Let Other People Pay for Your Retirement

[Kenomac]

Who said you had to go all in? We've been cruising five months on and seven months off for six years now, while saving up another five years for full retirement. We began at age 52.

The answer: Investment properties. Rental income either commercial or residential, this is the ticket to freedom.

Let other people pay for your retirement!.

Why wait until all your financial ducks are lined up? There's no reason you can't get started cruising sooner than later.

Three months on, then nine months working... Geez, teachers do it why can't you? Four months on, then work eight months is certainly better than waiting around for years... only to watch your cruising retirement plans turn to feces.

I've been meaning to post this for quite some time, I hope it gives some wanabes an idea. Please share some of your ideas on this thread regarding what works for you.

[hellosailor]

The teachers I knew never rented out their homes while on summer break or sabbatical. So they didn't need to do background checks on tenants, repair damages, hire property managers, or all the rest.


That's a business, and like any new business, if you have no experience at it, there are substantial risks.

[CroMacster]

I think the biggest thing, which holds true whether cruising or not, is start saving and investing young. Even if not starting off young, adjusting ones lifestyle where it allows them to save significantly more. A baseline for anyone looking to live a non traditional lifestyle should be saving 50% of income while working. More than that even better.

I'm not going the rental property route. I am saving and investing a significant portion of my income which will allow me to live the life I want to live.

[a64pilot]

I had some rental property at one time, a 3,000 sq ft Commercial building that did me very well and my house while I was away serving in the Army, all it took was one really bad tenant to destroy my house to wipe out any profits.
As with anything if done properly I'm sure it will work, if not, maybe not. I didn't do it right, obviously.

[unclemack]

Cheap, near-derelict properties filled to overflowing with asylum seekers and other housing benefit claimants offer the best returns.

Garages and garden sheds can also provide worthwhile rental income if you're smart enough to recognise the potential for human habitation.

We should all jump on this bandwagon.

Why shouldn't we impoverish the next generation so we can enjoy our retirement?

[Kenomac]

My primary point in starting this thread is to give some folks ideas on how to begin cruising sooner than later.

What's wrong with starting out small, buying an affordable boat and spending three to six weeks per year on it? Then extend the time on board little by little.

My point is... it doesn't have to be a 100% total year round commitment, like sell the house and all your personal belongings 'cause..... we're go in' cruising.
Rental income is just a suggestion, I'm looking for other ways a wannabe might be able to go sooner.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by unclemack

Cheap, near-derelict properties filled to overflowing with asylum seekers and other housing benefit claimants offer the best returns.

Garages and garden sheds can also provide worthwhile rental income if you're smart enough to recognise the potential for human habitation.

We should all jump on this bandwagon.

Why shouldn't we impoverish the next generation so we can enjoy our retirement?

I have no idea what your talking about or what it has to do with investing, sailing, living aboard or anything.... for that matter.

Sorry, I guess I don't "feel the burn," just the warm sun on my face.

[CroMacster]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

I'm looking for other ways a wannabe might be able to go sooner.

I don't think there are really any tricks to allow one to go sooner. Some ways I can think of have been extensively discussed elsewhere on the forums.

• Own your own business that you can work remotely (includes real estate)
• Work in a position that allows you to work remotely
• Work in a position that allows you to take extended periods of time off.
• Inherit a lot of money

I feel for the average person it comes down to living cheaply and avoiding lifestyle creep, earning as much as you can, and investing.

[MarkJ]

Invest, invest, invest.

When someone wants to buy a $40 bottle of wine at a restaurant I just say no, I can't afford that. I'll do the $20 bottle of wine. That savings is 10 beers in the Caribbean!

So investment is not only quality real estate (well bought), quality shares (well bought) etc but living life with your eye on your long term goal.

Yes! Beer is only $2 here in a nice water side bar at Happy Hour (some only $1) is that incentive enough?


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[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Invest, invest, invest.

When someone wants to buy a $40 bottle of wine at a restaurant I just say no, I can't afford that. I'll do the $20 bottle of wine. That savings is 10 beers in the Caribbean!

So investment is not only quality real estate (well bought), quality shares (well bought) etc but living life with your eye on your long term goal.

Yes! Beer is only $2 here in a nice water side bar at Happy Hour (some only $1) is that incentive enough?


Sent from a stupid phone that replaces words with weird stuff.

Beer is usually around 2€ here in Sardinia, and 52 cents buys a cool descent beer at the local supermarket. Believe it or not....

Back in the People's Republic of Taxachusetts, a cold one costs around $6-$8 at a restaurant or bar and $1-$1.50 per beer at the store for anything worth drinking. So, basically we do the same as you Mark, we never buy one when dining out, and we rarely eat out back in the states.

Italy is a real treat, and so is Spain.

[bobnlesley]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

.

What's wrong with starting out small, buying an affordable boat and spending three to six weeks per year on it? Then extend the time on board little by little.

My point is... it doesn't have to be a 100% total year round commitment, like sell the house and all your personal belongings 'cause..... we're go in' cruising.
Rental income is just a suggestion, I'm looking for other ways a wannabe might be able to go sooner.

We set sail in 2003 aged 44/42 with the intention of just cruising for 'two or three years, or until we run out of money'; in anticipation of our returning, we retained a small house and rented it out.

By the end of that first summer we'd discovered that sail-cruising on a small boat is a whole lot less expensive than we'd anticipated. In addition, having unexpectedly (cruising plans/wet sand - we've all been there) finished the season still in UK waters, rather than sit around in the marina boozing, I filled in my time by going back to work on a a freelance basis. That was when the reality of the work/earn/tax/spend cycle really hit home: Sure I no longer got the perks of a salaried-staff position, like paid holidays/sick-days, private health and pension plans nor a pretty car or expense account. However, my gross 'cash' earnings for those 5 months was about 2/3 of what what my salary had been and with a Limited Company set-up to process said earnings, the nett income that generated was about 80% of my previous annual nett-salary.

For the next eight years we sailed around Europe for seven months and each winter, laid-up the boat, flew back to the UK and worked 4-5 months, just renting a furnished apartment or house wherever I picked-up a Contract. We got the chance to live in/see areas of the country I'd never have considered moving to on a permanent basis and actually showed a 'profit' on our lifestyle choice. Our only regret was not having discovered these realities ten years earlier.

Since crossing the Atlantic I've claimed that it's 'too far/expensive' to return to the UK for work, but to be honest, it was more a case of realising that we were now ten years nearer to the pensions kicking-in and as a result, I simply couldn't be arsed. If you're British and have a saleable skill, it'd work just as well now as then, irrespective of which side of the pond you choose to sail; the Caribbean might cost you £1000 more in air flights each year, but boat storage cost are similar and you'd at least be working during a British summer rather than the depths of winter.

[Kenomac]

I guess we're not alone living this scheme.

Our full time retirement could begin tomorrow if Mrs. Mac would allow me to subdivide our Taxachusetts residence into two units and basically rent out our living room, piano room and spare bedroom commercially to a law firm.

But alas... she steadfastly refuses.

[markpierce]

My dividend income is about to exceed my 30-year-federal retirement income. Would have been better off for me working for the local county whose extra-generous retirement benefits are bankrupting us.

[skipmac]

I know several people that have accumulated rental property as an investment/retirement plan. One person, last I checked, had 25 houses, most paid for but many were financed with the rents paying the mortgage and often positive cash flow as well.

My son-in-law has been buying and renting property for years and has also done well.

However, the plan is not without risks. I know of several cases where tenants have trashed houses, a couple that almost totaled the houses. One was a rental house across the street that the tenants turned into a pot growing house. The owner later told me that they set up a hydroponic system upstairs and the leaks and humidity pretty much rotted the entire second story.

I know of a couple of cases where tenants just stopped paying rent and it took months and months before they could be evicted. The landlords never got a dime of the unpayed rent.

Bottom line, being able to closely monitor the tenants and the properties adds a lot of security. Otherwise you need a really good property manager to do it for you.

[MarkJ]

Very few wealthy tenants trash upmarket houses.
So instead of 2 cheap places it could be worthwhile to sell both and buy one nice one before cruising.



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