The average engagement ring costs $5,900—what to know if you want to finance this big purchase

If you don’t want to wait while you save up enough cash for the ring, take a lesson out of LeVar Harris’ playbook. Harris knew he wanted to propose to his college sweetheart, Reanne Swafford-Harris, in 2014. But he was a little tight on cash because he had just bought his first house.

Harris, who worked as a private client banker at the time, didn’t want to use a credit card to buy his fiance’s ring because he saw so many colleagues and clients struggling with debt.

Instead, he followed the advice of one of his clients, who said: “I never buy the things I want, I buy assets that buy the things I want.”

So Harris used his new asset (his house) to his advantage. He rented out the extra bedroom in his 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom home. His friends tried to discourage him, arguing he was too successful to be sharing his own space with roommates.

Within a year, Harris saved up $5,000 from his rental income. He paid for the engagement ring in cash, which came with a discount.

“I was able to negotiate $200 to $300 off of the ring because I paid in cash, and the jeweler didn’t have to pay any processing fees,” Harris tells CNBC Select. Now he and his wife now share similar cash-saving tips on their YouTube channel.