This is it better to lease or to buy.

This is Everyday Wealth, with award-winning journalist Soledad O'Brien

and personal finance expert Jean Chatsky.

Is it better to lease or to buy in this economic environment?

Well, you know, the good advisor in me would say it depends.

But you know, a lot of times I'm going to advise people it's often better to

lease a car than to buy if a couple of things. If you like a new car every couple of years, if you drive less than 15,000 miles,

if you're not just going to beat the absolute tar out of the car over that period of time.

When we go down that road and when we look at leasing there's a couple of things that I want people to keep in mind

Don't choose any additional options with a leased car because the dealer's going to charge you for them

and you're not going to get your options back

when you turn it in.

Make sure that you get gap insurance.

This protects the person leasing the car

from having to pay the difference between the residual value

and the market value at the end of the lease. Avoid the cap cost reduction. You know,

avoid putting a larger deposit down to reduce your monthly payments.

That's where people get tripped up a lot of times. They think I want to pay 700 bucks a month

and then they kind of back in to the calculation from there.

So that's something to keep in mind.

The big thing is, do not lease beyond the car's warranty.

On the overall decision, you just have to understand yourself.

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