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Anonymous User wrote:Lol @ responses.

I wanted anon b/c of the hate. And it's embarrassing to publicly share your intentions to make imprudent financial decisions. So far it looks like I'm the only one...

If F10 M5 prices come in line w/ the new F30(F80) M3s, I would be tempted to pick one of those up instead (though I really like the look of coupes, and would rather drive a coupe while I'm still < 30 w/ no kids: YOLO. I can get an old man/woman car when I'm an old man/woman).

I think I can swing MSRP or even below on the new M3. BMW produces a lot of them and there's a lot of dealers competing. I'm willing to fly to a neighboring state and drive the car home. + I know anecdotally of some getting < MSRP on the e92 '08 M3 in its first year.

You don't need to try to protect your gender. We can all tell that you are male....and now that I know that I know exactly which of the 500 TLS males who has big law you are

To answer your question, I am putting everything I can into investments, retirement, and savings.....I am impatient to get some actual net worth (protip: a BMW that loses 75% of its value in the first six months is not actual net worth)

thesealocust wrote:I'm a bit surprised at how little reckless spending I see in the biglaw crowd . . . I haven't really heard of any first year-buying-a-hilarious-car stories . . . A psychological reason too - you're going to know nothing and be useless. You'll be over compensated for your utter lack of utility, but query whether flaunting that is going to be good for your soul.

I'm not worried about my soul, but you raise a point about flaunting & fitting in. I also didn't see many nice cars in my firm's parking lot, nor many nice ones in any parking lots of the firms I interviewed with. Showing up with a brand new car during my first or second month on the job might hurt my reputation.

Yep. It's like the inverse of the "can I bring a birkin bag to work with me as an SA?" question.

Hattori Hanzo wrote:YOLO and all, it just sounds stupid to sink $80K into a new F30 when you can buy a low mileage E92 for half that. HOWEVER, I love people who make irrational purchasing decision and have to sell at a loss later because they create a continuing stream of low mileage and low priced used cars.

Uh, "rational" purchases of cars result in a loss too, buddy. They're liabilities, not assets. 99.9% of cars purchased are sold at a loss later. Buying used has merit in a lot of situations, but pretending that it's the only rational move kind of exposes your naivety.

If OP is only planning to keep the car for 3 years, buying a new M3 under warranty is arguably smarter than buying a 5-6 year old M3, low milage or not. The maintenance on a car like that is a significant factor. When your DCT goes and the repair bill has 5 digits, there's a decent chance you won't be feeling so smug about buying used. A lot of people who've actually owned those kind of cars before would tell you that the kid buying a 6-year-old performance car for half of its original price is the sucker trying to live above his means. It's not nearly the no-brainer you make it out to be.

somewhatwayward wrote:To answer your question, I am putting everything I can into investments, retirement, and savings.....I am impatient to get some actual net worth (protip: a BMW that loses 75% of its value in the first six months is not actual net worth)

Hope you're better at investing than you are accounting, because your depreciation skills are so not GAAP compliant. There isn't a BMW in existence that loses 75% of its liquidation value in six months. Certainly not the M5 or M3 OP was talking about. Unless he drove it into a tree. Without insurance. Multiple times.

Anonymous User wrote:I'm not worried about my soul, but you raise a point about flaunting & fitting in. I also didn't see many nice cars in my firm's parking lot, nor many nice ones in any parking lots of the firms I interviewed with. Showing up with a brand new car during my first or second month on the job might hurt my reputation.

An M3 isn't too flashy of a car. To most people, it just looks slightly different 3 series. M5s are even more plain jane. You're not talking about showing up in an R8 or GTR something truly outrageous. Even then, I don't really think it would tangibly hurt you. I don't know your market or home town, but where I grew up (suburbs of D.C.) people drove new M3s to my high school without getting dirty looks. I have trouble imagining BigLaw partners or even many associates getting that worked up about your car. Unless you go around bragging about blowing your first two paychecks on the downpayment, no one will even know how you paid for it. There are plenty of people with old money, family cabins in New England, and deep-seated feelings on the estate tax in the world. No one is going to know you're not one of them unless you broadcast it to them.

Honestly, I feel like most people who understand what an M3 is would be more likely to give you strange looks for having an M3 as a daily driver than anything else. Really though, when you see the actual operating cost of a car like that, you'll see that it really shouldn't be your only car. Keep whatever you have now and drive that to work and your potential flaunting problem is solved.

Don't buy an M3 just lease it. Its kinda designed to start falling apart after 3 years especially if your driving it like YOLO...

That said, if your loans are minimal, why not its only ~$1k a month all told. However if your in NYC there's kinda no point. I think I did cost myself a callback though when I met an OCI interviewer in the garage near my school and I was driving a nicer car... I'm not going to apologize for being an evening student though.

Splurge on something unexpected. For instance, who's not going to smile when they see they see you roll up in a mint 1991 woody.

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KidStuddi wrote:

Hattori Hanzo wrote:YOLO and all, it just sounds stupid to sink $80K into a new F30 when you can buy a low mileage E92 for half that. HOWEVER, I love people who make irrational purchasing decision and have to sell at a loss later because they create a continuing stream of low mileage and low priced used cars.

Uh, "rational" purchases of cars result in a loss too, buddy. They're liabilities, not assets. 99.9% of cars purchased are sold at a loss later. Buying used has merit in a lot of situations, but pretending that it's the only rational move kind of exposes your naivety.

If OP is only planning to keep the car for 3 years, buying a new M3 under warranty is arguably smarter than buying a 5-6 year old M3, low milage or not. The maintenance on a car like that is a significant factor. When your DCT goes and the repair bill has 5 digits, there's a decent chance you won't be feeling so smug about buying used. A lot of people who've actually owned those kind of cars before would tell you that the kid buying a 6-year-old performance car for half of its original price is the sucker trying to live above his means. It's not nearly the no-brainer you make it out to be.

somewhatwayward wrote:To answer your question, I am putting everything I can into investments, retirement, and savings.....I am impatient to get some actual net worth (protip: a BMW that loses 75% of its value in the first six months is not actual net worth)

Hope you're better at investing than you are accounting, because your depreciation skills are so not GAAP compliant. There isn't a BMW in existence that loses 75% of its liquidation value in six months. Certainly not the M5 or M3 OP was talking about. Unless he drove it into a tree. Without insurance. Multiple times.

If the DCT goes, your main problem was buying a performance car without a proper transmission.

In any event, if I were going nuts with a car, it would be a lotus exige s260. M3s are a dime a dozen. If I were going BMW, it would be a 135 with a single big turbo conversion- would blow the doors off an m3 for half the price.

That said, I'm a big law 3rd year thinking of buying a car soon. My budget is $8k.

nealric wrote: That said, I'm a big law 3rd year thinking of buying a car soon. My budget is $8k.

For the down payment, mirite?

nevdash wrote:

thesealocust wrote:I'm a bit surprised at how little reckless spending I see in the biglaw crowd. Some people really splurged on their apartment relative to what they really needed, and some did fancy bar trips, but I haven't really heard of any first year-buying-a-hilarious-car stories.

Dude I know went Biglaw --> Lexus --> laid off 9 months later --> Honda Civic.

That's his fault for getting a Lexus, a glorified Toyota.

Wisdom of the expenditure notwithstanding, it is a HORRIBLE idea to show up on your first day with an expensive new car. It'll take you years to work out of that hole.

Nothing clients (and partners) like more than seeing inexperienced associates who do doc review driving expensive sports cars.

Hattori Hanzo wrote:YOLO and all, it just sounds stupid to sink $80K into a new F30 when you can buy a low mileage E92 for half that. HOWEVER, I love people who make irrational purchasing decision and have to sell at a loss later because they create a continuing stream of low mileage and low priced used cars.

Edit: also what's with anon? You're afraid people will identify you as someone who has a job?

My thoughts exactly. To take you point even further, why not buy an e46 M3 for 1/5th the price? You'll still be ridiculously faster than everyone else on the road, won't look like a tool (people will assume your daddy bought you new M3 or that you are just flaunting your wealth -- either way not good), and if you man up and learn to do you own maintenance the cost of ownership will be minimal. EDIT: well minimal compared to what it would cost you at a shop...

By definition, YOLOing something does not involve a deliberative decision-making process whereby you gain the thoughtful advice and input of a number of other people. The only thing worse than screwing up your life by YOLOing hard is making an apparently conscious and informed decision to screw up your life by YOLOing too hard. OP sucks at living.

Personally plan on keeping my entry level small car, which will be 11 years old upon graduation, even if BigLaw. But I'm all for YOLOing, and those who can't see the irony and hilarity in saying YOLO are just being too uptight.

drive4showLSAT4dough wrote:Nothing clients (and partners) like more than seeing inexperienced associates who do doc review driving expensive sports cars.

Partners are millionaires. I doubt they are going to be IRATE at you driving an M3. Your clients are 1) never going to see your car, and 2) not be angry about it. They know how much they pay for legal services.

Better get your suit from Khols, your partner might forget he's paying you 170K a year and get angry!

Desert Fox wrote:

drive4showLSAT4dough wrote:Nothing clients (and partners) like more than seeing inexperienced associates who do doc review driving expensive sports cars.

Partners are millionaires. I doubt they are going to be IRATE at you driving an M3. Your clients are 1) never going to see your car, and 2) not be angry about it. They know how much they pay for legal services.

Better get your suit from Khols, your partner might forget he's paying you 170K a year and get angry!

1. O RLY? How you gonna keep that mid-level job 4 years down the road with zero client contact?

2. Just because a client knows the cost of legal services, doesn't mean they wish to be reminded that they are financing a cocky 28 year old's sports cars.

Business suits and sports cars are not analogous.

drive4showLSAT4dough wrote:

Desert Fox wrote:

drive4showLSAT4dough wrote:Nothing clients (and partners) like more than seeing inexperienced associates who do doc review driving expensive sports cars.

Partners are millionaires. I doubt they are going to be IRATE at you driving an M3. Your clients are 1) never going to see your car, and 2) not be angry about it. They know how much they pay for legal services.

Better get your suit from Khols, your partner might forget he's paying you 170K a year and get angry!

1. O RLY? How you gonna keep that mid-level job 4 years down the road with zero client contact?

2. Just because a client knows the cost of legal services, doesn't mean they wish to be reminded that they are financing a cocky 28 year old's sports cars.

Business suits and sports cars are not analogous.

he said clients are never going to see your car, not that you'd never see clients.

HOW YOU GONNA KEEP THAT MID-LEVEL JOB WITH SUCH POOR READING COMPREHENSION?

fatduck wrote:

drive4showLSAT4dough wrote:

Desert Fox wrote:

drive4showLSAT4dough wrote:Nothing clients (and partners) like more than seeing inexperienced associates who do doc review driving expensive sports cars.

Partners are millionaires. I doubt they are going to be IRATE at you driving an M3. Your clients are 1) never going to see your car, and 2) not be angry about it. They know how much they pay for legal services.

Better get your suit from Khols, your partner might forget he's paying you 170K a year and get angry!

1. O RLY? How you gonna keep that mid-level job 4 years down the road with zero client contact?

2. Just because a client knows the cost of legal services, doesn't mean they wish to be reminded that they are financing a cocky 28 year old's sports cars.

Business suits and sports cars are not analogous.

he said clients are never going to see your car, not that you'd never see clients.

HOW YOU GONNA KEEP THAT MID-LEVEL JOB WITH SUCH POOR READING COMPREHENSION?

By buying a car that makes my clients think they aren't paying me too much.

drive4showLSAT4dough wrote: Business suits and sports cars are not analogous.

That's right. And don't even get me started on sport coats.

thesealocust wrote:I'm a bit surprised at how little reckless spending I see in the biglaw crowd. Some people really splurged on their apartment relative to what they really needed, and some did fancy bar trips, but I haven't really heard of any first year-buying-a-hilarious-car stories.

I'd strongly recommend avoiding the temptation to do anything but aggressively save and pay down debt when you start. If you can build a nice nestegg and at least lower your monthly debt burden, you can start spending with reckless abandon but never fall TOO far behind. You can buy a stupid car any time you want, but debt costs money to hold and if you don't stuff money away in a 401(k) now you can't (necessarily, due to yearly limits) put in extra later to make up for it.

A psychological reason too - you're going to know nothing and be useless. You'll be over compensated for your utter lack of utility, but query whether flaunting that is going to be good for your soul.

If I am fortunate enough to get Biglaw (or Biglaw compensation), this is what I plan to do.

drive4showLSAT4dough wrote:

Desert Fox wrote:

drive4showLSAT4dough wrote:Nothing clients (and partners) like more than seeing inexperienced associates who do doc review driving expensive sports cars.

Partners are millionaires. I doubt they are going to be IRATE at you driving an M3. Your clients are 1) never going to see your car, and 2) not be angry about it. They know how much they pay for legal services.

Better get your suit from Khols, your partner might forget he's paying you 170K a year and get angry!

1. O RLY? How you gonna keep that mid-level job 4 years down the road with zero client contact?

2. Just because a client knows the cost of legal services, doesn't mean they wish to be reminded that they are financing a cocky 28 year old's sports cars.

Business suits and sports cars are not analogous.

Lulz- big law does not work how you think it works.

androstan wrote:By definition, YOLOing something does not involve a deliberative decision-making process whereby you gain the thoughtful advice and input of a number of other people. The only thing worse than screwing up your life by YOLOing hard is making an apparently conscious and informed decision to screw up your life by YOLOing too hard. OP sucks at living.

Read my post. I never asked for advice. I only wanted to know if anyone planned to YOLO w/ me, or if anyone had YOLO'd in years past.

I am soleyolo.

holdencaulfield wrote:Splurge on something unexpected. For instance, who's not going to smile when they see they see you roll up in a mint 1991 woody.

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I like your style.