How much is enough??

[seafox]

They are all real costs to the Cruiser.

[ess105]

You can choose to ignore them but you may end up saying
"Well - we had to sell the boat and return home when we reached xxxxx as the flights home once a year killed our cruising kitty."

[waterworldly]

Does any of the administrators know the date this thread started? I see a change in the postings about three quarter through and wondered if the housing mess in the US affected the postings.

[GordMay]

OOPS!
As noted it was Seafox on
31-01-2007
Not cat man do originally posted this poll 01-02-2007.

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by GordMay

cat man do originally posted this poll 01-02-2007.

Actualy Gord, it was Seafox

I still havent figured out how to do poll's yet.

Dave

[Reality Check]

After going through the post twice... I reach the amazing conclusion that the funds you will need to cruise
a) will depend on what you spend
b) will always be a bit more than you have
c) if you had more it would also be spent

so... does it really matter???

[starfish62]

Exactly!!!!!!!!

[rebel heart]

The question might as well be asked "How much does it cost per year to live?"

[Reality Check]

Easy... as much as you allow yourself to spend

without regard to "if" you have it...

[rebel heart]

I work a job now where I make decent money, but I also used to be in a crummy little band where everyone is a waiter or gardener. Whether you make $10,000 or $100,000 a year, most everyone I know is broke. They have this thing in their head of "if only I had x amount, then I would be free of these problems!". The "problems" of course aren't anything that can be solved by money, it's just the sad reality that our consumer economy functions by a bunch of people convincing you that you need certain things in order to be happy.

You can't be successful with college (and the loans), you need a good car to meet girls (and the loans), you should have a house before you're 40 (and the loans), you deserve a credit card because of how hard you work (and the INSANE loans), etc.

Most people don't want to make more money anyway. They just want to "have" more money. "Making money" and "having money" are different. "Making" is a verb, and implies that you are doing something (i.e. work), and "having" although also a verb, is a past singular, which implies that you are not really concerned with the art that generates wealth, but rather you just want the prize without the effort.

Sorry for the rant, but if I was a dictator for a day I would force everyone to read Basic Economics.

Amazon.com: Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy: Books: Thomas Sowell

[starfish62]

I'm with you guys, R.C. & R.H. What I've found while cruising is that the big, pretty boats with the big bank accounts generally blow through the route--hitting the high points, of course, for the photo album--and don't interact with the locals at all. The "by the hair of my chinny chin chin" cruisers have a slower pace, and the problems they encounter they fix themselves--because they can't afford to pay someone to fix it for them--and so they actually get a better sense of an area. I had to have an aluminum fuel tank welded up in Aitutaki (Southern Cooks), and there was ONE guy on the island who could weld aluminum. It cost me a case of Steinlager! After a few weeks I had locals dropping off fish, crab & lobster at the boat. I enjoyed a sense of the island that I would not have encountered had I pulled the tank, flown down to Rarotonga (or flown a welder up), and had a "must move on, time is money," outlook. My experience is that one can live on a couple of bucks a day. $10 a day in the western caribbean lets one live like a king.

[GordMay]

How a person measures happiness determines how they will go about trying to achieve that goal. Possessions and wealth are necessary for providing a comfortable life. However, we should have them to satisfy our ”needs”, and not for our greed, or to feed our insecurities (insatiable “wants”*). Money can make a significant difference when it buys us a house, food, a car - but will make little difference when it merely buys us a new and bigger house, more and more food, a new and more expensive car.

In recent years, researchers have reported an ever-growing list of downsides to getting and spending - damage to relationships and self-esteem, a heightened risk of depression and anxiety, and (perhaps most important?) less time for those things that truly make us happy.

* The amassing of wealth and possessions comes, in part, from our internal insecurity. This leads to an ever-increasing spiral of trying to get more money, for acquiring more goods and services, and leads to a corrupt and unsustainable life style.This pursuit of possessions can become an end in itself, rather than a means to an end (happiness). Materialism becomes a more difficult goal than many, because it is open-ended and goes on forever - we can always want more, which is usually not true of other goals such as friendship.

The "secret" to using money to buy happiness, is to spend money in ways that support your happiness goals. I think we all intuit this; but let's not be too surprised when many of us nod our heads wisely, and then go on to covet a Porsche and a new home and tickets to the Super Bowl.

[dcstrng]

I meant to go cruising when I retired from the military almost 20 years ago… other than, conceivably, a summer escape I probably won’t at this late date; but a bit of wisdom from an old platoon sergeant still rings in my mind… “A good solder should never own more than he can carry on his back…” I’m a minimalist at heart – I’m still happy to motorcycle halfway across the continent and back living out of rucksack and can’t recall ever pitching a tent or staying in a hotel… still I do like creature comforts and don’t like a monastic existence just to prove some ethereal value in austerity…

A rucksack existence is a tad Spartan, perhaps, but the idea is ripe… if it ain’t there it can’t break… if my crew needs it, then perhaps I have the wrong crew… as I’ve read and on rare occasions conversed with the multi-year voyagers – it seems less is more…

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by dcstrng

... a bit of wisdom from an old platoon sergeant still rings in my mind… “A good solder should never own more than he can carry on his back…” … as I’ve read and on rare occasions conversed with the multi-year voyagers – it seems less is more…

Or perhaps, you've conversed with Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who coined the phrase.

[starfish62]

Creatio ex nihilo.