A model, not a prediction

Car Investment Simulation

Same car, same depreciation, both ways. The only thing that changes is what happened to the money you didn't spend up front. Adjust the sliders below to see how the numbers shift.

Cost of car $50,000
Down payment $5,000
Loan interest rate 2.9%
Investment growth rate assumption 10.0%
Time horizon 5 years

Pay cash

$0

  • Car value today—
  • Car value at horizon—
  • Invested$0

Finance + invest

$0

  • Car value at horizon—
  • Investment value at horizon—
  • Less: amount financed (repaid to lender)—
  • Less: total interest paid—
At this horizon, financing and investing leaves you ahead by $0
Pay cash — total position Finance + invest — total position

Assumes the car depreciates 15%/year regardless of how it's paid for, the loan term equals the time horizon set above, and loan payments come from income rather than the invested amount. Because the financed principal and the invested principal are the same dollars moving in a circle, only the investment's actual gain is weighed against the loan's total interest cost — at 0% growth, financing is always behind by exactly the interest paid, never ahead. The interest rate and time horizon readouts shift color as a plain-language warning — not a hard rule, just a reminder that longer, pricier loans carry more risk. This is a model to build intuition, not financial advice.