Level 0 · Orientation
Walk onto any lot and the first question you get is "what do you want your payment to be?" Never "what do you want this car to cost you?" Those are different questions, and the gap between them is where the money goes.
You'll get a random life: a job, a paycheck, a credit score, and a commute. You don't pick it, the same way nobody picks the year they need a car. Then you'll price the same vehicle three ways: lease it new, buy it new, or buy it used. You'll run the real payment formulas, watch what depreciation does to your loan, add up every cost the sticker never mentions, and then make the call and live with it.
There is no "right" answer waiting at the end. There's a number, and there's whether you can defend it.
What you'll walk out with
| 1 · Your life — roll your job, income, credit score, and annual miles | random |
| 2 · Budget — the 20/4/10 rule and what it actually allows you | 2 checks |
| 3 · The lot — pick a vehicle, spin it, read the specs that matter | choice |
| 4 · Buy lab — down payment, term, APR, interest, and going underwater | 3 checks |
| 5 · Lease lab — cap cost, residual, money factor, mileage caps | 3 checks |
| 6 · Hidden costs — tax, fees, insurance, fuel, maintenance, registration | 3 checks |
| 7 · Showdown — five years, three paths, one honest number | 1 check |
| 8 · Decision — you sign something. Say why. | choice |
| 9 · Life happens — two random events hit the path you chose | 1 check |
| 10 · Report — printable, gradeable | turn in |
Level 1 · Your life
Your job sets your income. Your income sets your budget. Your credit score sets your interest rate, and on a $30,000 loan the difference between good credit and bad credit is thousands of dollars for the exact same car. Your annual miles decide whether a lease is even legal for you. None of it is chosen. All of it is priced.
Ready when you are
One roll. No rerolls, no do-overs, no switching to a nicer life.
Level 2 · Budget
It's not a law, it's a guardrail, and it's the one most lenders will happily let you drive straight through. Three numbers:
Read the 10 carefully. It is not "10% for the payment." It's 10% for the payment and the insurance and the gas and the oil changes and tires. The payment is usually about half of it. That's the part that surprises people.
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Level 3 · The lot
Six vehicles. Pick one and a showroom opens below it, where you can drag the car to spin it. The two specs nobody reads are the two that decide this whole game: how fast it loses value and what it costs to insure a driver your age. You'll price whichever one you pick all three ways: lease it new, buy it new, buy it three years old.
Level 4 · Buy lab
Two dials: how much you put down, and how many months you stretch it over. The dealer will push you toward a long term because it makes the payment look small. The payment is not the price.
The orange line is what you still owe. The blue line is what the car is actually worth. When the orange line is above the blue line, you are upside down. If the car were totaled today, insurance pays what it's worth, and you still owe the bank the difference out of your own pocket.
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Level 5 · Lease lab
You are not buying the car. You are paying for the chunk of value it loses while you have it, plus interest, and the industry renamed every single part of that so it wouldn't sound like interest. Here's the decoder ring.
| Capitalized cost — "cap cost" | The price of the car |
| Cap cost reduction | Your down payment |
| Residual value | What the bank predicts it'll be worth at turn-in |
| Money factor | The interest rate, disguised. × 2400 = APR |
| Acquisition fee | A fee for letting you start the lease |
| Disposition fee | A fee for letting you give the car back |
| Mileage allowance | A hard cap. Every mile over has a price |
| Excess wear and tear | They inspect it. Scratches cost money |
The formula. Monthly lease payment = depreciation fee + finance fee.
Depreciation fee = (cap cost − cap cost reduction − residual) ÷ months.
Finance fee = (cap cost − cap cost reduction + residual) × money factor.
Then most states add sales tax to the monthly payment, not to the whole car. That's the one real
tax advantage a lease has, and it's smaller than it sounds.
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Level 6 · The costs nobody mentions
Everything below is real, everything below is normal, and none of it is on the window sticker. Half of these show up before you drive away. The other half show up every single month for as long as you own the thing.
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Level 7 · Five-year showdown
This is the only comparison that means anything: everything you paid out, minus what you still have at the end. A lease leaves you with nothing at the end. That's not an insult, it's the deal. A loan leaves you with a car you own. Both facts belong in the same number.
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Level 8 · The decision
The cheapest number is not automatically the right answer. But if you're not picking it, you owe yourself a reason that isn't "the payment looked smaller." Tap a card to sign for it, then defend the choice in writing.
Name the number that decided it, and name what you gave up. Two or three sentences.
Level 9 · Life happens
Two random events, drawn from the things that actually happen to people with cars. Here's the part worth watching: the same event costs a different amount depending on which path you chose. That difference is what you were really buying.
Five years, compressed
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Level 10 · Turn it in
This is what you hand in. Print it, or copy the grade summary line.