So... I've got seven figures in index funds and live off of a meager $30k/year (family of 4) in dividends. This comes to about tax free income, but just barely. Any additional income is almost certainly taxed.
This has made me quite resistant to selling securities to fund projects. For the tax reason, but also because so many businesses are waving 0% financing offers around.
My bias is that '0% financing' actually means 'cost of financing included in the purchase price', and that the supplier/vendor ought to offer me a sizable cash discount but... they never do. Their cash discounts are miniscule.
Often, when I math this out, I'd often be better off taking the 0% financing over years and covering the repayments under my $30k/year tax-free threshold[1]. This is theoretical right now, I haven't gone ahead and asked anyone to check my credit (which is excellent).
My concern is my low income will price me out of all of these 0% financing offers. Has this happened to you?
I would hope being able to show them my Mint net worth screenshot would convince them that I'm a low credit risk, but I feel like most vendors aren't set up to make exceptions like this.
What's your experience been as a low income FI/RE person on 0% financing dealies?
1. This works right now but may not work long-term if I pile up enough projects. But I'd still like to take advantage of opportunities while I can.
EDIT: whoops, I accidentally posted this in the wrong sub-forum. Can a mod move this to Post-FIRE?