subject: Why Cash Is King Everytime [print this page] If you've ever heard the term cash is king but never really understood what it meant, I'm about to explain it to you
First, let's address what you have to do just to get credit. Step one: you have to find some lenders. This can be a bank, credit card company, private lender, hard money lender or a friend. That in of itself can take a lot of time and research. After that, you have understand the interest rate you will be charged, the terms of the agreement and the length of the loan period. For credit cards, it can be almost infinite but for mortgages, student loans or car loans, the term is fixed in years or months. For home loans, it can typically be fifteen or thirty years, for car loan 5 years. Next, you will have to provide all sorts of documentation to a lender for them to approve you and I mean every document you own that provides proof of your money and assets. Bank statements, tax filing information, paycheck stubs, investment account statements, all other assets you own (antiques, art, jewelry) that are really valuable. They will also check your credit. The list goes on and on. Then you have to wait and pray you get approved. This process can easily take five days and it could be thirty days before you get any money. What you have to think about here is how much of your time it takes you to get money via credit and if it's worth it. You then have to think about how much interest you'll pay just to buy the thing you'll need. Lastly, you have to understand that the more debt you take on, the less you'll be able to get later. If you already have a lot of debt and want to buy a house, good luck. So in terms of savings strategies, credit doesn't sound that good, right? Now on to cash.
Cash requires none of the time credit does. The money is in your account so there's no approval process. You're approved. Talk about a no doc loan! Once a contract is signed, you spend 10 minutes at your bank and bring a certified check to the closing or the dealership For lower priced items you can just write a check or pay cash on the spot and save on credit card interest too. You won't have to pay any interest on you purchase and seller's will salivate knowing you're a cash buying. With cash purchases you can often negotiate for a better price. You can easily get a 20% reduction on a house purchase this way. Just think how ecstatic the seller will be when they hear the offer is from an all cash buyer and they can close in 10 days! They know the deal will close and will trade the price for the stress of waiting or someone else being denied a loan.
