Three questions to ask about any money decision.
The nine sessions cover nine situations. These three questions cover the tenth one, the one nobody taught you about, which is the one you will actually be standing in. Ask them about anything with a dollar sign on it and you will usually get to the right answer on your own.
- 1
What does it really cost?
Not the monthly payment. The total, over the whole time, in dollars you will actually hand over. The monthly number is the one they show you because it is the smallest.
A $55,000 loan is not $55,000. It is $83,000.
- 2
Who gets paid if I say yes?
Somebody designed this offer, and they did the math before you saw it. If they make money when you skip the math, do the math.
The minimum payment is not there to help you.
- 3
What would this money do somewhere else?
Every dollar can only go one place. The real price of anything is the thing it stops you from doing instead, and time makes that gap bigger, not smaller.
Six years of waiting is not six years. At 65 it is six figures.
Try it on something we never covered
A gym contract. Buy-now-pay-later on a couch. A friend's business idea. A timeshare presentation with a free lunch. A new phone on a 36-month plan.
What does it really cost, all in? Who gets paid if you say yes? What would that money do somewhere else? If you can answer those three, you do not need a session on it.
See it done ten times
Ten people, same salary, one habit each. Guess who ends up where, then see the math.
The ten peopleRun it on your own life
Put your real numbers in and see what each decision costs over time.
The calculators