Boat and house ownership - a wealthy person's game?

[Arthur Marshall]

9 minutes ago, Machpoint005 said:

 

Is poverty a state of mind too?

 

A philosopher might say yes, but I suspect he (they are usually a he) has never slept rough and not eaten for two days.

[mark99]

Context is all. When discussing owning both a boat and a house, poverty is not really the edge of discussion here.

[Dav and Pen]

Just come across this post as been busy going to Coventry everyday for madams radiotherapy treatment.

Looking at prices asked for old boats at the moment it would be very difficult to start out as we did. I had home made canoes since the age of 11 and explored  the Nene with a couple of other adventurous school friends. After leaving the MN we hired on the Norfolk broads and this wetted our appetite to own a boat. We found a 19ft Dolphin at Aylesbury for £250 and when we went to collect it the compound it was in was part of a bankrupt enterprise. Our friend with the trailer jacked up the gate and away we went. At this time we were renting . Moved into our first house in 1968 with mortgage of 12.50 a week which was then my weeks earnings. After a couple of years brought a 20 ft senior fiberglass shell and fitted it out in a friends barn and launched it at Cayton in 1971 in time for the rally at Northampton. In 1974 together with 2 friends we brought Tadworth from BWB for 1500 and decided it must earn its keep so carried coal and in the summer camping boating. I don’t think we ever put any more money into it but used the modest profits to improve it. I also with another friend in 1981 brought Crane from Willow wren and this went camping as well. Our business was precast concrete and in the later 1980s we were very busy so sold the working boats and had the shell of half a Joey boat finished by WFBC which we used until 2001 when we sold it and brought a barge in Belgium.for the same price as the sale of the 50 ft NB. This barge was however 80 years old and somewhat neglected.

We had been fortunate in getting a large contract at the Canary wharf development which doubled our size but it came with some risk. This job worked out well and until the mid 90s we had kept the companies turnover at a good level but the slump in construction hit us very hard so we decided to shut down. 
Over the past 18 years we have spent half a year on the continent and the winters in our modest house but are now without a boat due to ill health and miss it dreadfully. I think we had the best of both worlds by keeping a house and not turning a hobby  (passion) into a business.

Sorry to ramble on.

[BlossomCressida]

On 10/02/2021 at 01:25, mrsmelly said:

Everyone is different. for many years we owned a house in Cornwall we used for holidays and days away and lived on our narrowboat. We used the house less and less and eventualy in 2007 sold it and its never been missed. Now my health is in decline I am looking at probably moving back into a house but its not by choice merely by necessity. Living aboard is so much nicer than in any house. However thats not everyones opinion and firstly you need a missus like mine who prefers boats to houses or be single. We may buy another house but times change and we are thinking now of renting thus leaving plenty of money to spend on enjoyment rather than stuck in one property when the boat is gone. Its so much harder for youngsters now though so it will be your decision. If we mention leaving any get all games guide at  forest item ids  to any of our kids they give us a bloocking and tell us to spend it so we do have their permission  If your the kind of person that thinks life is all about posessions and buying property then forget the freedom of the boat and keep your nose to the grindstone and talk like many of what you are going to do when you retire and hope you actualy get there.

Yes, it's highly likely; otherwise, some of us wouldn't have cars, boats, houses, or much else. House prices, exorbitant mooring and licence fees, the boat safety plan, and insurance costs make it harder than it has ever been, but if you never, ever pay money for anything that you can do yourself and spend time locating every last nut and bolt, you can accomplish a great deal. Believe it or not, when I first moved onto a boat, I used to find enormous lumps of poor quality rocky coal sitting at the bottom of railway embankments, too massive to move. Skips frequently have nice lumber, and auto spares abound in breakers yards.

[Arthur Marshall]

Being wealthy is different from being cash-rich, as it relates more to stuff that ties your money up, like boats and houses, rather than having a whacking great income.

I'm lucky in that I bought a house when they were cheap and you could buy one even on a low ranking civil servant's salary, and I bought the boat with a bit of inherited money. So I reckon I'm quite wealthy, though my actual annual income has rarely been over £12k pa.

As an OAP, I'm financially better off than I've ever been. It's unlikely that the current generation will be able to follow the same pattern, they'll probably need the whacking great income if they want both, and the damn system will be overrun by bankers.