Community Forums

red300zx · 05-07-2020, 06:41 PM

I struggle with financing an assert that depreciates at the rate of an RV.

awol50 · 05-08-2020, 09:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by red300zx

I struggle with financing an assert that depreciates at the rate of an RV.

I try to keep the asset depreciation separate from how you pay for the purchase. One has nothing to do with the other.
But I do dislike debt payments in retirement. Which is probably more of a bad situation if you don't have the cash to pay off the loan at any time.
The larger issue is the absurd long loan lengths. It guarantees the borrower being upside down for the majority of the time of the loan.

Mr_D · 05-08-2020, 10:01 AM

When we bought the present CC Magna we could have paid cash, but it would have cost about $100,000 in income tax penalty. The yearly income from the annuity easily makes the payments so I'm not in any hurry to pay it off. Of course right now the market is down but it'll come back.

DirtRider · 05-09-2020, 09:03 AM

I'd say go cheap on the purchase. Skip luxuries where you can. If also say that it would probably be worth the large expense of renting a motorhome for a couple weeks on rvshare or outdoorsy and trying it out. You don't mention the size of your family. But it could turn out that one of the kids hates it and effectively ruins it. If there aren't any kids, you can probably go smaller, which makes a lot of things easier.

Isaac-1 · 05-09-2020, 10:40 AM

I tend to second the idea of rental, but only if what you are renting is comparable to what you are considering buying. In other words renting a bare bones 25ft Cruise America class C, will not give you a fair comparison to the experience of traveling in a 40 ft diesel pusher.

bluegrass309 · 05-09-2020, 05:13 PM

Today i looked at a 2012 Thor A.C.E 29.1 for $36k and although it's in fair shape it will need tires soon and a new awning and there are no levelers and now I would like to look at a 30 or 33 cuz it seemed like a class A in front but becomes a very small class C towards the back, as they are designed to be. So the discussion began again: If I'm going to finance an RV and pay $400 a month or more for 5,6,or 7 years or more for this, why don't I just get something newer used that someone has all ready payed the depreciation on and pay that same amount monthly and hope I can sell it after 5 or 6 years. Really want the "Class A Experience" but I'm starting to feel it may be the 5th wheel I experience. Thanks everyone. Happy Mothers Day!

koda59 · 05-09-2020, 09:03 PM

You can also look at a consignment center. You might be able to submit a low offer that they will take. That is what I did. Never hurts to ask.

timjet · 05-10-2020, 06:48 AM

Without more knowledge of your financial situation, your retirement plans, your health, etc it's a difficult question to answer.
I will give you my experience.
Though out most of my life I have lived below my means. That meant not buying the biggest house, biggest boat, or biggest RV but that also means not living like a recluse. I enjoyed boats and several modest houses but not the biggest the banks would allow me to have.

As I neared retirement I bought a big boat. It was a ton of money and pricey to maintain but I had the money and as they say the memories were priceless. I did not finance the boat.

After retirement I sold the boat and financed a third for purchase of our motor home. In consultation with our financial advisor, she recommend borrowing the money because if we used before tax money where most of our invests were, we would have higher medicare premiums and our taxes would go up due to the higher income generated by using the pre tax money.
So in our case it made sense to finance a portion of it. I can also afford to loose this money. If I get nothing for our motorhome when we sell it, it will not change our future financial outlook.

So, bottom line you can still have fun in life and enjoy the pleasure of boating camping or whatever, you just don't always have to have the biggest and greatest. Our now 13 yo motorhome reflects that thinking and I would guess we have just as much fun using it as the owner of a new 3/4 million dollar Newel.

Isaac-1 · 05-10-2020, 10:39 AM

My suggestion is if you are constrained by a certain budget, you should consider looking at slightly older coaches, that were a bit higher up the production quality food chain. I can certainly understand the appeal of the layout and price point of the Thor Ace, but the build quality just is not there in my opinion. When it comes to the underlying chassis of gas engine everything built in the last decade has been built on the same Ford F-53 chassis (new version coming this year), with about the only change being the introduction of a 6 speed transmission at some point. The current Ford F53 was introduced in 2006, Workhorse also built class A chassis until they pulled out of the motorhome market in about 2009 with the economic meltdown. So the underlying chassis of a 2007 Ford F53 is basically the same as a 2017, house systems built on top of it may have some more bling (color changing lights, centralized touch screen control panels,...), but really have not changed much either, though some slide technologies have improved. Of course if you look at older coaches you need to be aware of components that age out, mostly rubber parts, hoses, belts, bushings, etc.