What proportion of your total capital would you put into the boat?

[Ric]

If you had £X total net worth, and wanted to liveaboard indefinitely, what proportion of your capital would you put into the boat, and what proportion would you invest to live off?

I know - it is another variant on the endless "how much do you need" threads, but maybe intereting to hear views.

My view is 30% into boat, 70% invested.

 

[OldBawley]

I am a technician, understand nothing about finances.
To stupid to invest, I had and have all on a few accounts, Max 2%.
All others, including SWIMBO had investment councillors, many had Turkish accounts, earning up to 25 % ( On Lira ) a few years back.
I was to lazy, had no ambitions, did not need the hassle, was to stupid.
Big Bang came, Swimbo and others lost ….. well... a lot.
The 25 % braggers, ( Its roaring..Its roaring ) are now all trying to sell up and go home.
Most of my money is still there.
Investing? Yes, in a good meal!

 

[Salty John]

An unanswerable question.

 

[little_roundtop]

For us the key to living aboard is to have enough pension/investment income to be able to live without needing to work and only you can tell how much that needs to be. We used about 30% of our total capital (mostly from our house sale) to buy the boat, the rest was invested.

 

[charles_reed]

Well I have retained my house and have about 10% of my total nett worth invested in my boat.
Now whether that's an answer to the question you asked is difficult to gauge - not everyone, as you assume, sells everything to buy their retirement boat.

 

[PlanB]

You don't say if you have sold your house - I wouldn't, I'd rent it out for the income and for the foothold in the property market and the UK.

I don't think deciding on a percentage to spend on your boat is the right way round - I'd work out what you need to live on first, and then decide how much to spend on your boat. After all, you may not need to spend all the spare on the boat, if there's lots to spare!

 

[tri39]

I'm sure one should cruise as cheaply as possible! A boat is a declining at risk watery asset with high maintenance cost! The more valuable it is the sooner you will start to worry about when and how you will reconvert it into a more solid asset. I would never sell a house to buy a boat! I built my boat on a budget (and not from a kit!).

 

[Koeketiene]

What sort of lifestyle are you looking for?
Lavish/gypsie/frugal/...
Full time or part time liveaboard?

We went for the following:
- 45% boat (6-7 month aboard per year)
- 45% small property where we plan to spend the remainder of the year
- 10% emergency/investment fund

We plan to live on just my pension - around 1.5K net pcm

 

[duncan99210]

Well then this is a real how long is a piece of string because the size of the available capital varies so much from one person to the next. Also, is your capital needed to produce an income for you or do you have a income independant of your capital? In other words, how much income are you prepared to sacrifice to buy a more expensive boat?

In our own case, we have retained the UK mansion and are letting it out to provide a bit of an income stream as an addition to my pension. We used most of our liquid capital to buy "Rampage" and fit her out. We live from day to day on my pension and most of the income from the house is salted away to provide for winter moorings and emergency breakdowns (and they do seem to happen with monotonous regularity!).

Not sure if that helps but that's what we did.....

 

[simon barefoot]

Bit different to you cruisers/retirees, I got divorced and had to find somewhere to live, quickly. It had to be near my kids and work, but a 1 bed flat (and I have 2 kids!) was circa10x my annual salary. Falmouth prices eh!
So, I took a part settlement from her, so that she didnt have to sell the house and the kids weren't homeless, and invested 100%, plus a loan in my boat.

But, I've had a ball, the kids love it, I love it, and for a few years, 'fancy comming back to my BOAT for a nightcap' worked REALLY well!!!

 

[Talbot]

Impossible question and asking the wrong information anyway.

Is the investment income designed to be the income which is neded for living?

What about other sources such as pensions etc.

Surely any calculation needs to start with "How much money do I need to live on, and how much spare capital to cope with unexpected emergencies" (e.g. flights, new engine etc).

Then whatever is left is split between boat purchase and funds to bring the boat up to the equipment level needed for the intendd voyage.