Average costs of land living to boat living

[sailorboy1]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the average retired 65 year old spends $4345/mo and that 75% are on 4 things. My avg for the last 7 years comes out to $4,181 so I wonder how their land number and my boat numbers for 2 people compare.

Housing - 36%. When I add up our boat maintenance costs, marina, electric and insurance I get that it is 30.5% of my total spend.

Transportation - 13.7%. Our land transportation and travel costs work out to 9.4% of my total. If I add boat fuel in it becomes 11.9%

Medical - 13.5% (shocking isn't it). Our out of pocket costs come out to 3.8%. But if I do the true cost including the subsidy we get that cost would be 37%.

Food - 12%. I don't have just a food cost tracking, but I can make a good guess based on our general expense category, which is 26% of our total. I feel our food costs to be around 22%.

Just for thought.

[Kettlewell]

I have never run the exact numbers, but I find that living aboard full time runs about half of what we spend living ashore full time. Just a few things we get rid of when living aboard full time: cars (plus insurance, gas, taxes, maintenance), regular utility bills, rent and/or mortgage plus maintenance, travel expenses (we move by boat). Nothing goes up for our boat except for maybe more fuel expense because we keep a boat anyway. Our boat bills typically go down because we cruise and don't maintain a fixed dock or mooring, saving thousands a year. Sure, theoretically there is more wear and tear on the boat, but being onboard fulltime means we have more time to take care of small things ourselves avoiding big expenses. In any case, living aboard and cruising fulltime will be much cheaper than living on land as long as you mainly avoid marinas and do most of your work yourself. OTOH, most people tend to spend what they have, so often those "savings" get eaten up by flying home, or splurging on new equipment, or off-boat vacations.

[sailorboy1]

I feel we spend pretty much the same living on the boat as we did when living on land. If fact back when we lived on land and only used the boat on weekends part of the year up in the Northeast I figured the cost to own our boat was 2/3 of the cost to own and live in the house. But we lived in a low cost 2 BR house way below what we could "afford", which is how we retired at 56&57.

I seriously believe people who don't keep track spend more on their boat than they believe!

[JBP]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

I seriously believe people who don't keep track spend more on their boat than they believe!

That is precisely why I don't keep track. Too scary if I knew the truth.

[Kettlewell]

I don't have the time or patience to keep track of spending, but I do know that living aboard for us has been much less expensive than living on land. I've owned boats in the Northeast for about 43 years and no way have they come close to 2/3 the cost of maintaining our land dwellings, but I have only ever rented floating moorings, do all my own work, and avoid expensive gear when possible. At one point we lived aboard for 12 years straight, and have probably spent at least 25 years living aboard one way or another. Some of that time we had land jobs so also had cars and dock spaces and other things that increased our costs, so those years would not have been as cheap. At one point we took off with our two kids and went down to the Caribbean and back over two years, making very little so we were living off savings so I got a pretty good figure on exactly what it was costing us. The entire trip cost less than one year of earnings when we lived on land just prior to leaving, and we were paying to maintain an apartment that we would return to. But, the bottom line is that people spend what they have, and it is entirely possible to spend a lot more than we have: marinas, eating out, side trips, renting cars, boatyard repairs, etc. I see people that sell up and retire onboard buying a boat that would represent the cost of my wife and I cruising onboard our old boat for a decade or more. Instead of spending $500K on a boat get one for $50K and cruise for 10 years or more. Plus, chances are very good that maintaining the $50K boat will be a lot less than maintaining the $500K boat.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by JBP

That is precisely why I don't keep track. Too scary if I knew the truth.

Same here! People have always asked me how much it costs to build a boat and I could not tell you. I have no idea. I don’t want to know.

[collinn]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

I feel we spend pretty much the same living on the boat as we did when living on land. If fact back when we lived on land and only used the boat on weekends part of the year up in the Northeast I figured the cost to own our boat was 2/3 of the cost to own and live in the house. But we lived in a low cost 2 BR house way below what we could "afford", which is how we retired at 56&57.

I seriously believe people who don't keep track spend more on their boat than they believe!

i agree with your words

[sailorboy1]

All I met to do was post some of what I thought might be useful and interesting on the subject. I didn't think it would turn into a completion.

[AA3JY]

Any VA influence(assistance) into your Medical costs..?

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by AA3JY

Any VA influence(assistance) into your Medical costs..?

No. I served in the only 11 years of the USA history without a war and didn't get hurt enough to get any benefits.

[AKA-None]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

No. I served in the only 11 years of the USA history without a war and didn't get hurt enough to get any benefits.

Good on you

And I do appreciate those who keep and post thier expenses

[Fore and Aft]

SailorBoy I wonder what the percentages would be here in Australia. Lots of my multihull customers pay a premium to live aboard in marinas and I wonder how close to a land base their costs would be. 6% difference in housing isn't much when you consider the downside of shared bathroom facilities, having to walk a distance to your boat and the general awkwardness of living onboard.
I also wonder how you factor in depreciation on the boat? As a loose rule (maybe) if that 36% is spent on a house you own then there's a fair chance you will recoup most of that when you sell.
As for what it costs, I don't think it matters what you spend if it's your hobby or lifestyle. I was reminded of that this morning after dropping the kids at the bus stop and calling into the landscape supplies for another trailer load of mulch. They know me by name, and I would hate to think how much I have spent there on gardening supplies.
Cheers

[Shanachie]

Life is as expensive as you want to make it.


On land or sea, I spend way more than you. And my wife and I have no debt, so most of the money goes for having fun -- nice food, good wine, a sailboat, a decent dock, adventuresome trips, whatever trinkets we desire.



But then, I'm 70. If I don't enjoy it now, it won't do me much good if I'm in the ground or wheeled into the corner of a nursing home.


Some advice from someone who has been there: Lowering your cost of living, if you have some money, is only good if you're not depriving yourself of fun.

[Kettlewell]

Some advice from someone who has been there: Lowering your cost of living, if you have some money, is only good if you're not depriving yourself of fun.

When out cruising those on the smallest boats and the smallest budgets enjoy the same harbors, same beaches, same sunsets as those on the biggest boats, and often the views are better from the anchorage than from the marina. Even in the marina, I've chuckled more than once being tied up between luxury yachts that I am in the same place, enjoying the same marina, and probably paying less than 10% of what they are paying for the exact same thing. In my experience, cruising from Labrador to Colombia and out to Bermuda, without fail the happiest crews are on the smallest, simplest, least expensive boats. The ones on the big boats are always repairing things, worried about some part not coming in, or complaining about the cost of something. One time I was in Sopers Hole in the BVIs and I saw a small double ender sail in and drop anchor. I later talked to the guy and he had just come back from one of his multiple Atlantic crossings. The boat was wooden, had no engine, almost no electronics, and the guy was as cheerful as could be. A nice contrast to all the big modern boat sailors only talking about how to fix the watermaker or where to find someone to repair the windlass.

[sailorboy1]

[QUOTE=Kettlewell;3832820]When out cruising those on the smallest boats and the smallest budgets enjoy the same harbors, same beaches, same sunsets

Not really true. They get occupy the same .....

Btw I have analyzed my total cost on a 41 foot to doing same on a 30 foot. It saves 3.-5% of the total