A bit happy: I got my 3301 on the Kubota finance program a couple years back. Sent a payoff for the balance earlier this month, as of yesterday it's posted and my balance is $0! Yay, it's all mine now!
Paid off!
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Nice feeling. Neither of mine have had a payment on them for at least 15 years. Our Kubota Ute does however.
85Hokie
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I remember the day well - damn good feeling, does make you want to scratch a new itch however! 
Congratulations !!!
I think I had a 5 yr loan and paid off my Kubota in 48 months.
Its a good feeling to "Own". Anytime I had a mortgage and run a business from my residence I always felt the insurance company or lender could have an issue with me. So I worked hard to Own my property too. A good feeling knowing I have only property taxes to worry about and no one looking over my shoulder.
I think I had a 5 yr loan and paid off my Kubota in 48 months.
Its a good feeling to "Own". Anytime I had a mortgage and run a business from my residence I always felt the insurance company or lender could have an issue with me. So I worked hard to Own my property too. A good feeling knowing I have only property taxes to worry about and no one looking over my shoulder.
RCW
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Good for you! 
I had the 0%/60 month deal on my BX2360 years ago.
Probably not the wisest, but finished it in 25 months. All that did was make me look at larger tractors earlier.
I still have the BX2360.
However, now that our buddy skeets has a new B2601 on it's way to replace his BX2360....I might have to re-think...
Gotta keep up with skeets....
I had the 0%/60 month deal on my BX2360 years ago.
Probably not the wisest, but finished it in 25 months. All that did was make me look at larger tractors earlier.
I still have the BX2360.
However, now that our buddy skeets has a new B2601 on it's way to replace his BX2360....I might have to re-think...
Gotta keep up with skeets....
Congrats! It's a great feeling to actually own things and not have payments. I saved up and bought an L2501 in cash recently. It's a stripped down model with no options but i own it and it's perfect for my needs.
For most of my life I never had any debt. I built our home next to a little house that was on the property when we bought it for cash. That house served us well for five years. Funny, when I tore it down I found most of the wood had stencils on it, since it was built using old crate wood from a nearby manufacturer.
Bought materials in Spring, then saved until the next spring to buy more materials. The reason for the cash purchase is a long story, but basically I just returned to the area and did not have a job. And we needed a place to live and a place with southern exposure to build a partly passive solar home on. And the bank said, "no job, no loan. You may have the cash now, but we do not know what you will do with it, and we are not in the business of repossessing real estate to make money. "
I did buy a used jeep with a loan once and hated the monthly payment for several years. Then a couple decades later I bought a new Ford E350 van, and could have paid cash, but could not make myself do it, when I could get five year financing at 0 percent (on the best negotiated price through the fleet manager of a dealership, not a salesman).
Anyway, now retired and income comes from SS and tax deferred savings. Problem is, taking a chunk out of tax deferred savings has an impact on the amount of income tax paid on whatever SS you get. So if you can get zero percent on a loan (if it is real and the cash price is the same) it pretty much becomes a no brainer to take out a loan.
I get the nice feeling that results from paying off something. For me there is no fear with a loan, as I know I do have the ability to pay off at any time, if needed.
I only recently have begun to understand that there may be some benefit from borrowing, that is, you can enjoy the results sooner than you could if you saved up and paid cash later. This never sunk in when I was younger. Still, like many here, I kind of dislike the idea of borrowing...
I mostly dislike the idea of giving banks money. I borrowed a lot when I was younger and it makes me sick to think of the tens of thousands of dollars I've paid out in interest over the years. I've reached the point in my life where I have no debt other than my mortgage and I plan on keeping it that way.
I have to admit 0% financing on Kubotas sounded tempting to me until I looked into it. When I bought my L2501 I considered it until I found out that there's a doc fee ($250) plus mandatory KTAC insurance ($20/month x 84 months = $1680) plus you don't get the cash discount ($500) = $2430 extra for the privilege of "0% financing".
No thanks, I'll pay cash instead. Even if I have to save up and wait.
DB73, I know where you are coming from. Been there too.
But you numbers trickle down to less than $30 per month over the 84 months. AND include insurance against theft and perhaps other things your would not otherwise have (but may not need anyway).
If you have the cash, that cash could be earning some return over the 84 months, which would offset some of the financing costs.
If one needs to take cash out of tax deferred savings, and pay income tax on that money, there is a cost there too. And future earnings on money withdrawn is lost.
I guess the point really is that it depends on each person's situation. But when thought out, a loan may end up costing less in real terms than it looks like at first.
It took a long time at this end for this to sink in. Part of it could be age. The older you get the less time you have to use whatever you want kind of thing. If you wait to pay cash to save a few bucks, you may not have much time left to use what you saved up for...our time on the planet is limited.
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RCW
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BX2360, FEL, MMM, BX2750D snowblower. 1953 Minneapolis Moline ZAU
12+ years ago we paid off our mortgage and opened a home equity line of credit.
Like many, I don’t care for debt but there’s some circumstances it can make sense.
What was happening was there were certain home projects that just needed to be done,whether for us or the next owners of this place. Also, twins were heading to Cornell University.
We were able to do tons of work on the house. As D1 athletes, sending the twins to Cornell was relatively cheap for them and us. Now, our son that is the aspiring MD is more expensive...
We essentially re-bought the house again in projects. Thankfully, when the line of credit renewed a while back, the appraisal positively reflected the work we had done.
We also added a couple acres next door. While cheap, it more than paid for itself when combined with the house parcel.
The best part is that line of credit now has a balance of $1.45....
Like many, I don’t care for debt but there’s some circumstances it can make sense.
What was happening was there were certain home projects that just needed to be done,whether for us or the next owners of this place. Also, twins were heading to Cornell University.
We were able to do tons of work on the house. As D1 athletes, sending the twins to Cornell was relatively cheap for them and us. Now, our son that is the aspiring MD is more expensive...
We essentially re-bought the house again in projects. Thankfully, when the line of credit renewed a while back, the appraisal positively reflected the work we had done.
We also added a couple acres next door. While cheap, it more than paid for itself when combined with the house parcel.
The best part is that line of credit now has a balance of $1.45....
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It may only be $30 per month but the bottom line is I still would have paid $2430 more for my tractor than paying cash. By your same token, if I take the $2430 I saved paying cash and put it in a Roth IRA earning 8% in 84 months I will have $4164. It works both ways. It all depends on the math for your particular situation.
I hear what you're saying about it depends on people's situation though. I'm only describing my situation and the mistakes I've made over the years. I'm not anti loan either, it depends on what you're buying. For example, a house is generally an appreciating asset. You need a roof over your head whether you rent or buy so you might as well buy and hopefully get something in the end for your monthly payment. I paid $160K for my house 8 years ago. It's now worth $231K. That gain cancels a good chunk of interest I'll pay over the life of the loan so it made sense to take a loan. Plus it's tough for the average person to save enough to buy a house in the first place.
I understand what you're saying about things depending on what stage you're at in life too. I'm closing on a refi on my house next week. I'm going from 5 1/8% to 3 1/8% interest. I'm 47 years old and my goal is to pay off my house by the time I'm retired so the less I pay in interest the quicker I can pay my house off. My father on the other hand is 75 years old. He just refinanced his house as well even though he doesn't have enough time on this earth to pay it off. In his case he just did it to have a lower monthly payment. Like you said, everyone's situation is different.
Where I don't like loans is on depreciating assets like cars. Even at 0% financing you're still losing a ton of money in depreciation. I'll never do a car loan again. The math on a car just plain sucks. Cars are too expensive and really kill your income potential. The average car payment is over $500 per month for 84 months on a new car these days. That's over $42K and when you're done paying you're left with something that you're lucky to be worth 10 - 15K. You end up losing $30K or so, you might as well use that money to light the woodstove, same difference. If you take that same $500/mo and invest it in an 8% Roth IRA over 84 months you'll end up with $56,686. That's a net difference of about $47K. If you're one of these people who always has a car payment you're losing staggering amounts of money over the course of your life. Been there, done that and won't do it again. At least with tractors they hold their value very well so one could make the argument for a loan but cars are a huge loser. Then there's credit cards, that's another place people lose huge amounts of money but it's up to everyone to decide what works for them.
Another thing to consider is risk. If you lose your job for extended periods of time like what happened to a lot of people in 2008 then any debt you have becomes a serious liability because you don't own it. If your income dries up the bank can come take your car, house, tractor, etc. because you don't own them if you're in debt, the bank owns them. That is the true freedom that comes with being debt free. It's piece of mind for me anyways. That's worth more to me than trying to leverage debt but everyone is different.
I always felt pretty much like that too for most of my life.
A thought just popped into my head this morning. If anybody had the cash to buy the tractor outright today, and somebody offered to pay them $30 per month for 84 months if they would delay the purchase for seven years, would they? Some would and some would not I guess.
It seems like this is about what we are doing when we decide not to purchase something with financing.
edit: changed a word or two.
This statement may be true if the market doesn't go south during those 84 months. And I sure wouldn't be betting on it not going south in the next 84 months!!
BigG
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Not really, when I decided I wanted a new tractor it took me less than a year to save up the entire amount. Like I mentioned before I have no debt other than my mortgage. Because of that all I had to do was live frugally and keep purchases to a minimum for 9 months and voila, I went from an 80 year old Ford 9N to a new L2501. No financing necessary and no payments for the next 7 years.
By the same token, I could have purchased my L2501 on one of my credit cards. The payment would only be $30 per month. I wouldn't have had to wait almost a year. Would that make financial sense? It's only $30 per month, right?
It depends on how much risk you're willing to take but the historic averages for Roth IRA's is between 7 and 10% so I threw 8% out there which is on the lower end of the average.
https://www.interest.com/savings/average-roth-ira-returns/
"Historically, Roth IRAs return somewhere between 7% and 10% annually. Depending on market conditions and the level of risk you accept, your actual returns could be higher or lower than this. Many investment advisors tailor Roth IRA plans based on how far out you are from retiring. If you are very far out, you may be able to take on more risk for the potential of higher gains. If retirement is close, a higher risk is something you probably can’t afford."