Any thoughts on purchasing a Tahoe vacation home? Still on the fence!

[Drake Roberts]

I know no one can answer this but I guess I'm looking for advice or prior experience with this. I recently retired at the age of 55 and live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Financially, I'm secure with a guaranteed retirement income for the rest of my life, I also have my last child almost out of college without any loans and our current home ($600,000 value) is almost paid off. 

Since retiring I've found that I'm easily able to save $2,000. a month for no real reason. I already have around $750,000 in cash and stock investments which I don't for see needing since I already have a comfortable retirement package. Once our house is paid off I'll have another $1,100. a month that's available.

My wife and I have always vacationed in the Lake Tahoe area and always thought about buying a second home there. The only problem is I hate the idea of starting a mortgage again but at the same time I could certainly use the mortgage deduction. I'd love to be able buy a place (single family cabin or condo) and keep my housing costs (mortgage, taxes, HOA) under $2,000 a month. This put's me in the $350,000 price range.

Having been a saver all my life I'm now in a position to spend it but I'm a little hesitant of jumping into a second home that comes with all the pro's and con's of home ownership of a vacation home. Has anyone else out there been in this same dilemma? The more I look into this the more I hear stories from people that have had bad experiences. Thanks for any thoughts.