$3,000 / Month Cruising Budget Planned

[hpeer]

I don't know, but most people treat work the same way. Work, work, work, work, retire. Then they wonder why they have issues. Or...just never retire.

[Mike Sibley]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Why does cruising during retirement have to be an all or nothing choice? We travel and cruise 4-5 months per year and hope to increase to 6-8 months, then hopefully 10-12 months... Take it in steps. Many others we know do the same. Why make it an either or choice?

If you have the money, your plan provides the best of both worlds, but cost is a factor for a great many. A lot of people can afford to maintain a house or a boat, but may not be able to do both. Counting insurance, marina fees, maintenance and repairs, a decent cruising boat can quickly add $10K or more to the annual budget of a lubber.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Why does cruising during retirement have to be an all or nothing choice? We travel and cruise 4-5 months per year and hope to increase to 6-8 months, then hopefully 10-12 months... Take it in steps. Many others we know do the same. Why make it an either or choice?

This is similar to our slowly unfolding approach. The last few years we've expanded our cruising season, going from one to two, to this year five months. It has worked well since we're on the Great Lakes. Next spring we say goodbye to our land anchor and will call our boat the only home we have. We'll hit salt water, and winter the boat in NFLD if all goes well. Where we'll winter ourselves, I have no real idea. But the uncertainty is part of the fun of this life .

It's been a slow transition, but one that has allowed us to learn how to cruise, including what it costs for us. We're learning everyday by actually doing. For me, it's the best way (maybe the only way) to really figure out how to make cruising work.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Why does cruising during retirement have to be an all or nothing choice? We travel and cruise 4-5 months per year and hope to increase to 6-8 months, then hopefully 10-12 months... Take it in steps. Many others we know do the same. Why make it an either or choice?

This is an ideal alternative for those than need stimulation of a sort that cruising can't provide (ie shore life and the challenges of work) or for those who still need income from work, or possibly want a chunk of the year enjoying family and friends back home and shore activities, or hate cruising when it is cold and can't easily get anywhere warm in the winters, or want a taste of the cruising life before committing ..... I have probably missed a heap of reasons why people want to cruise for just part of the year, but you get the drift .

Unfortunately, there are two stumbling blocks:

1. Stepping in and out of the workforce like this is not easy for everyone. For many professions it is simply not possible to pick up and drop work exactly during the part of the year they desire. Also, available type of work may not pay as highly as your usual full time job did and it may then be better to work longer full time and quit rather than continuing on indefinitely part time.
If you have a business of your own, it is not always possible to leave it running well in someone else's hands. It is possibly a better economical decision to sell it when it is earning a peak amount.

2. The cost of maintaining a home that can't easily be rented out part time, plus a boat and marina costs in your absence is not chicken feed and a huge chunk of your extra income earned may need to go towards this.

[sanibel sailor]

a couple of great references-

Sensible Cruising: The Thoreau Approach : A Philosophic and Practical Approach to CruisingPaperback– September, 1990
by Don Casey

suggests doing modest goals sooner within your existing means

Voyaging on a Small Income by Hill, Ann (2006)

long term voayaging on $2200/yr, not sure I wish to make their compromises, but kind of takes away the "I cannot afford it" excuse

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Why does cruising during retirement have to be an all or nothing choice? We travel and cruise 4-5 months per year and hope to increase to 6-8 months, then hopefully 10-12 months... Take it in steps. Many others we know do the same. Why make it an either or choice?

Cost of maintaining the land home, my yearly property tax on home and land is about $5K to say nothing about upkeep expenses.
Intent is to sell home and land and use that to purchase rental property in Florida, if we do that, then we may well do what your saying if we chose to, but it will be more expensive than staying on the boat year round, no doubt about that.
My plan B is to move into one of those rental units if need be, you never know what happens, I may get sick and have to return or Lord knows what.

[chuckr]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Why does cruising during retirement have to be an all or nothing choice? We travel and cruise 4-5 months per year and hope to increase to 6-8 months, then hopefully 10-12 months... Take it in steps. Many others we know do the same. Why make it an either or choice?

While this makes sense in some cases and we know a lot of folks who only cruise 6 months a year and live on terra firma the other 6. While there are some issues raised by others one reason that i did see (could have missed) is age. We left at age 62 and knew we could not continue this lifestyle for ever and eventually would have to get off the boat. I guess it is like when i was climbing big mountains and the body started rebelling so folks said stop climbing the big stuff and just do little stuff. I guess is like an addict that once you get the highs from the big stuff the little stuff just does not do it any more.
I think the same will be for us when we have to slow down. No new ports of call or very very few, same anchorages same old same old would just not do it for me. For some that is great and that if that is life style that is ok for them but not for us. We would really get bored quickly.
By the way we do not begruge those who do the same thing every year but that is just not us.

So we want to get as much in before the body breaks down and we have to stop.

[Group9]

It's figuring out what you want, and what you need, in life.

My wife and I are getting set to go on another long cruise in four months (my second, her first). We have decided that we would both rather eat baloney at anchor off some beautiful island, than eat steaks and keep working like we are.

I admit we both have income streams that will continue while cruising, which does make it easier for us, but I run into person after person these days, who really seem to have no plan except to work until they die (and reading the obituaries every day shows how many are being completely successful at doing that very thing).

I've spend a lot of my life working my ass off. I'm not going to waste any more of it. It's not like we get a do over.

[a64pilot]

A lot of people get trapped, and can't quit work, they owe too much money.
It's one thing to say that you would accept a lower life style, and another to say, heck with it, I'll give up the house the kids grew up in and I paid on for 20 yrs, just let it go and I'll get nothing from it.

Have you watched any of the "tiny house" programs? Seems more and more people have come to realize that you just cannot live the American dream on the wages you can get form a lot of the jobs that are out there anymore and they have decided to live in "tiny houses" which look to me a lot like the storage sheds sold at Lowes etc.

Many are doing very well scamming the Government with disability and Lord know how many other programs.

You can find all kinds of statistics that will say anything you want, but it seems that our real purchasing power peaked in the 1970's and has been falling since then
Household income in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Somewhere, maybe the 1980's? our wives went to work to make up the difference, and somewhere, maybe the 2000's? we started taking the equity out of our homes to make up the difference.
I don't think there is anything left that can make up the difference, from here on, the standard of living will fall. Now this is just my guess and I'm certainly no economist.

[Group9]

Trying to keep up with Jones has ruined a lot of families finances.

A lot of our friends drive much fancier cars than we do, and live in bigger houses. But, they are all so far in debt, and have no savings, that they can't quit. We're not, we do, and we can.

And, it's what you want in life. There is nothing wrong with wanting to live in a huge house and drive a brand new Mercedes or other new car, and taking one or two vacations a year, as a respite, and being willing to work until you die to maintain that lifestyle.

My wife and I reached our moment of clarity earlier this year when we flew down to Key West for a week with two other couples. We had a good time, and when we going over what we had spent, it dawned on us that for what we spent to be there for one week, we could have been there for two or three months on our boat. And, I have to admit, I felt stupid for having spent that much money that way.

My wife and I are at the age, 56, where we see friends and acquaintences of ours in the obituaries every month. It seems like every time we turn around, another friend has come down with a terminal or debilitating illness.

Life is short. Life is precious. Things are not.

[oldragbaggers]

Originally Posted by Group9

Trying to keep up with Jones has ruined a lot of families finances.

This "trying to keep up with the Jones'" has infected the cruising world as well, which is why we have threads that question whether you can live on $3,000 a month while cruising (when the average yearly income in this country is only $51K and that's supporting land based homes and families, kids in college and all the rest).

The serious cruisers of yesteryear were mostly on boats in the 30' -35' range (usually those horrible, slow, full-keeled things....however did they manage), they had no refrigeration, no electronics, no expensive roller furlers, no hot pressure water, kerosene for lights and heat, no air conditioning, and the list goes on and on. Today the prevailing wisdom is that you will be absolutely miserable if you have to be crammed into a boat that small full-time, and you would be absolutely foolish, and risking certain catastrophe, to try and cruise without all that gear. Look at the ads in the sailing magazines and the new "cruising" boats being previewed. Back in the 80's the Cape Dory 30 was the ultimate. Now they're running in the 50' range. By today's standards the Hiscocks, Roths, Pardeys, Paysons, Caseys, Bingham-Burke (on a 20' Flicka no less) and so many more should have been the most miserable lot on earth. Thank God they didn't know it at the time and managed to have the times of their lives despite all the obvious shortcomings of their vessels and gear.

I have always believed that happiness is a choice, and your perception will become your reality. So if you "decide" that you cannot be happy without x, y, and z, then you won't be, regardless of what you do have. And if your perception is that cruising cannot be done without a certain type of boat, without a certain complement of gear and a without a certain level of disposable income, then for you it can't.

What is needed for cruising hasn't changed in any fundamental sense except that our sense of entitlement to and expectation of a certain level of comfort and convenience has changed. I believe that if you can change your perception about what that is, focus on all the positives to be gained from the cruising experience, and choose to be happy to adjust your lifestyle within the level of income you have (especially when you're talking having an income of $3K per month), you can go cruising. And if you can't, it wasn't really the lack of funds that stopped you.

[Group9]

So right. If a couple posted here today that they planned to cruise and basically repeated as their plans, what Lin and Larry Pardey, or Tania Aebi, or a dozen like them, actually did, they would be scolded and made fun of, and told they were going to be bums, and miserable until they died on their trip out of sheer ignorance.

[SV THIRD DAY]

Originally Posted by Group9

So right. If a couple posted here today that they planned to cruise and basically repeated as their plans, what Lin and Larry Pardey, or Tania Aebi, or a dozen like them, actually did, they would be scolded and made fun of, and told they were going to be bums, and miserable until they died on their trip out of sheer ignorance.

I haven't seen that attitude on this thread at all honestly.
I've seen more "Go Now and Go simple" than trying to tell people they can't do it. But hey...if you want to poop in a bucket like Lin and Larry did have at it....me....that's nuts and the very idea of it turns more people off from Cruising than it brings in.

[Group9]

Originally Posted by SV THIRD DAY

I haven't seen that attitude on this thread at all honestly.
I've seen more "Go Now and Go simple" than trying to tell people they can't do it. But hey...if you want to poop in a bucket like Lin and Larry did have at it....me....that's nuts and the very idea of it turns more people off from Cruising than it brings in.

There are definitely, at least, two schools of thought on what it takes to happily cruise.

[oldragbaggers]

Originally Posted by SV THIRD DAY

I haven't seen that attitude on this thread at all honestly.
I've seen more "Go Now and Go simple" than trying to tell people they can't do it. But hey...if you want to poop in a bucket like Lin and Larry did have at it....me....that's nuts and the very idea of it turns more people off from Cruising than it brings in.

Never would I advocate pooping in a bucket.... I love my proper and "regulation compliant" plumbing. And I am not suggesting either that there is anything at all wrong with having all the bells and whistles in the world if one can easily afford them and the having of them doesn't compromise the ability to go.

I was only suggesting that expectations can be adjusted up or down to make cruising a reality because it can be done with far less than what most people think they need these days as evidenced by all the very successful cruises of the past done with very basic gear and boats.

I am definitely in the go small and simple camp mostly because over the years that's what our budget would accommodate so it's what we became used to. We could probably afford more now, but we see no reason to do so because we've never been unhappy with less. Our cruising budget will be about $3K also, and we feel that we'll be rich beyond our wildest dream on our little 33' boat with very basic systems. That amount is actually only half of our monthly retirement income. We will save the rest for when Plan B (old age and moving back ashore) kicks in. In actuality we'll probably make a game out of seeing how much cheaper we can actually do it because we love to save and we love a challenge and we don't need a lot to be happy. Freedom is it's own reward for us. We don't spend much now, rarely eat out, I buy my clothes at the thrift store (don't have to, just can't justify the mall prices) and aren't into the latest gadgets at home either.

It really boils down to why you want to cruise, what you want to gain from it and what you're willing to do to make it happen. Some people question whether they can go on $3k, while other people state that they are having the time of their lives on half that amount and can't fathom how they'd spend more without wasting it, and then even a few others who make do on $500 a month. It really doesn't have that much to do with what's actually necessary in order to go cruising. It's all relative to the individual and what they think they have to have to be happy.