Hi all,

Thanks in advance for any guidance you have to offer. I'm finishing grad school & got a job offer for 64k CAD. I live with my partner who makes ~38k currently, but is being considered for something that'd bump her to 51k. We live in a MCOL city and spend ~1600 CAD/month each to maintain our lifestyle. Together, we have ~50k in liquid assets with no debt. I'm also hoping to have a mortgage within the next ~7 years.

Even if she doesn't get said job, my hope is to get a first car for us that's not a beater, but also doesn't necessarily have to be new. My "vision" is having something reliable with a hatch/folding rear seats that we can use for >10 years. This has me looking at new/nearly new compact SUVs (RAV4, CR-V, Escape) and hatchbacks/wagons (Mazda3, Golf, Outback mostly).

Given our financial situation and criteria, what should we be looking at/how much is reasonable to spend?

Cheers!