Transitioning to a 'Liveaboard' Lifestyle

[osirissail]

Originally Posted by Meerkat

Quite surprised to see that Sue & Larry's expenses were only $13,476 a year in 2005.

So that'll be about $15,000 now?

I guess our pensions of $50,000 will be adequate to fund a liveaboard life then?

Steve

- - Cruising World magazine did a survey and story about a decade ago on total costs of living full time and cruising on a sailboat. This included all expenses including health, boat maintenance, fees, airfare home, everything. The divided the categories into 3 - for $10-15K per year for super economy like a young couple who are happy with the "camping-style" life of always eating on board and using bicycles or buses on land and not trips home. Also being young their healthcare was minimal.
- - "Middle income" style of life was in the $25-30K range with once a week eating out, one trip home per year to see the kids, one or two days after an ocean voyage in a marina to sort out and clean then anchoring out the rest of the time. Plus healthcare for a 50-60 y.o. folks.
- - Finally the top end style was $50-60K for marinas whenever in port; 2 or 3 trips home per year; lots of eating out and healthcare for 60yo+.
- - Those numbers can be upgraded by maybe 25% to bring them to today's prices although the low end might not need more than 10% and the high end maybe 30% or more. I spend $50K per year on the high end lifestyle of a permanent live-aboard in the Caribbean.
- - Another rule of thumb is to take the total cost of living your chosen "lifestyle" on land and divide by 3 to get the equivalent lifestyle cost "on the water."
- - Anyway $50K would put you into the high end lifestyle easily. But you need to be a bit wary as things like insurance - boat and personal have escalated dramatically in the last decade. Living offshore for more than a month and you need International Healthcare insurance which could be a large expense. All these numbers are for voyaging cruisers who are traveling the islands and foreign countries and not for live-aboards staying inside USA waters.

[Meerkat]

Thank you for all of your replies guys, feel a lot happier about finances now.

Just got to start "uncluttering", (dumping), 25 years of accumulated stuff....

Steve

[Cacique]

Hi Matthew
It's been a year since you first posted, are you any nearer to making a decision or buying a yacht?
I personally strongly suggest getting a smaller boat and going from there, once you have tried living onboard I'm sure you will love it. Also having been in the milatary you will be well able to live minimal so a small boat won't phase you (my 27' boat circumnavigated 1990 to 1993 with just a foot operated water pump and no fridge [just a coolbox] and that was fine). Please don't spend a lot of money on a bigger boat until you have tried it, because until you have actually tried it you won't know what you want/need. Also consider a mulihull but it has to be over 40' to cross oceans, see if you can get a crew position on one sometime.
PM me if you want I can rant for hours.
Cheers Jamie