#018 – On this episode, I review what’s the best way to operate a vehicle.
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Transcription
[0:00] Should you lease a car? Or should you buy a car? That’s the question I’m going to answer on today’s show.
[0:07] Welcome to Debt-Free Latina, the podcast where you can finally realize your dream of being debt free and feeling peace about your financial future. And now your host, Mayra Alejandra Garcia.
[0:25] Hola, hola. Thank you so much for being here. I got this question about should we lease a car? Or should we buy a car? And I think that when I get that question, I quickly go into what is the motive of this question? What is the motive of you even considering leasing a car? Because most of us know that leasing a car is just renting a car and you’re just throwing money out the window. And some people might argue that they don’t want to deal with car maintenance, they don’t want to deal with have any car trouble if they buy a used car. They don’t want to risk anything. And so they just rather have a lease and have the dealer handle everything else. And although that’s a great place to be, if you are listening to the show, you’re trying to get out of debt, you are trying to learn about how to handle money wisely. And leasing a car is just not wise. That’s the bottom line. And when you really look at the motive, and you take a deep dive, most of the time when you want to lease a car is because you can’t afford the more affordable car in the lot. And you want a dope car. And the only way you can get it is if you lease it. And that right there is more of a symptom of a problem. The problem is you care what people think, you care what type of car you drive. And having that mentality is not going to help you get out of debt.
[2:15] You kind of have to think differently. You have to not be so into how things look and how what people think, because you’re never going to be able to please everybody. And I’m a people pleaser. I am a recovering and still struggle with people-pleasing. And I know that the type of car I drove mattered to a point and then I just really didn’t care. Once I started noticing that nobody pays my bills. Nobody is going to stick their head out for me if I’m in a pickle. And when I get the question of should I lease a car or should I buy a car? I really feel like Spanish phrase 3:05. And if you don’t know what that means, the very close translation means even the question that you’re asking is sort of annoying, because that just tells me you’re not even in the right headspace to get out of debt, to get on a plan, to get on a budget, to improve your situation right now. You care more about what other people are thinking. You care more about what type of car you drive. That’s more important to you. If you want the practical, the practical is get a car that you can pay cash for even if it’s two grand, a bucket to and from your work, to get you from A to B. And that’s it. We can get into the whole like, well, technical stuff and… but the reality is, leasing a car is a joke. It really is. It’s a joke.
[4:11] The dealer is betting that you are going to ride that lease way more than the allowed 10… over the 10,000 allowed miles and that the fees are going to be so high that you are going to have to buy the car at the end of the lease. That’s what they’re betting on. Because they know that if you live in a metropolitan area, like Phoenix, LA, New York, you are going to be driving more than 10,000 miles a year, because the distances are so far, because one block is like one mile in Phoenix. And they know, they know this, they have the statistics. So they’re like, of course, like just lease it, it’s cheap. But they know that you’re going to go over on the miles. And then at the end of the three years, you’re gonna be stuck paying for a car that you signed for three years ago, saying that if you bought it, you bought it for that certain price. You don’t get the price of that day after three years. The car’s not worth that, but you’re locked into that. Or you have to pay the fees. These are the little things and honestly, it’s like I said, it’s irrelevant, all these fees, and I can tell you why, but what we need to get to is the headspace. The practical stuff, just buying a car is better than leasing. But the fact that you asked the question just tells me that you’re considering a car that’s more expensive than what you can afford and that you care about what people think about what you’re driving. That’s what that tells me. Let me tell you, if you want to really improve your situation, you want to build wealth, you cannot care about these things, you cannot. You have to care about your family more, you have to care about your future, you have to care about…
[6:40] I hear the whole, you only live once and YOLO, and blah, blah, blah. And it’s like really? That’s so immature. That is like, well, I don’t want to drive just any car like Spanish phrase 6:52. I Really? I mean, this is exactly the mentality that has us in debt up to our eyeballs. This is a mentality that is hurting this country. We are in so much debt, we are hurting. We are prioritizing a car over food on the table sometimes. Honestly, I know a lot of people that are struggling to make ends meet. Struggling. And a lot of it has to do with what car they chose to drive. It really does. It is sucking up your paycheck. A car payment, whether you bought the car or leased it, a car payment is sucking you dry. It really is. And we got to think about our future, we have to think about our family and what type of example we want to leave our children, and how you navigate a situation where you need a reliable car, you have a little bit of savings, you want to give a downpayment in a car dealership, but instead, you decide to take your $2,000 and buy a new car cash. A new to you car, but at least it’s paid off. And you can focus on the next thing. And if you want to save up more money so that you can upgrade on a car, that’s fine. But you got to stop this mentality of I’m just gonna go to the dealer. I’m just gonna go there and that’s my only option. That’s all I can do. Every time I talk about cars or how can you afford a car like, you can save and pay cash. And people hate to hear it. It’s a different lifestyle. It really is. How do you save? Well, you got to build that muscle. You got to budget. You got to look at your numbers often.
[9:08] So bottom line is leasing a car is not a good idea. Buying a car from a dealership is not really always a good idea. The best way to buy a car is cash, private sale. Do your research. You can get some nice cars out there. And right now, post-COVID, a lot of the dealerships don’t have new cars because there’s a chip shortage in the US, and used cars are holding their value because these supply and demand right now is so different. The used cars are holding their value. So, one, stop caring what you drive. If it’s a safe, reliable car, that you can afford cash, that’s the best option out there. That’s the best thing you can do. Because God forbid you lose your job, or have some sort of emergency, and you could be using the money that you pay for a car payment towards something that’s more important in the future. You don’t want to tie your money into a payment. You don’t want to do that. You don’t want to do that. But it’s a whole nother mentality. I mean, being debt free requires a different mentality. It really does. No, debt is not an option. And when you say debt is not an option, you find another way, you really do. But you’ve got to stop this whole debt cycle. It’s not an option. Debt is not an option. So how are we going to do this? And maybe some people think, hey, that’s a little radical. But hey, it’s worked. I’ve been at this for 11 years. I started my debt-free journey in 2010 and it hasn’t failed me yet. So when people tell me, Mayra, you’re so radical. Maybe, but it works.
[11:23] Thanks for listening to Debt-Free Latina. Make sure you hit that subscribe button so you can take Mayra with you on your journey to become debt free as you build financial wealth. Looking for more? Follow Mayra on Instagram @debtfree.latina, on Facebook @debtfreelatina, and online at debtfreelatina.com.