I make $175K pretax (including last year’s bonuses) and currently rent with my boyfriend, paying only $1K for rent while utilities are covered. Most of my spending goes toward lifestyle (social outings, clothing, luxury items), but I can cut back if needed.
I’ve been driving my parents’ 2011 RAV4—reliable and well-maintained, but not exciting. After grinding on my career and education for five years, I wanted a refresh. I don’t drive much since I live downtown and rely on transit/Uber.
Yesterday, I bought a second-hand 2017 Porsche 911 Turbo—one of my dream cars. Financed it for $105K over 68 months at 6.6% with $25K down. Now, I’m freaking out. The payments are huge, and while my expenses are low now, I don’t know if that will last.
I love this car, but I’m wondering if I made a reckless impulse decision. Considering selling to recoup costs, but I’d love some outside opinions. It’s 2 AM, and I can’t sleep from the stress.
The best financial decisions aren’t always the most rational—they’re the ones you can live with without losing sleep. And right now, you’re losing sleep. That’s a sign.
The interesting thing here is that you already had a perfectly good car. A reliable, well-maintained 2011 RAV4 that cost you nothing and did its job without stress. But reliability isn’t exciting. Dependability doesn’t give you that dopamine hit.
So you upgraded. Not because you needed to, but because you wanted to. And that’s fine—there’s nothing wrong with spending money on things that make you happy. The problem is that happiness tied to material things often fades faster than the payments do.
Buying the car wasn’t a mistake. The mistake—if there is one—is buying without fully understanding what you were signing up for. The monthly payments feel fine when you’re looking at your current expenses, but financial security isn’t just about today—it’s about how many unknowns you can handle before stress turns into regret.
Luxury purchases always feel good in the moment. That’s why they’re called luxuries. But the problem isn’t whether a 911 is a good car or whether it holds its value—it’s whether the tradeoff you just made was worth it. You traded financial flexibility for a dream. Maybe that’s fine. Maybe it’s not. But there’s no getting around the fact that you financed a depreciating asset at 6.6% for nearly six years. That’s a weight, and weight compounds just like money does.
If this car is something you’ll look back on in 20 years and say, “Man, that was the best decision I ever made”—keep it. If instead, you think there’s even a chance that, six months from now, you’ll be looking at that monthly payment with resentment rather than excitement, it’s worth considering an exit plan while you can still get out relatively clean.
You don’t have to make a decision at 2 AM. Sleep on it. But remember: The ability to change your mind before small mistakes become big ones is an underrated skill in both investing and life.