Professional therapy, motivational coach, or CF?

[Gadagirl]

It’s taken me some time to get caught up on all of the posts!

No, I’m not in therapy yet! HAhahahaha! Nor have I been miraculously swept off by a forum member. I have been doing as I normally do. Attending my normal work week and family life, and working toward my sailing goals each evening. Not much spare time! Packing boxes, loading the car each evening (with no less than 30 items, that's one of my goals) to donate the following day. Slowly but surely getting rid of “stuff”. Also weekends are spent doing repairs and work on the house to ready it for market.
I can’t speak for all women, or men. But yes, I’d love to have a macerator, electric flush toilet. A water maker, electric windless, AIS, radar, solar and wind power,
a washer, a freezer, an icemaker and genset power! etc. But I realize that if I want to leave earlier than later, I might have to forgo some things. Plus, because all boat system maintenance and repair will be new to me, I think I should start with simple systems and work my way up. There have been a lot of good points concerning comfort as well as the beauty of simplicity . Of course I won't deny safety. So, as advised in other threads, my first years budget will be spent on ground tackle, safety gear and leaks.
I think that I seem to fall in the middle of everyone's advice? Maybe a little more towards the planner, worrier when dealing with financials. I'm already frugal. Shop at thrift stores for my wardrobe. Why spend $30+ for a pair of jeans when I can spend $2.50? I also can rough it out with the best, even excreting in buckets, but would rather have a flush toilet. Everyone has good points, on either side and I realize this has been discussed many times before. You must understand that I have been reading, absorbing the information on this forum for 10+ years, scheming and planning. However I've made mistakes, or have encountered blocks in the road.
My problem is not that I won't adapt to my new lifestyle. I've always known that I will. My problem is that a majority of my saving's cannot be accessed until I'm 59.5-60 years old, without a high penalty financially. If I had been wise enough, or able to save some money in a Roth.......? Well, the situation might be different. My problem is how to leave earlier than 59.5. Because between 55 and 60 I can't collect on any of my savings. @62 I can begin SS, @66-67 I can begin Medicare. This has all been a given in my original plan, retiring at 60. I may well be stuck to my original plan, given circumstances. That wouldn't be so bad either. Live on a boat, gain knowledge while refitting over 5 years. It's a sound and reasonable plan. I'm not exactly a charity case, happy to say.
Some security I'm not willing to concede? Boat insurance, it'll be my home. I won't have an extra $60-$100 k to replace if lost. So cruising Caribbean $3k-$4k per year? If I can even procure it being that I'm live aboard with limited experience. Automatically $250- $330 per month. Health insurance? $300-500 per month? Not wise to do without unless planning and starting residency in SA or Mexico. I might in the future decide to establish residency elsewhere. But cruising the east coast USA and Caribbean? I'm aware it's hard to fathom for anyone outside of our healthcare system, but a simple broken bone can render creditors seeking liens on your asset's (the boat, bank accounts holding savings, etc.) if you don't pay the medical fees. In the US. I know, stay away from the US, but where should I station my medical provider if I'm cruising in the Caribbean? I'm a US citizen! At any rate, between the ages 55-67 I'll be paying high cost medical insurance and out of pocket medical costs. So already 1/3 of a $1500 month budget will be spent on the security insurance provides. Boat maintenance? Minimal $500 a month? $6k a year? On a 35' boat purchased for between $60-$70k, 15-20 years old., and planning to spend, initially $10-$20k on a refit. What's left? $400 for food, entertainment, port fees, travel inland, and travel home for visits. And I could live like that, I did once live like that on terra firma. It's not that pleasant. Doable yes. But that experience of not having funds to take my children to museums, parks, cultural events, sporting events, let alone vacations etc. Is just deeply etched on my conscience. I really am fighting going back to that existence. If I were out cruising I'd want to tour the countries landmarks and historical sites. While it would be lovely to sit at anchor in a beautiful spot, as opposed to my life now, would I feel remorse for not being able to afford that land excursion?
And yes, time does run out. I know this. And I weigh my options, as we all do. Hence the desperate reason for my post. So my question is there any way to generate $1500 per month + while cruising? And/or If working only 6 months per year then I'd have to generate twice that amount in half the time.
Some ideas I've brain stormed,
* charter my own boat - Chesapeake in spring, summer Caribbean fall winter
* Find a company willing to hire me remotely
* Win the lottery
* cultivate/start an online business that I can tend to remotely
* waitress / bartend along the way
And that still will not leave me the cash flow to continue contributions towards retirement. Just living money for the now. But there's still that axiom of freedom vs. money.

hmmm perhaps I should've kept my my questions to my self. As it seems more and more waiting might be most practical for me. Though I wish it weren't.

[SaltyMonkey]

yeah the health insurance thing sucks. If you are unemployed they take LAST years salary to calculate whether u r eligable and what rates.

[boatman61]

If your cruising the Caribe I'd not sweat health insurance.. 16 stitches in the sole of my foot cost me 80euro on the most expensive island in the Caribe.. St Barts.. including meds..
Here in Portugal x-rays and meds for 3 broken ribs came to less than 60euros.
Pay as you go.. the robber baron medics are all Stateside.

[SaltyMonkey]

Boaty: Here in the US you must PAY for your own Health Insurance else you get hit with a tax penalty. Teh guvment oblablaccare stuff suksz IF you can get it. This hurts when you dont have employment

[Gadagirl]

Originally Posted by boatman61

If your cruising the Caribe I'd not sweat health insurance.. 16 stitches in the sole of my foot cost me 80euro on the most expensive island in the Caribe.. St Barts.. including meds..
Here in Portugal x-rays and meds for 3 broken ribs came to less than 60euros.
Pay as you go.. the robber baron medics are all Stateside.

yeah! I could pay for stitches. I have to now , here, because insurance doesn't cover anything until I pay $3k out of pocket! Stitches? Pffff pay for chemotherapy? Pay for any illness likely to beset the ageing? Our healthcare, doctors, insurance, pharmaceuticals, are all based on for profit business. Can't pay? You die. Simple.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Gadagirl

yeah! pay for chemotherapy.

Damn.. you pay folks to kill you...??
Hell..!! go to the Middle East.. there's at least 13 countries that do that for free..

[Sea Dreaming]

Gadagirl,
The insurance requirement for the US is you are exempt from having to carry insurance if you are out of the country 9 Mos a year. We figure in what we save by not carrying insurance we don't have to return to the states to work. We will cover our own expenses with local doctors. Yes, we hedge our bets that we won't get cancer etc. It is a gamble. But insurance companies are making the same gamble. A person being healthy but fearful of disease is how they make their profit.

Of course, that's not a risk every should take. But if you are healthy it might be a sensible option. If you can put back a nice chunk of change for any emergency that might arise, 10,000 or so, you might not have to work for someone else's profit margin. Further more, if you do need to return to the states in a few years, you will have been unemployed with few assets and may even be covered under medicaid. It's just a thought.

[boatman61]

Now ^^^^THATS^^^^ one Smart Cruiser..

[SaltyMonkey]

It is that transition period that will hurt you $$.

If you are in-state, even with the health insurance, the deductibles will make insurance useless really. Or you'll still be paying for stitches because most likely you'll be out of network and have to cover an even higher deductable. The only reason for insurance is for catastrophic events.

[Robert C]

1st-Look what happened to the index funds I recommended at the last crash. They came back. Quickly. But the point is that you would have been safer in these index funds than you would have been in a mutual fund. It's that simple. Make it as safe as you can.

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by Robert C

1st-Look what happened to the index funds I recommended at the last crash. They came back. Quickly. But the point is that you would have been safer in these index funds than you would have been in a mutual fund. It's that simple. Make it as safe as you can.

So why are indexed funds safer in your opinion?

Sent from my vivo Y35 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[Kenomac]

Getting sick or hurt can be expensive in other countries. Our friends paid €12000 for a broken leg in Turkey. Prostate surgery for another friend was priced out to be more expensive to have in Greece than in Boston.

It's not all sunshine and unicorns outside the US... as the residents of the UK are about to discover shortly when they exit the EU health network. In foreign countries, they'll need to buy their own cane.

[Robert C]

Originally Posted by daletournier

So why are indexed funds safer in your opinion?

Sent from my vivo Y35 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

First, thank you for an intelligent question.
Index funds in general have very low overhead, mostly due to simple realignment strategies rather than true active management. (like a mutual fund) So, low management fees. There are funds with even lower overhead, but the difference is miniscule, given how low it is already. If you were investing millions of dollars, it might matter.
The three Index funds that I am recommending represent: (DIA) the 30 stocks of the Dow Jones Industrials, (SPY) shares of the S&P 500, and (QQQ) the top 100 companies in the Nasdaq. The combination of these three gives you a great deal of diversification while only dealing with three tickers.
The Nasdaq (in my opinion) would be the riskiest of these markets. However, QQQ only tracks the top 100 in the Nasdaq, thus ceating an additional margin of safety. These funds 'realign' at regular intervals to maintain the stated goal of the fund, so a company going into bankruptcy will probably not be part of your portfolio by the time it gets to the BK.
Dividends paid by the individual companies are passed on to you either monthly or quarterly. (depending on which ETF we're talking about)
The best performance/safety guage I know of is to look at the charts: If you bought these just before the crash, and left them there through the whole decline, how long till you had your money back?
$1000 in each of the three funds, purchased on 10/1/07 (the highest pre-crash point).
SPY would have had your money back by 4/1/13.
DIA would have returned your money by 3/1/13.
QQQ would have returned your money by 1/1/11.
This hypothetical $3000 investment would (as of 9/1/16) be worth 4827.05. ( + dividends - taxes and fees) By my math, that means that rather than moaning about losing 40-60%, you would, at this point, be ahead by 60.9%. Granted, it is nine years later, but that still beats the hell out of 4%.
The situation descibed here is almost a worst case scenario. Under more normal circumstances, your return would be better. (Imagine if you bought these in early 2009, a best case scenario).

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by Robert C

First, thank you for an intelligent question.
Index funds in general have very low overhead, mostly due to simple realignment strategies rather than true active management. (like a mutual fund) So, low management fees. There are funds with even lower overhead, but the difference is miniscule, given how low it is already. If you were investing millions of dollars, it might matter.
The three Index funds that I am recommending represent: (DIA) the 30 stocks of the Dow Jones Industrials, (SPY) shares of the S&P 500, and (QQQ) the top 100 companies in the Nasdaq. The combination of these three gives you a great deal of diversification while only dealing with three tickers.
The Nasdaq (in my opinion) would be the riskiest of these markets. However, QQQ only tracks the top 100 in the Nasdaq, thus ceating an additional margin of safety. These funds 'realign' at regular intervals to maintain the stated goal of the fund, so a company going into bankruptcy will probably not be part of your portfolio by the time it gets to the BK.
Dividends paid by the individual companies are passed on to you either monthly or quarterly. (depending on which ETF we're talking about)
The best performance/safety guage I know of is to look at the charts: If you bought these just before the crash, and left them there through the whole decline, how long till you had your money back?
$1000 in each of the three funds, purchased on 10/1/07 (the highest pre-crash point).
SPY would have had your money back by 4/1/13.
DIA would have returned your money by 3/1/13.
QQQ would have returned your money by 1/1/11.
This hypothetical $3000 investment would (as of 9/1/16) be worth 4827.05. ( + dividends - taxes and fees) By my math, that means that rather than moaning about losing 40-60%, you would, at this point, be ahead by 60.9%. Granted, it is nine years later, but that still beats the hell out of 4%.
The situation descibed here is almost a worst case scenario. Under more normal circumstances, your return would be better. (Imagine if you bought these in early 2009, a best case scenario).

Thanks for the comprehensive reply.

Sent from my vivo Y35 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[fuentes]

This reminds me of ROTC 1958. First day we were with our shiny uniforms on the parade grounds at college thinking we were pretty hot stuff and of course we knew it all ( I was 17 years old). I remember it still "vividly". Here comes Sargent Major Robertson, stands before us and in the sweet, gentle voice of all drill Sargents "informs us". Gentlemen, there is the right way, the wrong way, the army way, and my way. We will be doing things my way. I do not remember there being any suggestions or discussion after that. Have a nice day. Hector