How much $$$ in your current/working/access account?

[MarkJ]

OK, here’s the question and polling is anonymous: For long term cruisning how much money do you have in your current / working / access account?

Yikes! That sounds personal! But what I mean is: I have my monthly investment coming in, and my annual/monthly cruising budget, but what should my contingency fund be? Maybe Float is a better word?

For example: Say my monthly spending budget was $1,000. At the beginning of the month I have $1,000 in my access account do I need a further, say, $3k in the account for contingencies? Or more? Or less? A bit more makes me feel safe, but how much more? Or fly by the seat of my pants and hope nothing goes wrong?

Obviously I'm not expecting an exact formulea ...

Mark

[Pblais]

but what should my contingency fund be

If you can predict the future perfectly then you won't ever need one.

Mostly it is to smooth out the lumps in your forecast. No one can predict accuratly all the time. How bad is your prediction? I would say a medical emergency is perhaps the number one contigency you have to have covered. Then add the amount you need to sleep well most of the time. Your past track record on land is your best indicator since it's all you have. If you never balanced an annual budget ashore you won't be doing it any time soon and you will need a bigger cushion.

I would consider it a rolling average over time. You need to be reassessing your actual vs. predicted budgets each month. If you are hitting low on the projections most of the time then you won't ever have enough contingency unless it's a really big amount.

[Charlie]

I don't have an amount but I can say that I would want to have enough money for me and my family to get home from where ever we are cruising and to get started in life again (six or eight months worht of living expenses.) That said I would also want money for a contigency with the boat for some pretty major repairs.

[Trim50]

$1 Meeeeeeillion dollars should do.

[shadow]

I always go with the idea of you can never have enough. I always have an "average" usable budget that is pretty constant. Then I have other accounts for exactly that purpose, the "in case" stuff comes up. We keep putting money into that account and never look at it unless needed. It is usually far more then enough to handle all cases of problems.

my 2 cents...

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Trim50

$1 Meeeeeeillion dollars should do.

Thats spot on! LOL

Originally Posted by shadow

the "in case" stuff comes up
my 2 cents...

Yes. Its the "in case" stuff.

I see quite a number have a fair bit (more than $15k!) But that money isn't going to be the highest return on investment because its at call. Thats more than I was thinking.

I agree with Chrlie to have funds to get back home and restart, but that fund would can be invested as it wouldnt been needed for up to 6 months.

Also agree with Paul on Rolling Average, but as he says thats only after time.

I guess I have to have more in initially and reduce it slowly with experience.

I was hoping more people might be thinking around $5,000 (or less!)

Mark

[chad.lawie]

to me:
more insurance = less "safety net"
and visa versa.

how much is enough? I don't know.
personally I go by the motto: "if you wait until you're ready, you'll never go."
That might be bad advice. but it's worked out so far for me.

[Alan Wheeler]

Hey Mark, can you add a minus to your Poll list? We never seem to stay in the positive figures for long. Usually just get over the line and something else crops up and we have to put it on the plastic again.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Alan Wheeler

Hey Mark, can you add a minus to your Poll list? We never seem to stay in the positive figures for long. Usually just get over the line and something else crops up and we have to put it on the plastic again.

Yep that the figure I'm after... the equilibrium of going broke! LOL

I can't get more money for 30 days, usually. And I don't have credit cards. So I gotta plan it, but not keep an excessive amount...

[hellosailor]

Mark, most of the advice I've heard (and happen to agree with) is that you should have six months worth of expenses 'accessible'. That doesn't mean a savings account, it could be a CD which charges you a 90-day interest penalty if you break it, or other assets. There's some rationale to having a series of small CD's, so that if you break a leg or get concussed, you can go on to use them one month at a time, rather than taking a penalty (and losing the interest rate) on one larger note.

Obviously the asset doesn't have to be CD's...just using them as an example.

[blondezilla]

Hey do you want my social security number and my address too? LOL
<...smartass

[waterworldly]

ORIGINALLY, that's what plastic was ment to be, and emergency source to pick up for unexpected expenses, not something to be carried about and used daily for everything. Of course, VISA et all convinced the public that they needed it daily, as they extract a fee of anywhere from 1 - 3% from every merchant you use it with. I agree that you should have 6 months at least in living expenses at the call if ever needed, perhaps in a money market account that gets some interest but has no penalty for early withdraw.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by waterworldly

you should have 6 months at least in living expenses at the call .

Thats not the sort of thing thats necessary to have in cash as that can be drawn down from investments over a period of months.
I mean the amount of money for 'normal' contingencies excluding total loss of boat / dream / trip etc



With the large number of people either at $5,000 or over $15,000 there must be 2 modes... The $5,000 one sounds about right for me.
$5,000 =
A big engine repair or
substantial sail repairs / replacement 0r
Trip home for 2 from anywhere in the world
long stay at a marina
full on medical difficulty
Girlfriend replacement
Big night on the booze

[PBzeer]

I'm more in Alan's boat. I just try to live frugally and try to take care of things to eliminate as much "unexpected" as possible. If I had waited until I had "enough", I'd still be waiting 5 years from now.

[AnchorageGuy]

We have a breakdown of our last cruise at

Voyages of Sea Trek: Cruising On a Working Class Budget