One of the things we wanted to do with this blog was to document our savings plan and expenses when we actually go out cruising. This is the end of our 3rd year of savings and things are going pretty well. We don't want to jeopardize our social security benefits and you need to put into the system for 35-years to get your maximum benefit. If you don't work 35-years, they put $0 as your revenue for those years you are short. Since I started putting into SS in 1985, we are only 3-years off from having the full 35-years. Our goal right now is Fall of 2020 or 2021 to go out cruising. In the meantime we are increasing our sailing knowledge, taking spring trips to the Chesapeake, and taking a fall trip to the Caribbean. I also want to take a diesel engine class before we go.
If you've been following some our blog, we've already outlined the things we've cut out of our budget for our savings. I've been amazed how the little things add up and if you stick to the plan. If we cut out vacations we'd have even more savings, but I want to have fun during this process. Here's our savings progress:
Year Boat Fund Cruising Kitty
2014 $10,200 $3,810
2015 $20,975 $16,200
2016 $33,225 $31,600
At an estimated expense of $460 per week for cruising, we're up to 70 weeks that we can support ourselves on the boat. The boat fund is a little weak and we need to try to pick that up, although I'm going to purchase the least expensive boat that we can comfortably live on. We're on a catamaran for a fall 2017 trip to BVI and I hope we don't prefer it to a monohull. I think we can get a pretty nice monohull for the $50k range but a nice catamaran would likely be more than double that amount. We have the money saved into CD's because we don't trust the stock market enough for these funds and don't want to lose any of these savings.
If you have any questions about our savings plan, please let me know. Hopefully this information is helpful to others planning the same thing.
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