How much in the bank before setting sail ?

[indiana_ct]

For me, less than $25k in the bank. Interest rates are so poor that inflation will soon outstrip the value. If you have any cash, invest it. If you're not used to having as little as $25k in the bank, then try it for a while, see how you feel - possibly panicked at first until you realise it's just money. It's not your life at sea. There is no comparison.

[sailorchic34]

Myself I voted bacon for obvious reasons.

Mainly as I only have 200 in the bank. That's dollars, not thousands. But I've been full time on the boat for 13 years, well 3/4 time these last few years. Winter gets a bit tough on the ol' bones.

I've learned to live nicely at the low end of the food chain. Next year my income triples with SS. That will be some easy living. I don't worry about investments, 401K, ROI, deprecation or anything else.

Just enjoy life in the ultra slow lane. But then I drove around with no spare for the longest time too. No worries.

[Cadence]

I got a kick out of being able to scratch together 1M makes someone a 1%er. Not today. Maybe a 50%er If that? Someone thinking that is living in the past.

Life is what you make it. Money "ain't" everything.

[sailorchic34]

Originally Posted by Cadence

I got a kick out of being able to scratch together 1M makes someone a 1%er. Not today. Maybe a 50%er If that? Someone thinking that is living in the past.

Oddly there is a calculator for that. https://dqydj.com/net-worth-by-age-c...united-states/

$1 million puts one in the 84th percentile. A net worth of $150k puts one right around 50 percentile.

One needs $11 million net worth to make it into the 1%

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by sailorchic34

Oddly there is a calculator for that. https://dqydj.com/net-worth-by-age-c...united-states/

$1 million puts one in the 84th percentile. A net worth of $150k puts one right around 50 percentile.

One needs $11 million net worth to make it into the 1%

****! I'll have to see what I'm worth percentile wise financially. Some people may be happier at less than 10%. I think the happiest time in my life was when I didn't had the proverbial piss pot Both are long ago and far away.

[IslandHopper]

I have always loved the this quote from Sterling Hayden, thought provoking and for some reason makes perfect sense to me......

“To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea... "cruising" it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.

"I've always wanted to sail to the south seas, but I can't afford it." What these men can't afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of "security." And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine - and before we know it our lives are gone.

What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all - in the material sense, and we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade.

The years thunder by, The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.

Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life? ”
― Sterling Hayden, Wanderer

.....sadly people don't talk or think like that anymore.....

[SVNeko]

He's just asking how much you, dear reader, personally, in your own mind, would want in the bank when setting off? Jeesh

[IslandHopper]

Originally Posted by SVNeko

He's just asking how much you, dear reader, personally, in your own mind, would want in the bank when setting off? Jeesh

No kidding Einstein, did you figure that out all by yourself?

I quoted the opinion of someone else on the thread subject for interests sake......Jeesh

[royalstar]

Originally Posted by RokNRich

Assumptions -

2-5 year "sabbatical"
Boat is as ready as can be
Husband and wife + 1 young child
1 year in the Sea of Cortez, followed with a puddle jump and points east.
Budget conscious, but still want to be comfortable and do things.


Don't include long term investments, just readily available cash intended for the purpose of a sailing sabbatical.

Primary wage earner is able to find work easily in USA and we would probably go "home" to the US for a 3 month working holiday every year (medical).

FWIW, I'm ready to go now, wife wants to save a little more....

10 million dollars, that will do....this is kind of "question", "what type of boat I should buy" or "how big boat I should buy". no one knows answer but you.what is your life style, are you cooking on board (every second day baked beans on toast) or every night you are eating in 5 star restaurants....I know person who is spending £100 a month just for dried fruit, another one can not live without two bottles of Bushmills a week (each bottle £30), someone else will buy booze for a month for £30.

[sailorcherry]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Before I started this escapade in 2008 I wrote on this forum: "I will always have a $5000 contingency fund". Some old sage bastard who had just finished his multi year cruising wrote back "I bet you never have that!"
May I tell you he was right.

So, lets get on to emergency flight home on life support. Why spend $30,000 for that flight when there's a competent surgeon, foreign if course, in a well established hospital right where you became sick?
It's only because we have some perverse idea that all foreign hospitals are death traps and all foreign doctors incompetent.
Americans in Australia stubbibg their toe fly to the US to have an overpaid doctor prod it instead of the world class medical facilities of Australia.

Same in the Caribbean where there's top doctors in French hospitals. Or Panama, or Thailand where the best doctors wait with affordable operating rooms?

No. We want to waste money so we can fly "home" to a scungy government hospital, over worked doctor and bored nurse.

We are a funny lot


Mark

Ha! I love this Mark. You REALLY summed up the attitude of some people who get brainwashed by the news or a friend of a friends uncle's niece who had a "bad" foreign hospital experience. Good or bad outcomes happen everywhere.
I am one of those US health care horror stories. Screwed me up real good, in my prime, and I am now inoperable.

OP - speculation is just that. I hope you and your wife are reading the thread together. This forum is great but I highly suggest you go make friends with current and ex cruisers in person too. Make a nice dinner onboard and drinks and have them over to pick their brains and bounce scenarios off of.

Talk to delivery captains too. They deliver boats for all types, generally. They have valuable opinions and observations usually with stories of this and that type cruiser/owner and what happened (good or bad).

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by sailorchic34

Oddly there is a calculator for that. https://dqydj.com/net-worth-by-age-c...united-states/

$1 million puts one in the 84th percentile. A net worth of $150k puts one right around 50 percentile.

One needs $11 million net worth to make it into the 1%

Thanks, for the link. After the first Mil. and being in the high 80s gaining a % really looks like a chore. 150k looked closer to 40% but 40-50 or84-87 for a mil. is probably the age related part. I was using a curve for 65+.

Thanks again.

[sailorchic34]

Originally Posted by Cadence

Thanks, for the link. After the first Mil. and being in the high 80s gaining a % really looks like a chore. 150k looked closer to 40% but 40-50 or84-87 for a mil. is probably the age related part. I was using a curve for 65+.

Thanks again.

I suspect it's not very accurate, but more a close thingy. I'm still trying to figure out the age/net worth tie in. Net worth should be the same regardless of age. I was shocked that I made it to 23%. Who knew I was so well off.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by sailorchic34

I suspect it's not very accurate, but more a close thingy. I'm still trying to figure out the age/net worth tie in. Net worth should be the same regardless of age. I was shocked that I made it to 23%. Who knew I was so well off.

Another way of looking at that is how badly off are so many.
The calculator is interesting, but how do you value a Retirement, benefits?

I think the age thing is based on age groups, same net worth at 20 would put you in a higher bracket than it would at 60.

[sailorchic34]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Another way of looking at that is how badly off are so many.
The calculator is interesting, but how do you value a Retirement, benefits?

I think the age thing is based on age groups, same net worth at 20 would put you in a higher bracket than it would at 60.

I'm a glass is mostly full sort of girl. I don't worry about what I don't have. I have a boat and that's about all I need. It allows me to watch the birds return to nest at sunset, watch otters swim by.

For me I consider SS the best think since sliced bread. while most folks are begrudging how little SS is, I look at it as a windfall that allows for more then I need (at least for the first 5-10 years.) Though lets not tell the government that.

But folks were talking net worth which many seem to be worried about, if they have enough to cruise. In almost all cases, cruising takes about what you have. Mainly as those with more, go with a larger boat with more gadgets and spend more, because that's the lifestyle they are use too.

So one could spend oh $150k on a newer 34 foot boat or $11k for a Old boat. I went the old route.

I suspect if I have a million or two in the bank I might have a bigger boat too. Would I me happier. I suspect not. But I'm weird...

[toddster8]

There are also calculators for estimating the value of retirement benefits. A couple of years ago, my former employer bailed out of my retirement plan and distributed lump sums that had to be re-invested. Of course they used the formula most favorable to themselves, but it appears that their calculations assume that I'll die at age 68.
!
Maybe they know something that they haven't told me?
Maybe I'd better go sail while the sailing is good!