Buy a car or continue saving?

[theguardsman]

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Hey everyone,

I am in the cycle right now, and also have a decent paying job (60k), and have been saving about half my income with the intention of using it during my first year to take out less loans.

I'm planning to continue with this, but have recently got the bug to buy a car. It would make my daily commute to work and my work-related travel to other cities easier, and also give me more flexibility. I would enlist the help of my dad, who is very knowledgeable in cars, to get a decent, reliable used car for about ~5k. I feel there is pretty much no downside to me having one, but at the same time, I could survive without one, and its more of a matter of convenience and ease of daily life. While I would definitely like to have the car, I've become pretty into saving as much as possible for med school and I'm a bit worried about paying for insurance, parking, and maintenance for it.

So I guess I just wanted to hear people's opinions on whether they would drain some savings on improving their daily life with a car, or if they would bear it out and continue to save as much possible, thereby avoiding costs like insurance, parking, repairs etc.

Let me know what you think! thanks 🙂

 

[Snakes]

$5k isn't a crazy amount to spend on a car if it will dramatically improve your quality of life. This is very dependent on where you live. There are areas of the country where having a car is a necessity and areas of the country where a car is a liability. Without knowing where you live, it's impossible to say.

If the car becomes a liability, you can always sell it.

 

[wasteofspace323]

I would buy the car.

 

[282NC]

Definitely buy a car.

 

[Spector1]

what kind of area do you live in? city, urban rural etc?

 

[Theafoni]

5k isn't much off of your wage when you make 60k a year.

 

[theguardsman]

I live in good ole Wisconsin

 

[IlDestriero]

5k doesn't buy much of a car, make sure you get something that should last until you're a resident. Maybe a 3 year old civic coming off a lease? That might get you through residency, but it will probably be more than 5k.

 

[LizzyM]

A car is going to cost you 5K, the money you could earn if you invested the 5K (not much these days), plus insurance, taxes, maintenance, fuel, maybe parking.
Depending on where you end up for med school, a car could be unnecessary and a huge expense. Based on your interviews thus far, are you likely to end up in a school where you will drive to school and enjoy low cost or free parking on campus and have free or low cost parking where you live? On the other hand, if you were to interview at an urban campus where most students live in campus housing or within walking distance of campus and do not require a car during the first two years, you will see that a car is not a necessity, and can be an unnecessary expense, at that school.

Are you likely to end up at a school where you would NEED a car? If yes, then buy a car now.
Are you likely to end up at a school where you won't need a car but the cost of owning a car would be low (taxes, insurance, storage) and it would come in handy? If yes, buy a car.
Are you likely to end up at a school where having a car would be a huge drain on your bank account and an unnecessary expense? If yes, would you be willing to sell the car after med school begins and would you not lose too much in terms of resale? If yes, buy the car.

 

[mrspecialist]

Buy a car!

 

[bc65]

Wait until you see where you'll be going to school.

Also, a car will cost you a few hundred dollars a month. You need to budget for insurance, gas, parking, tickets, repairs.
If you need the car, get it. But if it's optional, realize that if the car ends up costing you about $10,000 over the 4 years of med school, and you have loans at 7%, that by the time you finish your residency 10 years from now, the loan will probably have doubled due to compounding interest, so this car will effectively increase your loan burden by $20,000. So, make sure you really want that car.

 

[Petrichor1]

just buy the car. I thought about parking and all that jazz but commuting is a pain very few people would understand so I sucked it up.

 

[StudyLater]

Personally I've decided on purchasing a camel. Cheap and fuel-efficient. Also can store water in its humps for up to 6-7 months which is useful when you're running low on that high-quality H2O and are 50 miles away from the next oasis.

 

[theguardsman]

^ lol.

Thanks for the input everyone. Definitely some useful points in there. Ive decided to hold off on buying until next summer for several reasons

1. I travel for work and while it may be more comfortable or convenient to use my own car and get reimbursed for miles, if I want to keep the car through residency the pointless mileage this year will not help. Better just use our rental cars.

2. If I continue saving I can probably squeeze a bit more money into the purchase before school starts, and then once again get it to last me a longer time.

While I will likely need the car for school based on my interviews and general list of places I applied, I think holding off this year will not only allow me to make a better, more informed purchase, but it will also give me the chance to get a car that that I'm able to keep for a longer period of time. Plus it's something to drive towards / look forward to.

Thanks again