<prompt> Human: I got a new job with a base salary of 150k. I have a stable career. I tend to subscribe to the frugalness of rpersonalfinance in most areas, but boy do I love cars.In your opinion, what would be the maximum monthly payment that I could spend on a car and still be considered doing OK financially in the eyes of rpersonalfinance?Online calculators vary widely, and Im aware of the rules of thumb. Just curious about opinions. Assume the only debt is 15k in student loans, assets are 15k in my 401k and 10k in emergency savings, and monthly expenses 1500 monthly rent including utilities, age 33.UPDATE: Thanks for all the responses! My 401k is actually 15k, not 10k had to check on Mint. The reason for a lack of savings is that I was in graduate school my thesis took forever followed by a post-doc, and I literally just started the new job.Assistant: Your savings sound a little low for someone of your age making that income. You only list 1500month in expenses but have very little savings, so that money must be going somewhere.You should get a more thorough budget breakdown to make sure you actually know where your money is going, beef up your savings some, and then you should be able to splurge a bit on a cool car as long as the extra money comes out of a fun money thing like a little less eating out or traveling rather than cutting back on retirement savings to make you monthly payments. You also should try to put more than the recommended minimum of 20 down since it would be partially a fun purchase, not just a necessity. Also be sure you do your research on how much maintenance on the model you pick will cost so you plan for that accurately in your monthly budget.Human: Thanks for the reply! Lack of savings is because I was in graduate school thesis took way too long followed by a post-doc, and admittedly didnt budget very well : I literally just started the job.  <response>: That makes sense. Especially since you just started this job, you should definitely put a pin in a big splurge like a fancy car for a bit, but once you get your savings and budget sorted out and save up a decent amount for downpayment and have a fair degree of confidence that this job isnt going anywhere, this is definitely something you should be able to make happen. Just give yourself time to make sure it wont create more stress than necessary. 