Fancy treating yourself to some new wheels in 2019?

You do you, but it’s worth considering exactly what bang you can get your buck if you’re being prudent about the way you spend money.

Clearly you need to be bringing in some serious cash to treat yourself to a Maserati or Lamborghini (or your parents are the spoiling type), but figuring out what’s a decent purchase for your pay packet can be tricky.

Thankfully, with the help of BusinessTech, you get a nudge in the right direction.

Let’s discuss the methodology:

Research and data group Lightstone has compiled a list of cars that you can afford on your current salary – showing how much more you’d need to earn per month to keep affording them…

Lightstone’s data, looking at the salary changes between 2017 and 2018 needed to afford the same vehicle shows what pressure consumers have come under.

In 2017, someone who earned R18,400 a month could afford to buy a new Toyota Etios 1.5 Xi – by 2018, the salary requirement had increased by almost 9% to R20,000 a month for the same vehicle.

The data is based on current South African vehicle prices and salaries (May 2018), and assumes that people are not going to spend more than 20% of their gross monthly income on financing a car. The calculations also assumes that the cars are financed over five years at an interest rate of prime + 2%.

OK, methodology ticked, and now we head to the table.

That tiny writing is enough to make your head spin, but click the image below and you’ll get a larger one.

Just bear in mind that the “Income Required 2018” column is PER MONTH, not ANNUAL, before you get your hopes up.

Then, the final column on the right shows what you could afford if you went for a used car:

Look, that’s just a guideline. If you want to blow all of your money on a fancy car and live under a bridge, go right ahead. I’d pick the Liesbeek Parkway / N2 crossover bridge, as it’s within walking distance of The River Club and a few greenbelts.

You’re welcome.

[source:bustech]