To afford a housing cost of $1500/month in America, your income should be over $72000/year if single.
Stated another way, take your annual gross income and divide by 48. The degree to which your rent or mortgage is above that number is going to equate to financial challenges and inability to have luxuries like cars, pets, vacations, new clothes, video subscriptions, game systems etc.
Is a car considered a luxury?
As with all things. .. depends.
Many people (a majority) buy (or worse, lease) vehicles above their income level and needs for the seretonin boost and status portrayal. That aspect is clearly luxury.
But most people also need reliable transportation because the socialist government they live under isnt providing, and/or they live in suburbia where a trip to the store is miles away and not realistically viable for grocery shopping, and other routine aspects of life.
IMHO, reasonable average monthly transportation costs (including insurance, fuel, maintenance) is around gross income / 128. Using the $72000 figure for annual salary, that works out to $562/month. I know some peoples whose insurance alone will exceed that.
Yes, agreed that certain vehicles are a luxury but simply having a car is not.
FWIW, my vehicle (shared between my gf and me) costs less than half of that figure per month.
Most would consider it a luxury vehicle but it’s a 2008, which I bought for $16k, fully paid off, and our sole vehicle for our 2-person household.
I bought this particular vehicle (Lexus GX470) for its reliability, longevity, and off-road capability - and because it was 10-15% cheaper than its equivalent non-luxury model (Toyota 4-Runner) when I was buying.
