Would you rather have a $300K vacation property you basically have to visit and maintain every year, pay taxes on etc but you can maybe rent a bit and sell for a profit one day, or $300K in a dedicated travel account you use to fund a wide variety of trips overseas for ~20 years until it goes to zero?I'm beginning to get to the stage where I've seen a lot of places now and have some money I could put down on a little place somewhere sunny (Portugal or Greece or Florida or somewhere) in an ex-pat/retiree vacation community - nothing too extravagant like a 2 bed apartment or something cheap to maintain that I could work remotely from in the winters or you can just lock up and leave ~8 months a year - but the idea of going to the same place over and over year after year kind of worries me that I'll get bored of it after like 3-4 times going? The alternative I guess is just to take that money and keep travelling to different places a couple of times a year which is always nice, but you're just spending the whole time and eventually the money will run out leaving you with nothing but memories. Is the second home vacation property juice worth the squeeze?
>>2688341If kids are on the table a vacation home is a god send. You can go there, the kids know the environment so it's far more relaxed and you can just let them go on their own once they're older. Also traveling with toddlers sucks and hotels with kids sucks.
>>2688341I grew up in a family with one summer and one mountain / skiing househated itmy parents never go somewhere elseyou have to be a special kind of personality to want thatI enjoy exploring new places and rather travel freelythough I can see the appeal if you have young kids>but the idea of going to the same place over and over year after year kind of worries me that I'll get bored of it after like 3-4 times going?yes you willtry it before with some resort or rental - go somewhere 3x, 4x or more and treat it like your vacation homehonestlythe only really times the vacation home was really great (for me)was when I could invite friends or my gf as a teenthese are vacation I wouldn't have done otherwise
My grandfather had a cabin with his first wife. They would spend most vacations there. After she passed, he sold it. In the last 20 years, he and my step-grandmother have traveled to different countries. He said that he regretted the cabin and wished they had used that time to explore new places. So for me, if it's not a rental business most of the year, then I would rather invest that money. I say take the money and keep traveling. You can always return.
>>2688341Are you going in with your family? If so, that's complicated.Are you planning on renting it out? If so, then that depends on the math of it, it's a complicated question but you'd have to break about 2500 or so a month probably. It's property dependent on whether you can do that, plus it depends if you want to deal with managing it.If you have 300k cash, I'd probably just sink it into some fund, and you'll likely passively make 20k or so a year. That's a lot of travel cash.
>>2688442Also, 300k is a big number for a vacation home. What exactly are you picturing?
>>2688341>Pros>passive income potential>Negatives>Have to literally pay an agency who will eat up most of the income to manage it, clean it, fix anything, and schedule time for when you even want to visit your own fucking home lmao
>>2688341>but you're just spending the whole time and eventually the money will run out leaving you with nothing but memories.>nothing but the memoriesIn my opinion, that's the most important part.
>>2688362I’ve always felt like it would be nice to have a place by the beach or the mountains to retreat to on a whim, but it would suck having that place always beat out traveling anywhere new.
Neither. I rather own huge plots of seaside rural land that taxes 0.1% on the land and any residence built on it,and costs less than 50k for isolation in every direction. Anyone buying a home is an idiot, buy land in some jew free country to live well
>>2688783>would be nice to have a place by the beach or the mountains to retreat to on a whimi mean if this is your main motivation it could work for youand the house doesn't force you to go but there is always something to fix / do, so you will more likely go there, sacrificing vacation you'd spend anywhere else otherwisealso a financial decision (if you are not super rich)nice vacation houses (in the EU) at good beach location are typically 200k-300k+€ and a house in the alps 500k+€ (if you don't want to be isolated it can easily double for both)you can rent A LOT of airbnbs for thisespecially if you just go on a few weekends every year
>>2688341>Portugal>GreeceWow. Sounds nice. >FloridaEw. Why?
>>2688341Owning properties is almost always superior to liquid cash. Why do you think very rich people store most of their net worth in physical assets?
Great Thread OP.Good luck getting anything $300K in any desirable part of Florida. Even the outskirts of Orlando (Winter Garden, Kissimmee, Apopka, etc) are higher than that. Orlando is also pretty mediocre in terms of vacationing, as it's an hour from any beaches, and the only appeal is the plethora of amusement parks. Destin, FL similarly most houses start at 500K. You're only getting a condo for that price range and getting fucked with HOA fees.Asheville, NC is NC's best vacation city - same story. You're not getting anything anywhere decent in California for 300K either.Most places you're going to find a home in the USA for 300K won't be too appealing for a vacation with varied things to do.You will be able to find cabins in remote locations, or even huge southern homes - it will just be a slept on city. There are places 2-4 hours from Denver that are absolutely beautiful, but hope you like staring at mountains. I have spent every Summer for three years doing EMS contracts in Bristol Bay, Alaska. You can have a mansion for 300K here, but there is quite literally nothing to do. Some of the villages here have a population of 2 year round, and it swells up to 25 during Salmon Season. It's gorgeous, the air is clean, etc. But I would be driven mad if I went here all the time and wasn't getting paid.
>>2688343kids aren't on the table for me, but good point. >>2688362this is a good idea I might actually try this for a couple of times and see how it plays out. >>2688439yep I think this is the better option really. I was wondering about downsizing my primary residence to something that's much lower maintenance (apartment in a tower where one condo fee takes care of everything or something like that).>>2688442the idea of being a landlord has never appealed to me. People treat places like crap and if things aren't literally screwed down they'll get stolen. I could do without that kind of headache. >>2688443eh it's probably not that much these days in somewhere with a sea view or scenic view really. by the time you've covered tax and set up costs too. >>2688450yes good point, a letting agent would be needed really. >>2688471I know I nearly left that last bit out by saying "leaving you with nothing" but of course a life of travel would never leave you with that.
>>2689060Yeh, I guess I have some romantic idea of getting a cozy cabin in the woods or some chic modern house in the remote badlands of nevada, but hanging out there year after year with not much going on I guess would get old quite quickly.
>>2689055The richest people have the vast majority of their wealth in stocks actually. Real estate is like a stepping stone that you eventually supersede as the return on stocks i far superior if you're lucky.
>18 to 35-40ishBackpacker phase>35-40ish to retirementVacation house/cabin with side trips to kid-friendly destinations phase. Home away from home while you raise the family.>retirement to unableConvert the equity in the vacation house into cash so you can do boomer-tier travel in France, South Africa, Australia, USA etc. Maybe go RV at this point.That’s your god tier.
