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I see a lot of people have grand pianos on this forum. How do people pay for their grand pianos. Do you have an extra 20 grand lying around or do you take it out on a loan or finance it?

If you have one what do you have and how did you pay it? At what age did you buy it. I’m 25 and live with my parents so I’m going to wait a few years until I have my own house.

Besides having the cash, taking a loan, getting a second mortgage, and borrowing against a retirement account, in the USA, there are specialty lenders like Allegro Credit, which specialize in musical instruments. (Not suggesting any or all of these alternatives to just using cash actually make sense - they don't to me, especially after reading articles like this one.)

Get a klunker. 😁

I would always advise against going into debt to buy a piano. Save your money until you can afford to purchase what you want. If you earn your living teaching lessons, then you could potentially justify financing a piano, since it would help you earn your living (i.e. it’s a cost of doing business).

I agree with everyone above that one should not finance (loan, line of credit, piling up on credit cards) a piano purchase. Even if you are earning a living (e.g. teaching) on the piano so to justify a loan, you got be careful about the financial part of such borrowing as well.

I don't see anything wrong with borrowing for a piano. Everybody's circumstances are different though.

Save your money. Set your limit. Take your time. Look a lot. I eventually found a 1929 Knabe concert grand for $6500.

I scoured every ad in the papers and on-line. And one night, perusing "The PennySaver", I found my Estonia 168, almost right out of the box, for $6000. The 84 year old Knabe was sold for $800, and my new baby cost me $5200. And we are still madly in love, 15 years later. So look around, there are deals to be had everywhere.

My used grand piano was not costly, only 5000euros, but I did seriously consider a much more expensive one. My new upright was 9000euros, it took me a while to pay to the bank. Usually better to borrow the money and pay cash. Piano prices are very negotiable. The first asking price for the grand was 8500euros and for the upright 11500euros. They easily came down.

I see nothing wrong in using a loan to buy a piano if one knows the payments are ok and the interest is reasonable. In the time it would have taken me to save that money I would have missed many moons of practice. In fact i have never been able to save anything, I tend to get rid of any extra money fast, there's always someone who needs it more
However I have a fixed job with decent income so I know I can handle the payments.

Although I've always been a pay-as-you-go, stay-out-of-debt person, in my neck of the woods many (most?) people take out loans to buy cars, houses, snowmobiles, motorcycles, RV's, etc., and sometimes all of the above.
If you have an income, can manage the payments, don't mind taking on some debt, and a piano is important enough to you, I don't see why it wouldn't be a fine purchase, certainly no worse than buying any other non-essential item. On the other hand, if you're 25 and still live with your parents, I hope you're paying your way and not just sponging off of them. Clearly, as you stated, a piano purchase is not the first thing on the list.

+1. Very sage advice.

My parents bought my old Kawai grand when I was a young teenager.
They knew I was going to study music.This was the late 60's and they paid it off in installments.I think it took about a year or 18 months to pay it off.

I wasn't able to buy my first grand- a new Yamaha C7e- till I was 35. In 1988 I paid $13,300 out the door from Fields & Sons in Santa Anna. My wife and I put over half down and financed the rest. I've been a Pro musician for over 50 years and have lived in LA for 40 years. So there has always been work.

I kept trading in, or selling, to move up quality wise from the C7.

I had money saved. I only bought my grand piano when I was sure to have enough money to buy a decent one.

My wife and I were big spenders, but we went cold turkey and saved almost every dollar we earned for 4 years. This was enough for a property down-payment, furniture and a nice piano. I wouldn't have been able to do it in that time frame on a single income. Make sure you stick to your guns and buy your house before your piano!

My mother-in-law sold her engagement ring to pay for her piano. The marriage still lasted until he died.

It's a matter for priority I suppose. Many people in the western world has a car. A Japanese grand piano is roughly the cost of a Camry and a German Piano is roughly the cost of a new BMW. For me it is a matter of not getting a new car and keep using the car until it dies.

I was actually just very very lucky, and I'm very grateful for the help I received.

I searched around and bought a very nice used piano for $10K The finish isn’t perfect but the piano is terrific!

How you pay for things depends on your situation. If you have a good FICA score, if you have assets that exceed the amount you are paying, if you have a steady income that is greater than your basic expenses, you might find it more convenient to stretch out payments over a while. Otherwise, you are probably better off lowering your expectations. If you decide to finance anything, it is always better to arrange financing before you shop, especially avoiding store financing. You can get a better deal that way.

When I remodeled my home, I looked around for lines of credit. It turns out that the best rate was secured by my stock portfolio. That taught me how so many of the $1-million-plus homes around here are sold in all-cash deals.