How to save for Model 3?

[JoeCoolMan24]

I'm 25 and I've never bought my own car before. I got a 95 Civic when I was 16, and then when I transferred to a new college when I was 20, my parents wanted me to have a safer car for the 3 hour drive to school, so they sold my Civic and got me a 2004 Galant (For less than they sold the Civic for, somehow). So long story short, I don't have a car payment and I'm very excited to buy my first car.

To do so, I set up an separate savings account that I have my other savings account auto-pay $300 in to every month. Then I also plan to put half of my tax return every year in to the fund as well. Rough math in my head says I should have around $10,000 or so to put towards that 1st payment. Hoping that means my ACTUAL car payments will be no more than $300 a month, although I have never had a payment so I have no idea how much to expect to pay per month.

 

[AWDtsla]

This sounds like a "how do I lose weight" question.

Try:
1. Make money
2. Don't spend money.
3. Buy Model 3.

 

[ModelNforNerd]

My strategy:

 

[UKayla]

I am going to actually try to use mint.com and take stock of where my money is going. I reworked my budget to make more sense, and I plan on using everything I can in the next few months to pay off my credit card and get my credit score up. Then the amount that I was paying on the card will go into savings. It's the amount of a car payment anyway, so I'm going to be used to living without that sum available each month. If my husband gets bonuses or an opportunity to make more money, we'll take it, but as of right now we don't have overtime opportunities. A big thing for us is cooking instead of eating out and avoiding splurges. By doing those two things we can save a ton.

 

[ucmndd]

Spend less than you earn.

Winner winner.

 

[jtpassat]

Open a vanguard account and buy a sp500 stock or a target retirement stock like VTTSX and then have it automatically debit x amount of money every week or month for two years. the fluctuations of the stock market shouldn't affect you much since you're dollar cost averaging.

 

[ModelNforNerd]

Since Tesla is an American car brand, let's do this the American way:

DEBT!

Honestly, I may have to finance 10-15K for a short period. But once I sell the ICE, I'll just immediately pay it off. And since I have USAA, I might even get it paid off before my 1st payment is due (they usually give you a 30-45 grace period at the beginning of the loan).

 

[BobtheV]

I'm investing in Cabbage Patch dolls

 

[eisbock]

By continuing to not have car payments while driving my 15 year old daily driver. It's not very glamorous but I have to offset the dumb (financially anyway) decision of buying a new car. I'm 25, and the model 3 will be my first new car.

Nice! Fellow 25 year old here. Join the club!

Currently bombing around in a 98 Camry and this will be my car until the Model 3. It has loads of problems, but nothing too serious... the plan is to time everything just right so the doors fall off and I leave the engine in the middle of the road as my car slowly coasts into the parking spot at the Tesla store to pick up my Model 3.

Been saving tons of money, living at home as long as I can (moving into a new apartment this summer unfortunately), and leeching off the ol' parents' insurance right up until the day I turn 26. If all goes well, I'll be able to make the stupid decision as well to buy a new car, hopefully cash to make it slightly less stupid.

 

[LaCostaRacer]

TSLA has a lot to prove in ramping up production and kicking out quality cars that don't have issues the first 90 days of ownership. With that said, I took a leap of faith and reserved a M3 on 3/31/16.

While I like TSLA the company, I'm not so sure about buying the stock at these levels until there's more clarity on things. There are lots of other opportunities that could make money in 2 years time- I caught a big fish just 2 months ago and it's a volatile one, but very profitable (NUGT). I have a $75 near term price target and it's trading today at 54.68 being down almost 9% - NUGT is not for the faint at heart but has a high profit potential based on current economic head winds.

I like what ppardu1 had to say- by not having car payments. That's how I intend to pay for a TSLA- i drive a 10 year old Acura that has been paid off for 8 years. Pay yourself the $400-500/month and invest wisely and you have no problems paying cash for a M3 in 2018 if you started when I did.

 

[RyDad1]

Since I just made my reservation today....I figure I'll have PLENTY of time to start putting away the cash. I hope to at least be able to have enough saved up to cover all the options I'm going to want to add.

 

[TDR32]

I'm 25 and I've never bought my own car before. I got a 95 Civic when I was 16, and then when I transferred to a new college when I was 20, my parents wanted me to have a safer car for the 3 hour drive to school, so they sold my Civic and got me a 2004 Galant (For less than they sold the Civic for, somehow). So long story short, I don't have a car payment and I'm very excited to buy my first car.

To do so, I set up an separate savings account that I have my other savings account auto-pay $300 in to every month. Then I also plan to put half of my tax return every year in to the fund as well. Rough math in my head says I should have around $10,000 or so to put towards that 1st payment. Hoping that means my ACTUAL car payments will be no more than $300 a month, although I have never had a payment so I have no idea how much to expect to pay per month.

Figure $100 per month equals about $5000 in a loan with a 60 month term. This means if you save $10,000 then you have $25,000 to finance. That means a monthly payment of about $500.

My car will be paid off this summer. It was bought new in 2011 and I plan on having it until 2020 or so. That will give me plenty of time to save. I also didn't put in a deposite but plan on investing it to help my savings. Any bonuses will go towards the model 3 too.

 

[eloder]

I'm no investment expert but just want to offer another point of view. This plan is sound only if Tesla stock goes up between now and when you need to pay the car. The whole plan will backfire if Tesla stock goes down because not only will be you underwater, you will no funds to pay for the car because the funds are now locked up in Tesla shares which you cannot sell (without realizing a loss).

I'm not suggesting that people put 97% of their portfolio into TSLA (I don't know anyone who does that... cough cough), but it's definitely a good option to put at least a little bit in. Only what you can afford to lose, of course, but the potential returns are incredible.

Personally, I see TSLA as the next Apple, and I'm willing to lose everything outside of my healthy 401k and short-term savings to do so. Even if it drops to $0 tomorrow, I've paid off enough of my mortgage to have made previous investments worthwhile. (But please, please don't follow my stock advice. I'm very young, have little debt, and am incredibly risky).

If TSLA stock bombs, though, you probably won't be able to buy a Model 3 anyways because of something catastrophic required to halt that production

 

[Canuck]

I've saved all my life. Now I'm just going to spend my kids' inheritance.

 

[SageBrush]

So you don't have mortgage offset accounts in the USA?

That scam made it to the US too. People paid $3500 to be told to open a HELOC and save some $5 - $15 a month in interest compared to keeping the monthly cash flow under the bed.

Congrats though, on your disciplined savings.

 

[SageBrush]

I've saved all my life. Now I'm just going to spend my kids' inheritance.

Exactly

I have thought about strategies though. In no particular order:

1. Put up a fight over the car color, and eventually capitulate
2. Show her tidbits of the car every week or so. Not so much that she gets bored and says "are you going to talk about the Tesla again?", but enough so that she remembers that two years away is pretty soon.
3. Avoid mentioning that we could downsize from our current two cars to ONE Tesla
4. Occasionally drop trivia about EM. She is in love
5. Make faces when she mentions a trip to CA to pick up the car and tour the factory, but eventually capitulate
6. Find the most expensive petrol station around and leave the receipts on the kitchen table
7. Suggest a weekend in Denver, that just happens to include a visit to a Tesla showroom and a MS test drive.

 

[Bongos3]

Ok, Since many, many folks are now hundreds of thousandth in line for the model 3 (and sorry, I haven't paid attention on how to type in the Tesla 3 symbol yet), I think we should figure out creative ways to save up for it.

It could be as simple as I'm giving up daily Starbucks at $5.00 a day to people's ideas about a small stock portfolio that you plan to grow to achieve the funds to buy the car. No, I am not talking about people that have blocks of stock that see their portfolio change in value by multiples of model 3 by hour or day – that's no fun.

I am thinking more mad money investments – heck maybe a portfolio that starts out with the same $1,000 that was put down for your reservation.
Going to sell my 1976 912e porsche and put the money in tesla i hope it well go up 100% in 2 years .....pay cash...

Keep it real, but fun!

 

[Bongos3]

Going to sell my 1976 912e porsche and put the money in tesla i hope it well go up 100% in 2 years .....pay cash...

 

[vinnie97]

Even with my current vehicle paid off as of last month, financing the full amount for the Model 3 will probably be what I have to do unfortunately. $6500 left on a PV system (year 3 of a 10-year 2nd mortgage) and over $10k in credit card debt (along with the added cost of having a NEMA 14-50 installed) means that every last extra cent of residual income I have will go to taxes (self-employed) and debt.

 

[steph280]

I bought some TSLA earlier in the year hoping to gain a quick $1k to pay for the M3 deposit, only to have it crash 40%. But now it's back and even higher, enough for my 20% downpayment! It's rare to see $8-10 rise/drop daily in a stock, and TSLA does it constantly. Need to have a strong stomach to own this stock.