Costs To Do Bottom Paint On A 32 Foot Catamaran Sailboat

This week we received the bill for all the boat work done in Sail Harbor Marina's boatyard. We thought it would be helpful for others if we shared the portion of the costs related to all the bottom work. For reference, this was done on our 32 foot, Gemini 3200 Sailing Catamaran.

Labor:

Remove existing paint to the gel coat: 14 hours and a total cost of $1,400

Repair blisters and apply 4 barrier coats: 19.25 hours and a total cost of $1,155

Paint bottom (first coat red, second black): 8.5 hours and a total cost of $510

Materials:

4 gallons of Interprotect 2000 for a cost of $387.40

1.25 gallons of Pettit SR60 (red) for a cost of $300.00

1.25 gallons of Pettit SR60 (black) for a cost of $300.00

2.5 gallons vinyl ester resin for a cost of $187.50

1.0 gallon of Interlux 830 Fast Cure Epoxy Profiling Filler for a cost of $123.00

10 x 40 grit 6 inch sanding disks for a cost of $15.00

8 x 80 grit 6 inch sanding disks for a cost of $12.00

6 x dust masks for a cost of $4.50

18 pairs of gloves for a cost of $13.50

2 x Tyvex suits for a cost of $16.50

1 x roll of fine line tape for a cost of $14.50

2 x roller pans and frame for a cost of $10.00

8 x roller covers for a cost of $42.40

4 x large cups for a cost of $8.00

4 x small cups for a cost of $2.00

6 x 2 inch brushes for a cost of $7.50

4 x 3 inch brushes for a cost of $8.60

Grand Total for Bottom Work: $4,517.40!

Does It Really Matter?

With the sailing date less than a year away, every decision is couched in the question "Does it really matter?" This is a wonderful question that without this trip, I never would have asked myself. It applies to all sorts of matters across the spectrum of life. The most recent example involves my car.

3 years ago, the speedometer in my car stopped working. I took the car to our mechanic and it would have cost $400 to fix (the entire dashboard was going to have to come out). I drove without the speedometer for about a month. I couldn't imagine plunking down $400 knowing that in just a few years I would be leaving on this trip. Does the speedo really matter? Yes, but there was another solution. I realized I could buy a car navigation system. For $150, I got a speedo + maps! Win Win!

4 months ago, the oil pressure gauge in my car stopped working. I love knowing that the oil pressure is working fine, but does it really matter? At this point I was a mere year away from selling my car and sailing around the world. No, it really doesn't matter. The car has never ever indicated it has a problem with oil pressure. The likelihood of it becoming a problem is very low. Heck, the first 3 cars I owned didn't have an oil pressure gauge, only an idiot light. So, no fixing the oil pressure gauge. I will keep the gauge fixing money in the bank.

Last week, my passenger headlight went out. Does this really matter? I thought about this carefully and critically. I could try and only drive during the day. But what happens if it rains? What happens if I really need to drive the car at night? This one does really matter. So this week, I will be getting the head light fixed.

Before this trip, I would have had everything fixed. I would have focused not on "Does it really matter?", but instead on maintaining a thing, not on the actual need.

Watch carefully ... you may find that you too have things that don't operate fully to their capability, but work just fine for your need. If it meets the need, then that is good enough.

Val Found Us $100!

Last week we received one those offer post cards from Chase bank. Apparently, Chase bank wants to give us $100! How very nice of them! We should make them virtual crew members and send them 20 copies of our eBook.

In summary, the deal is:

If we deposit $100 into a debit card account, and keep the account open for 6 months, Chase will give us $100. The "free" $100 will show up 10 business days after we've made our $100 deposit.

As usual, we combed through the details. Unlike previous offers from other institutions, this one seems like one we can live with and not have it affect our spending behaviors.

To avoid monthly service fees on the account (which would eat away at that generous $100), we have to either have direct deposit OR make 5 debit card purchases in a month. In any given month, we use our debit card more than 5 times (like rending $1 movies from RedBox, buying gas, buying groceries, etc.). So the latter criteria, 5 buys, is doable.

For the $100 we have to pony up, well that can simply be moved over from our usual checking account. No biggie there.

If we close the account before the 6 month mark, then Chase will extract the $100 we put in. I'm okay with that.

We've decided to go for it. Val will get the account started online, and we will put in $100. We will put on our calendar that in 7 months we need to withdraw any money left in the account and close it.

If we do this, deposit $100, then in 6 months we will have effectively earned another $100.

Obviously Chase isn't really going to give us the $100 of their money if they can help it. They are gambling that our 5 purchases in a given month will result in enough merchant fees to cover the $100 we are getting. They are also gambling that we will stay as long term customers which will result in fee charges to us over time and/or more merchant fees that result from our purchases.

Lastly, banks need to have a certain amount of cash within customers accounts to keep within various regulations around how much money they, Chase, can lend out. This gimmick will allow them to show more money in customer accounts to regulators. Very slick.

Go Chase! Go $100 into our sailing fund!

Taxes!

Taxes... Filing a federal income tax return is the dreaded task that most Americans have to do by April 15th of each year. In years past, when we owned businesses, we had an accountant do our taxes. But since we sold everything, our tax situation and life have become a lot simpler. Now I do our taxes.

Last year, I used Turbo Tax's online service. It was free for the federal return and cost about $20 for the state with electronic filing. Naturally, this year I went back to the Turbo Tax site to file my taxes again, but I was meet with a little surprise. Turbo Tax wanted to charge us approximately $70 to file our federal and state income tax returns. After researching our situation, I found that a lot of people were in the same boat and were pretty upset about it.

My first thought was to fill the taxes out by hand and check them against the Turbo Tax numbers. Then I saw a comment, on the Turbo Tax web site, stating that FreeTaxUSA.com does not charge for federal income tax return and only charges $9.95 for the state return. I decided to give it a try. I plugged our numbers into FreeTaxUSA.com program and got the exact same tax totals that I had gotten from Turbo Tax. This boosted my confidence in the FreeTaxUSA.com program, so we electronically filed our taxes using their online service.

So if you are looking for an online service to complete your federal (and maybe state) income tax return, then I highly recommend FreeTaxUSA.com. Next year, we might be in the Caribbean when it is time to file our taxes, I hope that FreeTaxUSA.com is still around so that we can file them electronically for free!

Where Do We Live Just Before Setting Sail

As we think through the logistics of our departure plans, one of the interesting coordination items we are queuing up is our lodging when our apartment lease expires.

Our apartment lease ends the first week of November 2010. Between then and when we set sail, where should we live? Our boat will be on the Atlantic, in Savannah GA, a bit far for a commute to work (3.75 hours each way).

So where do we live between the first week of November 2010 and the day we set sail? This transition period could be 1 month, 2 months, or maybe 3 (depending on a number of factors).

Our basic transitory period lodging strategy is as follows:

We will be offering up to our friends and family, with pets, to house and pet sit for them in the months of November and December.

We have 2 sets of such people that have already indicated that such a situation is desired! Those 2 sets cover a 28 day period! This would imply living space in exchange for taking care of their houses and their pets. If we can find a few more such folks/situations, then we would be all set. No outlay of cash, and everyone wins.

If we can't find more such situations, one fall back position is to leverage all the Priority Club points that I've acquired over the years of traveling I do for work. We can use the Priority Club points to stay at an extended stay hotel like a Candlewood Suites or a Staybridge Suites.

Another fall back position is to rent an RV, from a friend, for a month and live in it if need be. There are a few family members and friends whom have already told us that we have this option.

Last $250 for Car Tags!

With February being Val's birth month, we had to renew our car tags.

For $250 USD, both of our cars are registered in the state of Georgia for 1 more year. Whoopie. This may very well be the last time, for a long time, that we have to get the car tags renewed. Wahoo!

This may also be the last time that we have to do car emissions testing too. At $25 per car, that is another $50 we shell out each year.

$300 each year for having registered automobiles in the state is a lot of money. However, our current lifestyle needs the cars. Our next life phase, the voyaging phase, won't require them so that $300 won't be spent! Now, about the boat registration money we send to the state .... :)

What Families Spend on Food Around The World

As we continue to validate what it will cost us to sail around the world, I found a very interesting series of photos and articles on how much families spend on food per week in different places around the world. The information is pulled from a book titled Hungry Planet: What The World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio.

The weekly food spend runs quite a gamut: $1.23 USD to $500.07 USD. From bags of lentils and rice for a week, to big steak packages and bottles of beer for a week.

The photos in the book are outstanding. You see families with their entire weekly food outlay right in front of them, in their homes, in their place of eating. Some have live chickens, some have defiant teenagers, some have TVs in their dining rooms, some have 3 generations living off the weekly food, and more. None of which we have, yet.

Flipping through the pictures, it is neat to see so many cans and bottles of Coca-Cola in the photos .... a product from right here in Atlanta, Ga.

The amount of fresh vegetables, from family to family, was also neat. It is encouraging to see how many had good, raw foods.

As you might guess, the more first world the nation of the family, the more that packaged food showed up in the photos.

The family food favorites is fun to peruse too. You find Polar Bear, Pig's Knuckles, Mutton Dumplings, Marge Brown's Quandong, Sheep Soup, and other neat stuff.

Here is a summary of the spend data for 1 week of food per family (family size varies starting at 4 people and going up) in USD:

$1.23 Chad, Breidjing Camp $5.03 Bhutan, Shingkhey Village $26.39 Mali, Kouakourou $31.55 Ecuador, Tingo $39.27 India, Ujjain $40.02 Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar $68.53 Egypt, Cairo $75.70 Guatemala, Todos Santos $145.88 Turkey, Istanbul $151.27 Poland, Konstancin-Jeziorna $155.06 China, Beijing $189.09 Mexico, Cuernavaca $221.45 Kuwait, Kuwait City $253.15 Great Britain, Cllingbourne Ducis $260.11 Italy, Sicily $277.12 Greenland, Cap Hope $317.25 Japan, Kondaira City $341.98 USA, North Carolina $345.00 Canada, Iqaluit-Nunavut Territory $376.45 Australia, River View $419.95 France, Montreuil $465.84 Luxembourge, Erpeldange $500.07 Germany, Bargteheide

How Much Money Do You Have, Foreigner?

As we work through all the places we want to see, a common visa acquisition requirement we've come across relates to our net worth.

A number of countries want you to have a certain amount of self financial capability before they will grant you the privilege of entering their country. This makes sense, these countries don't want people coming in and tapping their national resources. In New Zealand, for example, if you want a 6 month visa, you must be able to show you have $700 USD per month you want to stay. This can be demonstrated via bank statement.

We suspect that the formality around demonstrating the net worth part of the immigration policy is often left to the discretion of the local immigration official. That is, if we come in looking like we are financially sound (e.g. not coming in wearing tattered rags and appearing emaciated), we will be fine in most places. In policy driven environments, however, some form of proof must be on hand. This means that we will have to carry on our boat some proof of our financial soundness.

The trick will be to carry enough proof of financial self sufficiency to get in, but not so much as to then be susceptible to being taken advantage of (mysterious new fees). While we are modest in our means, everything is relative so modest in the US is wealthy in most parts of the world.

Our approach will be to have different bank statements. Since we have multiple accounts across multiple banks, we will simply keep the levels of money in each one different enough that we can produce the bank statement that sufficiently gets us into a place and no more.

Will this be a major issue? Probably not. However, we are thinking ahead and it is an issue one may face when taking a trip like this.

Too Aggressive On Money Savings

At the start of the year, I shared that we were being very aggressive on our spending levels in 2010, and that I was worried we were pushing it too far. It is turning out that we have indeed found the boundary of what we can live off of comfortably. By comfortably, I mean without altering our lifestyle any further. Any more adjustments at this time would result in us being unhappy, something I won't allow to happen.

So, 2010 won't see us reducing our spend any further than we did in 2009. Does that mean we can't go? Heck no! It just means that our sailing kitty funding won't fill at a faster rate due to reduced spending. We wanted to pull in our possible sailing date even further, but that won't happen from a money savings perspective. There are other ways, however ..... ;)

How Much Does It Cost To Sail Around The World?

It has been awhile since we've posted on the financial funding side of the trip. Money topics are often taboo; as a taboo buster, let's spill some more beans. This will help those whom are looking to take such a trip.

From all of the resources we've been able to find, plus analyzing our own spending habits, we are budgeting $20,600 per year for the trip. This amount of money, short of a major catastrophe, will supply us enough funds for boat maintenance, food, clothing, education, and other life necessities and conveniences that we are accustomed to.

To arrive at our number, we took the per year average of what we have spent for living over the the past 3 years and subtracted out 2 components: our monthly rent payment and the boat acquisition cost. This average came out to around $14,000 USD. We then tacked on 40% (a nearly arbitrary number) to arrive at our $20,600 target.

Our family of 4 lives quite comfortably on $14,000 per year, or $1,166 per month, before housing costs. This figure is everything we spend to live our life: food, clothing, health care, gifts, entertainment, car stuff (insurance, maintenance, tags, gas), electricity, etc.

$20,600, per year, will enable us to sail around the world. If the journey takes 3 years, we are looking at $61,800 not including boat acquisition.

Here are some assumptions and notables you must consider when constructing your numbers:

1. Our cost of living is based on Atlanta Georgia, USA figures. In most places around the world, we assume, it is cheaper to live. In some places, we assume, it is more expensive.
2. We have zero debt.
3. We assume that our lifestyle expectations on land will translate to the water. For example, we eat in a lot, we assume we will eat on the boat a lot.
4. We assume that the upkeep costs for our 2 cars per year will apply in great measure to our boat (gas, maintenance, insurance, etc.).
5. We assume that we will be able to fix most of the boat issues we will face ourselves.
6. We will have our boat in super shape the first day of the voyage.
7. We are assuming the amount of inflation we will face will be negligible over the years of our journey.

So, how much does it cost to sail around the world? In the end, it really depends upon you. Study your land behavior, and use that as your guide. We believe it is an error to assume everything is either cheaper, or more expensive, to live on the boat sailing around the world.

Our conjecture is that the cost to sail around the world will turn out to mirror your daily land life. If you eat and drink out a lot, own all brand name things, one up your neighbor, pay for services, etc. you will carry that with you and you will live accordingly. Should someone reading this think I'm implying otherwise, to be clear, there is nothing wrong with such a lifestyle. If it is you, then be you. If you want to move aboard a boat and sail around the world, you be you and budget accordingly.

In the final analysis, the most powerful message that this posting can give you is that financially, whatever it is your doing on land is what you will do on the water. This means, financially, it is simply a matter of choice to be on land or on the water.

Should We Sweat the Small Money Stuff?

Over the years, as we've studied this magic called finance, we've run across the notion of not worrying about how much one spends if the amount being spent is below a certain threshold. One famous author says to never worry about a spend of less than $10. Another shared that his threshold changed upward as his net worth increased (it was at $100 at the time of his writing).

I've been puzzled by this approach. I understand the general concept... it isn't worth spending time thinking about saving pennies, but so many times it is easy to make an informed decision quickly that it seems foolish to not do it.

For example, let's say I want to buy a can of Coke. If I buy it at a convenience store, it will cost $1.49 and that is well below a $10 threshold so these experts claim I shouldn't worry about it. But I know that I can buy that very same can of Coke at the grocery store, which I will be happening to visit anyway, for $0.89 and if I buy a 6 pack it will cost me $0.59 per can. But going with the $0.89 price, that is a differential of $0.60!

In a given year, I would conservatively estimate that I make 100 similar decisions. At $0.60, that is $60!

The authors that share the $10 rule should also add one more part to it, time. In the 2 seconds it takes me to decide to buy my can of Coke at the grocery store rather than the convenience store, I've saved $0.60. Time well spent.

Emotional Debt - How We Annihilated $76,000 of CC debt

Just over 11 years ago, Val and I were in $76,000 worth of credit card debt, plus a mortgage, car payments, and the like. This was before people like Dave Ramsey were so popular. At the time, debt wasn't dumb, and cash certainly wasn't king. We were, however, being morally crushed. While we could service the debt, it was so draining. It was our fault we were in this situation .... we lived beyond what we were actually earning.

Mathematically, that much debt was stupid. Just plain stupid. Hell, I had my degree in Physics by then and yet the mathematics of interest and moving backwards financially wasn't enough to make a damn bit of difference in pulling out of the downward spiral.

What did it? We finally got mad. Damn mad. Mad at paying everyone lots of money for the privilege of using their money. Mad at not having enough self control to wait 6 months to buy that TV with cash in hand versus putting it on the credit card. Mad at having a decent paying job yet having hardly any money in the bank. Mad at myself. Just damn Mad.

It took us about 3 years to pull out. 3 long years. It was hard, but oh so worth it. Before it was cool, we had a big ceremony with each pay off and cut up our credit cards, one by one. We shredded them. We kept their eviscerated credit card bodies stored in a glass urn. We kept the urn on the table. We had a blast calling the credit card companies to cancel them!

If you are reading our blog and dreaming about doing what we are doing, but you are in massive debt, I wanted to share with you that all is not lost. We pulled out, and you can do. What you need is an emotional tug to help you out of the mess. All of the mathematics in the world will not do it for the same reason that the calorie counts don't divert most overweight people from feeding and the cancer warnings on cigarettes don't stop smokers from smoking. Money, and being in debt, is an emotional issue that can only be attacked in an emotional way. Human beings, for the most part, are not logical or rational, so using the language of logic and reason, mathematics, simply won't do.

Find some part of your debt that makes you mad, then harness that anger into getting your act together. For us, it wasn't the positive promise of financial health someday... it was the anger each and every day of giving our hard earned money away. Every day, the first 4 hours of working were spent to cover interest. That was BS. No more. Find your No More. Pull out. You can.

Limitations You Argue for Become Real

I received a nice email from someone sharing with me a message board's thread that discussed the reality of living on a million US dollars. In the thread, a link to our site was given as a reference to the discussion (thank you crashjr!).

This thread, titled If you had 1M dollars to live off forever could it be done and how?, has 11+ pages of posts of people arguing for and arguing against the possibility. As I read all the reasons why it couldn't be done, I was struck by the negativity, vehemence, and forceful "NO WAY!" posts. Yes, I live in a sheltered Intenet world where I tread in only positive upbeat places, so seeing so much negativity was quite unexpected.

All of the pundits saying "No" had so much passion behind them. I have zero doubt that those people could not possibly do it. They argued hard for the limitation; therefore it is their limitation and it is doubtful they will ever be able to beat it.

The thread author's post magnified the question, if you were 25 could you live off a million dollars the rest of your life without working? I'm not 25, I'm 40. I have no doubt that it is possible at 40, and even with 2 young children, to have a million dollars and not work the rest of your life.

To answer the original question, I have zero doubt that if I were 25 years old today, with the knowledge and experience I've acquired at this point in life, I could easily live off $1,000,000 the rest of my life without working in the traditional sense.

The how part is tied to knowing what makes me happy and how much I live off of today. If I shared how much our family actually lives off of, as captured by our actual spending statements, most readers would be shocked. I know my friends are when I share the numbers with them.

The fact is, living a happy, fulfilling life with all of trappings of modern life can cost you less than $25,000 per year. Living the life mass media, popular culture, and commercial industries want you to, however, can grow without bound. In fact, it is only bounded by how much one earns.

If I were 25, single, and I had one million dollars, this is what I would do:

• spend $25,000 on a nice used 30 foot sailboat, paying for it in full
• put the remainder of my money away in safe investments earning 5%
• aggressively convert all my money into inflation protected securities from multiple countries, as the law allows in those countries
• board my boat and enjoy a life of adventure and voyaging at a spend of $15,000 per year for 7 years
• After the 7 years, if I hadn't found the right woman yet, I would begin searching for my life mate
• The right woman would be one whom is comfortable living with me on this tiny boat, and we would until I was 35, off the $15,000 per year. No adjustments to the amount, only to the lifestyle
• We would then sell our 30 footer for $25,000, and buy a 40 foot catamaran for $75,000
• We would have children and up our yearly spending to $30,000 per year
• After the children are grown, and I've kicked them off the boat, we would sell our catamaran for $60,000 and buy a 50 foot trawler for $100,000
• For the next 30 years, my wife and I would putter around, living off the remainder of the money ensuring that when we were 95, we would have exactly zero dollars to our name
• When the 30 years is up and/or we hit 85, we would sell our trawler for $25,000, and move into a old folks retirement community
• At some point we would expire

Well, that's what I would do. :)

Don't argue for limitations.... otherwise, you will always be bound by them.

Sharing The Load Between Husband And Wife

Val and I are life partners. In March of this year we will have been married 19 years. Over that time, we've learned to divvy up responsibilities and trust the other to cover their area. Our segmentations run the gamut of life's responsibilities from physical security to money. One segmentation that is of interest to others is how we partition our money responsibilities. It is quite simple. My job is to earn money, Val's job is to save money.

In addition to our family duties and responsibilities, each week:

• I spend 45 hours exchanging my knowledge for money.
• Val spends 5 hours considering all the ways our family can be saving money.

When we say saving money, we don't mean simply not spending .... we mean that we were going to spend $x on this or that, and she managed to get it for $y (where y is less than x).

This approach has worked out very well for us. Not only does Val stay home with our children, but she aggressively and successfully saves us money. Every penny she saves us is noted and counted as money Val brought into the family. Every hour she spends on her job is also noted. Please understand, this is her job. Our family expects her to do her job well.

Why is noting this important? Before we had children, Val was a professional and an entrepreneur. She has an MBA and was quite adept at bringing home the bacon! She needed to continue to contribute and by chronicling her efforts and successes, we can quantify her time and value on the money acquisition front.

Every penny she saves is post tax money, so it is actually more than just the face dollar value.

Here is an example. I come home from work and I proclaim, "Okay everybody, tonight we are going out to dinner. Let's go to Outback!" The kids scream and Val says, "Great! And I have a $5 off coupon!" The decision for Outback wasn't based on a coupon, Val is just good at her job and knows our trends. Other example was the Sony HD video recorder that we bought this year. We wanted one for our trip, so I picked out the model. It cost $799 on every website we visited. Val watched the prices for 2 months, and one day Best Buy listed it for $499! She snatched it up. The price has since gone back up. That was a $300 savings!

How successful has she been? Very. Not only has she been able to stay at home and raise our daughters, but she saved our family $5,325 in 2009! Plus, many of her actions in 2009 will result in savings in 2010. 5 hours a week, on her schedule, and she saved us 5 thousand dollars of post tax money!

We could get crazy here and also add on more money for things like childcare and such, but we don't. We made an agreement before kids that one would stay home, so it doesn't count in the figures.

Way to go Val!

Making Money While Sailing Around The World

When we first started our knowledge journey, we had no idea how we would fund our trip. After a few years, we were finally able to figure out the puzzle using pieces that work for us. We have, however, continued building a catalog of the ways others fund their voyages.

This catalog is like a magicians book of secrets as those who've found their way don't want others intruding on their turf. What has become clear, however, is that the key in funding your journey is to identify something that is complimentary to your talents, tastes, and desires and packaging it up on your boat. One such family recently came to our attention that has successfully done this.

Please allow me to introduce the family aboard the La Loupiote. Since they publicly advertise, I feel okay sharing their story. They are a family of acrobats that do their show from their boat! Your marina, harbor, restaurant, boat, or whatever can pay to have them set anchor near your place and conduct a show! Truly inspiring. Our hats off to these entrepreneurs whom leverage their unique talents and desires to fund their way around the world.

If you're still searching for your method of funding your journey, the family aboard the La Loupiote should provide you a great example of looking beyond the obvious. Oui!

How Much Will This Trip Cost?

When we were in the first stages of fact finding, one of the most difficult questions to answer was "How much does this cost?" How much will it cost us to take this trip?

We found only 2 websites that had interesting information about costs. 1 of them provided a decent month by month breakdown, in broad categories (e.g. food/marina/maintenance/etc.), of their spend over an 18 month sailing period. Unfortunately, the details behind the spend were not there. Everything was summarized. Further, the costs that went into preparing their boat wasn't presented.

Val and I agreed that we would chronicle every single penny spent that in some way went towards this trip. This compiled information would not only help us spend more wisely, but we could make this critical information available to others.

Since the purchase of the boat in June, the pages have been filling up. Every dollar spent, what was bought, and the date of purchase has been captured. We now have 3 full pages of spend, for a total of 72 line items. Here is a smattering of entries:

• 26JUN09 $8.92 Automatic Kill Switch for Honda Engine (spare)
• 26JUN09 $0.77 Rubber Stopper for Head Sink
• 07JUL09 $11.00 GA DNR Registration 2010 and Transfer
• 10JUL09 $13.59 Marine-Tex Fiberglass Repair 20Oz
• 10JUL09 $14.54 Helmsman Wax
• 14JUL09 $115.12 Materials to make Curtains and Pillows
• 07AUG09 $75.00 Dremel 10.8V Cordless Tool (fm HomeDepot)
• 12AUG09 $2.12 3 x #10 SS bolts w/ locking nuts
• 13AUG09 $65.00 Rudder Cage Weld Repair Eyelet Ring
• 04SEP09 $587.43 9' Dingy from West Marine
• 28OCT09 $697.50 Deposit for 2010 Coastal Cruising Course
• 01NOV09 $19.99 14" Dry Box-Flambeau-Yellow
• 15NOV09 $42.97 Plexiglass-Acrylic-For Electrical System Cover
• 18NOV09 $915.59 Nature's Head Composting Toilet+Extra Bottle

With 72 entries, and one being the boat itself, the numbers look damn scary. This is a lot of money. I'm tempted to tally it, but that could be like sticking your finger in a light socket. Maybe this is why people don't chronicle the information! Be that as it may, we will continue to collect the data and someday make it available to those who are interested. Now, could we have saved some money somewhere in the list .....

Paid by the Job not by the Hour

Back in July, the post Busting Your Ass Is Stupid highlighted the pitfalls of increasing wealth by focusing on increasing your hourly rate. Recently, an extension of this became abundantly clear. When you do work for someone else, find out how much the resolution of a problem is for them, and offer to resolve the issue at that price.

Let's say that someone has a tear in their sail and they want it fixed. How much is it worth to them to have the sail repaired? If it is a huge tear, probably quite a bit. If it is a minor tear, maybe it isn't an immediate need and some sail tape will hold for a while. But what if a storm is coming, a small tear, even with tape, will end up in a big tear, unusable sails, and a potentially life threatening situation.

Val has the talent, skill, machinery, and materials to do this job. Should Val offer to work on their sails based on some hourly rate? No, she would then be limiting her earning power AND, more importantly, be penalized for skill. Since she is so efficient with the sewing machine, a proper repair might take her only 30 minutes but an unskilled person may take an hour with the resulting job being sufficient in both cases. Val has thusly been penalized, if she works based on an hourly rate, for having a deftness with a sewing machine.

The better approach is to identify how much resolving the problem is worth to the person needing the repair. If it is with $50, and Val can do it in 30 minutes, all the better for her. Both the person in need gets what they want, a fixed sail, and Val's not being penalized for being good and she can then work on someone else's sail for the next 30 minutes, making even more money.

Is this taking advantage of the person whom needs the sail fixed? No, they have already established in their mind how much it is worth being fixed. If that amount meets Val's desires to fix something, then both parties are happy. Win-Win.

Everyone has problems. Everyone can assign a value to a problem's resolution. Focus on how much that problem's resolution is worth, and then go from there. Never, ever work based on an hourly rate because in the end, you will generate far less income for yourself.

Lunch for 3 at $6.27 and gets us ready for the boat

This past weekend, the girls and I had the pleasure of a daddy daughters day; just KJ, Dy, and I for a few hours (and mommy gets some well deserved Val time). Off we went to have lunch, and when we showed up at our lunch location, there were 2 other families eating away ... each with kids the same age as KJ and Dy. We ordered our food and sat down.

I order a normal portion for me, and asked for 2 empty plates plus a cup of water. When my order arrived, I portioned out enough food for each girl, and we had a great lunch. As we ate, I looked around at what the others were eating.

It was very interesting that each of the other families ordered a meal for each of their children! One had given their kids full sized portions, the other one got kids meals. Of course, each adult had their own plate full too. While we were eating, a 4th family showed up and when their food was delivered, they too got a full portion for each kid and each adult!

I was sure to watch as the first 2 families finished off, and yep ... there was left over food that went right into the trash.

It is their business how they spend their money and dispense food however they see fit. Alas, those families could have easily saved $5-$10 each by simply sharing the food.

There is a reason why many cultures have communal plates that you take some food from for your own plate .... and it has to do with being efficient with your money and your food.

Another communal example for us is when Val and I go out for a dinner together. One of us will get a full portion, and the other will just order a side. Between the full portion and the 1 side, we always have plenty.

Next time you go out, see if you can go communal. The savings really do add up. Each of these dollars saved goes right to the trip, plus helps us prepare for the lifestyle on our boat.

Selling the body for the trip

As we ruminate on ways to fund the trip, and obvious consideration is selling parts of our bodies that naturally replenish, or that we have plenty of. For example, ovaries, sperm, and plasma. Why not sell these things? People need them, we have plenty of it ... it seems like a natural commerce condition to me.

Plasma is fairly simple, and you get $25 a go. While it may take an hour or so, if you've got nothing else to do, why not go in with a good book and pump out for a nice $25? You are even fed some snacks and drinks. On the humanitarian side, the material is reprocessed and then used for helping others, like burn victims. Sure, I could give that stuff away for free, but why should I? My body is working to make it .... work is work. Hmmm.....

McD Coupons deployed with an unexpected benefit

Recall the McDonalds coupon post? 12 freebies for $1? We've begun successfully deploying them and we've encountered another nice benefit.

A few nights ago we walked over to the McDonalds and both KJ and Dy had their freebie hamburger coupon in hand. While Dy wanted to eat her coupon, KJ proudly held hers .... like the Golden Ticket from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

KJ wanted to get her own hamburger; be her own person. So, Val and I stood way back and watched KJ, with her chin up high, stroll up to the counter and present her coupon. She ordered her own hamburger. The restaurant manager figured out what was going on and played it up too.

It was an excellent life experience in a controlled setting, all facilitated by this coupon. We've already received more back in terms of money from the coupons, but granting KJ the experience, even though unintended, makes it truly valuable.