- Oct 3, 2006
- 4,404
- Boat Info
- 280 Sundancer, Westerbeke MPV generator
- Engines
- twin 5.0's w/BIII drives
My philosophy of loans;
Your primary residence? Sure. A history of long term appreciation, tax deductible interest and you need to live somewhere.
Student loans? I can see investing in you. Taking loans to allow a better future for yourself makes sense.
Non-cosmetic surgery? Of course. Need that to live.
If you are not a business owner I am done. No other reason makes sense to me.
At 40 we have everything paid off. The various tax-incentive retirement programs have been maxed out for more then a decade and a half. My wife and I paid our own way thru college yet all three of our kids have a college savings plan in place financed by us. Then with the money left over we go on vacations, buy boats and have fun. I never considered taking out a loan for our boat.
Not long ago a friend lost his job. His wife confided in my wife that they had less then $300 in savings. She was trembling and in tears. As it turned out he found another job and his first paycheck was exactly 2 weeks after is last severance check. He never missed a beat. He then thru a party to celebrate his new job. At the party he said “Hey Doug – come look at my new toy.†We went to the garage and he showed me the mother of walk behind snow blowers. The thing was big. It had tracks in place of wheels, headlight, a front, top and 2 side enclosure for the operator. So I asked him how he was able to afford it. He said he could not turn it down since he does not have to even start making payments for a year. Payments??!? On a snow blower? What the……???
I have a brother that has made his retirement plan clear. He plans to smoke (a bad habit that I will never do) 4 to 5 packs a day until he dies. He actually plans to die rather then save for retirement.
My brother-in-law once bragged to me about how big his cable bill is each month. This is another thing I don’t understand. We get 13, that’s thirteen boadcast channels, in perfect clarity due to them being digital, and we get them for free. His cable bill is well over $100 month. His daughter just graduated high school. She wanted to go to college. With mortgage payments on their home, cars, credit card payment all taking every bit of income they have, none going to retirement, he has pushed her into the military. Now I have nothing against the military. I hold our military members in high regard. My issue is she had no interest in this. He pushed her into joining. I honesty fear she will get killed and the reason will be so her dad could drive a new big SUV, have a deluxe cable TV package and otherwise poor money management habits.
This brings me to wonder about people that take out boat loans. If they are maxing out retirement plants, college savings for the kids if they have them and their over-all financial situation is in good order I guess its not a big deal. However I have read on this very board that a member is waiting to hear back ‘if’ his loan will go thru. If there is any question that the loan may not get approved then there can be no chance the person’s financial household is in order. That being the case what is the person going to do when they are 67 years old and Social Security and Medicare is cut back to a fraction of its current level and has little or no savings?
We enjoy our 280 Sundancer. I thought it was a big boat until a member recently told me its just a little 280. However we can afford this boat. This means that we can afford this boat AND keep our families financial house in order. From a pure financial perspective, if we were to rob our savings, mortgage the house, etcetera we would have enough money to buy the biggest boat that Sea Ray offers. we could make the payment. But……….we could not do this with out damaging our families financials.
An alternative exists. We purchased a smaller, older boat we can afford.
So….why do people take out a loan on a boat?
Your primary residence? Sure. A history of long term appreciation, tax deductible interest and you need to live somewhere.
Student loans? I can see investing in you. Taking loans to allow a better future for yourself makes sense.
Non-cosmetic surgery? Of course. Need that to live.
If you are not a business owner I am done. No other reason makes sense to me.
At 40 we have everything paid off. The various tax-incentive retirement programs have been maxed out for more then a decade and a half. My wife and I paid our own way thru college yet all three of our kids have a college savings plan in place financed by us. Then with the money left over we go on vacations, buy boats and have fun. I never considered taking out a loan for our boat.
Not long ago a friend lost his job. His wife confided in my wife that they had less then $300 in savings. She was trembling and in tears. As it turned out he found another job and his first paycheck was exactly 2 weeks after is last severance check. He never missed a beat. He then thru a party to celebrate his new job. At the party he said “Hey Doug – come look at my new toy.†We went to the garage and he showed me the mother of walk behind snow blowers. The thing was big. It had tracks in place of wheels, headlight, a front, top and 2 side enclosure for the operator. So I asked him how he was able to afford it. He said he could not turn it down since he does not have to even start making payments for a year. Payments??!? On a snow blower? What the……???
I have a brother that has made his retirement plan clear. He plans to smoke (a bad habit that I will never do) 4 to 5 packs a day until he dies. He actually plans to die rather then save for retirement.
My brother-in-law once bragged to me about how big his cable bill is each month. This is another thing I don’t understand. We get 13, that’s thirteen boadcast channels, in perfect clarity due to them being digital, and we get them for free. His cable bill is well over $100 month. His daughter just graduated high school. She wanted to go to college. With mortgage payments on their home, cars, credit card payment all taking every bit of income they have, none going to retirement, he has pushed her into the military. Now I have nothing against the military. I hold our military members in high regard. My issue is she had no interest in this. He pushed her into joining. I honesty fear she will get killed and the reason will be so her dad could drive a new big SUV, have a deluxe cable TV package and otherwise poor money management habits.
This brings me to wonder about people that take out boat loans. If they are maxing out retirement plants, college savings for the kids if they have them and their over-all financial situation is in good order I guess its not a big deal. However I have read on this very board that a member is waiting to hear back ‘if’ his loan will go thru. If there is any question that the loan may not get approved then there can be no chance the person’s financial household is in order. That being the case what is the person going to do when they are 67 years old and Social Security and Medicare is cut back to a fraction of its current level and has little or no savings?
We enjoy our 280 Sundancer. I thought it was a big boat until a member recently told me its just a little 280. However we can afford this boat. This means that we can afford this boat AND keep our families financial house in order. From a pure financial perspective, if we were to rob our savings, mortgage the house, etcetera we would have enough money to buy the biggest boat that Sea Ray offers. we could make the payment. But……….we could not do this with out damaging our families financials.
An alternative exists. We purchased a smaller, older boat we can afford.
So….why do people take out a loan on a boat?
