Ryan Daniel Moran bought a Tesla Model S P100D not just for the car, but to shift his self-perception and confidence. He financed it by keeping a 1.99% loan while investing cash in dividend stocks yielding 6%, a strategy he says justified the purchase without financial stress.
1.99%
$150,000
~6%
I was fortunate enough to be the first person in my family to buy a new car. I never owned a new car before. No one in my family had. Not my parents, they never bought a new car. And when I graduated college, I lived very frugally in college. I was building a business, making six figures from my dorm room, paying myself $6,000 a year, $500 a month. And throughout college and even post college, I drove this rinky dink Chevy Cobalt with manual doors and windows like turn the crank. And it was rebuilt like it was a salvaged vehicle, salvage license. So it lasted like three or four years.
Oh, yeah.
And when the engine blew, you know, I was like, well, I guess I'll go car shopping. And so I bought the car I wanted. I bought.
A brand new, leather seats, heated seats, double sunroof, turbocharged Kia Sportage. Its name was Bruce. Loved that car. I still own Bruce. But a few years later, when I was making legitimate, legitimate money, when I was running a real business.
I found out I was going to be a dad. And I decided to.
My partner was driving, not a baby vehicle, so I gave her Bruce. And I decided to buy a car for me.
And I drove a Tesla.
And I just remember how I felt about myself when I was holding the wheel.
And.
Then I got back into Bruce, into my Kia Sportage, a car I love.
And I felt like I went back to who I used to be.
So I didn't buy the Tesla because we could do this.
I didn't, maybe a little. The reason I bought it was because I knew that the way I viewed myself changed. And I bought the car because I knew that as a result of me buying it, I would more confidently be able to raise my fees and prices because I viewed myself differently. So to me, it was an investment. To me, it was.
Way to train my brain to think bigger. Because I am all for living frugally and saving money and not trying to impress other people with the things you have. But I also know that the thoughts we have are reflected by what's around us. And so for me, what I needed was a regular, constant elevation of those thoughts. Which is one of the reasons I saw the Tesla as an investment, not as a cost. And.
It has helped me think at a higher level than I used to think, which was a much smaller game. But when you're driving a 150, $200,000 car, it's hard to. It's hard to think small, unless, of course, you can't afford it, in which you're always going to Be thinking about fear and scarcity and what are all people thinking? And then it's just a dumb idea. But when you can actually justify the cost. For me, it is an investment in myself because of the journey I'm on. Which is a nice business lesson all wrapped up in this. Because your customers are all on their own journey, which is why you can. If you communicate how your product or service.
Helps them on that journey, even if it's a simple product, they are willing to pay a premium for it. It's not just a thing, it's a piece of the overall story. And this car was part of that for me.
So how do you find that balance between frugality? People might watch this and say like, yeah, I've been working really hard, I should get a Tesla. He said, you don't want people to.
Stretch themselves too thin, too th one Will it stress you out?
I make many more decisions than you would think based on what it would stress me or not. Like what flight am I gonna take? I don't go on price. I go, what's the least stressful for me? Because I know that stress takes me out of the zone. And number two, can you pay cash for it?
Can you pay cash for the house? Can you pay cash for the the car? If you can, then it's okay to buy it. Now that doesn't mean you have to pay cash for it. So for example, I have a loan on this car. Reason I have a loan is because I get it at 1.99% and so that frees up $150,000 of dividend paying stock that I could buy at a 6% and that's going to grow and compound. So it just doesn't make sense for me to pay cash for a car when I could instead put that same money into dividend paying stock and have the stocks pay for the car. If you can pay cash for it, then it's justified. But a smarter financial strategy is for you to go buy an asset that pays for the thing that you want. But you don't get to have the thing until you actually have the cash.
Now you got to pay for it by maybe buying an asset that can justify the cost of it. By the way, I work with thousands of entrepreneurs around the world on building businesses and investing the profits. And we release a ton of content around this stuff, so make sure you subscribe to the channel. We also do regular podcasts over@capitalism.com on building businesses, investing the profits, on mindset, on cash flow, on building, buying and selling companies so you can subscribe@Capitalism.com or just search for that or my name wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for watching. I'm rooting for you. Let me know what you thought.
