The Choice: Buy a Liveaboard or Rent Cheaply

[Bash]

I recoil a bit at the idea of living in that marina. For many years PG&E paid everyone's slip fees; all you had to do was sign an agreement not to sue them because so much soot was falling on your boat from the smokestacks, and promise to wash your boat down once a month. The fishermen all thought it was a great deal, but they'd never spend the night in the harbor breathing whatever it was those stacks were putting out.

Bottom line: you'd be living in a working harbor where 9 out of 10 boats are part of the fishing industry, living within in the absolutely foggiest part of Monterey Bay, living withing 100 meters of Highway 1, living virtually in the shadow of two enormous power-plant smokestacks.

Oh, and there's a cattle lot just on the other side of the power plant, and when it rains everything washes down into Elkhorn Sough and then into the harbor. You'll sure know when there's an offshore breeze during the winter months.

For $300 per month? No deal there.

[snort]

Mule, thanks for doing all that research! I've learned something from everyone here.
Bash, you got me thinking!
Anyway, I think I'll do something I've never done before and probably high time I did: talk to a financial advisor (hopefully someone who knows something about living the "alternative lifestyle")
Thank you, all!

[sneuman]

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

Two issues - Capital Asset value and cash flow.

Leave the $50k capital in investments and it grows. Put it in a boat and it shrinks.

$1500 cash flow to rent is all gone.
$1500 cash flow on marina fees and boat maintenance is also gone.

In 5 years you took $50k and made it $40-45k rather than about $60k

But you live on the water...

Hmmm. I doubt it. If I had put $50K in investments in the same period it would have lost money unless I had been clairvoyant. The Dow is now past 10,000 again, yes, but there are still a LOT of people who lost money.

[Ex-Calif]

sneuman - Anyone can look at a 5 year good period or a 5 year bad period. Over 30 years the Dow beats the economy.

If that doesn't work then use your own numbers. Market -5% Depreciation -5% or Market +5% Depreciation -5%. I hope you aren't suggesting a boat is a "good" financial investment?

Either way the capital doesn't stay the same. BTW many of my investments are within spittin' distance of pre 2008 levels. The Dow is over 10k (anyone remember the hooplah when it broke for the first time - not so long ago?) Signs of the rcovery?

[Randyonr3]

Sometimes you have to look a little further than the investment.. If its the quality of life to improve, I dont think you can find any better than the life of living on a boat, be it sail or power.. A lot of people cant handle the maintance of the boat, knowing your water comes from a tank that you fill weekly, Your toilet tank needs to be dumped or you run an electrosan and have to remember the salt to add. Long hot showers are a thing of the past, and durring the winter months, everything stays damp..
But, every now and then, when you pull the hatch boards, and the morning sun causes you to squint, and you decide to have your cup of coffee in the cockpit watching the Otters play just feet from your boat, the Pelican streaching its wings in the warmth of the sun, and the gulls squaking over a piece of fish tossed from the neighbor fishing boat, and the smell of the salt air....
You'll realize that all the money you spent to get there, was well worth it many times over.. And you're now in a place that many only dream about......

[sneuman]

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

sneuman - Anyone can look at a 5 year good period or a 5 year bad period. Over 30 years the Dow beats the economy.

If that doesn't work then use your own numbers. Market -5% Depreciation -5% or Market +5% Depreciation -5%. I hope you aren't suggesting a boat is a "good" financial investment?

Either way the capital doesn't stay the same. BTW many of my investments are within spittin' distance of pre 2008 levels. The Dow is over 10k (anyone remember the hooplah when it broke for the first time - not so long ago?) Signs of the rcovery?

No, I am not suggesting it's a good investment. What I am suggesting is that to have bought a house when I bought the boat would have been a disasterous investment. Alternately, to have rented would have been minimum of about $1200 around here for a decent place. That would have been $1200/month gone.

By buying a 30-year-old boat that has depreciated about as much as a fiberglass boat will, I have a relatively stable asset that I actually WANT to own. So, for both financial and personal reasons, it was a much better choice of domicile than either a house or renting an apartment.

[slomotion]

There is a class of boats that are built to meet Snort's needs. They're called houseboats, and there are plenty for sale in California:

(Power) House Boat Boats For Sale California CA

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by sneuman

No, I am not suggesting it's a good investment. What I am suggesting is that to have bought a house when I bought the boat would have been a disasterous investment. Alternately, to have rented would have been minimum of about $1200 around here for a decent place. That would have been $1200/month gone.

By buying a 30-year-old boat that has depreciated about as much as a fiberglass boat will, I have a relatively stable asset that I actually WANT to own. So, for both financial and personal reasons, it was a much better choice of domicile than either a house or renting an apartment.

Well you have an ally in that one. I am so done with home ownership!

It won't be long befor we forget the mess we created and everyone will be using thier home as an ATM machine again.

A depreciated boat in a nice location is the perfect answer. And if you don't like the location, move...

I have a friend on foreign assignment who left his house empty under management care. It seems every month he gets a $500 surprise. He's not upside down on the house but he's lost a tremendous amount of equity and feels trapped.

However, to be fair to the OP he's talking rent an apartment vs. buy a boat.

I'd buy the boat if I could work it out.

[gboase]

I'm on the "right" coast from you, but for my two cents to the conversation I'll suggest a houseboat.

I have a friend in a marina near me who has been living onboard a 40 foot houseboat for many years. He never takes it out and couldn't even if he wanted to. No motors. The marina is also home to a "pirate" ship built from an old Irwin 42 that has been converted into a live-aboard. He never sails it either.

When I was a MUCH younger man, I lived on an ancient (1938) 25 foot Chris Craft, and never once felt cramped for space. After all, I had 75% of the world as my backyard.

The wife and I currently have a well used and traveled 25 O'Day. As a writer and marina reviewer it's not uncommon to spend weeks at a time living aboard. The only time I ever feel the least bit cramped is when anchored off waiting for weather for days or weeks. Otherwise it's the most free feeling in the world. Keep in mind I DO sail her often.

One year from this coming fall, we're selling our house and moving onto a Hake 32r to become full time live-a-boards. Our backyard will change with the seasons. What's cramped about that? It's living in a big house on land that I think is mind numbing and limiting. Nothing ever changes and if you don't like your neighbors ... too bad.

Fair Winds!
George Boase