Anybody around in their late 20's, saving hard for their dreams ?

[Bob Morane]

Good morning ladies and gents.

I am well aware that cruising safely and boats in general cost a lot of money, making it a more likely lifestyle for "end of career", retirees or very successful people.

It is pretty obvious that the biggest demographic on the forum are over 40 years old.

I was just curious if there are other people on the forum who share these traits:

- Late 20's
- Absolutely obsessed by boats and the sea
- Saving and working hard, most likely at the price of a lot of other things

I would love to hear a few of your stories of determination and patience to distract me through the 40% / 2 years saving I have left to do, regardless of if you are doing it now or did it in the past.

I am not talking about day-dreaming and giving up the next week, but dedication, sacrifices and commitment stories.

Cheers from an impatient sea lover, diving everyday through winter to make it happen.

[Mirage35]

Hmmm ... not sure I’m going to help.

In my late twenties I was in a similar situation, although - read on - clearly not obsessed enough. Was ready to sail anywhere, anytime, etc., etc.

Then I met a girl and life got complicated.

We actually met on a sailboat but life got in the way and we didn’t get back to sailing until five years ago, thirty years later.

Anyway, if there’s a message in this, it is to push for your dream and do what you can to make it, but don’t sweat it if other diversions happen. It all works out in the end.

[Jim Cate]

G'day Bob,

Well, I'm definitely not in your age group these days, and in fact was a few years older (mid 30s) when stricken by the cruising bug, but the ethos of working hard and living small did its job for me. I was in a post-divorce financial crunch for a while and learned to live on a rather small usable income... like a starving grad student as Ann likes to say!

The cruising bug had bitten hard, and as I gradually recovered financially I was able to simply continue to live frugally and save/invest the surplus. Frugal here means an old beater car, small rented home, no real holidays, cooking for myself at home or on the (trailer sailor) boat, shabby clothing, cheap red wine or home brew beer... the full shot, and carried on for years. The result was being able to retire at 52 with a suitable cruising boat and a great partner who shared my lifestyle and most of my dreams of cruising and sailing. Been cruising now for 31 years... I guess that says it best! Not quite the same thing that you contemplate, but a parallel fiscal and lifestyle scheme. (I was slowed by the desire to get my two kids through uni and grad school... a worthwhile delay that won't likely slow you down!)

So, I applaud your drive and your goals. I think you must be pretty unusual to have such goals and the guts to do the hard miles to get to them. Not so many of your contemporaries seem like that to me. Hang in there, and if you keep at it, perhaps our wakes will cross... you would be a welcome guest on Insatiable II.

Jim

[Tafa]

I was wondering if you've watched "Chasing Bubbles" doc... very inspiring (to me at least)

https://youtu.be/ibP5IQxId34https://youtu.be/ibP5IQxId34

[Bob Morane]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Frugal here means an old beater car, small rented home, no real holidays, cooking for myself at home or on the (trailer sailor) boat, shabby clothing, cheap red wine or home brew beer... the full shot, and carried on for years.

That definitely hit home.
I have been living for the last 3 years spending only about 20-25% of my income and saving the rest.
Living in sharehouses, driving a 1991 commodore slowly to use less gas, working 60-70 hours week in the cold waters of Tasmania, never dining out or partying.

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

The result was being able to retire at 52 with a suitable cruising boat and a great partner who shared my lifestyle and most of my dreams of cruising and sailing. Been cruising now for 31 years... I guess that says it best! Not quite the same thing that you contemplate, but a parallel fiscal and lifestyle scheme. (I was slowed by the desire to get my two kids through uni and grad school... a worthwhile delay that won't likely slow you down!)

The reason I have been pushing this so hard in such a short time is that 90% of my motivations for this are :

1) Diving and underwater life
2) Pristine remote places exploration
3) Authentic human experiences

And I have had that sinking feeling for years of being on a time limit.
The world is shrinking, getting increasingly regulated and standardized, more and more places are getting discovered and turned for profit, sometimes respectfully, most of the time not.
Coral reefs are getting destroyed or are dying from climate change and/or tourism at a scary rate.
I have a mate drilling coral samples on the great barrier reef to study them who pretty much told me "go in the next 5-10 years or there won't be much left to see".

I realize it sounds gloomy and I might be overreacting but I feel that the sooner I go, the most authentic and pristine the experience will be.

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

So, I applaud your drive and your goals. I think you must be pretty unusual to have such goals and the guts to do the hard miles to get to them. Not so many of your contemporaries seem like that to me. Hang in there, and if you keep at it, perhaps our wakes will cross... you would be a welcome guest on Insatiable II.

Thanks very much for the cheers
That's the main reason I made this post : I feel extremely alone in this endeavour.
Over the last 4 years, I've had about 15 people attempting to join me in the dream only to give up after few months, from childhood friends to co-workers, or even strangers, leaving me a bit cynical.
I fully understand that this obsession is mine only and people have different priorities and are not willing to do the sacrifices, which is why I am inquiring whether there are other people out there doing the same.

I have been lurking on that forum since 2015, reading its contents extensively and it has been immensely helpful to keep the motivation going and get through tough patches.

[Bob Morane]

Originally Posted by Tafa

I was wondering if you've watched "Chasing Bubbles" doc... very inspiring (to me at least)

https://youtu.be/ibP5IQxId34https://youtu.be/ibP5IQxId34

Thanks for the link, I'll give it a try tonight.

[LoudMusic]

Hi Bob!

Stay focused on your goals. In our mid/late 20s my wife and I started talking about this boat life. I'm turning 40 this year and we bought our Orana 44 about three weeks ago.

Don't spend money frivolously on things you don't need (such as starbucks coffee, high end electronics, or outrageous TV and telephone service plans). I bought two computers in 15 years, never paid for TV subscription, and work paid for my cellphone and internet for all but about 3 years of that time frame.

Take good care of the things you do buy so they last a long time. This also teaches you how to take care of the boat when you get there. We owned our most recent two cars for more than 10 years each. I sold my Honda for $3500 over KBB because it was in such good shape and high demand.

And stair-step yourself into the life style. I think my wife and I missed this one. We owned a 20' trailer sailor for a few years, and then jumped to a 43' catamaran. Yikes! I wish we would have had something in the low to mid 30' range on a lake for a few years just to get more comfortable with serious boat maintenance and daily life on a boat. But it's working fine for us.

Our main delay for our ~15 year time frame was our pets. We had two dogs and two cats and weren't interested in moving any of them aboard a boat. The last one died about a year and a half ago and that's when we really seriously started shopping.

[a64pilot]

All I’ll say is at 20 your in a hurry, you say your going in two years. I assume you can cruise for two years or so before you run out of money and have to go to work?
Just me, but I’d hate to get a taste to then have to give it up. There are other ways to save, get a job that has a pension and save, then when you go, you don’t have to come back.

[LoudMusic]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

All I’ll say is at 20 your in a hurry, you say your going in two years. I assume you can cruise for two years or so before you run out of money and have to go to work?
Just me, but I’d hate to get a taste to then have to give it up. There are other ways to save, get a job that has a pension and save, then when you go, you don’t have to come back.

I'm so worried about the money running out. My wife has to remind me nearly daily that "we're doing OK, just don't buy too many toys".

[Fore and Aft]

Back in 1993 I was a 18 year old boatbuilding apprentice and purchased half a 30 foot yacht, the other half was scattered all over the beach. I then spent the next year restoring her. I had no money ( my wage was around $250 a week) and while my mates were out partying I was either working or restoring my yacht. Long story short by the time I had finished my apprenticeship at the age of 20 I had a 30 foot yacht and was ready to go cruising.
I was going to say it took a heap of sacrifice, but no for me it was just part of lifes journey. I pretty soon forgot what I had missed during my teens and was lucky enough to meet my wife during the rebuilding. I tell you Bob if you meet the right partner the journey is so much easier when it is shared.
Cheers

[gjordan]

I had similar obsessions when I was in my early 20s. I bought a 17 foot boat and learned a little bit and then bought a 26 foot boat and learned a little more and read everything I could (Thank you Uncle Eric) about cruising and took off. I passed up the chance to buy my folks house for $36,000 when they retired (worth about 2 mil $ now) and never regretted it. I was lucky that I had a good paying Union job and was able to cruise full time for a couple of years and came back, sold the boat and worked a few years and bought a 37 foot boat and went out for a couple of years more. Sold that boat and bought a house and spent 2 years busting our butts working 50-60 hrs a week at the job and rebuilding the house and sold it for enough to buy a 44 foot boat and spent 8 years in the Caribbean. The economy is different now. It favors the already wealthy and the middle class is stagnant, but being frugal and not getting caught up in the buying of endless electronics to make you feel safer, will allow you to cruise and enjoy. Remember that the price of cruising goes up tremendously as the size of boat goes up. Ten years after cruising in an enginless 26 foot boat I was spending almost as much per month in a 44 foot boat as I had spent per year in a 26 foot boat. Go small and go now. ____Grant. P.S. 50 years later I am refitting a 34 foot boat for a bucket list cruise. The obsession never really leaves you.

[daletournier]

Hi Bob, definitely sounds like you have the bug, good on you! Some of us just see the world different.

I got away at 38. I built a business starting at age 29, sold half at 38 and sold the second half two years ago when I was 47. Been full time other than a mth here and there since 2009.

I always looked forward to the day of the mth cruising helmsman or multiple hull magazine came out, this helped propel the dream. When I was prostituting myself in the business I kept motivated by keeping the dream alive reading all I could about cruising.

Cruising comes at a cost, you give up what the normal want, the flash house, car, big TV and comfort. Personally I've potentially given up millions, my old business is making a small fortune. For me the deciding factor was understanding "how much do I need" this is subjective, it changes person to person. I'd figured out what I "needed " and once that had been achieved I checked out. I can't go back, I'm ruined. I choose time and experiences over more money.

As Jim said "Frugal" is a great way to be. That's also relative, some would laugh at my frugal, but my frugal works for me.

If I could make a suggestion. Buy your boat in the US or Mexico etc, although I purchased a good deal in Oz, a young bloke can get a great smaller older cruising boat in the States for a lot less than in Oz, also your starting on the east side of the Pacific. A guy I know purchased a hunter 37 (like the one linked) in good condition for 20k, he's having a blast cruising Mexico, living cheaply and has no trouble getting good crew. A couple of years in Mexico, drift across the Pacific and into Asia, does it get better?

http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1988...g#.Wxy_QJ-EbqA

Good luck mate, stay focused and you'll get there. Life rewards action, I know this to be true.

Cheers Dale.

[mikedefieslife]

Perhaps working hard is the problem. It takes a long time to save up unless living rent free with parents, and you miss out on a lot of life.

My advice would be to take it easy. Don't work any more than normal. I work life balance is important, and you don't want to be burnt out before you're 40. If everything goes tits up, you've got at least another 40 years of work before you can retire so better to enjoy yourself while you can.

Instead, spend time you might have otherwise been doing extra shifts/work, and to slowly position yourself in a way where you can separate physical location from income, and even better, separate time from income.

Inevitably that is going to mean working freelance, or for the latter, setting up your own business.

[Bob Morane]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

All I’ll say is at 20 your in a hurry, you say your going in two years. I assume you can cruise for two years or so before you run out of money and have to go to work?
Just me, but I’d hate to get a taste to then have to give it up. There are other ways to save, get a job that has a pension and save, then when you go, you don’t have to come back.

Yes, I won't have nearly enough to retire, but I don't plan on retiring either.
After these 5 years of saving, I'll be around 250-300k Aud$ worth of savings.
I plan on investing about half, buy a small boat, go cruising for a couple years and see from there.

I was thinking that 2 years is already a long time and a lot can happen. I'll surely have something else figured out to keep going, met a lot of new people, got a lot of opportunities.
And if I don't, I'll just sail my boat back to Oz, keep the commercial diving going and go back to cruising later, it's something I would be quite happy with.

Originally Posted by Fore and Aft

Back in 1993 I was a 18 year old boatbuilding apprentice and purchased half a 30 foot yacht, the other half was scattered all over the beach. I then spent the next year restoring her. I had no money ( my wage was around $250 a week) and while my mates were out partying I was either working or restoring my yacht. Long story short by the time I had finished my apprenticeship at the age of 20 I had a 30 foot yacht and was ready to go cruising.
I was going to say it took a heap of sacrifice, but no for me it was just part of lifes journey. I pretty soon forgot what I had missed during my teens and was lucky enough to meet my wife during the rebuilding. I tell you Bob if you meet the right partner the journey is so much easier when it is shared.
Cheers

That's definitely something that I relate to.
I'm happy you met your wife like that and that's my idea as well.

I have a been trying unsuccessfully to get people I already knew into it, hurting a few people in the process, including myself.
It taught me that it makes more sense to keep going at it and meet people along the journey who genuinely share your interests and/or passion.

[Bob Morane]

Originally Posted by gjordan

I had similar obsessions when I was in my early 20s. I bought a 17 foot boat and learned a little bit and then bought a 26 foot boat and learned a little more and read everything I could (Thank you Uncle Eric) about cruising and took off. I passed up the chance to buy my folks house for $36,000 when they retired (worth about 2 mil $ now) and never regretted it. I was lucky that I had a good paying Union job and was able to cruise full time for a couple of years and came back, sold the boat and worked a few years and bought a 37 foot boat and went out for a couple of years more. Sold that boat and bought a house and spent 2 years busting our butts working 50-60 hrs a week at the job and rebuilding the house and sold it for enough to buy a 44 foot boat and spent 8 years in the Caribbean. The economy is different now. It favors the already wealthy and the middle class is stagnant, but being frugal and not getting caught up in the buying of endless electronics to make you feel safer, will allow you to cruise and enjoy. Remember that the price of cruising goes up tremendously as the size of boat goes up. Ten years after cruising in an enginless 26 foot boat I was spending almost as much per month in a 44 foot boat as I had spent per year in a 26 foot boat. Go small and go now. ____Grant. P.S. 50 years later I am refitting a 34 foot boat for a bucket list cruise. The obsession never really leaves you.

Good to know I'm not the only obsessed one around
I love the fact that you went back at it several times rather than a long saving stretch followed by a permanent retiring.
I cannot see myself waiting for another 10 years, for the reasons I stated in a previous post.
I do intend to go small and frugal (30-35 footer KISS) and if the obsession never leaves me, all the better !

Originally Posted by daletournier

Hi Bob, definitely sounds like you have the bug, good on you! Some of us just see the world different.

As Jim said "Frugal" is a great way to be. That's also relative, some would laugh at my frugal, but my frugal works for me.

If I could make a suggestion. Buy your boat in the US or Mexico etc, although I purchased a good deal in Oz, a young bloke can get a great smaller older cruising boat in the States for a lot less than in Oz, also your starting on the east side of the Pacific. A guy I know purchased a hunter 37 (like the one linked) in good condition for 20k, he's having a blast cruising Mexico, living cheaply and has no trouble getting good crew. A couple of years in Mexico, drift across the Pacific and into Asia, does it get better?

http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1988...g#.Wxy_QJ-EbqA

Good luck mate, stay focused and you'll get there. Life rewards action, I know this to be true.

Cheers Dale.

Thanks for the cheers Dale.
I do intend to buy my boat either in Europe or the US.
Seems like there are a lot of bargains over there compared to Oz/Nz prices.
I'm still leaving a lot of room for changes and opportunities.