Cruising on $500 per Month . . .

[kaimusailing]

I guess you have to consider that it is better for someone who would be homeless in an urban setting to instead be in a natural setting on the water with a small classic plastic. There are so many of them available. That's what this thread is for, but on such a budget, how can the needy access this information? I always suggest websites, etc. to anyone I meet who is looking for information or obviously needing it. The people who know the most about cruising on little got their information from other cruisers who are offering helpful suggestions. In some sail friendly ports the local library can be an asset. When GPrikso was giving his ranting posts, he was trying to help, although no good deed goes unpunished.

[savoir]

Originally Posted by goprisko

This thread is about cruising on a micro-budget. It makes no distinctions regarding morality of economic conditions experienced by those choosing this life style. Furthermore, this thread is for the express purpose of helping others cope with life on a micro-budget.

I consider your response and others of it's ilk, little more than the ravings of a petulant child. Were you to go to

Bill Mitchell – billy blog | Modern Monetary Theory … macroeconomic reality

and learn how the modern monetary system actually works, you'd find that no sovereign currency issuer such as the USA, Canada, NZ, Auz, and the UK is ever revenue constrained. You'd also learn that Banks create the principal for loans out of thin air, and the borrower is expected to earn back the principal and interest too. This is in direct violation of the US Constitution, which reserves currency issuance to the Congress.

You'd also learn that the economy is an upflow system, with the rentier class supported by household income, which comes from Labor.

That the efforts of the Rentier cabal, masquerading as a political party decimated the earnings of working people such that Labor's share of GDP fell from 60% to 51%, and working people attempted to maintain their lifestyles via debt accumulation, and this progressed until private debt/GDP exceeded 350%, at which point households were saturated with debt.

Once this occurred, households began deleveraging, which reduced demand, which led to mass layoffs.

To date, the Federal Government has done little to correct the situation while significant issues remain buried under the carpet. The elephant in your living room is failing bridges, levees, canal systems, railways, highways, electricity grids, water supplies, and other critical infrastructure which can only be maintained/ repaired by Americans working in the USA to fix them. Yet nearly 15 million remain jobless, including nearly 50% of recent college graduates, creating crime, destroying families, young people, and those in late middle age.

Those who qualify for food stamps and medicaid reimbursement of Part B medicare premiums can easily be cruising in a good old boat with an LOA of 28-32 ft. As a matter of fact, US law considers such people to be Homeless, and they qualify for additional targeted benefits.

I for instance, find people at the 1st Baptist Food Pantry who have SUVs, or very nice cars. I do not disparage these folks, regardless of the fact that they have something I simply cannot afford on Social Security. Instead, I am grateful that Publix cannot or will not mark down groceries, meats, and vegetables to a fraction of their retail price, for the purpose of liquidating them within it's stores. Instead Publix donates this food to the food pantries, who give it to me.

As I mentioned elsewhere, if you are of modest means and want to go cruising on a micro-budget, are willing to adopt the recommendations given in pp 28-36, and are trying to save for a boat, you should take advantage of all the resources available, including medicaid, food stamps, social security, disability, va pension, va medical, welfare, free phones, and of course, should you find it, employment.

In our specific case, access to food pantries, food stamps, and medicare premium reimbursement means that our effective income is nearly $1200 / month. This has permitted us to pay the myriad costs associated with Natalie's successful competition for and landing of a US Medical Residency in Brooklyn.

Of course, once Natalie actually begins working at the Hospital, we will no longer qualify for much of this assistance, but meanwhile it permitted us to pay the following expenses out of revenue, without a need to borrow funds:

USMLE - 3 exams $3500
Immunizations $ 200
ECFMG certification - $ 1000
Study Materials - $ 2500
US Clinical rotations in Family Medicine, Pediatrics, and Pathology - $5000
Electronic Residency Application Service - $ 1600

National Resident Matching Program - $ 1600

96 Mercury Tracer - $ 2900

We have used this assistance to go from living marginally to returning to the middle class.

However, there are many in my age group who for various reasons prefer retirement, and many young people who simply cannot find work due to Federal Economic Policies which discriminate against working people in favor of the rentier class, and many, many in their fifties who have been thrown out of work in what should be their max earning years, and will never work again.

This thread is for the express purpose of helping them transition to a fulfilling life cruising on a micro budget.

Furthermore, I consider any pompous over stuffed behind of a donkey flaming from his deluxe computer system esconced in his luxury apartment paid for with revenues from his Banking, Loan Sharking, or Financial legerdemain job should remember that "but for the grace of God, there go I".

To make my remarks very short, "Get a Life".

INDY

Ah has SPOKEN !

[Doodles]

Originally Posted by goprisko

This thread is about cruising on a micro-budget. It makes no distinctions regarding morality of economic conditions experienced by those choosing this life style. Furthermore, this thread is for the express purpose of helping others cope with life on a micro-budget.

I consider your response and others of it's ilk, little more than the ravings of a petulant child. Were you to go to

Bill Mitchell – billy blog | Modern Monetary Theory … macroeconomic reality

and learn how the modern monetary system actually works, you'd find that no sovereign currency issuer such as the USA, Canada, NZ, Auz, and the UK is ever revenue constrained. You'd also learn that Banks create the principal for loans out of thin air, and the borrower is expected to earn back the principal and interest too. This is in direct violation of the US Constitution, which reserves currency issuance to the Congress.

You'd also learn that the economy is an upflow system, with the rentier class supported by household income, which comes from Labor.

That the efforts of the Rentier cabal, masquerading as a political party decimated the earnings of working people such that Labor's share of GDP fell from 60% to 51%, and working people attempted to maintain their lifestyles via debt accumulation, and this progressed until private debt/GDP exceeded 350%, at which point households were saturated with debt.

Once this occurred, households began deleveraging, which reduced demand, which led to mass layoffs.

To date, the Federal Government has done little to correct the situation while significant issues remain buried under the carpet. The elephant in your living room is failing bridges, levees, canal systems, railways, highways, electricity grids, water supplies, and other critical infrastructure which can only be maintained/ repaired by Americans working in the USA to fix them. Yet nearly 15 million remain jobless, including nearly 50% of recent college graduates, creating crime, destroying families, young people, and those in late middle age.

Those who qualify for food stamps and medicaid reimbursement of Part B medicare premiums can easily be cruising in a good old boat with an LOA of 28-32 ft. As a matter of fact, US law considers such people to be Homeless, and they qualify for additional targeted benefits.

I for instance, find people at the 1st Baptist Food Pantry who have SUVs, or very nice cars. I do not disparage these folks, regardless of the fact that they have something I simply cannot afford on Social Security. Instead, I am grateful that Publix cannot or will not mark down groceries, meats, and vegetables to a fraction of their retail price, for the purpose of liquidating them within it's stores. Instead Publix donates this food to the food pantries, who give it to me.

As I mentioned elsewhere, if you are of modest means and want to go cruising on a micro-budget, are willing to adopt the recommendations given in pp 28-36, and are trying to save for a boat, you should take advantage of all the resources available, including medicaid, food stamps, social security, disability, va pension, va medical, welfare, free phones, and of course, should you find it, employment.

In our specific case, access to food pantries, food stamps, and medicare premium reimbursement means that our effective income is nearly $1200 / month. This has permitted us to pay the myriad costs associated with Natalie's successful competition for and landing of a US Medical Residency in Brooklyn.

Of course, once Natalie actually begins working at the Hospital, we will no longer qualify for much of this assistance, but meanwhile it permitted us to pay the following expenses out of revenue, without a need to borrow funds:

USMLE - 3 exams $3500
Immunizations $ 200
ECFMG certification - $ 1000
Study Materials - $ 2500
US Clinical rotations in Family Medicine, Pediatrics, and Pathology - $5000
Electronic Residency Application Service - $ 1600

National Resident Matching Program - $ 1600

96 Mercury Tracer - $ 2900

We have used this assistance to go from living marginally to returning to the middle class.

However, there are many in my age group who for various reasons prefer retirement, and many young people who simply cannot find work due to Federal Economic Policies which discriminate against working people in favor of the rentier class, and many, many in their fifties who have been thrown out of work in what should be their max earning years, and will never work again.

This thread is for the express purpose of helping them transition to a fulfilling life cruising on a micro budget.

Furthermore, I consider any pompous over stuffed behind of a donkey flaming from his deluxe computer system esconced in his luxury apartment paid for with revenues from his Banking, Loan Sharking, or Financial legerdemain job should remember that "but for the grace of God, there go I".

To make my remarks very short, "Get a Life".

INDY

Indy (aka George O.), after taking a look at your resume posted on the Public Research Institute (PRI - Directors ) I'm very surprised at some of your statements.

[wolfenzee]

Originally Posted by goprisko

First of all, my condolences to you. You are not alone, I am a vietnam vet. As a vet, at age 65 I qualify for a modest pension, designed to keep me above $14,000 / year. I was turned down because I worked for an NGO for 30 years. VA tried to force me to commit the felonious comingling of the NGO's assets with mine to avoid paying the pension.

What is missing in all this is perspective:

In 1970, when I returned from the war, gas cost $0.30/gal, Mrs Samek rented me a 1 bedroom furnished apt for $75/month, a new buick cost $3000, social security informed me that my pension at age 65 would be $500/month, and I earned $14,400 / month teaching school. At about this time Lyn and Larry Pardey cruised extensively in 24' Seraffyn on ~$3,000/ year.

Today gas costs $4/gal, apts go for $1000/month, new cars cost $30,000. That is expenses now cost ~ 10x as much as 40 years ago.

However, social security pays me $830/month, not $5000/month, and beginning teachers get ~ $40,000 / year, not $144,000/year.

Given that the Pardeys cruised in a very simple 24' boat they built themselves, without an engine, without electricity, without a windlass or winches, on $3,000/year, it's reasonable to imagine that duplicating their lifestyle should cost ~ $30,000/year or $2500/month.

If you are to hope to keep your expenses to the minimum at ~$500/month, you aren't going to live as well as the Pardeys did, and you are not going to be able to afford many of the things the Pardeys took for granted, and you are going to have to skip many of the more expensive places the Pardeys could visit. It's as simple as that.

Regarding the assertion regarding welfare cheats, there are only welfare cheats because the system's arcane qualifications create same. Given a simple qualification system, which guaranteed you either a job or income at least of a certain level, and which had no other restrictions, cheating would be eliminated. Why? Because, the system would not care what your assets were. If you make less than Y, the system gives you the difference between X the amount you make and Y or Y-X=Z.

If you had French type single payer health system, you'd not have medical cheats either. Everyone simply shows up, is diagnosed, treated, and sent home. Cheating, by definition is eliminated.

Cheating in the US context, is the direct consequence of politicians trying to make political hay out of offering benefits they have no intention of providing. It has nothing to do with the actual activities of the population.

So, good luck making your way through the system, and I do hope you secure your disability benefits.

To ensure you get the maximum bang for the buck, visit pp 28-36 and study the information presented therein.

INDY

INDY

I'm not complaining, I can't function in the part of society I'd rather not have anything to do with anyway, back benefits paid for my boat and I have enough to live my dream as well as share it all with someone...do something special for someone life has not been kind to.
Living here I can barely squeak by, 50% of my income goes towards "land ties" (costs that just will not exist when I leave) and 20-30% goes towards prepping the boat to go....dropping my mooring lines will free up a lot of money.

[SaucySailoress]

Originally Posted by atoll

this is a great thread,with lots of good stuff!

unlike most of the other threads on cf it addresses how not to spend money on expensive gear,as opposed to discussing how to spend it if you have it.

perhaps if the name was changed to"cruising on a shoestring and a prayer" it would attract fewer trolls

I totally agree on all points, but sadly we have decided to close this thread anyway. After 208 pages, we feel it has run its course.

There is great information here. I, for one, read some great stuff about budget dinghies a while back. But ploughing through 208 pages to find the stuff is near on impossible. Therefore, I (sort of) took up Atoll's suggestion, and started a thread called "Dinghies on a Shoestring". I even found the relevant dinghy posts (fortunately I had them marked), and moved them over: http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ing-79060.html

Perhaps we could have a series of these more focused threads, even? Such as "Marinas on a Shoestring", "Women on a Shoestring", "Cooking on a Shoestring " or "Clothing on a Shoestring". In fact, if you recall any specific valuable info, which you feel would be useful moved into a new, focused, shoestring thread, send me a PM with the post and page numbers, and we'll see what we can do...