What percentage of your net worth does your boat represent?

[Bash]

Originally Posted by Group9

A boat is freedom. I don't know how you put a price on that.

Spoken like a man who doesn't face a whole lot of brightwork this spring.

[Sandero]

Your net worth is a silly concept... money in the bank, does not change the quality of your life. If you spend money on "things" then much of your net worth of meaning is in those things... experience don't count.

Net worth is left to heirs... if you have them. If you don't have them you are better off dying with no money in the bank and no property to be left to the state.. or closest relative who might claim it.

My boat's buc value is meaningless to me. What is is how I use it. I DO spend money to use and maintain it and the latter contributes to it resale value and is my tangible net worth. I don't own any property and haven't had my art collection appraised... the rest of the stuff I have is funiture, PC stuff, clothes and lots of tools...

All that matters to me at this stage of my life is that I can maintain and enjoy the boat, support myself (food, health care, clothes, rent etc.) and see a few live performances. I like to work in my profession... and continue to do so part time.

[mcarling]

So, if the only thing one owns is a million dollar boat, with a half million dollar mortgage on the boat, then the calculation would be 200%. It seems to me, the bigger the percentage the better, so long as one has sufficient income to make the mortgage payments and otherwise live well.

[Tony B]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Your logic doesn't make any sense. The elderly couple has to have a roof over their heads... there's value in that. Where would you have them live?
On a boat

Vacations are entertainment, not investments.

BTW, when you spend money on entertainment and vacations you are reducing your net worth.

[Khagan1227]

I think how something is used determines its net worth.

Unless you live under a bridge, you need some place to lay your head at night, be it a house or a boat. When I lived in California, NYC etc., I rented and considered every penny "lost", however, I did have a place to sleep at night and it afforded me a bit of privacy.

While I have to either pay for, or perform the upkeep on the houses and the boat I own, I know at the end of the day, I have a place to lay my head and it adds to my monetary net worth. I.e. I get more value for my money than I got living in an apartment.

From a non-monetary net worth, I get much more value (in the form of pure enjoyment) out of my boat (and other "toys"), than I do from my house. I would submit the money I spend on those toys, is far less than the enjoyment value I derive from them, or simply put, it is money well spent.

[CPseudonym]

Originally Posted by JK n Smitty

That sounds kinda inflated to me. If it's a sailboat, the keel alone would make most take it for scrape. If it's a power boat, there typically isn't much fiberglass. A 20 yard dumpster is only $400 with one week rental. And the metal recovered would have value for recycling.

Also, we have a couple of scrape yards and a marine salvage yard that will take boats for free. But you have to get it there. Much like a scrap yard would tell you with the truck.

Most of the time when I hear people complaining about getting rid of a boat, it's usually because they want to do nothing and just have someone else deal with their problem. Or they want someone to pay them for something that has no value.

Try disposing a 35' boat in California and get back to me with the revision to your above statement. $10,000 is the average cost, power or sail.

Unless of course you grind the numbers off and set it adrift or beach it somewhere. The above cost is exactly why DIY yards are becoming as rare as rocking horse crap in California.

[JK n Smitty]

Originally Posted by CPseudonym

Try disposing a 35' boat in California and get back to me with the revision to your above statement. $10,000 is the average cost, power or sail.

Unless of course you grind the numbers off and set it adrift or beach it somewhere. The above cost is exactly why DIY yards are becoming as rare as rocking horse crap in California.

I think that the disposal cost has nothing to do with DIY yards. That issue has much more to do with government regulations and insurance.

On the boat disposal, I am sure your number is right if you want someone to do all the work for you. But then again, that is probably why the boat has become useless for anything but disposal to begin with. How much does it cost to raze a house that has become uninhabitable due to neglect?

[Paul Elliott]

Originally Posted by JK n Smitty

How much does it cost to raze a house that has become uninhabitable due to neglect?

I'm not sure how we got here, or where this discussion is going, but in the house case, after razing you are left with a (presumably) valuable piece of land. Often the land is worth much more than the house.

This is not the case with a junked boat.

[JK n Smitty]

Originally Posted by Paul Elliott

I'm not sure how we got here, or where this discussion is going, but in the house case, after razing you are left with a (presumably) valuable piece of land. Often the land is worth much more than the house.

This is not the case with a junked boat.

Be it a boat, a house, RV, anything it will cost money for maintenance and upgrading. If you ignore that fact, your asset will be worth less. Many people tend to ignore those costs with their house but then crap on boats as money pits because of those costs.

[onestepcsy37]

Money

Money isn't the only thing you get to spend in your life.
You also get to spend.... your life.
And the difference between the two, is,
You can always look in your bank book,
And see how much money you've got left....

Herb Payson

[Boatguy30]

If you have a pension or live in a country with a solid retirement benefit; it's totally appropriate to get all ZEN about assets and real worth, ETC, ETC.

If you are of an age that is expected to fund the "Life's True Worth" of current retirees for another generation or so with no such future guarantees?

it's a totally different equation.

[Weyalan]

Buying a boat was, without a doubt, the worst financial decision I have ever made
Buying a boat was, without a doubt, the best happiness decision I have ever made

[hpeer]

An old chestnut.....but relevant...

Sterling Hayden Quotes (Author of Wanderer)

Sterling Hayden > Quotes


Sterling Hayden quotes
“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


“In the worship of security we fling ourselves beneath the wheels of routine-and before we know it our lives are gone.”
― Sterling Hayden, Wanderer


“The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked with dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.”
― Sterling Hayden, Wanderer

[Hudson Force]

There seems to be another dynamic here than boat value as a percentage of assets. I'm with that great majority that figures the boat to be less than 25% of all I have, but I assume most all of that 70% majority has "stuff". I've had my current boat for 29 years and I've put far more money into it over all those years than I would ever expect it to be able to provide at a time of sale. I don't have any "stuff" that's not my boat or equipment on my boat,- no houses, no cars, no itms in storage. I find my freedom in my boat, as others have said, but I continue to increase this freedom by not having anything else. There is a great freedom in non-ownership. There's no tax, expense, depriciation or upkeep on things that you don't own.

[muskoka]

I look at boats like a good meal or fine bottle of wine - it's not a financial 'investment' but a quality of life perk to be consumed and enjoyed. I spend almost all my free time aboard, I like the maintenance, and I never enjoy selling a boat (despite that old chestnut about the 'two best days in a boatowners life').

“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” Water Rat, Wind in the Willows