Wanting vs Having

[Sojourner]

By dropping the big boat we would free up much more money for travel and fun activities and not suffer from boating guilt - feeling like you have to use the boat just because you spend so much money on it.

This is exactly the conclusion DW and I came to when deciding not to buy a vacation home. A boat is essentially just a smaller, less expensive, mobile version of a 2nd home. By not buying a boat (or 2nd home), you free up both financial capital and time for other pursuits, such as simply renting those things whenever/wherever you feel like it. Renting really seems to make the most sense for just about every big "luxury" purchase of this type, especially for folks like us who can rather easily afford the rentals. Why tie ourselves down to an ongoing maintenance and upkeep headache in one location, when the entire world of rental possibilities is our oyster?

 

[ponyboy]

Bust
Out
Another
Thousand

 

[Zona]

Weird that I missed this thread when it was first posted. It's a topic worth some thought -- sometimes you want something, get it, enjoy it for a while and then move on. The New England coast is a beautiful place to sail and live. OP, I'm sure you'll cherish the memories of the local spots you've sailed to, and of course there's always chartering if you get an itch to sail again.

When we first got married we bought a 40' catamaran, sailed and lived aboard full-time for 3 years, then went back to w*rk briefly and sold it a couple years later. It was the right purchase at the time, and we had an amazing experience while we were young & able to do it. However, we knew we wanted to do all sorts of traveling, and when you own a boat or even a vacation home or RV, it often seems like you are "wasting it" if you decide to travel anywhere else. Or at least it seemed that way for us. It was the same when we bought an RV van a few years later -- we had an extended Alaska roadtrip adventure with it, made memories to cherish, then sold it when we were ready for something different. Now we have the time and freedom to travel anywhere and stay as long or as little as we like (within the budget of course). I'm a firm believer that it's okay to do a thing for a while, appreciate it while it lasts, and move on to something else when the time is right. For all the discussions on the forum about withdrawal rates and one more year, what I think ER is really all about is the ability & financial freedom to decide what we get to do every day.

 

[Still Learning]

Our boating adventures started after purchasing our house, a 10 minute walk from the Hudson River which is a great conduit to so many places. Started with a small 16' motorboat having fun day boating in the mid 80s, joined a yacht club at the bottom of the hill and new friends brought pot lock suppers, boat trip to restaurants, overnight trips and then extended summer cruises many times with 4-10 boats from our club. We shifted to 11 different boats over the years to our current 18' center console. New boats came about due to changes in boat use and family growth. 10 years ago we became a 2 boat family when we purchased a used 16' fishing boat while finding our next cruising boat. That fishing boat found fishing trips on the Hudson River and upstate lakes up to the Champlain Canal. We retired in 2019 and purchased a new 18' center console fishing boat and were deep into planning a year long trip on our trawler. Along came Covid and then my wife suffered injuries which made docking or locking more challenging. We decided to pass on The Great Loop and sold the trawler for more money than I ever expected in 2021. My wife's injuries mostly healed and at age 63 we still wanted to travel so purchased a travel van and started traveling by road. Still having fun.

One rule we did adhere to limited loans and in fact have not had any loans for 25 years plus. We enjoyed our boat cruises but transitioning to road travel was an easy decision. Life creates change, we just try to make decisions that work for both of us. With much less commitments to boating we sure have more free time and our budget continues to be less then when we retired in 2019.

 

[Route246]

I really like cars, own one exotic now. Problem is, I'm too old to drive it properly as I don't have the reflex time to be able to run it deep into turns and jam on the brakes the way I could when I was younger. So, it sits in the garage. I can sell it but it keep appreciating in value so it is like an appreciating asset to me. I was looking at getting a high-end Porsche but lost interest when I found out how difficult it is to get a build slot and I did not want to take one from inventory as I have specific color and trim that I want.

I get it about your boat. Your human desires and enjoyment seeking changes for many reasons.

 

[audreyh1]

I’m very happy to have just one house and one car and no other vehicles. In past periods we’ve had a sailboat at a slip, and a large diesel pusher motorhome (which replaced a house for a few years) and when working had two cars.

 

[flyingaway]

Years ago I was in Florida for a free Disney ticket, and was asked to attend a session of time share vacation home selling. I could not understand why people would buy a time share, and felt sorry for so many people working there, probably to sell their own time shares.