How Many Toys Is Enough?

June 03, 2015

My neighbor down the street is selling his camper, and so my wife walks in the house the other day and says, “Honey, did you see the camper for sale down the street?” Now I love to camp, and to be quite honest, I was stunned she even asked the question. First of all, we already have a boat, and second, she’s not really a big fan of camping. To me, camping is about “roughing” it, but for my wife, she likes to “pamp,” (which is a word my friend made up that describes people who want to be pampered when they camp—thus the name).

So to capitalize on this rare opportunity, I have to figure out two things. First, where in the world would I store a camper? Fortunately, it’s one of those pop-up kind that folds into a small trailer you can pull with just about anything. But I already have a boat sitting in the driveway. Do I really want to park a camper behind it?

Second, and more importantly, will I get value out of it? Aside from the fun I would have taking the family camping, it’s a much bigger project packing up the whole family and traveling for a week than just towing the boat a few miles to the lake. Here’s how I’ve figured out a way to justify the cost of my toys: How much would it cost to rent, how often will I use it, and how much will I get for it when it’s time to sell it?

Let’s apply this to the boat and the camper. To rent a boat like mine, you’re talking $250 (including gas) for a half day, which is about as long as I’d be on the water. So four trips to the lake a year would cost $1,000 to rent.

Owning the boat, you pay about $250 a year to register and maintain it plus $250 in gas so you save about $500 a year owning it. So the way I see it is this: As long as it doesn’t depreciate more than $500 a year, I’m either going to break even or save money when I sell it. To be more specific, I’ve put about $10,000 into buying and fixing it, and I’ve owned it for 6 years. Similar boats list for between $7k and $8k today so using the math above, I’m breaking even. The more I use it, the more likely I will actually come out ahead.

Now let’s look at the camper. Similar campers rent for $120 a day. If we take one week-long trip a year, that’s about $840. Since maintenance is pretty minimal, I’ll round off the yearly savings to own at $800. If I pay $6k for it, it would take 7.5 years to pay for itself, regardless of resale value.

That sounds pretty good, but as I said earlier, taking a week-long family vacation is a little more work than a quick trip to the lake. If I’m going to do this, I better be sure to take at least ONE trip a year. I realize there are other factors at play, including the fact that renting usually means getting a newer, cleaner model, but for absolute utility, as long as you plan to play with your toys often enough, and you promise to pick them up after you are done, what’s one more in the driveway?