all I got to say is Ray, can you please adopt me? :D
Bottom line. The answer to the original question is subjective. I would only comment that being in heavy debt is not a good starting point for Ferrari ownership. If you have decent income and credit rating and controlled debt/expenses then by all means go for it. Just make sure you have a stable job, and another car as a daily driver. Having no kids to support is a plus too.
Look for a higher mileage car that has been driven and well maintained. it's the super low mileage cars that you need to worry about since they havent been on the road long enough to determine whether or not they have serious issues. I know a handful of 360 owners that put mileage on their cars without any serious issues at all. Go for it!!!! You only live once!
That's what I was going to say. If you go the the Business section (must be subscribed), you will see a post about it... Dom
NOWHERE NEAR THOSE DOLLARS MATE!!! And I do not work in a coal mine, they earn more than me. I am just a peasant deep copper miner.
brokenarrow..YOU'RE RIGHT...finding the right car will be a challenge...I'm from Canada and most cars on the non-ferrari-dealer lots are mostly from the USA because of the supply and the high Canadian dollar....like any other large purchase, you have to do your homework.
Now I understand the "never drive it" club. They can't afford to drive it! Or the financial hit is bigger to their values than the enjoyment of the car. I feel so much better knowing that it is not a moral failing to drive my car, its OK if you can afford it.
I know it is a repost but "Ask Suze Orman" or just say Fck it and go for it! Maybe get a 348 or 355 as a starter and if it doesn't stretch your budget then go for the 360...
Shoot, if I am making $300k a month I'm getting an Enzo!!! Plus a CGT and a Lambo Murci, not all at once but maybe adding 1 a year.
300k a month.. man I think 300k a year is very nice salary, granted I just turned 30 but give me a break.. I don't see why you can't afford a ferrari 360 making 200k a year.. especially if you are single..
I think my best month ever was $325K. One year I had to write a check to the IRS for almost 1/2 million :-o Anyway, I don't make that sort of money these days. That was back when our website was the #1 daytrading site in the world. Since the tech bubble / dot com burst, revs are down, but still decent. The 360 was paid for with one good options trade Made $250K in one day. It was almost $455K, but the market pulled back at the open :-/ Still enough to pay for the 360 though Ray
not much different than driving around in public in a $175K car if you stop and think about it.... and I think it's very relevant to this thread.. gives people an idea of how much people buying Ferraris make, etc. Frankly, it would be very interesting to see the cross section. I'm sure some people pay cash, others are making payments, etc. I bet if the truth be known, a lot of the people who drive Ferraris really can't afford them, but want to come off like they are more successful than they actually are. Case and point, the guy just up the road lives in a big house and drives a bunch of nice cars. However, I googled his address the other day and found that his house is in foreclosure! WTF. Driving around in a $95K SUV and they are about to take his house. Crazy. Ray
haha... I don't make that sort of money any more.... also, at the time, I had a business partner. His cut was I think $1.1M that year. It sounds a lot better on paper Don't forget your tax bracket is about 50% when you make that sort of money also. Ray
haha.. you know, I was 32 back then and didn't really even appreciate it. I was trying to make $100M, so even at that amount of cash flow, I sort of felt broke. We were trying to take my company public via an IPO and a lot of my friends (at the time) were sitting on internet companies worth millions. I remember my friend Mike, who I used to play 9 ball with, his brother owned (If I recall correctly) 20% of bigwords.com - an on-line book store. Amazon wanted to buy them out to the tune of several hundred million or something. Whatever it was, his brother was due to make $40M or $50M from his cut. However, the CEO was a hot headed 24 year old and screwed up the whole deal. I remember Mike telling me the story. He came back from the meeting and they are all sitting around the office... like "okay, so what did they pay? How much are we each worth? What color Ferrari can I get?". The CEO (according to the story) said "I told Amazon to f-off.. that if they aren't careful, we'll be buying them one day!". All the guys laughed and said "Don't screw with us, really, where's the check? How much did they buy us for". And the CEO kid said "No, seriously, I told them to get f-ed". Anyway, when the stock market crashed, I was lucky I got out with anything frankly. I know a lot of people who lost everything. One guy went from $6M to $60M (riding Global Crossing stock up) and back to $5M or something. Before GBLX rallied, he put his entire $6M dollars into 1,000,000 shares of the stock at $6 and it ran to $57 or $60 per share. His fund manager (my friend) tried to get him to take $40M or $50M out and put it in bonds at ~10% - but he refused. He wanted (as the story was related to me) to try for $100M. The stock sank and took him down with it. Another story, this guy at the firm had $100M and leveraged it to $200M or something. When the market crashed, he ended up $15M in the hole! Ouch. No matter how much you make, you always feel like "you can make more". I still make a very nice living each year, but feel like I'm broke. My buddy up the road has $5M or $10M and is always crying about how he's broke also. So it's all relative I think. The guy with $450M is always a frustrated wanna be billionaire. Anyway, if I hit on something profitable again, I won't make the same mistake twice (not appreciating the money). I should have known better.. I started with zero and came from a basically poor/modest family. But those dot com days had everyones' head upside down. The best TV commercial I ever saw was the one where they show a kid riding a bus. And the voice over says "Yesterday, you were a 28 year old millionaire... today, you are just 28". haha. That happened to a lot of my friends! Ouch. The important lesson is to appreciate money. Also, it's not so much what you make, it's what you keep. Someone making $100K a year, with good money skills, can end up with more in the bank after a few years than someone making $500K or $1M a year, that blows his money. As I always tell people, if you are making $1M a year and spending $1.1M a year, you are just going broke $100K a year at a time. Ray
Sorry Mate, every time you post I think of that Devo song "working in a coal mine, going down, down" FWIW, you earn more money than I did at your age. It's what you do with it for the next 20yrs that will make the difference!
That is a horror story and will cost you about $75 k. That´s why you should buy a clean car with nice history, to minimize the risk. You can´t really take it into the decision.
Never heard of that song sorry mate. That is fair enough mate. Look at you now, you are flying and you made it all happen well within 20yrs. I know I will do well in 20yrs time, they way I am going now, but...........I want it all NOW!!! Not when I am 50yrs old. You only live once and I can assure you that what I would enjoy now, cool cars, big house ect..... I would not enjoy as much when I am 50yrs old. You tend to sell off your car collection as you get older and 'downsize' homes.
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/devo/working+in+a+coal+mine_20039682.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoDZICJh1us
Interesting thread and a lot of good information. I did this exercise a year ago and decided that the 360 was a better bet than a 355. If you are keeping the car for any length of time the 355 will cost you more. Less up front but much more in maintenance. Ultimately it drove me to the 360. If you have a stable job at 200k/yr, you have savings, and you are single, you can afford the car. Don't buy the car with your retirement but you have to live now too. A Ferrari is something you have to really want. If you don't really want the car pass. Otherwise it will be a garage queen, you will loose money, and you will get no pleasure from it.
