10 Reasons RV Vacations are Better

Crowe,

Not extremely lucky but rather a mind set adhered to when buying what's needed or some extra fun stuff. Not being inclined to keep up with the Jones or go overboard a spend money like a drunken sailor and pay thru the nose while being diligent with large down payments and as short as possible length of loans and then pay them off early. Now you have even much more down for your next major purchase and keeping the same level of payments that got you to is point means half or less length on your next loan. After a couple, you'll have the cash too!

Think of the interest you'll save and have the money with NO payments and still have the luxuries you need in your mind for you and your family. Those are memories you'll cherish forever and no one can take them away and at the same time lay the ground work lesson for your children in their adult life.

Where you choose to live can make a huge difference too. Some areas are awash with overpriced homes, taxes, constant traffic robbing issues eating your off work time and family/leisure hours, and fees for everything but breathing and that may be next. You make your choice and then pay the freight. Is it necessary the play the home poor game over and over? It's a huge drag on your usable incomes. Higher payments, insurance, utility bills, and deeper in debt and then the kids are adults and start their own lives and you still have the big home that comes with the big expenses. The same 2,000 or 3,000 sq ft home and yearly expenses can vary by 5 times + in yearly cost vs income depending on where in the country or local area it's in. If it's your choice to use a huge percentage of your income for that, so be it but then you'll have a very long time mortgage also and other thing will be not possible. It's the choice you made!

Nope, we don't live in a shack as it's a very nice 2800 sq ft walkout ranch home on a large property in a very nice neighborhood and great town area on Lake Michigan with superb schools and very low taxes and have owned it for 46 years now. It's been constantly updated inside and out and even added a large "toy barn" in 1986 for our "stuff" that's finished off to look just like our home. The toy barn is large enough and high enough to hold our 5th wheel, the TC, 3 boats, and all my yard care/snowblowing equipment and still fit a vehicle inside. Best thing we ever did to our main homestead. Been paid off for decades including all improvements as they were done cash and also freed money that allowed us to add other properties and things that earn money and we can sell when we want to. That was our choice and it works! Might not be someone else's choice though and we both will pay for the choices we make.

Everyones budget is different and some with low incomes seem to get a lot more out of life than some with very high incomes and I'm sure you've noticed that. Having taken many vacations using public transportation and staying in structured venues, my wife's working experiences in intense travel, and many with using an RV, there's not even a question as to what's the cheapest overall and the most enjoyable for us and that's why we RV and have no desire to fly anywhere and be holed up in one public used place and eating what's served until flying back and all at great expense.

I'm not telling anyone what they must do but rather telling that there's another side to the coin that's best when starting early in your adult life that can make so much difference. Sometimes one's eyes are so much bigger than their stomach or wallet and the results show!

travelnutz wrote:
et2,

I see! Your $175K MH has zero resale value after 10 years??? So you lost $175K, ya right! You live in Michigan where trailers/towables have a onetime low license fee good for as long as you own it. NOT MH's and there's your license cost problem as it has a very high yearly license fee, very high insurance cost, very low MPG's, very high maintenance and repair costs, fast depreciation, very high dollars initial cost with usually a long term high monthly payment and lots of interest paid, and it's a one use motorized vehicle. We used to have big Allegro MH's ourselves but soon learned the money pit they really are and switched to towables. Yes we took a bath when selling the MH's but it was a ONETIME Bath as we learned our lesson well.

We on the other hand have a dual purpose tow vehicle usable when not RV'ing, TC's, TT's, 5th wheels, all purchased new and paid cash. Not cheapies but Carriage, Lance, etc and we keep them for a very long time. Over ten years! Our 1997 Lance 9.5' cost us $16,840 new and was sold to a private party in 2009 for $5700. Our 1991 Carriage 5th wheel 3 axle Chaise model purchased new with cash cost us $33,700 and a tree feel and crushed it in November 2006 and our insurance sent an adjuster who stated on his report that the Carriage was in exceptional condition and we gat a check for $14,690 in January 2007. We sell our RV's rather than trade in and thats huge differences in dollars. Our 2004.5 Chevy D/A CC LB 4X4 optioned out and ordered in February 2004 and took delivery April 2nd IIRC, and I wrote a check for $36,002 out the door with my prime supplier discounts and it included the sprayed in Rhino bed liner up over the bed sides. Truck has over 150 k now and never had any repairs needed other than normal scheduled maintenance and the 10 year old truck still has a NADA used value of $21,380 as I checked it last Thrusday. Check it out for yourself! Nope! Not going to get a new truck because this truck in perfect and still looks new! Presently have an 11'4" Lance TC and a 29' Carriage Carrilite 5th wheel as we recently sold the Sunline Solaris trailer which we bought real cheap and actually made $2740 on over what we'd paid for it 2 years earlier. We just weren't using it and stuck a "for sale" sign on it with the price we wanted and it sold less than 3 weeks later. Yes, we did come down $400 to make the buyer happy or we'd made more. It was truely like new and only used less than 10 times since new.

You made your purchase decisions and we made ours and ours still have high resale value and we have lost so few dollars owning our items and still will own them for a lot more years as they are in excellent condition and do everything we want. If we wanted a new truck or RV, we'd simply buy them and pay cash, but why?

Using your $175K numbers and the cost of owning and using it, of course you feel as you do as to how expensive it is to RV your style. If you have your wants so exclusive and extreme in cost, of course you'll be upside down on the money end of it. Depreciation alone is more per year on your $175K MH than all our vehicles, boats, amd RV's combined. You make your decisions and we'll make ours and that's why we can pay cash for ours or RV so cheaply in upper end RV units and a paid for truck that's still like new!

Just so we are on the same page everything I've mentioned is based off cash, so there is no " upside down ". You keep bringing up finance charges. It seems you believe because you pay cash your costs are magically nothing or shouldn't be included. Not sure why you keep bringing finance charges into this. You've made it clear you pay cash. If read my previous post I never said my MH didn't have value after 10 years, actually I said it did. Your inserting what you want to hear.

What ever you paid for your equipment is a cost associated with camping, including the portion of ownership of the truck you used for to actually camp. It's a dual purpose truck comment doesn't negate the cost associated with using it camping. Your comparing everyone to your case. Not everyone's truck is dual purpose, I see many in the storage yard just sitting in front of their fiver.

Here's what I see with the figures you provided.

Coat of ownership ( subtracting the price you sold it for or insurance payment ).

Lance 1991 - 2007 = $1187 per year.
Carriage 1997 - 2009 = $928 per year.

So from 1997 - 2007 = $2115 per year for just those two. It doesn't include the truck costs involved, fuel to get to camp, maintenance, insurance, and unless " you" always boondock the camping fees. Most people don't boon-dock. So looking at all this I certainly can see most people spending $4000 to $5000 easily just based off your situation.


So to get back to the reason of the thread, unless your sleeping in a tent this wonderful lifestyle isn't cheaper in most situations then how the rest of the population vacations. Most of the time much more.

It costs me more sure, based off pure numbers. Everyone is different. I'm no more upside down then you or the next guy paying cash, so not sure the relationship your trying to make. I'm not interested in comparing you to me, my previous figures were a example, sorry I brought them up.

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danager wrote:
Avoid flying and ackward interactions with the TSA. Don't worry about overweight bags, long lines and other delays. You are on your own schedule. Along the way, you get to see the sights. If something interests you, you stop. Try that on any other mode of transportation.

Thats why we prefer to drive and camp! Not a fan of the bull of paying big bucks to go thru a "show us your papers" checkpoint only to then get packed into a flying sardine can. Then have to pay 8.00 for a cold stale sandwich. no entertainment/movie/music/sites to see...etc. I really don't like flying anymore. It has to be done sometimes, .

After spending my working life traveling for the company on a schedule and living in hotels/motels, here's my "retired" list.
1. I decide where I'm going and how long I'm going to stay.
2. thru 10. I have my bathroom with me at all times. :)

Deleted

I think your post regarding "costs" is way off. We always pay cash for our trucks, boats, and RV's.

Consider yourself extremely lucky. Not everybody has that luxury or wishes to eat up that much cash at once. With no stick and brick or a paid off mortgage that would be easy for us as well.

et2 wrote:

travelnutz wrote:
et2,

I think your post regarding "costs" is way off. We always pay cash for our trucks, boats, and RV's. Nearly 4 decades beyond making any payments and not going to start now! With our RV's we both boondock if it's where we want to spend a day or even a week and we also stay at decent and nice CG's. I know the costs as we have had 51 years this year of RV'ing and they are a small fraction of the costs of other types of vacations where flying and decent motel/hotel staying along with eating in restaurants etc.

I had flown so often for many years when owning the engineering business for decades and WE have taken the aluminum thingy to go to Hawaii, across the salt water pond called the Atlantic, to the Caribbean, South America etc many times and to add creedence to my words is this: My wife was a world travel agent, trainer, investigator of new venues, and arranging vacations for individuals, couples, families, group vacations etc for AAA and Cruise Holidays for a couple decades before retiring. We've personally been on 16 cruises, many resort venues, and have taken groups as large as 35 to Alaska for as many as 12 days. Fly, rent vans and/or cars for several day tours arounf Alaska, motels/hotels, meals, take a cruise ship back to Vancouver etc, often then take the bus down to Seattle and spend a day or so there, and fly back to Grand Rapids. Some have been the reverse itinerary.

You think I/we don't really know exactly what fly, cruise, resort, motel/hotel etc vacations cost singles, couples, groups, etc???

RV'ing done smartly is so much cheaper unless you over buy or are constantly buying new every couple years, stay in deep debt with the RV/tow vehicle and will only stay in expensive type CG's/resorts. Then it could be closer to a nice resort vacation cost for a couple but still less with the RV with a family of 4. With an RV, it's you who decides where, when, what route, how long anywhere, and what an RV vacation/travel will cost in total including the RV's portion of the true cost. However, with a fly to, stay, meals, fly back, and may even rent a vehicle when staying, the cost is determined by someone else and pay it or leave it. Parking, transfers, options at added costs, you go when and on what they decide upon, etc. When the flight comes back, your butts better be on it!

I don't believe they're one bit. Even if you paid cash for your stuff it doesn't eliminate the cost you paid for it. Every dollar you spend on it with interest or not is a cost that needs to be in the equation.

Now the question is ... what did you spend on it. Are we talking about a used pop-up and a used ranger p/u? Then sure your going to beat the "traditional" vacationers driving or flying to a destination and hotel at some point. But what if you can & wish to buy a $60,000 dually and a $80,000 fiver ( $140,000 total ), or a $200,000 MH, or a $ 300,000 MH, etc., and you can afford to pay cash. There is no way most family's out there are ever going to match that with the drive/fly/hotel in their lifetime. This doesn't even take in consideration license fees, campgrounds fees, fuel, maintenance, and all the other normal vacation costs.

Example, the cost of our MH was $175,000 cash. Let's say over 10 years that would be 17,500 per year not including fuel and all the other costs mentioned above. So you can probably add another $5000 to 10,000 to that for a yearly RVing cost of $22,500 to $27,500 per year. Given, at least you own the equipment and that has some depreciated value now and over time.

We belong to a vacation club and our destination costs are $160 per week around the world and a membership fee if traveling of $380 per year. So we flew to Hawaii on our 30th anniversary last year. Keeping those fees in mind the total cost was for that was just over $5000. It could have been $2000 more if we paid the normal hotel fees like most people.

So that $5000 was way less compared to "our" RVing lifestyle as mentioned above. I don't believe for a minute it's cheaper for most people driving a nice truck trailer combo or MH. There are exceptions, but they're not the majority IMO. I suppose it depends on what you consider over buying. A million dollar MH might not be over buying for some people.

OK, how much would it cost to own, maintain and fuel an airplane? also how much to purchase a hotel? add those expenses in and RV`ing is way,way cheaper!

When we went to Disney World I priced it out both ways. flying and staying at a hotel vs. taking the trailer and staying in Fort Wilderness. in the end the price was a wash. we stayed at the Fort and we got to see Stone Mtn on the way.
Now obviously we can`t drive to Hawaii so that is the only trip I will have to fly, no choice!

Francesca Knowles,

I don't think I want to call it "cheap" but rather doing it smart and sensibly. We've been retired for going on 13 years and RV travel a lot. Looking forward to another 20+ years min of RV'ing and we want to keep plenty plenty of money on hand to buy any new RV, truck, boat, car, suv, etc when we want to as cash and new is about the only way we buy things. We want good stuff and quality built so it lasts and have the first use and wear and uaually keep what we purchase for a long time as we take good care of our stuff.

They are good enough that our kids who are far from poor always want first chance to buy any of them when we decide to sell. Our kids are chips off the old block as they keep themselves out of debt and have plenty of cash on hand to do about anything they want to. Makes us very proud of them! For instance, our daughter's big 5,100 sq ft luxurious home by Lake Michigan is nearly paid for already as they only had a 15 year mortgage to start with. Quickly paid off the 3800 sq ft home they had before so no sticker or high payment shock.

Most people today seem to be playing russian roulette and deep is debt with min downpayment and high payments for 30-40 years. Likely will never have it paid off and maybe even buying a new home again first. Most people today seem to ask first, how much are the payments if we take the note for as long as possible to keep the payment low. DUH! Can you say interest and paying 2-3 times the original cost of the home? Those people seem to never own anything free and clear as the will buy again before the present model/item is even half paid for which slaps them into deeper debt and more long term patments. We won't do it nor will our kids.

We could care less how or what other people do with vacations, homes, RV's trucks, MH's, boats, etc. They make their decisions and we make ours and throwing money away isn't one of them for us as we plan to live to over a hundred and be RV'ing at least to our 90's. We have a great future yet planned and why not? A lot more fun and very possible having no payments for items/RV's.

Well, shucks. Didn't mean to open a big ol' can o' worms with my "RVing is better because it's cheap" post.

Is cheap BAD???? :?