[CaptT820]

Anything you buy cannot be described as a logical purchase unless it does one of two things for you. It needs to make you money and appreciate, so you can sell it for a profit or it needs to provide a value to you over its lifetime that warrants the price you paid for it.

The first value is easy to assess, if you buy something to make money on and it appreciates, you sell it at a profit and move to the next object.

The second value is where the emotion kicks in. Emotion, Value, and Logistics usually don't end up in the same place with one another. People buy things and make decisions with strong emotion that they would never do if there was no emotion involved.

Buying a car is a great example. Worst decision we can all make, because it is guaranteed to depreciate as soon as you drive it off the lot (assuming it is not a collector car, rarity, etc.). Unfortunately we all need a car (or most of us do) to get to work, school, etc. We need a first home. We don't NEED a second home, lake home, mountain home.

When buying any primary first home the best real estate agents will have you consider three factors: what do you absolutely need, what do you want, and price. Where the triple point is of these three things is the box you need to stay in to stay disciplined on such a large financial decision. When you get out of the box, is when emotion gets involved. A second home is a want, not a need, so it becomes an illogical decision and an emotional one.

To enjoy a lake home, take the finances out of the logical part of the argument. It is impossible to financially quantify downtime, relaxing, and whatever non physical aspects go into your decision. Also remember that real estate is one of the few things you can buy that will actually appreciate over the long run.

My wife and I have been looking for island property for nearly three years now and have sacrificed a lot of sweat equity in our house to allow the purchase of a second one. In the end when we do settle on a property, it'll be all worth it. We are both scientists and don't make any illogical decisions if we can help it, but for us it came down to a quality of life factor that is monetarily impossible to measure over a lifetime.