shower thought: when to buy the camper

As I noted on CRVL forums I am starting to see used Promasters (some with a bit of warranty left) on the used market under the $20k mark.  Mostly 136” models; I figure more of those were sold in the first place.

upside of buying soon

There are some advantages to buying soon (late 2017), and I don’t think this is only justification on my part:

• get a start on a build

• take weekend trips for pleasure and testing (and spend time with the gf)

• lock in lower interest rate

upside of waiting

Waiting allows me to keep feeding pre-tax accounts for retirement, which also funds things like my military service purchase.  Here is the timeline for those spends (talking mainly to myself here:

• Sept 1, 2017 -  buy the other 3 years military service credit

• Sept 1, 2018 -  buy 4 months of prior probation period credit

• Sept 1, 2021 -  buy 3 years of additional service credit

All that is set up to be met by my current contributions (ie, requiring no further effort on my part).

a possible compromise

I’d ruled out the early purchase because I was unwilling to stop the flow into my retirement accounts.

Then I realized the cost of the loan + insurance is less than the amount of rent + utilities I’m paying now.  Hmmm.  I’d save about $25 in gas and about 10 hours a week of commute time.

There are complications that block this path:

• weather in Texas.  Since I can’t snowbird to cooler temps (or altitudes) I’d have to find a parking lot or some other accomodation with a 15A electrical service.  I’ve designed the platform to run off a normal residential plug.

• I have two rescue dogs.  They have a dog run now but wouldn’t have them in the aforementioned acommodation.

Still, something to ponder while I drive to work each day.