Ok, my input for what it's worth... I've never bought a plane I can't pay cash for. At the moment I have a 172P, tailwheel 150D, 1/2 share in an Auster J1N, and just bought a nice 150G in pieces with a 0 time engine to part out and put the engine in the 150TD

My planes only do about 100 hours a year each. I couldn't justify financing and repayments etc, so I buy cheap planes I can pay cash for, this way I have several for different uses.. Works for me

He who dies with the most toys wins

Our airplane ownership has evolved or sort of over the years.... Or maybe more correctly described as ebbed and flowed.

We first made the mistake of getting out of college/military with too much student loan debt. We were both making modest incomes back then but had a lot of monthly debt service. We knew we wanted a plane earlier rather later so we bought a hanger on a runway as our first home. Had a simple apartment inside. Everyone thought we were crazy for living in a "shop" and not getting a suburban home with an ARM. I'd like to say we were smart on that but it was really just luck.

That lower cot of living gave us the disposable income to finance our first plane; a PA 20-135 for 21k. Flew it for two years racking up 250 hours on it. That turned out to be a "better lucky than good" thing too because all I'd flown at the time was a citabria, a supercub and a 172. Having the pacer for my first plane taught me a lot about tail wheel flying.

Next plane was a trade up from the pacer, an early cessna 180 that was a flying project. Needed a lot but living at the hanger afforded me the time, space and money to fix it up. Flew that for another couple of years. Sold it when our son came just to be conservative....you never know with kids was my thought.

Third plane was a later model 180 with all the bells and whistles. It was owner financed. This was probably my big mistake. I should have waited and built more of a down payment. The payment, increased monthly costs of a more expensive airplane and a move to Houston for work collided. We never got in a real bind but it was taxing enough to feel guilty about the monthly expense. We ended up selling at a good time though and didn't take too much of beating.

Now a few years down the road, things are going good with the job and the family. This time ill be putting at least 40% down and buying the latest model, cleanest plane I can find. I'll more than likely finance the balance through aopa. Looking at a late model 185 this time.