Compare · Capital desk · 2 minutes
The showroom prices three doors as a monthly payment. Capital prices them as end-of-term wealth: what the cash would have earned, what the loan's coupon really costs against your market, and what the lease leaves you holding — which is nothing. This instrument settles it in one table.
The all-in cash price, taxes and fees included.
Sets the load gauge and your hourly value.
One horizon for all three paths — the finance term.
For the same asset over the same term, fees averaged in.
What the asset fetches — or the lease buyout it's measured against.
The market your idle cash lives in. The whole comparison turns on this against the APR.
Nothing you type leaves this page. The instrument runs entirely in your browser; there is no account and no record.
Lease.
$62,213
true cost of the cheapest door, in month-48 wealth
| Cash | Finance | Lease | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash out on day one | — | — | — |
| Monthly payment | — | — | — |
| Total paid over the term | — | — | — |
| Asset value at end of term | — | — | — |
| True cost, in end-of-term wealth | — | — | — |
| If idle cash returns | Cheapest path | Its true cost |
|---|---|---|
| — | — | — |
| — | — | — |
| — | — | — |
Leases carry teeth the table can't see: mileage bands, wear charges, disposition fees. Add your honest estimate to the lease column before deciding.
Financing assumes the freed cash is actually invested. If it would sit in a current account at nothing, the loan's coupon buys you nothing — pay cash.
Early exits break the model. Loans carry settlement terms; leases carry penalties; the comparison above holds only if you run the full term.
Everything below is calculated from your inputs except the market return, an assumption you control. All three paths are future-valued to the same month at the market rate, so they are directly comparable.
i = r/12 (market, monthly) j = APR/12 m = term
FV(lump) = lump·(1+i)^m
FV(stream) = pmt·((1+i)^m − 1)/i
loan pmt = L·j / (1 − (1+j)^−m), L = price·(1 − down)
cash_cost = FV(price) − residual
finance_cost = FV(down·price) + FV(pmt stream) − residual
lease_cost = FV(lease stream)
The gauge reads the cheapest path's first-twelve-months cash outlay against one year's net income, with the safe-load line at the house 20%. The verdict names the cheapest door; margins under about 3% of price are called a line-ball.
Limitations. One residual value serves both the cash and finance columns; lease-end fees, insurance differences and tax treatment (deductible business leases can rearrange this entirely) are outside the model. Judgment tool, not an accounting document.