What do you do? How do you afford a Ferrari?

It's pretty easy to confuse wealth with a good income... two different things. You do not need to be wealthy to own an F-car, but you do need a good income.

 

The question isn't do you have to be rich to own a Ferrari. The right question is are you married and do you own a Ferrari. If one is married and does buy a Ferrari it opens up a whole can of worms. I bought a Ferrari and all I've heard since then is if we can afford a Ferrari we can afford this. The day the car was delivered my wife went out and spent 5k on various household items she feels 100% justified in buying. I can afford the car,the wife is the real question.

 

The income side is only one of two parts. You also need to look at expenses (liability side).

If you make 100k, you can afford a F-car if you have no other bills (mortgage, etc...). In fact, you could probably afford the 360 or F-40 if that was your only expense.

If you make 100k, you probably can't afford a F-car if you have extensive payments to make each month on other items.

Look at the full balance sheet & income statement!!!

 

This whole question obviously doens't have a cut and dried answer, but I think Iluv4res is on the money, no pun inteneded.

Here's a question for all the smart finance people on the board

Person A makes annual take home income of $100K, and spends $80K per year in all expenses.

Person B makes annual take home income of $500K, and spends $510K per year in all expenses.

Who is better off- person A, or person B?

A follow up question:

Person A has $1.0MM worth of Ferrari's (he says this is $1MM of assets)
Person B has $1.0MM worth of Real Estate Rental Properties (he says this is $1MM of assets)

Who is right?

This test is just food for thought You cannot do a specific financial analysis based on take home income of who can "afford" a ferrari, because there are so many other variables- life priorities, aversion to risk, assets that earn cash flow vs. assets that require cash flow to maintian, etc etc.

By the way, in my opinon does it make sense for me to want a ferrari? No. Do I still want one and have a goal of getting one? Yes. It's a balancing act of Save for retirement/live within your means/live conservatively and you only live once/just do it/why not?

 

LMAO... 5k on house things, craziness. No doubt every college freshmen says this... but I don't want to get married, that way I can indulge myself in lifes little joys (Ferrari's & Lambo's) and not get hit with 'necessary' bills like 5 k on a fridge. You must love her very much.

 

Do you have to be rich? Hell no! Once in a while, somebody will look at my 308 and say "Wow...You must make a lot of money"! I say NO!....I don't own a ski boat!

 

I think that 'wealthy' is relative....and one's priorities have to be considered as well.

With Fcar ownership it isn't so much the cost of the car.....it is the outrageous maintainance costs. If you are reasonable good with a wrench it is more than possible to cut those costs by 80%.

The 'wife' thing is also a factor. For the nanosecond that I was married...(keep in mind, no kids, she had her own profession and refused to pay any bills)...every time that I would buy something for which I earned the money for....she EXPECTED to be able to spend an equal amount of what I had earned on her crap (all the while putting what she had earned in safe deposit boxes, sticking me with her tax bills, etc). Needless to say, after being suitably and aditionally taken to the cleaners...she is fending for herself now....good riddens!

Buy your car, drive the wheels off of and have fun!

Ciao....Dino

 

As everything from valve caps to is it "Spider" or "Spyder" and every possible other thing to do with Ferrari's has been discussed why bother chatting on F-Chat at all when you can just do a search in the archives?

(I am being sarcastic!)

DrewH

 

This is a good thread! My goal is to get the exotic first, then the wife......or shall I say mistress?

 

It depends on which Ferrari!

I do ok for a 32 year old, but by no means consider myself "wealthy". That said, I would really have to stretch my wife and I to get into a 360. The older cars are achievable though.

 

Do you have to be rich? Nah, I've found that good looks and a high IQ are all you really need.

(heeheehee)

 

Family is #1 priority
Always take care of them before your hobby.

I am fortunate to have a wife who isn't into wasteful expensive items, such as jewels, designer items and etc. She is into hooking, so we did spend 100k on our kitchen. And once that was taken care of, she has no problem with me spending money on a car, she never discouraged or objected in anyway.

The way I see it, Ferrari is not only passion/hobby, but also achivement in life. Thus, you kinda have to have the other hardware before you have a Ferrari. I mean, think about it, people see your F355/F360 they go like WOW, when you invite them to your house, and they see your IKEA kitchen, it will be like HUH WTF??

 

Ok, I have to hear more about this one. :lol

Ed

 

It takes a wealth of PATIENCE, to drive a carbed one!

 

Quote:
The question isn't do you have to be rich to own a Ferrari. The right question is are you married and do you own a Ferrari. If one is married and does buy a Ferrari it opens up a whole can of worms. I bought a Ferrari and all I've heard since then is if we can afford a Ferrari we can afford this. The day the car was delivered my wife went out and spent 5k on various household items she feels 100% justified in buying. I can afford the car,the wife is the real question.


AMEN, BRO!!!

 

I agree with the aforementioned. But what's wrong with Ikea? My wife loves the latter.

 

OOPS, I meant COOKING, lol.

 

IKEA doesn't use real wood.
It might look trendy and cool but if it doesn't handle heavy usage, kitchen cabinets and etc I'm talking about. If you plan to live in a place for 10 yrs, I would honestly recommend giving business to homedepot EXPO.

 

N4S: The day the car was delivered my wife went out and spent 5k on various household items she feels 100% justified in buying. I can afford the car,the wife is the real question.

What did you expect?

 

Hehe, I really like the pic Rob! Talking about priorities! It isn't your "casa", is it?
I would see myself living like this, if it was the only way I could own one of these Italian beauties! Mmmm, my girlfriend wouldn't like that .

Answering the question;
1 Rich AND the passion for Ferrari = you have or will have a Ferrari
2 Not rich AND the passion for Ferrari = you have or will have a Ferrari (probably a used one) when you're passionated enough and willing to work, save, sacrifice,... for it. I'm in this case.
3 Rich AND no passion for Ferrari = you can have a Ferrari but you probably won't respect it and use it mostly to show off IMO.
4 Not rich AND no passion for Ferrari = what are you doing on this site???

So... if you REALLY want one, you WILL have one if you're not getting yourself into trouble. Of course, how richer you are, how easier it will be.

Just my opinion

Greets, Alex.

 

All of you guys are missing the obvious answer....find a woman who likes F-Car's and marry her! That is what I did and 15 years later, I now have my car and a happy wife. The key to my success was choosing to be happy in my house instead of upgrading. The car, the wife, the house....all paid for ...on less then 100k/year.

 

Johnny has it right. If the ferrari is like the home theatre which is like the cameras and the endless CDs and DVDs you will have to manage her expectations to play with the same trivia that she perceives you want. As the money become easier the toys get more expensive and her expectations escallate in parallel. But if the Ferrari, or the plane or the boat or the train is a passion and she loves you with that passion, its not going to be a trade off. If you want it, she will help you find it and have fun with you.

I am bemused by the poor souls who enter marriage without these things being clear to them. But then sex and booz do strange things to guys, and gals too I guess.

 

Who needs money for a Ferrari? Just do like DES-NNO-Carbon and bum your way around the country driving whatever you want. He gets a regular fix, and he never has to cough up money for payments or insurance. I think he has it covered pretty well. Or even better, become an expert like LWayne.

LWayne is the Nikoli Tesla of the Ferrari world. Tesla was famous for constructing his inventions inside his brain without ever building an actual prototype machine. He simply refined his design mentally until he got it perfect, then he built the real thing. LWayne continues to study and analyze the rare Ferrari world inside his brain without actually spending his money on anything. But one of these days, after years of painstaking and meticulous research, he will find a long lost Enzo prototype racer inside an Italian farmer's barn and buy it for cheap and be on top of the Ferrari world with a one-of-a-kind car. Or maybe he will find that Ferrari frozen deep inside a snowdrift somewhere in the Alps. It's probably parked right next to the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray with the dead driver still behind the steering wheel.