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I'm still at a very early stage of my professional career and my salary is still very low. I work in the IT field. I have a dream of buying my own car. The current price of my desired car is 200 times my current monthly salary. I try my best to save some money, but after six months, I'm not happy with what I've got. Is there any way for me to either try to save more or something else I can do to achieve what I need to do? Any idea is welcome.

I've cut off all my expenses except the things I need to live (food, residency fees etc..). I'm not trying to buy a car right away but I'd like to get it within next 10-12 months. I'm not getting salary increment soon, since in IT field, to get bigger salary, I should have work experience, which I don't have at this time.

Update

I'm currently living in Sri Lanka.

Brythan
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Joey
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1 Answers1

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When your dream car is not just 200 times your disposable income but in fact 200 times your whole monthly salary, then there is no way for you to afford it right now. Any attempt to finance through a loan would put you into a debt trap you won't ever dig yourself out.

And if there are any car dealerships in your country which claim otherwise, run away fast. Jon Oliver from Last Week tonight made a video about business practices of car dealerships in the United States which sell cars on loans to people who can't afford them a while ago. As usual: When a deal seems too good to be true, it generally isn't true at all. After a few months, the victims customers usually end up with no car but lots of outstanding debt they pay off for years.

So how do you tell if you can afford a car or not?

A new car usually lives for about 10-20 years. So when you want to calculate the monthly cost of owning a new car, divide the price by 120. But that's just the price for buying the vehicle, not for actually driving it. Cars cost additional money each month for gas, repairs, insurance, taxes etc. (these costs depend a lot on your usage pattern and location, so I can not provide you with any numbers for that). If you have less disposable income per month (as in "money you currently have left at the end of each month") than monthly cost of purchase plus expected monthly running costs, you can not afford the car.

Possible alternatives:

  • Look for a cheaper car which is more in your price range. Used cars are far cheaper than new ones (but do of course have less lifetime left). But keep in mind that very old cars are usually more expensive in maintenance cost, because they will require more repairs. So a old clunker from the junk yard might in the end be more expensive than a used car in good condition.
  • Subscribe to a car sharing service where you can rent a car for an affordable fee when you need one.
  • See if you can find a job which either pays better or provides you with a company car
Philipp
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