Retirement - is just round the corner - what would you do?

[Keeping Up]

If you don't let your house out, then you - or someone you trust - will need to visit it about once a month and stay overnight otherwise your insurance (both buildings and contents) will become invalid

[abfab]

Hello and thanks to all who took the time to share their thoughts.....

 

The feedback has been helpful and we have decided some things but we are still open minded about others. We are continuing to research the options available. We have bought each other a few "canal" books for christmas which have highlighted issues we had not considered. But the general consensus is still a positive one.

 

To answer a few questions.

 

We have had narrow boat holidays in the past and enjoyed the experience. This has been a driver to look at going afloat for a change of lifestyle. We are both in good health and quite active. Our respective pensions will allow us some comfort for the foreseeable future.

 

We will downsize the house at some point in the future to something like a comfortable flat. NB ownership is not conditional to selling the home. We had not considered renting out our home so this is another avenue of additional revenue to think about.

 

We are both life-long-bikers and so we do tend to do off the wall things. For instance motorcycle touring in India and Turkey last year. We have between us 5 bikes in the garage to play with. With engines ranging in size from 1300cc down to a 250cc. We are looking at a couple of “Mad Ass” bikes as a boat transportable biker option.

 

 

 

Bad choice of words by me.... for investment read " a mixture of retirement lumps, other investments and savings." So we can manage this without the pot becoming empty despite the best efforts of the bank and Fred The Shred.

 

Another couple of questions

 

What do live-aboard people do with regards to snail mail correspondence and healthcare when away from home?

 

Happy New Year to all.

Walk -in centres are becoming available in more areas with GPs insitue. We are in the process of having a nb built, are selling up totally . A big step but we are looking forward to our new life..xx

[bag 'o' bones]

My Dad bought a sailaway and has been fitting it out for last couple of years. Its certainly keeping him out of trouble........

[Lady Muck]

Re the post - we barely get any. No electricity or gas bills for a start. Mobile phone statement, bank statements and card statement: we 'turned off' our paper statements, for these we now log onto the relevant website and print them off. The rest of our post (maybe two letters a month if that?), goes to a relative and is collected about once a month.

It was one thing that concerned me and I thought I would miss it and that it would cause problems, but so much correspondance is by email now, having no post box hasn't mattered at all.

[Big COL]

Jan 2009 The general plan was to retire, cruise for the summer and winter in Spain playing golf.

 

The beginning of the year of great expectations, the year that would bring early retirement, exodus from our business/home and on to our boat that I had spent two and a half years co-fitting to include every conceivable accessory available to make the boat a dream to live on.

Well three weeks into our first cruise down the Oxford to visit good friends Bones and Maffi my good lady drops the bombshell that she cannot do this (continuous cruising) where the boat dictates her life, whereby she is not able to visit friends for coffee, nip off for a game of golf, visit family (not helped by my son presenting us with our first grandchild a week before we set off). Well bombshell is mild, seeing half your retirement dream destroyed, especially when I had been in my element handling the boat every day, needs something special to keep you sane.

 

Our short term resolution was to find a residential marina to lie over and sort out just where we went from here (Divorce being an option) the compromise was to cruise for five weeks early season lie over at Billing for the summer and cruise five or six weeks end of season, moor the boat for the winter at Billing and bugger off to Spain for the winter.

Easy - well not quite. I now find I just cannot live on a static boat and it's driving me crazy, I need to be working the boat to achieve the full enjoyment from it, just sitting becalmed drove me crazy.

 

There is nearly a happy ending, situation at the moment is the boat has gone, we now live in a lakeside lodge with a huge deck over the water, I have a new boat (yoghurt pot) which I am told is a very nice boat (still sulking at loss of proper boat) the up side is I am now the manager of Billing Marina, working with boats is a real consolation.

 

Everything back on course until last night an e-mail from Spain the Co building our bolt hole has filed to go into receivership, this is Polaris World fronted in England by Jack Nicklaus and backed by one of the largest banks in Spain.

 

I will be pleased to see the end of 2009. 2010 bring it on nothing can faze me now.

[Mick and Maggie]

'turned off' our paper statements, for these we now log onto the relevant website and print them off.

 

Thanks for that useful tip... M'lady <tugs forelock>

 

Everything back on course until last night an e-mail from Spain the Co building our bolt hole has filed to go into receivership, this is Polaris World fronted in England by Jack Nicklaus and backed by one of the largest banks in Spain. I will be pleased to see the end of 2009. 2010 bring it on nothing can faze me now.

 

 

Col, I was sorry to read your last posting as it would seem that life has been less than kind recently. I could offer all the usual platitudes but I think you're as robust in these matters as me. Fred the Shred and his bank did us over for about 6 grand in our nest egg in a little over 8 months, before we were able to do a grab and run of our own money.

 

Anyway back to the canal....

 

I am working my way through a pile of canal magazines and narrowboat books gleaning as much information as possible before we make a punt (no pun intended) for a NB of our own. We have been doing the rounds of a few marina, including Blue Water - Sawley - Aspley - Sheffield basin and a few others. We have also been looking on-line at various boats and their configuration. I am amazed at the poor level of photography from people wanting to sell their narrowboat. As soon as the weather picks up a bit, we will be going to Nottingham marina for a look around. We think it's time to start looking around inside a few now.

 

happy new year everyone.

[kiki]

Well i am 36 and wife is 31, we have rented our 4 bedroom 2 year old house out, selling my business and wife packing in work around end of june so we can go off in out 70k 58ft narrowboat, we had it nearly 2 months and love it, roll on the better months, all i can say is you could be dead tommorrow, you wont look back i am telling you...or you could leave your money in the bank for mr taxman to tax you again on it when you die and pass it on to your children,,,

 

 

Im I right in guessing that with your happy go lucky attitude you do not have any of these - otherwise would b a bit harder. Goodluck with your decision, you are so correct.

[FadeToScarlet]

I personally would buy http://www.workingboats.org.uk/forsale/arcturusSirius.aspx and carry cargo for fun.

[alan_fincher]

I personally would buy http://www.workingboats.org.uk/forsale/arcturusSirius.aspx and carry cargo for fun.

I think you would be a very brave man then!

[mykaskin]

I personally would buy http://www.workingboats.org.uk/forsale/arcturusSirius.aspx and carry cargo for fun.

 

I don't think they are really up to carrying condition, but I could be proved wrong.

 

Mike

[GRPCruiserman]

People keep refering to Narrow Boats as a depreciating assett; well I've never had a Narrow Boat, buat have had lots of other types of boat and have NEVER lost a single penny on any boat, even those that when sold required work that wasn't there on purchase.

 

If I add up the profit I've made (and boats have always been bought for what I want, not as profit making items, and always kept for some time), I bet pound for pund I've made as much as I have ever made on the bricks and mortar I've had.

 

Admittedly I've never bought new which I can imagine would loose you money; but even narrow boat owner friends have always made money on their boats, and certainly cruisers always turn a profit, so apart from new purchases, or uninsured disasters (including catastrophic mechanical failure) is there anyone on here that has lost money on a boat??

[Doorman]

The canals are not about to dry-up or be filled-in anytime soon. The changes ahead are no more threatening than any already survived in the past. Keep your house, rent it out to pay for the narrowboat. Then when you have had enough of boating you have lost nothing.

 

 

=====================================

 

"would you be prepared to invest 60-70K on a narrow boat?"

 

A narrowboat is not an investment. It is a depreciating asset, making it an expense, not an investment!

 

That sounds like accountancy talk to me. None of my accountants ever had the balls to do anything but sit in their office and advise the

likes of me, what not to do!

 

They're probably still sitting in their haven (office), while me and mine enjoy a wonderful way of life on the canals.

Like a ship stuck in a harbour, they are safe, but going nowhere!

[Doorman]

Jan 2009 The general plan was to retire, cruise for the summer and winter in Spain playing golf.

 

The beginning of the year of great expectations, the year that would bring early retirement, exodus from our business/home and on to our boat that I had spent two and a half years co-fitting to include every conceivable accessory available to make the boat a dream to live on.

Well three weeks into our first cruise down the Oxford to visit good friends Bones and Maffi my good lady drops the bombshell that she cannot do this (continuous cruising) where the boat dictates her life, whereby she is not able to visit friends for coffee, nip off for a game of golf, visit family (not helped by my son presenting us with our first grandchild a week before we set off). Well bombshell is mild, seeing half your retirement dream destroyed, especially when I had been in my element handling the boat every day, needs something special to keep you sane.

 

Our short term resolution was to find a residential marina to lie over and sort out just where we went from here (Divorce being an option) the compromise was to cruise for five weeks early season lie over at Billing for the summer and cruise five or six weeks end of season, moor the boat for the winter at Billing and bugger off to Spain for the winter.

Easy - well not quite. I now find I just cannot live on a static boat and it's driving me crazy, I need to be working the boat to achieve the full enjoyment from it, just sitting becalmed drove me crazy.

 

There is nearly a happy ending, situation at the moment is the boat has gone, we now live in a lakeside lodge with a huge deck over the water, I have a new boat (yoghurt pot) which I am told is a very nice boat (still sulking at loss of proper boat) the up side is I am now the manager of Billing Marina, working with boats is a real consolation.

 

Everything back on course until last night an e-mail from Spain the Co building our bolt hole has filed to go into receivership, this is Polaris World fronted in England by Jack Nicklaus and backed by one of the largest banks in Spain.

 

I will be pleased to see the end of 2009. 2010 bring it on nothing can faze me now.

 

Blimey! You must have upset someone in a previous life!!!!!!!!!

[Doorman]

People keep refering to Narrow Boats as a depreciating assett; well I've never had a Narrow Boat, buat have had lots of other types of boat and have NEVER lost a single penny on any boat, even those that when sold required work that wasn't there on purchase.

 

If I add up the profit I've made (and boats have always been bought for what I want, not as profit making items, and always kept for some time), I bet pound for pund I've made as much as I have ever made on the bricks and mortar I've had.

 

Admittedly I've never bought new which I can imagine would loose you money; but even narrow boat owner friends have always made money on their boats, and certainly cruisers always turn a profit, so apart from new purchases, or uninsured disasters (including catastrophic mechanical failure) is there anyone on here that has lost money on a boat??

 

Money, or, appreciating assets, are no longer our prime concern. Our priority, is our quality of life. Without that, money is irrelevant. As for investments, in buying a narrow boat to live on and travel the system, that, by far, is our most prudent investment.

 

My brother died at the age of 55 years, a rich man!

[GRPCruiserman]

Money, or, appreciating assets, are no longer our prime concern. Our priority, is our quality of life. Without that, money is irrelevant. As for investments, in buying a narrow boat to live on and travel the system, that, by far, is our most prudent investment.

 

My brother died at the age of 55 years, a rich man!

 

I wouldn't disagree with any of what you've said there; just pointing out my experience; but yes, quality of life is much more important.