Originally Posted by w00zie

Life is short (or can be)

I'm 44 and have owed 18 911's and one Cayenne in my lifetime, always within my means. Most people around me think AND tell me i'm wasting my money and should wait until i'm retired.

That said...I've just spent the last 12 months battling stage 3 cancer (and I had no symptoms. After all the chemo, radiation and surgeries all seems clear now and my next goal is to make it 5 years without re-occurence(s)

All that to say I'm happy i didn't wait until i was retired to enjoy things in life (again I've been lucky to be able to afford them)

Life can surprise you in both a good and a bad way. If you have the ability and the means to buy a 911, do so and ENJOY IT and don't feel bad about it

Originally Posted by apex430

I'm glad you are doing better. this year was the same for me as you. i spent it fighting stage 4 cancer. surgery, chemo, radiation therapy, constant blood drawn, pep scans, ct scans. I've become very close to the hospital staff that took care of me all year. that being said, i have the means to enjoy life so that what i am doing. in the worse case scenario, my family is already taken care off. i'd rather they enjoy the best of me than the 'worry wart' me.

no regrets. enjoy the car.

Originally Posted by maverick1715

W00zie,

I got tears in my eyes while reading your post. I hope 2016 will bring you joy, health and happiness and we will pray that you will stay clear of cancer! I feel great that you enjoyed and keep enjoying your wealth by buying what satisfies you the most without giving a dang what other say or think! My father is also passing through hard times with lung cancer, which did a metastasis on his brain and he's on stage 1. He's fighting with chemo and hopefully he'll win it. He's only 59, worked hard in his whole life and was very conservative person all of his life.

Keep enjoying these nice cars of yours!!!

Originally Posted by maverick1715

I have already ordered it. My order was placed back in October and car should be in US soil within the next days.

Originally Posted by tanman

Sorry, I don't impose my own personal values on anyone else. Most adults can make up their own minds.

Originally Posted by chance6

You're gonna eat $10k either way, either now or in the long run just by buying a new vehicle. The "smart" option is always a lightly used CPO Porsche, with a nice big discount over MSRP.


BUT- cars in general are emotive for the enthusiast. You are an enthusiast. Go with your gut.


Speaking of old age, I was visiting my grandma (who's 87 and in terrible condition) in the nursing home at Xmas, living in a big room with 2 other old people. Life goes fast. It brought tears to my eyes. Your health, above all, should be prized and protected. Buckle your seat belt.

Originally Posted by shtfrbrains

Lots of great posts, and in spite of the few nay-sayers, I think this is great thread! A lot of us often contemplate what we can truly afford and what we should and shouldn't buy.

First and foremost, life is short, and tomorrow is not assured. It's great to have a plan for tomorrow, but live today as well. If you can afford to painlessly buy a fantastic sports car, do it and enjoy it. I don't see what you have to feel guilty or foolish about.

On the retirement sub-topic that emerged, I have observed a lot of people don't really like their jobs or what they do, so I can see why they want to be done with it, and plan their whole lives for that day. As for those of us who are blessed enough to have meaningful careers we love, who the @#$% wants to quit working anyway. I plan on staying in the fight as long as possible. This actually affords me a lot more options than putting all my efforts towards a plan to spend my last 30 years driving around in a winnebago.

Originally Posted by shtfrbrains

Lots of great posts, and in spite of the few nay-sayers, I think this is great thread! A lot of us often contemplate what we can truly afford and what we should and shouldn't buy.

First and foremost, life is short, and tomorrow is not assured. It's great to have a plan for tomorrow, but live today as well. If you can afford to painlessly buy a fantastic sports car, do it and enjoy it. I don't see what you have to feel guilty or foolish about.

On the retirement sub-topic that emerged, I have observed a lot of people don't really like their jobs or what they do, so I can see why they want to be done with it, and plan their whole lives for that day. As for those of us who are blessed enough to have meaningful careers we love, who the @#$% wants to quit working anyway. I plan on staying in the fight as long as possible. This actually affords me a lot more options than putting all my efforts towards a plan to spend my last 30 years driving around in a winnebago.

Originally Posted by Macster

Just having the amount of money handy does not necessarily mean money is not a problem.

You don't have to answer these questions publicly but you should answer them to yourself.

Is your retirement plan fully funded? If you spend $100K now over time that could have grown to $200K, even $300K if invested wisely. And if you start saving for retirement early you do not have to take as much risk. You have time to grow your retirement savings which means you do not have to assume as much risk to reach your retirement savings goal.

And do you have money set aside -- not including your retirement savings -- for just in case?

It varies from person to person but I have found over the years I feel pretty good if I have around a year's salary in the bank. It means if I get laid off and I have a couple of times over the years I have enough money that I don't have to fret about making ends meet while I search for a new job. And I can be picky about the job I do take. Sure there can be unemployment but depending upon your circumstances it may not cover much. For instance, I was receiving $450/week unemployment while laid off. I won't divulge my salary but just let me say that $450/week is no where near my annual salary on a weekly basis.

And you will be surprised how much it can cost to be laid off. Working my employer paid all my medical, dental, and vision insurance premiums. (And kicked in a healthy matching contribution to my 401(k) plan.)

After I was laid off, to keep my insurance, COBRA cost me $1183/month and it is undoubtedly more now. My rent is around $1400/month -- I rent because it allows me to be flexible and move to where the work is: when I retired and when I decide where I will retire I'll buy a house to live in -- and there is of course other expenses: food; gas; phone; utilities; insurance; car repairs (had a $4300 bill to replace the radiators in my Turbo), new tires on the Boxster, $1000+ to cover hand surgery I needed.

So that $450/week or $1800/month covered my COBRA and a fraction of my rent. Everything else I had to pay for out my rainy day money fund.

Might mention that unemployment benefit doesn't run for very long. I received it for 6 months and it was expiring and that is when I was fortunate to find a job. In fact I found my old job got rehired by the company that laid me off. Had I not found another job right away I was faced with living totally off my savings. While have retirement funds set aside I didn't want to have to touch these.

You don't have to buy a new car. You can get a pretty good used Porsche for around $50K. (My 2003 Turbo which I bought used in 2009 with just 10K miles and a 2 year, 100K mile CPO warranty cost $57.7K.) The Turbo was my 3rd Porsche and my first used one. Both my new Porsches (2002 Boxster, 2008 Cayman S) didn't cost $100K combined. The Boxster cost around $43K and the Cayman $50.6K.)

You can buy a used Porsche and leave maybe 50% of that $100K in the bank or better yet save it/invest it towards your retirement.

You think it is cheap to live retired? Well, it can be but you can be surprised how expensive it can get. My Mom and Dad retired about 30+ years ago. They both had pensions from the companies they worked for. Those pensions like that are no longer offered BTW. Also, both received their medical insurance as part of their retirement benefit. So coupled with the their SS which was not much compared to say what one might receive today they had plenty of money and lived ok. Nothing fancy but they had everything they wanted and needed. They traveled, did things together and enjoyed retirement as it is meant to be enjoyed. They worked hard all their lives and were entitled to this and I'm glad they got this enjoyment.

Then they got real old. And unable to live on their own. I brought them 2000 miles so they could be near me and look after them but after not too many months they both needed to move into assisted care. They simply could not live on their own anymore.

Assisted care cost them $5900/month or nearly $72K per year. Their retirement income, which was pretty good, did not cover this. So they had to rely upon their savings. Thankfully Dad was pretty darn good about saving and they had enough money saved they could have gone decades without burning through their savings. But just about the time Dad died, I got a letter from the board and care home -- they were in a board and care home the last nearly 12 months of their lives -- and the cost was going up to $7000/month. That's $84K per year. Dad and Mom never made that much money working and they both had pretty good jobs. 'course as I mentioned above they retired over 30 years ago. (Their first home, bought in 1964, cost just $18,000. The mortgage was $128/month.)

So Dad died, then the board/care home wanted to raise Mom's care cost to $4000/month. When Dad died Mom lost over half her retirement income -- Dad had the larger pension and SS benefit as he worked longer and made more money than Mom -- and because I didn't know how long Mom would live I had to find another place for her which I found that only charged (only charged) $3000/month. But I got a guarantee the care home would not raise her care cost as long as she was there. Sadly to say Dad died on 11/3/2014 and I found a new place for Mom and moved her -- well, an ambulance moved her -- on the 11th and then she died the 23rd just 20 days after Dad.

The point of the above is while you think you have enough to live on things change and sometimes not for the better. At some point life starts taking things from you rather than giving you things. 33 is a bit young to be thinking about 63, but you should. 63 will be here before you know it. And then there's 93 (or 96, the age Dad was when he died). If you are lucky you can see 93 or even 96.

Do you really need to spend $100K on a new Porsche? Are you really in a position that the money is essentially of no consequence?

You know that nice shiny new car can turn into a pile of scrap in no time. I bought a nice new 2008 Cayman S in early April of 2009. By early May, just 4 weeks later, the car was smashed to a curb after being t-boned by some butthead driver on a cell phone who lost control of her car. The car was a total write off. The other driver's insurance company managed to come up with a settlement that made me whole again but it took the threat of a lawsuit to get its attention. Part of the problem was the owner of the car had too little insurance.

The way it works is picture you taking the money -- in cash -- you pay for a new car and walking outside on a windy day and throwing the cash away. If you are lucky the wind will blow some maybe most of the money back your way. But it may blow it all away from you.