The Truck Spread.
What one monthly payment could build if it went on the clock instead. Two inputs. Fifteen seconds. One number nobody ran for you.
This math is Chapter 3 of APPRENTICE — The Big Three Leaks.
Trucks, tools, toys — and the tool-truck ambush gets Chapter 4 all to itself. Rules you can apply in the parking lot, before the test drive.
START THE BUILD — $12This isn't anti-truck.
If the truck earns, it's a tool — and tools that earn get financed all day long. This math is for the payment that doesn't earn: the chrome package, the trade-up itch, the badge on the tailgate.
The spread is the gap between what a payment costs you and what the same dollars could have built somewhere boring. Historically, broad stock-market index funds have averaged around 7% a year over long stretches — some years way up, some way down. That's the assumption behind this number, and it's an assumption, not a promise.
You don't have to skip the truck. You have to price it in real dollars first. If it's still worth it after that — buy it, drive it, and enjoy it in good conscience. You did the math.