Housing and life post Sailing

[WildFireAus]

Originally Posted by GILow

According to my accountant the clause is "no fixed abode" and yes, our house will be safe from capital gains implications while we are cruising. (Usual disclaimer: I'm not an accountant so do seek professional advice. :^) )


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Have to look into this one as to how it will effect the pension. Currently our boat can be considered the "family home" rather than an asset which means we could get a part pension even if we have a rental property. However if we count the property as the family home and the boat as an asset, based on the value of the cat we wouldn't get any pension with the new regulations that have come into play. That's my understanding at the moment.

[WildFireAus]

[QUOTE=Reefmagnet;2307386]Being an island nation, with great cruising areas, sometimes wild seas and sometimes inhospitable neighbours


Our plan had originally been do something similar with our property but unfortunately due to circumstances can't do that now. Long story! I think I will feel better if we have a house to come back to. So will look to go down that path. Agree with you about selling things off. Trying to be very minimalistic- not too sure what to do with personal and sentimental things. Thanks for you input.
Cheers
Gaye

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Saleen411

I can understand that. Not just housing.....I was shocked at how expensive some of the basics were. I don't know how many folk afford stuff there, esp pensioners.

In Coff's I shopped a fair amount to cook for our hosts.....I thought food was really expensive....Booze too...18 to 22 bucks for a six pack of beer? Crazy!....forces one to buy by the case. My mate asked me to buy duty free booze for him at the airport....he considered 35 bucks for a 750ml bottle of Bombay Sapphire or Bundaberg CHEAP. No wonder he drives 4 plus hours to Brisbane to shop at Costco.

Eating out was also stupid expensive.....even in the small non touristy towns......15 to 22 bucks for simple breakfast, 35 to 50 bucks for a steak.....and worst of all $18 bucks for a bloody margarita in a so so restaurant in SYD!!! I regularly travel to some VERY expensive cities like Tokyo, Singapore and HKG. None of which is anywhere near as expensive for some of the basics as I recently paid in Australia. And this after a decent exchange rate.

In any case, sorry for the drift. I'm just thinking that as a post cruising Australian retiree, living some place more affordable would DEFINITELY be a consideration for me. Unless of course one has millions stashed away after selling the mega expensive house.

You are absolutely right on the issue.

We recently spent a couple of months in the UK on holiday. Now when we holiday we do live it up a bit, we eat out, see the tourist sites, try new things and generally get out there.

So imagine my surprise when we we came home with more money in the bank than we would have had if we'd stayed home. Seriously.

Things are very expensive in Oz.

[TheThunderbird]

Retirement should be considered in a low cost country, relatively to your previous one

[GILow]

Originally Posted by TheThunderbird

Retirement should be considered in a low cost country, relatively to your previous one

Well that means practically anywhere other than Australia.


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[valhalla360]

First, it's absolutely smart to consider what you will do next. I would estimate for every cruiser who finishes life on the boat in their 80's there are a few dozen who eventually move back to land. So, a future on land is the norm, not the exception.


As far as being a landlord...if you are asking, it's probably not for you. By that I mean if you have experience with being a landlord, you know the pitfalls and are better equipped to avoid them or at least weather them (can't avoid them all). If you've never been a landlord and your first try is the nice home you want to return to while doing being a remote landlord, the odds of running into major problems are high. Most successful landlords start with a cheap house nearby where they can manage everything and do a lot of the repairs themselves. Worst case scenario, the cheap house takes a beating and because they are doing everything themselves ongoing costs are kept low. In the end they lose a little but not a huge amount. Later if they expand to a larger scale, they can start farming out marketing, vetting of renters and repairs.


The one possible exception is if you expect real estate prices to skyrocket over the next 5-10yrs and you are dead set on a particular area. Of course if you can predict where prices will skyrocket, you will be rich and all this discussion is moot. (Speculation: My thought is housing prices are being propped up by govt programs pushing cheap loans. Most of the prices already accounted for the low interest rates, so at best, I expect little to no growth for several years as there isn't room to take interest rates lower. More likely is the rates will gradually be pushed back up and that will drag housing prices down, particularly in hot markets.)


Assuming you are willing to move to low to moderately priced areas after your cruising is done, I don't see a lot of advantage to trying to keep a house as you will be able to use the sale proceeds to buy a house when you are done cruising.


I would suggest setting the money from the home sale aside in moderate risk investments. You don't want to go risky and have the investments drop by 50% just before you move back to land but you also don't want to lose to inflation by accepting a very safe 0.5% return.

[WildFireAus]

Thanks for your thoughts valhalla360. We have had a fair amount of experience with renters and fortunately, we have only had 2 dud tenants. One being a family member (lesson learnt never again rent to family) and the other being only a few months go, but really compared to what I have read about tenants, we have been lucky. But I do get your point about parking the money and investing. You are correct we will have $$ when we sell our boat, but we have been led to believe because our catamaran is not a production boat, it will take longer to sell than the norm. Not sure how accurate that is!!! Hence why it may be prudent to have a house to move back into whilst we wait for the cat to sell!

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by WildFireAus

Thanks for your thoughts valhalla360. We have had a fair amount of experience with renters and fortunately, we have only had 2 dud tenants. One being a family member (lesson learnt never again rent to family) and the other being only a few months go, but really compared to what I have read about tenants, we have been lucky. But I do get your point about parking the money and investing. You are correct we will have $$ when we sell our boat, but we have been led to believe because our catamaran is not a production boat, it will take longer to sell than the norm. Not sure how accurate that is!!! Hence why it may be prudent to have a house to move back into whilst we wait for the cat to sell!

If you know the landlord biz, I'll let you decide how you feel about it.

I was assuming the boat money and the house money were separate. If you need the house money to buy the boat, renting the house is a much less attractive option.