The Iron Decision: Rent, Finance, or Buy the Machine

In the worked example, a $52,000 mini excavator rents for $415 an effective day once delivery is spread in. The same machine on a five-year note costs $773 a month all-in — net of what it sells for at the end — which is $128.81 per used day. The breakeven is 1.9 days a month. If yours works six, the gap over the term is $97,827. You've been buying the machine for years — just not for yourself.

How it works

• The Machine & The Money — eleven inputs, including the one that decides everything: the honest days per month, counted from your last 90 days of invoices, not memory
• Three Ways to Pay — rent vs finance vs cash side by side: cash out the door, monthly out of pocket, true monthly cost net of resale, and cost per used day — the verdict number
• The Breakeven — the days-per-month line, how far past it you are, a plain verdict, and the whole-term check you stop writing
• The Rules — when renting still wins (variety, spikes, nowhere to keep it), the hybrid rule most profitable fleets are built on, and how to make the machine bill its own note as an invoice line item

Built for

Excavation and dirt work · landscapers · GCs and framers · farms and ranches · anyone whose rental invoices have become a monthly bill.

What you get

One .xlsx file, five tabs, instant download. Excel, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers, LibreOffice. No macros, no subscription. Works for any machine — excavator, skid steer, lift, trencher, tractor, trailer.