Meet Jordan — eighteen, just
graduated, one job offer, and no way to get there. Read the story. Play the deal.
Walk out with a number you can defend.
Prologue · The Offer
The job is real. The problem is getting there.
Graduation was a week ago. Today — an email.
JORDAN
Jordan“Full-time offer. Starts the first. It's the good kind of scary.”
One catch: the job is clear across town, and the last bus quits before Jordan's shift ends.
JORDAN
Jordan“So I need a car. How hard can that be?”
VROOM!
A week later, Jordan stands on a neon-lit lot at dusk.
A salesman named Voss is already gliding over, hand out, smiling with all his teeth.
VOSS
Voss · Sales“Welcome in! Let me ask the only question that matters —
what do you want your monthly payment to be?”
Catch the trick. Not “what should this car cost you?” Those are different questions — and
the gap between them is where your money quietly disappears.
Your mission: see every number Voss won't say out loud. Roll Jordan's real life, set a
budget, price one car three ways, and make the call.
Chapter 1 · The Draw
You don't pick your life. You price it.
Nobody chooses the year they need a car, the paycheck they have when it happens, or the credit score
three years of history handed them. Jordan doesn't either. Roll once. Whatever lands is the life Jordan is
buying a car inside of — and every number in this book comes from it.
🎲 Roll Jordan's life
🎲
Press the button
One roll. No do-overs, no switching to a nicer life.
Chapter 2 · The Guardrail
The sticker price is the smallest number on the page.
Before Jordan signs, a phone call to Uncle Ray — thirty years a mechanic, seen every way this goes wrong.
UNCLE RAY
Uncle Ray“Before you fall for a payment, learn the 20/4/10 rule.
It's not a law — it's a guardrail, and it's the one most lenders will happily let you drive straight through.”
Down payment20%At least 20% down — the cushion that keeps you from owing more than the car's worth the second you drive off.
Loan term4 yrs max48 months or less. Need 84 months to afford it? You can't afford it — you're spreading the pain.
Share of income10%Payment + insurance + gas + upkeep all stay under 10% of gross monthly income.
Read the 10 carefully. It's not “10% for the payment.” It's 10% for the payment
and insurance and gas and oil changes and tires. The payment is usually only about half.
That's the part that surprises people.
🧮 Jordan's guardrail, by the numbers
Roll a life first (Chapter 1) and these fill in with Jordan's real paycheck.
Your turn. Using Jordan's gross monthly income, what's the 10% ceiling for
all car costs per month? (Round to the nearest dollar.)
Chapter 3 · The Lot
Pick one. Then find out what it really costs.
Six machines under the lights. The two specs nobody reads decide everything: how fast it loses
value and what it costs to insure a driver Jordan's age. Tap one to pull it into the showroom and
drag to spin it.
🚗 Choose Jordan's car — drag it to spin
✋ drag to spin
Chapter 4 · Buy Lab
Borrow money. Watch what it costs.
Voss leads Jordan into a small office. A long form. A pen shaped like a tiny car.
VOSS
Voss“Stretch it to 72, even 84 months — look how small
that payment gets! Practically free money.”
UNCLE RAY
Uncle Ray (on speaker)“The payment is not the price. Longer term,
smaller payment, more total interest — and you stay underwater longer. Run it.”
$020%savings
Loan term 60 months
💧 Underwater — the loan vs. the car
Orange = what Jordan still owes.Blue = what the car is worth. When orange is above blue, Jordan is
upside down — total the car and insurance pays its value while Jordan still owes the bank the gap, in cash.
Chapter 5 · Lease Lab
A lease is a rental with a vocabulary problem.
VOSS
Voss“Or lease it! Lower payment, new car every three years,
somebody else eats the depreciation. What's not to love?”
You're not buying the car. You're paying for the chunk of value it loses while you drive
it, plus interest — and the industry renamed every part so it wouldn't sound like interest.
The decoder ring. Cap cost = the price. Cap cost reduction = your down payment. Residual =
what the bank bets it's worth at turn-in. Money factor = the interest rate in disguise (× 2400 = APR).
Mileage allowance = a hard cap; every mile over has a price.
Yearly miles you promise 12,000
lower = smaller paymentbut a harder cap
Chapter 6 · The Showdown
Five years. Three paths. One honest number.
Every dollar that leaves Jordan's hands over five years, minus whatever Jordan still owns at the end.
Lease it, buy it new, buy it used — same car, same life, same road. Tap the path Jordan signs for, then say why.
⚖️ The five-year total
You picked —. Voss slides the contract across the desk.
Before Jordan signs — say why. A number you can defend beats a number that's simply lowest.
Chapter 7 · Life Happens
You signed a number. Now live with it.
No plan survives a real year. Roll two events — they hit the exact path Jordan chose, and the same
event costs different money depending on that choice. This is where lease-vs-buy stops being theory.
LIFE HAPPENS
🎲 Roll two life events
Epilogue
Jordan drives off. The number is defensible.
SOLD!
UNCLE RAY
Uncle Ray“You didn't get the cheapest life — nobody does. But you saw
every number before you signed. That's the whole game.”
What Jordan learned: the payment is not the price; a lease rents you depreciation with a hard
mileage cap; a long loan keeps you underwater; and the deciding number is always the five-year total, not
the one on the sticker.