Buy a House or Liveaboard?

[laika]

Nice thing about the boat is that it can be hauled out and left alone for months at a time without much fuss. I split my time between boat on the east coast and CO. Works well for me. Just make sure all your deck fittings are properly bedded. Use butyl tape.

I've thought about buying a house, but truth be told its kinda scary and, anyway, I wouldn't know what to do with it...

[Sam Plan B]

I want to pass along the following as received the following email from Limehouse Marina in London, Darren.Bramhall@bwml.co.uk

"I am writing to you to make you aware of the availability of a few newly constructed moorings we have at Limehouse Marina and I note from checking our records that you have previously expressed an interest in taking out a berth at Limehouse.

The moorings do allow, if required, the option to use the site for residential purposes. Alternatively, the mooring can be used for leisure. The berths are valued at £9,450 per berth, per year, and will accommodate craft with a length of up to 16m and less than 4.5m beam. The price for craft longer than 16m or 4.5m beam is available on request."

Limehouse Marina is on the north bank of the Thames about two miles east of the Tower. It is a great location to work and live in London. The price quoted in the email comes to about $600 per month. That would be the cheapest rent in the city. I put my name on a waiting list a few years ago. My plans have change since then and I will be in DC a little longer.

[Lespilot57]

Can you give perspective on the opposite end of the 22 yr old? I am 55, with a big house and great job that allows me to live anywhere (near an airport). Looking at selling house and buying large catamaran for live aboard.

[nosinglesource]

Save some money. Build a small home, paying for it in cash. DO NOT get a mortgage or buy a bigger home than you strictly need, and rethink what you actually DO need. You can have a home base to return to if you like, or need, AND the boat. MrMoneyMustache's site has a lot of good ideas on how to keep more of your money and retire young. That and the small homes that have been catching on...? You could do very well for yourself with relatively little.

[Lespilot57]

I am already in a big home/hot tub/pool 3/4 acres...looking at selling it, realtor coming tomorrow. I am considering a small apartment here in town to visit my family here. My work schedule allows me a lot of time of each month... I have a decent retirement.... and looking forward to this !! Unfortunately, it will begin by myself

[Hudson Force]

There's nothing that prevents someone from moving aboard young and enjoying the dream of doing some cruising and still having a good job. You can live aboard and retire early while saving more or have the big house and defer your retirement and cruising for later. There are some great advantages of living small. There are plenty of marinas that have all the amenties of a McMansion without the taxes, mortgage and utility bills. 'lots of choices!

[Boracay]

Depends on the house, depends on the boat, depends on the job, depends on the lifestyle.

One of my big regrets is that, at the age of 22, having a respectable income I did not buy one of the bigger inner city houses that were going for a couple of songs at the time and share it.
The two males who I know did it had the time of their lives. Sharing their houses with young male and female friends, rent money coming out of their ears, continual parties. As a young male fresh out of uni life just did not get any better.

At 22 it would have been a great lifestyle and I would have been financially set for life. I have a sneaking suspicion the the ones who did it ruined it all by getting married (house not held by trust...), but that's another story.

What has not been said is that the live aboard life can be a lonely one. Best suited to single handers and couples. Even in a marina it's not that social.

Financially speaking boat maintenance, depreciation, marina and live aboard fees and the 1001 expenses associated with boat ownership would keep you perpetually poor.

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by Boracay

................... What has not been said is that the live aboard life can be a lonely one. Best suited to single handers and couples. Even in a marina it's not that social.

Financially speaking boat maintenance, depreciation, marina and live aboard fees and the 1001 expenses associated with boat ownership would keep you perpetually poor.

Maybe there's some explanation for our different perceptions that is related to being on opposite ends of the earth. In the southeast US we find living aboard very easy, inexpensive, social and full of financial benefit. "The liveaboard life is best suited for single handlers and couples." Well, yes.... what's left? ...threesomes? ...committees?
Maybe the outcomes of those living aboard are influenced more by random chance of indiviual fortune or maybe there is a geographical difference. By wisdom, fate or fortune, I'm having a great time aboard!

[ArtyB]

Originally Posted by Bash

Houses appreciate; boats depreciate.

+1

So true. Buy the house. In 5 years sell the house. Buy a boat

[beiland]

Originally Posted by CapRon

22 and sense of adventure. Get a job in the offshore oil industry and work international. I just got back from Thailand and I'm now in Burma (aka Myanmar) and all the young men I meet here are living here. They are having the time of their life. Southeast Asia is needing help as well as North Sea, Brazil, West Africa and a host of other exotic places. It takes experience to get the job but once there its an adventure and it also pays pretty good. I was younger than you when I started and I still wonder why I ever left SEA. ;-)

Not a bad idea if you can pull it off. I've lived around the world myself, and only worked SE Asia oil business late in life. Almost wish I had done it earlier.

Ended up marrying a Thai lady and now spend part time there and part time here. I've lived on several vessels at different times, and I'm considering it again. I don't want to be saddled to another house here in the US that I will only use part-time, and be 'anchored' to a single location. The boat can move. I'm looking at a 40' 'canal trawler' design,.... great space, economy, and treated right I will get most of my money back out of it....likely not all, but most.

What a lot of home owners, (home 'investors') never own up to is the yearly expenses of owning that home....property taxes, utilities, insurance, etc.

You can find some deals out there now if you look carefully, and get something that won't be real difficult to sell in the future market.

You are young, so if you make a little investment mistake, you can likely make up for it with an enthusatic go-forward attitude. I know too many people who put off their dreams waiting for the 'right time', and now they are too old or they are too obliged to pursue them.

Finally I leave you with a quote from a book, "The Proper Yacht"

Once upon a time Iworried about whether my savings would not better be invested in a house than in a sail­boat. Then I read certain magical words by Arthur Ransome, acquired thesailboat, and have lived happilyever after. The words are these, from Racundra’s First Cruise:


“Houses are but badly built boats so firmly aground that you cannot think of moving them. They are definitely inferior things, belonging to the vegetable not the animal world, rooted and stationary, incapable of gay transition. .


The desire to build a house is the tired wish of a man content thenceforward with a single anchorage. The desire to build a boat is the desire of youth, unwilling yet to accept the idea of a final resting place….When it comes, the desire to build a boat is one of those that cannot be resisted. It begins as a little cloud on a serene horizon. It ends by covering the whole sky, so that you can think of nothing else. You must build to regain your freedom.” Precisely so


…excerpted from the preface of ‘The Proper Yacht’

[JazzyO]

Originally Posted by Rakuflames

Speaking as a baby boomer, I don't know a single one who is seeking to move into a retirement home. Many of us are downsizing, but everyone I know is doggedly determine to remain in their own homes..

You're missing the point. Whether your generation moves into a retirement home now, or dies 10 years later (sorry - it is coming), the issue of your large generation being succeeded by a smaller one cannot be ignored. It used to be that your generation became more and more wealthy as the kids moved out of the house, thus driving house orices up as people bought second homes and/or moved. Now they will be moving into smaller places -as you confirm- selling the second home, and eventually move out of their smaller house too as living there becomes no longer sustainable. All three vectors will combine to drive house prices doen, unless you have more influx from younger generations outside your nation. The US may be a little different in that regard than Europe is at the moment.

Whatever your thoughts - the traditional idea that your house is a better investment than other forms of investment is no longer valid.


Onno

[letsgetsailing3]

Originally Posted by JazzyO

All three vectors will combine to drive house prices doen, unless you have more influx from younger generations outside your nation. The US may be a little different in that regard than Europe is at the moment.

Whatever your thoughts - the traditional idea that your house is a better investment than other forms of investment is no longer valid.


Onno

Remind us, what are the three vectors again?

And do they include the Fed printing $85 billion a month?

Inflation alone is going to increase the prices of homes -- and everything else -- relative to cash. Add in the population growth due to near-term immigration policy. Rent is going to go up.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that purchasing a house won't be a bad investment, relative to others, in the current economy.

Boats need a lot of maintenance to remain ship shape in the long term, and depreciate very quickly without that maintenance.

If you want to live on a boat, then live on a boat, but I wouldn't think of it as an investment.

[sww914]

Originally Posted by CPseudonym

22 years old. Buy the house, pay it off in 15 years, rent it out and buy your boat.

+1
You can't cruise without any income.

[beiland]

Originally Posted by letsgetsailing3

If you want to live on a boat, then live on a boat, but I wouldn't think of it as an investment.

Its an ADVENTURE, not an investment.

However if its done right you can MINIMIZE your losses...in fact they might just be less than you would pay in rental fees over the same period.

And you just might meet your lifetime partner wondering those docks where-ever. The boating live-aboard crowd is quite diverse, and in most cases much more social than many ground based communities.

[sww914]

Nah, it's a trailer park without the food stamps.