MichiganView

Like most of you, we started out tenting, popups, back of the van - then 17' fiberglass EggCamper. While camping in Wyoming several fellow campers recommend we check out a motor home before heading to Alaska. Well, we did and within two months sold our camper and bought our first coach. We are 67 and still want to do a lot of 'travel camping' - we want to tour northeast Canada, Maritimes, northeast US, northwest US central and northwest Canada, Alaska, southwest US and continue to regularly vist the Tetons, Wind River Range Beartooths and many other parts of the Rocky's. Heck! I guess we will have to live to be 120 years old to see all we want to see ;-) Well, because we also like to take scenic byways and boon dock in the mountains, besides traveling everywhere - we settled on a smaller Class C that gets super fuel economy - a Mecedes-Benz Sprinter chassis and coach by Winnenago - View model 'J'. Sleeps 5-6, roomy and classy.Has a high torque MB V6 3.0L Turbo-Diesel that just hums up the 10% mountain grades - easyly passing many 5ers with huge V8 diesels working their guts out. On our last trip of 6,000 miles in and around the Rocky's we averaged 16.6 MPG overall. Can easily cruise at 70, but we enjoy 60, if traffic allows us to enjoy the trip. It is 24' by 7'5' with 11'3'' clearence, rear duals and 5,000# hitch. We love it! Only have about 11,000 miles in 11 months so we plan to 'break it in' while going to Alaska, spring of 2013 - God willing! Bill

How to do it... Hhmmmmm Lots of good suggestions so far - I like Living Trust consideration. I think most importantly is our ability to pay, but not necessarily that you do pay for it now. For example - we are 67, bought our first coach a year ago and had ability to pay cash, but it wasn't the smart thing to do. Rather than liquidating stocks or other investments earning tax deferred interest - we put 20% down (from previous RV) - borrowed balance at a negotiated 4.25%. We knew we could pay it off at any time, but since life can present everyone with unexpected surprises, we prefer to borrow with no pre-payment penalty and use that as a 'free' insurance policy. We make monthly payments plus additional money toward principle only from current income. In less than a year, coach will be more than half paid off. Coach interest is deductable as 'second home'. All investments are still intact with earned interest reinvested and averaging, YTD 10.5%. Even if we mentally subtract the small amount we paid in loan interest @ 4.25% (10.5% - 4.25% = 6.25%) we still have all investment principle plus a realized 6.25% interest! Buy making use of the loan rather than having paid cash, which would have permenantly reduced our investment principle a significant amount and we would have lost 10.5% tax deferred interest! In the meantme - if for some reason it became impossible to make loan payments - with our advance payments on principle, our next 'scheduled' loan payment is not until June of 2016, hence - free insurance. Now, new coach vs used coach? For us, we explored the new cost vs resale cost of various years in the model we wanted. It was no contest - we negotiated a new coach discount of 25% off list price, got lower loan interest on a new purchase and had full warranty on coach, chassis and drive train. Since we purchased a WGO View on the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter chassis with the new V6 turbo-diesel (17 MPG) it came with 12K/36K and 100K mile warranties. Because of the extremely high fuel mileage and classy coach it maintains high resale value. We are very happy with our purchase! This is how we are 'doing it' hope this info helps make some decisions a bit easier? Please don't get the impression that ours is the only way, it's just that we are not millionaires so we choose to conserve our principle - hopefully, so we can travel for many years to come! Another part of this whole equation is no home mortgage, no car payment and no CC debt. My grandpa always taught that I could "work hard or work smart - it's my choice". I have used his advice in many aspects of my life - including finances ;-) God is Good!