September 22, 2025 • 35 mins
Before you buy your next car, zoom out. In this episode, Paul shows how to make a smart, peace-filled decision by seeing the big picture—needs vs. wants, new vs. used, cash vs. financing, and how each choice impacts your long-term goals. Learn a simple, Catholic approach to car buying that protects your budget and your heart.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Paul, Welcome to Catholic moneytalk, where we talk about all
things money and finance, and wetry to do it through a lens of
being Catholic, where ourultimate goal is to one day be
in Heaven with the Lord. I amyour host. Paul Scarfone, thank
you for being here today. So Ihave something new I want to
(00:23):
try, and that is in a series ofepisodes, not all in a row, but
maybe throughout the remainderof this year, next year, I want
to look at some transactions,like practical things that we
do, but through the lens of thebig picture, right? And as
Catholics, we know that the bigpicture is getting to heaven
(00:45):
right the span of our lifetime.
We're here to know love andserve God so that we can be
happy with him forever in thenext life. And that is, that is
the big picture. But sometimeswe can particular transactions
come up, and we we really putthe blinders on and we try to
handle that transaction, and welose sight of our bigger
financial picture, right? So, somore of a practical sense,
(01:09):
right? The ultimate big pictureis getting to heaven, but the
next big picture is the bigpicture of our finances, and not
necessarily the next bigpicture, right, your
relationship with your spouseand family and your faith
journey, that's all the bigpicture. But you know, when we
look at the finances, there's abig financial picture that all
of these very practicaltransactions and decisions fall
(01:32):
under. And so I want to take amoment over a bunch of episodes
and say, how do we look at thesespecific transactions within the
lens of the big financialpicture, right? So today's
episode, we'll call it the bigpicture purchasing a car, okay?
But before we do this, let's saya prayer in the name of the
(01:56):
Father and of the Son and of theHoly Spirit. Amen, Heavenly
Father. We thank you for thisday. We thank you for all the
ways that you love and bless us.
Lord. We know that you have agreat plan for our lives. You
have a plan for our future thatis full of of joy and full of
hope, because it has you in it,Lord, it has you drawing us
(02:20):
towards you. Allow us to yieldto your Holy Spirit. Let us
experience your love in ourlives, and let us respond to
you, Lord with great generosity,like you've shown us. Come Oh
Holy Spirit, we ask this inJesus name, amen, in name of the
Father and of the Son and of theHoly Spirit, Amen. So I've
(02:46):
mentioned this before manytimes. I teach personal finance
to the seniors at my children'sschool, and we're transitioning
it to the junior year, and whenwe're looking at this school
year, we couldn't just teach thejuniors, because the students
that were juniors last yearwould be seniors this year, and
therefore they would missfinancial literacy and
(03:09):
foundations and personalfinance, which is what we teach
them. So we decided to, and Iaccepted it. I'm teaching the
juniors and seniors together. Soit's a it's a very large group
of students, and what I like todo when we when we jump on
different topics, is just to goreally high level, just to show
(03:31):
them something so that theyunderstand the the impact, the
value, the the importance ofsome of the smaller things that
we discuss. And you know, theother day, we were talking, and
I wanted the kids to understandwe actually talking about net
worth, but I wanted the studentsto understand how, when you have
(03:57):
a good plan, over a long periodof time, what that plan can can
achieve. And so the simpleexample I gave them was we
talked about how much money theymake as students in a part time
job, you know, particularly overthe summer, what they might have
made. And we came up with theconclusion that saving $100 a
(04:17):
month as a high school kid at asummer job is not impossible. In
fact, it's fairly easilypossible, right to save $100 a
month as a high schooler withpart time work. We've all agreed
that was fairly simple to do,and then I showed them if you
(04:41):
saved and invested $100 a monthfrom when you were 20 till you
were 65 so 45 years of everymonth investing $100 the way the
average market has gone over thepast 6070, years, using. That
annual average, that $100 amonth for 45 years, turns into
(05:06):
almost $1.2 million 1.183actually. So we'll just call it
1.2 turns into $1.2 million so Iasked the kids, do you know any
adults that do not have $1.2million in investments. And they
(05:29):
looked at me like I was crazy,asking this question like, you
mean, do we know anyone who hasit? I said, No, do you know
anyone who doesn't? Do you knowany 65 year olds or older who do
not have at least $1.2million in investments.
And you know, half the kids werelike, I, I don't even know
people over 65 or I don't talkto them. And many of the hands
(05:53):
went up, going, Yeah, I don'tthink anybody does like no one I
know does. And I asked the kids,I said, Right, right. This seems
like someone who's 65 years old,they have $1.2 million in
million dollars in investmentaccount, like they've seemed to
have done pretty well forthemselves, I said, but we just
said, it's not that hard. Yet.
We don't really know anyone whohas this. So I asked the
children, I said, the students.
(06:15):
I said, so why don't 65 yearolds have that? And very
quickly, the same answer cameup. Well, it's because they
didn't do that. They didn't say,save and invest $100 a month for
45 years. And I told them, Iknow, I know a handful of people
who do, and it's because theydid, right? They did. Maybe they
(06:39):
started later than 20 and theyinvested more than $100 a month.
But they quickly understood itwas a behavior, right? And that
was the key part. It was abehavior. And so when we look at
so then I showed the kids, Isaid, Look, here's some here's
some statistics that are true,the average car loan
(07:01):
in the US is $750a month for a new car and $530
for a used car.
And the average term, right? Sohow many months are they paying?
This is 60 to 70 months. Forsome it's even higher. That goes
(07:23):
even to 84 months, some of thesecars. So I plug that into the I
said, so these people, they, ifthey don't save $100 a month,
it's probably because they'respending on something else. And
I just fed the kids the exampleof, like, like, a car loan,
right? There could be so manyother things. Maybe it could
just be an expensive hobby, orstudent loans, or they bought
(07:48):
too much of a house, right? Buttheir money got eaten up, and
they didn't have the $100 to saythey didn't have the behavior to
make that a priority and createthat and so we looked at, oh my
goodness, what if someone well,let's just use the the the the
the used car payment. So if akid starts borrowing a car,
borrowing for cars their wholelife, and they always have this
(08:10):
average $529 car payment, ifthey're spending that instead of
actually investing that, right,if they invested the $529
for 45 years, they'd haveover 6 million bucks,
but yet they spent it on theircars, right? They didn't spend 6
million on cars. They lost theopportunity to have 6 million.
(08:32):
It was an opportunity cost. Theydidn't spend the 6 million, but
they basically took theopportunity away from themselves
to have the 6 million right? So,but why do people buy cars?
People buy or why do people getcar loans? People get car loans
because they want it now. Theydidn't save up for it, and they
knew new set of wheels, orwhatever the case might be. So
(08:55):
they go to the dealership, theybuy the car, they spend a lot of
money on it, and many times,once you have a car loan,
you are stuck in the cycle ofborrowing for a car.
I know people where they'll sayto me, Paul, it's time we start
looking at new cars. I go, Oh,what? What happened to your car?
(09:15):
Oh, nothing. But I've got twomonths left, and then I'm done
paying for it. So I'm gonnastart looking at some other
things. I'll trade it in to getsomething new. And I'm like,
what? That's crazy, but that'sthe world we live in. So many
people do that. And if theirlease is just every three years
a new thing, right? Every threeyears, a new thing, more money
(09:35):
down, and then they're drivingoff in something new, more money
down. They're driving off insomething new. So if you want to
break the cycle of this, you'vegot to be intentional. You've
got to create a plan. You got toget out of your car loan and
start paying cash for cars. So,so let's take a look at this,
right? Let's through the lens ofthis big picture, the big
(09:58):
financial picture. You. How dowe buy a car without regretting
it, right? How do we buy a carwithout losing the opportunity
to save and invest for thefuture? How do we buy a car
without feeling like we made abad decision, right? And, and
I'll share my stories, right?
Because early on, anytime Ibought a car, it was not a good
(10:25):
feeling, right? I was the guywho drove off the lot and
immediately started wondering ifI made the right choice. It's a
huge financial decision, becauseit's a type of behavior that we
built. Build, right? It's like,it's a it gets reinforced,
(10:45):
right? It's a behavior that getsreinforced when we do it over
and over and over, right? So, sohere's what we're going to do.
We're going to say, how do webuy a car without regret, right?
So, step one, when you'relooking at vehicles, clarify
your needs versus wants.
(11:05):
Okay, so what do you needin my life? You know, we've had
six kids, so we have family ofeight now, my son, my oldest,
Josh, doesn't ride with us. Helives at home, but he goes to
school. He works. He visitsfriends. He's got his own set of
wheels. So he's, he doesn'treally ride in the family
vehicle at all, maybeoccasionally to Thanksgiving
(11:27):
dinner right at at family house,but family of seven, so a key
for us was having a vehicle thatcould fit our family. And
regardless of how big yourfamily is, you need a vehicle
that can fit your family, right?
If you get married and have akid, you can't drive a
motorcycle anymore, right? Imean, you could have one if
you've got the money to have itas an extra vehicle, but your
(11:50):
family can't fit in it, right?
We don't see side cars on theroad, so list your needs. Need
to fit my family, right? A needmight be like where you live, in
the condition of the roads, ormaybe the property, or what you
do for work, right? I know somepeople they work in
(12:11):
construction. They need a truck.
They need a pickup truck to beable to carry tools and
materials from jobs, you know,to the site, to the office of
the construction yard, wherever.
Right. So list your needs,right? You list all your needs,
right? Vehicles fit my family.
Maybe it's because of the kindof work I do all that stuff. You
list, you list all the needs.
Maybe it needs to be able to towsomething. Maybe your family has
(12:35):
a camper and you go camping,right? Needs to be able to pull
certain thing. Maybe you have aboat, something like that,
right? So you look at all theneeds, then you can start
looking at your wants. But wantsare the things you got to be
careful with the wants. Wantsare the things that we typically
overspend on, because we we wantthem, right? It causes us to to
(12:58):
reach a little bit furtherright. Sometimes it could be a a
luxury brand or a feature thatwe want to be able to say we
have right. There's, you know,in in business, you want to sell
to those people. Companies wantto sell the people that are the
early adopters, right, thepeople that will make that thing
(13:20):
more popular to make otherpeople want it. I remember when
I was in banking, fell in theoffice next to me, cool, cool
dude, really cool dude. Alwayshad the newest, greatest,
coolest stuff. When Tesla'sfirst came out, he got a Tesla,
I think his payment was like1200 bucks. And I remember
because my mortgage payment wasabout the same, right? And this
is so many years ago, whenTesla's first came out, he
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wanted the newest, greatestthing, right? That was not a
need, that was clearly a wantthat he had. And it's okay to
want cool things and nicethings. It's okay, but we have
to, as we're looking at thesetypes of transactions, right?
Buying a car in the context ofour big financial picture, we
(14:05):
have to be able to understandwhat costs, and that might be
opportunity costs. Some of thesewants might be and it might if
we say yes to it now, we mightbe saying no to another want
down the road that might carrymore value to us, right? So
build a, build a budget for yourcar based on needs first, and
(14:28):
then you could see, maybe where,where wants. Maybe you could
rank some wants in priority andsee what those costs would be,
but first, create the budgetbased on the needs. So that was
step one, clarify your needsversus want in your vehicle.
Step two, decide new verse usedright? A new car? Yeah, you
(14:49):
might have some warranty stuff,some latest features. There's no
you know unknown history orhidden history that you might be
surprised if you find out downthe road. Right? It wasn't an
accident, anything like that,but, but you're gonna have rapid
depreciation, right? So as longas you're good with like putting
10 grand on the sidewalk andjust watching the money blow
(15:10):
away, that's going to be thecost of a new car, right? They
might smell nicer than a usedone, but this is where you have
to try to decide, right, newversus used and and I don't
think anyone ever has the needfor a new car, right? New car is
probably more of a want. And ifyou've got good order and
(15:31):
everything, and you got thebudget for it, you know, there's
nothing wrong with buying a newcar, but let's just acknowledge
it's a want, it's not a need. Sobenefits of a used car, you're
going to have lower cost of it,right just to purchase it,
you'll have much slowerdepreciation, and yes, you might
have some risk if there'swarranties are expired. You
(15:54):
know, every car needs repairs,so you might be closer to repair
than maybe a newer car. Andthere's the potential, again,
unknown history that you knowyou can get Carfax, you can do
things like that. Or if you'rebuying it from a, you know, an
honest previous owner who maybe,maybe had it since it was new,
(16:15):
they could give you the realhistory, right? And as an
example, you know a brand new 35$40,000 car. It could lose, lose
20% of its value in the firstyear, right? And so think back
if you were actually paying aloan for that. You have no
money, so you just get a carloan. You pay $40,000 in one
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year. That car went from 40 to$32,000 in value. You have not
paid that down on a car loan, sonow you are underwater, right?
So that's, that's a a concern,but you can get, you know,
certified, pre owned, differentthings if you're concerned about
the actual safety or repairs orsomething in a vehicle, where
(17:03):
they'll have a certain, youknow, each, each, I think car
brand or dealer might have acertain set of points or
checkpoints that they go throughwith a vehicle to certify it as
pre owned. But you can,typically, you can get to a
point where you know what you'rebuying, right, and then, then
you could decide.
So decide new versus used. Andif you're buying used, like,
(17:27):
look at all the ways and placesyou could buy it. You could buy
it through a dealership, right,which is probably the most
expensive way you could buy it,private party, right? You're not
going to have this certified preowned. You're not going to have,
you know, you're not going tohave a deal to bring it back to
and say, Hey, you just sold mein this car. I want you to fix
this thing or that thing becauseyou led me right private party.
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There's just, again, with thelower cost, there's just that
little more risk that you're notgoing to be able to, like,
return it, or bring it back, orthreaten these people in any
way, right? And and then youcould do it. You could you could
go to auction, right? Or, I knowthere's companies out there,
maybe it might be individualsthat will help you, representing
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you at an auction. So that, ifyou know what you want, you can,
you can go, you know, you seethe auction, you know, you're
looking for a 2020 you know, XYZcar with this and that and the
other thing, you know, I knowthe value of it, so, you know,
I'm willing to go up to this atthe auction. So sometimes you
(18:31):
can get a good deal buying a carthrough an auction, right? So,
but that's Step two, decide newverse use, and then decide who
and where you're going to buyit. And then step three, I
already talked about, why not toto finance it. But most people
out there, you know, if you goto a dealership and sit down,
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you're they're going to ask you,are you financing this, or are
you paying cash? And paying cashdoesn't mean you're bringing a
gym bag full of, you know,bundles of money. It just means
you're going to write a check orsend them a wire, right? You're
going to, you're going to givethem the money. And, you know,
the beauty of paying cash isit's just total freedom, total
freedom. There's no monthlypayments. It does require that
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you have patience and savingsand discipline to kind of
generate the payment right topull everything together to make
that one lump sum payment forthe car, but just total freedom,
right in financing, it can feellike more accessible, easy to
get what I want, right? That'swhere sometimes you might go
looking for knees, and you'reready to pay cash for knees. But
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then you realize, well, if Ifinance it, I can get some of my
wants. And all of a sudden, hereyou get into this dude, this
school, school, this car loancycle. That's hard to get out of
it, because with financing,there's more interest longer
terms. You know, it could be 72to 84 months long, and it can
trap you in debt, right? Sofinancing can trap you in debt.
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Pay. In cash provides totalfreedom. Which one do you want?
You want to be trapped in debtor you want total freedom?
Right? And I already told youthe average number of the the
cars, right? The $749 for a newcar, $529 or monthly payment for
a used car. And when youactually do the math, right, if
I take youknow, because there's interest
(20:20):
involved, 749 times 84 months,that's $62,000
and remember, is this $749for a new car. I'm going to read
this. This is from Experianautomotive Okay, for 2025 the
average car loan payment isapproximately 749 for a new car
and 529 for a used car, 749 fora new car is the average. That
(20:45):
means there's also some paymentsout there for 1000 Yeah, and
there's some payments out therefor 500 but the average is $750
and you know that, why do peoplego 84 months with a with a car
loan? Because they're trying toget that monthly payment down,
because they they realize it'sgoing to be a lot and and that's
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why, you know, you're trapped indebt. When you finance it, when
you pay cash, you have totalfreedom. Let me give you a quick
example. This is part of my, youknow, financial testimony, but
it was, it was years ago, and Ihad just someone had introduced
me to Dave Ramsey. I'm listeningto him working at the bank, and
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a lot of what Dave Ramsey said Ididn't like because I worked at
a bank, and I was taking hiscriticisms of banking personal,
but I slowly warmed up to him,because the people I heard to
call the shows and make theirdebt free, screams and all that
type of stuff seemed so muchmore excited than the customers
I was selling debt to, because Iwas selling the loans at the
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bank. And so I thought I'd takea little bit piece of Dave
Ramsey's advice and buy a usedcar instead of a new car I had
prior to that, the car we hadpurchased had been a brand new
car, and the two cars prior tothat actually had been brand new
cars. It was only two brand newcars we ever bought. So I
(22:12):
thought when I was looking for adifferent vehicle, I said, I'll
buy a used car, and I go thedealership and I buy a used car.
I'm driving home from thedealership, and I'm on the phone
with my dad, and he said, Hey,do you find the car you want? I
said, yeah, no, it's gonna begood. I was looking for a car
that was big enough to havethree car seats across the
second row, right? It neededthree car seats. That was a
(22:33):
need, and so it had to be alittle bit bigger than the older
car I had. So it was a full sizesedan, and I'm driving home, and
my dad says, Well, how much isit? I said, well, the monthly
payment is, think was like 180or $190 a month. I said, that's
perfect, because I just got araise for $200 a month. And as
the words were coming out of mymouth, it hit me, because I've
(22:58):
been often wondering, like, Ikeep getting raises, I never
feel like I have extra money.
No, I don't, because I spend itright? I'm getting a $200 a
month raise from work, andimmediately I'm sending it out
(23:19):
every month on a car payment.
That's why I never felt like theraise came to my pocket. It
didn't I sent it right out. Andthat's something like we need.
You need those type of momentsin your life, those aha moments,
right? That's what I try to dowhen I'm coaching people with
their finances. Try to providethose aha moments, which gives
you a new perspective, right? Inone sense, it doesn't change
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anything, right? All of asudden, I'm not making more
money, but it changeseverything, because I see it in
a different way, and Iunderstand something new about
what's been happening, and thenI'm able to change my behavior.
And I remember it was thatmoment I said, we are never
buying a new car, and the nextvehicle we purchased was a used
car from a dealer. And I walkedin there, checkbook in hand, and
(24:06):
I said, I have $24,000 I want tobuy that van. And the guy looked
at me. They were asking morethan that for it, and he was
like, What are you talkingabout? I said, I have saved, I
will. I can show you my bankaccount. I have an account. It's
for the car. And this is all themoney in it, $24,000 I will pay
it to you for this car. And ittook years to save the 24,000
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but it was part of a plan. Itwas like, we're not going to get
another family vehicle until wecan pay cash for it. We need to
save about this much. And youknow, I remember when I got to
18,000 19,000 20,000 I keptlooking to see if there was cars
within that, you know, by a few1000 more than that, within that
range. And by the time I was at24,000 I think the van we
(24:49):
originally looked at, it waslike 27 or 820. $8,000 I was
like, I think I can walk intothat dealership and offer them
this, right? So. That's That'sstep three. Step one, what do we
say? Clarify your needs andwants. Figure out needs and
wants. Step two, you're buyingnew or used, and where are you
going to buy it? Step three, areyou financing? Are you paying
(25:09):
cash? And I hope I've convincedyou at this point to pay cash to
get out of the cycle of debt.
Okay? And the last one is justbe smart. Just want to say, be
smart. What does be smart mean?
Be smart means avoid dealertraps, avoid extended
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warranties, avoid paintprotection, avoid GAP Insurance.
You'll be able to avoid GAPinsurance because you're not
borrowing for it. Borrowing forit, right? Those things are all
often overpriced. Dealers willtry to manipulate stuff into
hiding real costs, becausethey'll put it in, you know,
monthly payments. But whenyou're not borrowing enough to
(25:55):
deal with that, the other thingis, do your research, know the
car's value beforeif you walk into a dealership
without having done anyresearch, you're in big trouble.
Because those guys know how tosell. You're in big trouble.
They'll get you. Avoid thepressure tactics, right? Be
smart. Avoid the pressuretactics. This deal is only good
(26:16):
for today. Bull, right? There'sno way. This deal is only good
for today. If I today. If Idon't buy it, the car will be
here tomorrow and you still wantto sell it. If you feel rushed,
walk away. If you feelpressured, walk away. Learn to
say no and just walk away. I'vedone that. I remember once I
went into a dealership and we'retalking, and the guys just
(26:37):
started going on. I just feltpressure. I'm like, Dude, I
there's other cars out there.
There's so many otherdealerships I don't need to deal
with you. I left. He keptcalling me. I never went back,
never returned his calls. Irefused to go there, like the
guy was just way over inboundaries trying to put
pressure on me. So avoid thepressure. Just walk away. Know
(26:58):
the price of the car. Do theresearch before stepping foot
into a dealership. And here'sthe thing, the test driving
thing, oh, man, this can betough. Here's what we did. I
mentioned when we just boughtthe big van, $24,000 one, I did
not want to go into a dealershipand start test driving stuff,
because I didn't want to dealwith the the pressure and stuff
(27:20):
that people, the sales people,put on you. So what we decide to
do, we went we in our school,where my kids go, there's a
bunch of big families, see abunch of big vehicles around. So
we went into there's a Facebookgroup for the parents. Went to
the Facebook group and said,Hey, we're looking to purchase a
larger vehicle for our family.
We're looking at, you know,these two. There was two
(27:42):
particular ones. We were, well,we actually, I think, we said,
what does everyone recommend?
And people started recommendingthings. And two clearly stood
out. It was a Nissan big van,and it was a Ford big van. And I
said, Great. And then I saw thepeople comment, because they
were like, This is my van. Welove it. This is, this is my
van. We love it for thesereasons. So I called two people.
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I called one family that had theNissan and one family that had
the Ford, and I said, Would youmind if we we came and looked at
your vehicle and took it aroundfor a spin? And they were like,
Sure, feel free. So one Saturdaymorning, that's what Tara and I
did, went to the one person'shouse, drove their Nissan van,
(28:26):
went to the other person'shouse, drove their Ford van, and
very quickly, we knew which onewe liked better, just the way it
felt, the way it looked, youknow, from like, your
standpoint, you know,particularly when you're
driving, does it feel likeyou're driving a huge thing or
small thing? Like, what does itfeel? What's the perspective you
have? And so we'd like the Fordbetter. And so then we're able
to look, go, look for that. Inever had to go into a
(28:48):
dealership and test drivesomething when we found when,
you know, when I went to thatdealership. So I want to buy
this car. We did take it for atest drive. I brought a friend
with me. That's another smartway to do it. Bring someone with
you, and it could be someonethat's going to help you, keep
you keep you an emotional check.
It could be someone like myfriend, who's a bit of a
gearhead. He's mechanicallyinclined. He works on his car.
(29:08):
You know, he's in banking. Hewas a good friend at the bank.
He still is a good friend, buthe's, he's a car guy. He
understands motors and enginesand works on stuff. And so I was
like, Could you come with me,just to help me look and assess,
because I have no idea what I'mlooking at. And that was great.
And then the last thing is, ifyou go and you see a car for the
(29:29):
first time and try to figure outhow much to spend, like, wait at
least 24 hours before pullingthe trigger. Right in my
scenario, I walked into thedealership knowing I had waited
a year and a half probablygetting ready for this purchase.
But if it's you know, if you getin a car wreck or something, and
you're trying to figure out, howdo we replace a vehicle? Like,
(29:49):
don't just go that day and buysomething right away. Like, take
some time so that the emotion isout of your system and you can
make really good. Cleardecisions. Okay, so those were,
those were, that's how to do itsmart, right? Stay away from the
upsells, extended warranties,Payment Protection. Those are so
many times overpriced. Don'tallow the dealers to pressure
(30:14):
you or manipulate you, right? Doyour research between the cars
value and which cars you want,right? Which vehicle you want,
bring a friend to help you,and again, find creative ways to
maybe test drive or inspectthere's a company I'm not
(30:36):
recommending them, but Carmax,they've got these dealerships
where you can just go on theirdealership. All their cars are
unlocked. You can go and sit inthem. Tara and I just did that
recently because we're trying tofigure out what we want to do
replacing a minivan that wehave. And we were able to go
from car to car to car, just sitin just see how they feel, look
at them, see how the trunkworks, how the seats move, all
(30:58):
the type of stuff. Third row,how big is it? How small is it?
And there was no pressure,because people aren't sold
commission there. It's, it'slike a flat commission, I think,
for the entire branch, like thewhole sales team just shares it.
You don't feel like there'ssomeone trying to tackle you in
the parking lot to sell you acar, because they need you to
feed their family, right? It'sjust, it's a really pressure
(31:19):
free place to go, and we'll usethe information we got from
sitting in the cars and lookingat them to now do our shopping,
right? I'm going to go talk tothe guys I know that work
auctions and stuff, just to seewhere's the best place we can
get the best price on thevehicle that fits our needs,
that's within our budget, right?
(31:40):
And why do we do this? Why do wewant to be smart in making
purchases? Why do we want tolook at it from the big picture?
Well, because a car is simply atool, right?
It's not the be all, end all.
Sometimes, if we're goingthrough life and we want the
brand, we want people torecognize what we're doing,
maybe we struggle with wantingto keep up with the Joneses,
right? Maybe just social media.
(32:03):
We want to be able to have thatcar in our profile pic. Oh, my
goodness, please. It's tool.
It's not an idol. Avoid thetemptation of prestige and
comparison. It's just a car. Andhaving good order in your
finances is so important. And wesee this with God in creation,
right? He brought order tochaos. He looked at he says,
(32:27):
This is good. He wants our livesto be good.
That means he wants our lives tobe well ordered.
That makes us have, you knowthat requires us to have self
control and keeping our emotionsin check. All right? So that's
my little crash course on apractical that's my crash course
(32:52):
on the practical ways to use ourlens of the big picture to look
at car buying, right, and how topurchase a car.
So define your needs,decide new used and where you're
going to buy it, figure out howyou're going to pay for it,
right? Hopefully it's payingcash. Avoid the traps, the myths
that are out there, right? Thepressures, right? You do that by
(33:18):
being smart with your processand decision making, and take
your time. Take a deep breath.
Renting a car is not thatexpensive. You need to rent a
car for a week so that you canfigure something out, right? So
if you if you're in the marketfor a car or a vehicle, just
(33:40):
slow down and ask yourself, am Ibuying what I need, or am I
going to allow someone to sellme something, right? Am I going
to go make a purchase for thething that I need, or am I going
to just be someone's customer tomake their day
have that perspective? Why?
(34:01):
Because we're trying to servethe Lord with our finances.
We're trying to make Jesus theLord of our finances. We do that
by praying about our decisions,by talking to other people, by
using wisdom and prudence in ourdecision making,
and by having good order in ourprocess.
(34:23):
So Come Holy Spirit. Bless usand these and all the
transactions, all thosefinancial things that are in our
lives, Lord God, give us greatclarity to choose the path you
want us to take, because we knowthat path will lead us to you.
So thank you for joining metoday. Hopefully this has been
helpful. God blessThank you for listening to
(34:49):
Catholic money talk. I hope youjoin us again next time, please
click Subscribe on your podcastapp to get notified of new
episodes. God bless you and.
Have a great day. You.
Paul, Welcome to Catholic moneytalk, where we talk about all
things money and finance, and wetry to do it through a lens of
being Catholic, where ourultimate goal is to one day be
in Heaven with the Lord. I amyour host. Paul Scarfone, thank
you for being here today. So Ihave something new I want to
(00:23):
try, and that is in a series ofepisodes, not all in a row, but
maybe throughout the remainderof this year, next year, I want
to look at some transactions,like practical things that we
do, but through the lens of thebig picture, right? And as
Catholics, we know that the bigpicture is getting to heaven
(00:45):
right the span of our lifetime.
We're here to know love andserve God so that we can be
happy with him forever in thenext life. And that is, that is
the big picture. But sometimeswe can particular transactions
come up, and we we really putthe blinders on and we try to
handle that transaction, and welose sight of our bigger
financial picture, right? So, somore of a practical sense,
(01:09):
right? The ultimate big pictureis getting to heaven, but the
next big picture is the bigpicture of our finances, and not
necessarily the next bigpicture, right, your
relationship with your spouseand family and your faith
journey, that's all the bigpicture. But you know, when we
look at the finances, there's abig financial picture that all
of these very practicaltransactions and decisions fall
(01:32):
under. And so I want to take amoment over a bunch of episodes
and say, how do we look at thesespecific transactions within the
lens of the big financialpicture, right? So today's
episode, we'll call it the bigpicture purchasing a car, okay?
But before we do this, let's saya prayer in the name of the
(01:56):
Father and of the Son and of theHoly Spirit. Amen, Heavenly
Father. We thank you for thisday. We thank you for all the
ways that you love and bless us.
Lord. We know that you have agreat plan for our lives. You
have a plan for our future thatis full of of joy and full of
hope, because it has you in it,Lord, it has you drawing us
(02:20):
towards you. Allow us to yieldto your Holy Spirit. Let us
experience your love in ourlives, and let us respond to
you, Lord with great generosity,like you've shown us. Come Oh
Holy Spirit, we ask this inJesus name, amen, in name of the
Father and of the Son and of theHoly Spirit, Amen. So I've
(02:46):
mentioned this before manytimes. I teach personal finance
to the seniors at my children'sschool, and we're transitioning
it to the junior year, and whenwe're looking at this school
year, we couldn't just teach thejuniors, because the students
that were juniors last yearwould be seniors this year, and
therefore they would missfinancial literacy and
(03:09):
foundations and personalfinance, which is what we teach
them. So we decided to, and Iaccepted it. I'm teaching the
juniors and seniors together. Soit's a it's a very large group
of students, and what I like todo when we when we jump on
different topics, is just to goreally high level, just to show
(03:31):
them something so that theyunderstand the the impact, the
value, the the importance ofsome of the smaller things that
we discuss. And you know, theother day, we were talking, and
I wanted the kids to understandwe actually talking about net
worth, but I wanted the studentsto understand how, when you have
(03:57):
a good plan, over a long periodof time, what that plan can can
achieve. And so the simpleexample I gave them was we
talked about how much money theymake as students in a part time
job, you know, particularly overthe summer, what they might have
made. And we came up with theconclusion that saving $100 a
(04:17):
month as a high school kid at asummer job is not impossible. In
fact, it's fairly easilypossible, right to save $100 a
month as a high schooler withpart time work. We've all agreed
that was fairly simple to do,and then I showed them if you
(04:41):
saved and invested $100 a monthfrom when you were 20 till you
were 65 so 45 years of everymonth investing $100 the way the
average market has gone over thepast 6070, years, using. That
annual average, that $100 amonth for 45 years, turns into
(05:06):
almost $1.2 million 1.183actually. So we'll just call it
1.2 turns into $1.2 million so Iasked the kids, do you know any
adults that do not have $1.2million in investments. And they
(05:29):
looked at me like I was crazy,asking this question like, you
mean, do we know anyone who hasit? I said, No, do you know
anyone who doesn't? Do you knowany 65 year olds or older who do
not have at least $1.2million in investments.
And you know, half the kids werelike, I, I don't even know
people over 65 or I don't talkto them. And many of the hands
(05:53):
went up, going, Yeah, I don'tthink anybody does like no one I
know does. And I asked the kids,I said, Right, right. This seems
like someone who's 65 years old,they have $1.2 million in
million dollars in investmentaccount, like they've seemed to
have done pretty well forthemselves, I said, but we just
said, it's not that hard. Yet.
We don't really know anyone whohas this. So I asked the
children, I said, the students.
(06:15):
I said, so why don't 65 yearolds have that? And very
quickly, the same answer cameup. Well, it's because they
didn't do that. They didn't say,save and invest $100 a month for
45 years. And I told them, Iknow, I know a handful of people
who do, and it's because theydid, right? They did. Maybe they
(06:39):
started later than 20 and theyinvested more than $100 a month.
But they quickly understood itwas a behavior, right? And that
was the key part. It was abehavior. And so when we look at
so then I showed the kids, Isaid, Look, here's some here's
some statistics that are true,the average car loan
(07:01):
in the US is $750a month for a new car and $530
for a used car.
And the average term, right? Sohow many months are they paying?
This is 60 to 70 months. Forsome it's even higher. That goes
(07:23):
even to 84 months, some of thesecars. So I plug that into the I
said, so these people, they, ifthey don't save $100 a month,
it's probably because they'respending on something else. And
I just fed the kids the exampleof, like, like, a car loan,
right? There could be so manyother things. Maybe it could
just be an expensive hobby, orstudent loans, or they bought
(07:48):
too much of a house, right? Buttheir money got eaten up, and
they didn't have the $100 to saythey didn't have the behavior to
make that a priority and createthat and so we looked at, oh my
goodness, what if someone well,let's just use the the the the
the used car payment. So if akid starts borrowing a car,
borrowing for cars their wholelife, and they always have this
(08:10):
average $529 car payment, ifthey're spending that instead of
actually investing that, right,if they invested the $529
for 45 years, they'd haveover 6 million bucks,
but yet they spent it on theircars, right? They didn't spend 6
million on cars. They lost theopportunity to have 6 million.
(08:32):
It was an opportunity cost. Theydidn't spend the 6 million, but
they basically took theopportunity away from themselves
to have the 6 million right? So,but why do people buy cars?
People buy or why do people getcar loans? People get car loans
because they want it now. Theydidn't save up for it, and they
knew new set of wheels, orwhatever the case might be. So
(08:55):
they go to the dealership, theybuy the car, they spend a lot of
money on it, and many times,once you have a car loan,
you are stuck in the cycle ofborrowing for a car.
I know people where they'll sayto me, Paul, it's time we start
looking at new cars. I go, Oh,what? What happened to your car?
(09:15):
Oh, nothing. But I've got twomonths left, and then I'm done
paying for it. So I'm gonnastart looking at some other
things. I'll trade it in to getsomething new. And I'm like,
what? That's crazy, but that'sthe world we live in. So many
people do that. And if theirlease is just every three years
a new thing, right? Every threeyears, a new thing, more money
(09:35):
down, and then they're drivingoff in something new, more money
down. They're driving off insomething new. So if you want to
break the cycle of this, you'vegot to be intentional. You've
got to create a plan. You got toget out of your car loan and
start paying cash for cars. So,so let's take a look at this,
right? Let's through the lens ofthis big picture, the big
(09:58):
financial picture. You. How dowe buy a car without regretting
it, right? How do we buy a carwithout losing the opportunity
to save and invest for thefuture? How do we buy a car
without feeling like we made abad decision, right? And, and
I'll share my stories, right?
Because early on, anytime Ibought a car, it was not a good
(10:25):
feeling, right? I was the guywho drove off the lot and
immediately started wondering ifI made the right choice. It's a
huge financial decision, becauseit's a type of behavior that we
built. Build, right? It's like,it's a it gets reinforced,
(10:45):
right? It's a behavior that getsreinforced when we do it over
and over and over, right? So, sohere's what we're going to do.
We're going to say, how do webuy a car without regret, right?
So, step one, when you'relooking at vehicles, clarify
your needs versus wants.
(11:05):
Okay, so what do you needin my life? You know, we've had
six kids, so we have family ofeight now, my son, my oldest,
Josh, doesn't ride with us. Helives at home, but he goes to
school. He works. He visitsfriends. He's got his own set of
wheels. So he's, he doesn'treally ride in the family
vehicle at all, maybeoccasionally to Thanksgiving
(11:27):
dinner right at at family house,but family of seven, so a key
for us was having a vehicle thatcould fit our family. And
regardless of how big yourfamily is, you need a vehicle
that can fit your family, right?
If you get married and have akid, you can't drive a
motorcycle anymore, right? Imean, you could have one if
you've got the money to have itas an extra vehicle, but your
(11:50):
family can't fit in it, right?
We don't see side cars on theroad, so list your needs. Need
to fit my family, right? A needmight be like where you live, in
the condition of the roads, ormaybe the property, or what you
do for work, right? I know somepeople they work in
(12:11):
construction. They need a truck.
They need a pickup truck to beable to carry tools and
materials from jobs, you know,to the site, to the office of
the construction yard, wherever.
Right. So list your needs,right? You list all your needs,
right? Vehicles fit my family.
Maybe it's because of the kindof work I do all that stuff. You
list, you list all the needs.
Maybe it needs to be able to towsomething. Maybe your family has
(12:35):
a camper and you go camping,right? Needs to be able to pull
certain thing. Maybe you have aboat, something like that,
right? So you look at all theneeds, then you can start
looking at your wants. But wantsare the things you got to be
careful with the wants. Wantsare the things that we typically
overspend on, because we we wantthem, right? It causes us to to
(12:58):
reach a little bit furtherright. Sometimes it could be a a
luxury brand or a feature thatwe want to be able to say we
have right. There's, you know,in in business, you want to sell
to those people. Companies wantto sell the people that are the
early adopters, right, thepeople that will make that thing
(13:20):
more popular to make otherpeople want it. I remember when
I was in banking, fell in theoffice next to me, cool, cool
dude, really cool dude. Alwayshad the newest, greatest,
coolest stuff. When Tesla'sfirst came out, he got a Tesla,
I think his payment was like1200 bucks. And I remember
because my mortgage payment wasabout the same, right? And this
is so many years ago, whenTesla's first came out, he
(13:44):
wanted the newest, greatestthing, right? That was not a
need, that was clearly a wantthat he had. And it's okay to
want cool things and nicethings. It's okay, but we have
to, as we're looking at thesetypes of transactions, right?
Buying a car in the context ofour big financial picture, we
(14:05):
have to be able to understandwhat costs, and that might be
opportunity costs. Some of thesewants might be and it might if
we say yes to it now, we mightbe saying no to another want
down the road that might carrymore value to us, right? So
build a, build a budget for yourcar based on needs first, and
(14:28):
then you could see, maybe where,where wants. Maybe you could
rank some wants in priority andsee what those costs would be,
but first, create the budgetbased on the needs. So that was
step one, clarify your needsversus want in your vehicle.
Step two, decide new verse usedright? A new car? Yeah, you
(14:49):
might have some warranty stuff,some latest features. There's no
you know unknown history orhidden history that you might be
surprised if you find out downthe road. Right? It wasn't an
accident, anything like that,but, but you're gonna have rapid
depreciation, right? So as longas you're good with like putting
10 grand on the sidewalk andjust watching the money blow
(15:10):
away, that's going to be thecost of a new car, right? They
might smell nicer than a usedone, but this is where you have
to try to decide, right, newversus used and and I don't
think anyone ever has the needfor a new car, right? New car is
probably more of a want. And ifyou've got good order and
(15:31):
everything, and you got thebudget for it, you know, there's
nothing wrong with buying a newcar, but let's just acknowledge
it's a want, it's not a need. Sobenefits of a used car, you're
going to have lower cost of it,right just to purchase it,
you'll have much slowerdepreciation, and yes, you might
have some risk if there'swarranties are expired. You
(15:54):
know, every car needs repairs,so you might be closer to repair
than maybe a newer car. Andthere's the potential, again,
unknown history that you knowyou can get Carfax, you can do
things like that. Or if you'rebuying it from a, you know, an
honest previous owner who maybe,maybe had it since it was new,
(16:15):
they could give you the realhistory, right? And as an
example, you know a brand new 35$40,000 car. It could lose, lose
20% of its value in the firstyear, right? And so think back
if you were actually paying aloan for that. You have no
money, so you just get a carloan. You pay $40,000 in one
(16:39):
year. That car went from 40 to$32,000 in value. You have not
paid that down on a car loan, sonow you are underwater, right?
So that's, that's a a concern,but you can get, you know,
certified, pre owned, differentthings if you're concerned about
the actual safety or repairs orsomething in a vehicle, where
(17:03):
they'll have a certain, youknow, each, each, I think car
brand or dealer might have acertain set of points or
checkpoints that they go throughwith a vehicle to certify it as
pre owned. But you can,typically, you can get to a
point where you know what you'rebuying, right, and then, then
you could decide.
So decide new versus used. Andif you're buying used, like,
(17:27):
look at all the ways and placesyou could buy it. You could buy
it through a dealership, right,which is probably the most
expensive way you could buy it,private party, right? You're not
going to have this certified preowned. You're not going to have,
you know, you're not going tohave a deal to bring it back to
and say, Hey, you just sold mein this car. I want you to fix
this thing or that thing becauseyou led me right private party.
(17:48):
There's just, again, with thelower cost, there's just that
little more risk that you're notgoing to be able to, like,
return it, or bring it back, orthreaten these people in any
way, right? And and then youcould do it. You could you could
go to auction, right? Or, I knowthere's companies out there,
maybe it might be individualsthat will help you, representing
(18:10):
you at an auction. So that, ifyou know what you want, you can,
you can go, you know, you seethe auction, you know, you're
looking for a 2020 you know, XYZcar with this and that and the
other thing, you know, I knowthe value of it, so, you know,
I'm willing to go up to this atthe auction. So sometimes you
(18:31):
can get a good deal buying a carthrough an auction, right? So,
but that's Step two, decide newverse use, and then decide who
and where you're going to buyit. And then step three, I
already talked about, why not toto finance it. But most people
out there, you know, if you goto a dealership and sit down,
(18:52):
you're they're going to ask you,are you financing this, or are
you paying cash? And paying cashdoesn't mean you're bringing a
gym bag full of, you know,bundles of money. It just means
you're going to write a check orsend them a wire, right? You're
going to, you're going to givethem the money. And, you know,
the beauty of paying cash isit's just total freedom, total
freedom. There's no monthlypayments. It does require that
(19:16):
you have patience and savingsand discipline to kind of
generate the payment right topull everything together to make
that one lump sum payment forthe car, but just total freedom,
right in financing, it can feellike more accessible, easy to
get what I want, right? That'swhere sometimes you might go
looking for knees, and you'reready to pay cash for knees. But
(19:37):
then you realize, well, if Ifinance it, I can get some of my
wants. And all of a sudden, hereyou get into this dude, this
school, school, this car loancycle. That's hard to get out of
it, because with financing,there's more interest longer
terms. You know, it could be 72to 84 months long, and it can
trap you in debt, right? Sofinancing can trap you in debt.
(19:59):
Pay. In cash provides totalfreedom. Which one do you want?
You want to be trapped in debtor you want total freedom?
Right? And I already told youthe average number of the the
cars, right? The $749 for a newcar, $529 or monthly payment for
a used car. And when youactually do the math, right, if
I take youknow, because there's interest
(20:20):
involved, 749 times 84 months,that's $62,000
and remember, is this $749for a new car. I'm going to read
this. This is from Experianautomotive Okay, for 2025 the
average car loan payment isapproximately 749 for a new car
and 529 for a used car, 749 fora new car is the average. That
(20:45):
means there's also some paymentsout there for 1000 Yeah, and
there's some payments out therefor 500 but the average is $750
and you know that, why do peoplego 84 months with a with a car
loan? Because they're trying toget that monthly payment down,
because they they realize it'sgoing to be a lot and and that's
(21:08):
why, you know, you're trapped indebt. When you finance it, when
you pay cash, you have totalfreedom. Let me give you a quick
example. This is part of my, youknow, financial testimony, but
it was, it was years ago, and Ihad just someone had introduced
me to Dave Ramsey. I'm listeningto him working at the bank, and
(21:31):
a lot of what Dave Ramsey said Ididn't like because I worked at
a bank, and I was taking hiscriticisms of banking personal,
but I slowly warmed up to him,because the people I heard to
call the shows and make theirdebt free, screams and all that
type of stuff seemed so muchmore excited than the customers
I was selling debt to, because Iwas selling the loans at the
(21:52):
bank. And so I thought I'd takea little bit piece of Dave
Ramsey's advice and buy a usedcar instead of a new car I had
prior to that, the car we hadpurchased had been a brand new
car, and the two cars prior tothat actually had been brand new
cars. It was only two brand newcars we ever bought. So I
(22:12):
thought when I was looking for adifferent vehicle, I said, I'll
buy a used car, and I go thedealership and I buy a used car.
I'm driving home from thedealership, and I'm on the phone
with my dad, and he said, Hey,do you find the car you want? I
said, yeah, no, it's gonna begood. I was looking for a car
that was big enough to havethree car seats across the
second row, right? It neededthree car seats. That was a
(22:33):
need, and so it had to be alittle bit bigger than the older
car I had. So it was a full sizesedan, and I'm driving home, and
my dad says, Well, how much isit? I said, well, the monthly
payment is, think was like 180or $190 a month. I said, that's
perfect, because I just got araise for $200 a month. And as
the words were coming out of mymouth, it hit me, because I've
(22:58):
been often wondering, like, Ikeep getting raises, I never
feel like I have extra money.
No, I don't, because I spend itright? I'm getting a $200 a
month raise from work, andimmediately I'm sending it out
(23:19):
every month on a car payment.
That's why I never felt like theraise came to my pocket. It
didn't I sent it right out. Andthat's something like we need.
You need those type of momentsin your life, those aha moments,
right? That's what I try to dowhen I'm coaching people with
their finances. Try to providethose aha moments, which gives
you a new perspective, right? Inone sense, it doesn't change
(23:42):
anything, right? All of asudden, I'm not making more
money, but it changeseverything, because I see it in
a different way, and Iunderstand something new about
what's been happening, and thenI'm able to change my behavior.
And I remember it was thatmoment I said, we are never
buying a new car, and the nextvehicle we purchased was a used
car from a dealer. And I walkedin there, checkbook in hand, and
(24:06):
I said, I have $24,000 I want tobuy that van. And the guy looked
at me. They were asking morethan that for it, and he was
like, What are you talkingabout? I said, I have saved, I
will. I can show you my bankaccount. I have an account. It's
for the car. And this is all themoney in it, $24,000 I will pay
it to you for this car. And ittook years to save the 24,000
(24:28):
but it was part of a plan. Itwas like, we're not going to get
another family vehicle until wecan pay cash for it. We need to
save about this much. And youknow, I remember when I got to
18,000 19,000 20,000 I keptlooking to see if there was cars
within that, you know, by a few1000 more than that, within that
range. And by the time I was at24,000 I think the van we
(24:49):
originally looked at, it waslike 27 or 820. $8,000 I was
like, I think I can walk intothat dealership and offer them
this, right? So. That's That'sstep three. Step one, what do we
say? Clarify your needs andwants. Figure out needs and
wants. Step two, you're buyingnew or used, and where are you
going to buy it? Step three, areyou financing? Are you paying
(25:09):
cash? And I hope I've convincedyou at this point to pay cash to
get out of the cycle of debt.
Okay? And the last one is justbe smart. Just want to say, be
smart. What does be smart mean?
Be smart means avoid dealertraps, avoid extended
(25:32):
warranties, avoid paintprotection, avoid GAP Insurance.
You'll be able to avoid GAPinsurance because you're not
borrowing for it. Borrowing forit, right? Those things are all
often overpriced. Dealers willtry to manipulate stuff into
hiding real costs, becausethey'll put it in, you know,
monthly payments. But whenyou're not borrowing enough to
(25:55):
deal with that, the other thingis, do your research, know the
car's value beforeif you walk into a dealership
without having done anyresearch, you're in big trouble.
Because those guys know how tosell. You're in big trouble.
They'll get you. Avoid thepressure tactics, right? Be
smart. Avoid the pressuretactics. This deal is only good
(26:16):
for today. Bull, right? There'sno way. This deal is only good
for today. If I today. If Idon't buy it, the car will be
here tomorrow and you still wantto sell it. If you feel rushed,
walk away. If you feelpressured, walk away. Learn to
say no and just walk away. I'vedone that. I remember once I
went into a dealership and we'retalking, and the guys just
(26:37):
started going on. I just feltpressure. I'm like, Dude, I
there's other cars out there.
There's so many otherdealerships I don't need to deal
with you. I left. He keptcalling me. I never went back,
never returned his calls. Irefused to go there, like the
guy was just way over inboundaries trying to put
pressure on me. So avoid thepressure. Just walk away. Know
(26:58):
the price of the car. Do theresearch before stepping foot
into a dealership. And here'sthe thing, the test driving
thing, oh, man, this can betough. Here's what we did. I
mentioned when we just boughtthe big van, $24,000 one, I did
not want to go into a dealershipand start test driving stuff,
because I didn't want to dealwith the the pressure and stuff
(27:20):
that people, the sales people,put on you. So what we decide to
do, we went we in our school,where my kids go, there's a
bunch of big families, see abunch of big vehicles around. So
we went into there's a Facebookgroup for the parents. Went to
the Facebook group and said,Hey, we're looking to purchase a
larger vehicle for our family.
We're looking at, you know,these two. There was two
(27:42):
particular ones. We were, well,we actually, I think, we said,
what does everyone recommend?
And people started recommendingthings. And two clearly stood
out. It was a Nissan big van,and it was a Ford big van. And I
said, Great. And then I saw thepeople comment, because they
were like, This is my van. Welove it. This is, this is my
van. We love it for thesereasons. So I called two people.
(28:05):
I called one family that had theNissan and one family that had
the Ford, and I said, Would youmind if we we came and looked at
your vehicle and took it aroundfor a spin? And they were like,
Sure, feel free. So one Saturdaymorning, that's what Tara and I
did, went to the one person'shouse, drove their Nissan van,
(28:26):
went to the other person'shouse, drove their Ford van, and
very quickly, we knew which onewe liked better, just the way it
felt, the way it looked, youknow, from like, your
standpoint, you know,particularly when you're
driving, does it feel likeyou're driving a huge thing or
small thing? Like, what does itfeel? What's the perspective you
have? And so we'd like the Fordbetter. And so then we're able
to look, go, look for that. Inever had to go into a
(28:48):
dealership and test drivesomething when we found when,
you know, when I went to thatdealership. So I want to buy
this car. We did take it for atest drive. I brought a friend
with me. That's another smartway to do it. Bring someone with
you, and it could be someonethat's going to help you, keep
you keep you an emotional check.
It could be someone like myfriend, who's a bit of a
gearhead. He's mechanicallyinclined. He works on his car.
(29:08):
You know, he's in banking. Hewas a good friend at the bank.
He still is a good friend, buthe's, he's a car guy. He
understands motors and enginesand works on stuff. And so I was
like, Could you come with me,just to help me look and assess,
because I have no idea what I'mlooking at. And that was great.
And then the last thing is, ifyou go and you see a car for the
(29:29):
first time and try to figure outhow much to spend, like, wait at
least 24 hours before pullingthe trigger. Right in my
scenario, I walked into thedealership knowing I had waited
a year and a half probablygetting ready for this purchase.
But if it's you know, if you getin a car wreck or something, and
you're trying to figure out, howdo we replace a vehicle? Like,
(29:49):
don't just go that day and buysomething right away. Like, take
some time so that the emotion isout of your system and you can
make really good. Cleardecisions. Okay, so those were,
those were, that's how to do itsmart, right? Stay away from the
upsells, extended warranties,Payment Protection. Those are so
many times overpriced. Don'tallow the dealers to pressure
(30:14):
you or manipulate you, right? Doyour research between the cars
value and which cars you want,right? Which vehicle you want,
bring a friend to help you,and again, find creative ways to
maybe test drive or inspectthere's a company I'm not
(30:36):
recommending them, but Carmax,they've got these dealerships
where you can just go on theirdealership. All their cars are
unlocked. You can go and sit inthem. Tara and I just did that
recently because we're trying tofigure out what we want to do
replacing a minivan that wehave. And we were able to go
from car to car to car, just sitin just see how they feel, look
at them, see how the trunkworks, how the seats move, all
(30:58):
the type of stuff. Third row,how big is it? How small is it?
And there was no pressure,because people aren't sold
commission there. It's, it'slike a flat commission, I think,
for the entire branch, like thewhole sales team just shares it.
You don't feel like there'ssomeone trying to tackle you in
the parking lot to sell you acar, because they need you to
feed their family, right? It'sjust, it's a really pressure
(31:19):
free place to go, and we'll usethe information we got from
sitting in the cars and lookingat them to now do our shopping,
right? I'm going to go talk tothe guys I know that work
auctions and stuff, just to seewhere's the best place we can
get the best price on thevehicle that fits our needs,
that's within our budget, right?
(31:40):
And why do we do this? Why do wewant to be smart in making
purchases? Why do we want tolook at it from the big picture?
Well, because a car is simply atool, right?
It's not the be all, end all.
Sometimes, if we're goingthrough life and we want the
brand, we want people torecognize what we're doing,
maybe we struggle with wantingto keep up with the Joneses,
right? Maybe just social media.
(32:03):
We want to be able to have thatcar in our profile pic. Oh, my
goodness, please. It's tool.
It's not an idol. Avoid thetemptation of prestige and
comparison. It's just a car. Andhaving good order in your
finances is so important. And wesee this with God in creation,
right? He brought order tochaos. He looked at he says,
(32:27):
This is good. He wants our livesto be good.
That means he wants our lives tobe well ordered.
That makes us have, you knowthat requires us to have self
control and keeping our emotionsin check. All right? So that's
my little crash course on apractical that's my crash course
(32:52):
on the practical ways to use ourlens of the big picture to look
at car buying, right, and how topurchase a car.
So define your needs,decide new used and where you're
going to buy it, figure out howyou're going to pay for it,
right? Hopefully it's payingcash. Avoid the traps, the myths
that are out there, right? Thepressures, right? You do that by
(33:18):
being smart with your processand decision making, and take
your time. Take a deep breath.
Renting a car is not thatexpensive. You need to rent a
car for a week so that you canfigure something out, right? So
if you if you're in the marketfor a car or a vehicle, just
(33:40):
slow down and ask yourself, am Ibuying what I need, or am I
going to allow someone to sellme something, right? Am I going
to go make a purchase for thething that I need, or am I going
to just be someone's customer tomake their day
have that perspective? Why?
(34:01):
Because we're trying to servethe Lord with our finances.
We're trying to make Jesus theLord of our finances. We do that
by praying about our decisions,by talking to other people, by
using wisdom and prudence in ourdecision making,
and by having good order in ourprocess.
(34:23):
So Come Holy Spirit. Bless usand these and all the
transactions, all thosefinancial things that are in our
lives, Lord God, give us greatclarity to choose the path you
want us to take, because we knowthat path will lead us to you.
So thank you for joining metoday. Hopefully this has been
helpful. God blessThank you for listening to
(34:49):
Catholic money talk. I hope youjoin us again next time, please
click Subscribe on your podcastapp to get notified of new
episodes. God bless you and.
Have a great day. You.
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