Buying a Truck, would you buy outright or finance?

If you have 100,000 to spend on a truck then WTH are you getting in to trucking for? There are better paths my friend.

I'll answer your question though. Find about 50k worth of truck and finance it. Work hard and you can pay it off within a year. Too many surprises in this business, especially when you are new, to wrap up all your money in one thing if you don't have to. Even a $100k truck could have a $25k breakdown tomorrow.

 

The nice thing about paying cash for a truck? You can park the darn thing ANY TIME YOU WANT. You can lease on to another company any time you want, you can take a break any time you want, you can tell anyone to kiss your rear any time you want, you can get out any time you want.

If you finance it, you have a payment you can't stop and insurance you can't stop.

 

You'll have insurance you can't stop either way.

 

I agree. Pay for it in cash, and make sure you have enough cash in your maintenance account.

Pay for your truck in cash, pay for your house in cash, and ensure you have sizeable maintenance account. You can enjoy your family, go on vacation and don't have to worry about spending 6 or 16 days on the road or if you're going to make enough money for all of your payments.

Too many jump in with too much overhead and when crap hits the fan are so far over leveraged they loose their truck, house and even their family. Always keep the odds in your and your families favor.

 

Wrong... If I pay cash for a $30,000 truck, I can drop the insurance and let it sit. Risky? Maybe a little, but I wouldn't lose the truck to repo.

 

The real answer is whatever works the best for you.
The bean counters are going to say finance the truck and put your $ to work elsewhere. The cost conscious owner will say pay cash

 

It depends how much money you actually have. If you have say $200,000 and you are buying a $100,000 truck and trailer, I would probably put down maybe 50,000, and prepay your insurance. If you prepay the insurance it will save you a little money and it will be easier to make money. Then reevaluate it the end of the 1st year.

That way you have plenty of money left over and if at the end of the 1st year you did well you could pay it off or you could decide to just pay on it for another year or whatever.

 

How many times have you actually done this and who is your insurance through. Of course if it's financed you've got to have insurance on it, sitting or not, but with commercial insurance in my opinion stopping and starting over again doesn't work for insurers.

Enlighten me.

 

The problem with stopping and restarting insurance would be your authority starting and stopping I would think. Then starting over with some brokers etc. I also doubt insurance providers would go for that.

if you have enough cash in reserves I would pay cash. However there are so many variables all you can do is write out a plan and make a decision. Get real sage advice from people in it. This forum is great but nuts and bolts you need a mentor or two. I can’t say I disagree with what any have said here. All great points of whether to pay cash or finance.