Budget Be Damned

[cyan]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Did somewhere on the thread, but:

If I were still working and doing the same as I was before leaving to cruise I would have probably around $200-250k more in assets than now.

And my second heart attack, a knee replacement or 2, the and a "kill me now please" attitude.

In the end the only real lost opportunity is ............................. life!

This is SUCH an important point, and thank you for stating it!

It's a common complaint of mine...
We get bombarded by the financial cautionary words from all angles, especially from financial services advertising. Gosh, what if you out-live your money??? (clutching pearls) Oh heavens, you could be old and broke on the street! (or living at your kid's house) The horrors!!

Phuleeze. Sure, do some planning, but do a little living too. The horrible situation of being broke and elderly is a scenario that constantly gets hammered into us by people who stand to make a buck if we listen. If I hear any more advice on a 401(k) goal of $4M I'm going to throw a tomato at the sound. A real old, smelly tomato.

Here's a little advice from the OTHER side. The side you don't hear much about...
Live while you are alive.
Where did I hear that?
Well, it was from an old lady at the assisted living home where I help out occasionally. It's one of those places that has a huge walker parking area near the dining room. EVERYONE uses a walker, with most folks in their 80's. Everyone. Red seems to be the walker color of choice. Red seems faster than the other colors, I guess.
These folks are old and definitely not broke. (The place is quite expensive.) However, none of these people will be gong sailing this year. Not a one. The lady with the "Live while you are alive" advice has a picture of her on some beach from younger days. Her stories of past travels are a colorful contrast to her present bland descriptions of the bland facility food and the bland carpet. (beige. it's always beige)

I also help out at a nursing home with the same age range. There are almost NO walkers there. Mostly wheelchairs. California (Medi-Cal) pays for most residents there. Similar stories. Blander food.

Among the old folks in these two old-folks homes, there is never talk of money. Never. Neither the broke seniors nor the rich seniors seem to have much interest in money. The best topics seem to involve adventures. The old ladies usually speak of current adventures of their kids / grand-kids. The old fellas speak of their own past adventures. Cars and airplanes and boats. Lots of boats.

One can learn much from the elderly.
I learned that you should follow your dream while you can, before you own that shiny red walker.

If you don't subscribe to that point of view, then I can introduce you to a whole bunch of old people who would be happy to convince you otherwise. Most of them don't get visitors, so they would be more than happy to talk your ear off...

[MTang]

^ Thread winner!!!! Spent the day reading this thread and enjoyed it and learned a lot.



As a relatively young guy, about to turn 37 this year I am torn. I make good money and will have finished building my house in about one year. I live in the Caribbean, have an awesome wife and an amazing 8 year old son.


I'm faced with the decision of continuing to work for another 5-10 years and bank a bunch of money and keep building the 401K.


Or rent our the house when I am done building (which is being completed with no loans), buy a boat and go cruising. Its a tough call and I waiver back and forth.


But I figure, even if I work for 10 more years, I can still have a pretty good chunk of time before I'm ready for the walker. I also love to exert myself physically by growing food on our land and pursuing a wide range of water sports so hopefully I can avoid the walker stage and just go from life on two feet to maggot food.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by cyan

This is SUCH an important point, and thank you for stating it!

It's a common complaint of mine...
We get bombarded by the financial cautionary words from all angles, especially from financial services advertising. Gosh, what if you out-live your money??? (clutching pearls) Oh heavens, you could be old and broke on the street! (or living at your kid's house) The horrors!!

Phuleeze. Sure, do some planning, but do a little living too. The horrible situation of being broke and elderly is a scenario that constantly gets hammered into us by people who stand to make a buck if we listen. If I hear any more advice on a 401(k) goal of $4M I'm going to throw a tomato at the sound. A real old, smelly tomato.

Here's a little advice from the OTHER side. The side you don't hear much about...
Live while you are alive.
Where did I hear that?
Well, it was from an old lady at the assisted living home where I help out occasionally. It's one of those places that has a huge walker parking area near the dining room. EVERYONE uses a walker, with most folks in their 80's. Everyone. Red seems to be the walker color of choice. Red seems faster than the other colors, I guess.
These folks are old and definitely not broke. (The place is quite expensive.) However, none of these people will be gong sailing this year. Not a one. The lady with the "Live while you are alive" advice has a picture of her on some beach from younger days. Her stories of past travels are a colorful contrast to her present bland descriptions of the bland facility food and the bland carpet. (beige. it's always beige)

I also help out at a nursing home with the same age range. There are almost NO walkers there. Mostly wheelchairs. California (Medi-Cal) pays for most residents there. Similar stories. Blander food.

Among the old folks in these two old-folks homes, there is never talk of money. Never. Neither the broke seniors nor the rich seniors seem to have much interest in money. The best topics seem to involve adventures. The old ladies usually speak of current adventures of their kids / grand-kids. The old fellas speak of their own past adventures. Cars and airplanes and boats. Lots of boats.

One can learn much from the elderly.
I learned that you should follow your dream while you can, before you own that shiny red walker.

If you don't subscribe to that point of view, then I can introduce you to a whole bunch of old people who would be happy to convince you otherwise. Most of them don't get visitors, so they would be more than happy to talk your ear off...

Question: Which lady is she?

Answer from staff:The one over there with the grey hair, beige pants wearing glasses.

Oh, that one...

Question: Why do the red walkers have handlebar brakes?

[sailorboy1]

it doesn't matter to me if someone on a 60' sailboat really cruises for $15EC/day

why should it?

[a64pilot]

Yet it bugs you when someone on a 25’ says they do for $500 US a month

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Yet it bugs you when someone on a 25’ says they do for $500 US a month

please find somewhere that i've said that, post a lin so I can correct the poor wording

I don't care how much other people spend or what boat they do it on.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by cyan

This is SUCH an important point, and thank you for stating it!

It's a common complaint of mine...
We get bombarded by the financial cautionary words from all angles, especially from financial services advertising. Gosh, what if you out-live your money??? (clutching pearls) Oh heavens, you could be old and broke on the street! (or living at your kid's house) The horrors!!..

Not all of us have children to fall back on, not that we would even if we did
and I am sure living on the street is something to be fearful of, especially as you age and start to lose your marbles.

Phuleeze. Sure, do some planning, but do a little living too. The horrible situation of being broke and elderly is a scenario that constantly gets hammered into us by people who stand to make a buck if we listen. If I hear any more advice on a 401(k) goal of $4M I'm going to throw a tomato at the sound. A real old, smelly tomato.

Can't say I've ever really noticed the ads, advertising has never worked on me.

[zboss]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Did somewhere on the thread, but:



If I were still working and doing the same as I was before leaving to cruise I would have probably around $200-250k more in assets than now.



And my second heart attack, a knee replacement or 2, the and a "kill me now please" attitude.



In the end the only real lost opportunity is ............................. life!

Yeah I saw that later much more in the thread. I agree with your approach. If you have enough to get on with the cruising, get on with the cruising!

Originally Posted by MTang

But I figure, even if I work for 10 more years, I can still have a pretty good chunk of time before I'm ready for the walker.

I don’t know man.... we have been work-cruising for coming up on 6 years and it’s gone by so fast.

[chowdan]

Originally Posted by zboss

I don’t know man.... we have been work-cruising for coming up on 6 years and it’s gone by so fast.

You also have no guarantee that you'll be alive, let alone in a healthy state to be able to pursue the dream. If you can swing it now, it might be the wisest decision to do now.

Also it would mean doing it with your kid rather than without them. Can be very beneficial for the them.

[cyan]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

Not all of us have children to fall back on, not that we would even if we did
and I am sure living on the street is something to be fearful of, especially as you age and start to lose your marbles.

Can't say I've ever really noticed the ads, advertising has never worked on me.

Nobody wants to live on the street as an old geezer, and most thinking people take steps to avoid such a fate. I'm simply suggesting that there is another very real danger that can be caused by paying too much attention to that fear: the danger of regret, lost dreams of sailing, owning an old Bora Bora postcard without ever smelling the flowers of Bora Bora yourself. I've experienced each of these regrets second-hand at the old folks home.

85 years old, weary, alone, eating cat food, greeting at Walmart... sure, those cautionary images are pretty familiar to most of us.
However, I'm only recently familiar with much different cautionary images: those of disabled folks, many of whom thought they had more time.

[Mike OReilly]

It’s all about finding the right balance between security and risk. Some of us require significant control over our futures. Others, less so. In our societies, control usually means personal wealth.

Whatever our needs, we all trade life for security. For most of us that means working long enough to have accumulated enough wealth and resources. The trick is to know when you have enough (or think you know). And we all come to this party with different bequeathments of skills, luck and resources. This is why there can never be one right answer for everyone.

Some of us never get to the point of adequate security, and work till too much life has been expended. This is the proverbial warning Cyan’s ‘old lady’ gave. It is one that is all too common in our societies.

So yes, work and save and invest … but know when you have enough.

[kmacdonald]

The boomers are spending less of their 401k money than was expected. This means they saved too much or worked too long. Time or money, your choice hopefully. Some can't work due to health issues so they lose money and the ability to cruise.

[kmacdonald]

Another good day in the market. Should be good for a years cruising expenses. Beats the heck out of working for it.

[robert sailor]

Markets are cyclical and always will be, they go up and they go down and sometimes they are flat. If you are well into your retirement years you should be just as interested in protecting capital as you are making money because you simply won’t have the years to make up for a major correction and thru the jumps and bumps there are always large corrections. Someone in their 30’s 40’s or 50’s will often be able to recover from a big correction but 60’s and 70’s not so much.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by Paul L

Making your 15euro a day budget number useful for you and pretty much not applicable or useful to any CF readers. Exclude all maintenance and upgrade costs and low and behold you don't report spending much.

Your response to my post is the reason why I generally don’t waste my time on these finance or budget threads.

Our method has worked out well for us, his method works well for him. I’m just surprised he still puts up with all the bovine excrement every month from the naysayers.