~Dazy Life~

5 Steps to owning a CAR

Step 1 Take your average monthly salary over the last 6 months and minus your average monthly expenses over the last 6 months.

Note: If you don't know how much you earned or saved over the last 6 months, car ownership is likely to leave you in financial ruin.

Step 2 Add car allowance (if any).

Step 3 Minus public transport costs.

Step 4 Do you have enough money left to maintain the car you are thinking of (car loan, insurance, road tax, petrol, parking, ERP, maintenance, upgrade budget)?

Note: If you never owned a car before and you do your calculations and you think 'oh my god, this cannot be right as it is so expensive'. Congratulations, add 10% to your figure and you now have the cost of car ownership in Singapore.

Step 5

If YES, you can afford a car FOR THE TIME BEING (assuming you are happy to reduce your savings by the same amount).

Note: If circumstances change (change job, lose job, lose car allowance, get married, got baby, loved one falls ill and needs medical expenses), then depending on whether you can sell the car without having to come out with money, you may be financially screwed.

If NO, you cannot afford a car. Sorry. Work harder or spend less, then maybe in the future can.

Extra Observations

1. For young people with less life experience, please note that owning a car and being able to afford a car are two different things. There are many people who cannot afford a car, but still own a car.

Most of the confusion young people face is wondering why their colleague/friend who earns $1500 can afford a car - the answer is they cannot afford a car. Either they have background support from family, or they are financially bleeding to maintain the car.

2. For guys who think that girls like guys with cars - you are unfortunately right. However, most girls do not know or care what sort of car it is, as long as it can get from point A to point B in relative comfort. If you are planning on buying a car for the main purpose of increasing your attractiveness to the opposite sex, a cheap and comfortable one will do - no need for a 'sports car' like a Civic Type R or STi. A guy who has an Altis or Sunny but can afford the occasional nice restaurant treat vs a guy with a STi but can only afford hawker centre or Mcdonalds - who do you think will be more successful in the game of love?

Honda Civic Type-R

Subaru WRX STi

WaiZai fumbled with chopsticks @ 11/02/2007 12:36:00 pm | 0 has delicate hands

0 has delicate hands

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