"if you cant pay cash for a plane you have no buisiness owning one"

[timrev8]

I have heard this more than once...

Is it another pilot letting me know he has money?

I would like to know how many pilots have borrowed money for their airplane.

What if i consider the bottom line for monthly costs if i go through a hard time and stop flying for a few weeks

Hanger or tie down
monthly payment for plane loan
insurance

ALSO: I am a fan of the fact that when the plane is payed off my personnel worth has gone up (airplane equity). Maybe getting there has cost lots more per hour flying but i will have something after all those hours, even if the value has gone down.

 

[Jim Logajan]

I have heard this more than once...

Is it another pilot letting me know he has money?

Maybe - or more likely they are just imparting their personal fiscal philosophy as being a law of the universe. Not sure anyone who holds rigorously to that philosophy would also agree with "Carpe diem."

I've also seen the phrase "The person who dies owing the most money, wins." Possibly an opposite fiscal philosophy.

The odd thing about the quote you started this thread with is that airplanes had not, till the last decade, lost much value. So you could generally unload them at or above cost.

I would like to know how many pilots have borrowed money for their airplane.

I don't own a plane yet, but could pay cash for a new one (not that I would buy new.) It would carve a big chunk out of retirement assets, though. The question "finance or pay cash" would not be theoretical should I eventually decide to buy. Paying cash or financing would depend on a bunch of factors, not all of which I've sorted out yet!

What if i consider the bottom line for monthly costs if i go through a hard time and stop flying for a few weeks

Hanger or tie down
monthly payment for plane loan
insurance

ALSO: I am a fan of the fact that when the plane is payed off my personnel worth has gone up (airplane equity). Maybe getting there has cost lots more per hour flying but i will have something after all those hours, even if the value has gone down.

A conservative middle philosophy might be: always make sure you have at least 1 to 2 years of savings at current expenditure levels to live off of should your income cease. (Add more years the older you get.) That guideline doesn't rule out financing an airplane once you've reached that threshold.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Isn't two years of living expenses in the bank about the same as the cost of many airplanes? If so, aren't you echoing the philosophy on which the thread was predicated?

Yeah - I originally typed 6 to 12 months (i.e. meaning as little as $12k to $24k saved; though Feds define poverty level income about $11k/yr for one person - not relevant for someone who would buy to fly) then just before I submitted that post I changed the period to one to two years without revising anything else I wrote. That and the fact that some of what I wrote was better directed toward a "if you don't pay cash..." assertion rather than the "if you can't pay cash..." assertion.

I recall reading a survey (EAA?) result somewhere that indicated the average pilot spends (IIRC) about $10k/yr on flying. I don't own, but based on some estimates I've made, it looks like if renting plus rental insurance plus other non-owning flying expenditures start costing me more than about $12k/yr, then I should considering buying a plane.