Fire Truck Financing: The $50,000 mistake

It happens every day. Departments make mistakes when borrowing money. Here's how one department almost wasted $50,000.

A client department was buying a new truck. They had a current loan that paid off in 5 years.
They needed a 15 year payment to stay within their budget for loan payments.

They were just about to sign on the dotted line when...

The department discovered a way to save $50,000

They called for help with their financial offers.

The department did not think that they could afford a higher payment after the current loan was paid off.

We ran the numbers and the department realized a "step payment lease" fit their situation and saved them $50,000.

How the numbers worked

A "step payment lease" is a payment plan with smaller payments at the beginning and larger payments later. In this case, when the current loan was paid off.

By structuring the payment plan with lower payments the first 5 years and then using the whole payment budget for the final payments, the department saved over $50,000 in interest.

Lesson learned

Get some help to analyze your financing offers. What may seem like a clear idea can sometimes be costly. For this department, they did not even know that a "step payment lease" existed.

"We would have wasted a lot of money. We appreciate the help you provided."


Stay safe!

John R. Hill
Apparatus Budgeting Consultant
ENVIZION Financial
www.envizionfire.com