High Maintenance Hobbies?

[Meadbh]

I play golf. I have only been playing it regularly (2 x week) for the past 3 years. I’m not blessed with any natural ability and I find that regularity is key to (slowly) improving my play. I have now reached the point where I feel comfortable playing with random people and want to up my frequency of play to 3-4 times weekly. Next spring I plan to take lessons (which I have done in the past). I spend $2 - 2.5 K per annum but will loosen the purse strings a bit for 2018.

I cook and buy a few kitchen gadgets, but that is saving me money.

I read, but the library is [-]free[/-] paid by my taxes.

I guess I’m pretty low maintenance!

 

[bingybear]

A good buddy once told me this: "Want to know what it's like to own a sailboat? Just jump in the shower fully clothed, turn the faucet on full blast cold, and start ripping up $100 bills!"

So yea, I don't own a sailboat...

I wouldn't say that it has to be that way. Depends what you sail and how often you replace your sail.

It can be worse than a cold shower if you race in the winter in Ohio. If you don't travel and just club race it can be reasonable cost after the initial boat purchase. But you can spend yourself in the poor house if you want to.

 

[Souschef]

Sports car racing, which I abandoned after 15 years but before retirement. Flying light airplane, typically $100-150/hour cost. I have commercial and instrument pilot ratings. Target shooting; my favorite pistol (out of about six) cost me $2000. Most of the rest were half or a little less than that. All three are high maintenance to maintain proficiency.

Do I win?

I do not see this as a contest. I fly for Angel Flight West because I enjoy both flying and helping people. At $130/hr it gets a little expensive. So far this year I have flown 60 hours and have 4 more flights booked.
I am blessed that I can afford it, but I am by no means wealthy.

 

[Music Lover]

Music is high maintenance in that it requires a time commitment, but in most cases, after the initial equipment acquisition, it doesn't usually cost very much money on an ongoing basis.

 

[ejman]

I don't know if this qualifies as "high maintenance" or not but I've spent $20,000 dollars for Hi-Fi equipment and LP's and such over the last 20 years. Worth every penny to me.

 

[Senator]

Pigeon racing was a great sport when I was into it.
Falconry is another.

Both require extensive work with the birds. Lots of training and of course lots of "having to be there".

 

[audreyh1]

OMG! After about 15-20 years I've resuming playing classical guitar - or trying to.

It's hard!!!!

 

[shortstop14]

Playing baseball is fairly high maintenance in terms of keeping fielding and hitting skills at a reasonably competitive level. It's much more of a time and effort commitment than a financial one. Practice two or three times a week along with games. But practice doesn't feel like work to me, I really enjoy it. Still, the physical abilities inevitably fade as the years go by.

And then there's the off-season - maintaining conditioning and some amount of explosive training, along with some skill work. Less fun, but kind of necessary if you want to avoid embarrassing yourself.

Financially there's some travel for tournaments, but that's more like being on vacation. And the tournaments are in age brackets, where we get to play with kids our own age.

 

[TimeMeasure]

Visiting National Parks.

Compared to other interests, like reading, just getting there is expensive. And the research to make everything about the trip "just right" - lodgings, schedule, places to hike - takes a lot of time. The overall atmosphere and experience of a trip is a quality that doesn't even have a name in this language, but crafting it, and then savoring it, can be an involved and subtle pursuit in its own right.

 

[DatumPoint5]

"If it flies, floats, or fornicates, then it's cheaper to rent."

I have been a pilot for 30 years and I have never heard this quote!?!? VERY funny!!

 

[hilltide]

Great thread. Boating and fishing is my expensive hobby. We have it in the budget now. It's always something but love it. I think flying has boating beat by a long shot.

 

[jjquantz]

OP here. Fun to read responses. I was definitely thinking more along the lines of the time commitment and, even more, the feeling that one has to put in some time doing something that is "less fun" (i.e. practice) so that one can have "more fun" later. I do get the other interpretations of "high maintenance," however.

@shortstop14 - I would love to hear more about the baseball hobby. At what level do your leagues play? Good high school level? Are most of the players former college and high school players? I was a really good HS player - good enough to see the difference between my skills and those of players who later played minor league ball.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I think flying has boating beat by a long shot.

I've done both and depending on what you have, one can cost more than the other. When I lived in Texas, I owned both at the same time and the boat cost me more $$$ by far. Granted, I was able to do the maintenance on the plane myself (and for the time I owned it, there wasn't a lot of unscheduled maintenance to deal with) and I had to replace the engine in the boat which I had someone else do. Now, in Georgia, owning the plane would be a lot more, since the fuel would cost me almost double and the hangar would be VERY expensive compared to what I had in Texas.

At any rate, both hobbies are pretty damn expensive and I am glad to be rid of those expenses (and worries).

 

[W2R]

OP here. Fun to read responses. I was definitely thinking more along the lines of the time commitment and, even more, the feeling that one has to put in some time doing something that is "less fun" (i.e. practice) so that one can have "more fun" later. I do get the other interpretations of "high maintenance," however.

In retirement, I don't have any hobbies at all that require practice or "less fun" times, because to me that is too much like work. I used to have hobbies like that when I was still working.

Right now, my main hobby is playing video games and I don't play them competitively. This is a relatively cheap hobby, that costs me about $500-$600/year. As for time commitment, I just kick back and play for my own enjoyment so this hobby creates no constraints on my time.

 

[hilltide]

At any rate, both hobbies are pretty damn expensive and I am glad to be rid of those expenses (and worries).[/QUOTE]

You may be right. I am currently talking the wife into budgeting new twin 200's for my boat. If I wasn't addicted to fishing, I would just kayak!

 

[FIREmenow]

Boats.
"B.O.A.T. - Break Out Another Thousand"

Trying to mitigate this by turning our current boat from "Hobby Expenses" into "Primary Living Expenses" starting next year!

It's all in how you look at it.

 

[SAtoUS]

I have been trying to write a novel. Some writers can work at it for 10 minutes a day, leave it to tend to their day j*bs and families. I can't.

It takes me an hour of staring at the blank page before I gain any traction. Once I have some momentum, the prose flows. However, one interruption and the hour clock starts again.

So I would call writing fiction high maintenance. I either have to devote a huge block of time to it or nothing gets written.

My uncle wrote a book in his retirement... Took him 28 years. After all that time, still not worth reading too.

 

[jjquantz]

In retirement, I don't have any hobbies at all that require practice or "less fun" times, because to me that is too much like work. I used to have hobbies like that when I was still working.

Right now, my main hobby is playing video games and I don't play them competitively. This is a relatively cheap hobby, that costs me about $500-$600/year. As for time commitment, I just kick back and play for my own enjoyment so this hobby creates no constraints on my time.

I get what you are saying about it sometimes feeling like work. BUT, and for me this is the big thing, the feeling that I get when I am able to perform at a high level on the flute - playing Bach with a group of professional musicians and just nailing the performance is worth a lot of practice time. There are very, very few things in the world that bring me as much joy as playing music that I love at a high level. Heck, even singing 19th century American music and accompanying myself on the piano brings a smile to my face. But these things require practice and it does feel like work, sometimes. This is one of the reasons I retired when I did - to make time to find this feeling of joy through music.

On a lesser, but similar note. On the golf course, it really feels good to be able to step up and hit a little cut fade with the hybrid on one hole and at the next hole be able to hit a low draw with a driver. That is a lot more fun than hitting the same old weak slice time after time. I've done both and I know which one is more fun for me. But... it requires a commitment that feels like work.

I guess for me it is the resulting feeling of mastery that makes the practice tolerable (usually). I do worry about how this plays out as I age and that, eventually, no matter how much I practice, the results just won't be there.

 

[kcowan]

Was watching other pilots with great envy at Lake Annecy, France. ..

We just got there. What an amazing and beautiful place. The drive reminded us of many mountainous drives back home but with more old cities!

 

[aja8888]

I was definitely thinking more along the lines of the time commitment and, even more, the feeling that one has to put in some time doing something that is "less fun" (i.e. practice) so that one can have "more fun" later. I do get the other interpretations of "high maintenance,"

Restoring antique cars.........Time+$$$=Fun later (after the frustration of finding parts).

 

[Music Lover]

I get what you are saying about it sometimes feeling like work. BUT, and for me this is the big thing, the feeling that I get when I am able to perform at a high level on the flute - playing Bach with a group of professional musicians and just nailing the performance is worth a lot of practice time. There are very, very few things in the world that bring me as much joy as playing music that I love at a high level. Heck, even singing 19th century American music and accompanying myself on the piano brings a smile to my face. But these things require practice and it does feel like work, sometimes. This is one of the reasons I retired when I did - to make time to find this feeling of joy through music.

I could have written the above...although I don't play with real professionals, I do play with people at the semi-pro level. It requires regular practice on my part, but I enjoy the practice because it helps me become a better bassist able to play at a higher level and that increases the enjoyment I get out of music.

On a lesser, but similar note. On the golf course, it really feels good to be able to step up and hit a little cut fade with the hybrid on one hole and at the next hole be able to hit a low draw with a driver. That is a lot more fun than hitting the same old weak slice time after time. I've done both and I know which one is more fun for me. But... it requires a commitment that feels like work.

Again, I could have written that. I took a few golf lessons and was able to hit either a fade or a draw whenever I wanted. But, I simply didn't want to put the work into it on a regular basis and since then I've lost some of that ability. I still make great shots, but also hit too many poor shots due to the lack of practice. It doesn't really bother me because golf isn't my passion.

 

[ncbill]

Owning and flying an airplane. We joked around the airport that modifications/maintenance/etc. is talked about in the terms of "AMUs"...a single AMU is $1,000...so modification X might set you back 9 or 10 AMUs.

I enjoyed owning an airplane, but it was expensive and I am glad to not have that expense anymore.

Yeah, paying over an AMU annually just to insure my youngest student pilot, still in high school.

Not counting the AMUs spent on flight lessons since they were 15.

Hope they're successful in getting Uncle Sam to recruit them since I'm not paying for anything more than the basic license.

 

[Winemaker]

I spend about $3000/yr on grapes/juice/amenities to keep DW, myself and family stocked in vino. We spend another $4000 on booze related travel; Napa, Lodi, Finger Lakes, and Louisville KY.

 

[doneat54]

Restoring antique cars.........Time+$$$=Fun later (after the frustration of finding parts).

I get it. I spent nearly 8 years restoring this VW... but then the next 17 putting ear to ear grinning miles on it (about $1k a year). (slowly) restoring another now...

Off to VW Day at Lars Anderson outside of Boston in it Saturday if the weather holds!!!

 

[Breedlove]

We went through the bug restoring years ago , joined a club here in Houston and done all the shows . It was fun!
We used to ride in a 4th of July parade in the Woodlands Texas and other car clubs would also show up .
The corvette clubs hated us because we had scouts that would get there early and get parking places before the parade in the shade. The corvette clubs treated us like we were dirt but we always got more cheers because everyone has had a bug in their life . They used to be cheap to fix up unless you got one of the old vans.