frebay

just out of curiousity, what are all your occupations? or how did you afford to pay for the tl? it's just suprising w/ the economy doing so bad that there are a lot of people buying luxury cars. i'm trying to figure out if i can afford a 500 a month car payment plus 150 insurance on top of my mortage, and want to know who you all do it.

here's my info:
23, IT director in southern ca about 60k annually. i plan to down 15k, and pay 500 a month for 4 years.

partagas

Old, central ca, I own a consulting business. Every 3 years I decide upon the car I want, say under 75K and lease it, nothing down and write it off as 95% of my driving is business. Actually, I have to get two cars like this every 3 years. I am currently retiring a GS400 and a 330i. I am leasing the TL not on a cost basis but on merit. It outhandles any business car except the 330i and its interior accoutrements are superior to it's upside competition.

Rocketsfan

I work in Quality Assurance/IT and save my money pretty religiously. Finding ways to save more money is always fun to me nowadays. I'm 33 and this is my 3rd car. I had a 1988 Toyota Camry I drove for about 9 years/130,000 miles. I got rid of that and bought a new 1997 Nissan Maxima that I drove for 6.5 years/128,000 miles. I'm not the type to buy cars every 2-4 years. I expect to get at least 120k out of any car I own. This helps me save in the meantime. The 90's and 00's have also been a great time to be in the stock market, so I've made a lot of money that way as well. I also paid cash for the TL. Damn, I love this car.

abwolf13

Frebay, I'm impressed that you make 60k at age 23. Don't get caught up in the perceived status, if the payment is overstretching you, go a couple more years with a v6 accord.

I'm 37 and make 107,000 and I'm going to lease because with a CA mortgage I can't even afford to buy a TL!!

ferrari527

my daddy paid for it no flames He is a venture capitalist. I paid for the G35 myself.

NOX 3.2

Was an IT consultant (my own company) when I bought my 00TL+NAV, drove it 100 miles a day visiting clients, wrote off the mileage, and because of the economy going bad I had to take a fulltime job, so I went from $129,000 to $78,000 which is a lot if you live in TX. House payment is only $1200 (for a new 3.2k sq ft home with 9721 sq ft of land. lakefront.)

After using the 00TL for 3 years I traded it in for a shiny 04TL+NAV 6Speeds! what a Car, even the doors shut like a mercedes! - it's a bargain considering ALL the new stuff they put in (I'm an Computer/Electronics Engineer and I know how hard it is to add so many new features and have them working right the first time!) Payment = $680 x 60 mo - It's great to be able to write new software and sell it and pay for the car with no effort... you just have to know where to look.


Enjoy your TL's - we're all blessed!

Sherlock

I'm 31, do Windows NT/2000/2003 server support for a utility, I make around 72k for the last 3 years, no kids, no college to save for, other half pays the mortgage on the two houses, the Accord I paid off in March so I don't have a lot of outgoing expenses, Insurance, DSL, Cell, Land Phone, Food Bill, and some Credit Debt I'm paying off.. so the $641/mo is just another bill. I only put $2500 down on it and got 4.3%

bollywood21

I am 30, I work for a large ERP software company as a consultant. I making a six digit income for the last several years. I like to keep my cars for about 9-10 years / 150K. I don't like to take on debt on a depreciating asset, so I pay for my cars in cash. Personal preference.

jdriver

Software developer. Make around 75k, with zero credit card debt. With trade in and a little extra cash my payment is 560/month. Insurance is about 150/month.

drozdiak

IT Security Sales. @$150K/year. mortgage, 2 kids, '03 Odyssey, '03 A-Spec, bills. I expect to buy the '05 TL next year.

sc354

well my car isn't technically mine, but drop by sometime during the day and you'll see I'm the only one who drives our '03 A-Spec.

My dad is 47, he works as a self employed contractor. He does wireless infrastructure and strategy work. Last time we spoke about work, he mentioned he's making 1100/day. So that's somewhere in the range of 265k/year. I guess this is a pretty good pay cheque.

I'm 17 btw.

vtechbrain

MD, starting NBA salary. Hey kids there's over about 200k docs in this country about 500 NBA players. Want to even the odds? Stay in school. Study a little more- play a little less= earn more ; Simple math.

acuraddict

No flames, but your daddy aint doing you any favors by filling your barn with luxury cars at such a young age.

acuraddict

Western Region Sales Manager for an electronic access control manufacture. I earn 100K per year and get 34.5 cents per mile for business travel, so my payment is pretty painless. Great write-off because of the work I do.

Navi and XM make my life in my car too damn fun.

vitocorleone

I wasn't going to post, but I've a job I haven't seen posted here yet: User Experience and Interaction Designer for wireless applications at a rather large company (no, not MSFT). 29 yrs old. 100k. Just wanted y'all to know that decent money can be made without a computer science degree

Qatar

Hi,
I work for VA State Police and I am from State OF Qatar, and for some of you who know where that is, it means money.
I make about 240K just from what I get from over seas and make less from what I get paid.
I have a 04 TL Night hawk Black/ Ebony 6 Speed manual Navi + anyother thing they have as an option on order, and should get it before December first.

wakattack

I work as a mortgage loan processor, I'm making about $33k a year. Used to work in the tech business, waiting for it to come back around.

elbodude

Systems Administrator in Silicon Valley, but I took a Home Equity line of Credit on my home to pay cash for the car. I hate car payments.

Eiffel

Also in the IT biz with > 12 years in object-oriented design. Work for a large computer company (not MSFT). Make $100k for the last 6 years. Drove a Pontiac POS during those times and this is my first new car! (Could be in mid-life stage)

HacksawHilliard

I don't work, I paid cash, and I'm not a drug dealer.

wawawa

Electrical Engineer, 38, single, no kids, just paid off my house mortgage last year , living in San Diego making around $80k. I am expected to have my 04TL Red/Camel/Navi by January. Life is Good :p

HacksawHilliard

Don't know why this posted again.

frebay

looks like sales and wireless is breaking the 6 figures mark...someone get me into IT SALES!

btammon

42, attorney, 48 mo lease which now that I've had the car for a whole week I'm ready to buy the lease out. Only problem with SoCal is the damn traffic!! I need a road where I can open this beauty up.

rybocf

frebay,

Be careful about going to heavily into debt, especially for a car. Most of the people on this forum seem to be doing pretty well, but your average joe is often in debt up to his eyeballs.

Don't sweat keeping up with the Joneses, your time will come. I felt guitly buying my used 1997 BMW 540i with 85k miles on for 19k a year ago. At 30, I felt like a dumbass driving that car, one of the main reasons I sold it.

I'd like to consider myself a snob, but even driving the new TL makes me a feel little like a showoff. I grew up in a pretty well-off family, but we didn't "put it out there" with fancy cars. I guess it rubbed off on me too much...

I own my own business as a software/applications consultant, doing architecture, design, development. I've managed to stay busy in this economy, which in and of itself is a victory.

I don't really want to go into how much I make, anyone can make money, but you're not rich if you spend it all...

Ryan

timnguyen9

33, wife and kid, $1,900 mortgage, wireless engineer about 8 years in industry, 90k/year, also run own financial planning biz, tradein 6K + 5K cash downpayment, 4.74% over 60 months

stiletto

I heard baggage handlers (curbside to counter) at the busy-er airports make well over 100 k a year (35K base plus an average $2 per car load/20 cars an hour)

Taeshon

Guys up in here make a lot of dough..
Im 30..married...2 newborn kids...1750 mortgage...
Put 15K down...payment is 390...
Make around 66k...Internet Admin..

Bitium

I'm 26 married with a 7 month old dauther. I make $15k base salary before tax. I'm in the Air Force E-3. I don't have any bills except for phone and cable internet. I live in germany for free and travel a lot. Wife makes $10k a year, part time job. I do get COLA and BAS which is about $1k a month tax free so that is another $12k a year. Can't buy a TL, because they don't sell them here and I plan to buy the 05. I have $23k in stocks, but have a debt of $7k. My 99 TL is paid off

oxidizer2k

21, Pimp....... dont have a TL....

rhaas

30 year old Financial Controller for the IT division of a global consulting company making in the $80's. Wife, no kids, cheap mortgage and a new TL - LIFE IS GOOD!

neuronbob

Another MD in the house. 35 y/o. Can you say "delayed gratification"? The TL makes up for not partying in college so I could get into medical school, not taking 5 years to graduate college as seems to be the norm nowadays, not taking a year off to backpack in Europe because my parents couldn't afford it....

Were the years in school worth all the suffering? Every time I step into my TL, punch the accelerator, and realize that most people will never be able to afford anything more than drooling at my car....Hell yeah.

Won't disclose salary...let's just say "enough to afford it".

Tecworld

wow people here make a lot of money. But people are usually smarter, richer, and better looking on the internet anyway. hehe

AcuraAddict

MD eh? Any particular specialty, or gen prac? I'm 17, and planning on med school now. I'm a H.S. senior, but I've got about 1/2 of my premed requirements done through course work at local colleges. All I've got left is two chems and a physics. My dad got me into it, he oversees physician licensure in NYS. Going to Florida for college next year, gonna get out (ideally) in three years, and then I'm trying to decide between osteo and allopath. Ultimately, I want to break into the public health/biostat/epidemiology arena, and, while there isn't much money there, it's what I'm interested in. I think a D.O. might be better equipped for that speciality, but an M.D. is also looked upon more kindly........

neuronbob

I'm a neurologist (hence the username). AcuraAddict, your stats are impressive even for the Internet (winking at Tecworld), as are your plans. I had wanted to be a doctor from the time I was 7 years old, and put plans into motion in high school to make it happen, so I understand where you're coming from. If you want to go into public health (or most other fields), it doesn't matter whether you are a D.O. or an M.D. Even though the philosophies of osteopathic and allopathic (M.D.) education differ (musculoskeletal manipulation vs. medication), D.O.s and M.D.s ultimately end up with exactly the same training and the same knowledge by the time they're done. As a result, D.O.s are looked upon kindly by younger M.D.s like myself.

Any case, you've got 2 1/2 years to decide whether medical school is your bag (if you decide, your junior year of college should be spent studying for the MCAT). If you're relly interested, during that time you should shadow real docs in your field of interest, or even work in a doc's office during a break....

OldGuy

59, Senior Executive, IT Architecture and Security. 6 figures including an Army pension. No debts, own the house, live modestly, third marriage, paid cash, traded an 02 Type S. Had a 99 TL before that.

copter

32; married without kids. CHP Officer on 60-70k a year for me and 30-35 a year for her. $2400 Bay Area mortgage. I put 3k down and when I sell my 00 EX Civ, I'll put some more $$ towards the TL. If I don't, it's $614.00 a month at 4.14%.

AcuraAddict

Yea, I've been volunteering at a hospital now for a few years, and I plan to do it in a more intense fashion when I go to college, so long as I can balance school. Neurology actually interests me quite a bit too. My real interest in a pathological sense would have to be Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies; prion disorders and the like. Ever treated a Creutzfeldt-Jakob patient???? THat would be soooooooo interesting!!!!! (everybody makes fun of me for that interest :p )

(sorry about the hijack........but umm, ya get over it.)

neuronbob

We have an expert on "mad cow disease" (for y'all who bother to pay attention to thread hijacks) here in Cleveland, at Case Western Reserve U. I stayed away from his lab until I had to while in residency. I've only treated one CJD patient and it wasn't pleasant (all these folks die painfully).

pelletip1

43 - two kids, $1800 mortgage, 2002 MDX - paid for, make about 200K a year as a manager for a large software firm - Paid cash for the TL .