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Early Retirement Investing: Ditch my 2018 Golf R?

Aelwulf

Ready to race!
I agree with most of what others seem to be saying.

Car's aren't an investment. You'd likely take a hit if you just bought it new unless you got a hell of a deal. Even then, circumstances could give a hit (took a small one trading in my 18-month Ram that was technically 'in the black').

There's also the 'emotional investment'. You already have it, always wanted it, love it. Will trading it in, especially for something that just gets the job done, leave you with too much regret? Will you hate the new one? Your quality of life will likely degrade. It seems like something really minor but subjective things like that can take a toll.

$500/month would help, but unless you/your broker is amazing the difference likely won't be huge if it's just a couple of years. Paying off my debt is an example. Accelerating payments on a card from $100 more a month to $500 more a month decreases it by a month. Is that worth other things/enjoyment I could be putting it towards? Same question to your payment.

I say unless there's something specific about it stop doubting and just enjoy the car. Keep it long enough to pay it off and since you have something you enjoy hopefully keep it for 10+ years and use that as your investment consideration. If you don't like a car you're more likely to keep changing them. That's constant payments. You love this one, keep it 10 years plus, that's what, 5+ years without any payments. Or wiggle room if not married as mentioned and you get married and have to get a family car, won't need to sacrifice yours if you don't want to.
 

Chogokin

Autocross Champion
Get a Cooper S.:D They are pretty fun to drive and can be found for pretty cheap with low miles.
 

StorableComa

Autocross Champion
I've heard that they have pretty expensive details, is it true?
Coopers? Depends on the model. If you get a Supercharged model the 90-100k service is pretty pricey for timing refreshing and everything. Mainly why you see a lot of people bailing on them before the big services.

If you do it yourself, it's not super expensive. Most of the markup is in labor hours.
 

StorableComa

Autocross Champion
I also would like to know what $500 dollar investments are going to mature into early retirement. Granted all you need is 6 million in liquid assets, invested with a moderate 6% yearly return and you can live off 75-150k a year post tax for life. Getting that first 6 mil though...
 

brat_burner

Autocross Champion
I also would like to know what $500 dollar investments are going to mature into early retirement. Granted all you need is 6 million in liquid assets, invested with a moderate 6% yearly return and you can live off 75-150k a year post tax for life. Getting that first 6 mil though...

Lol, I’m just hoping he’s ok after March and didn’t need to be talked down from a bridge.
 

MLue1

Drag Racing Champion
Funny to be reading this on a car forum, alot of guys think about this but it will always come down to how disciplined you are in managing your money, setting your goals and doing what it takes to reach the goals that you set. You don't have to give up being a car guy and living your life, but you have to be disciplined. Like you, I started asking myself the same question at a young age, I had a corporate job that paid well but in my case my vice wasn't an expensive car but $ I was spending on motorsports, the car is just a tool, a thing.

There is no road map that someone can give you to financial freedom, every case is different but there are certain habits that you can cultivate and you have to listen to your inner disciplined self. My recent eye problems have forced me to retire a bit earlier than intended; I thank my lucky stars that I made the decision to be more disciplined with my money and investments at an early age like you and it has paid off. I recently sold my second home on Hilton Head as well as my current Home to move to a more fixed income life style; I didn't have to sell both but one of the disciplines is knowing when to take and secure profits and reduce risks. Remember listen to you inner self,.... chances are if you are thinking that $500 per month for a car is affecting you, then chances are, you are correct, it's probably not for you but only you can decide this.... .

Go read books, listen to pod casts and watch videos on investing, it will help you to find your way.

Good Luck!

PS. If you are looking for older cars think about older Porsches, even the slower ones are fun to own and drive.... and most of all after the depreciation curve flatten you can buy them, drive them.... they aren't cheap but done correctly with some fore thought you can sell them without loosing anything in depreciation.
 
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Thumper

Autocross Champion
I also would like to know what $500 dollar investments are going to mature into early retirement. Granted all you need is 6 million in liquid assets, invested with a moderate 6% yearly return and you can live off 75-150k a year post tax for life. Getting that first 6 mil though...

45 is not early retirement, that's hitting a jackpot, no one retires at 45. Early retirement is 55, we're talking about an entire decade before any reasonable person thinks of it. Maybe he's thinking he's going to 'retire' from his normal job and then open his own business doing a hobby for side money? Even then............45?? lol

Not to mention are we ignoring addressing inflation? We're talking about 40+ years of time assuming a end of life event around 85 as average. This means living almost as long with no job as you did WITH a job. Now again, if you're making $300k a year, maybe 3fifty and living like you only make 100k it's doable, but then seems silly to worry about a $500/month payment. And you said you JUST got into investments. Let's do some math here.

Generally speaking, assuming you own or will own your home by the time you retire a rough guideline is needing 50% of your annual income per year you want to retire. Let's assume double national average at around $65k a year. That means you need $32k per year of retirement from either savings or reliable investments. Again, let's assume you only plan to live until you're 85 which means 40 years. That means you need $1.25 million in the bank in 14 years.

If you pull $500 a month into a 6% investment in 14 years you will have $127k, which is impressive......but is also only 10% of your goal. Now, I know a few high dividend stocks that are well over 6% but even dividend investment is gambling. There is no promise of a dividend being the same or around at all even from quarter to quarter, let alone planning on it for 14 years. Not to mention, in reality how long is your loan on the R? 5 years? So in reality that's only $34k because after 5 years you can still invest that $500 a month for 9 years until you 'retire'.

And again, let's ignore the financial atom bomb of inflation just dropped and another one or two on the way. We just spent $1 trillion dollars that will have to be paid back or forgiven, plus another trillion or so on the way. Not to mention any number of other factors.

I have two pieces of advise from a 44 year old, if you are serious about investments to retire on look at property. Running rental properties are nearly inflation proof because as the cost of YOUR living goes up the cost of RENT goes up. It's complicated as you need to manage maintenance and be sure to rotate properties whan the market allows (selling older, high maintenance units to acquire newer units, etc) but it's much safer and more stable than hedge funds, etc. But then you probably don't remember 2007 like us older folks do. :)

Second piece of advise.........keep the R, set more realistic goals and take reasonable steps to reach them.
 

Mk_GTI

Go Kart Champion
One thing that sold me to buy a year old Golf R instead of a new GTI - the R's hold their value well. You still need a vehicle to get around, so the smart thing to do would be to pay off the Golf R as soon and possible to avoid paying interest and keep it for a long time. The 2018's do have a really long MFR warranty that helps.

At least you'll own a vehicle you enjoy and will hold value well. Look at Total Cost of Ownership over a certain amount of time.
 

riceburner

Autocross Champion
My concern would be that once you are retired you wont have a fun car to enjoy with all of your newfound time off, haha.
 

staying_tuned

Drag Racing Champion
Jumping from the GTI to the R, especially if it means picking up a car payment, isn't worth the devastating opportunity cost at this particular time in your life. Stick with your plan, it isn't rocket science and 45 absolutely reasonable. I'm not ashamed to say that my wife and I, years ago, hit financial peace pretty hard core. Cleared our student and all CC debt and shared a POS Plymouth breeze for nearly 2 years. That was our "Dave Car". We didn't eat rice and beans but we trimmed back any, and everything, we could. This was exceedingly hard for me as a mildly successful software engineer because my pride and ego bombarded me with the FOMO come pre-IPO FAANG time. I wanted an exotic and sexy retirement play, none of this boring nonsense that DIDN'T involve leveraging other peoples money, screw actual old-school saving etc. We are currently at the tail end of a 15 year note on our current home whose value has nearly doubled since we bought it (zero issue vacation home that wen't into foreclosure, wife and I pounced and the bank accepted) no revolving debt and while I'm about a decade away from comfortable retirement, if I was asking the question you asked at your age, absolutely I would be retiring in 2 years (45).
 

GIACUser

Master Wallet Mechanic
As someone who is retired. You should have a plan. If you want to retire at 45 you need to determine simple things like how much monthly income would I want to retire on. What will my expenses be. How long am I expected to live (how many years would I need income) Let say you need 100K per year for 40 years (i will live to 85), you would need 4 million dollars.

Your absolute best hope is to begin to acquire income property, save your cash, learn how to buy when the market dips and keep buying. My neighbor did this when he was your age and he is now retired has a number of properties that he maintains and the rental fees provide him a very nice income. As stated he dumps properties when they become a liability because of age or area changing etc.

Also have a plan on what you will do when you retire and all of your friends are going to keep working another 20 years. It can be a bit lonely.

And I always felt you need a balance between enjoying life when you are young and preparing for the future. Keep the car, pay it off, free up your 500 a month. You have time to save for the future and enjoy the present. Retiring at 45 might be a very very difficult target to hit unless you are expecting a very big windfall from inheritance or something. It takes time to make money.
 
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