Do It NOW, Don't Wait!!

[Pete Meisinger]

I wince every time I read a post starting with.."We will be buying a boat and retiring on it in Five, or Ten Years..." Or "We will be doing the Loop in Five years, when we buy a boat".

Don't Wait..Do it Now!!

Retirement is great but there are several drawbacks to waiting until then to buy your boat. Some are really BIG..

You will be really, really busy once you retire. There may not be time to enjoy your boat. Your parents will be quite old, maybe in the final stages of their life. You will want to be near them.

Your kids will probably be beginning to provide you with grandkids, you will want to be able to spend time with them. Often they are some distance away.

You will be beginning to experience some health issues. Both you and your spouse will probably require at least one new knee, hip or shoulder. Each of these joint replacements will kill a season of boating. (That is as many as 12 joints and 12 seasons partially ruined)

Your own siblings will be older also. Some as many as ten years older than you and beginning to make their own final journey. Some of you may find yourselves as executer of wills or estates, a very timley undertaking.

Certain things about boating require a bit of a learning curve. Better to do this learning in your 50's than late 60's.

IMHO, the true "Golden Years" of your life fall somewhere between ages of 50 and 70. You generally have more time than later into retirement, money is generally pretty plentiful, your mind is sharp and your body still does what you want it to do.

DO IT NOW! BUY IT NOW! If you are fortunate enough that none of the above limitations effect you you will have gained about ten years of boating memories over those who wait.

pete

 

[Comodave]

+1. I agree completely.

 

[Ken E.]

I'm with you, Pete. The clock is ticking, boating time is finite. Go for the gusto!

 

[O C Diver]

Spend your kids inheritance!

Ted

 

[firehoser75]

+2!!!!
Great advice Pete. A story if I may. When I was a young man, my dentist was talking about retirement. His wife passed away suddenly, so he put off his retirement. Then he fell in love again, and was talking about taking his new lady travelling in a year or so. Yeah, he died suddenly as well. Up til then, he was very active and in good health for his age.

That taught me a lesson that I still live by: Don't put all your eggs in the "tomorrow" basket (you still need to plan for it though), cause life does not offer guarantees!
My Mom used to say: "You have to be tough to get old". She was right!
Go boating, have fun!

 

[Beaverlake]

Five years ago we had a family Skype meeting with all the kids and their spouses. I presented the following PowerPoint presentation: “Where your inheritance is going”. (At the time it was a 44 Tolly). Other than the actual boat (now a 4788) nothing has changed. Of course we’ve been blessed with good physical and financial health along the way... So yes, follow the advice on our friend’s 2012 Porsche Turbo Cabriolet custom license plate: “DOITNOW”.

 

[Pau Hana]

When each of my kids were of a proper age (generally around their late teens), I offered this advice:

"Never look back 10 years from now and say "I wish I had did ______""

This thread is sage advice- we all hope we'll be around for the long term, but the reality is that we simply don't know. So, live life when you're amongst the living and don't regret a moment of it...

 

[menzies]

I retired at 59.

The issue a lot of people have is that they can't walk away from the money, especially if they are on a high level of variable comp like stock options and RSUs.

I decided I had made more than I could spend and likely had enough to leave the children some, so walked.

I have plenty of colleagues my age and older who are still punching the clock, and I know how much they are hauling in. For some it may be the job, but I know for many they just can't leave the money on the table.

Life is too short especially when you get to around retirement age.

 

[boathealer]

I retired at 59.

The issue a lot of people have is that they can't walk away from the money, especially if they are on a high level of variable comp like stock options and RSUs.

I decided I had made more than I could spend and likely had enough to leave the children some, so walked.

I have plenty of colleagues my age and older who are still punching the clock, and I know how much they are hauling in. For some it may be the job, but I know for many they just can't leave the money on the table.

Life is too short especially when you get to around retirement age.

I agree completely. It normally takes some foresight, though.

We retired 2 years ago at 58/55. We had saved "enough". Yes, if we continued working until "normal" retirement, we could easily have tripled our net worth. But why? We had saved "enough". Who knows how long each of us had to enjoy the remainder?

However, in order to do this, we lived way, WAY below our "means" for our entire 35 year working careers. We made the decision to do this from day 1. Living in 1200 sqft houses and driving Nissans while our co-workers had 5 bedroom palaces and drove BMWs. It was that whole delayed gratification thing ---- 35 years worth!

I would add another angle to the OP. For us, trying to maintain and upgrade a boat while (granted, overburdened) working, was just too much to bite off for the absolute "go now" recommendation. We chose to trailer-boat (sail, power) while working, and then go "all-in" when we retired -- with all of the experience we had gained along the way -- and had the ability to focus 100% on the boat/cruising. There is something to be said for that, also.

 

[Capitaine R]

I have a question, my wife and I both agree that we would love to retire early but what does everyone do about Medical insurance once you leave the 9 to 5 life? Paying two medical Insurance premiums seems like it's going to take a large chunk of our cruising budget.

 

[menzies]

I have a question, my wife and I both agree that we would love to retire early but what does everyone do about Medical insurance once you leave the 9 to 5 life? Paying two medical Insurance premiums seems like it's going to take a large chunk of our cruising budget.

I have coverage through my employer. Then when I get to 65 they are the back up coverage to Medicare.

 

[boathealer]

I have a question, my wife and I both agree that we would love to retire early but what does everyone do about Medical insurance once you leave the 9 to 5 life? Paying two medical Insurance premiums seems like it's going to take a large chunk of our cruising budget.

Yes. Our first year we paid through the nose for medical - yes, two premiums - a significant amount. The second (and hopefully subsequent) year, our declared income was low enough to get some Obamacare subsidies that helped A LOT.

We planned for both of these in our "budget" forecasts when deciding when/if we could retire. Some of it involved lowering our planned lifestyle still further until medicare age. It hurts, but it is a fact of life and we just had to suck it up and pay.

Would do it again in a heartbeat, BTW......

EDIT: BTW, go to http://www.early-retirement.org and spend as many hours as you can stand READING. Then start again, and read some more. When you think you have had enough - read some more. There are some REALLY smart people on those forums......

 

[psneeld]

Reality is most boats are under used.

Life is a jigsaw puzzle and no one can fit your life pieces better than you.

While some advice to start small, start early has its merits..buying a retirement boat 5 years before retirement and using a boat little to none isn't good for it or the stress it can put on you.

Usually a good 3-5 hour shoot the bull/ face to face session with someone who has lived aboard for a decade or more and has been actively boating/cruising....6 months a year or more.....and is a knowledgeable and honest type will probably help more than anything.

 

[MurrayM]

Memory banks are more important than money banks.

I'm very close to signing my retirement papers at work. Like Ray, we lived within our means and saved for the future so I could retire 5 years shy of a full pension.

We plan on exploring BC's north and central coasts, including romps up mountains and bush whacking up valleys, so if our health holds, we should be much more physically active between 60 to 65 than 65 to 70.

We bought our boat 8 years ago because my wife's shoulder got wrecked in a car accident and we couldn't sea kayak any more. It also allowed us to share with our young daughter how amazing it is 'out there'.

Looking forward to go on 2 month boating trips instead of 3 week holidays from work!

When the boat is too much to handle we'll swallow the anchor and switch to land based adventures.

Dare to Dream!!!!

 

[Lollygag1]

We made the decision to get a larger boat when we both had health and could enjoy the marine life. Have seen too many relatives say they are going to wait till they retire and then not have the ability to enjoy it. I already have regrets for not taking advantage of some life adventures as work was more important. I realize now it is not. Don’t overspend or overextend but take advantage of the window you have to enjoy life.

 

[O C Diver]

I have a question, my wife and I both agree that we would love to retire early but what does everyone do about Medical insurance once you leave the 9 to 5 life? Paying two medical Insurance premiums seems like it's going to take a large chunk of our cruising budget.

My simple answer was to retire at 59 and my wife will work till about 66. My wife's work (university dean) has been the source of health care for the last 15 years. So she needs to work. In full disclosure, her current position has an incredible compensation package. Working till 66 gets her a very nice pension. When you factor working 4 more years, with the compensation, nearly free healthcare, and the pension value, versus paying healthcare for 3+ years, you're looking at a seven figure difference. I have a very logical wife.

Ted

 

[psneeld]

If you do buy early, then take the time...that's the one thing the VAST majority of people DON'T do.

They work even harder and longer those last 5 years and the boat sits, confidence in using it wanes.....not good.

So yes there are two paths....one as is mostly described here and the one of reality as you walk down docks and see way too many green covered boats that sit mostly unused.

 

[Gabe n Em]

We're 31 and 30 and don't expect to retire. Ever. Period. If social security lasts, it will be a miracle. Additionally, we're both in "fun" fields and can do most of our work, or similar, when we're old and feeble. What we can't do, when we're ancient, is go scuba diving, overnight transits, etc etc etc. So we boat a boat instead of a house, twice.

 

[AlanT]

+1 We cleared out our savings and took off age 49 & 54. Enjoyed 4 brilliant years, crossed the Atlantic twice and lived our dream in the Mediterranean and Caribbean. Came home age 54/59 and worked a few years. Now retired for second time at 63/68 and just bought a comfortable large MY which will be the perfect vehicle to enjoy with our children and grandchildren.

We were planning on more than 4 years - but then the grandchildren arrived and heartstrings called us home from the Med. The OP is absolutely correct in his assessment. Get out and do it if and when you can. Dont wait for the perfect time. The perfect time is now. We were far from the youngest we met in our travels.......
~Alan

 

[ksanders]

I’m 58 and staring it in the eye.

I can retire at any time but agreed to work until my 60th birthday to make my wife comfortable.. I only work part time now at about 135 days a year so it’s not like I’m full time anyway.

My advice is to buy your cruising boat while you are working and can fit it out, and learn. DO NOT wait till you retire, Yes do it now.

Then choose a retirement date while enjoying your boating lifestyle that works for your lifestyle choices and post retirement income. That is a individual decision with no right and no wrong.

The big thing is to buy the boat now, and enjoy boating. Retirement cruising will happen in due time.

Some, probably some here can be happy on a income that I would starve on. Some also would require a income that I would find lavish. Again, that is a individual decision based on YOUR choices.

 

[dirtdoc1]

Very good advice. That's why I'm upset about not being able to cross the border to get to my boat. Because I don't know how many more seasons that I will be able to do this. Passage making in a trawler is new to me but I am so amazed at how much fun it is. I wish I had started a few years younger.

If you are able to pull it off, my advice would be the same. Do it now, don't wait.

Cheers!

 

[Giggitoni]

 

[Lou_tribal]

Ok I will be the devil advocate...
There is so many more factors than just "time", family, health, social condition, $... and so on.
Can you really afford it? Many will say that is just $ and that's true... but more true when you have enough $ to afford to loose them.
I have seen so many people with the "enjoy it jow" who got broke 10+ years later and now working to pack stuff in a supermarket at 70.
Nothing good or bad and no judgement, just one advice: Yes enjoy it now, but before any move, think.
I am an adept of "enjoy your life while you can", but at the same time do it with a brain, don't be another Icarus.

L

 

[Peter B]

I wince every time I read a post starting with.."We will be buying a boat and retiring on it in Five, or Ten Years..." Or "We will be doing the Loop in Five years, when we buy a boat".

Don't Wait..Do it Now!!

Retirement is great but there are several drawbacks to waiting until then to buy your boat. Some are really BIG...
....DO IT NOW! BUY IT NOW! If you are fortunate enough that none of the above limitations effect you you will have gained about ten years of boating memories over those who wait.
pete

How true, and I've often said so on here. But to illustrate what the Pete above just said. We bought our boat when I turned 55, using some super we then had access to, because it funded it debt free. We enjoyed Lotus for some 16 years, but sold it in advance of retirement because of her age, and the expense of keeping her would be beyond us once I was not earning. Just as well, as it turned out, as just a month after I officially retired, my wife, who was slowly developing Parkinson's anyway it turned out, had a small stroke. She recovered, but the combined effect would have ruled out ever doing the boating thing again.

The upside is we owned the berth, and now renting it out via the marina admin, means it is making me money, in a nice hassle-free way, instead of being that hole in the ocean into which one pours money. Which is a bit of a truism with regards to boating, as all on here will admit.

But yeah...don't wait...do it asap

 

[Pete Meisinger]

I agree that insurance pre-Medicare can be very expensive. Generally around $1,00 a month per person. That is a lot and an expense you will each have to figure out on your own.

BUT... If you are alive right now (and you must be to be reading this) You have two kinds of time in your future. Quality time and not so quality time.

According to my family history and statistics I suppose I will live to about 90 years. I'm 70 right now. Will all the next 20 years all be "Quality" years? I doubt it. Will all 20 be nursing home sitting in a rocker years? I hope not!

I think every person, boater or not should examine their future and attempt to discover how much "Quality Time" you actually have left. If you are honest with yourself I suspect it will be considerably less than the total amount of time you will occupy space on this earth.

Then you need to decide how you want to spend these dwindling "Quality Years".

The choice is really yours, choose wisely. Personally, I want to spend as many of them as I can on, in or around big water. God Willing.

pete

 

[Shrew]

I'm 49, my wife is 50.

While I don't feel we've lived a frugal life, we've lived well within out means. We invested in retirement as soon as we started working full time (around 22). We invested as much as we could afford, employing the (pay yourself first economics). We spent many, many of our early years taking vacations in tents. We didn't buy extravagant things.

I bought my first boat around 35 (28 foot express). I bought my current boat at 45. I'm living the life I want to live NOW.

I'm not waiting to drop dead of a heart attack, stroke, cancer or car accident so some other guy can live my dream with my wife. OR so my brother and in-laws can inherit my money (no kids). We still live within our means. We own our house and boat with no mortgages and don't really carry much consumer debt.

Am I doing it 'right'? Who knows, but I'm doing it, and I'm doing it NOW.

Incidentally, I had posted in another post. We moved onto the boat for the summer. We're snowbirding between the house in Florida and the boat in New England. I am literally living the retirement we planned.....now......while I'm still working. (I work from home in Florida and I rented a small 120 Sq. office in New England where I work from while I'm up here).

 

[Capitaine R]

We bought our boat early because we saw what we believe is a good deal on the boat we wanted. We knew it needed some cosmetic help and all new electronics, but we have a couple of things in our favour. We have the room to store and work on the boat on the hard on our property so we can take our time and fix it correctly with no marina fees. We can do all the work ourselves, I do maintenance for a living. When the boat is ready to go back in the water we can keep it at our place on a canal and we have already purchased the lift it will sit on.
But as far as both of us retiring early and cruising, I see the medical insurance premiums as a big deterrent, if we dip into our monthly budget that deep it could turn quantity time into a burden. As we all know money problems can cause large fights, no one wants that on a confined space.
We will definitely look at some of the advice given in this thread.

 

[Codger2]

Can you really afford it? ......
I have seen so many people with the "enjoy it now" who got broke 10+ years later and now working to pack stuff in a supermarket at 70........I am an adept of "enjoy your life while you can", but at the same time do it with a brain, don't be another Icarus.

I could not possibly agree more with the above statements. I have seen so many people jump into the cruising life with absolutely not enough money to keep their boat safe! It takes money or knowhow to maintain a cruising boat properly and safely. Not to mention a good store of knowledge!

 

[JLD]

My opinion is that "Do it NOW, Don't Wait" is very dependent on an individual's situation.

I would not give this as unqualified advice for a first-time buyer of a moderate/large boat.

I would encourage a neewbie to get a boat that is appropriate for their current circumstances. If one does not have the time and/or the money then it hardly makes sense to purchase a 30+ foot boat. Perhaps it makes more sense to purchase a smaller boat that fits their current circumstances.

I am 60, currently 'boatless' and plan on getting my next boat when I retire (in 2 years), although if I ran across a deal to good to pass up then I might buy before I retire. For the last 20 years, I had kayaks and a trailerable sailboat (until a couple of weeks ago) that were a perfect fit for my circumstances. These boats were inexpensive, fun, and would patiently wait for me to use them, at my convenience. My retirement boat will be 30+ and will be significant more expensive to maintain/upgrade. I just don't see the spending the money if I don't currently have the time to enjoy the boat, as I still work fulltime and my wife and I will begin scouting out retirement locales.

Like some of the posters mentioned, I, too, am a believer is retiring when you comfortably can, not when you maximize your retirement. I'm looking forward to doing a lot of boating when I retire at 62.

Jim

 

[Nick14]

I am an adept of "enjoy your life while you can", but at the same time do it with a brain, don't be another Icarus.

L

I whole-heartedly agree with both sentiments. Live now while you can, but at the same time, use your brains and don't live beyond your means.

The thoughts in this thread are especially poignant to me. I'm in my early(ish) 60's, shopping for my 14th (and probably last) boat. I've owned boats since a canoe at age 12, and a first "real" powerboat at 14 (an old wood lapstrake runabout). I was stupid for much of my working career, and over the past 25 years was able to afford and own some nice 34-42 ft boats that I didn't allow myself to use much because I was obsessively focused on my career. Work always came first, before anything and everything else, including insane amounts of travel.

It was totally stupid. The result was too many missed birthdays, anniversaries, and vacations. The boats sat largely unused, less than 50 hours a year (usually much less). So many boat trips I would have loved to have taken, and didn't. And now never will.

It absolutely, unequivocally wasn't worth it. The only thing that working 70-80 hour weeks and traveling constantly for decades gave me was health problems. Two near-death experiences and urgent visits to a hospital ER brought that into sharp focus.

I recently retired a little early. My remaining time is limited. There is no 'next time', no 'do overs'. This isn't practice life. This is it. I'll never be able to take most of the boating trips I once hoped to (especially with the realities and constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic). There just isn't enough time left. But I'll do my best with the time I have left.

At the same time, we should all be careful not to out-spend and out-live our financial savings. You're absolutely right with stories of 70 year olds having to go back to work as greeters at Walmart because they spent all their money. That would be deeply depressing. A friend of mine had a habit of spending foolishly (seems to be a hard model to sustain in the long run). His answer has been to file personal bankruptcy, twice. That's not good for happiness or health either.

As the poet John Greenleaf Whittier wrote, "For of all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these: what might have been." Don't let boating dreams become another 'what might have been'. I did, and I regret it.