I am being told that Liveaboard Boats loans are now impossible

[heylaerz]

Hello!
I'd like to add to this thread as we ended up finding a solution and we're in a similar situation to the original poster (good credit but own no property and have no history of property-sized loans/mortgages). A friend and I are starting a sailing trip for a year and we applied for a loan with both Essex and Intercoastal but were denied by both primarily because we didn't "have an equivalent loan history" (although I'm sure the fact that we didn't own any property was also a factor)

One rep recommended a somewhat new division of SunTrust called LightStream which seems to be aimed at those with good credit but without a mortgage history and we figured we'd give them a try. As it turns out, we each got approved for 50K at almost 4%!!! The main difference between other options is that they only do short-term loans with a 5 year max so your payments can be fairly high. The loan is unbacked by your assets so they didn't need any details about the boat we're looking to purchase (merely the fact that it is, indeed, a boat). Finally, the best part (besides that fact that we got approved with such a low rate) is that there are no penalties for prepayment so you can get out whenever you want. I believe that they only do a max of 100K so you may not be able to purchase that yacht you had your eye on but many sailboats are certainly within reach.

[Hudson Force]

Just out of curiousity I searched for "First Commercial Boat Loans Fort Lauderdale". This was my route for financing a portion of my current liveaboard boat's purchase back in 1985. They still seem to be a viable option. Certainly there's a huge nimber of boats financed in Fort Lauderdale.

[hellosailor]

In Sunday's WSJ (which is not in the WSJ but a section printed in the Tribune newspapers and others) there was a recap of the article I'd seen. "IRS Allows Big Earners to pump up ROTH IRAs" by Liz Moyes.

No, it wasn't my imagination. They are saying that if you make normal after-tax contributions to a 401K, they can later be shifted into an individual ROTH IRA, tax free. "The potential tax savings are huge, depending on the investor's tax rate in retirement." Whether the 401k contributions were pre-tax or post-tax (both exist) and a number of other personal criteria will affect the possibilities, but as I said, a recent IRS tax ruling has the professionals excited about a potential way to save. Partly based on your income, partly based on distribution rules (better for ROTHs), and partly based on whether you have a tax advisor who keeps up with the news.

Not my opinion, I just tend to believe the financial pros who sometimes write in the WSJ.

[SV THIRD DAY]

Earth to Cruisers Forum....earth to Cruisers forum....

Have I landed on Dave Ramsey's Financial Advice site?

But honestly...anyone putting new money today in a Tax Free Account is CRAZY...because the rules will change my friends when the music stops and the debts are called, the promises now of tax free withdrawl will look small compared to "If you like your Health Insurance, you can keep your Health Insurance" Lie.

[hellosailor]

The rules may change. The courts may even allow the changes, although I'd bet that would be tied up for five years as it worked its way up. Still allowing a number of depositors to transfer their money out or withdraw it, before the taxes went into effect.

Of course, any Congresscritter who voted for a retrograde tax imposed on his richest contributors might be called suicidal. You don't tax the folks you want funding your next campaign run.

[SV THIRD DAY]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Of course, any Congresscritter who voted for a retrograde tax imposed on his richest contributors might be called suicidal. You don't tax the folks you want funding your next campaign run.

Absolutely 100% incorrect....
First we have History right here in the US of A. Bill Clinton Campaigned and WON election selling a retroactive income Tax increase on the wealthy. Won election, passed it, IRS and courts held it legal. The State of California has done the same thing. What has happened before, can happen again and in worse fashion.

Now let look at the real world that we live in of: Class Envy, You didn't Build that, Business Don't create Jobs and the evil 1%-ers. So you really think that when the class envy hustlers start telling the masses that if only we soaked the evil 1%-ers and rich (translated to anyone with more money than you by the class envy sirens) their lives could be made better, their schools made better, more fire, more police, more free **** that they would NOT vote for the politician that promises them free stuff? Not a chance. The "evil rich" are too small of a voting block to stop it and they are the easy scape goat when the politicians need to blame someone for why the masses are poor, have crappy jobs, and can't buy the latest IPhone with their government check.

When one's head is in the sand...another body part is in the air.

The world and USA are heading down a road that History has shown to be bad....real bad...but people today think we are smarter than the lessons History is trying to teach us.

[hellosailor]

Slick Willy promised many things to many people, or maybe you don't remember getting comprehensive national health care for all right after he was elected? Between his promises versus the other guy's, and what Willy did or didn't do versus what CONGRESS actually did...The only thing we really know about him was that he'd have never gotten the nomination, if he hadn't figured out how to bypass all the campaign contribution limits. The democratic national party owed him BIG TIME for that.

[The Smokester]

Originally Posted by Hudson Force

I understand your frustration, but once you introduce a valid topic, like this one, you can not expect to be in command of the entire conversation. There will always be a certain amount of drift and secondary topics will arise as they would in any social discussion. I would suggest that you scroll past those posts that are less interesting to you just as you might not be attentive to everyone at the dinner table.

I'm with Tacoma on this. Its true that a lot of extra information tangential to his specific question was given and that is to be expected, and even welcomed, on an internet forum. It's just amusing when some whose advice is illegal, immoral, ignorant, wrong and/or irrelevant get all butt hurt when they get called out and their advice is not taken.