New Sailboat...not so fast.

[Ray Bowles]

We had just returned from being full time cruisers when the market crashed. We sold the boat at the highest price point in time and bought our current home at the then new lowest price. We were one of the few lucky ones.
Most people, when they hear about our living on a boat say that they really wish they could do the same but they're too tight financially. It seems that the new car and truck parked in the new large home require their total allegience for the next 20 years. I forgot the jet skis and club memberships.
It's all about choices and sometimes our image is part of the choice. Timing of these choices in life we control and results can't be blamed entirely on others.
Ray

 

[NC-C320]

Timing of these choices in life we control and results can't be blamed entirely on others.

Ray,

While we do have control of when we make/take action on our choices, we largely do not control the surrounding environment and there are forces over which we have no control that come into play, and are often controlling as to when we make a choice, and even what the choice is. We all try to guess what is best to do and when to do it. Sometimes we get it right, sometimes wrong. For whatever reason that you decided to sell the boat and buy the house, had you bought the house (assuming it was worth more than the boat) in 2004, you would have had a different outcome financially regarding these two items. (1) When I bought my first house in 1975, values went up with time. When my son, at a similar age, bought his house in 2004, things were vastly different by 2007. (2) Along the way, I invested as a sideline in rental property, one piece at a time. In 2001, I elected to sell most of this property and sold it off to a number of different people. They were using exactly the same business model that I did, which worked well for me, but a few years later several went into foreclosure and bankruptcy. In both of these examples, it was not so much my wisdom that determined the outcome. There were external controlling influences. The timing of age with my son, and oversupply of comparable rental housing (some built after the investors had bought my property). If we have been lucky enough to prosper when others haven't, we should feel very appreciative and not too great as to our smartness/wisdom.

The above having been said, we do have the choice to live within our means. If we always manage so that we put aside a little for a rainy day, most of the time we won't have a financial crisis....but even this is not ironclad to be successful. A serious sickness or job loss in a business downtime can financially destroy us.

 

[Ray Bowles]

NC, I do understand and agree with your response. The key as you said is the "choice to live within our means." Many of the loans that went into default were based on choices made to advance ones lifestyle. Those are the owners own responsibility.
Ours was different than many and as I said, those that said they wished they could have done as we did, could have by different chioces.
Ray
Tomorrows choice is to go out for the last sail of the year.