Be Perpared to Pay if you want to Play

time2roll wrote:

Chuck .. wrote:
Also, the Credit Union said it is a clever idea to get a loan or loans before retirement because if your income drops, you just might not qualify for the amount you requested.

Now there is some of the worst advice on retirement I have ever read. :(

Seriously. I have a buddy who is unbelievably bad at handling his finances. He desperately wanted to retire at 58 Y.O from a crappy job. He was too young for his SS, and took a steep discount on his small pension to start early. As a final act of stupidity, he trades in a perfectly good older motorhome and finances a new, very low end Class A. He does this based on his current income, then retires as soon as the motorhome is in his driveway. There is simply no way he can afford to own the thing is his retirement.

As for the OP's rant, take the advice of a few savvy folks here. Buy what you can afford to pay cash for. RVs are not an investment, they are a horrible financial decision and depreciate like a rock falling off a cliff. A new truck and fifth wheel might look like it's going to run $1800 a month for payments, but you can add at least another ten grand a year in depreciation on top of that, for the first 3-5 years. My motorhome was seven years old, with low miles, and in extremely good condition. It cost me exactly 1/4 of what a similar new one would be. Meaning that it lost roughly 10% of it's original purchase price every one of those seven years.