toasting marshmallow

Have you struggled to get enough money together for a regular holiday? Do you find it challenging to get time away? How do you balance vacation time in a busy household?

Taking regular short breaks away is a great way to give your family some quality outdoor lifestyle options. You have dreams of toasted marshmallows around campfires, lazy days and happy memories, but how do you manage this and not cause yourself stress about the finance?

Regular Breaks

How great would it be to take your family away every month for a few nights as well as a decent break over the summer holidays? You will have the benefits of feeling closer together as a family, a chance to unplug and de-stress, in fact getting back to nature provides a great range of health benefits for the whole family.

Australia is such a wide diverse country with so much to experience and enjoy, being on the road is one of the best way to experience first hand all it has to offer.

Holiday Asset

In order to have regular getaways in a 4 star hotel for your average family of 4, for 2 nights away on the beautiful gold coast, you are looking around $500 for the accommodation each time.

If you wanted to take a weekend away every month, that’s $6,000 a year for a place to lie your head. While you will get some fantastic memories, you don’t own anything at the end of the day.

Caravans vs Hotels – The breakdown

Let’s compare this to purchasing a caravan. For a brand new van that would suit 2 adults and 2 kids, you are likely to spend around $30,000, or pay less if you wanted to go second hand or something less extravagant. Over a 7 year loan term, at an interest rate of 6%, you would end up spending around $5280 in principal and interest payments for the year and have an asset to show for it. Feel free to check these figures on our online calculator.

The advantages?

  • The money spent each month is towards an asset rather than just a room.
  • You can get away more often without incurring major additional costs.
  • You have a saleable asset at the end of the term.

Forced Savings

The other great advantage of paying off a caravan loan is that in effect you are paying in advance for your holidays, instead of trying to save up throughout the year to get a holiday break, and invariably spending that money on something else around the home.

While your asset does depreciate over time, having a caravan parked on site at your house is a visual reminder and means there is greater chance you will take breaks away more often. On top of your fantastic family memories, when you are finished with it and on sell, you will recoup some of the money you have spent.

caravan on the road

Spend more time with your family by getting a leisure loan for a caravan, with lower stress and more opportunity to get away, creating fantastic memories for years to come.