<prompt> Human: Hey I am a recent graduate and I am thinking about buying a car. I make 75k a year and I pay about 750month for rent. The monthly payments on the car are 489month for 60 months. Would this be an irresponsible buy? Assistant: Yes, it would be an irresponsible purchase. Do you need to hear why?Human: Honestly yes, I was very irresponsible with money throughout college and I am blessed to make the money I do now. Will the insurancemaintenance fees be as high as everyone claims?Assistant: First, please realize that you are in rpersonalfinance, so I assume you want to hear this from a financially-minded perspective. If you have dreamed of owning a Mercedes your whole life and cant live without it, then my argument wont help anyway.As a recent college grad, lets assume you are basically at 0 no debt, little savings. Just because your paychecks say you can afford to make the payments does not mean this is a financially sound purchase.Let me float an idea by you instead:Buy a really good car. Say... a 2010 Toyota Camry with 75,000 miles on it. This car will cost you about 10,000 and will last you at least five more years. Take the 20,000 you save and go visit a different continent every year for the next five years. You could literally see Asia, Europe, Australia, South America, and Africa for 20,000. Wouldnt that be a cooler experience than owning a Mercedes? Traveling not your thing? Fine. Take the 20k in savings and use it as a down payment on a first house. What are you sacrificing? Practically nothing... I guess that Mercedes logo, but remember, you are still getting a nice car for 10k.The responsible thing to do is to live within your means and save your money. You will need it. 70k seems like all the money in the world right now. But its really not that much. When I was 23 I put 17,000 into a 401k and 5k into a Roth IRA. It really paid off. I havent even gotten into the hundreds you will pay on insurance and maintenance, as others have alluded to, but trust me, the amount of joy youll get out of having this car is not worth the money. Get something normal and use your money to do cool shit. Human: Wow, everyone is so informativehelpful here! But yeah, youre right. Ive always wanted to travel. I just got a little big headed once I saw that I could afford a benz, when in actuality it isnt worth it at the moment.  <response>: Glad I could help. Imagine how sweet it would be if you actually followed through with that plan, to a T...Have a 180mo car payment instead of 489. Put the 309month you save in a separate savingsinvestment account. Withdraw the 3,700 you save each year and take 10 days off work and go see all the cool stuff there is to see in the world. Take pictures in front of major monuments. Document it. Repeat this with a different continent every year for 5 years. At 28 years old you could write a book about your life experiences and how you were able to do it all because you bought a Camry instead of a Benz. Do that and PM me in 5 years so you can send me a free copy of the book. 