We did! My wife and I are buying a brand new 40 foot catamaran sailboat.. sight unseen.. and we’ve never sailed a day in our lives. It’s a long story, but let me give you the big picture now – and we’ll fill in the details as we go…
1st things first – marry your best friend.
Don’t retire without a plan
My parents early dream was to retire, buy an RV and travel around the country. That dream eventually withered away after years of bumper-to-bumper commuter traffic, thoughts of having to deal with aggressive drivers, and a few health issues that detoured their dreams as they grew older. Like my parents, other couples have allowed their dreams to die and ultimately retired without a plan. As I get older, I frequently reflect on my own retirement – I really don’t want to just stop working, live in the same house and wait for grand kids to visit… I need a plan.
Have a Bucket Lists and/or a Dream board
I’ve had a bucket list for years, and my wife made herself a dream board of inspiring and motivational imagery. Recently, while reviewing the list and checking out the wife’s dream board, I noticed something I hadn’t seen before. A pattern emerged – a large number of my items are travel destinations, and the majority of them were coastal – and almost all of my wife’s images revolved around the beach and the water.
Continuous Learning
Ever since my mother-in-law was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, I have been looking for ways to prevent its onset. So top of the list – active mind and active body. I need to learn new things, experience new cultures, meet new people and experience everything that can be experienced. What better way to achieve this goal than to be immersed in the sailing lifestyle. Learning to sail, predicting weather, passage making, celestial navigation, anchoring, scuba, fishing, and of course boat maintenance!
Financing the dream
I’ve always seen Real Estate as an important part of a retirement strategy. Unfortunately, I have had little success convincing my wife to become a “slum lord” – mostly because she was a property manager (been there done that). I also realized that I needed to invest now – at the peak of my credit worthiness – to help achieve my retirement plan. After months of searching, I found it… my plan to achieve it all.
Putting it all together… My wife loves the beach and would love to retire beach front – can’t afford that. We love to travel and see the world – can’t afford that. We love learning new things and need learning to be a big part of our retirement – actively learning new things, meeting new people and experiencing new things. So instead of buying a condo and renting it out, what if we could buy a sailboat and run it as a business. In a few years, after helping to pay down the cost of this dream, we can start our “educational retirement” aboard and circumnavigate the world.
And besides, what’s the worst thing that could happen? … The boat as a business plan fails, forcing me to sell my house and live aboard a sailboat somewhere in the Caribbean. Hey wait, that’s my plan for retirement anyway.
So there you have it, I found a team to help achieve the dream, bought a 2016 Fountaine Pajot Lucia 40 Catamaran and just signed the paperwork today. Wish us luck!!!
SV Discovery is a 2016 Fountaine Pajot Lucia 40 sailing catamaran available for charter in St. Thomas, USVI.
Good luck with your plans and dreams. We too have bought a Lucia 40 and expect delivery of hull #6 shortly in Queensland Australia. It’s our 4 th boat but first cat, so looking forward to it. You can see some coments on the Cruisers Sailing forum under our boat name “One Day More”.