Time Sharing

Fiona loves spending time in the Poconos with her family. They go every summer. They’ve talked about buying a vacation home there, but they just can’t swing it, which is why they’re so excited about the idea of time-sharing. “Time-sharing” is basically buying a vacation home with a bunch of other people, and each buyer gets to use the place for certain predetermined amounts of time and/or at certain times during the year.

For example, if the Poconos place costs $300,000 and Fiona puts in $50k, then hypothetically, she is 1/6 owner of the house and can use it 1/6 of the time, or two months per year.

Companies that specialize in timeshares also usually charge the owners a fee for upkeep, maintenance, schedule management, etc. Time-sharing isn’t just restricted to vacation homes, though that is its most popular form. People can time-share yachts and private jets, which is pretty spiffy. We can even buy a timeshare with a specific company that manages properties all over the world, and then just choose where and when we want to go. It's like having a subscription to a hotel chain.

While this all sounds awesome on the surface, the whole time-sharing concept does have its drawbacks. For one, it’s not a winning investment. We’re not buying an investment property and then selling it for a profit. We’re paying a premium for guaranteed access to a particular type of vacation. So while time-sharing might be fun, it’s not necessarily helping us build the nest egg. Also, some timeshare companies have been accused of having highly predatory fees and practices, including provisions that make it dang near impossible to get out of a timeshare agreement. But if we do our research and decide that time-sharing sounds like just the thing, we could be well on our way to making years’ worth of awesome vacay memories. Even if we decide to time-share somewhere other than the Poconos. Which we would.