How to pay less money to the banks, get loans for everything except a house.

Buying a house is the single largest contribution to a banker's bonus that you will ever make.  Even at today's low interest rates, on a $250,000 loan you will wind up paying out $600K!  Typically, car loans are for 36 months, and interest costs are relatively low.  Consider. You want to buy a $20K car and a $250K house.  If you follow the advice of people that say "pay cash for cars, they're a depreciating asset!" and pay $20K cash for the car instead of putting that $20K towards a house, you wind up paying over $18K more over the life of the home loan because you're paying off that $20K over 30 years instead of 36 months.  By taking out a car loan and putting your cash reserve towards a home down payment instead, you save $17K over the life of the home loan.