Thread: living aboard
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Old 12-15-2009, 10:39 AM   #7
Baker
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City: League City, Tx
Vessel Name: Floatsome & Jetsome
Vessel Model: Meridian 411
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 7,332
RE: living aboard

To break it down to numbers....it cost more per square foot to live aboard. That might have been obvious, but we gotta get that outta the way.

You generally do not have property taxes....but you do have slip rent....which cancels out that advantage. Electricity is cheaper generally. Water is included in slip rent around here.

The way I answer this question to people is that if you HAVE TO HAVE a boat, then living aboard makes your expenses less(than having a boat AND a house).

You also have to look at "abstract" costs(for lack of a better phrase). The biggest one is that most liveaboards do NOT take their boats out. That is usually because your **** piles up everywhere and it becomes more of a living space than a boat. To me, this is tragic. We lived aboard a 29 foot boat for 5 years and used our boat more as liveaboards then we did as dirt dwellers. The beauty of living aboard is that you have all of your **** with you. Just pick up some groceries, untie the lines and go!!!! But we are likely in the "less than 3 percentile".

To give you an idea....

Our boat note(for Prairie 29)....400 bucks
Slip rent....300 bucks(this includes a 75 per month liveaboard fee most marinas charge)
Electricity.....75 bucks(worst case scenario)
Insurance....150 bucks
Storage unit(Yep, everybody has one)....100 bucks

I know I am forgetting something obvious but we are over a thousand bucks for a 30ft $45k boat. You can get a 600ft2 apartment for alot less....but that is apples and oranges....but not really.
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