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From: Dwight Yachuk (no email)
Date: Tue Dec 14 2004 - 08:19:39 EST
Hello again Lynn,
You didn't say how old you are now but lets assume you have a few years to go. What are today's expenses, a mortgage to pay, kids to raise? Other ongoing expenses? If so than you don't have much room to manoeuver. At some point it will just be the two of you alone. Will you keep a house as well as cruise? Perhaps rent it out while you are gone? Will you sell?
My plan is to sell out from the expensive city where I live. If we buy it will be somewhere much cheaper. The only criteria I now have is that it will be within a 2 hour drive of a major airport. With the cost differential between expensive city housing and cheap country housing you can free up $100K easy.
The second place to save money is in your boat. Do you have one now? Is it the one you will criuse on? If not, now is the time to start learning and looking. Join a bunch of forums (like this one) to see what others are sailing on. Check out yachtworld.com to see what the prices are like. In my experience you can usually get a boat for 40% off the asking price, depending on make and age. Don't go for a cheap fixer upper. It will cost you more in the end. Look for a boat that has been well maintained over the years, has had upgrades and replacements done, perhaps even a boat that has just come back from an extended cruise. Many of the old boats from the 70's were built like sherman tanks. They will last forever with proper care.
Personally I will have a pension when I retire, not a lot but enough to cover my $1000/month anticipated costs. I also have some savings, again not a lot but enough for a few years with no income.
I have found my best investment to be my friends. When I retire I plan to get a boat with a 2 or 3 cabins, a Gulfstar 50 perhaps. Many of my friends are excited at the thought of coming down (wherever) for a week or two to live on a boat. It'ss be good company for Lynn and I and our guests will pay the expenses (food, fuel, mooring, etc) while they are with us. It'll be much cheaper for them than chartering. Some are so excited that they want us to retire right away :)
Also with friends, this summer I sailed across the Atlantic on Bill's boat. I paid for food and that's it. If I didn't have to work I could still be in Europe sailing around.
And as Jerry said, as the US dollar plummets so goes the world economy. In germany before the first world war inflation was so rampant that people actually carted around wheelbarrows full of cash that's how worthless it was. Look at Germany now, one of the powerhouses of the world with a currency (now the Euro) to match.
So, shop cheap and wisely, invest in your relationships, and be brave. With a little ingenuity and common sense you'll do just fine.
See you on the big blue sea.
merry christmas,
dwight
Here are a couple of liveaboard forums:
-----Original Message-----
From: lynn stone [mailto:]
Sent: Monday, December 13, 2004 5:06 PM
To:
Subject: RE: [world-cruising] Declining value of the USD & effects on
cruising?
Dwight,
Until we are both able to reach that magic age of
about 66 or 67 or so when we can both retire and
receive social security (it's no longer 65 for full
benefits you know), we will have varying amounts of
money. If we were starting cruising now we would have
less than 1500 per month to work with for
_everything_. Not a lot when you consider the cost of
insurance, etc. In a couple more years it could be
more and that would increase until we get to about
3,000 or so in about 10 years and level off.
Sounds like a lot I know until you get to the part
about devaluation. $3kUSD in say 10 years will be
what? It's _now_ only 1500 Pounds. In 10 years will
that be 1000 Pounds or less? Same thing could be said
for the Euro.
What about the other countries. There is now a move
afoot to organize the South American countries in the
same direction as Europe. I presume that will also
mean a standard currency for South America. Will that
include Central America and Mexico? How will that
currency stand up to the devalued USD? Who knows.
Someone else said something about having a wheelbarrow
full of cash, having a wheelbarrow full of cash looks
great but what will it buy?
We also want to move around and experience other
cultures in the world and not just exist on a small
boat anchored in a third world country hoping that we
will be able to make next month's bills and our
medications actually arrive on time and are not stolen
enroute or that we run out of USDs to buy them at all.
Worry? Yes, we worry. But, we also know that proper
planning can cut the worry way down and we can relax.
How much do _you_ need every month vs how much do you
have to do with every month? What are _you_ doing to
plan for the further degradation in the USD's buying
power as it applies to you and your family's future
apart from taking a long walk off a short boat when
you feel the time is right? Life insurance? Will it
pay if you take that walk? Are you converting all your
USDs to Euros monthly and then reconverting as you
need it in hopes that you will receive back more USDs
than you gave them before when you originally
converted from USDs? What is the _plan_ that you are
following for the future or the plan that you are
using to cruise now? Are you giving up going to
Britian or Europe because the Pound will be $3 USD or
the Euro will be $2 USD and maybe the Peso or other
South American currency will be 1 to 1 with the USD or
worse?
Maybe we can do well right now in Mexico, the
Carribean, and a few other places but it will be a
couple years before we can go. What then? In 10 years
will it still be so good? What about 20? Will our
perhaps $3k USD monthly retirement be enough then?
Will it only be worth 500 somethings or other when we
need a minimum of 1000? We want to plan now based on
what others are doing and thinking so that when the
time comes, we won't need to take a short walk if a
problem comes about but will be prepared for most any
reasonable problems that might arise. True, we can't
plan for everything but we can for most things in
general. How are you taking care of that? We've got a
couple years to plan and prepare.
--- Dwight Yachuk <> wrote:
>
> I guess in order to answer your questions I need to
> ask you how much money you have Lynn.
>
> You should be able to live comfortably in the
> caribbean for under $1K/month. This summer I was in
> the Azores. The cost of living was about the same
> as in the US. Spain and Portugal are relatively
> cheap. The Scandinavian countries are expensive but
> they always have been.
>
> You can live in Mexico and get excellent medical
> coverage for a fraction of the US cost.
>
> The best thing to do is to decide where you want to
> live and where you want to travel and then research
> the costs of doing so. All I'm hearing from you is
> a lot of worrying. don't worry, you won't starve.
>
> When I get too old for anything else I'll walk off
> the back of the boat one night at sea. The cost of
> an ocean burial will be nothing.
>
> dwight
>
>
=====
Lynn
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