How do i motivate myself to make a purchase I need to make?

[btau]

Okay, heres my back story.. Recently turned around my spending habits after having a lot of "lifestyle creep" in 2012. At the moment I save somewhere between high 40's to low 50 percent of my take home after tax, sure I could it a bit more but i'd start to feel 'deprived' if I did. I'm 23, no consumer debts, income of $75,000 a year AUD, roughly $50,000 invested (soon to be re-balanced), $15k in my aussie equivalent of a roth ira (superannuation) and 15,000 again in cash. So While i'm not incredibly frugal, I still think I'm doing okay..

Here is my issue.. My car. its a 90's Aussie V6, its chewing $60ish a week in fuel & has done roughly 280,000 miles (or over 430,000k's for any aussies.) she's had a good run but the falcon is on its last legs. I paid $3k for her when I was 19 & right now I believe I could scrap her for 1-2k or spend a tonne on parts getting her back to a road worthy condition. She's simply no longer economical to maintain & bordering on unsafe.

I started hunting for new cars around the $20-25,000 bracket (which essentially puts me in the price range for new hyundai econoboxes or maybe a 2-3 year old corolla.... Gotta love 'Strayan vehicle prices...) If since realised thats a ridiculous amount to put into a car & I've cut my budget down to about $12k. At that price range, i've found a 4 cylinder sedan with 50'000 miles / 80,000 kilometres on it thats roughly 4 years old and has depreciated 50% of its purchase cost.
I believe I'll get it for roughly $12,000 all up (i'll negotiate it down but then get hit with stamp duty as our government taxes us for anything and everything. Bastards.)

This is a purchase I need to make, how do i stop myself from being such a scrooge and make it?

Rebuttle to the arguments I'm expecting.

"You dont need to spend $12,000 on a car"
Our car market is often double to three times the price of the US market because your market is 15x bigger than ours & we get ripped off by manufacturers. $12,00 is not going to get me anything  flash. It will get me a 4-5 year old 4 cyl econobox with cloth trim, no alloys or fancy bits & if I'm lucky... Power windows.

"use public transport"
Right now my commute is 25 minutes each way, so 50 minutes. With public transport, my commute would change to: walk 20 minutes to the bus stop, wait for 10 minutes to half an hour (usually while multiple "full" busses sail past) take a 40 minute bus trip to near my work, walk 10 minutes. My monday to Friday commute would cost me $45. I'd still need a car for  getting places on weekend & groceries (riding on 80k/hr roads inches away from bogans in jacked up landcruisers is a really, really good way to die. I would rather walk at 1/4th the pace than ride a bike here.. There are footpaths but its illegal to ride bikes on them. I did this for 12 months, then I sat down, did the  math & realised how much of my life I was wasting on public transport. My life has considerably improved with the extra 5-7 hours of personal time I have a week extra.
So as is:
Driving  costs me $60/5 hours (I'd estimate 40-50 of this is work commute, the rest is my other driving eg 2hrs each weekend to the coast, etc + maintenance on vehicle. This will also drop with a newer 4 cylinder.)

Public Transport: $45 / 12.5 hrs. (This is slated to go up another 20% this year. Public transport only really pays off here if you work CBD & have to pay for parking.)

"Move closer to work"
Hahahahaha, I'll just get my mint out and start printing some money. Australian real estate is some of the most expensive in the world compared to income. Seriously, our property market is an absolute nightmare.
I split $2,000 a month with friends, so I pay roughly $670 a month where I am now for a moderate sized econo shoebox. Alternatively, I could pay more like $920 a month to live in a death trap asbestos hellhole closer to my work. I know MMM would probably do it & justify it with the cost of time, but I feel like I've got a pretty good balance at the moment & living anywhere smaller than I do now would drive me insane.

So how do I stop myself from being so niggardly, bite the bullet and spend on something that I know I need?


PS: not sure if I was clear on this earlier, but the car is getting beyond "aged with some character to "deathtrap"..

[nz]

Cars cost money, it's just a matter of how much!
Yes ,in your circumstances you need a car. And $12k for a 4 cylinder with 50km on the clock sounds fair.

I work on the figure of $2k a year to own a car. So if I spend $10k on a car I want it to last me 5 years, if it's still worth something then that's a bonus. I used to have a newish Toyota ute, cost me $20k, kept it for 10 years and sold it for $11k and I felt like a real winner.

I guess it's just a matter of how much capital you want to tie up and factor in how much peace of mind regarding reliability you want.

My advice would be buy the car, keep it for 6 years (should be trouble free) sell it and do it again OR run it into the ground.

[etselec]

I won't get into whether or not the car is needed and whether $12,000 is reasonable. I'll leave that to folks who actually drive and/or know anything at all about cars. But to answer your question: here are some of the tricks I take to convince myself to buy needed items. (Note to beginner Mustachians: these are dangerous techniques! Use with caution, only when completely certain that the purchase is necessary!)

1. Figure out how long you'll expect to keep the car you buy before it turns into a deathtrap or dies on you (I don't know much about cars - maybe 10-12 years is a reasonable estimate?). Divide $12,000 by the number above. That's your yearly cost. Not such an unreasonable number anymore, right? You're pre-paying many years of use for this vehicle. If you still feel uneasy, calculate how much you'll save in gas by having a more fuel-efficient car. This is how I convince myself to buy quality shoes. The cost feels like a lot to me but I just remind myself that I can spend $30 for shoes that will wear out in six months, or $100 for shoes that will last me 2-3 years or more and be much more comfortable.

2. Since you say you're not super-frugal: set yourself a short-term challenge to be extra frugal for a while. See how quickly you can save an extra $12,000 on top of what you're already saving. You've explained really well that the car is something you need and that it significantly improves your quality of life, but that you don't feel comfortable spending all that money on it. So think about what you might potentially give up (temporarily) in order to pay for it / replenish your savings so you can afford the car without slowing your path to FI. Meals out? Drinks? Movie tickets? Or maybe you'd rather start a side hustle and get some extra income also to put towards the $12,000. I totally understand not wanting to give up your little luxuries forever (that feels grim) - but try to be temporarily a little bit more badass. I bet you can do it, and hey, it might even feel good.

Good luck to ya!

[happy]

Work out how much you save on petrol in the reduced mileage, as an additional motivator.

I get a bit antsy and put off  big purchases too.  My way of doing it is to do LOTS of research, due diligence etc, then wait for a great deal and strike. By the time I've done all that due diligence I'm a bit impatient, and when I've done enough due diligence I am 100% sure of a great deal when I see one....I go for it in some sort of ninja cobra lunge.     I probably put a lot more time and effort in than some other people, but thats how I do it.

[marty998]

I often find the best thing to do with big purchases is to just buy it quickly as soon as possible and then you don't have to agonise over the decision anymore. In a years time you forget you spent the money anyway because if you are on top of your finances $12k will be a drop in the bucket.

My apartment? I made an offer at the inspection. My fridge, washing machine and TV all purchased within 5 minutes of seeing them on the shop floor.

Do the mental calc as mentioned earlier. I could have bought a shit box fridge for $750 that lasts 3.01 years just after the warranty expires. Or I could have bought a top of the line fridge grossly out of proportion to my needs for $1700 that is going to last 20 years. Guess which one I bought? Forget foregone interest & opportunity cost etc etc thats all irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. It's a no brainer. Buy quality that lasts.

Similarly with the car. Just spend the $12k (cash of course) and buy the fucking thing. A 4 cylinder sedan will last forever. I bought one in 2003 for $17k. It was 1.5 years old, had 70k on the clock. It has never broken down and will probably last me another 15 years. $17k is ridiculous by mustachian standards but it is much better than buying a piece of crap for $5k that needs to be scrapped every 3 years.

[gooki]

Why not get a 10 year old car for $6k (or less)?

How many km is your commute?

[James]

At that price range, i've found a 4 cylinder sedan with 50'000 miles / 80,000 kilometres on it thats roughly 4 years old and has depreciated 50% of its purchase cost.

Why only 4 years old and why only 50,000 miles?  I just purchased a car last year with 112,000 miles on it and I'm very happy with it.  I'd up your search to include vehicles with 75-100,000 miles and that are around 6-8 years old, both of which should give you significant savings.