<klink type="cncpt">Tell me about the Purchase Wizard</klink>
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<p>Are you wondering how to finance a vacation, a new car, or that upcoming splurge? If you're thinking of making a big purchase in the next year or so, and it isn't part of your lifetime plan, the Purchase Wizard can help you figure out your best financing choice. Then, you can buy what you want and save money at the same time.</p>
<p>With the Purchase Wizard, you'll find out about the implications of financing a purchase by:</p>
<ul>
<li>Using cash savings (current or future).</li>
<li>Selling investments.</li>
<li>Using your credit cards.</li>
<li>Taking out a loan (of any type, including a line of credit or a mortgage refinance).</li>
</ul>
<p>To help you analyze your options, the Purchase Wizard:</p>
<ul>
<li>Uses information on your planned purchase and your finances to suggest the best ways you could finance the purchase.</li>
<li>Gives you estimates of how much each financing choice would cost you in both the short term and the long term.</li>
<li>Determines whether a financing method would also mean you'd have to pay capital gains.</li>
<li>Estimates the capital gains you would owe and what that means for how much the purchase would end up really costing.</li>
<li>Helps you decide which investments to sell, if you want to pursue that option.</li>
<li>Tells you whether changing the timing of your purchase could save you money.</li>
</ul>
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<tease>How do I use the Purchase Wizard?</tease>
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<ol>
<li>On the <emph>Planner</emph> menu, click <emph>Purchase Wizard</emph>.</li>
<li>Follow the instructions on the screen.</li>
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<tease>What if I don't expect to buy within a year?</tease>
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<p>Use the Lifetime Planner to plan for long-term events.</p>
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<tease>Does the Purchase Wizard use information from the rest of my Money file?</tease>
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<p>Yes. The Purchase Wizard uses any information you've entered about your long-term savings and investment accounts (except for retirement and dependents' accounts), short-term savings accounts, bank accounts, and cash accounts. It also uses information you've entered about your credit card interest rates. If you want to use different figures, you can edit the information in the Purchase Wizard. Your changes won't affect the rest of your Money file.</p>
