Calculators are available to help you decide whether to lease or buy a car.

Despite the advice of our older family members, many financial decisions will benefit from the use of math and technology, instead of just “rules of thumb,” and they will depend on the circumstances present at the time of the decision.

Despite the fact that you may have purchased a vehicle or two in the past, you might benefit from using an online calculator that can help you compare whether it might be in your best interest to lease the vehicle this time or buy it.

A good calculator will estimate the residual value of the car at the end of a lease term, allow you to incorporate the cost of extra mileage over the payment-free-miles, allow you plug in the lease rate factor (aka “money factor”), see what it might look like to roll an old lease into a new lease, and compare the tax benefits you might get on a lease with the depreciation deductions you can make on a car you own.

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