How to you mentally allocate your boating expenses?

[avguy]

Although I like the replies, my reason for the rationale was to convince my wife that we do not need to attend every nieces or nephews birthday part on a summer Saturday, nor every neighbor kids high school graduation party on a summer Saturday or (insert some other non-boating thing) on a summer Saturday.

Good luck with that :smt043

 

[MExcelsior]

I'm an owner of a foreign language translation company since 1992! Boating for me is great therapy, a release, keeps me fresh and has helped me form a inseparable bond between myself, wife and kids. A family that boats together stays together. This is truly priceless.

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed
by the things you did not do than by the things you did do.
So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain

 

[Bridog]

Same here, it is what it is. I agree with Frank's statement, "Boating is a life style" :thumbsup:

:smt043:smt043That's the same thing my Marine Max salesman told me.."Hey guys..you aren't just buying a boat...your buying a life style. How true. :smt043:smt043

 

[Southpaw II]

.......or, as I have said before....." No man will ever lay at death's door and say, I wish I had spent moe time at work".

 

[Blueone]

You really need to do the math!

.... If you look at your 401K, the value of your home, the stocks you own, your bonus this year if you get one...the profit in your company.

Your boat's value and cost should work out to be the best investment you made this year

 

[Rock Steady]

Now I’m not telling you how to look at your boats expenses. This is how I am now going to look at ours going forward.

I cannot possibly use the boat in January. The lakes are frozen in January. So $0 expenses are allocated to ‘off season’ time even if we pay boating related bills in January.

Some expenses will occur weather we use the boat or not. Others will only occur if we use the boat.

Using past real expense information and looking at when we can use the boat, factoring in boat depreciation as well as all other expenses I have come up with this:

Our boat costs us $1,000 every weekend we use it and $800 ever weekend we don’t.

So,….I had a talk with the admiral. Going forward when we get a invitation to a relatives kids roller skating birthday party in summer on the weekend I need her to tell me if she would pay $800 to go to this kids roller skating party. If the answer is no we need to say “Thank you for the invitation, we are on Holiday that day” and go boating.

Say it’s a family member’s funeral. In my opinion the answer becomes yes so you go to that and skip boating.


How do you do it? Will you miss one of 12 summer weekend Saturdays on the boat to go to a kids roller skating party as you boat sits……..alone……unused…….as the majority of the expenses related to this very expensive hobby continue?

When I was younger and bought my first boat I brought this problem to my Dad who told me...
Pay cash for needs all summer and pay off the gas card all Winter.Hmmm...Maybe that worked in the 70's.Mike

 

[glocklt4]

I see the argument for not doing the math, and I LOVE boating too. The way I see it, I want to know the actual price tag so that I can make informed decisions when looking at a bigger boat, taking a long trip, ect. It doesn't matter how much it costs as long as you can and are willing to afford it; but you need to know what that cost is before you can make those decisions.

Even though it makes me want to cry....even at my price level boat!

Agree with this. It is good to have some of you guys keeping track of expenses so that those of us looking to upgrade can figure out if we can afford to do it.

 

[J Levine]

Another way to look at it is... Look at all the money you saved by not having it in the stock market.

Yea, and unlike my 401K my boat is still a 37' Sundancer, it didn't turn into a 18' bowrider over the last 18 months.

 

[rcknecht]

Yesterday, my guest on my boat asked me about the costs of boats and boating... I told him buying the boat is the easy part, the real costs are maintenance and gas... But the more you use the boat, the more you see its value... I find that the boat that are used much cost the most... If you only put 10 hours on your boat a year it is time to sell...

 

[billandamy]

I can look at anything I own and say we are paying for something "we dont use".

The tennis court hasnt been used by my wife or myself for over 3 weeks now (but will pay for maint of it and the lights). The swimming pool sits idle for most of the week (but the filter and heater is running) etc...

Heck, no one is home right now for 8 hours. Still paying taxes, maint and mortgage.

Same with the boat. Its there for when we have time and worth every penny we pay to keep it ready to go out the next time.

Stop looking at boating as an expense. It isnt. It is therapy.

 

[highslice]

I can look at anything I own and say we are paying for something "we dont use".

The tennis court hasnt been used by my wife or myself for over 3 weeks now (but will pay for maint of it and the lights). The swimming pool sits idle for most of the week (but the filter and heater is running) etc...

Heck, no one is home right now for 8 hours. Still paying taxes, maint and mortgage.

Same with the boat. Its there for when we have time and worth every penny we pay to keep it ready to go out the next time.

Stop looking at boating as an expense. It isnt. It is therapy.

Good points Bill. We got to our condo/boat 10 weekends and 1 full week this season. We will have one more trip to the lake next weekend to clean out the boat and one last ride before putting it up for the year. If I really thought about cost per use, well I'd need therapy...








Oh yeah, that's what the boat's for:lol:

 

[Smile Maker]

We try to use ours every weekend. Since it is docked at our weekend house - we still go when its cold or raining.
Luckily, we are 38 miles from our house in town, so we can (begrudgeingly) drive to town and back for those darned skate parties.

 

[tobnpr]

Since this has been "revived" from the dead...
I don't bother to even try to figure out what I've spent re-fitting my boat, maintenance costs, or use costs.

It is, what it is.

Boating is not something that can be "justified" by cost. Same argument goes for the cost of an offshore fishing excursion. Maybe $600 in diesel and bait for the day...usually we catch fish, sometimes not...

For me, it's worth whatever it's costing. And yes, I've sacrificed a few weekend getaways over the summer because my older son had a busy football practice schedule. That's just part and parcel of being parents... I'm not going to tell him he can't play football because I've got boat expenses to justify.

 

[Scott W.]

We just figure that the boat expenses are just part of our life. Our three kids have grown up having nothing but fun on the water in our boats. There is no amount of money that will pay for the memories that my kids will take away with them as they grow up and leave. Not to mention the memories my wife and I have of the kids growing up with the boats. Two of them already have grown and gone, but they still come back to go out on the boat.

We have always had an older boat and it seems that something is always breaking on them. Part of the "fun" and the true learning for my boys has been helping me work on the boats. Of course having a small kid to get into those really tight spaces was really great also.

Sometimes things get in the way of boating on the weekend, but it is just what it is. We just take it as it comes. I have no idea what the actual cost of our boating is, but whatever it is the money is well spent. I have no regrets about spending whatever we did on the boats and will continue to do so.

 

[Rxflyer]

Being new to boat ownership, I decided it would benefit my mental health to not think about it. Some say its a luxury item, some say its a necessity, but whatever tack you choose to take, to us it comes down to this: my wife says that it is like a mini-vacation every time we spend time on the boat, even if its just hanging out on the dock and BSing with the 'neighbors'. That in itself makes it worth the expense.

 

[obsessive]

I've broken down the cost of our boat on a per-month basis (payment, insurance, slip, fuel, maintenance, storage, etc. - $600/mo) - and it just made me wonder just what the heck I was doing dumping all of this money away when I could be stashing it away.

---Then my wife brought up a good point---
If I had the money sitting around, odds are that I'd spend it on one of my cars - which is a hobby that only I enjoy. The boat brings our family together (my wife, one year old son, and the in-laws all enjoy boating), and I get to spend some time with my father (who is 65) on the water (he's got a 350 Sundancer). Matter of fact, the name " 'Our' Boat " comes from the fact that everyone (family and friends) all ask "So, when are we going out on our boat?" jokingly - so it stuck.

She said that "This is our vacation" (referring to our boat and to the fact that we don't usually take formal vacations), and then ended the conversation with "It's cheaper than a divorce"