For those who RV,
Rich mentioned a 4 dayer for $100. Sounds great but I wonder what investment you need to make such a trip possible.
Are there any estimates of what it costs for the actual equipment? If you could sell your house and live RV full time, it would have to save money over living in a house and traveling by car using Motel 6 or equivalent.
Someplace in between, there must be a "break even" point for the "casual" RVer. Anyone know what that is? I'll admit to being fascinated not only by the life-style, but also by the equipment. I always go through the model RVs when we find a show or whatever. But, my mental back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that you have to travel a lot by RV to save any money over doing it the old fashioned way (you know, sedan and a Motel 6).
Off the top of my head, I wonder about e.g.,
gas mileage vs a car
depreciation of a "dedicated" vehicle vs a daily driver which you need anyway.
opportunity costs or finance cost (or both)
RV park costs vs Motel 6 (esp. when it's a couple and not a whole family.)
storage - in my old MW life we had ordinances against some types of home-storage of RVs
routine maintenance of dedicated vehicle
breakdowns costs vs a car
propane for heating during winter
other?
Not trying to be critical at all. RVing actually sounds like an adventure and a very social thing and lots of fun. But my "cheap sob" nature would have to go through the calculations suggested before even thinking about an RV purchase.
Many of my co-w*rkers got into RVing and it always seemed to follow the same pattern. Young couple buys a tent to throw in the back of the car. They upgrade to a pop-up, then to a small camper, then to "big" camper and then a few even go to the "bus" type by the time they retire. None of this can be cheap and I wonder if it could actually be "worth it" on a pure cost vs "Motel 6" for traveling.
At this point this is no more than curiosity on my part. You don't see many RVs on Oahu (Maybe Waianae coast or the occasional beach park - more permanent than "roll-your-own" here.)
Thanks for any info and I'm sure YMMV