Payments for the Next 20 Years?

By
eric
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Car loans went from three or four years back in the ’70s and ’80s to six years today, chiefly on account of the rising cost of new cars. More finely, because most people could not deal with the monthly payments on a new car anymore – unless those payments were lowered by extending the number of years they’d be making them.

But how about making payments for the next 20 years?

Not on a car. On a travel trailer (camper) or RV?

Does it sound – cue Geraldo voice – shocking?

Yup. But it’s no less true for being so.

Take a trip down to an RV dealer and see it for yourself. More finely, pay attention to what you’re seeing, which will often be a window sticker touting how little it costs per month to own a travel trailer.

For example, this 2022 (so used) teardrop camper called the Little Guy Max. Look how cute it is! Look how light it is. If you have a little truck or crossover than pull up to 3,500 lbs.,you could pull this home-on-wheels wherever you’d like to go – and live.

And look how affordable it looks.

These Little Guy campers typically list for around $40k when they are new but – as is typically the case for travel trailers/campers generally – they get a lot more affordable, courtesy of depreciation, after a couple of years. This one was advertised by Camping World – one of the big retailers – for $24,999, a much more manageable bite than $40k. The ad also advertised it could be taken home (and maybe become your home) for only $196 per month, which sounds really good if you’re seriously considering what is sometimes called Van Life – by which is meant living in a camper or RV as alternative to living in a house (or paying rent) that’s either beyond your means or consuming all or most of your means.

Where are you going to find a house to live in – or even a room to rent – for $196 per month?  You can see the appeal. For that sum, you could get more than just a room – i.e., a place to crash. You could get a fully equipped kitchen, your own private bathroom/shower and living space you don’t have to share with anyone. Plus a cozy bedroom with your own TV. Cheap utilities, too – because it doesn’t cost much to heat or cool a small space such as this.

And you can live pretty much anywhere you like, including down by the river. Assuming you’re not chased off because you didn’t get permission -or pay – to park there. But even so, it’s easy to move along when your home’s on wheels.

But it’s not as cheap as it looks. Look closer.

The payments are under $200 – if you agree to make them for the next 236 months – which works out to the next 20 years. Lawsee. That’s a long time to be making payments, even if they aren’t that much per month. Of course, people do routinely make mortgage payments on homes that aren’t on wheels for much longer. Thirty years being common. But at the end of those 30 years, it’s a pretty good bet you’ll own something that’s worth at least what you paid for it and probably more, as the value of homes generally appreciates over time.

But homes on wheels – encompassing travel trailers, campers, motorhomes, etc. – are vehicles of a sort and (like vehicles, generally) they depreciate over time. The example mentioned above being a fine example. Brand-new, one of these Little Guy Max teardrop campers lists for around $40k. But after two or three years, you can find them for around $24k – which is amounts to depreciation of about 40 percent over 36 months or so.

That’s no small cost.

What would the depreciation be over 236 months – or 20 years from now? How about even 60 months or five years from now? By then, your home on wheels will probably be worth less than half what you paid for it. Or worthless, having long since come unglued (literally, as many travel trailers and campers are glued – and stapled – together).

After 20 years, it may not be a home at all on account of the fact that most travel trailers/campers aren’t built like homes and so do not last as long as homes – though of course homes that aren’t on wheels will also deteriorate over time and do require expensive maintenance to keep them sound.

But – again – the difference here is that whatever you spend on your home to keep it sound is an investment, in that your home’s value will almost certainly increase rather than decrease over time.

On the other hand, even if you’re only having to spend $196 per month – or even $444 per month – to have your own place while still having some money in your pocket, maybe it’s an investment of a different kind.

You may not end up with something that’s worth anything at the end of those 20 years – or even five. But you’ll have more money – and freedom – in the meanwhile. And it’s difficult to put a price on that.

. . .

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Related posts:
  1. Payments Forever, Amen
  2. Perpetual Payments
  3. Why Car Payments Are Always a Bad Idea
  4. Hidden In Plain Sight… With Low, Low Monthly Payments
  5. The RV Trap

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48 COMMENTS

  1. I finally got around to reading this ongoing saga of temptation, lust, envy & a desire to escape, see new places, make new friends & have fun.

    The last comment, should also be the 1st:

    “In order to get a $196 payment for 236 months, you’d be paying about 7% interest. Over the course of the loan you’d pay $21,000 in interest on a $25,000 camper, or 84% of purchase price.

    Hell, the Mafia gave better deals than that….”

    I was reading a bit, ‘New Study Reveals What It Costs To Retire At 40, By State’.

    “The message is clear: where you live can either break your early retirement dreams—or make them financially feasible.”

    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/new-study-reveals-what-it-costs-retire-40-state

    If ya follow the link to The Index, Iowa & Mississippi were the cheapest. …Living in Iowa now, I wonder what it’s really like living in Panama, or Mexico, or Columbia? …Cost-wise, especially. And, in comparison to trailer life, or living in a 1 bedroom?

    Florida was nice to visit, but like Mississippi, I’m not sure I’d like living there in a trailer. Or, even a 1 bdrm.

    …Did that guy who sometimes pops in here, hyping up Dominica, ever make a blog with nice photos?

    • Hi Helot,

      Yup. I think the only way this makes any kind of sense is if you are in a position to buy one outright and understand it’s akin to buying a boat or a neat car.

      • Also, if you’re dreaming of a an RV, Eric. Uprooting it all & going mobile. Why wouldn’t you uproot & follow expat ‘To The Far Blue Mountains’?

        I imagine a guy our age living in Pittsburgh thinking the same.
        Or, in Detroit?
        Or, in D.C?
        Or, in Iowa.

        ‘The Clash – Should I Stay or Should I Go (Official Video)’

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMaE6toi4mk

    • Hola,

      Spartan Kid! ….presently suffering from an ???… excess “real estate crisis”….

      Background …3 feral !950’s Connecticut boys with many sq miles of ….”Who gives a Shit”……central CT forest… able to FULLY exercise …..”Numba2”.. amendment Rights….suddenly have to “curb my Gunfire??”…because!!!!

      Our Neighbor on the Farmington/New Britain CT line (literally)…..

      Decided to build some bullshit called … “Stanley Black & Decker World Headquarters” campus .. on “my” property line ……I’m sure the corp hacks will have drones screwing with my nylon 66 .22 squirrel season..:)

      Oh Boy , it appears I will be missing “free mango season
      in the Dominican Republic .

      Stay tuned

    • Spartan Kid, Clarification,

      I was “Shanghaied” up to CT to rotate care for my mom once Architect Bro #1 soy boy, went his “merry way”. Working thru details with my AssKick Brother “Chief Ron (Houston District Fire Chief, Station 71)” ….
      For the record

      I would relocate my Mom in a millisecond to the care of ….still extant…Sweet Caring Unpolluted USA, USA .. locations , ideally the Dominican Republic…….

      For what it’s worth …. The Dominican Republic still maintains the Ron Paul Libertarian showpiece of “WE DON’T GIVE A SHIT”….Hey kids isn’t all this website whines about….?????

      Call for details.

        • I was wondering about it all. Millions of people are doing your same clarification thing, too. More, or less.

          At least ya still got options. It’s been about a year now since The Shot & the evil bastards took my mom. But, she went willingly. Sigh: Covidian, TDS & a believer in The Universities.

          ‘Malvina Reynolds – Little Boxes’

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUoXtddNPAM

          …Yep, …I wrote some other sheet I prolly shouldn’t put on The Internet …mentioned some Metallica song about fuel, or sumthin?

          That is all.

          • Righteous tune. Big H..

            Get with the program,.I still have Ted Kacznyski Krash pads available for any “Biped sentient Tellurians” interested…

            At present , I’m incarcerated in the “Critical Thinking Wasteland” of Some overpriced bullshit locale called “southern New England ” in the Northwestern Amerikant Hemisphere…..

            Hopefully , I will escape from this “Critical Thinking Desert”…shortly.

            Hmmm, I now know the true meaning of “Gutless civilian pussy”…

            Just go to any store around here …. AND note THE total absence…

            of TESTOSTERONE !!

            Hey kids.. watch the army recruitment ad called “Emma” cartoon..you will understand…:)

            Checkmate…..SEMPER FI MAC….

            I’m glad I’m 68 and have NO Progeny…..Wow TOTAL Pussification in this AO (Area of Operation) …

            Check out the water perhaps .too much fluoride/estrogen?
            Inquiring minds want to know..please help.

            • I looked it up, the army recruitment ad called “Emma”. The opening gave me the shibbering creeps, several times! Lingering.
              By 1:14, it was Bizarro World.
              [Bizarro World is a fictional planet appearing in American comic books, but it is real. It is now.]

              Man, I never did the military gig, but I knew Buck quite well. As a 400lb muscle-bound meathead medic he would tell me how he would sing (in a real opera voice) to the guys dying & bleeding out in a foxhole during the war against Vietnam.

              I guess, it was just a cartoon? Like in, Iraq & Afghanistan? Idk.

              The World … with few gemstone exceptions, … is like a vampire.

              ‘The Smashing Pumpkins – Bullet With Butterfly Wings’

              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-r-V0uK4u0

              Also, did you catch all the nano-bot Hell interviews Maria Crisler has out there?

              Not Only, “THE total absence…

              of TESTOSTERONE !!”

              The absence of a mind, & prolly of a conscious, too.

            • please note I am using “drumpish syntax”…..the “brevity of delivery”….gets the point across, sans Shakespeare.

  3. By the end of it all, you’ll zombi-fied.

    Speaking of Zombies.

    Used to camp at primitive campgrounds until motorhome owners arrived and fired up generators at 7:00 am.

    Just nuts.

    Camp in the backyard, the house is there, otherwise you’re sitting around listening to a generator making electricity so some ‘camper’ can brew a cup of coffee.

  4. Eric – why buy an RV when on any given week on Craigslist you can just go drag a free one home? Trailers are enormously popular in Oregon, for one thing you can buy one with no sales tax, as Peoples Republic of Oregon has no sales tax. Just provide a friends address.

    https://redding.craigslist.org/zip/d/fall-river-mills-free-fifth-wheel/7840079137.html

    I can tell you something else, you could buy some RV on a 20 year loan, then after say 5 years default and tell them to come get it. They won’t – especially if you knock out the windows and ghetto it with spray paint. All across Oregon pot growing country are old 5th wheel and such being used for storage lockers and shelter for trimmers.

  5. First, stay far away from Camping World.

    Second, I’ve noticed tiny campers are as much as bigger ones and I don’t know why.

    Third, like cars, buying from a private party is cheaper. Just have to get it gone over by a pro first.

  7. E-Z credit is a boom-time phenomenon. It dries up in recession, as lenders become wary of marginal borrowers with insecure incomes. And make no mistake — the boom is over.

    Stonks ripped higher at the open this morning. But once again, the Pooch Screwer in Chief intervened to wreck the party, by announcing 104% tariffs on China, effective tomorrow. This will produce the same sort of supply chain disruption seen in the pandemic, but worse. Watch whole aisles go empty at your local Walmart.

    Today the S&P 500 index closed below 5,000, for the first time in almost a year. Confirming the bad news, Doctor Copper — the metal with a PhD in economics — sank to $4.11 a pound, down 22% from its late-March crest a week before Enserfment Day. Have you seen the chart?

    https://tinyurl.com/3a5jmd88

    Usually when markets get smacked this bad, it’s because of a horrible, unanticipated accident. But this meltdown is deliberate. Donnie Fubar is an arsonist with a blowtorch. Who will attempt a citizen’s arrest, before he burns the world down?

    Right now is only the first inning in a protracted train wreck which will extend beyond Trump’s term. MAGA is dead meat on a stick. SELL, say the experts — but to whom?

  8. Isn’t it interesting that you can finance such an RV in such a way, and it will most certainly depreciate, probably to be worth $2,000 or less in 20 years, should it even be well maintained, but one can’t typically do so with land?

    Land is the true liberator. “Land is a man’s very own soul”. In a land of free people and true private property, once you own land, you no longer must worry about endless payments to some overlord. You can possibly live off of such land if need be. And without such land, your $40k trailer with the $200/month payments becomes easily $900 or $1,000/month, defeating the purpose of its purchase.

    Of course, in the current reality, there are people who seek rent from you ad infinitum, even if you “own” your land. Then, your compliance and fealty often comes with harassment regarding what you can do on such land.

    But I would still maintain that the purchase of a $30,000 plot of land and the building of a home for $10,000 is a MUCH better investment than a $40k trailer.

    Good luck getting a loan and a $200/month payment for THAT, however. Go figure.

    • “You will own nothing”…
      (because we’ll own everything & rent it to you, goy)….
      “And be happy”…
      (since we’re letting you live, rather than kill you, & oh, yes, there’s nothing you can do to stop us!)

      As the (((WEF))) and their minion (((bankers & politicicans))) would prefer to have our collective Goyim futures become, if they have their way….

      May have to take a few of them with us, when we go???

      YMMV…

    • My mom used to love saying, ‘They aren’t making anymore land.’ It was a cornerstone of her idea of wealth building. Worked out pretty well for her, and me as well.

      As for trailers, I’d say don’t ever buy one new. Certainly don’t finance the thing. If you cant pay cash for it, you probably cant afford it, especially at exorbitant interest rates. We looked at new ones before settling on an 86, 26 foot Avion at the beginning of the false flag, aka ‘just the flu, bros.’

      Probably should have sold it when ir spiked up to twice what we paid, but we still have it, sitting under our hay barn, waiting for me to Finnish its remodel. Only taken it out twice. It makes a nice storage for all my grow supplies in the off season.

  9. My folks bought a house in 1972 for about $21,000 and had mortgage payments about $200 a month. Granted it was a very simple three bedroom, one bathroom, eat in kitchen, and living room (1100 sq ft split level, it was 2 years old) but unlike the camper came with real estate.

    By the late 1970’s dad was making over $40,000 a year, so the mortgage was easily afforded. They wanted something bigger in the early 1980’s but the mortgage rates at the time prevented that and we stayed put.

    It was sold in the early 1990’s for about $80,000. They would have probably gotten more had they picked a better neighborhood that didn’t become a Democratic hellhole in the late 1980’s. You can’t predict which ones do unfortunately, that is the Chicago area for ya. They got out in time before the prices fell.

  10. Had a 2002 25ft toyhauler. It was $25K new in ’02. I paid around $8-10k for it in 2010.
    Just sold it for $2500. And it was kept in a garage since I owned it.
    It was not built well, but we used the crap out of it, every other weekend for 8 years +/-.
    If it wasn’t kept in a garage it would have melted back into the earth.
    There are better built Manuf. for sure. But typical is crap. Most people do not know.
    We recently got a 25ft all alum. toyhauler, and it is built very well, but expensive. Used was $25K (new was 40K!), and it stays under roof. We expect it to last a long time if taken care of.

  11. I’ve known plenty of people who just plan for a payment in their month expenditure. I hesitate to call it a budget, which would imply a plan and goals, such as not having payments eventually. In any case, they say they can “afford” a car payment of XYZ amount and figure they will do it forever just like housing (there was even a point where people expected to pay off mortgages, which is getting more rare) or food. They come to a point in life, probably career advancement, that allows them to spend more so they add an RV payment to their monthly outlays. There is no planning to ever actually own the thing. The real criminal part is just like everything the quality of these things is terrible. They don’t last with regular use 5 years, nevermind 20. So what happens is one of two things. One is they default or have to liquidate or they trade it in long before the loan, so the debt just rolls over never clearing.

  12. >2022
    Too new.

    I am told this setup is likely to come on the market within the year.
    https://tinyurl.com/yckzv25w
    2014 model 40 foot 5th wheel trailer w/ slideout sides.
    1995 Ford F800 powered by 6 cylinder Cummins diesel.
    Owner indicates he will be asking less than $20,000 for truck *and* trailer.
    Purchase both together or either separately.

    Owner at one time lived in the trailer as his primary residence, but no longer has a need for it.

    • What around here we call snow birds I can see making sense. They usually sell their house and live full time in an RV, following the ancient north-south seasonal migrations from RV park to RV park. The ones I even envy a bit get a gig as a campground host in National Parks or the like. They’ve have a slot they rent in southern Arizona during the winter and then spend spring to fall north, selling firewood and restocking toilet paper in exchange for a free place to park their trailer or sometimes even receive a small stipend. Then you can sightsee or hike or enjoy the place on your own pace. That seems like an OK arrangement.

  13. If you paid cash, actually lived in that trailer for a few years and most importantly found an affordable RV site to locate in on with utilities it might make sense but most people will only use it a few times a year and finance it.

    That said if you are really handy just do what they do on the Junkyard Digs YouTube channel; buy the cheapest run down one they can find, fix it up and use it. It might not be pretty but it’s amazing what a good cleaning and some repairs can do. As they say “It might not be fixed but it’s different”.

    As for multi year car loans; I’m a firm believer in the warranty should be at least as long as the finance loan term otherwise you can really suffer in the event of a major repair.

    • I’ve got a friend with 2 pool homes in Florida (one city and one beach). Only he and his wife use them (kids grew up and left home years ago). During the hurricanes last year, both homes’ pool pumps and heaters were destroyed when his yards flooded with salty water. He told me it cost $20k per home to replace them, and insurance does not cover such damage. I asked him how often he uses the pools. He had to think hard and said maybe a couple times per month.

      For easy math, if he uses his pools 20 times per year per home, and the pumps and heaters last 10 years (which google tells me is about right), and without factoring in any time-value or opportunity cost of the $40k spent, apportioning just the pump and heater purchases alone equates to $100 PER SWIM. This doesn’t even factor in anything for pool chemicals, maintenance, cleaning, etc. WTF?

      • At least in the old days, someone down on their luck would have to put some effort in to obtain a few bucks panhandling to afford a bottle of Thunderbird or Wild Irish Rose.
        Now you can probably buy Macallan 30 Year Double Cask Scotch with an EBT card.
        Being a bum has become quite a desirable & glamorous role in USSA in 2025.

    • Coming soon: food “insurance.”
      Just think of it…
      You will only be responsible for your “co-payment” on a loaf of bread, and the supermarket will have to file an “insurance claim” to get paid the rest. Be careful though, pumpernickel may not be included in your “food plan.”

      Of course, employers will be required by law to pay for a “food plan” for their employees. Government employees will have the very best “plans,” no doubt. The self-employed, if any, will pay full price (ouch).

    • I shake my head when I see the buy on time option for everything, even a $5 USB cable on Amazon. It was drilled into my brain to pay off credit cards (or better only buy on them when you had already saved the money) to avoid revolving interest costs. It’s a difficult train to exit once it leaves the station but math is hard.

  15. My RV leaks terribly when it rains and if you’re not careful it will fall over when stopped – a motorcycle!

    The trailer and motor home life I don’t “get”. Another money pit sucking assets from the middle class. A coworkers dad had the right idea. About to retire he went the opposite of his motor home buying friends. Got himself a sweet new Caddie on retirement day and his road trips were enjoyed in total comfort. End of the day stay in a nice hotel or motel with a real bed and full size shower. You can take a great yearly road trip on just the interest earned on the $150k you DIDN’T blow on that motor home. You still have the $150k and a nice car to tool around in the rest of the year.

    Boats (break out another thousand) another money pit but at least you’re out in nice weather and usually hot chicks abound. Hot chicks and motor home life, uhh no.

  16. It will certainly entice the innumerate hordes cranked out by the GovCo Indoctrination System, a.k.a., Public Schools.

  17. LOL. The entire “economy” is a Ponzi based on debt slavery, starting with the $36 trillion in federal debt.

    In order to get a $196 payment for 236 months, you’d be paying about 7% interest. Over the course of the loan you’d pay $21,000 in interest on a $25,000 camper, or 84% of purchase price.

    Hell, the Mafia gave better deals than that. Of course, it’s all based on the idea that infantile Americans cannot defer gratification for anything.

    Anybody stupid enough to fall for that should have his right to vote revoked.

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