only spent an average of some £250 a year on routine maintenance,

thescouselander

Its pretty foolish IMO to sacrifice things you might like now on the assumption you'll enjoy the benefits in retirement later. I know quite a few people (including my late mum) who popped their clogs much earlier than might be expected in their early 60s.

Plan for retirement by all means but at the same time live life while you can and if you like posh cars then why not put some money in that direction - it might be the only chance you get to enjoy the benefits of your hard work.

fred246

It's not so much buying the posh car it's the continuous replacement that loses all the money. Imagine a share trader "Buy when the price is high. Really high. When the value plummets keep it. When your losses start to level off sell. Buy high again." I couldn't believe my eyes when I read the Whatcar costs of car ownership. All based on buying a brand new car and selling after 3 years. My wife reckons is peculiarly British. Maybe because the age of the car is displayed on the number plate.