A couple of years ago I was working full time for someone else, I was earning okay but it was very average, exchanging a lot of time for not a lot of money in comparison and it was very stressful.
I love cars and I really wanted a Range Rover Evoque, I did the sums, made a spread sheet, spoke to two different dealers and then finally agreed and ordered my car.
After a long 9 month wait for it to be built I picked it up! Amazing day!
All was great for the first 8 months or so..
Then, my wife who was on maternity leave at the time, was pretty much refused a change of working hours and given no choice but to give up work, losing a small, but necessary salary.
At the same time my employer decided to give me a sizeable pay cut (for no reason) AND stop paying mileage for using my own vehicle!
All in all we lost about 40% income over night at a time when we had no savings and I was trying to grow a sideline business. We were also planning our wedding which as you can imagine cost a lot of money.
Luckily I had the sense to sell the car quickly before it caused me real issues.
The point being though, if you have to make a spreadsheet to work out if you can afford something then you really can't afford it!
Simple!
I quit my job 6 months after the pay cut for various reasons and have never looked back. Things are starting to go really well working on my own company and in my head I'm looking at cars again, it's very hard not to buy something as if you put the right figures into a spreadsheet you can "probably" afford it.
It's not rocket science, this is just a real life example of what MJ covers in the Fastlane book.
But wait until it doesn't matter....
Wait until you don't need to make a spreadsheet to see if you can afford an extra $500 a month for a luxury.
Focus on increasing the income until it doesn't matter and you'll thank your self for it later.
I love cars and I really wanted a Range Rover Evoque, I did the sums, made a spread sheet, spoke to two different dealers and then finally agreed and ordered my car.
After a long 9 month wait for it to be built I picked it up! Amazing day!
All was great for the first 8 months or so..
Then, my wife who was on maternity leave at the time, was pretty much refused a change of working hours and given no choice but to give up work, losing a small, but necessary salary.
At the same time my employer decided to give me a sizeable pay cut (for no reason) AND stop paying mileage for using my own vehicle!
All in all we lost about 40% income over night at a time when we had no savings and I was trying to grow a sideline business. We were also planning our wedding which as you can imagine cost a lot of money.
Luckily I had the sense to sell the car quickly before it caused me real issues.
The point being though, if you have to make a spreadsheet to work out if you can afford something then you really can't afford it!
Simple!
I quit my job 6 months after the pay cut for various reasons and have never looked back. Things are starting to go really well working on my own company and in my head I'm looking at cars again, it's very hard not to buy something as if you put the right figures into a spreadsheet you can "probably" afford it.
It's not rocket science, this is just a real life example of what MJ covers in the Fastlane book.
But wait until it doesn't matter....
Wait until you don't need to make a spreadsheet to see if you can afford an extra $500 a month for a luxury.
Focus on increasing the income until it doesn't matter and you'll thank your self for it later.
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