MGDMike, radar electronics with a lot of DSP......I like it, cool stuff!

Thanks for doing this life saving job for us.

 

My 2 cents. I say wait just a bit. You are almost there but not quite. My buddy finished his Maters in Engineering and went from 40K in EE to almost 80k as soon as he finished. It only took him a few more years and he was immediately more marketable. I would recommend you go this route.

Buying a 40k car with a 40k salary is insane. Do not do it!

For starters the car will initially be way overpriced just like the Thunderbird someone else mentioned. Give it a few years and once the bugs are worked out hopefully you will be in a good position to purchase one at a better price.

 

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A big "Air Assault" out to you my 101st Brother...

 

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Actually, I never did AIT. I went Blue to Green and the Army said I didn't have to go to AIT. I got to my unit and crammed the books and went on every field exercise that I could to learn up on my 13R MOS. Now, I'm in charge of soldiers and training them... all in less than a year.. woohoo! My two 94M's told me about their "adventures" over at Redstone though and I bet you had some fun too! Depends on when you were at Campbell you might even know one of the 94M's I work with. Did you work at Balad this past summer as well?

 

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My opinion is: If you can't pay cash for the car, you can't afford it. That is the bottom line, and if everyone lived by those words part of the economical mess we are in right now would never have been an issue.

Sure, you can finance to obtain the car you want, but don't finance more than you can chew off. And that is where a lot of people fail.

 

Unfortunately if we all followed that advice many of us would have cars that sit in shops more than at stoplights.

 

Not really. Back in Holland I didn't have a lot of cash. My first car was a beige 1985 Peugeot 305. But it was in pristine condition. Really a car that belonged to an old guy that took real good care of it. Only 15000 miles, translated in about 1000 a year when I bought it. My second car was a Silver metallic 1993 Peugeot 405, 8 years old at time of purchase, only 40000 miles on it. They both never let me down, sometimes the bill was high, and sometimes I didn't pay a thing. Overall maintenance cost me about 2500 euros. Divide that by 5 years and you'll realize those old cars aren't all that bad on the wallet. And the cost of obtaining one isn't all that high either. Just make sure you have a technician check it out, and make sure it has never been in a major accident.

I'd rather eat well than eat dry bread and drive a White 2009 Challenger R/T. And it is for that reason I will wait untill 2010 or even 2011 to get me one myself. Unless I get an enormous raise.