Rick Jay wrote:
ugh (OP),
Sorry to hear you gave up on the Class A option. There's no better way to travel with a family than in a motorhome. I'd keep it in the running if that's something you really would like to do.
That said, as others have pointed out, you'll have to figure out for your own situation what you're comfortable with. When we bought our first RV almost 11 years ago (and still own it), we bought new, put 25% down and financed the balance for 20 years, but paid it off in 10 years. We had an ill 7 year old child and there were things we wanted to do at that time due to her health, not when we saved up enough. There are some things more important than money. :)
Anyway, I developed a somewhat unconventional way of paying loans off early, which I used on the motorhome. For each payment, I add an extra principal payment. Early on, when the loan is new, this doesn't add much to the monthly payments. Every month, the payment grows by a small amount. The last year, the payments are quite a bit higher, but financially, my salary has grown in the years since the note was written, so it's doable.
Interest rates are low now and every additional year of the loan the dollars you're paying back are worth less and less due to inflation. You're money is losing value sitting in the bank, so unless you have a good investment strategy, it's not doing any good there.
Oh, when I bought the motorhome back then, almost all of our friends and family thought we were completely nuts for spending $100k on a motorhome. Our first one, yet. Most had a change of heart after our daughter passed away at the age of 12. Many of the "pay cash only" folks learned a bit of a lesson about what really is most important in life and personally commended me for being "brave enough" to make that kind of commitment. Most of them said they wouldn't have been able to do the same. Seeing what the motorhome enabled us to do with her, they think I made the right decision.
Anyway, good luck in your search and safe travels,
~Rick
Wow! Very touching post. I am truly sorry about your loss. My family and I just received a bad news about another member of our family. This just reinforces our thoughts and feelings that we should enjoy life now! You right, class A would be a better choice than a TT for us. We will keep it on our list. We plan to look at used class A this weekend.
Thank you for sharing your story as I am sure it was not easy.
