A Monthly budget for living full time in a timeshare

[Clifbell]

I have been living in a timeshare for almost six months straight. While most people are not going to do what I am doing, my budget is nevertheless useful for those who might travel for an extended period of time. In many ways it is similar to that of an RV full time living budget.

I plan to do another extended travel period in a few months that will last at least a year. I am hoping longer. Here are a few things I have learned than are considerations before embarking on such an adventure.

1. It really is not that hard to downsize to having all you need in your car or at least it wasn't for me
2. Staying in an area for over a week made the trip better even if I wasn't in the same timeshare. Getting to know an area is part of the joy.
3. Find out what you like (I like walking on beaches) .... not just Hawaii... Oregon and California so far, but the east coast of the US is calling also.
4. Explore new types of places... I plan to do a lot of hiking in Utah, Arizona Mountains, Tennessee hills, etc... Maybe your next experiment is International?? Just think about the new adventures.
5. I drive mostly or use frequent flier points, so the miscellaneous budget would need to be bigger if you mostly fly (and hopefully the gas cost would be lower)

Enough of that, please enjoy my video breakdown of my budget by watching the following video;


Monthly budget video review

 

[dioxide45]

I commented on your video.

 

[isisdave]

Very interesting. I'd like to see more detail about the annual fees of your timeshares, and how you get four weeks out of $1452. How many weeks of the big three do you have, and how do you work RCI into this? $1452 is about enough for 9-10 Marriott weeks a year in my experience.

Even at TUG bargain rates of $115 a night, a month is going to be $3500. How do you cut that in half?

How far ahead did you have to book to get dates or places you want (I know 2020 is going to be different!)? Do you run into small overlaps or gaps? Do you book weekly stays, or try to find longer? Where?

 

[Clifbell]

Very interesting. I'd like to see more detail about the annual fees of your timeshares, and how you get four weeks out of $1452. How many weeks of the big three do you have, and how do you work RCI into this? $1452 is about enough for 9-10 Marriott weeks a year in my experience.

Even at TUG bargain rates of $115 a night, a month is going to be $3500. How do you cut that in half?

How far ahead did you have to book to get dates or places you want (I know 2020 is going to be different!)? Do you run into small overlaps or gaps? Do you book weekly stays, or try to find longer? Where?

My next video will be about how I have used and plan to use RCI / Interval to get to my total budget.... Last call on RCI is about $275/week and Interval is just under $375/week. The total for two weeks is budgeted at $600. I have enough timeshare points for the other two weeks a month. I will be using hotel points I accumulated along the way. I am also "cheating" because some of my points for this year I rolled into next because of the pandemic and have bonus points from recent purchases. I left $800/month aside as misc... So with RCI I can do 4 weeks for less than $1200/month. I will explain in detail in my next video that I am already in the process of building.

Next year while traveling I will update my budget with actuals.

 

[frank808]

Did you include the maintenance fees for the weeks you are using if not last call or getaway weeks?

 

[Synergy]

I've always said that if I didn't care where I was, I could live in timeshares full time with just last call weeks. If more were pet friendly, we'd have perhaps not even bothered to extend our lease this spring. Of course, we do care where we are - but for future retirement dreams, it's nice to know we could do it. I don't watch videos, but I'm glad to see someone living the dream!

 

[dioxide45]

I don't watch videos,

Why not? Just curious...

 

[rapmarks]

I’d like to know how you get about 10 Marriott weeks fir under 1500 and also the last time I used last call they tacked on a lot of taxes. Seems like there are a lot of low maintenance fees out there

 

[sfwilshire]

Why not? Just curious...

I'm not the person who made the comment, but I don't either. I don't have the patience. If something is written, I can skim through it to see if there is information of interest to me. I can also read it at my own speed if desired.

Nice of you to share the information and if I had a stronger interest, I might be a bit tempted, but probably would not watch regardless.

Sheila

 

[Laurie]

I'm not the person who made the comment, but I don't either. I don't have the patience. If something is written, I can skim through it to see if there is information of interest to me. I can also read it at my own speed if desired.

Same here.

 

[Synergy]

My hearing (rather, my audio processing circuitry) isn't great, and I read much faster than anyone can speak aloud - so I vastly prefer to read information over listening to it. It's just a personal preference for me.

 

[PigsDad]

I'm not the person who made the comment, but I don't either. I don't have the patience. If something is written, I can skim through it to see if there is information of interest to me. I can also read it at my own speed if desired.

I'm that way as well. I did watch this video, but all the information presented in the almost 6 minute video could have been reviewed in about 20 seconds if it was just in print form. I realize the OP is trying to get a following for his videos, but it is just not my cup of tea.

Kurt