I ran into a friend of mine this morning and as we stood talking on the sidewalk I noticed that he had a Porsche keyring in his hand.  While we’d been talking I’d been admiring the Porsche Boxster parked right in front of us.

I asked him if it was his – knowing that he’d been wanting a Porsche for some time.  He’s retired and can well afford one.

What surprised me was that he said, “Matt, I did just what you said to do. I paid cash!” You need to understand that this is gentleman became financially independent with no help from me, but he loves my class Creating True Financial Independence and the concepts I teach.

He went on to tell me how he’d saved for three years for this car.  Three years ago he’d looked at a new one priced at $44,000.  The one I was looking at was a 5 year-old Boxster with just 16,000 miles.  He paid $26,000 for this one; instead of $47,600 for a new 2010 model.

He went on to add that he carries liability only insurance.

Here’s the three lessons from this story:

1. Financially independent people got that way by saving for their purchases.
2. Buying used cars is important.  Cars go down in value in the first few years of ownership.
3. Insure only what you can’t afford to replace.  This goes for electronics, cars and all other possessions.

Congratulations friend you deserve this Porsche!