Can you afford a sauna?

A friend of mine, looking to cut expenses, picked up a stationary bike on Craigslist and knocked off his $65/month health club bill.  Good move, but he’s pining about missing the sauna.  Beyond saving his health club expenses, is that the complete picture?  I could start adding up the savings my sauna brings me in terms of not having to drive to go work out (something i’ll never understand) and yet, I enjoy a beer or two in the sauna after working out (something others may never understand), plus, in a home sauna you can choose who you sauna with vs. looking at some Fitness Fred sweating it out at Bally’s.

So, let’s try out some amortizing:

• $65/month – no more health club
• $36/month – gas ($3 round trip x 3x per week x 4 wks per month)
• $24/month – water or food ($2 each time x 3x per week x 4 weeks per month)
• $125/month: estimated savings working out home vs. health club.

Let’s analyze what a home sauna would cost, as the deal he got on a stationary bike and scoring some free weights was negligible.

• $4,000 sauna/$125 per month = 32 months / 12 = 2 years 7 months.
• $8,000 sauna/$125 per month = 64 months / 12 = 5 years 4 months.

PLUS you:

1. don’t need a babysitter to watch our kids while you go to a health club.
2. can sauna with your family/friends instead of Fitness Fred at Bally’s.
3. raise the value of your house for resale.
4. can play the music you want, or keep it quiet.
5. don’t have to remember where you left your car at Bally’s when over friendly Fitness Fred is following you in the parking lot.

For $8,000, I could help you save 5 years of health club noise and have your backyard feel as an authentic Finnish sauna lake cabin, or that up north nature cabin on the rocky shores of an outcropping peninsula.  No driving, no Fitness Fred,

it’s how an authentic Finnish sauna was meant to be.