I'm content with the bike Pantani rode around 2000-2001. May have been expensive at some point....
As far as investments go, there are a lot worse ones than bikes. If you buy a brand new bike and use it very lightly you can generally recoup a lot more of the cost than if you did the same with a car.
Ultimately, the biggest fat Fred on the most expensive bike is better than some ******* in a pickup truck who hates cyclists. The more cycling voters the better, right?