Floridastorm wrote:
Thank you so much all for the feedback. Very informative and interesting.
However, there may have been a bit of misinterpretation regarding my inquiry. I was primarily addressing "recoverable" funds.
As an example; One purchases a 10 year old motor home in good shape. One that does not require rebuilding or extensive work. You purchase it for $30,000. You keep it for 10 years, use it for recreation, and then sell it when finished with it for $15,000. (this is just a ballpark example and not an actual). You have recovered half of your investment. In fact, you can even figure, the funds you recovered from the sale, into the total expenses for the motorhome and traveling over a 10 year period.
I also somehow think that, when you consider how much it costs to drive your car on vacation, stay at hotels (sorry, but at my age I don't do Motel 6 and Super 8. Hampton Inns routinely are $100 per day ), 3 meals a day at restaurants (again, I don't do McDonalds), as opposed to driving your motor home, eating the same food, in the motor home, that you would eat at home, and occasionally staying at a medium priced RV park and other times staying at rest stops and big box store parking lots, then I'm wondering how, except for maintenance on the motor home and a little less gas mileage, that traveling in your car could possibly be less expensive.
I do agree, it you purchase a new motor home or one that is less than 5 years old, you will not recoup as much percentage wise that you would with a 10 year old motor home.
Does this add some clarification?
Recovering your expense isn't really the accurate term when you lost half you money is it? That's called losing half of your investment. Add insurance, tires, maintenance and the toll starts coming in more around an 80% loss.
I think we all get your point. And as has been stated many times, that RV travel - the trips themselves - can definitely be more cost effective than conventional travel. But, to use your example above, you have lost 50% of your Rv's value over 10 years. When you use terms like "investment" and "recover expenses", those terms are not applicable to Rv's. It just doesn't happen. There is no investing going on from a financial perspective. Lifestyle? Sure. Financially, it's a loss. Nothing recovered. You won't lose nearly as much on a car, and certainly not a house. So even though the trip may cost more conventionally, you still lose more money over the typical ownership. Mind you, most of the folks that chimed in are seasoned Rver's and have been at this game a while. And almost unanimously agree, financially, it's a losing investment. I am certain, if it's your dying wish to buy an RV and set up a scenario where you are out to prove that you can break even vs conventional travel, you could do it. But you'd have to set all things equal. Maintenance on a car vs RV, same destination, same food, etc etc. and then bake in the amortized cost of your rv AND - this is important - it's value at the end of the experiment. I think you will find that despite short term trip savings, long term loss will be at the bottom line due to depreciation, fuel and maintenance. Especially in an RV 10 years old that you are keeping for 10 years. Tires alone will cost you $3-6k.
In financial terms, if someone approached you to buy an investment and almost guaranteed that in 10 years it's worth 50% of what you paid, would you consider that an investment? You can't factor usage, because everything has usage so it's value becomes moot. If you factor usage on an Rv as a way to trick the numbers into less of a loss, then make it fair and do the same to the car you used, or the hotel you used, or the house you used which is still appreciating in value. You need to keep things relative. apples to apples. RV's are worth less than what you paid for them after you own it. It's that simple. trips may be less in an RV simply by virtue of the cost of hotel vs CG. But this isn't a constant. Food is a wash. A car is MUCH cheaper to wn and pay for than an RV and gas is fuel cost is much less. As is tires and maintenance. After all that, even if the trip is less in the RV, the RV itself - it's cost, maintenance and depreciation - outweigh the perceived gain. And by the way, you haven't gained anything financially. No one has to take vacations. It's a choice. Personal trips of any kind are a total loss financially.
