Can you save money by using fractional ownership? The marketing of fractional ownership has to date focused on a certain type of development, i.e. super-luxury resorts laden with facilities and services at a very high cost. This isn't all it should be about. In many ways it is potentially more beneficial to people that don't have loads of money.

In most cases "fractional" ownership has involved taking the timeshare concept and making it 10 times more expensive! However the need for fractional ownership is created (at all levels of income) by folks not wanting to spend so much money on their leisure assets. Even for the wealthy, the cost of a luxury ski lodge in Aspen or the latest super-yacht is going to hurt. So if you are rich you can bring down the cost of owning your luxury yacht or prime Florida real estate. For the rest of us it can be used to bring down the cost of ownership of slightly more mundane items!

Forget about anything you think you know about fractional ownership and consider the following:

A. Think of something that you would like to own or use but can't afford (it has to be something that you don't need to use all of the time). Typical types of things would be leisure assets (second homes, yachts, boats, caravans/RVs, tents), business equipment (expensive and occasionally used machines), or functional items such as a garden tractor.

B. Assess how much this would cost you if you were going to buy it. If you would have bought something used then use this price, not the new price.

C. Consider how many people could realistically share the use of this asset. When working this out you need to think about if the asset has a popular season (e.g. summer for beachside property, New Year for second homes in ski resorts).

Now divide B by C. Doesn't this make your proposed purchase seem more affordable? There is no reason why fractional ownership has to be about luxury (although that is very nice). It can save you lots of money as well. Think about the following examples:

1: A family on a limited budget would like to save money on their vacation (or even afford to be able to go on one) by camping. The problem is that a full camping setup for a family of 5 isn't cheap if you haven't got much money. The fractional solution would be to share the cost with 2 other families in their local area. They would still each be able to go on vacation in the school summer break and take turns at using the equipment through the rest of the summer.

Example 2: If you enjoy yachting why not look at a fractional scheme for a used yacht. This can really bring yachting/boating within the reach of a lot of people. This was exactly the sort of scheme that I got involved with at the age of 18!

I'm not suggesting that fractional luxury ownership schemes are a bad idea, in fact I think that they put some really luxurious destinations within the reach of many more people. I just want to put forward the view that fractional ownership can also be used lower down the value scale to actually save folks on modest incomes money and make their life a lot more enjoyable.