[quote=spdrun]Boat == “a hole in the water that swallows money.” If you want to live on one for fun, that’s fine, but don’t expect it to be cheap. Remember that it lives in a corrosive environment, so it needs quite a bit of maintenance.
From a strictly financial standpoint, best to buy a condo in the low $100k range (they exist) with common charges in the high $100 to low $200 range per month. At least theoretically, it’s an appreciating asset rather than a depreciating one.[/quote]
Spdrun nailed it. My DH lived on fishing boats when he was working on them in his younger years, and the owners would let him stay there to keep an eye on everything. If you get the kind of boat that will have fairly comfortable facilities (bed, bathroom, kitchen), you’re talking big bucks. Anything less, and the confined quarters and lack of amenities will grow old rather quickly. Either that, or you’re buying such an old wreck that the maintenance costs will drown you.
We’ve known a lot of people who’ve owned/do own boats, with many of them being commercial or sportfishing businesses (so they at least have the potential to provide a positive cash flow). Even in the best of times, it can easily turn out to be a bad investment. Boats are a maintenance nightmare, and you’re bound to lose money every year…possibly tens of thousands of dollars lost to maintenance and/or depreciation. Sometimes, you can buy a barge for a fairly reasonable amount, but you will still have maintenance and depreciation.
Definitely better to buy a cheap condo, preferably one that can at least break even if you had to rent it out for awhile. You will still have maintenance costs, and you still might see some asset price depreciation, but at least it’s something that can provide some cash flow. Boats, unless you rent them out to fishermen and collect a portion of the profits (good luck), will almost always be a loss.
