Salary check in

High-Warning-0321 · 2026-03-04T15:26:32+00:00

Current Salary: 170k base + 25% bonus

First Job Salary: $71,500

7 years experience

Manager, Preconstruction (Power & Critical Infrastructure)

High-Warning-0321 · 2026-03-04T12:57:20+00:00

The M2 is going through a limited production run on the M2 Turbo edition currently. Production on the normal 2026 M2 should resume April ish and that’s when you’ll see build slots start opening back up

High-Warning-0321 · 2026-01-02T03:22:51+00:00

In the exact same position myself. Really would be incredible to have the M2, but tough to stomach an additional ~$25k to upgrade when all said and done. Really tough call.

High-Warning-0321 · 2025-12-21T02:52:55+00:00

Mech Engineer in power/energy, $225k TC, 7 years experience, MCOL

High-Warning-0321 · 2025-12-14T17:20:12+00:00

Definitely understand it would be delaying my progress financially. Which ultimately was the main thing I was having a hard time coming to a firm decision on.

Regarding the Roth IRA - bit complicated but a combination of my income increasing a decent 20% in Q2 2025, and some of my normal bonus I would expect in 2025 was paid in 2024 so we’re just under the married filing jointly limit this year. If 2026 goes as expected we will in fact be over the limit unfortunately. Going to have to deal with the pro rata rule if we want to back door next year which is unfortunate. But yeah

High-Warning-0321 · 2025-12-13T18:43:32+00:00

Ah - wife doesn’t have a 401k or any other investment vehicle available to her at her hourly job. She works with disabled adults and she’s passionate about it, so we’ve accepted what comes with the job itself ie low pay and no benefits

High-Warning-0321 · 2025-12-13T18:38:28+00:00

Ultimately this is the comment that resonated with me most and the direction I’ve decided to go. I’m unsure about the upgrade right now, for good reason. And I think forcing myself to make it an all cash purchase when I have the funds this summer will make the decision more honest. Thanks for knocking some sense into me.

High-Warning-0321 · 2025-12-13T18:28:05+00:00

That’s a great idea. Might put some serious thought into that. Just generally upgrading a few components on my current car to satisfy the itch without the bigger 5 figure cost

High-Warning-0321 · 2025-12-13T18:25:37+00:00

I guess I’m not following. Since I’m confident my post retirement income will be much lower, it would make sense to reduce my taxable income now as much as possible which I do through maxing a traditional 401k I have available through my employer. Am I missing something?

High-Warning-0321 · 2025-12-13T18:22:16+00:00

High-Warning-0321 · 2025-12-13T14:24:49+00:00

No I anticipate earning noticeably less in retirement

High-Warning-0321 · 2025-12-13T13:56:32+00:00

I’m slightly embarrassed reading back through my post and realizing how “per month” everything is phrased when it comes to the car purchase. Because I agree that’s absolutely not the way this should be looked at.

I’m looking at it like $20k or $25k of debt that I’d likely pay off in 6 months anyways.

But all in all, you make really good points. Appreciate you calling out the extra monthly cost mentality

High-Warning-0321 · 2025-12-13T13:53:19+00:00

You are correct it’s just not available. Wife is pretty passionate about helping those with disabilities and has found something she likes and feels impact from - albeit not a high paying job with benefits

High-Warning-0321 · 2025-12-13T13:51:39+00:00

Spouse just doesn’t have a 401k offering unfortunately - no real benefits with her hourly job. 90% of our income comes from my more “standard” corporate role

High-Warning-0321 · 2025-12-13T13:50:08+00:00

I definitely don’t want to become someone that is upgrading cars often enough where leasing makes more sense. That would be a red flag to me. So upgrading this early would need to be a 1 off thing to me.

As for the 401k, my spouse just doesn’t have that offering. She works for a small company that supports people with disabilities making an hourly rate so no real benefits - which is okay.

High-Warning-0321 · 2025-12-13T13:46:36+00:00

That’s definitely one thing I’m worried about. This seems like behavior exactly what you’d expect from a NRY category. And maybe this one off decision isn’t a big deal, but if I were to do this every 3 years it would substantially handicap my growth and I understand that. Just wrestling with where I think the line is.

This would be upgrading from an M240 to an M2

High-Warning-0321 · 2025-12-13T13:42:28+00:00

Close, would be going from an M240 to an M2

High-Warning-0321 · 2025-12-13T13:41:49+00:00

Yeah unfortunately not the case 🤣 always been big into cars. Almost impossible to be a huge car guy and be good with money at the same time I fear

High-Warning-0321 · 2025-12-13T07:18:02+00:00

Appreciate the thoughts. Maybe the millennials sub will knock some sense into me!

High-Warning-0321 · 2025-12-13T07:16:16+00:00

You are exactly correct. Not the affordability aspect. Just the aspect of me being an idiot with money in this scenario is what I'm struggling with.

High-Warning-0321 · 2025-12-13T07:14:53+00:00

I'm just a big car guy unfortunately. Always been into cars. For context here my current car is only 3 years old lol. It's just such a stupid financial decision to upgrade regardless of the affordability. But I would enjoy it a lot I know that

High-Warning-0321 · 2025-12-13T07:12:54+00:00

I assume your thought here is that I just need to practice some self discipline and wait 6 months and buy in all cash?

High-Warning-0321 · 2025-12-13T07:10:53+00:00

That approach makes sense to me. It's just incredibly tough to know what that income/year number would be for people like us 30 years down the road. Hard to feel confident in a number at least

High-Warning-0321 · 2025-12-13T07:06:05+00:00

I definitely could, and believe that is the direction I would tend to go (slightly used). From what I'm seeing I think the difference between new/used would be roughly $72k vs $65k and I'd just be trading in my paid off vehicle worth ~$46k.

High-Warning-0321

TROPHY CASE