CAR DEAL DECODERAll offersHow Should I Buy — Lease, or Finance?
There is no universal right answer. Compare the choices against your use, budget and written terms before a monthly payment makes the choice for you. This self-guided worksheet organizes that comparison.
Built from dealership experience since 2016. Independent education. No dealership affiliation.
The question behind the payment
Ask ten people whether leasing or buying is smarter and you'll get ten confident, opposite answers — because they're all answering for their own life, not yours.
The dealership knows this. Whichever path makes this month's numbers work is the one that gets presented as "the smart move," with a payment attached. Meanwhile the real variables — how many miles you actually drive, how long you actually keep a car, what you can actually put down — never make it into the conversation.
So buyers pick a side before they've run a single number, then defend the choice for three to six years.
lease vs. buy isn't an opinion. It's arithmetic with your life plugged in. This worksheet does that arithmetic with you.
What you receive
- Buying-path guidance: compare new, used or certified vehicles and cash, financing or leasing.
- Total ownership budget: consider insurance, fuel or charging, maintenance, taxes and fees alongside the payment.
- Financing and risk prompts: record the written APR, term, down payment, lease limits, warranty and inspection questions.
- Your decision notes: five open-text prompts to organize the paths and facts you are comparing. This is a self-guided worksheet; it does not calculate a lease-versus-finance verdict.
- Format: protected online guidance, decision notes and premium PDF download after verified payment. Reopen with your Stripe checkout reference.
Is this for you?
For you if: you've narrowed it to "I'm getting a vehicle" but haven't settled how — and you want the answer built from your driving and your budget before a salesperson builds it from theirs.
Not for you if: you've already signed (this answers a before-you-buy question), or you want to be told what to do. This shows you the math. The call stays yours.
Before you decide
"Isn't leasing always throwing money away?" / "Isn't buying always smarter?"
Neither slogan applies to everyone. Mileage limits, ownership plans, interest, fees and cash needs change the comparison. The worksheet helps you record those tradeoffs; compare actual written quotes over the same period.
"I don't have a specific car picked out yet. Is this too early?"
No — this is the right order. How you buy shapes which deals are even worth looking at. Run this first and every quote you get afterward is easier to read. (If you already have a specific vehicle in mind, the $39 evaluation is the step built for that question — no earlier purchase is required for it either.)
"Do I need the $5 Seven Numbers first?"
No. No earlier purchase is required. The $5 guide teaches you to read a deal's seven numbers; this worksheet answers the lease-vs-finance question. Different questions, each complete on its own.
"Nineteen dollars for a worksheet?"
Put it against the decision: a lease or loan is a three-to-six-year commitment measured in tens of thousands of dollars, and the wrong structure costs real money every month of it. Nineteen dollars, once, to run your own numbers before you're sitting across from someone running theirs. That's the whole pitch.
"My spouse/partner and I disagree on lease vs. buy. Will this settle it?"
It gives both of you a place to record your budget, the paths you are considering and the written terms. Use the same assumptions and compare the actual quotes together.
"Will this tell me which one to choose?"
No. It organizes the buying paths, written terms and questions you need to compare. It does not calculate an automatic lease-versus-finance verdict or make the decision for you.
No savings, approval, or payment outcome is promised. Educational decision support.
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