Car Value Vs Net Worth

[markbike528CBX]

Anyway, 0.6% of investable NW,  less if paid house equity is included.

Update: 2 motorcycles, the CBX and a Honda 600F2,  2 cars HHR and Boxster.  Not sure the HHR was included last time.

0.51%

[2Birds1Stone]

Net Worth - $114k
KBB Vehicle Value - $8k

7.5%

However I have only been at this for 4 years.

Net Worth - $375k
KBB Vehicle Value - $15k

4%

Progress!

I sold the motorcycle and  NW is up by 5%, so now my car is worth 2.9% of NW.

Love this thread

Our NW = $586k
2 Cars total value = $12k

2%

If I sell my older sports luxury car, we are down to one $1k value vehicle =) 2004 Nissan Sentra, base model. I'm listing it in May.

Car value is down to ~0.25% of NW.........we drive a really cheap car!

[Dicey]

I love when an old thread gets revived. There is so much good stuff in our archives!

I especially love when people post updates.

I have a new to me car since this thread began. DH and bonus kid are still happily driving the same vehicles. I was just fine driving my old car, but DH does the maintenance and he deemed it time to go. We considered a Tesla, but I don't want the stress of such a fancy car, plus the driving ranges are not yet well suited to our needs. My "new"car is still older than this thread, lol. All of them are paid for and I can't be arsed to look up their values, but it's miniscule, compared to our TNW. I'm mostly posting to say congratulations to everyone for making such good progress during the last three years!

Hmmm, still driving all the same vehicles...
However, in early March last year we made a long-planned RV purchase.We paid about $70k for a 2012 Leisure Travel Serenity with 25k miles. We've used it exactly five nights during the pandemic, sheesh. Happily, apparently RV's are holding their value quite nicely, but our plans are to use the heck out of it when things normalize.
We still don't count it or any of our vehicles in our NW. We paid for it out of new money, so no debt taken on, no investments liquidated.

[foghorn]

Car = 2016 Acura RDX = KBB = $18,000
Net Worth (Includes House) = $4,000,000

Car % of NW = .45%

[RWD]

8.4%.........

It's fun to come back and look at this again. It's been almost two years and we replaced one car (with an approximately equal value car). Down to 5.1% of net worth.

[LeftA]

Around 1.8%.

Two cars bought new in 2010 and 2013.

Almost 2 years later, the number is now about half what it was....0.94%. Not sure if it will go much lower. Likely to get a replacement for the older car in 2022.

[Bateaux]

My 13 year old Honda Accord is 0.05 percent of networth.

[middo]

When we bought our "new car" it was worth .025% of our net worth.  Not sure what it is worth now, but it hasn't gone up in value.

Hmm.  I now get 0.14%. Must have calculated wrong.  A bit embarrassing for a maths teacher.  We do have a car worth nearly 10% of our net worth, but it is a family heirloom that will be restored during retirement.

[badger1988]

Lookling at this thread for the first time, but I've got all the data back to 2011 when I graduated from college. Fun to see how this metric has improved over time, dropping below 1% for the first time at the end of January:

Current Vehicles (1/31/2021):
2011 Ford Fiesta - $3,232
2011 Chrysler Town and Country - $6,529
Total Value: $9,766

[geekette]

A surprising .15% 

Might want a new car in the next few years, but this one only has 80k miles on it!

[Exflyboy]

My answer to this question is the same answer to the "What is my credit rating?" Question..

Answer... I have no idea...:)

[norajean]

There is no one-size fits all or rule of thumb here.  I'm not sure there is an accepted definition of net worth.

When I finished college my car was 100% of my assets but I had negative NW due to student loans.  So what?

We like 100k mile Lexus vehicles and have two a the moment which may be as much as 0.17% of our net worth.  Ho hum. Should I go on a buying frenzy and push that all the way to 1%?  That would be a huge splurge that I really can't imagine doing on a single vehicle but maybe a small collection.  I could use an old pickup with a hitch for hauling a trailer and perhaps a roadster (heaps of curvy local roads).  Also need an electric riding mower or a tractor. Do those count?

[NotJen]

NW = $440k (as of first of month)
KBB = $16k (this seems ridiculously high, as I bought new for $17.5k OOP 2.5 years ago)

So, my "luxury" ride is 3.6% of my net worth. That percentage should drop pretty steeply over the next few years.

Ha.  6 years later I'm at 0.3% with the same car.
NW =  $1250k
KBB = $     4k

[Le Barbu]

NW 1.1M$
Cars worth 11k$ (2006 Civic, 2010 Forester) so 1% of NW

I aim for buying 3-8 years old car for less than 10% of annual income and pay cash

NW 1.5M$
Cars worth 7.5k$ (2006 Civic, 2010 Forester) so 0.5% of NW

I hope to keep my cars for a while and someday, have no cars at all!

[Car Jack]

Also need an electric riding mower or a tractor. Do those count?

Hope not.  I'm sure my Kubota 4 wheel drive diesel tractor with the bucket loader is holding its value way better than the 8 year old Subaru that my younger son is driving.

[DadJokes]

Well, I don't think I like this game very much.

2012 GMC Terrain: ~$8.5k
2013 Ford Fusion: ~$7.5k
Net worth: ~$80k

Ratio: 0.2

I actually used KBB for values this time:

2012 Terrain: $5,700
2013 Fusion: $4,000
Net worth: $240,000

Ratio: 0.04

I doubt our cars dropped that much in two years, so I was probably overestimating their value before. Either way, they should both be good for another decade or so.

[mizzourah2006]

2013 GMC Sierra Denali ~ $24k (bought before I found MMM)
2015 GMC Terrain ~ $12k

Networth ~1.35 million

So, 2.6%

[Taran Wanderer]

3.6% for us, but I like cars and we have an extra. Plus a chunk of my car costs get reimbursed through frequent work travel. Or used to anyway.

[Exflyboy]

Also need an electric riding mower or a tractor. Do those count?

Hope not.  I'm sure my Kubota 4 wheel drive diesel tractor with the bucket loader is holding its value way better than the 8 year old Subaru that my younger son is driving.

Same here.. On the tractor that is..:)

[Morning Glory]

0.002 here for cars, plus 0.003 for the farm truck and 0.006 for the tractor. Total vehicles = 0.011, but it's less because they weren't included in the denominator. No wait, it's still 0.011. The value of our vehicles is so small in comparison to our net worth that there is no point in adding them to the denominator of the equation because the result is the same!!!!

[RWD]

0.002% here for cars, plus 0.003 for the farm truck and 0.006 for the tractor. Total vehicles = 0.011%, but it's less because they weren't included in the denominator. No wait, it's still 0.011%. The value of our vehicles is so small in comparison to our net worth that there is no point in adding them to the denominator of the equation because the result is the same!!!!

Are you sure you did the math right? Based on another post your net worth is around $650k so that means the total value of all your vehicles would be only $71! Did you mean 0.011 (1.1%) instead of 0.011%? That would be a combined vehicle value of ~$7,100 which sounds more likely.

[Morning Glory]

0.002% here for cars, plus 0.003 for the farm truck and 0.006 for the tractor. Total vehicles = 0.011%, but it's less because they weren't included in the denominator. No wait, it's still 0.011%. The value of our vehicles is so small in comparison to our net worth that there is no point in adding them to the denominator of the equation because the result is the same!!!!

Are you sure you did the math right? Based on another post your net worth is around $650k so that means the total value of all your vehicles would be only $71! Did you mean 0.011 (1.1%) instead of 0.011%? That would be a combined vehicle value of ~$7,100 which sounds more likely.

I was math-ing while drunk, I'm sorry. I am also using an inflated NW value of 846k which includes my pension rollover information and stuff in my husband's name which I don't usually include in my race-to thread number because I don't look it up every month. It's about $9500 all together! Jeebus I am usually good at math I promise.

1 k each car plus 2.5k farm truck and 5-6k tractor

[SpareChange]

KBB says the private party value of my 2007 Focus hatchback is $2,456. Seems high, but I'll take it :). That puts it at 0.48% of NW.

[JAYSLOL]

I’ll jump in on this one, 1995 Toyota Tercel with 330k worth about $400 = 0.3% of NW.  DWs car is an 06 Hyundai worth around $3k or 2.3% of NW

[Money Badger]

4% today.   By FIRE in 2021, less than 3% is the goal.

Both are quite new and love them 2 yrs into ownership and drive less than 12K mi per year so hope we enjoy them 10+ years from here.

Alrighty then...   Looked back to my 2 year old post on this topic... As planned, same cars and est. private party value vs. NW is down to 2.8%.   

[SimpleCycle]

We hit our lowest ratio in May of 2018 when our NW was $597k and our car was a 2003 Toyota Corolla worth $700. 0.11%

Now we’re worth $1.2M and own a 2016 Honda Fit worth $12k, so exactly 1%.

[Morning Glory]

0.002% here for cars, plus 0.003 for the farm truck and 0.006 for the tractor. Total vehicles = 0.011%, but it's less because they weren't included in the denominator. No wait, it's still 0.011%. The value of our vehicles is so small in comparison to our net worth that there is no point in adding them to the denominator of the equation because the result is the same!!!!

Are you sure you did the math right? Based on another post your net worth is around $650k so that means the total value of all your vehicles would be only $71! Did you mean 0.011 (1.1%) instead of 0.011%? That would be a combined vehicle value of ~$7,100 which sounds more likely.

I was math-ing while drunk, I'm sorry. I am also using an inflated NW value of 846k which includes my pension rollover information and stuff in my husband's name which I don't usually include in my race-to thread number because I don't look it up every month. It's about $9500 all together! Jeebus I am usually good at math I promise.

1 k each car plus 2.5k farm truck and 5-6k tractor

This dropped a bit in the last week because the farm truck is leaking gas and it got warm enough to find out that the ac no longer works in one car and the other one just lost a nonessential piece of metal due to rust so now it looks worse. Tractor is still fine. It's like a country western song over here.  Can't wait to sell all of them and get something decent.

[Arbitrage]

Ooh, I sold my car so I can redo this calculation.  Unfortunately, we also bought a second house (will sell first one in a few months, market willing), so that dinged our net worth with all of the various transaction costs.  More costs incoming with repairs (on two houses) and moving.

Nevertheless, we're now around 0.8% if we include our family car and my e-bike. 

[windytrail]

Early 1990s Specialized Allez road bike (primary commuter): ~ $300
2020 Specialized Rockhopper mountain bike (recreation): ~$1200
No car

Net worth is $228k

= 0.65% of net worth

Bikes make you feel like a millionaire :)

[Money Badger]

Nice little family surprise came in...   2.3% now.  :-))

[Tester]

5k car, 500k net worth so 1%.
Car is an 2009 Odyssey with 185k miles, might go for a newer vehicle in the next year which would get us to an obscene 4% based on the maximum I am ready to pay...
I hope to increase the net worth quickly...

[SwordGuy]

Using generous estimates for our car's net worth, 0.0037%.

It helps that mine is a salvage title that might net me $200. 

Wife's is newer, fewer miles, but still banged up a fair bit.

We replaced our cars 18 months ago.  Each car is worth about 1/2% of our wealth.

[JAYSLOL]

Just spent 2.9% of NW on a 2012 Elantra Touring, now have around 5% of NW tied up in vehicles.  Always feels awesome to pay cash for a car and barely even feel it.  Congrats to the folks here that are killing it with sub-1% ratios!  I’ll get there eventually haha

[beege]

Back in 2013, just after I found MMM, we owned 3 vehicles which I think added up to about 3% of our net worth.

In 2016-2017 we got rid of all our stuff and moved across the country. We didn't own a car for a year so we were sitting at 0% for a car with 2 cheap bikes. With just our bikes, 0.03% of our worth was in transportation at that point.

These days we are back to owning a (cheap) car and it's about 0.09% of our worth. The bike collection has grown and is probably worth more than the car now (2 fat bikes, 2 city bikes, 2 touring bikes, 2 tandems plus a plethora of other junk bikes I've gotten for free) so probably around 0.2%-0.3% of our worth is in transportation these days.

I hope to start welding some wacky bikes together from all my salvaged bike parts but I doubt that will really change our worth. They might be worth something to me but probably not much to anyone else.

[pdxvandal]

Great thread. With two old cars and $1.7M net worth ... roughly half of 1%? We'll likely upgrade in the next year ... or two.

[Dicey]

I love when an old thread gets revived. There is so much good stuff in our archives!

I especially love when people post updates.

I have a new to me car since this thread began. DH and bonus kid are still happily driving the same vehicles. I was just fine driving my old car, but DH does the maintenance and he deemed it time to go. We considered a Tesla, but I don't want the stress of such a fancy car, plus the driving ranges are not yet well suited to our needs. My "new"car is still older than this thread, lol. All of them are paid for and I can't be arsed to look up their values, but it's miniscule, compared to our TNW. I'm mostly posting to say congratulations to everyone for making such good progress during the last three years!

Hahaha, look what I wrote three years ago!

We still have all the same cars, but we added an RV, which we paid about $70k. We bought it just as the pandemic started, so we haven't used it much. Our cost per use is astronomical, but we hope to whittle that down in the next few years. All four vehicles are paid for and equal about 2.5% of our TNW.

Note to @boarder42, welcome back. Looks like you have continued to make great progress.

[DadJokes]

Well, I don't think I like this game very much.

2012 GMC Terrain: ~$8.5k
2013 Ford Fusion: ~$7.5k
Net worth: ~$80k

Ratio: 0.2

Two years later: same cars, much higher net worth

It looks like no significant change in the combined value of our vehicles, so our updated ratio is down to 5.75% of our NW.

[StackOfCoins.com (Jay)]

2% of net worth or less

[Taran Wanderer]

We’re down to about 0.32% even though one of our cars is actually appreciating.

[englishteacheralex]

We ruined our awesome ratio by buying a 2012 Sienna with 90k miles for $17k. Now is not a great time to buy a car, but *shrug* I was sick of driving our clapped-out stick shift Mazda 5 and gave it to a former student as a graduation present (she had just graduated from teacher college, YAY!). I wanted a Sienna and I'm loving it.

So now our percentage of car value to net worth is 3%.  Well...that's not Mustachian, but it's not that bad, I guess.

[soulpatchmike]

I'll play...we have 4 drivers in our house and 4 cars with 3 more drivers in the making 15,12,10.  Our vehicle situation would not at all be considered mustachian...but from a percentage of TNW it is not bad at ~1.6%
TNW $1.15M
2007 Yukon - owned 9 years - mostly sits now that I wfh but needed for towing our mobile hotel.
2003 T&C van - owned 16 years - Salvage title and $2k payout from a neighbor backing into the door a couple years ago. Mainly a kid car now.
2005 Pacifica - owned a little over a year, sister gave it too us free when she got a new car originally was my parents car. Mainly a kid car.
2015 Nissan Leaf - owned 3 years - Highest used vehicle.
1999 Harley Davidson - $5000 - owned 22 years - this is my primary vehicle in the summer months.

[markbike528CBX]

I'll play...we have 4 drivers in our house and 4 cars with 3 more drivers in the making 15,12,10.  Our vehicle situation would not at all be considered mustachian...but from a percentage of TNW it is not bad at ~1.6%
TNW $1.15M
2007 Yukon - owned 9 years - mostly sits now that I wfh but needed for towing our mobile hotel.
2003 T&C van - owned 16 years - Salvage title and $2k payout from a neighbor backing into the door a couple years ago. Mainly a kid car now.
2005 Pacifica - owned a little over a year, sister gave it too us free when she got a new car originally was my parents car. Mainly a kid car.
2015 Nissan Leaf - owned 3 years - Highest used vehicle.
1999 Harley Davidson - $5000 - owned 22 years - this is my primary vehicle in the summer months.

Nice Rollie Free avatar.  I hope you wear better gear (and don't ride like that).

[MissNancyPryor]

My car is 0.74% of net worth for me. 

The value of my car has gone up due to inflation and is worth about what I paid 3 years ago, like others have said used cars are at a premium now. 

[soulpatchmike]

I'll play...we have 4 drivers in our house and 4 cars with 3 more drivers in the making 15,12,10.  Our vehicle situation would not at all be considered mustachian...but from a percentage of TNW it is not bad at ~1.6%
TNW $1.15M
2007 Yukon - owned 9 years - mostly sits now that I wfh but needed for towing our mobile hotel.
2003 T&C van - owned 16 years - Salvage title and $2k payout from a neighbor backing into the door a couple years ago. Mainly a kid car now.
2005 Pacifica - owned a little over a year, sister gave it too us free when she got a new car originally was my parents car. Mainly a kid car.
2015 Nissan Leaf - owned 3 years - Highest used vehicle.
1999 Harley Davidson - $5000 - owned 22 years - this is my primary vehicle in the summer months.

Nice Rollie Free avatar.  I hope you wear better gear (and don't ride like that).

No need to get naked on a salt flat speed run anymore.  It certainly did make for a great legacy image for Vincent MCs and Rollie.  I can't say I have ever been on a motorcycle or car at 150mph, but there are certainly plenty of them capable of that speed these days even without getting naked. ;)

[Taran Wanderer]

I'll play...we have 4 drivers in our house and 4 cars with 3 more drivers in the making 15,12,10.  Our vehicle situation would not at all be considered mustachian...but from a percentage of TNW it is not bad at ~1.6%
TNW $1.15M
2007 Yukon - owned 9 years - mostly sits now that I wfh but needed for towing our mobile hotel.
2003 T&C van - owned 16 years - Salvage title and $2k payout from a neighbor backing into the door a couple years ago. Mainly a kid car now.
2005 Pacifica - owned a little over a year, sister gave it too us free when she got a new car originally was my parents car. Mainly a kid car.
2015 Nissan Leaf - owned 3 years - Highest used vehicle.
1999 Harley Davidson - $5000 - owned 22 years - this is my primary vehicle in the summer months.

That’s 4 cars, but technically 5 vehicles…

[soulpatchmike]

I'll play...we have 4 drivers in our house and 4 cars with 3 more drivers in the making 15,12,10.  Our vehicle situation would not at all be considered mustachian...but from a percentage of TNW it is not bad at ~1.6%
TNW $1.15M
2007 Yukon - owned 9 years - mostly sits now that I wfh but needed for towing our mobile hotel.
2003 T&C van - owned 16 years - Salvage title and $2k payout from a neighbor backing into the door a couple years ago. Mainly a kid car now.
2005 Pacifica - owned a little over a year, sister gave it too us free when she got a new car originally was my parents car. Mainly a kid car.
2015 Nissan Leaf - owned 3 years - Highest used vehicle.
1999 Harley Davidson - $5000 - owned 22 years - this is my primary vehicle in the summer months.

That’s 4 cars, but technically 5 vehicles…

This is true, 5 vehicles at 1.6% of TNW.  Quite likely would have FIRE by now with no wife and no kids but I am not good at being alone for long periods of time and I think grandkids sound like fun...

[Exflyboy]

I'll play...we have 4 drivers in our house and 4 cars with 3 more drivers in the making 15,12,10.  Our vehicle situation would not at all be considered mustachian...but from a percentage of TNW it is not bad at ~1.6%
TNW $1.15M
2007 Yukon - owned 9 years - mostly sits now that I wfh but needed for towing our mobile hotel.
2003 T&C van - owned 16 years - Salvage title and $2k payout from a neighbor backing into the door a couple years ago. Mainly a kid car now.
2005 Pacifica - owned a little over a year, sister gave it too us free when she got a new car originally was my parents car. Mainly a kid car.
2015 Nissan Leaf - owned 3 years - Highest used vehicle.
1999 Harley Davidson - $5000 - owned 22 years - this is my primary vehicle in the summer months.

Nice Rollie Free avatar.  I hope you wear better gear (and don't ride like that).

No need to get naked on a salt flat speed run anymore.  It certainly did make for a great legacy image for Vincent MCs and Rollie.  I can't say I have ever been on a motorcycle or car at 150mph, but there are certainly plenty of them capable of that speed these days even without getting naked. ;)

Even quite small crotch rockets of 600cc are capable of that speed.. Heck some 1000cc+ monsters are over 200mph now I believe.

Makes my 1000cc Yamaha from 1991 at 170mph seem positively pedestrian.... I only maxed it out a few times though..:)

[Exflyboy]

Well I have just agreed to buy my Wife her dream car, so my smug 0.01% of car value/NW has taken a hit..

Lets see... now its 0.95%.. This feels dangerously high!

[Exflyboy]

@spartana Yeah I have not rode a bike since I emigrated to the US in '96. I'd probably be dead in a week due to the other road users.

Sure miss a fast bike though. I rode a Monster once.. Not the fastest by any means but it was so much fun and handled like a dream..:)

On the new car thing, this is why we just plunked down $35k on a new SUV. When used ones are only a few k less than new and they come with a warranty, it doesn't make much sense buying used.

[Exflyboy]

@spartana Yeah I have not rode a bike since I emigrated to the US in '96. I'd probably be dead in a week due to the other road users.

Sure miss a fast bike though. I rode a Monster once.. Not the fastest by any means but it was so much fun and handled like a dream..:)

On the new car thing, this is why we just plunked down $35k on a new SUV. When used ones are only a few k less than new and they come with a warranty, it doesn't make much sense buying used.

Used car prices are crazy now. New prices aren't great either but I hoping that will change eventually. So for now I will continue being carless (getting close to 2 years!). When I first Fired I had 2 motorcycles - a small old cruiser I used to commute to work (and morphed into my road trip vehicle after FIRE) and a the crotch rocket Suzuki for fun stuff. Eventually got rid of them both and got an old Ranger truck with a shell for camping and then got the Ducati for fun stuff. But living in SoCal with crazy drivers lead me to sell that but still tempted to buy an ADV type motorcycle but we will see.

Sadly my Wife has heard all my war stories about riding fast bikes back in England, so I mentioned getting a CBR1000RR it was met with a flat "Hell No!"..:(