Personal Finance #5-Purchasing Strategies

Name: Personal Finance #5-Purchasing Strategies
Rating: 3.7 (19 reviews)

Learn best practices for making long-term, large dollar amount, purchases from a Certified Public Accountant (CPA)

Created byRobert (Bob) Steele

Last updated 9/2022

English

What you'll learn

Buying strategies for large items
How warranties impact the purchase decision
Strategies for purchasing a car
How to make the decision to buy or lease a car
List and explain post purchase steps

Course content

3 sections • 27 lectures • 6h 41m total length

6010 Buying Strategies For Large Items Including a Car Overview11:09
Explore buying strategies for large items like cars, balancing short-term intuition with a formal long-term decision process, and optimize timing, location, price, and online research.
6020 Warranties24:06
Understand express and implied warranties, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, and how extended service contracts influence costs and decisions for online and auto purchases.
6025 Large Purchase Process Like Car Overview24:53
Identify needs, evaluate alternatives, determine purchase price, and plan post-purchase actions for long-term buys like cars, comparing new, used, and lease options using independent information.
6030 Large Purchase Process Car – Lease or Buy18:08
Compare lease and buy options for large car purchases using a formal four-step process, weigh mileage, depreciation, buyback price, and financing to decide the best route.
6040 Large Purchase Process Car - Determining the Price22:51
Master the large purchase process for cars by navigating pre-shopping, evaluating alternatives, and determining the purchase price, with budgeting, financing options, and post-purchase steps.
6050 Large Purchase Process Car – Post-purchase Steps15:34
Master post-purchase steps for large purchases like cars by planning maintenance and ownership costs. Compare servicing options, keep maintenance records, and use rational complaint processes and protections.
6060 Large Purchase Process Car – Resolving Consumer Complaints23:23
Explore the four-stage large purchase decision framework for cars, including pre-shopping, evaluating, pricing, and post-purchase actions, and learn how to handle complaints through ADR, CFPB resources, and recourse options.

6110 Membership Purchase Decision2:25
Assess how a $150 membership with a 10% discount affects purchase decisions by calculating the break-even point of $1,500 in purchases.
6120 Purchase on Credit vs Cash Decision9:05
Compare cash versus credit for a $3,100 appliance with a $620 down payment and $140 monthly payments over 24 months, revealing a total cost of $3,980 and $880 in financing.
6130 Unit Price Calculation7:13
Master unit price calculations to compare motor oil, cereal, canned fruit, and tissues, breaking prices into per-unit, per-ounce, or per-100-tissues costs for apples-to-apples shopping.
6140 Cost of Service Contract vs Investment11:30
Compare the cost of a four-year service contract with investing that money at 10% to evaluate time value, future value, present value, and the warranty consideration.
6150 Business with Franchise Fees Break Even Point13:56
Compute break-even for a franchise by separating fixed and variable costs, applying a 30% commission, and determining sales needed to cover a 750 franchise fee.
6160 Decision to Buy Appliance Net Present Value17:20
Learn to evaluate a major appliance purchase using time value of money concepts, net present value, and discount rates, projecting five years of benefits and upfront costs.
6170 Coupon Savings Calculation14:05
Apply time value of money concepts to coupon savings, using present value and future value to compare six-year outcomes at 8% with monthly versus annual savings.
6180 Car Lease vs Purchase Decisions17:43
Compare car lease versus purchase by analyzing cash flows, down payments, monthly payments, residual value, and present value with a 5% discount rate to guide long-term decisions.
6190 Auto Operation Cost Calculation and Projection16:09
Explore how to split car costs into fixed and variable categories based on mileage, use an activity-based approach to project future expenses, and apply scenarios in Excel.
6210 Loan Periods Impact on Payment16:10
Examine how loan periods shape monthly payments and interest in standard installment loans, comparing 5, 10, 15, and 30-year terms using a 100,000 loan and amortization concepts.

6110 Membership Purchase Decision2:35
Solve an Excel practice problem to determine if a 150 annual membership with a 10% discount covers its cost, by calculating the purchases needed in the worksheet.
6120 Purchase on Credit vs Cash Decision10:19
Use an Excel practice problem to compare cash versus credit for a $3,100 purchase, including down payment, monthly payments, and total cost with time value of money.
6130 Unit Price Calculation6:59
Calculate unit prices in Excel to compare items by quantity. Convert prices to per quart, per ounce, or per 100 tissues and apply these comparisons to smarter shopping.
6140 Cost of Service Contract vs Investment9:28
Evaluate the cost of a four-year service contract versus investing the funds, using time value of money concepts such as future value, present value, and opportunity costs in Excel.
6150 Business with Franchise Fees Break Even Point17:04
Compute break-even for a franchise by analyzing fixed costs, unit price, and sales mix; derive sales and unit break-even points using contribution margin and target profit.
6160 Decision to Buy Appliance Net Present Value16:06
Evaluate a dishwasher purchase with net present value in Excel, weighing upfront costs against time value of money benefits using a discount rate to determine if npv is positive.
6170 Coupon Savings Calculation12:16
6180 Car Lease vs Purchase Decisions20:19
Compare car purchase and lease using a four-year loan and a 5% discount rate in a cash-flow model. Evaluate upfront costs, monthly payments, end-of-term value or charges, and present-value outcomes.
6190 Auto Operation Cost Calculation & Projection22:18
6210 Lone Periods Impact on Payment18:53
Explore loan payments and interest in an Excel-based practice by building pmt calculations and amortization tables for a $100,000 loan at 12%, across 30, 15, 10, and 5 year terms.

Requirements

None

Description

This course will concentrate on large personal purchases, outlining buying strategies to make the best long-term purchase decisions.

Human beings are great at short-term decisions, those where we can hone down our habits, training our gut so that we can trust our gut during future similar discussions.

However, we are not as good at making decisions that impact multiple years into the future, in part because we do not make them as often, so we don't have the opportunity to train our gut the same way we do with short-term decisions.

With long-term decisions, we need a formal decision-making process instead of trusting our habits and gut.

We will not be focusing on a home purchase in this course, even though it is one of the most significant individual purchases because the home purchase is sufficiently complex to warrant its own course. However, we can apply many of the concepts we discuss here to a home purchase decision too.

Learners will learn how to make purchasing decisions related to a car and large appliances. We will also discuss warranties and how they impact our significant purchase decisions.

The course will cover the decision to purchase a car versus leasing a vehicle.

The course will include example problems to make concepts more concrete.

It will also have practice problems, including downloadable Excel Workbooks, which users may also open using Google Sheets.

The Excel Workbooks will generally have at least two tabs. One tab will have the answer key so learners can deconstruct the problem. The second tab is where we work the practice problem step-by-step along with the instructional videos.

Who this course is for:

Individuals
Financial planners

Personal Finance #5-Purchasing Strategies

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Presentations7 lectures • 2hr 20min

Problems10 lectures • 2hr 6min

Excel Problems10 lectures • 2hr 16min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: