In a feature published Thursday, Costco Chairman Hamilton “Tony” James told Chief Executive Magazine that even though he’s been on Costco’s board for 36 years, he still loves attending the meetings.

“I find it fascinating,” James said in the Q&A. “The company is a great window on what’s going in the world of consumers, what they’re buying or not buying.”

And what they’re buying, in addition to the beloved $1.50 hot dog combo, are 10-carat diamonds and gold bars. (Wells Fargo analysts found in September that the company sells up to $200 million worth of gold bars monthly.)

Related: Would You Live Above a Costco? Thrive Living Is Building an Apartment Complex on Top of the Warehouse Chain

“A Porsche dealer in Seattle put their cars on the floor of a Costco, and they sold out in a week,” James said.

Costco had about 137 million paying members in 2024, and most, James said, are “average-income earners nationally” but the warehouse chain also has “affluent members with two times the average income.”

Those members allow the company to do “remarkable things” like selling more high-priced Dom Perignon Champagne than “anyone else” — and for decades. In 2001, for example, the then-director of wine at Costco told the Los Angeles Times that the warehouse chain was the “nation’s biggest retailer of Dom Perignon.”

Business Insider reports that, according to data from analytics firm Numerator, millennial and Gen X households with higher income preferred shopping at Costco over the competition.

Related: Costco Bulks Up Most Store Workers’ Paychecks to More Than $30 an Hour.

“We’ve always known we could move anything in volume if the quality was good and the price was great — Rolex watches, Dom Perignon, 10-carat diamonds,” James said.

“Affluent people love a good deal,” he added, though they aren’t only buying luxury items.

The company’s Kirkland brand is “the second-largest brand anywhere,” James notes.

Costco reported net sales of $19.51 billion for January 2025, an increase of 9.2 percent from the same period last year.

Unless you are incredibly rich, it’s highly likely that your vacation property is smaller than your primary residence. Having a smaller vacation property is a rational choice given you don’t live there as long as you do your primary residence. Further, it’s unlikely you need as many extra rooms for guests, an office, or entertainment since you’re on vacation.

That said, having a vacation property that is too much smaller than your primary residence might feel like too steep of a downgrade. As a result, you don’t want to go too frugal in an already superfluous purchase.

The Reality of Buying a Vacation Property

Buying a vacation property will likely turn out to be a suboptimal financial move for most people. You likely will not use it as much as you think to justify the cost.

And given you can only live in one place at a time, the more you stay at your vacation property, the less you will stay at your likely more expensive primary residence. The true cost of a vacation takes into account the cost of not living in your main home.

Beyond just usage, vacation properties come with their own set of responsibilities: maintenance, HOA fees, property taxes, and potential rental management if you decide to rent it out. Many buyers underestimate the ongoing costs and overestimate their ability to offset expenses with short-term rental income. I see the same underestimation with buyers who want to do gut remodels.

But if you still want to buy a vacation property you don’t need, I thought it’d be a good idea to come up with a framework for how much vacation property you should buy for how much money.

The Ideal Vacation Property Size

If we assume that buying a vacation property is a poor investment, then it’s best to buy the smallest and most efficient vacation property you will still enjoy. This way, the drag on your net worth won’t be as strong.

Studio Vacation Property Size

The cheapest vacation property you can buy is a studio. If you have two queen beds, you could fit a family of four with two people sharing a bed. Or, if the studio is large, one person could sleep on a sofa bed.

The problem with buying this type of vacation property is that it may be no better than a large hotel room. You might as well stay flexible and rent when on vacation if you are OK with this type of living arrangement. There will be little-to-no cost savings by owning a studio vacation property.

The studio vacation property really only works well if you are single, a couple, or a couple with one child who would like a kitchen. Your primary residence would also have to be no bigger than a two-bedroom home or apartment for you to tolerate living in a studio for more than a week.

One-Bedroom Vacation Property Size

A one-bedroom vacation property starts to feel more luxurious given there are now at least two rooms. The parents can sleep in one room and the kids can sleep in the other. If you are single or a couple, a one-bedroom vacation property provides plenty of space. In addition, a one-bedroom vacation property is also larger than your typical hotel room or hotel room suite, which makes it more special.

Two-Bedroom Vacation Property Size

When you get to a two-bedroom vacation property, you can comfortably accommodate a household that’s used to living in a three-bedroom primary residence or larger. With at least three separate rooms, the two-bedroom property can conceivably sleep up to eight. But realistically, a family of four or five is the maximum number of people to fit comfortably in a two-bedroom.

We have owned a two-bedroom, two-bathroom Lake Tahoe vacation property since 2007. For 12 years, it felt too big for just my wife and me, so we either rented out the one-bedroom suite or the studio when we came up. However, now that we have two young kids, the place felt just right at about 1,020 square feet for about four years. There was no wasted space.

However, after we bought a larger house in 4Q 2023, our two-bedroom vacation property now feels a little tight after four nights. Just the other morning, I was in the bathroom at 6:45 AM when my boy came in saying he needed to pee. I told him to wait just five minutes, but he said he couldn’t hold it and suggested going to the other bathroom. However, I didn’t want him to go because I was worried about waking up my daughter.

It’s interesting how our preferences change over time all based on relativity. The larger your primary residence, the larger you’ll want your vacation property to be.

Three Bedrooms or More Vacation Property Size

A three-bedroom vacation property at a resort becomes harder to find. If you do find one, the prices tend to be astronomical because they might be reserved for penthouse suites. On the other hand, finding a three-bedroom single-family home vacation property is easier.

Unless you have a family size of five or greater, a three-bedroom vacation property feels a little too wasteful. You’re already probably spending less than 30 days a year at your vacation property. To have all that extra space not be used feels a little like driving an SUV solo.

Granted, I’d love to be able to comfortably afford a three-bedroom condo or beachfront property. But I wouldn’t feel good about it unless I used the place for at least 45 days out of the year and rented it out for at least 210 days a year. Both are not easy to do.

How to Determine the Ideal Number of Bedrooms for a Vacation Property

Simply add up the number of bedrooms your family uses for sleep in your primary residence and subtract one. From a cost and benefit point of view, that is the ideal number of bedrooms you should have in your vacation property.

Your primary residence could have extra empty bedrooms and offices. However, these don’t count in calculating the ideal number of vacation property bedrooms you should own. Because again, you’re on vacation and want to have the most efficient use of space as possible without crimping your lifestyle too much.

This formula highlights the importance of choosing a primary residence that perfectly suits your household and budget. Once you secure an ideal home with a well-designed layout, your vacation property purchase will be a more deliberate and strategic decision.

Regarding the ideal number of bathrooms in a vacation property, I say one full bathroom for every two people in your household for maximum efficiency and convenience.

A Vacation Property Buying Guide to Follow

If you can view your vacation property as a lifestyle investment instead of as a financial investment, you’ll find your asset much more rewarding. You’ll stop thinking about your return on investment and think more about your return on life.

In order to never have your vacation property feel like a burden, here’s my vacation property buying rule: spend no more than 10% of your net worth on a vacation property purchase price (not down payment). 

For example, if your net worth is $5 million, spend no more than $500,000 on a vacation property. If you can’t buy a vacation property that has the ideal number of bedrooms within the buying guideline, I’d pass. Just rent.

In addition to keeping your vacation property to 10% of your net worth or less, don’t buy one until you have kids. Before you have kids, you want to have maximum flexibility to vacation anywhere in the country or the world. If you own a vacation property, you will feel obligated to take most of your vacations there, which can start feeling mundane after a while.

Stretching the Vacation Property Buying Guide

If you foresee a rapid increase in your income and net worth, then you can probably stretch your vacation home budget to 20% of your net worth. But I don’t recommend doing so based on all the worry and stress you may go through. Buying a vacation property for enjoyment and then constantly worrying about whether it will financially ruin you is counterproductive.

I feel so much better now that my vacation property is worth less than 5% of my net worth versus when it was ~30% of my net worth at the time of purchase. Oh how unwise a purchase I made at age 30. A vacation property must feel affordable to be a successful purchase.

Before buying a vacation property, make sure you calculate how much you’ll actually be able to use the vacation property a year. Run a cost of ownership comparison to the cost of simply renting a nice place anywhere you want.

Overestimating the usage time is quite common. The reality is that most people can only take off at most six weeks a year. Only if you’re unemployed, financially independent, or have a location independent business can you truly maximize your vacation property.

Condo At A Resort A Single-Family Home

My final thought before you buy a vacation property is to decide between buying a condo at a resort or a larger single-family home. I compared both options and ultimately prefer owning at a resort with all the amenities, despite the high HOA fees. Not having to do any of the maintenance is huge for lifestyle reasons.

When I asked my kids which they preferred, they also chose the resort condo over a friend’s single-family home we sometimes vacation at, even though the house costs at least 15 times more.

While the expensive home sits on a 50+-acre lot with a private swimming pool, hot tub, and tennis court, our condo offers even more: three swimming pools, three hot tubs, a water slide, two tennis courts, a golf course, a fishing pond, three restaurants, a game room, an ice skating rink, and ski-in/ski-out access on hundreds of acres. In their eyes, the condo is simply a much more fun place to be.

Having a property manager for your single-family vacation home is essential if you want to minimize stress and upkeep. But of course, that costs money. With a condo at a resort, the on-site property manager and maintenance crew are always available, and the HOA fees cover all exterior maintenance automatically—providing great peace of mind, especially during heavy storms.

A Vacation Property is a Luxury Expense

Nobody needs a vacation property. It is a luxury expense that should not be bought unless it is 10% or less of your net worth or if you’re in decumulation mode. If I could have done it over again, I would have waited to buy my property 12 years later in 2019, two years after our first child was born.

That said, owning our two-bedroom vacation property has enabled us to live in nicer accommodations than we otherwise would for the past 18 years. It has also encouraged us to take more family ski vacations, which is helpful since I sometimes work too much and got bored of the activity long ago.

A vacation property is meant to be enjoyed. If you do buy one, make sure to actually enjoy it instead of constantly stressing over maximizing its rental income. The only way to do that is to buy one that’s truly affordable—otherwise, you’ll likely regret your decision.

Readers, do you own a vacation property? How does the vacation property size and cost compare to your primary residence? How did you determine the ideal size and amount to spend on a vacation property?

If you’re looking to invest in real estate without the hassle of remodeling, check out Fundrise—my favorite private real estate platform. Fundrise focuses on high-quality residential and industrial properties in the Sunbelt, where valuations are lower and yields are higher.

Some commercial real estate valuations have dropped to levels near the 2008 financial crisis lows, despite today’s stronger economy and healthier household balance sheets. Seeing this as an opportunity, I’m dollar-cost averaging into the sector while prices remain attractive. Fundrise is a long-time sponsor of Financial Samurai and I’ve invested $300,000+ with them so far.

Subscribe To Financial Samurai

If you want to achieve financial freedom sooner, pick up a copy of Millionaire Milestones: Simple Steps To Seven Figures. It’s packed with actionable advice to help you build more wealth than 90% of the population, so you can live free. Order a copy on Amazon today! 

For more personal finance goodness, join 60,000+ others and sign up for my free weekly newsletter. You can also sign up here to get my posts send to your inbox as soon as they are published. Since 2009, I’ve been helping people achieve financial freedom sooner, rather than later. 

The Ideal Vacation Property Size Depends On Your Primary Home is a Financial Samurai original post. All rights reserved. Financial Samurai began in 2009 and is the leading independently-owned personal finance site today with ~1 million pageviews a month. Everything is written based off firsthand experience and expertise.

Amazon is retiring Chime, the company’s internal meeting software for video and audio calls, and replacing it with Zoom, an external solution with the same capabilities.

An internal memo to employees viewed by Business Insider on Wednesday said that Zoom would now be the “standard meeting application” for internal Amazon meetings companywide, marking a major win for industry juggernaut Zoom, which reported more revenue than expected in the third quarter of 2024 ($1.18 billion compared to $1.16 billion expected).

The memo also revealed that Amazon has begun rolling out Microsoft 365 productivity tools to employees.

Related: ‘2,000 People, 900 Parking Spaces’: Amazon’s Return-to-Office Mandate Has Hit a Snag

An Amazon spokesperson told BI in an email that the company retiring Chime because it offered “limited” use outside of Amazon, and Zoom was “a good fit” for their employees.

Amazon Chime has been Amazon’s default videoconferencing app since the company introduced it in 2017, publicizing its clear audio and high-definition video. Amazon clients, including recruiting software Jobvite and software consulting firm Kinetech, also used Chime to conduct virtual meetings.

Amazon announced earlier this week that it would stop accepting new Chime customers on Wednesday and end support for the service on February 20, 2026.

The change from Chime to Zoom affects the 350,000 employees Amazon had in its corporate workforce as of early 2023. Amazon employed 1.55 million people overall, including warehouse and operations workers, as of Sept. 30.

Amazon corporate employees are also migrating to Microsoft 365 cloud tools like Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on a “rolling basis,” per the memo. They can use Microsoft Teams for meetings, but Zoom will be the default.

Chime isn’t the only product Amazon has shut down this week. On Tuesday the company ended Inspire, the TikTok duplicate it showcased in its mobile app that allowed users to find new products on Amazon endorsed by influencers and brands.

Related: ‘Most Successful Yet for Amazon’: Walmart Has Topped the S&P 500 for 12 Years. This Month, Another E-Commerce Giant Is Expected to Take Its Crown.