A watched pot never boils

I thought about it some more, and plenty of plans take multiple years. Heck, even college is 4-6 years for most people. I guess the problem is that I'm bad with multi years plan, not that everyone else is.

But I suppose the rough part is going to be staying disciplined and focused on something so far away. I've always been honest with people that a big reason I want to do this trip is to prove to myself that I can do it. Not just the sailing part, which not to say is the "easy part", but working in corporate America for six years and socking away money certainly isn't a cake walk by any stretch of the imagination.

I think what will really make this work for me is keeping busy, and focusing on fun stuff that we can do right now, and just keep the money saving aspect as a background process. Every now and then it can resurface, and it should, so that we can re-evaluate our progress. But just like a watched pot never boils, me looking with dismay at my present status isn't going to help, and in fact it's just going to make matters worse.

I've done a good job (I think) focusing on the financial savings aspect of things. I need to let it run its course, and relax about it. Big plans take a long time, and if a part of this is truly me proving to myself that I can do it, then I need to realize that "doing it" means not turning into a stress basket and sabotaging my own plans so early in the game.

the money saving part; part 4

Just a quick note that I wanted to reality check the $812K that would show up from my lower post ($80K in a 401K, growing at 7%, compounded annually for 31 years). According to a quick inflation calculator, it seems that $812K in 2043 (when I can "retire at age 65"), the buying power of that will be worth what is today $303K.

Which isn't chump change, but it's always worth considering inflation, an increased cost of living, and increased costs due to age (health care being paramount).

The disgusting part is that if it grew at 25%, instead of 7%, I'd be looking at $55 million, or a crummy $20 million considering inflation. If anyone can point me to a fund that will perform at 25% for 31 years (on average), I'll be your best friend.

The saving money part; part 3

The gauntlet has been thrown down: Spring 2013.

Barring all forms of market fluctuation, here's what should happen, following the idea of (6 years)(12) = 72 months. It requires $1,300 a month, $1000 to short term savings, $300 over payment on the mortgage.

• (72 months)($1000) = $72,000 in my mutual fund / Roth / short term savings plan.
• Without getting into the specifics of our boat payment, with an overpay of $300, we will have it paid in full by October of 2012.

Those values are contributions of course, not the actual value. It's hard to predict the market (if you know how please drop me an email), but tack on another $10,000 into each account from interest.

So here's the cool part about all of this:

• $72K in savings represents 60 months, or five years (60 months @ $1,200/month), really reducing the "where is the rest of the money for the trip" element of the equation. It would still be prudent to try to earn some form of income during those five years, because any money coming in is a whole hell of a lot better than nothing.
• The nearly $100K placed into my 401K represents a significant portion of my retirement, especially considering that at 34, that leaves 31 years of interest. At 7%, that equates to $813,000 at 65. As a ballpark idea, withdrawing $48,000 a year (for which I would owe taxes on it.. which will be higher, so I'd really see $557 per week cash-in-hand), will last for nearly 20 years. From 65-85. That's not exactly a king's retirement, but it also only represents six years investment.

I guess the key points here are that it really helps to put the benefits of leaving later into proper perspective. Or, you could look at it and say that the costs of leaving early have seriously negative repercussions.

the money saving part; part 2

My bubble just burst. I initially got very happy, because I thought that all I would have to do is save a grand a month, and that in three years (excluding any positives or negatives from the market), I'd have enough socked up for three years cruising.

Fat chance.

I don't know why I never noticed this before, but loans are frigin terrible. I never realized that our loan payments (even if we overpay significantly) would carry on so long. How I missed the whole "15 year" aspect to our loan I don't know. However, if we overpay by $300 a month, then we can make it by 2013, which is ... holy crap... six years out. That's a long time to plan for. I'll be 34.

It's hard for me to take seriously any plans over five years. Even then, it seems more like a strategic vision and less like a plan. The farther forward you're trying to see into the future, the more variables appear, and variables stack on top of other variables and continue to multiply, etc.

In addition the self doubting aspect and not wanting to be another person with another pipe dream, there's some hard realities. Can I hold my same job for six years? Even the people that have worked their the longest have pulled off roughly eight years.

But you know what? Fuck it. The very nature of life is that it's dynamic and you never know what's going to happen tomorrow morning. Hell, you don't even know if you'll wake up tomorrow at all, or even live to get to bed tonight. And that's how it's going to be every day for the rest of your life. So what then? Don't make any plans at all, since it will be so hard to keep them?

What kind of people with interesting lives, or that added anything beneficial to our society had an apathetic attitude like that? None. I suppose it comes down to the reality that if you try there's a small chance you'll succeed, and if you don't try, there's no chance at all. Just like the rest of life, our options are between "worse" and "more worse".

So then that's the plan, and it's six years out. Spring, 2013.

the saving money part part 1

There are some people that seem to have infinite amounts of money for sailing. Take the crew of Bumfuzzle. I added up their costs, and they're running somewhere in the $35K range per year. So for a four year trip, you're talking around $140K, and that's without the cost of the boat! So figure in $200K for a new boat, and you're running at nearly $340K. That's a whole hell of a lot of money.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have the people who build plywood boats, eating only fish and drinking seagull blood. They never had money when they started, and wont have any during or after the trip.

I'm somewhere in the middle. Basically, here's how I'm looking at the finances:

- $1,200 per month of cruising, on average. We've seen estimates all over the place, but we think this number works for us. We spend $400 a month right now for groceries, so an additional $800 for sailing around for a month seems very tight, but reasonable.

- That means that, for a three year start, we need to save $43,200. The idea here is that within three years, we need to make more money, some how, and some way. I've got my eye on Australia and New Zealand as far as English speaking countries with sufficient development that I might be able to get a decent job.

- So the simple reality on "when are we leaving" is based on $43,200 / [average monthly savings amount]. So if I saved $1000 per month, it would take roughly three and a half years. If I doubled that savings, it would take a little over a year and a half. At $500 a month in savings, it would take around seven years. Now, here's some loops to throw at you. Considering that I have a 401K contribution going every month, that two years that I could leave earlier would result in having $28K less in my retirement fund. That isn't a good enough reason to not save money of course, but it does prove that I should analyze my long term retirement needs to see the impact of this sailing trip. That $28K, in thirty years, would be worth $213,143.14. Well, sort of. Of course a quarter of a million dollars today is much more powerful than a quarter of a million in thirty years. Regardless though, these are some of the number crunching I do when I get to thinking about this stuff.

To install a water heater or not, that is the question

The Rebel Heart already has a water heater, that being an engine driven system that works well enough. But that doesn't seem that practical to me because running your engine all the time is ineffecient and will hurt your engine over the long run. Not only that, but it just seems kind of... lame, for lack of a better word.

The only type of hot water heater I've been interested in as of late is the Dickinson Marine Double Water Coil:

http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|6880|48311|324055&id=656194

Which will apparently hold 20 gallons of water and keep it nice and warm, or as warm as the heater can get it. In order to install this, I'm looking at roughly $700 for a heater + $70 for the coils + $100 for a tank and some cables.

In addition to having some hot water, I also get the benefit of having some of that heat piped into the hanging locker, for example, making it a bit easier to dry out clothes. Maybe even put a small radiator in the V, but I don't want to chop up the interior needlessly if it isn't going to make a big difference.

The problems with this plan:

• It costs $1000. The worse part about this is that I already have a heater, so I'd be rebuying something needlessly.
• Freshwater is a delicate resource, and I don't want to install something that lets you shower from the fresh water tanks.
• It involves a lot of work that could go elsewhere.
• For showering, it doesn't solve the problem of pressurizing (delivering) the water, which then gets into accumulator tanks, pump, and more power.

I think I'm going to try the Linn & Larry method of using a garden sprayer. For under $80, I've got something that I can try out, and I wont feel like a total idiot if it doesn't pan out so well.

One thing I've learned about showering on a boat is that you shouldn't try to mimic your home based showering facility on a boat. It's an excercise in futility for starters, and you really don't need it. Well, if you're doing a land job and living on the boat that might be a different story, but I'll talk about that in another article.

Sun Harbor Marina Swap Meet

It's 11:41pm, and I woke up at 5:30am to get over to the Sun Harbor swap meet. It wasn't the most amazing one in the world, which is actually coming up in two weeks. Part of the reason I wasn't too eager to pick anything up is because the Chula Vista swap meet is one of the better ones in Southern California, and I'm sure there will be some better deals down there.

But regardless, here's what I got:

• 20lb propane tank with overflow thingy for $20 (list price is around $200).
• Generic marine stabalized binoculars with case for $20 (list is around $80).
• Cockpit line and utility bags that mount on the lifelines for $10 (buying the same stuff from West Marine would have cost me $100) I'm sure.

Although not at the swap meet, I did swing by West Marine to pick up some sun glasses, and I grabbed some neat stuff on sale there too:

• $60 woman's fleece vest for $16.
• $110 GPS for $50.

All in all I saved around $400 - $500 dollars today, simply by waiting to get what I need and picking it up on sale. A gentleman on a boat near ours reminded me that not only do you have to go to the swap meets, but you need to go often and early.