If you can't decide if you should buy a vacation home or a camper, here are two simple tests for you:
Test 1: Should you buy a vacation home?
1. For your vacation, do you like to go to the same location again and again?
2. Are you comfortable dealing with additional expenses and other issues coming with owning an additional property?
Test 2: Should I buy a camper?
1. For your vacation, do you prefer a camping atmosphere to a hotel or resort?
2. Are you comfortable dealing with additional issues like winterizing ect. coming with owning a camper?
If both of your answers were "no", that is easy. No is no.
The next question that follows is when to buy? The answer to that will depend on your financial situation and if you concider that purchase a luxury. So it might be now, in few years or it may be never.
Most will put a second home or a camper into the category of "luxury". That only means that for those people who categorize it as luxury, this specific way to spent their time off/travel is not a necessity.
But I am sure there are definitely people out there who will consider a camper a necessity.
The really outdoorsy people who love camping atmosphere and can't imagine their life without it - for them a camper is a necessity.
For those who need the comfort of a cozy place - a place they know is their own and nothing will change - a second home is a necessity.
If you answered only one question with "yes" and another one with "no", then you really need to carefully weigh all positives against all negatives.
Vacation home
If your answer was not a clear "yes", than maybe it is another family member who is more interested in this purchase.
After buying a second home, who will be the one who will end up taking care of it?
Decide carefully, because it may feel like a sacrifice later and may not bring you as much joy.
Let's take an example of a $200,000 vacation home. There may be additional expenses like management fees and maintenance fees, repairs, home owners insurance and property taxes. If you plan to rent it out, the income from renting out will help to keep the expenses down.
The approximate expenses just for this example would be approximately $800 per month in mortgage, probably $1,000 in property taxes, likely $600 in home insurance and maybe $200 in maintenance fees (or more, dependent on a particular property). That is approximately $13,600 in expenses per year.
This amount will take me and my family to Hawaii and on a Carribean cruise. And that every year until the mortgage is paid off. Maybe not in the last few years when the 30 years of inflation will make the travel costs higher.
Of course after 30 yeras you will own the vacation home and I will own only memoris of different places I went to. At that time I will be 74 and I might not care to travel so far anymore and would prefer a vacation home close by. Then you might be ahead.
If you are savvy and will carefully select a great property which you can rent out for the most of the year, that might be a very acceptable solution. You might have enough money for both, keeping the vacation home and travel to other places.
The best here is to carefully evaluate all properties coming in question and see if you are comfortable with all aspects of it.
Camper
Costs of a camper vary and will be very likely less than the costs of a vacation home. So it appears that making this decision may be easier. But a decision is still a decision.
The money in the above example will be enough for many exotic trips, but many times people that buy campers care less for exotic trips and have different preferences.
For someone who likes to stay in a hotel with the convenience of a breakfast prepared by someone else, a room cleaned every day by someone else, and a gym on site, a question about buying a camper will not likely arise.
But I might be wrong.
I know two men who exercise quite regularly and can prepare their own breakfast. One of them already owns a camper and takes it to his shooting competitions which happen many times a year. Those competitions mostly happen in remote areas where hotels are not as good. He also likes hiking. He hiked the entire Appalachian trail. Owning a camper is very natural for him.
My other friend also goes to the gym a lot (four times a week) and that really shows in size of his muscles. Now he is planning to buy a camper. He says he is quite outdoorsy. Will he enjoy the camper?
Of course, it is not the availability of the gym on site that will decide that. More important - does he likes that kind of vacation? Many men do.
At the end, it is only a question of priorities (as first) and finances (as second).
If you can go trough you wishes, separate the priorities out and see if you have enough money for that, any question will be easy to answer.
