Why You Should Lease NOT Buy a Car
In this talk Rob Moore challenges the conventional wisdom that buying a car is always better than leasing. He frames both leasing and buying as forms of stewardship, arguing that the only metric that matters is the total cost of ownership for the period you hold the vehicle. Moore explains how new cars lose about 60% of their value in the first five years, making outright purchase financially inefficient compared to leasing, which typically includes a warranty and eliminates maintenance costs. He illustrates how to compare lease, contract‑hire, and hire‑to‑purchase options, and shows that end‑of‑line models can be leased cheaply. Moore extends the analysis to a broader asset‑vs‑liability mindset: assets appreciate or generate income, while depreciating liabilities consume cash. He demonstrates a strategy of using cash‑flow‑positive property rentals to cover car lease payments, effectively making the car “free.” The talk also covers opportunity cost of capital, the impact of interest rates on leasing, and tax considerations when owning cars through a limited company. Throughout, Moore emphasizes minimizing cost of ownership, leveraging assets to fund liabilities, and warns against keeping money idle in low‑interest accounts. The presentation concludes with a promotional invitation to his Moneymaker Summit, offering sponsored tickets and detailing the event’s focus on wealth‑building, tax strategies, and business scaling.
Chapters
Why you should lease and not buy a car. Dave Ramsey is going to spit feathers on this content, but I think he gets it wrong quite a lot. Now, people think that leasing is not owning and owning is owning. This is not true. Ownership is a myth because we all die and we end up owning nothing. So the only thing you should think about, whether you're leasing or buying a car or a property or anything, is the cost of ownership for the term that you have it. So you lease it for 3 or 5 years, but even when you buy it, you're gonna sell it. So that's the term of the ownership. So I think Leasing, renting, higher purchasing, balloon payments, all of that. It's all the same. It's all the same. The question is, how much will it cost you for the duration of your stewardship? We are stewards of everything because when we die, we give it all back. So actually, ownership's kind of a myth. So a lot of people are like, well, I don't want to lease because I want to own it. Well, a lot of these Americans are saying that you shouldn't own your own home. You should rent it. Because it's a depreciating liability. So they clearly don't have a problem with that. So there's a saying: if it flies, if it floats, and if it fornicates, you should rent it. And I'll simplify it: you should buy and own assets, and you should rent liabilities. Depreciating liabilities. Assets go up in value and produce income. Liabilities go down in value and consume income. So a hack here, because I own 7 or 8 supercars— I did just sell a 1989 Porsche 911 Turbo, um, but with the 7 or 8 cars that I own, some are leased, some are bought cash, the ones I think will go up in value. Some are owned in a company structure. I'll come to that, those differences in a moment. But the goal is to minimize the cost of ownership for the term. That's the goal. So let me say that again. Your goal is to minimize the cost of ownership for the term. Now, if you buy a new car, 60% of its value is gone in around 5 years. So here's how to turn 100 grand into 40 grand. Buy a new car. Here's how to turn 10 grand into 4 grand. Buy a new car. So clearly buying it on the average car is not smart. You also don't have flexibility. You have maintenance because it's probably out of warranty, etc. What about if you want to change the car? So here's what you can do. You can go on to something like contract hire and leasing. And you can price compare the rental, the lease— lease is a rent essentially— or the hire-to-purchase options on a car. You can price compare them all. You can look at the best deals, bearing in mind you'll have a warranty for 3 years. So if you buy a 4-year-old car, you might think, I'm going to be smart here. Dave Ramsey says buy, don't rent. He says 60% of the value goes down in 4 years, so you're going to buy a 4-year-old car. That could be smart. You buy the 4-year-old car, it's not in warranty anymore, and then you have all these major bills and maintenance costs. Whereas when you lease a car, let's say you do a 3-year deal, you've got warranty for 3 years, therefore there's no maintenance. Now depreciation is supposed to be— it is worked in, but if you go on contract hire and leasing and you price compare leases, you can often find models that are nearing the end. They're still new, but they're nearing the end. And you can often get a good deal because it's a way for cars to— car manufacturers, they don't want to sell older cars, older models, still new. They don't want to sell them 30% off, they'll ruin their, their brand. So they stick them through the lease deals through the back door. You just get a nice sort of cheap lease. I mean, I remember my business partner getting an M3 for something like £600. I got an Audi RS6 for £595 a month, 3-year deal, uh, warranty, all maintenance. The only thing I had to do was tires and a couple of services, and then I was just able to give it back. There's no sale costs, minimized depreciation, job done. And then you can change the car every few years. So quick summary then: buy assets, rent depreciating liabilities. Invest in assets to pay for liabilities. Here's another reason why I think leasing most cars— old classics, I've got a Ferrari Testarossa, that's an old classic. I bought that cash, it's gone up in value, so that's slightly different. But here's a smart play. Let's say your car that you want is $1,000 a month on a lease, 3-year deal, hand it back. Um, so you could go and buy 3 properties that net cash flow £340 a month net. So you've got your £1,000 a month from 3 properties. You use the £1,000 a month net rental income to pay for the lease on your nice fancy sports car, your Audi RS6 or whatever, and essentially the car is free. And I've done this multiple times. I've owned cars for free. Now remember, ownership is just the stewardship of the time that you have it. Because whether you rent or lease or buy doesn't really matter, because if you buy something, you've actually got to sell it. And when you sell it, you've probably got 10% in sales cost. You'll have to take a hit. There'll be little margins that you'll lose. At least when you lease it, you just give the thing back, the keys come back, they come to check it, job done. Um, thanks for your feedback, Stephen. I'm more than happy for anyone to share what they think. So Stephen has said I think you need to stick to property, mate. You're absolutely clueless when it comes to lease. PCP is a complete— well, no, I don't think I am. I think I've said it very simply. I think that you look at the cost of ownership, and often when you lease a car, you don't have the maintenance over an older used car. Depreciation, yes, it's worked in, but you've got sale costs when you sell a car. You haven't got flexibility. Here's another thing. Tell me what you think about this then, Stephen. What about cost of capital? Let's say you put 50 grand into a car. What could you have done with 50 grand? You could have got an 8% return on 50 grand. So you've got to factor in the opportunity cost of the capital. Oh, and also interest rates are not that high right now. By the way, car leases have got quite high. So that is the thing to say. The interest rate has a huge impact. Um, but interest rates have dropped a bit and people are, oh, it's so expensive now because, you know, the interest rates are 6% or 8%. But, um, interest rates at 2% and 3% are not normal. You have been spoiled. That is not normal. Long-term rates, um, interest rates, 6%, something like that, 5% to 6%. So mortgages are in the 4s now. Rates are coming down. So if you can make 8% on your capital, if you can leverage that capital and get an 80% loan and put 20% in, you've got a 400% to 500% return on the capital, and then 8% growth on the total value of the property, not just your capital. And that would be lost if you went and bought a car. Now there are some variables. Supercars probably don't work on lease. Um, of course there's lease for a business, there's different types of ways that you can essentially rent a car. Um, there's lease to own where you've got the balloon payment at the end. Um, but I think you're probably best leasing, not buying a car, for all the reasons I've said below. Now, when it comes to assets and liabilities, this is the way I think you should think. And that is, what is the cost of ownership? And what is the cost of capital? So if you don't start a business for 10 years, what's the cost to you of not starting a business? Because you might think, oh, well, it costs me— I've got to take a hit on my salary. I've got to have no guaranteed income. Or it's going to cost me money to start a business. You think of the cost of doing it. You don't think of the cost of not doing it. The opportunity cost of starting a business could be millions of pounds to you. It would have been £250 million in sales for me. So you have to think about opportunity cost as well as the expense of not doing it and then line up. OK, so if I buy gold or if I buy real estate or if I leave my money in the bank— this is a big one— you leave your money in the bank. And it is going down with inflation. So it's actually not savings, it's degradings. So the cost of leaving your money in the bank is probably net negative 4% a year. If you think about what they actually give you in savings on the high street and then what inflation really is, you might be at negative 4% a year. Over 20, 25 years, your money could have halved or gone down by two-thirds in value. So there's a real cost of leaving the money in the bank because you could make +8%, not -4% in assets. And if you dump a load of money into a car, you could make -30% a year on your money instead of +8% a year on your money. So when you swing both ways, cars go down, real estate goes up. So buy assets to rent liabilities. If it flies, floats, foreigner case, rent it. Okay, cool. So if you'd like to learn how to invest in assets, build multiple streams of income, get your tax bill down, get your income streams up— if you'd love to learn how to own cars so that you, um, remove and avoid the tax on them, owning them through a company, because this, this gets a little bit more complicated, but you can save tens of thousands a year in tax— if you'd like to learn the strategies and tactics to do this I recommend you come and join me at the Moneymaker Summit. It's a live event, it's coming soon, 2 date choices, um, last opportunity to do this. And yesterday I celebrated the 7-year anniversary of my, um, globally best-selling book Money. And because of that, I'm giving away— I'm sponsoring 15 of you to come and join me at the Moneymaker Summit live, but I'm paying for your ticket. So the link is robmoore.live robmoore.live/money. robmoore.live/money. The first 15 of you who go now and register, as long as you then confirm your place with my team and you commit when you show up. I'm going to sponsor your full 3-day ticket. I've got a billionaire speaking at the next date in London. There's a second date choice in, in just outside, just north of London in Peterborough, and there are 6 or 7 multi-millionaires teaching you practical strategies and tactics for the best business models and income streams, passive and recurring, for 2024 and 2025. We've got talks on AI, we've got talks on media and content. We've got talks on how to monetize your mission and messaging. We've got talks on how to start a business, how to scale a business. I do my 8 steps to becoming rich. I cover my formula for wealth. We do the 90-minute tax saving section where everyone puts their phone on airplane mode. Anything about making money in 2024 that's relevant and not get rich quickie and but get rich real is at the Moneymaker Summit Live. So just type in robmoore.life/money. Uh, the first 15 of you that register through this video and then confirm with my team, because they'll call you if you've got questions about agenda, dates, details, logistics, you can talk to my team about that. There's quite a lot of information on the page, robmoore.life/money. Um, I'm going to sponsor your tickets. Once the 15 are taken, you just need to pay a small upgrade for VIP or Super VIP. Do you want to jump the queue and you want the good tickets? You know, you like to sit at the front, you like to meet the millionaires, you like to get your book signed by them, you like to have dinner with the millionaires. The Super VIP ticket, which is I think about £1,220 discount, um, you can go and just upgrade to that ticket if you want. I mean, give me a yes in the comments if you'd like to meet 1 billionaire and 6 multi-millionaires. Give me a yes in the comments if you'd like the private behind-the-scenes sessions. You know, the live champagne reception panel Q&As where, you know, half the room have left, just the VIP tickets remain, and we can get down and dirty and honest and raw and real about what really works in business. Because there's a lot you can't say on social media because people will judge you. You know, like Steve there, Stephen. By the way, I embrace any comments or discussion, Stephen, and anyone. But, you know, you get attacked quite a lot and people take things out of context. You know, when I talk about money, a lot of people think I'm greedy and capitalist. No, I just know that all things equal, money does make your life better. And I just know that money is a great tool. Um, it's a great form of leverage, just like the wheel is, or just like the printing press was. Um, so you can come behind the scenes at the Moneymaker Summit Live and get honest, raw, real advice from people who've been doing it nearly 20 years. Every one of my speakers is a friend. I've known them for 10 years or sometimes more. They're actually walking the walk, not just talking the talk, and that's really important. And you know that your network is your net worth, so you know that business is done in the room. You know that you need to meet people, look in the whites of their eyes. You can come and maybe raise money for your business or raise money for property, can build up your contacts list. And these are massive rah-rah events. They aren't 60-minute pitch, 60-minute pitch, 60-minute pitch. There's a lot of content, a lot of information. Some of it will blow your brains, um, but hey, look, you know, that's my job, to help open your mind and change your relationship with money. Okay, so go to robmoore.life/money. Either grab one of the 15 sponsored tickets from me— you just have to get there— or small upgrade for VIP or Super VIP, loads of extra benefits. I think on the Super VIP you get the 15-hour How to Raise Money Masterclass. I mean, that's pretty cool. You know, most people's problem is raising money and having money. Someone just said here it's highly recommended. Appreciate that. Okay, so quick summary then is if it goes down in value and it's a liability, you should probably rent it. If it goes up in value and it's an asset, you should probably buy it. Most cars go down about 60% in their first 5 years. So you probably don't want that depreciation by buying a new car. There are different types of leases for sure. Be careful with cars in a limited company because you get benefit-in-kind company car tax, which is really nasty and penal. You can do a lot of price comparison shopping on, say, Contract Hire and Leasing, and you actually can often get some really good lease deals. End-of-line models, and you don't have the same level of maintenance because you've got the 3-year warranty. So you've probably just got tires, a bit of servicing. Um, older cars, yeah, they might have dropped a lot, and if you buy them older, but then you've got all the maintenance, um, and the repairs to figure out, which can be a very expensive especially if it's a Range Rover. I know I owned a few of them. Okay, thanks for tuning in. I'll see you at the Moneymaker Summit Live. Give me a yes in the comments if you like this kind of content, giving you some practical stuff like how to invest £10,000 and whether you should lease or buy a car. I will say, if the car could go up, like it's a classic car, you might want to buy it. I bought my Ferrari Testarossa, I bought my Ariel Atom. Um, but my Aston Martin DBS and my Audi RS Q8, they, um, they're owned in the LLP, so I save the tax on ownership. And they're leased, not purchased, because they drop. Thanks for tuning in, and remember, if you don't risk anything, you risk everything.
