<prompt> Human: Just an article I wrote for my own use to show customers when talking finance. Wondering what PF thinks of this BTW I suspect you guys will tear this article apartThe finance advantage!So you are very good with your money! You have been working hard and budgeting properly for many years. You have also managed to save up an emergency fund of 45,000 plus create an investment portfolio of 250,000! Congratulations, you are way ahead of everyone else. Now your last kid just got out of college and you and your wife have decided that you no longer want to be driving used cars and its now time to purchase a BRAND NEW CAR. Sure its not a wise investment, but youve never had a new car and its time to treat yourself. Good for you, you deserve it! You guys decide on a budget and say you want to spend a pretty penny get all the bells and whistles, but not go overboard and decide to spend 45,000 to include tax and title on a mid size luxury SUV. So how are you going pay for it? Well you have 250,000 in the bank with a monthly income of 12,000 you should just go ahead and pay cash and avoid finance charges right? NO! Thats the worst thing you can do! Sure if you pay cash you wont pay any interest...however there are two very good reasons why paying cash is a bad idea. Reason 1: Finance rebates! Banks often incentive customers to finance by offering rebates for finance. Sometimes those finance rebates can be as high as 2,000! this is quite rare I however often times see them around 1,000. To get this finance rebate you must finance with a particular bank. Let me ask you this...would you rather get a 1,000 discount and finance or pay cash and pay 1,000 more? Reason 2: Let your money work for you! Interest rates are at an all time low. I bet you money that if you have 250,000 invests you are making more then 6. So lets do the math on your 45,000 car.You have a choice finance or paying cash. If you finance you will get a 60 month loan at 2 for 44,000 which puts your payments at 771 a month. Which means IF you let the loan ride out its entire time you will pay 46,200 vs the 45,000 had you paid cash. But now wait, how is paying 1,200 more a good deal? Now of course if you took the finance offer you left 45,000 in your investment right? And its earning 6 which means in 5 years time that 45,000 would actually be worth 60,400. We could even factor in taxes at 30 which would put your 45,000 at 55,780 meaning you still came out ahead by nearly 10,000! So paying cash would have actually cost you 10,000 MORE for the SAME car.What if there is no finance rebate? Well its still worth it! If there was no finance rebate and you financed a 45,000 car at 2 for 60 months your payments would be 788 putting your final cost at 47,280 meaning even if you financed, after youve paid upwards of 30 tax you would still come out ahead by 8,500!So just for the curious, lets see how much farther youd come out ahead if you made more money on your investments. assuming there is a 1,000 finance rebate with 30 capital gains tax 6 gives you a net benefit of 9,580 7 gives you a net benefit of 11,687 8 gives you a net benefit of 13,901 9 gives you a net benefit of 16,251 you can buy a new car with this 10 gives you a net benefit of 18,688 you can buy a nicer new car with this 11 gives you a net benefit of 21,224 you can buy an even newer car with this  <response>: your investment reasoning is very faulty. whenever anyone throws out, oh youll make at least 5 year after year in the stock market or whatever. i always roll my eyes. its not as easy as that. 