[Alberta's Child]

Also, except for a primary residence, don’t buy anything unless you can pay cash - including motor vehicles and vacations.

I would add one caveat here. Buying any asset through financing is OK under the following conditions:

1. The interest rate is no more than 2 points above the prevailing rates on 10-year to 30-year U.S. Treasury rates.

2. You have sufficient liquid investments to pay off the loan within five business days if necessary. In other words, you're financing the purchase as a cash flow strategy, not because you don't have the money to pay cash for it.

3A. The life cycle of the purchase exceeds the term of the loan.

3B. For the purchase of an item that depreciates over time (e.g., a motor vehicle), you intend to keep it for longer than you're paying it off.

[Labyrinthos]

I concur.

I drive a 2014 Jeep which I purchased new. I could have paid cash, but the incentive interest rate was .08% for 60 months. Pretty much free money. In contrast, my wife recently purchased a Lexus. This time, we did pay cash because the interest rate was 8%.