How Do People Afford This

July 6, 2017 | Vanity

[yetidog]

How do people afford RV's?

[RightField]

We're retired, have had modest motorhomes for the past 35 years. Our motto is, "If it's moving, it's breaking." That said, how else could we travel around this great country for less than $1800 per month, sleep in our own bed every night, eat home cooking, and not have to schlep suitcases in and out of hotel rooms.

We afford it by having no mortgage on our house, no debt other than the new motorhome, a decent pension, and we use most of my social security income for the monthly payment. So far it's working for us. We travel about 6 months out of each year.

[onona]

We just bought a 25 foot Forest River Forester Class C. Ford V10.

Nice little rig. 10% down and 20 year loan to finance. $400 bucks a month.

Selling the house next year and going full time.

Woot Woot !

[onona]

He is annoying as hell !

[onona]

A lot of those people are working from their rigs.

That's gonna be me and the missus

[onona]

You going to do the great loop in your boat ?

[Nailbiter]

bflr

[JerryBlackwell]

I don’t have a whole lot of interest in staying in 100/night hotels.

[neal1960]

That’s why I like him. Reminds me a lot of me.

[super7man]

The depreciation on RV’s is phenomenal - I know of nothing that depreciates faster.

A Christmas tree after Dec. 25th. ;o)

[super7man]

or a used Bounder could cost you 10k.

Or even less..... ;o)

[TADSLOS]

What will you be doing?

[TADSLOS]

Eric does some great videography. I especially enjoy his drone and time lapse videos.

[sheana]

Nope. We have done a ton of sailing but now hubby is mostly disabled. It is my 2nd home. I spend about half my time on it. Do a few coastal excursions a year but that’s about it.

[ResisTyr]

My dad was the same way: "depression mentality" Dad's father was a German immigrant who came to America in late 1800's as a boy with 10 bucks in his pocket. He eventually became a successful accountant & real estate investor in NY, owning several homes, a couple in Manhattan 😱 The depression pretty much wiped him out, though he kept the family home & a couple others in Queens. My dentist dad never wanted to own a home, only rented until he was forced to buy the home, that was attached to his dental office, that was for sale after the owners died. He bought the house (with attached dental office) for $58K in 1973. It sold north of $700K in 2012. 😱 Dad passed in 1986. I'm sure he would have been shocked had he know just how much his home investment appreciated!

[RFEngineer]

“Quite a few are financed, along with the vehicles.”

Like this one:

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/debt/can-bankruptcy-stop-rv-repossession.aspx

[Arlis]

Yes, no questions - there are always exceptions to general
statements.....you stumbled on a rare bird - congrats!

Love those old GMC’s - truly classics - but a far cry from a modern Class A.

Hope your ongoing maintenance costs don’t kill you!

[Arlis]

You got me there.......

[RegulatorCountry]

I’ve addressed all the common wear and tear issues, engine has good compression and less than 100K miles, I’ve done practically all the other upgrades and improvements. All that’s left is addressing the interior which isn’t awful but it is 40 years old. The upholstery is OK but a little dry rotted where sun has hit it, and I want to take the carpet out and replace it with something hard surface for easier cleaning, then rugs over that. So much crap builds up in carpet, and it’s hard to get it all out even with regular vacuuming. It does have a functional central vac built in, these were top of the line, period, for their time.

[RegulatorCountry]

Oh, and the driving experience. I’ve been in and driven modern Class A motorhomes. While they’re better than some of the older ones on RWD truck chassis they’re still trucks and drive like them. Driving that GMC is like piloting a jet or something, the cockpit feel of it with the wraparound glass, the low dash, forward and side to side visibility is practically unparalleled. It’s actually so open that passengers upfront can sometimes feel a little exposed at first, but then they inevitably fall in love with the experience, too. Handling isn’t much different from your typical American van, not challenging to drive it. The ride is full size American sedan, Cadillac plush. Modern Class A motorhomes don’t offer that. They have more room, more ceiling height, slide outs and all that but they look like bricks. I’m happy with this one. Even if I had to replace the engine and transaxle, I’d still have less than $30K in it. That won’t get you much of anything recent, let alone anything desirable.

[DungeonMaster]

My coworker's parents sold their house and bought one and headed to Florida.

Meanwhile my wife and I enjoy going to dirt track IMCA races every weekend and my wife is really jonesing for some kind of "camper".