mrdeeno

I'm posting this in M&I and not Car Talk because it's not really about cars...

history is this...

out of college, i started work with a company that sent me on long term overseas assignments and compensated me pretty well for it for an unexperienced college kid. For 5.5 years, I was able to max out my 401k as well as put away about 85% of my salary into other investments. So i'm a spoiled saver.

Fast forward to when I decided to stop traveling (about a year ago) and I had a lot of savings, a 9 unit mixed comm/resid apartment building, a lot in my 401k, a pretty decent new position, and a place to live...but no car to drive (my cl-s was stolen and shot up about 2 months before i stopped traveling). Considering I didn't spend much those first 5.5 years, i decided to lease an M45 sport (39mo), which I've had now for 14 months.

Fast forward a little more. My aunt owned an insurnace business and had a lot of real estate holdings (over $2M worth all providing income). But when her daughter got married, she turned all the holdings over to her daughter and her husband (BIG MISTAKE). A couple dirtbags that worked at my aunt's company were into some serious shit, and the state police busted the insurnace office and they are fingering her as the "mastermind", even though she was not. There is no evidence, there is no paper trail, only the testimony of her workers that were doing the ill shit. But anyway, the trial is not for awhile, but she has big legal fees and no income from her business anymore.

Not only that, her daughter and now ex-husband lost most of the properities they were given because her daughter is a crack head and her ex-husband is a moron township cop that wants to live the MTV Cribs' lifestyle, so they are no help (hence the previous comment).

Since I got where I am because of my aunt (I lived with her since I was 14), I am helping her. I have a single family home I bought for investment that I am going to move into instead, and she may move in with me or move into one of my apartments after she sells her house.

Money is tight, but managable at this point. Short term, i don't see things getting worse or getting better...just staying the same. I can back off my 401k to increase the margin, but like I said before, i'm a spoiled saver and would rather not mess with that. I'm laying out about $700/mo for my M45, which would help increase the margin a little bit.

I'm thinking about downgrading to an FX35 or G35, or even getting a used 2005 or 06 RL for mid-30's. Should I take the lease hit now (which from what I hear for the M is not that bad, and may not hurt especially if I stay with Infiniti), or should I just hang on until the end of the lease?

I love the car, have no regrets about choosing it when I did, but of course unforseen circumstances can always arise. what would you do?

moeronn

Sounds like a tough situation for those around you.

First thing's first. Call up Infiniti and find out what it would cost you to turn it in early - both if you walk away or buy/lease another Infiniti. That's the only way you'll know for sure how much this is going to ding the wallet. Then you can look at the numbers and see if it makes sense.

MR1

Short answer from me is to probably just keep it. If it doesn't hurt too much why not? Something good might happen over the next few months and have a positive affect on your finances. It sounds like it might be just a little uncomfortable on finances for a while but not a deal breaker. How much are you really going to save by going to one of the listed cars, perhaps $250-300/month?

Sorry to hear about the drama!

NiteQwill

You can easily make a spreadsheet on excel to calculate the loss/gain of keeping the lease versus letting go of it.

I always plan for the worse and rather save. It's easier to dig yourself out when you have an emergency fund than when you don't. If a lease is hindering you in the short run, I would get out of it. Like I said, play around with a spreadsheet.

mrdeeno

yeah, that's something i woudl usually do if not for the "drama" in the meantime. with work and stuff going on, i don't have much motiviation to do any of that, but i know that's what i need to do along with checking with infiniti what the actual "hurt" will be to downgrade. not that i use the rear seat much or anything, but i don't want to go for the new G35 for some reason.