simple question regarding how to view a lease as a debt

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And your "feel" would be right in a sense. If you're going to consider the lease as debt in calculating net worth, you'd also have to consider the ability to use the car for the remainder of the lease as an asset. In almost any reasonable scenario except one involving high and unanticipated inflation, the latter would not completely offset the former, but it's something to take into account.


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Completely useless when computing a net worth calculation. The reason is you are paying only for the continuing depreciation of the leased automobile. It is different than being upside down in a regular financed automobile. The difference between what you could sell the car for and your principal balance is your equity minus your debt balance so the auto is an asset, but in the example I gave you still have a negative offset. In a lease you have absolutely no principal equity, future use of the vehicle is not considered an asset on a balance sheet.

Jimbo

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Huh? Who cares what's considered an asset by some specific set of accounting rules (which btw differ significant from country to country and one time period to another and exist mainly for investor convenience) - does the OP have to file his personal accounting records with the SEC? The question is whether the ability to use the vehicle worth something to the OP or not. Whether he can sell it is irrelevant from an accounting standpoint - it merely affects its valuation (obviously a liquid asset is worth more than an illiquid asset).