Ideal Millenial Entrepreneur Podcast
Who is this podcast for? Great question, if you are a 9-5 employee and sick and tired of earning a paycheck and not enough money to save. You will learn how to create wealth outside of your 9-5 gig. This podcast will take you on a journey from novice to expert wealth builder and you can make a decision whether to leave or stay at your 9-5 job once you achieve your financial independence or financial freedom. Show host Amir Estimo will not gate keep any information by sharing and teaching on this podcast:
-How money works for you, not you work for it.
-How to grow income outside of your paycheck.
-Understand the ebbs and flows of entrepreneurship.
-How to take actionable steps on creating wealth and personal finance.
-How to be a successful Land Investor.
Ideal Millenial Entrepreneur Podcast
126: Navigating Today's Expensive Auto Market: What's Your Best Vehicle Option?
Car buying has become increasingly complicated and shockingly expensive. With electric vehicles commanding $60,000+ price tags and potential tariffs threatening to push costs even higher, how does the average millennial make a smart decision in today's auto market?
Drawing from personal experience transitioning from gas vehicles to a hybrid Honda Accord, I explore the genuine pros and cons of different powertrain options based on real-world usage. The hybrid sweet spot provides nearly 500 miles of range compared to Tesla's 350, presenting a compelling middle ground for those balancing environmental concerns with practical needs. But is that always the right choice?
What many car buyers don't realize is that the lease-to-purchase pathway often costs substantially more than direct financing. When your lease ends, you lose negotiation power on the residual value, potentially costing thousands more than if you'd financed from the beginning. This revelatory insight comes from someone who's made this exact mistake multiple times before finally understanding the financial implications.
Your lifestyle should ultimately dictate your vehicle choice. Do you work remotely and rarely drive more than locally? Electric might make perfect sense. Do you take frequent road trips? The flexibility of gas or hybrid becomes crucial. With maintenance considerations, fuel prices varying dramatically by region, and different vehicle types offering distinct advantages, the decision matrix extends far beyond sticker price.
Whether you're contemplating your first serious vehicle purchase or replacing an aging car, this episode provides practical guidance for navigating the most complicated auto market in generations. What type of vehicle are you considering, and what factors matter most in your decision process? Share your thoughts and join the conversation!
This podcast is sponsored by Starvelle Talent Group. Our goal is to help the culture build Wealth Assets Prosperity. We appreciate you taking the time to listen to this episode and share the content if you find value.
Welcome to the Ideal Millennial Entrepreneur Podcast. I am your host, amir Estimo. Thank you for tuning in in today's podcast episode, because you could be doing anything in this world, but the fact that you are listening to this podcast episode is much appreciated. First and foremost, I would like to just give you guys an update. The podcast has actually been rebranded from Thank Generational Wealth to Ideal Millennial Entrepreneur Podcast, and some of you may wonder why was that done? Well, the reason for that being done was because it was actually really time for the podcast to be rebranded.
Speaker 1:And one thing about podcasting is, especially if you're trying to grow, about podcasting is especially if you're trying to grow is finding that niche and where do you fit in basically? Or who is your target demographic and the ideal listener? And basically you're trying to have an idea of who can listen to this podcast and have a who can learn from this podcast, you know, find some information about his podcast and can basically, in a sense, you know, grow. You know there's some information that this podcast share. Who's the ideal listener? And for a while I have been thinking about that. I have been thinking about that and I just had to say I didn't really know exactly what I wanted to do. I never really thought about a niche really like that, because some people would say, well, you got a niche and because it's better and you know if you're talking to. If you're, you don't have a niche, you're talking to everybody and everybody gets you know. Basically, in a sense, doesn't really vibe with, may not vibe with your message. Some the people who do. Then you say, okay, these are the people that you would expect to listen to this podcast, and for me, for a while, that was what I was basically battling with, and also, too, just to make the title more SEO friendly too at the same time.
Speaker 1:But the real reason is I've always thought about myself being born. So millennial is considered anybody born between 1981 to 1994. I've even seen anybody born from 1981 to 1996. So let's just go with either or it doesn't matter, but we know the beginning part is 1981. And I said to myself well, I feel that when it comes to this podcast, that that could be my target audience, anybody in that, my target audience, anybody in that. Because if I share any message, because I'm coming from a perspective of being a cause, most people probably my age is either they could be an entrepreneur or they're a nine to five employee. But for me I fit in kind of both that realm of nine to five, have a nine to five and then working on your five to nine, have a nine to five and then working on your five to nine, and also to probably married. You could be maybe even single, but your parent because there's some things I'm talking about on the podcast could be from the eyes or the lens of someone who's a parent, maybe married, etc. So, but within that range, and not to say that anybody who listened to this podcast couldn't really learn from it, but from the, from the, from the perspective of who can really listen to this podcast and who's this podcast, for that's probably the target audience. But anybody can learn, because there could be a title I talk about here and anybody can learn from that, this topic.
Speaker 1:So to me, the podcast just needed to be rebranded and I think that hopefully this is, you know, not a knock and not to say that, oh, I'm just like really targeting this, this, this demographic. Yes, I am, but at the same time, at the same time, anybody can listen to this information. So if you're, you're someone who's on the path of being an entrepreneur, let's say, you want to be a land investor. You know, because for us people my age and my age range, we are either building wealth or beginning to build wealth or not, because a lot of the information that we could have learned, maybe at home, maybe we didn't have a parent, maybe we come from Caribbean background, or we come from an immigrant background, whatnot, and we just didn't have that knowledge. So I feel, hopefully this podcast resonates with you and if it still does, please like and share the podcast and subscribe to the podcast if you enjoy this content. This content comes out every Wednesday, 6 am Central Standard Time and the goal is to hopefully build a community of like minded individuals where we're not gatekeeping information but we're sharing. But anyway.
Speaker 1:So the podcast, today's episode, that's besides that, but today's episode I'm going to talk about electric versus hybrid, versus if you are in a car market today, versus gas, I guess. But if you're in the car market today, how do you feel about the car market? Like, how do you feel about the auto market today? As we can see, the auto market, cars are now extremely expensive and it's probably going to get even more expensive due to the tariffs that Trump is proposing and how is it going to be to buy a car these days? I mean, like, if you've been in the market or have been in the market or was in the market, what, what? What was your thoughts about buying a car? Because I haven't bought a car since old one.
Speaker 1:So, for me, I first started off and I bought a, actually leased the car for probably about 2016, up until 21. I was 23 or 24. I was actually leasing a car. I actually leased two vehicles. My wife, we list. We leased three, the final vehicles. We end up just buying vehicles. We end up just buying. And let me tell you something, folks if you have an option to either lease or finance a vehicle, either do one or the other at that moment and what I mean by that is when you lease and then you end up financing later, it actually costs you more money. So that's a lesson learned for me and my wife.
Speaker 1:When I actually broke down, I forgot there was somebody I seen on YouTube. Because we were, we were thinking about OK, who can we, what can we do? And like, what would be what? What was our option? Do we continue leasing and like? For example, I leased my very first Honda Accord Sport. I leased my very first Honda Accord Sport. So I had a Honda Accord Sport and I had that car from 2018 up until 20. I had that car from 2018 to 2021.
Speaker 1:And I got back in another lease and that vehicle I ended up leasing from 21 to 24 or 23 or something, something that like two or three years, and then I end up end up buying the vehicle. Um, I ended up buying this last vehicle, which was a 21 Honda Accord hybrid. I went to a hybrid route this time and but then when I was, my lease was up and I said, okay, you know, maybe I should just look at leasing again. And I mean the lease payment jumped like 200 bucks so that you could tell the market shifted. And then for me it was in my wax car. We leased it originally from 2016 to I think about 2019. We had a car released a Honda CRV, and then all suddenly then we went from 19 and 21, released a pilot, and then we released another pilot in 21 to 23 or 24. Same thing. So both our cars, the final ones, we end up leasing, we end up financing at the end.
Speaker 1:But yeah, and when I really thought about it, at the end I said, man, and then even my wife's car, we went to go lease again when our lease was up and then when we want to go back in the market to go find another vehicle, because I was OK, I was looking at a couple of vehicles. So this is what I was saying what if you're in the market, what really fits you? So for me, I went from gas to hybrid and I just thought about it. I went from gas to hybrid and I just thought about it. I said, man, you know, if I bought a high, if I bought a gas, I kind of liked that hybrid. I kind of liked because I looked into the hybrids and Honda had some. It was a really good deal at the time too, and Honda's had some really good hybrids. So for me it was like okay, um, it was a combination of well, if you gas your car, if you're fueling your car, that's one thing.
Speaker 1:But at the same token too, when it comes to the environment, I was kind of like in that moment like, well, you know, at least electric vehicle sounds great. But then, when I looked into electric vehicles, first of all I was looking, uh, probably since uh 20 before I had leased that vehicle in 21. Um, I was looking at a Tesla and I was looking at like that was my car. I had a, I had a wallpaper or screensaver or whatever you call it, of a Tesla. I was like I was going to get a Tesla. And then I happened to watch a TikTok of Kevin Frazier explaining his reason, explaining the whole electric, how electric vehicle works, and and at the end I was like man, this sounds more like an inconvenience. But then when I thought about it is for me is someone who works from home. I work from home twice a day, twice a week. Sorry, I work from home twice a week and then I go to the office three times a week. So that really wouldn't have mattered in retrospect if I had probably just went with an electric vehicle.
Speaker 1:I'm someone I don't like taking long trips on a vehicle. I don't really like driving. I'm not someone who enjoys driving a lot. I'm okay with just if I need to get somewhere flying. I'm not someone that enjoys at all enjoys driving on a long road trip. The most you probably get out of me is maybe three to four hours. That's just. That's just what it is for me, because it's just, um, when I grew up, growing up, especially when I went to college, I was really the only person that had a vehicle, and with all my friends so if we needed to take a long road trip and on top of that was manual so no one really drive manual and I had a car, so we were trying, we would be driving everywhere, pretty much Florida, go to Tallahassee, and weekends We'd go to Daytona, go to Miami, go back home. So for me it was just the thrill of driving is just not there sitting in a car for X amount of hours. It just was not my thing anymore. But now I mean, if you're going somewhere close to two-hour proximity, okay, I can hop on a car, drive boom and get there. But we're talking like you're taking a six, seven, eight hour. I have a limit, more like four hours and that's it. I live in Texas and I've had to travel to San Antonio. From Dallas to San Antonio. That's five hours and I probably I don't know.
Speaker 1:That's kind of a hit or miss for me, but for me that was my thought process at the moment, because when Kevin Frazier was mentioning that was like it was mentioning the income, it was mentioning basically his experience with having an electric vehicle. Now, you know when a vehicle needs to be juiced up again. I mean, you still have the same maintenance Basically, you just don't have to gas up your car and then you just have to. Basically, if you have a Tesla, then you can charge it at your home. I mean, it was just at that moment I said, man, is it even worth really getting an electric vehicle? I don't know. So at that moment I said, man, you know, is it even worth really getting an electric vehicle? I don't know. So at that moment I said this looks like more of a convenience, inconvenience for me than convenience. So I went the hybrid route. I like the fact that you still have the electric aspect and you have the gas aspect.
Speaker 1:I knew, I knew I kind of wanted to get out of that gas for me personally. Now, my wife's car is gas, but for me that car burns gas, in my opinion. So if you're looking at a Honda Pilot, Honda Pilots do burn gas, so that for me it was just like okay. Well, now I'm looking at it and really looking at it and thinking about it three years later. Now my daughter is 18 and she eventually needs her own vehicle and the thought process is OK, do I share? Do I give her my car with my car payment and do I give the wire We'll get another car? And if I were getting another car, what? What car would I actually be looking at? Do I go fully electric or I stay within the hybrid range?
Speaker 1:And I think for me, um, I think, looking at it now, first of all, electric vehicles are extremely expensive right now and you have to basically really shop around to really find a good deal. I mean Tesla's, you know that's probably the number one right now in the US, and then you have all these other car companies, from Hyundai, from Kia, to every company in their mama now is in the electric vehicle market. But my question to myself and anybody else who's in that market is if you go get something that's not really a Tesla, how does that work? As far as you know, charging station, you know, does it fully charge the range? How much range can you get? Because the hybrid I currently own right now is that I can get up to 492 miles of range on there.
Speaker 1:So, and I remember during the pandemic, when we were in kind of in the height of the pandemic, I was going, maybe when I was working from home, primarily because I spent two years working from home and then primarily I was just. I was just. I would go maybe two weeks, three weeks, not even fill up the car. But now that I'm on the road more, I'm pretty much filling up every week. But I can go a week and a half on a hybrid and not have to fill it up. So my question then was okay, how much range are we really losing now If it's not basically the Tesla? I mean Tesla, I think I've heard it goes up to like 350 miles of range. So I just had to say, okay, well, now that's one. Do I go fully electric or I stay within the hybrid range?
Speaker 1:I know for myself I can't do gas, because especially going to work and when I do have to go to office where I can really save more gas on, is really either hybrid or electric, because because of my wife's car, we're putting anywhere between 100. My wife's car, we're putting anywhere between a hundred. I mean, sometimes we're only really filling up once a week, but for the most part sometimes it'd be twice a week, depending on you know how much activity she got going outside of. Just you know, cause she works from home, but just from her normal driving around, going somewhere here and there, dropping kids off to school. How much are we really filling up? So that was an aspect. We have to kind of find that medium, because now with gas prices I mean gas prices especially here in Texas it's not too bad. I mean, you're getting anywhere between $2.59 a gallon, $2.79 a gallon, somewhere in that range, but in some states you're probably paying $3.50, $3.70. Somewhere in that range, but in some states you're probably paying $350, $370. So now you have to shift more towards going.
Speaker 1:Do I go electric, hybrid? How do we find that balance? And that's why I'm asking you is if you're in the market, what are you looking at? What's important to you when it comes to electric, hybrid or gas car? And if you go electric, why? Because even for me I'm looking at it and it's okay.
Speaker 1:At first it didn't make sense, but now, going back now and looking at it and saying, well, maybe it probably would have been. It's not as bad, because if you're not taking long road trips, you're someone like me, I don't. It's not. Like you know, we travel Houston a lot or travel to San Antonio or Austin, if there was any of those three. It's not that bad comparing those three hours, four hours, five hour drives. Austin is three hours, houston is about four or five hours give or take, and then San Antonio is about five hours. But we don't go to those places very often, and then when we do travel out, it's either outside the country or outside the state. So to me, um, and, and if that happens I'm fine, but now, especially these days, with all these plane crashing and stuff like that, you know it makes you, it makes you have to rethink that too, even that aspect of it.
Speaker 1:But anyways, if you're in the market for yourself, you know you're looking at a vehicle, what, what are you looking at? What's important to you, you know, is it? You know what, what, what do you find that's important to you when you're making this car decision, especially in today's market? Because it just looks like cars right now are extremely expensive. I mean, I was looking at a car I think it was the Honda Prologue, I think they call it Prologue or Prologue, whatever and that car they're asking like $60,000, $65,000. I'm like, for a car, like, wow, where did this come from? $65,000? I can never see myself spending that money for a car, I mean $65,000, is outrageous in.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm going back and saying this too, that it's probably better if you just finance or lease. Look at those two options. If you're going to lease, continue leasing. If you're going to finance, you know that. Okay, you're going to have this vehicle. This is actually the vehicle you actually want. So that's where you got to really think about it, because at the end you don't really, with the lease, the thing is is that you actually end up like a car that probably would have cost you if you had just financed it. Maybe, let's say, let's say you went finance route 25,000 base price and then, after everything, let's say 30.
Speaker 1:I think for me, in my opinion, is when you go lease to finance, it's probably you're paying maybe five to six thousand dollars more I, and on top of that you really don't have because of what the dealer does or wherever you lease from. What they do is at the end of your lease let's say that three year term after that end of that lease, what they do is they have a price that they say, hey, this is, this is the bottom price, and there's really no negotiation on your end versus if you were to go just buy a car and finance a car from the get-go, you can probably you have more negotiation power, um, and I didn't realize that until the end of our lease. And then it was like, well, I was like, hey, you know, no, no, what the dealer has, that that's it. So you know, that's what they think the value of the car is. So that was a to me a con. Um, you end up finding later on from lease to finance, that if you go that route, just know that, if you go that route, it's going to be. You're going to have to think about that because in that car you probably end up that was like 21. Let's say you got that car and at the end it's like 21. That's what they're saying hey, the car is work, but if you probably finance it again, you can probably cheat, get it down maybe 19, 18, depending and then you have a smaller monthly payment. So those are some cons that I really realized, learning on going from that lease to finance route, that you don't have the negotiation power and it actually end up costing you more in the long run.
Speaker 1:Now, if you go the leasing route, obviously leasing you're going to pay a little bit less money currently versus finance, and that depends on if you put a lot of money down. But at the end, what's important to you Is it hey, are you traveling a lot? If you lease, you know that you have a mile that you can't hit, and if you go over that, then at the end of the day you might as well. If you're someone that drives 15,000, 20,000 miles a year and you're only allowed eight eight, let's say you're allowed 12,000 miles, which is your max, then probably leasing is not for you. You might as well just finance a vehicle. But if you're driving that much too, within three years that's like 60,000 miles you're putting in your vehicle. That is a lot of wear and tear already and that means you're going to have to. You're going to probably end up I mean, most vehicle independent on the brand is you're probably going to end up spending more money anyways down the long run. So I just wanted to share this with you guys, just kind of get you guys the thoughts on.
Speaker 1:Thinking about the market today, especially here in the U? S, is why cars, like cars, are so, so expensive. Now, it's just extremely expensive. And is it even worth it? Is it good to just continue leasing a vehicle? And if you do lease, what type of vehicle are you looking at? You know it's good that we have options. I think that's the good best thing that could have happened in the auto market was having an option. Just because back then it was always either gas and if you're growing up, my time you had manual, you had a manual automatic and that was it. But they're all gas. There was never really electrical, there was hybrid and then there's gas. It was just, it was, it was gas and that was it. And now the fact that now we have all these options, you can go look at an electrical vehicle, you can go look at a hybrid, you can look at a gas or stay with a gas vehicle.
Speaker 1:I mean, do you like trucks?
Speaker 1:Do you like mid-sized vehicles?
Speaker 1:Do you like full-size vehicles? Do you like, uh, kind of like, what they call mini scvs? You know something like a crv, something like a toyota raft 4 um. And then, what matters to you brand, you know, have you always been someone who's stick to toyota or he's always been someone that stick to Honda? And what is what's those matters to you, is it? Hey, I need longevity. Most brands that you know Honda's, toyota's, et cetera, is you're going to get longevity and you know you can run those cars 100, 120, 100. You can get those, those cars, when you're keeping up with the maintenance. Those could be a good thing. You can get those cars on you keeping up with the maintenance. Those could be a good thing.
Speaker 1:So, anyways, today's podcast was basically just me kind of sharing with you guys that hey, if you're in the market today, what are you thinking? What do you see? Is it even worth it right now to be in the market to buy a vehicle? Or you just go the leasing route? So I appreciate you taking the time Again. Share this podcast if you enjoy the content. We're on our way to 10,000 downloads and anything any contribution you can do helps. Much appreciated. Much love, peace. See you next week. Thank you.