Originally Posted by OnURleft
Just balance out what your doing. If you truly have a passion for something then by all means do it. Personally I love a rare set of wheels and a nice stance on my street car. All my cars will have this and I couldn't imagine rolling around without a car like that. It's like a necessity for me. If family is a priority then my desire for crazy engine parts and what not would be put on the shelf for the future. Even though I want that stuff I can always hold on to the money I have for other things that might come up (buisness opportunities etc to make more money), and not my hopes and desires to do more and more to my car.
Keep in mind, to get rich you have to invest your money in many places. Don't just keep dumping it into something that returns only emotional/sentimental satisfaction.
If I had boosted my car awhile ago I wouldn't of made near the money I did when I was 18 buying and seeing expensive parts for profit, nor would I have had the opportunities to invest in other things that I made money off of. I would've had a sick car, but the doors would've been closed for making more money until I could save up more money from work (which would've been hard as the expense to keep a 550whp car is somewhat high). The end result by not spending all that money was simply tons of cash after several months. By the time I was ready for college I had nearly $8,000 from investments, buying parts and flipping them and selling things for people I met along the way. On top of that I was making $300-500 a week working at my brothers restaurant. At that age I could literally do whatever a teenager could imagine, and I still had a relatively nice car, with a nice drop and BBS wheels I purchased long ago. Nothing crazy, but still got lots of compliments. There is no better feeling then being satisfied with what you have and having enough freedom to do what you wish, and enough cash to invest and make more as opportunities arise. Put a leash on your desires for your car, get what makes you happy (wheels, drop, maybe nice speakers and some bolt on's) and hold on to your money and watch it grow. I guarantee you you'll be more satisfied when that bank account is higher than it's ever been and you still have a clean, not over the top car.
Learn from me too. I just spent all of my money to build my dream car (my S54B32 E36 M3 project) and I regret it. Sure I still have enough money to go out and do almost what I want (i.e go out drinking, out to eat etc. etc), and i'll have my dream set up but i'm living cheaply and I calculated had I not spent 5 k on the motor, + 3k on all the performance parts my original $8,500 would've been around $12,000 by now with the investment opportunities I missed out on and my car would've still been very cool how it was. By the end of next summer I would've had nearly $20,000 as a full time student working part time at the rate I was making money previously. Sure my S52 M3 would've had 165,000 on it but it would still look damn good and run mid 13's. That and this huge pile of money that was growing and growing would've been way cooler than an 8500rpm 340whp N/A M3 and only enough money to get by.
