How Much Does a Cottage Cost?
October 29th, 2007Have you ever sat down and calculated how much your cabin costs? I don’t mean how much it would cost to buy a cabin, but how much it actually costs to own a cabin.
Our cottage costs us $11,044 annually to operate (this does not include mortgage payments). When I totaled our expenses from this past summer, I was surprised to discover our biggest expenditures were not taxes and insurance, but gas and food. It seems we eat a lot more at the cabin and we burn a lot more fuel. Boat maintenance accounted for 20% of our total budget.
I then decided to calculate how much that works out to a day. I estimated we spent 45 days at the cabin last summer. That works out to about $245 dollars a day.
Well there you have it. Owning a cabin is not cheap, but as a cabin owner, I already knew that.
When it comes to dollars and sense (pun intended), a cottage is not a good investment. Now I know a lot of people, including myself, have realized significant capital gains on our waterfront properties. Ours has more than doubled in value since we bought it three years ago. But capital gains are not putting any money in my bank account. In fact, rising property values only increases my tax bill. Besides, I have no intention of ever selling my cabin.
Owning a cottage was a lifelong dream of mine. Hopefully, I will be able to pass this dream onto my children. That’s how it is with cottages; we buy them purely for emotional reasons. Douglas Hunter, author of The Cottage Ownership Guide, states, “Owning a cottage is an affair of the heart.”
This week at CottageDaily.com we will explore the costs of ownership and ways to minimize your expenses. We will look at what you should be doing now to offset your capital gains, if and when you decide to cash out, or hand the cabin down to your children.
Taxes: $1,284
Insurance: $ 932
Strata Fees: $828
Food, Gas & Repairs: $8,000
Memories: Priceless
Cheers,
Julie
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October 30th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
The picture looks vaguely familiar. If you read any of the Rich Dad Poor Dad series of books, he talks about this very issue.He talks about investing in revenue producing property and use the cashflow from your revenue producing property to pay for your non revenue producing property. How do you put a value on the quality family time spent at the cottage? Kids grow up so fast and the time spent together declines proportionately to their age. Bringing everyone together and spending quality time doing activities they enjoy so much kindles memories that last a life time hense why people like Julie had to have a cottage as one of their life long dreams. What value do you put on decreased stress or the 5 pound Walleye you just landed? I really don’t want to know what my cottage costs a year. I really don’t want to know what my gas bill is at the lake. All I really want to know about is the fun everyone is having there. That makes it all worth while.
October 30th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
I think that cottage/camp/cabin owners you talk to will all tell you the same thing. It’s not the money - it’s the fun, the relaxation, the peace, the outdoors, the water, the clear air, the family times, the solitude or the togetherness, the chores that aren’t “chores”, the food that tastes better - no matter what it is, the weather that’s always great and oh, the memories, the memories, the memories.
October 30th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
Thank you Running Car
You said it better than I did.
Cheers,
Julie