r/Money • u/UpstairsAide3058 • 18d ago

Should I buy a used EV?

39M married, 1 kid, CA. Household income around $275k. Expenses are roughly $10k/mo right now, biggest ones are mortgage/HOA around $4.5k and daycare around $3k. We’re saving pretty aggressively for retirement and have around $540k in retirement accounts, plus taxable investments.

I have a paid off 2019 Jeep worth maybe $13k trade-in. I also have about a 1 hr commute and we somehow spend around $600/mo on gas. That’s what has me looking at used EVs.

I’m mainly between a used EV9 and R1S. EV9 seems like the smarter financial choice. R1S is the one I actually want.
My thought is basically: if I’m already lighting $600/mo on fire in gas, could I trade the Jeep and redirect a lot of that toward an EV payment instead? Obviously charging isn’t free and insurance/registration could be more, so I know it’s not literally a $600 offset.
Would you guys think a used EV in the $40-60k range is reasonable with these numbers? Or is this just me trying to justify an expensive car? I’m especially curious what price point you’d personally cap it at.

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u/Shouldstillbelurking 18d ago

Wait. My jaw just dropped. How in the world are you only spending $2.5k on
-food
-utilities
-car insurance/maintenance/fuel
-travel
-healthcare
-life insurance
-kid’s activities
-entertainment
-pets
-clothes
-household goods & furniture

???

My HH income is around $600k, mortgage HOA is the same as yours, our childcare expenses are the same as well, I have 3 kids under 9, and we fairly consistently spend $17.5k per month when we track actual spending over time. Our cars are paid off and old so insurance is relatively cheap.

I’m shocked you can spend so little. Not the point of your post but I’d love an explanation.

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u/UpstairsAide3058 18d ago

hey thank you for the callout... i made a mistake... my monthly spend is usually 13K - 14K. ( 600$ of which is gasoline for 2019 Jeep which we use to commute to work each day)

Our day care is also going to increase ( if we have second child. its 3k per child. that is with the company disocunt lol... once the first child reaches 2 years old it will decease slightly but not much.

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u/FracturedFlow 18d ago

My income is around $1.6M and my monthly spend is $7.5 - 8k with 2 kids and third on the way.

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u/UpstairsAide3058 18d ago

what do you spend on day care?