Doing well over here in Michigan
My mods have been minimal, and usually somewhat necessary (torn stock motor mounts, curbed stock wheels, cheap mazda battery died etc...) I am happy with my car but I still have the urge to mod. But I have realized that there is a time and place for everything. In the fall of 2008 I will be moving out and going to a top law school. My performance on the LSAT even got me a $25k scholarship. Before the LSAT, I stopped wasting time on other things and focused and it really paid off. Now, before law school, I've decided not to waste my time and money on a car that I will only be using occasionaly during law school. I still love cars and I plan on getting a new GTR in 4 years, after I graduate.
I have plenty of other expensive hobbies, such as cycling (2 bikes - $10k), racquetball ($110 every 3.5 months for league fees), computers (I build a new pc every few years and sell my old one), etc... Through these hobbies, I've found that people can find obsessive justifications for spending more money. If spending $3000 on you car lets you up the boost by 5psi, it must be worth it, because you will see a gain. Or spending $500 on a bike component to reduce the weight by 100 grams. There will always be gains to be had, and upgrades that will make a difference. To filter through these, it is important to decide if something is actually worth the cost (the time, the money, lost warranty, leading to future costly upgrades).
Right now, in my time off between graduating from Michigan and going to law school next fall, I believe I have struck a good balance. I am not modding my car, unless something on it breaks and needs replacement. I haven't spent any money on bike parts in a long time, but I've been making the time to enjoy my road bike and mountain bike at least twice a week and I'm in great shape because of it. I have been drastically moving up the ranks of my racquetball leagues and look forward to being able to play for free once I go back to school. I haven't had a PC in about 6 months, just my old laptop, but I have been buying parts here and there for the past few weeks to build up a new one. I work a 9-5 job and most of the money from that goes towards savings and paying off undergraduate debt. I deferred my law school admission for a year so that I can pay off all of my undergrad loans and save up money for law school.
I am very much into "lifestyle" hobbies, but it's important to not let them consume your life. You should be able to look at a hobby and evaluate the time and money spent on it and genuinely feel that it was worthwhile and no compromises were made with anything more important (school, finances, relationships, etc...)
