Re-entry Plan

[DaleM]

I'm working on what to do with the house which I guess is part of a re-entry plan. Since housing is so low now where I live, I think I need to keep a house or we may not be able to afford it when when we come back. We also need to pull some money out of the house to help pay for health insurance.

So the options are rent what we have, sell the house and buy smaller and use the difference for health insurance or sell and buy somewhere else and rent it.

I should be an easy decision, well it's not! I don't want to mess with rental property and those cheaper houses aren't in very nice neighborhoods!

Dale

[maytrix]

We are looking at cruising around 2017. Although the ideal cruising for us is to spend 8 months cruising and 3-4 months in Vermont for the winter. So our goal is to have a small easy to maintain low cost home up there by the time we set off. If we needed some extra money or couldn't use it, we could always rent it being near some major ski areas.

I think it also is nice to have a place on land to go back to if you need it. Obviously the big factor being can you afford the boat and a small home. The day we'd re-enter land based living only, we'd have a place to go to as well.

[maytrix]

Originally Posted by DaleM

I should be an easy decision, well it's not! I don't want to mess with rental property and those cheaper houses aren't in very nice neighborhoods!

Dale

Perhaps you should consider new places to live? There's plenty of places where you can have a nice cheap house in a great neighborhood.

[sweetsailing]

Hey Dale,

Yes, you hit on exactly some of the issues we are wrestling with. I think we have determined we will sell the house for sure. At this point, we are undecided about owning a townhouse/condo to rent out while we are gone or just not deal with the issues surrounding property management and not be invested into anything while we are gone from a property perspective.

I think either way, we are likely to sell our house about 1 - 2 years before we depart. This will give us an opportunity to really downsize to what we actually want or need to keep. Baby steps...baby steps....we have to start somewhere. We have some friends who recently moved aboard permanently and their only advice was downsize and sort through your "stuff" now, don't wait!

So, I am taking their advice and starting the process of sorting through all of our possessions, which of course has led to some hard questions and some crossroads of sorts. Some of the decisions are easy, that junk can go. Some of the decisions are not so easy. I know alot of the sentiment here is just chuck it all and go, and if your that attached to something, how can you embrace the freedom of cruising, however it just seems to hit you smack in the face when you actually try to make decisions to get rid of it all...so, I agree with the statement..."It should be an easy decision, but it's not". One more step in the process of leaving the dock.

[In Training]

We are not yet out there but have discussed how to set up leaving so our returning would work.

We plan to liquidate everything. I thought when you feel too old to cruise or get tired of it -- with no material possessions to move -- wouldn't that be a good time to lease a house in a foreign country for a year to check that out and then the next year go to another country.

Small towns all over the world you could live in and really experience the culture, etc. and sight see at leisure. Just like to keep all options open and there are so many.

[msponer]

My wife and I also wonder about this, and if we have any goals for the next round of cruising, it is to figure this out -- what landlubber life we want to make up next. It would be sad to stop sailing and not be excited about the next thing.

Last time I jumped back into the default American path of working very hard to earn as much money as possible. Which is fun. But I've been thinking that next time, maybe I can make up a life where I can focus on projects that help build the future I want, instead of letting economics drive many of my choices.

I just started reading this book -- Early Retirement Extreme -- after finishing this one Live on the Margin and blogs like this, and am interested in them not so much for the mechanics of how these folks charted their course, but for the vision they have of themselves, and the care and thoughtfulness that they put into making up an aesthetic for their lives.

[boatman61]

No Plan... No Pension...
Aint life Grand..

[angelfish2]

sweetsailing, since we are back into sailing after 30 years of working, raising a family, and all the plethora of things you do while on dry ground, I have given this much thought.

Back in the 70s when we were really hot to go cruising, we had very little in material possessions and could easily have "dumped" everything we owned. However, now that we are in our 60s and are at a place in our lives when we really can go, we have a life-time of things we don't really want to get rid of. Also, instead of being young and indestructible, we are facing our winter years. There would be a time when we would have to return to living on the dirt. And there are a few possessions that could never be replaced, for example, very old family antiques and Tiffany lamps (yes, that Tiffany).

My suggestion to you is to start with those things that you never could replace if you have to come back to living on the hard again. In fact, start a list or pile of those things. Then work backward from there, toward the things that could be replaced. Then shave that premium pile down to those things you absolutely love. Plan on storing them. Believe me, it will give you a lot of relief to have those items safely stored (in your mind) and out of the equation. It will free you guys up to let the other stuff go.

I think this gives you a mental anchor just in case you want to/have to come back to ground living. I hope this helps.

[zeehag]

my plan is sail until i die then die then whatever is after that comes as it will.
no plan, no stress, no bs.

home is where my boat is....

[nhschneider]

Our daughter and her husband are living in our house while we're cruising and the arrangement works well for both of us: they get a place to live and we have someone to take care of the house, manage our mail, pay our bills, etc. so when we return from cruising, we'll be able to slip right back into our familiar surroundings.

But what I think about from time to time is what I'm going to do when we return. We sold our company before we left and its highly unlikely that the current owner would ever hire me. Finding employment when you're in your mid-sixties has statistical odds that are somewhat intimidating. I suppose I could volunteer but how easily will I be able resume living on land? Of course, it's a purely subjective issue and there are hundreds of anecdotes of people 'swallowing the hook' and continuing to enjoy their lives.

Frankly, I think when we return to California, I'm probably going to want to turn around and head out again!

Fair winds and calm seas.

[RabidRabbit]

It's not realistic to put to much stake in any re-entery plan if your take off date is 5 years away. This does not apply to all cruisers, but if your in the early stages, even if its been a long term plan for 30 long years. You simply dont have enough full time, boat time to know the answer. How many people figure out after 6 months that living on a boat is not the vacation they assumed it would be? I have met a fair amount of male cruisers who's other half tried to enjoy the dream, but sea adventure and land security are vastly different.

[Richard5]

Originally Posted by sweetsailing

1) Planning financially for re-entry - Will I have enough money to rent or purchase a place to live with or without selling the boat?

People should be aware of changing residential markets and the cost of re-entry into a market. I'm not a financially planner and and reluctant to say what another should do but I would earmark funds for entry into today's market. Then, I would expect re-entry costs to exceed my planning. At least planning for that event would tend to minimize the 'hurt'. This would be offset by sale of assets. Sale after sail....

2) Any re-entry plan will significantly change how I think about liquidating my current possessions. This one still has me thinking. I have some nice things that I don't want to sell for a fraction of what I purchased it for and then 5 years after cruising will need to buy all over again. Seems like a loosing proposition. But perhaps storing those possessions for 5 years might be a loosing proposition as well. What to do?

People usually underestimate the cost of inventory. I would pare back to only those sentimental keepsakes, the rest is for sale. Of course, this is the great unknown. For what duration of time does paying a cost become untenable? How long you plan to be gone (expressed as, How long are you willing to pay for storage?) Original purchase price AND depreciation are factors to consider here. I believe this is truly to the individual to decide.

For example, I have a strong attachment to my tools. Some are irreplaceable therefore have a value beyond price. This is not merely sentimental. Therefore, I would store those items for a length of time above replacement value.

3) Where to come back to? Will definitely sell the house when we leave, however when we are ready to come back, not sure where we will come back to?

The zombie apocalypse aside, most people will settle into a society in which they are most comfortable. However, I have known folks who, post cruising, decide for the opposite environment; inland mountainous terrain. This truly is up to the individual. Me? I would like S. California but of about 150 yrs ago. I like rural, I like individualism, I like unspoiled environments in small communities. Of course, I only mention SoCal because of the weather and because it's western culture.

This is indeed a great thread.

[Kettlewell]

The zombie apocalypse aside, most people will settle into a society in which they are most comfortable. However, I have known folks who, post cruising, decide for the opposite environment; inland mountainous terrain. This truly is up to the individual. Me? I would like S. California but of about 150 yrs ago. I like rural, I like individualism, I like unspoiled environments in small communities. Of course, I only mention SoCal because of the weather and because it's western culture.

One thing you will find when you go out cruising is that you learn a lot about the world and your preferences and thoughts about what you like may change. I have been very surprised by where some folks I know have ended up settling after they retired from cruising. A very New England couple we know ended up on a big farm in Virginia. Another New England couple ended up on the east coast of Florida. I met a guy from California who said he was never going back to the U.S. I think he's now settled in Panama. One family from California went back to California as did another from Colorado. A family from England we met in the Caribbean sailed to New Zealand and settled there. A guy we met from Florida sailed to Samoa, met a girl, and stayed there. Another couple from Massachusetts sailed back and forth to the Bahamas for several years, bought some land there, built a house, then sold it, and then got rid of the boat and went RVing.

[sailorboy1]

I sped read a lot of this thread so far as I didn't see any real experience answers to want I understood the question to be.

I only have barely considered the original question, but it does close my mind and it kind of scares me!

The way I see it is that for my wife and I the situation probably becomes: one of us has died, we don't have much cash anymore as it has gone to the cruising kitty, the survivor now has less social security income, the survivor is their late 60s+, physically can not sail/handle boat alone.

Where does that leave one? Is that time to bite a bullet?

[bobofthenorth]

I wouldn't hang onto "stuff" in anticipation of using it at some future time. We've been nomads for a relatively short time (coming up 6 years now). Packed some boxes when we sold our house and acreage, stored and moved those boxes twice because they were so precious that we couldn't imagine life without them and now they sit in our official residence. We purchased a little house (more like a cottage) in a quiet village in Saskatchewan and it serves as a great place to store those boxes which we will likely never open.

Our exit strategy is health dependant. If we've got enough agility we'll likely stay on the boat until one or both of us is fish food. If not we'll likely end up in a casita in some latin american country where the cost of living is low and healthcare costs are affordable. Beyond that we don't stress the details.

I've watched too many people plan to get old and have their plans come together in spades to get caught in that trap. Personally I don't plan to ever get old. We'll see how it works out over time.