If I was pulling in 400k a year I think at that point I'd consider a 100k car. But then again once you hit a certain amount of money, where everything above it is extra play money, maybe I would get one if I was making more.
I wouldn't.
I bought a $30k car when I was at like $110k and that is almost 25% of my annual pay at the time. So I'm kind of going along the lines of 100k being 25% of 400k. If I was making $400k though I'd have a lot of expensive toys probably, but would use it more to take exotic vacations regularly.
It's really not the same thing. Note also that you're being taxed way more at $400000, but it's not even that. For a lot of people, once you get to a certain level, it's just a matter of diminishing returns. A $5000 car will suck. A $15000 car might suck. A $30000 car might be a nice family car, but nothing special. A $60000 might be a very nice luxury car, but a $100000 car might just be a luxury car with a bigger engine and a few more bells and whistles. For many people with that kind of money, the extra $40000 just isn't worth it. Not everyone making a of money like spending it frivolously. Or if the do want to drop a lot of cash on something, they might choose something else instead, like 5-star vacations.
At that point I think I could easily afford a $10k watch and just not care about spending it on a watch. Although I am not really into watches so that would be very hard for me to do probably.
Exactly. You're not into watches, so that kind of expense would seem kinda stupid to you. Maybe if you were a real hardcore car guy, then $100000 would make sense to you, but a LOT of people who make that kind of coin just aren't into cars that much. I don't salivate at the latest sports cars myself, and US$100000 is almost twice as much as what I'd consider spending on a car.
Many people I know at my workplace are in the US$250000-500000 income range or more. A few of them do indeed have $100000 cars. In fact, one has a US$175000 car, and he spent 5-figures on his laser headlamps alone. However, it's interesting to see the range of different cars owned by people working there in this income range. Several of them drive Dodge Caravans or Toyota Camrys. I've even seen an 8 year-old beige Toyota Corolla or two. Personally, even if I won two million dollars tomorrow, I wouldn't spend my $100000 on a car. I'd probably keep my current Prius Plug-in (which I bought used) for a few years, and then buy another hybrid with all wheel drive or something like that. BTW, we just bought a Toyota RAV4 Limited Hybrid AWD (for the wife). We looked at the Lexus NX300h and the Lexus RX450h but just didn't feel they were worth it. I just spec'd out a Lexus RX450h right now with the luxury features I'd consider, it comes out to just over $60000. If I won two million bux tomorrow, maybe I'd get that. BTW, out of that group of high income people it seems that $100000 on a car is really the exception. A lot of them have $50000-$60000 luxury cars, though. It seems like if you look at it like a bell curve, the peak is somewhere around $50000, with some people spending $30000 and some people spending $70000, but very few spending $100000. That said it's not an evenly distributed bell curve, because there are way more people in that income group driving old Toyotas worth maybe $15000 now than people who own brand new $135000 cars.
Also, I won't even spend $100 on a watch these days, because I think it's pointless. Maybe I'd spend $15 on a Mickey Mouse watch though, just for fun, or perhaps even $40 if it kept good time.
OTOH, I own four computers and two tablets for myself, for no good reason. (That's not counting the several other computers we have around the house.) I really only need two computers and 1 tablet. And I'll spend CAD$1000 on a damn phone.