If you travel more than a week each year for vacation, you may want to consider a fractional timeshare program. Fractional programs divide the year into fractions (hence the name), allotting a few weeks' to a few months' usage time per purchase. In other words, instead of buying a week or a week's worth of points, you can buy a month or two worth of time at your favorite resort.

It sounds higher-end than other timeshare programs, and it certainly can be. After all, two to thirteen weeks of vacation time each year doesn't come cheap, no matter how you finance it. In 2001, the average price for a fractional week of timeshare ownership was $34,000 — but you may be surprised to learn that the average household income for Marriott Vacation Club fractional owners was just $130,000 (far from millionaire status). Certainly, there are some very high-end and far lower-end properties entering into the equations that produced those figures, but the point is that fractional ownership can be a viable timeshare option even if you are not a recent lottery winner.

Usually, the people who buy fractional timeshares either live in the same region as their resort or they plan to visit that place frequently. A good example would be snowbirds who want to spend winters in Florida and summers in New England. If you are of this inclination and want to spend three months a year in the same place, a fractional timeshare could be a smart financial option compared with ownership and maintenance costs on a second home.

Sometimes, fractional units are even used for business. This can make a great deal of sense over the long term in high-priced cities such as New York and London, where prime-location hotel rooms usually start around $250 or $350 per night. If you own a business in one of those cities, for instance, you can put clients up at your timeshare instead of being at the mercy of hotel prices day in and day out.