sclements1
New member
Bravo!!
Why is it that people think boat owners are rich?
- Thread starter Nostrodamus
- Start date
Nostrodamus
New member
There is so much in this thread that i can see in our own family before we took the plunge.
You do spend your lives trying to make a beautiful home for the family and saving for that one or twice a year holiday. You buy plasma tv's for several rooms, surround sound, nice car and have all the trappings to make you comfortable.
When we made the decision to go everybody got a cardboard box to put in what they wanted to take with them.
All the rest includingthe house and car was sold or given away and it is difficult to see that you have worked for gone in a week or two.
When it has gone, the bills have been paid and as it was in our case you realise you owe no one anything and we were saving a 1000 pounds a month on bills you begin to feel good. What you have is for the first time in your life yours and you now have the freedom to go where you want in the world.
Yes it is difficult, yes you may be like us and after buying the boat have onlya small ammount left over but we have never felt so relaxed,so happy and so content with life and hungry for more...
Do we miss any of our previous mateial goods.... not once
You do spend your lives trying to make a beautiful home for the family and saving for that one or twice a year holiday. You buy plasma tv's for several rooms, surround sound, nice car and have all the trappings to make you comfortable.
When we made the decision to go everybody got a cardboard box to put in what they wanted to take with them.
All the rest includingthe house and car was sold or given away and it is difficult to see that you have worked for gone in a week or two.
When it has gone, the bills have been paid and as it was in our case you realise you owe no one anything and we were saving a 1000 pounds a month on bills you begin to feel good. What you have is for the first time in your life yours and you now have the freedom to go where you want in the world.
Yes it is difficult, yes you may be like us and after buying the boat have onlya small ammount left over but we have never felt so relaxed,so happy and so content with life and hungry for more...
Do we miss any of our previous mateial goods.... not once
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little_roundtop
New member
Not true. We own a 45ft yacht that's worth less than almost any house or flat, an annual income that's about two-thirds the current UK national average and various investments that come to about the same as the value of our yacht. We have nothing that anybody else couldn't have got.
I retired on a personal pension at 53 (I'm now 60). We sold our flat, car and everything else and bought a boat. That's home now and it's all we own. Our two pensions are all we live on and we cut our cloth to suit our income.
To get here I worked hard, made the most of what few talents I had and put as much money as I could into my personal pension. My parents taught me that you have to save for your future and now I'm reaping the benefit of that excellent advice.
We all have a choice: work hard and spend it all on having fun now, or work hard and save for your future. If I appear rich it's because I've saved for it. Everyone could do that if they chose to, the fact is that many people choose not to.
chinita
Well-known member
Absolutely. You got the ratios and priorities right and there is no reason why you can't continue to do what you are doing for many years to come.
Tintin
Well-known member
My ex trots out regularly to the CSA that I must be rich 'cos I own a yacht, and (bless them) the CSA staff have no idea that a 1970's small yacht on a swinging mooring isn't exactly the height of hedonism.
rickym
Member
Oh yes it is! Been there done that, no house no car, no cash, no wife! Just the yacht on the mooring sipping a sundowner watching the wading birds while the sun goes down. Was I bitter, no way! You cannot put a price on those moments. As boat owners we are very lucky and very rich if cash poor.
timmygobang
Member
One day I asked a boaty friend if she'd come with me to have a look at boats as I fancied the idea of being a liveaboard. We looked at about 5 boats, and I put a deposit down on the 5th pending a survey. Everyone thought I was mad. That was just over a year ago.
I can testify that after a being onboard for my 13th month, the above post from njsail is so true I almost wept a tear
There are no barriers, only the ones we impose on ourselves
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demonboy
Active member
Get real. You are well off compared to 99% of the world's population. Sounds to me like you need to get on your boat and actually do some traveling to remind yourself of this fact
Try living in India. It's a stark reminder of exactly how well off we really are. Don't care if you spent your entire savings on a 20ft wooden piece of **** moored in a the mud-flats of deepest, darkest Essex, you are still far more wealthy than most of the world who struggle to put food on the table. I never use the word 'lucky' because there is no such thing. You make your choices and you end up in situations, that's not luck. 'Fortunate', on the other hand, is a word that regularly crops up on our travels to describe ourselves.
I do understand the OP's argument, however. We made a point of charging even our closest friends to come and visit us. Water, fuel, food, drink, mooring charges... they have to understand that this is not a free lunch and as long as you are explicit and up front with them you should be ok.
Wansworth
Well-known member
Get real. You are well off compared to 99% of the world's population. Sounds to me like you need to get on your boat and actually do some traveling to remind yourself of this fact
Try living in India. It's a stark reminder of exactly how well off we really are. Don't care if you spent your entire savings on a 20ft wooden piece of **** moored in a the mud-flats of deepest, darkest Essex, you are still far more wealthy than most of the world who struggle to put food on the table. I never use the word 'lucky' because there is no such thing. You make your choices and you end up in situations, that's not luck. 'Fortunate', on the other hand, is a word that regularly crops up on our travels to describe ourselves.
I do understand the OP's argument, however. We made a point of charging even our closest friends to come and visit us. Water, fuel, food, drink, mooring charges... they have to understand that this is not a free lunch and as long as you are explicit and up front with them you should be ok.
Thats put it in perspective!
chinita
Well-known member
Get real. You are well off compared to 99% of the world's population. Sounds to me like you need to get on your boat and actually do some traveling to remind yourself of this fact
Erm, Little Roundtop is not comparing themselves to 99% of the world's population. It would be ludicrous so to do.
They are merely comparing their choice of lifestyle to the alternative of UK based landlubbers.
And I, for one, support their perspective.
demonboy
Active member
*Sigh*
To reiterate the point I was trying to make: cutofherjib made the statement 'compared to a lot of people, boat owners are rich', to which Little Roundtop said 'not true' and went on to explain how poor they are. They missed cutofherjib's point, which I was reiterating: we are rich compared to a lot of people. If you believe you are poor, how are you able to type up your comments on the internet using a computer? Most people in this world do not own a computer and comparing yourself merely to landlubbers back in the UK is rather narrow-sighted. We're sailors, for god's sake, and many of the people on this forum are not based in the UK anyway.
Little Roudtop then went on to say:
My argument is that not everyone can choose to do what us liveaboards are doing. Many people save all their lives and still have nothing. In that respect we are very fortunate, whether we are finding it financially difficult or not.
A discussion on hard times is fine; comparing yourself to others is unhealthy, but that's just my humble opinion and you are welcome to it
To reiterate the point I was trying to make: cutofherjib made the statement 'compared to a lot of people, boat owners are rich', to which Little Roundtop said 'not true' and went on to explain how poor they are. They missed cutofherjib's point, which I was reiterating: we are rich compared to a lot of people. If you believe you are poor, how are you able to type up your comments on the internet using a computer? Most people in this world do not own a computer and comparing yourself merely to landlubbers back in the UK is rather narrow-sighted. We're sailors, for god's sake, and many of the people on this forum are not based in the UK anyway.
Little Roudtop then went on to say:
My argument is that not everyone can choose to do what us liveaboards are doing. Many people save all their lives and still have nothing. In that respect we are very fortunate, whether we are finding it financially difficult or not.
A discussion on hard times is fine; comparing yourself to others is unhealthy, but that's just my humble opinion and you are welcome to it
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jonic
Well-known member
Compared to some I am very very poor, compared to others I am very very rich.
But without doubt to have been cruising is one of the most fortunate gifts I can think of.
When are you going sailing again Jamie? Your photography has been great, you seem to be hugely enjoying it.
We wrote a book when we came back, have you seen it.
We're getting itchy feet so there's another trip on the horizon in a few years time.
But without doubt to have been cruising is one of the most fortunate gifts I can think of.
When are you going sailing again Jamie? Your photography has been great, you seem to be hugely enjoying it.
We wrote a book when we came back, have you seen it.
We're getting itchy feet so there's another trip on the horizon in a few years time.
demonboy
Active member
Hey, Jonic! PM sent...
Wansworth
Well-known member
The title of the original op should be "some people think yacht.....are rich.There are quite a few that think boat trvellers are quite mad and and assume its a "phase" and that sometime you will grow out of "it"
r_h
Active member
Compared to some I am very very poor, compared to others I am very very rich.
But without doubt to have been cruising is one of the most fortunate gifts I can think of.
+1
ukmctc
New member
*Sigh*
If you believe you are poor, how are you able to type up your comments on the internet using a computer? Most people in this world do not own a computer
COMPUTORS even in poor third world countries are free, in little shacks paid for by charities.
My argument is that not everyone can choose to do what us liveaboards are doing. Many people save all their lives and still have nothing. In that respect we are very fortunate, whether we are finding it financially difficult or not.
anyone and everyone has the choice, you decide, make the choice.
A discussion on hard times is fine; comparing yourself to others is unhealthy, but that's just my humble opinion and you are welcome to it
ukmctc
New member
Yes, I can see those people, the great unwashed and those who feel they don't want to work and get others to pay, but if you really want something, you will get off your ass and work for it or its not worth having. It matters not where in the world you are, the same applies. When I'm sailing I live off the money I made while working over the winter. Anyone can do it.
I work to live not live to work, and having travelled worldwide, there are people doing the same all over.
demonboy
Active member
ukmctc - you sound like a really well-travelled person with a balanced view on the world. As you say, computers and the internet are available everywhere. Of course they are, how silly of me to presume that the thousands of refugees we spotted stuck outside Port Sudan, for example, can't get off their asses, earn some money, buy themsevels a computer and take part in this discussion. It's funny you should mention this subject because I was only discussing this the other day with one of my displaced Somali friends who's so starving he left his son by the road-side to die because he didn't have the energy to carry him to the next camp. He was telling me how he was saving up to buy a Moody 425 but had an issue with the increased mooring fees in Southampton.
Get real.
Nostrodamus
New member
When posing a question such as this you have to be pretty general to elicit a response and get a broad section of views.
If I asked why do people in Wetwang think boaties are rich I would have got probably nothing back.
If I had asked are we rich compared to a Somalia refugee of course we are.
If we all looked at some abstract painting we would all see something different from a pile of **** to a masterpiece. The same with a question on this forum.
Opening the question up to include the world has made me think how lucky and rich we are and to be honest I did not think about this when posing the qustion
I also agree that when it comes to the UK, with fore though and the will anyone can do it. I chose a profession I could retire early in so I could go sailing and saved hard for a long time. We are doing what we wanted to do. We have the disposable income of a pork chop but that is our choice and we are proud that we have done it ourselves and have never been given a penny.
In a way I agree with most things on here but what it comes down to is making the best of what you do have. If you can do that, wherever you are then you become rich.
If I asked why do people in Wetwang think boaties are rich I would have got probably nothing back.
If I had asked are we rich compared to a Somalia refugee of course we are.
If we all looked at some abstract painting we would all see something different from a pile of **** to a masterpiece. The same with a question on this forum.
Opening the question up to include the world has made me think how lucky and rich we are and to be honest I did not think about this when posing the qustion
I also agree that when it comes to the UK, with fore though and the will anyone can do it. I chose a profession I could retire early in so I could go sailing and saved hard for a long time. We are doing what we wanted to do. We have the disposable income of a pork chop but that is our choice and we are proud that we have done it ourselves and have never been given a penny.
In a way I agree with most things on here but what it comes down to is making the best of what you do have. If you can do that, wherever you are then you become rich.
BobnLesley
Well-known member
Having travelled to some of the world's less favoured areas, I would have to concur with Jamie's post. It's often not appreciated (we're a nation of whingers!) but being born British gives you a two-goal start in the game of life.
However, as far as the western/developed world is concerned: 'if you really want something, you will get off your ass and work for it' I know from experience that this is true.
You can have anything you want in life, but you can't have everything; so choose carefully.
However, as far as the western/developed world is concerned: 'if you really want something, you will get off your ass and work for it' I know from experience that this is true.
You can have anything you want in life, but you can't have everything; so choose carefully.
