[oxyzen]

Originally Posted by shibujp

You are insane to purchase it after 6 years of IT work. But the question was whether a regular IT Joe can purchase it in his lifetime - so do you feel us IT Joes have a lifespan of 10 years once we start working? Kidding but my point is you can buy it in good time.

I am not in any IT compant. But my salary is pretty much like a regular IT guy except the fact I have to work 6 days a week.

Imagine I will be able to save 25L (assuming 10% interest on savings) after 6 years job. And that is strictly considering my expenses (10K/month) remain same for the next few years. Now that is possible but impractical. I would love to buy a swift Zdi in the meantime, may be get married etc etc.
The fact is you can buy a BMW if that is your goal. We all buy apartment that are a hell lot expensive. So why not BMW?
But the practical answer is you cant. There are a lot more to life. Security (for medical reasons), responsibilities - You need to have cash reserve. This is perfectly quoted as..

Originally Posted by microaubin

A 32 lac BMW you can sell for 15 lacs after 5 years while a 32 lac piece of real estate you can probably sell for 55 or 64 lacs after 5 years. (Even if you are a die hard BMW fan the second one would look a lot more better.Add your wife and parents to the equation..bye bye BMW)

By the time you are 32, you might have 2 or more kids, their education, expenses etc surely will take a big chunk out of your income.

[Kimified]

I am in the young (23 - 25) age group IT crowd. I have read every post in the 9 pages so far and trust me, for a guy like me, Its so much knowledge. Thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts.

And frankly, I think it all comes down to priorities. Almost all of us at some point would be earning enough not only to afford a BMW but also to OWN one.

Priorities are influenced by a lot of factors. Lets take a example. 6 years down the line, If i would have saved say 25l, would i buy a BMW when all my other friends/cousins in the same age group would be buying real estate ? Probably not. Considering that its a depreciating asset (and pretty fast at that), most people would drop the idea and buy something which would keep them in good shape over a longer period.
Yeah, I agree that most people who buy expensive cars go more with the heart than with the mind, But, that guilt feeling one would have when they see most people investing in something else will still pinch somewhere. That pinch will be enough to take the entire thought of buying a car out of most people's minds.

Similarly, 20 years down the lane, there will be a different priority. But surely, at some point, we all can buy it even after looking after all the other priorities. So it ends up being a matter of time and you should not be old enough not to buy one

[sammycoolster]

Well Just to start with, I worked with Microsoft 6 months ago and Now am with another very top notch IT company leading in the cloud computing space.

My wifey is with the leading database software maker in the world. However with all diligence I would still say I would not be able to afford a 5 series or upwards, ask me why, It will take me 2 years of savings to get the vehicle but by that time I buy it the price would have gone up atleast by 3 or 4 lacs with each new model coming in.

And maintaining it is altogether a different story, which I am not able to undertake. To me "To be able to afford a car, is also to be able to afford to service it", if this does not hold true I dont think I am able to afford it.

Well, the story is different in US. My frens in my same band in US in my company drive 7 series, as the lease amount is very cheap $1100 a month which is roughly 1\9th of their salary..Hope I have made some point..

[LonelyPlanet]

Can he - YES
Will he - NO

Its the need v/s want discussion.
Does he need it - NO.
Does he want it - Absolutely.

[yogeshnagpal]

Here are my views. An IT Professional working @ Infy / TCS / Wipro has ample of onsite opportunities.

My calculations as below

1. One stays onsite for around 3-4 years (assuming U.S). This is not at all difficult in the above IT companies
2. An annual salary of around 70k USD resulting in a monthly saving of around 3k USD after deducting state tax, federal tax and living expenses.
3. This translates to 36k USD / anumn multiplied by 4 years of onsite = 144k USD
4. Assuming 44 as the conversion rate, one should easily be able to save around 60 lacs in 4 years.

As someone said earlier most IT professionals use these savings as an investement in Real estate. If one doesn't have the responsibility of buying a house, he / she can easily buy a BMW 3 Series and not worry about the maintenance since the maintenance part can be taken care of by the interest earned from the remaining amount.

These are just my views and calculations.

Let us know your views.


Cheers,
Yogesh.

[microaubin]

Originally Posted by LonelyPlanet

Can he - YES
Will he - NO

Its the need v/s want discussion.
Does he need it - NO.
Does he want it - Absolutely.

Perfectly summed up short and sweet.

[tush]

Ah a thought every IT pro would come across. For a regular IT Joe, priorities for him/her would be as follows, unless he/she meets those he/she cannot think of spending even 15 lakh on a car let alone 25-35 lakh.

1. Pure Insurance/Mediclaim
2. House
3. Marriage
4. Regular Savings(At least 10 % every month of what he/she earns every month)
5. Enough money at hand for any expected/unexpected event.
6. Additional money to upgrade skills(Certifications etc)
7. Vision of 5 years from now for considering the rate at which inflation is going and hence increase savings in the form of investments.(This may or may not be considered imp. as its individuals perspective).

Then comes the following

8. Kid/Kids. Here the savings get some dent.

I personally think above points would be common for every average IT pro, to continue leading a decent life without going bankrupt. But again its an individuals perspective. Above may change based on individuals priorities and entire family earnings.

After above is achieved or being achieved, it would still require enough to think of a BMW is what I believe.

[nandishpal]

you can buy a bmw or a merc or an audi,
the only thing you have to be is a SMART individual,
if you know how to make the quick money(time frame) & get a bmw that has just run 1000 kms from the showroom for 7 to 8 l less,you can easily own,
as the topic says regular it joe,i would say NO,as he will only wait to go up the triangle with his sweet time,it doesnt work like that now

[zulfi hansi]

I am not a IT guy, but the fact that now in our dear India with its surging economy I think any professional can buy a Beemer, or a Merc for that matter. The ideal question should be at what age?

If you ask me, if at all, really if at all an average IT guy stops buying real estate he can buy one before he turns 40. But do you guys ever stop buying one house after another? Since the real estate is not so much of a good investment now (no fast buck anymore), I think all IT guys with good skills under 40 can buy now.

Ideally how it goes, a lot of my class-mates are in IT and this is what happens; First they buy a flat for themselves in the town they want to settle down, second they buy / rebuild their home at their 'native', for parents, and then they buy a plot of land (aspiring to have a independent home some day), may not apply in Mumbai. Next if not a plot of land, again another flat in the same city or another IT oriented city like Noida / Hyderabad / Bangalore / Pune etc. Out in the West it does not happen this way.

Now all this may seem irrelevant to this topic, but I think it is necessary to understand the psyche behind how a IT pro spends his savings. Not just them, in our society it is very normal for any more than average earning middle-class individual to do just what I stated above. It does not apply to just IT pros.

[vishnurp99]

I am also an IT guy and though i am passionate about cars i don't think i will ever buy a BMW or merc even if i can afford it. Actually it's not just BMW or merc. this applies to any car above 40 laks.

India has extremely high taxation on the higher priced cars. So a 3 series which would start at say 35k $ comes for 35 lakhs in india. That's a premium of 100%. On a salary there is no way i can afford that.

Now if you are a salaried person you would think twice befre you spend that kind of money on tax.

Now if you have lots of investments/sources of income like real estate holding etc and you make more money than you need for a very opulent lifestyle then you might go for these cars. Again the more expensive car bring the wrong kind of attention to you.

[download2live]

This thread is running really long. I do not know why so much fuss?
Ok let me put it in a different way.
The usual profile of a person buying a BMW is that of a high earning individual with a lot of disposable income. His basic needs of having some real estate, money for children education etc etc are already met. Only after that he uses his extra income to buy the BMW.

As many have pointed out If one is really committed then he will buy no matter what. But that is sheer foolishness. One has responsibility towards family. The guys who move around in BMW will never have a situation where his kids will blame him for not providing them with a decent education. Or not leaving for them some property. Or for not taking care of their basic needs.
For these guys BMW comes after all the more important needs of life are met.

Hope it settles the question.

[anand_lukose]

I am also from the IT crowd but our job market is extremely shaky ( dot com, recession version 1 ). Now I hear news reports of another one coming. Version 2 . I literally got a fright when i saw today's Economic Times front page. Everyone needs to have a bigger buffer for any trouble.

On a lighter note, one can never buy a bmw unless he plans to be single ! else, your mid-life crisis will eventually reach you there !

[arun_josie]

House, real estate investments, insurance premium, education for kids, decent saving amount in hand are the considered to be the basic requirement these days.

So, I would say Yes if the person has no EMIs after buying a house,real estate investments and no other big commitments or EMIs.
To satisfy the above requirement he should have been in onsite as a bachelor for at least 5 years.

Now, for a IT person in India with no onsite opportunity or limited or not interested in onsite due to other reasons, I don't think he will be ever able to buy such a car because he will be forced to pay EMIs one or the other throughout his life to fill his above mentioned commitments. And, I fall in this category. Above all, we also need to be prepared for recession.

[shibujp]

Originally Posted by oxyzen

But the practical answer is you cant.

Practicality changes from person to person. But I don't think you can categorically state a "can't". As you mentioned in the post - if you have a goal of a BMW you can - in your lifetime. But a dream is rarely practical or this forum would not have been there.

Drive on,
Shibu.

[JediKnight]

An average IT ( young < 35 yrs ) joe can buy a bmw if:

1. He has lot of family wealth. Even better if you are working and living in the same city with your wealthy parents so you can leverage the infrastructure ( read house ) created by you dad.

2. He is financially illiterate:-

- Confuses short sightedness for "enjoying the present"

- Does not understand the real cost of car ownership.
Only has a vague idea of concepts like depreciation, cost of capital,
oppurtunity cost etc.

- Is too young to have seen an IT industry bust cycle.
Never seen a lay off.
Thinks his salary will experience an infinite monotonic rise.

- Does not understand that god forbid if he or a family member gets seriously ill the tiny health cover provided by his company will be wiped out in days.

- Does not understand that he has no social security. When he retires he will not get any pension. With rising cost of living in urban india he underestimates how much money is really needed to comfortably retire. He does not understand why it is important to save early in life.

- He believes that his kids' education/marraige costs etc will magically take care of themselves.

For case 2 i would recommend a read of "Rich Dad Poor Dad"