<prompt> Human: Before this goes any further, Id like to say two things before getting into any of the specifics of the question. Firstly, thanks for everyone whos reading this and contributing their time to consider my question. And secondly, everyone is different, and while the majority opinion on Reddit seems to be that cars are a sort of necessary evil expense, that is not my view at all; I am a car guy and I love cars.TL; DR - Car guy wants 50,000 new car: 16,000 trade in 19,200 saved over next year 14,800 finance -- reasonable?That said, here is my question as stated in the title - can I responsibly purchase a new, 50,000 car? For the purpose of this question, please consider both the price and condition of the car to be static. I am a DINK with a combined income of 120,000 7545 split. My wife and I have no debts thanks to good fortune and great parents. We have about 30,000 in cash savings, 30,000 in mutual fundsRoth IRA401k, and an almost 5 years left mature bond worth almost its full 200,000. Half of that bond will be split with a family member when mature, so consider that to be 100,000. Both of our cars are owned free and clear. We have fixed monthly expenses rent, cable, insurance, etc of 2500. I contribute 5 of my pre-tax income to my 401k to take advantage of my employers 2.5 max match. We have been contributing 1200mo to our cash savings, which I am now attempting to ramp up to 1600mo. Aside from our bills and savings, pretty much all of our income goes to food and entertainment - we like to eat well and are willing to pay for it.I have essentially three financial goals in life: retirement, cars, and, eventually, a house. Im not willing to mortgage either any of those three goals for a single one, which is why this decision is very difficult for me. My car is by far the most important physical possession I have, both in terms of financial and emotional value. Without going into details, I recently elected to pay for a cosmetic fix to my car that ended up with the result being worse than the initial problem. It is repaired to the extent that it should be fine to most potential buyers, but it has really negatively affected my enjoyment of the car. Attempting to fix the problem again would result in a total investment of nearly 20 the value of the car. My wife wants me to consider buying a new car that I have my eye on, despite my insistence that its not necessary or prudent. She is of the opinion that we should be focused less on retirement and more on enjoying our youth. While I absolutely love the idea of this new car, I am having difficulty rationalizing the investment required.My car is worth approximately 18,000 blue book. If we were to save 1,600 per month for the next year, assuming a drop in value of 2,000 on my current vehicle, we would have 35,000, leaving 14,800 to finance. Financing 14,800 over a term of say 3 years seems alright to me considering that we could pay off the car in full at any time, if necessary. The monthly payments would be covered by the extra 400mo Im attempting to add to our savings now. Even paying that 14,800 off immediately, we would still have 4-5 months of emergency funds. Is this at ALL a reasonable decision to make? I will not consider touching any of our currently accumulated funds - just trade in value and what we can accrue over a year. However, I cannot help but think of the compounded interest lost on a years worth of savings over the next 30-40 years. That plus the 20 depreciation off the lot are big pauses for me, even with as much pleasure as I think this car would bring me. Sorry for the novel, thanks to those of you would made it all the way through! EDIT:Thanks for the responses; theyre basically saying exactly what I already knew which is that it would be a very poor decision. I just wanted to indulge in the fantasy for a short while in case someone else knew better than me. To answer a couple of the questions: Im 27 My wife does not have a 401k option The cash assets were specifically built to this point to establish a large emergency fund because its something my wife is concerned about. Future savings will again be directed towards retirement investment options just not specifically my company 401kAll that said and with all your responses in mind, how do people normally plan these kinds of purchases besides just make more money? Again I want to stress that cars are one of my priorities so this desire is not going to just go away. In the future, I dont want to sacrifice this priority just to devote more money to saving for retirement.  <response>: When you list your priorities, you put retirement before car, but even without the car you are not saving enough for retirement. Just 5 is not nearly enough. If you go ahead with this expensive purchase of a car, you will seriously delay your purchase of a house and your retirement. Sure you can afford it in dollars, but you pay an awful lot in the long run and in terms of other priorities delayed. 