gigglehertz
Member
It's pretty much always unwise to rely on stocks for income, especially with it being an election year and with events like Brexit.
Unless you truly NEED it, I'd say the 1000 investment with the potential tax credit, assuming you have the income in 2017 or 2018 tax years, would make it more than worth it. You have nearly a year and a half to find a new job (six months to have a job before 2017 tax year assuming 2017 delivery).
If you cancel your reservation you're getting back your $1000, but potentially losing thousands especially if you intend to purchase the car someday anyway.
Sorry to hear things did not go your way. I certainly learned the lesson years ago about "all the eggs in one basket". It's easy to get wrapped up in a companies stock, when you love the product. Re claiming your $1000 is a smart move, there will be plenty of cars available, you can get one with the 'bugs worked out".
Understood. I knew it was a gamble but I was also confident that in the long term Solarcity would succeed, and I would be rewarded with a Model 3, though maybe not by launch. I could have gotten a much smaller, safer return going the conventional route of diversified portfolio and mutual funds, but a very heavily shorted Musk related stock that will soon become profitable was a gamble worth taking. I didn't count on Tesla swallowing it up on unfavorable (for me) terms. I still want the car but may not be able to afford it in time to receive the tax credit so spot in line may become irrelevant for me.
If you can't spare 1k for a reservation to buy a 35k minimum car then you shouldn't be buying the car IMO.
You're right, conventional wisdom says I have no business aspiring to be a part of the Tesla gentleman's club. I put down my $1k reservation on reveal day which was also my last day at work. Even with my hourly pay from that job I was never going to afford to make payments, but I was one "tsunami of hurt, SCTY style" away from paying cash for a nicely optioned 3. It was never more than a calculated risk. As soon as I'm employed I will begin saving again since I obviously won't get anywhere near $35k with stock gains any time this decade. On the off chance the merger doesn't go through I might still make it to at least the point where I can afford to make payments, so I'll have to decide if I want to keep the reservation or step out of line to return later when I can pay cash. I saved up most of the down payment on my condo working a crappy retail job during the great recession (a much lower paying job than the one I just lost) so I'm confident I will have my Model 3, it's just a matter of when.