Langtidslæsere ved, at i slutningen af 2014, 8 år uden for opholdet, besluttede min kone og jeg at købe en wakeboat efter at have indset, at det var okay at løsne pungen lidt. We had lived like a resident for four years, then purchased our dream home six months after we moved to our “big boy” job. But even then it was only a minor increase in our lifestyle. By 2014, I had been a partner in my group for a couple of years and had reached my “peak income”, for medicine at least. Vi var allerede millionærer. In fact, by that time we had started to see some pretty significant financial success with The White Coat Investor. Our goal has never been to be the richest people in the graveyard. So that year we made a conscious decision to spend more on our lifestyle.
Part of that involved trading up our little 17-foot runabout for a 24-foot wakeboat. Det var på ingen måde den dyreste wakeboat på markedet, men det var den største check, jeg nogensinde havde skrevet indtil det tidspunkt, omkring $80.000, når du tilføjer skat, titel og licens.
It's now been three seasons and about 330 hours on the engine and I think we can now step back and take a look at that decision. Since this is a financial blog, we'll focus on the financial aspects. So in that spirit, here are 10 financial lessons we learned or relearned from buying a wakeboat. The first seven are a bit negative, the last three are more positive.
Lad os starte med det åbenlyse. The best two days in a boat owner's life are the day she bought the boat and the day she sold it. A boat is a hole in the water that you throw money into. BOAT står for Bring Out Another Thousand. Dette er alt sammen sandt. We owned a boat for 5 years before buying this one. We were well aware of the financial issues of boating. We knew that was all going to get worse by upgrading. But even so, I have been surprised by just how much more expensive this has been. This thing GUZZLES gas (about 2 miles per gallon when the ballast isn't full for surfing). Dele er latterligt dyre. En propel koster $600. Et lille plastikstykke koster måske $130. Carpet, upholstery, and gel coat repairs are crazy expensive. Lad være med at narre dig selv. Hvis du køber en båd, vil du bløde penge. Det har vi bestemt. Hvilket bringer os til lektion #2:
If you are not a rich person, you have no business boating. I made a mistake on a boating forum once expressing surprise at how many people were willing to finance a boat purchase. De tændte i mig, som om jeg var sindssyg. En senere meningsmåling viste, at omkring halvdelen af personerne på forummet finansierede deres båd (inklusive mange, der var meget billigere end min). I cannot imagine after paying for gas, maintenance, accessories, repairs, storage, and license to then go and make a big old boat payment. Det ville være forfærdeligt at skrive en check i januar for en båd, du ikke havde set i tre måneder, vel vidende, at du ikke vil lægge den i vandet i yderligere fem måneder. Som mange andre ting i livet er sejlads helt valgfrit. It is not compatible with financial success on a middle class income. It belongs in the same category as heli-skiing, having horses, owning a second home, and flying planes. Hvis du ikke har råd til at gøre noget af det, skal du ikke købe en båd. In fact, heli-skiing is way cheaper than boating.
As noted above, a boat payment in addition to all the other boating costs is crazy. Men endnu vigtigere, at spare op til luksus er en god økonomisk vane at få. Hvis du rent faktisk sparer op til noget, FØR du køber det, er der større sandsynlighed for, at du forstår præcis, hvor meget (i penge, tid og livsenergi) det egentlig koster. In fact, there will be a lot of luxuries you'll just decide not to buy at all as you save up for them.
Der er en anden fordel ved at betale kontant. Imagine, if you will, that we ran into some sort of serious financial issue. Ikke alene undgår vi forbandelsen ved at have en bådbetaling i den situation, men båden bliver faktisk en velsignelse, fordi vi kan sælge den og reelt handle den for et engangsbeløb i kontanter. Nej, det vil ikke være i nærheden af, hvad vi betalte for det, men vi kunne leve komfortabelt i mange måneder af det, vi kunne sælge vores båd for. Jeg synes, det er i orden at låne et rimeligt beløb til din uddannelse (1X forventet bruttoindkomst) og din hovedbolig (2X forventet bruttoindkomst). But don't borrow for anything else, especially a boat.
$80K er mange penge. Det kunne nogle økonomisk uafhængige familier leve af i 2-3 år. Men det er ikke engang den største omkostning ved at købe en båd. Det er alle de andre ting. Du kender som en "lastbil til at trække den og en Yeti 110 iset ned med nogle sølvkugler." Hvad koster det egentlig at købe disse ting? Lad mig give dig et glimt:
Hvert år er lidt anderledes, men pointen er, at vi kunne købe helt nye ski, vintertøj og sæsonliftkort til hele familien hvert år for det, vi bruger på at sejle, og det inkluderer slet ikke omkostningerne til båden.
Very little of the “stuff” we purchase in our lives appreciates. Det meste afskrives. Noget af det hurtigere end andet. Actually, on the grand scale of things, boats aren't terrible. Jeg mener, se på, hvor hurtigt mad afskrives. Prøv at videresælge noget, du købte på en restaurant for to timer siden, og se, hvad du kan få for det. Clothing isn't much better. Du ved, hvorfor Goodwill ikke betaler dig for dit tøj, ikke? It's because they wouldn't be able to keep the lights on even if they were only paying $1 an item. But, like a new car, a new boat depreciates as soon as it leaves the dealer. Ligesom med en bil er der en bådblå bog. Den siger, at min båd nu er $68.000 værd. So it has depreciated about $4,000 per season. Indrømmet, det ignorerer alle de skatter, jeg har betalt, men hvis jeg solgte den, ville køberen ikke skulle betale disse skatter, så det er stadig en reel afskrivning. Add that on to all of the above, and you can see that this is a $10K a year hobby. Eller omkring $100 i timen, motoren kører. Og vi bruger båden meget. Imagine if you were only putting 20 hours a year on it like lots of boat owners. It could easily become a $500 an hour hobby.
The good news is depreciation can be minimized a bit or even reversed if you're willing to buy used. Our old boat was a 2002 bought in 2010 for $6,000 and sold in 2015 for $7,500. Crazy I know, but a true story.
Once you've spent a bunch of time and money on something, you feel a need to use it “in order to get your money's worth”. Even if there is something else you'd rather do. Dette sker for mange mennesker, der køber timeshare og andet hjem, men det gælder også legetøj som både, snescootere, ATV'er, cykler og motorcykler. Everything you own owns a little piece of you. Det inkluderer din fortid (dvs. det arbejde, du har lagt i at købe det), din nutid (de penge og tid, du bruger til at vedligeholde og bruge det), og din fremtid (de penge og frihed, du kunne have, hvis du havde investeret pengene i stedet for at bruge dem på denne særlige genstand). Dette kan være en god ting, hvis det får dig ud af hospitalet og videre til søen med din familie og venner, men det kan også være en dårlig ting, hvis det afholder dig fra at gøre det, du virkelig gerne vil gøre.
Jeg minder ofte læserne om, at i privatøkonomi er det de store sten, der betyder noget. By this I mean it isn't the lattes that are causing you to not become wealthy, especially on a physician income. It's the cost of your housing, the cost of your transportation, the cost of your debt, and the cost of your childrens' schooling. Well, a boat is a big rock too. If you take up boating before you become wealthy, it may very well keep you from ever becoming wealthy. You can blow a lot of money on little rocks (minor purchases and less expensive hobbies) for the cost of one big rock like a boat.
Let's move on to some of the more positive aspects. There are two important principles I have discovered that have helped me to become wealthy. The first is that in order to reach your financial goals, you have to ensure you never feel deprived. Feeling deprived while trying to build wealth is like feeling hungry while trying to lose weight. It's going to sabotage the whole effort. You must ensure you spend enough to not feel deprived. Once you do become wealthy, it's a balancing act. You don't want to regret a purchase, nor do you want to regret not making a purchase. Spørg dig selv konstant:"Hvis jeg ikke køber dette, vil jeg så fortryde det senere?"
The second principle is to reward yourself periodically for doing a good job with your finances. Sometimes, particularly before you become wealthy, rewards can be small things, like a meal at a restaurant or even a candy bar. Other times, it can be something expensive like a boat or a trip to Belize. All work and no play makes Jack a dull (and very unhappy) boy.
By following these two principles, you can stay on the plan, reach your goals, and maybe even have some fun along the way. Like climbing a mountain, it is more about the journey than the destination.
There are a lot of wealthy people in this world who feel poor. Unlike them, I feel rich. Part of the reason I feel rich is that I make more and have more than the vast majority of the people I associate with regularly. “Køb det billigste hus i det hyggeligste kvarter” kan være et godt ejendomsråd, men det er en frygtelig måde at undgå at gå i stykker. Ikke alene har Joneses mere end dig, men det har Smiths, Browns, Martinez og Nguyens også. That partially subconscious drive to spend is much stronger when you're surrounded by people with more than you have. Jeg har måske ikke det pæneste hus i nabolaget (faktisk ifølge Zillow er det det billigste på denne side af min gade), men jeg har den bedste båd! Jeg formoder, at jeg også er en af de få uden et realkreditlån. De adfærdsmæssige finansdata er meget klare, idet det virkelig betyder noget, hvem du hænger rundt.
Så find ud af, hvordan du kan bruge det til din fordel. Du behøver ikke det bedste hus, den bedste bil, den bedste båd OG de bedste ferier i nabolaget. Just pick one of them and focus on that when making the inevitable comparisons in your mind. Eller endnu bedre, prøv at blive lidt mere immun over for, hvad folk omkring dig laver økonomisk.
Når vi går gennem livet, skal vi lære at tjene penge, spare (investere) penge, give penge væk og ja, bruge penge. Bliv ikke ubalanceret ved kun at lære at gøre en eller to af disse ting. Learn how to do all of them. Alle kan og bringer glæde, hvis de gøres korrekt. Hvis du ikke har fundet ud af en måde at bruge penge på, så det bringer dig lykke, foreslår jeg, at du arbejder lidt mere på det aspekt af dit økonomiske liv. Det store flertal af amerikanere har ikke et problem med det. Deres problemer plejer at være at finde ud af en måde at booste lykke på, mens de tjener og sparer penge, men det kræver arbejde at tjene, spare, give OG bruge penge godt. Don't expect it to be easy. En af disse fire ting er sværere for dig end de tre andre. Resolve to do a better job in that area this year.
Jeg ved ikke med dig, men Katie og jeg sparer ikke penge for at dø med dem. We plan on spending (or giving away) the vast majority of the money we earn (and our money earns) during our lifetimes. While I kind of enjoy investing, it is far from my favorite hobby. We invest to live, not live to invest. Yet spending in a way that increases happiness is the most difficult of those four tasks for me. I still feel a twinge of guilt spending $50 in a restaurant, despite the fact that we're saving something like 2/3 of our net income lately. Jeg har fundet et par måder at omgå det på – jeg lader Katie klare det meste af indkøbene, jeg køber aktiviteter/rejser på forhånd, så jeg kan undgå at "ødelægge" aktiviteten ved at skulle bruge, mens jeg er der, jeg bruger et kreditkort, så det ikke er så smertefuldt at bruge, og jeg køber med jævne mellemrum dyrt legetøj som både, men jeg er ikke sikker på, at jeg har styr på det endnu.
Hvis du har råd til at købe noget, for kontanter, uden at forhindre dig i at nå dine vigtigste økonomiske mål, og det faktisk vil gøre dig gladere, så køb det. For os var den vare en båd. We have had some absolutely incredible times in the last three seasons with that boat. We rarely go with just our immediate family. We bring siblings, cousins, neighbors, the local Scout Troop, friends, and our kids' friends with us. We share an experience that many times they could not afford, and that makes us happy. We go to wild, untamed places and have incredible adventures. Vi lærer nye færdigheder og er knyttet sammen. 330 hours, and that's just the time the engine was running. If we averaged 3 hours a day of engine time, that's 110 days, or about 37 days a year. A month's worth of experiences, each of the last three years. When I look at it like that, maybe I can understand why people buy a wakeboat even when they can't afford it!
Hvad synes du? Ever bought a wakeboat or a similar financially stupid purchase? Hvorfor eller hvorfor ikke? Which financial task is most psychologically difficult for you—earning, saving, giving, or spending?