Money Mistakes I’d Make All Over Again: Purchasing a Timeshare

Back in August, I wrote a guest post for Daily Money $hot about Making Choices. In it, I talked about some of the things I choose to spend money on, even if I could be saving money by changing. In fact, one of those things has changed- we no longer have high priced cable. We found that we can get by with the most basic package and are saving ourselves $100/month.

There are other choices we have made over the years about our money. Not all of them good choices, but I regret very few, as they have led us to the point where we are today. I got to thinking about those choices the other day when Sustainable Life Blog posted about Moments in Time, times he wishes he could go back to and try and talk his younger self out of monetary mistakes.

I thought about it even more when reading about 10 Financial Myths About Timeshares over at One Cent At A Time. (This was a guest post written by Jeffrey of Saving Advice.)

You see, one of the financial “mistakes” we made was buying in to a timeshare. If I could go back in time and talk to my younger self, this is one thing I wouldn’t prevent.

There are lots of things I would try and stop myself from doing- like applying for all those extraneous credit cards right after we bought our first house and charging way, way to much. But I wouldn’t stop us from investing in the timeshare.

Now, we don’t have a traditional timeshare, which is what Jeffrey mostly talks about in his post. But he is approaching owning a timeshare as an investment. And if that’s what you’re looking for, he’s right, run away, far away, from timeshares.

Our timeshare is more like owning stock than a property. We have points that can be used anytime, any place our company owns (including Fiji and Mexico). The properties are all five star, maintained by the company, and going there is like going to a hotel with a full kitchen. We don’t have to provide toilet paper or linens or anything.

Yes, our quarterly maintenance fees are high, but not so high that we’ve ever thought about selling, not even when things were their tightest and I was getting weekly (and yes, I mean weekly) calls from timeshare resellers trying to get us to sell.

In addition, because all of our properties are 5 star, we get a premium for it on exchanges like RCI.

This isn’t meant to be an ad for timeshares. It is meant to point out some good things about them, if you go into them thinking of them as an easier way to take vacations, instead of as a monetary investment.

Our timeshare allowed us to stay in England for a full week for essentially $100 total in “hotel” fees- our membership to RCI. In addition, we had a kitchen, so we ate breakfast at “home” every morning, and made ourselves at least one other meal most days. (With the exception of our Tintagel, End of the World, Carn Euny day, which was very, very long.)

I’ve used it to host retreats for my writing group, and we’ve stayed in our Vancouver, BC location many times. I love having it as an option. Are we losing money on it? Possibly, but it has also made many, many other things possible. So I’m happy to pay for it.

You can say we got duped by the salesman, or call it a financial mistake. That’s fine. I call it an option I am thrilled to have. But don’t worry, I won’t ever call it a sound financial investment.