Hello All,
I just took receipt of my 2017 silver metallic Model S 100D. This is my first Tesla, and my first electric car. I appreciate all of your posts, as information I gathered here was instrumental in my design of the car, as well as taking the plunge and going electric. I love this car!
One of the things I wanted to get a dialogue going on from you all is affording a Tesla. As we all know, there are more expensive cars we can purchase than Teslas, but these certainly aren't cheap cars. I wanted to hear some of your all thoughts for any financial budgeting adjustments, portfolio liquidations, additional income created, etc to purchase your Tesla. Below is my story. Hope it is helpful to some of you on the fence. I know I'm only two weeks into Tesla ownership, but I don't regret it for a moment.
So me being a financial planner by profession, I'm always interested in the finances of things. I'd never bought a new car before, typically opting for low mileage pre owned cars from brands that were highly rated for reliability, which for me ended up being mostly Lexus vehicles. Those were fine, until I test drove a new Tesla Model S at a colleague's suggestion. Ugh. My IS250 just wasn't that exciting any more. I thus began researching the Tesla car designs and the corresponding monthly payments (couldn't justifiably pay cash without sacrificing other goals, plus 1.49% is a low interest rate hurdle to hopefully overcome on my investments). I discovered I could swing the monthly payments, but just because I could didn't mean I should. I needed more info.
Shortly thereafter, while in chats with the Tesla sales guy in Boston, who was very helpful, he told me that the average first time Tesla buyer had previously never spent more than $40K on a car. Not sure if that's an official number, and certainly doesn't apply to everyone, but that was encouraging, because I fell into that boat. I also went online to study Tesla financial demographics, and I stumbled into a great survey on Teslarati.
According to the survey the average annual income for Model S purchasers was $267K, Model X purchasers was significantly higher at $503K, and Model S reservation holders at $160K. Good to know. At least I had a benchmark.
Finally, I wanted to see if I could adjust monthly cash flow to purchase a Tesla with minimal interruption to other financial goals (still max out 401k, pump money into kid's college savings plans, keep adequate slush fund, acquire investment real estate, etc). In short, I didn't want to drive a sweet car at the expense of where my kids would potentially go to college. Thus, I went through my budget, discovered I was spending an unconscionable amount of money on groceries and dining, as well as too high of a cable bill. My wife and I candidly now go to Whole Foods way less (almost never), are more conscientious about how often and where we dine out, and I beat up my cable company. This has freed up a good $800-$900/mo. Not enough for a Model S 100D monthly payment, but pretty close if I put a little down, which I did via trade in and deposit. Bottom line is that I'm now only $300-$400/mo more out of pocket than I was before I adjusted cash flow ($1,200/mo total car payment). And now I own a Model S. Pretty sweet!
The federal tax credit of $7,500 will help at tax time, and I just got approved today from the state of MA to get a rebate check for $1K. Not too shabby.
It also helped to get a referral code from a buddy of mine who has a Model S, as this saved $1,000, as well as get me free supercharging for as long as I own the vehicle. Score!
That's it for now. Let me know if any of you have any exciting stories to share or thoughts about making the car happen. Happy driving!