Hot Tubs. To have or not to have, that is the question. At least, that's what Shakespeare would have said. Of course, back in his days, nobody was worried about hot tubs, seeing as they didn't even wash on a regular basis. I remember hearing a story about a French king who didn't bath for 2 years. He used powder and perfume instead. Yuck! He must have been similar to a chain smoker that uses a ton of cologne to try to cover up the ashtray smell that follows them everywhere. For the record, that doesn't work.
Hot tubs seem to be the new big thing. They used to be a guilty pleasure reserved only for the rich or well-off, but now you see them in more and more backyards and decks. Btw, if you live in a double-wide and have a hot tub, you probably should have spent your money on getting a house actually attached to the ground. That's sort or like seeing an old beat up car with spinners on them, or with 1 singular racing stripe on top. You know, I've always wondered if it has some special meaning... but I digress.
Now, hot tub stores are popping up everywhere like zits on a teenagers face. You just can't keep up. How do they all survive? Good question. It seems every little town has at least one of them.
As people move up in life, they tend to want to buy toys instead of maybe upgrading their house or starting to save for retirement. The new big thing is a hot tub. If you get a hot tub apparently you have arrived. Where? I'm not sure. It's a sign that you now have some expendable cash or lots of plastic. I hope you are in the first category.
We once did an extremely stupid thing and bought a pool on our visa. The pool seemed like a great deal for $3500. How could we pass it up? But once you calculate the interest over the next 5 years that it took to pay it off, the great deal turned into a great deal more. If you buy something on credit, a good rule of thumb is to add 2 zeros on the end and that will give you the actual price after interest.
The difference between a hot tub, and other status items around your house, is the expense doesn't stop with the installation. It only begins there. Now you need to buy enough chemicals to neutralize a small ocean. You need bromine, chlorine, shock, alkalinity up, pH up and down, cleaner, foam away, yada, yada, yada... The wallet just keeps getting lighter and lighter as the store owners laugh their way to the bank.
But the big elephant in the room that most people don't see coming is the electricity bill. Imagine the shock and awe of a $500 monthly power bill. Ouch! You'd almost think there was a factory running on your back deck somewhere. When you get a personalized Christmas card from the power company, you know that you may be in trouble. At $250-300 extra per month, I want to at least see my neighbour's lights flicker when I turn the beast on. At $250-300 per month, you'll be paying for the hot tub in no time... twice.
So if you are thinking of getting a new toy, I would suggest passing on the hot tub. For the same price, you could buy a new car. At least it would have some benefits to outweigh the costs. Don't worry, your neighbor will get a hot tub, and when they go on vacation, just sneak over and use theirs instead.
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Are Hot Tubs Worth It?
