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Originally Posted by vegasandre
Hi Everyone.
I have about 2 mill in liquid cash /misc hedged stocks and bonds(playing it safe)aquired over last couple years. I have a 700k house which i owe 700k (value dropped 400k so far - more to follow - hooray!).
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If you step back from the idea of what you've
lost and simply look at what you could gain, remember that housing in most coastal areas is down drastically so you will be trading one "bargain" for another. No net loss there, other than on a ledger sheet. My house is at LTV of over 140% right now, so don't feel too bad. :-)
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-what kind of Cat would you look at and price range based on the assumptions I told you above.I have looked at Lagoon 44 and 50 ,leopard 46 as well as used catana's and dolphins.
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It sounds like you have looked around, but
buying the boat based on its price... Well, you didn't really define your needs or wants? Floating condo? Proven gale-tested design? Super luxurious
teak and mahogany? Have you sailed before? If not, you need to go take the
family on several charters on different
boats to see what you like. That will basically answer the question for you. If you're in the
carribean, a cat is a no brainer, but in other places, there's real value in a
monohull as well. For the half a million you may look for in a cat, you can get a pretty damn spacious mono with better motion in heavy seas and more
weather capabilities (not to start an argument......)
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-where would you pick to be a good place to move based on the above.
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Probably South Florida. The
bahamas are a few days away and the entire
Carribean is within reach. Problem is that cruising season, pretty much anywhere in the warm areas is during
Winter. Summer is
hurricane season and it's a tad risky to go anywhere south of the latitude 32 (San Diego and South Carolina)
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-where would you pick as a good place to keep the boat?
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Where you live, unless that's extremely
remote from your cruising grounds. How do you manage
maintenance or ensure that it's taken care of in a storm? I guess you could charter when you're not there, but there's some questions about the quality of maintinance performed by some of the outfits.
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-would you still work for a few more years and build the kitty even higher?
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I know plenty of people who went cruising with under $50,000, including the boat
purchase. Why wait?
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-what would you invest in to get a solid low risk 5-6% return
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Lots of cruisers swear by the passive income of real estate. Some people like your stocks/bonds. Nothing is for sure, that's not a good question to ask of this forum, I'd wager...
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-we do not like to live frugally but dont spend crazily by any means.
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Living by the water can double your comparable cost of living, owning the boat doubles it again. Can you afford that?
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-we dont want to homeschool(I hated homework as a kid and my wife would go nuts)
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Cruising season in North America is
winter. If you need to do it in summer, it might be best to look to the
Mediterranean or Southern hemisphere. Problem is that I always hear stories about keeping a boat in the
Med involving lots of European
red tape and high
taxes.
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-we both hate cooking -but can get by(yeah I am being honest-so shoot me for it)
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Well, most cruising is about getting away from civilization, and that often requires cooking. You CAN
cruise places with restaurants, but you end up on shore as often as you're on the boat. Are you just looking for a floating
hotel to sleep on? There may be more economical alternatives.
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- I can fix things if shown once, but cant usually figure it out unless I have been shown
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Well, you can get things fixed by others, but as far as I know, it can be really absurdly expensive in many far away places. Just keep the space in your
budget, I guess.
It sounds like you don't like the idea of being in a
remote anchorage with nobody else around. Most cruisers are looking for exactly that.
I think you need to charter a few times and see if you actually like it. Like a lot of people say, it's easy to get the image of martinis at sunset, but if you put too much of that fantasy in your
head, you miss out on the tropical squalls, cramped quarters,
dinghy loads of
equipment and regular
repairs and
maintenance.
Good luck, but take it slow. You will lose your shirt if you buy a boat and then don't use it much because your
family hates it and then have to sell it after not completing regular maintenance a few years down the road. A boat is not like owning a car, or even a well-built house. It soaks up money much faster. :-)