| |
Now consider owning a Lamborghini the fractional ownership way.
"Curvy Road becomes like their garage," says Kiebala, who also has offices and autos in Los Angeles, New York City and Miami. "You haven't been paying for the car to be stored. You're only paying for the usage for that moment, when you have the car, and when the car is brought to you with the gas tank filled up, the car's been washed, cleaned, and it's gone through a 50-point inspection and you're ready to rock."
Robert Shemin, author of the upcoming book, "How
Come that Idiot's Rich and I'm Not?" thinks fractional ownership
is an idea that's time has come. "I tell people that ownership and
renting -- it's purely psychological. People love to own things
for peace of mind, and there are certain assets that are a good
investment. But if you're going to use something like an exotic
car 5 percent of the year, why not pay for only 5 percent of it?"
Not that there aren't skeptics. Matthew Tuttle, a Certified Financial Planner, president of Tuttle Wealth Management LLC in Stamford, Conn., and author of "Financial Secrets of My Wealthy Grandparents," says that he worries -- even if a fractional ownership company is spearheading everything -- about the baggage a co-owner may carry. If a fractional owner sinks a yacht or collides into another boat, the fractional ownership company's insurance would cover that, but what if it was your co-owner's fault, and he's sued? Could you be sued?
"I'm always telling my clients to protect themselves from lawsuits, divorces and untimely deaths, and set up your affairs so any of those things happening to you wouldn't be devastating to you and your family, and that's why this kind of goes against that a little bit," Tuttle says.
Tuttle says he wouldn't rule out fractional ownership, but cautions prospective buyers to look at the purchase from every angle. And every item is different. There is less hassle with co-owning a luxury purse than an RV, for example, so it helps to have a sense of what is available, what's right for you and your price range.
Luxury handbags. You can fractionally own, or rent, depending on how you look at it, a designer handbag from Web sites,
such as Bag Borrow or Steal
or Canada's Shoulder Candy. The idea is simple. Instead of spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on one designer handbag, the shopper spends anywhere from $20 to $75 per month to choose from a selection of bags.
|
