This week, I’m talking about the decision to rent vs. buy. Anytime you’re contemplating a large purchase, you should always seriously ask: Does it make sense to rent instead?
Today I’m talking about buying vs. renting a boat. I love boats. When I was a kid, our family had a jet ski and some of my best summertime memories growing up were playing around on that thing. Then in college I worked at a summer camp on the puget sound for 2 summers, and I learned how to sail several different kind of boats. I also love canoes and kayaks...I just love being on the water.
I’ve also heard it said that the best 2 days of boat ownership are the day you buy and the day you sell it. But the real question here is not whether or not a boat is a good investment. Anyone with any sense knows that it’s a complete money pit.
The real question here is can you afford it? Do you understand all of the costs involved - with boats, there are storage fees, repairs, maintenance that is often expensive.
All those costs need to be carefully calculated and compared to the expected usage. I would love to own a boat, but a couple things prevent me from doing so - #1: the hassle-factor. I don’t live on the water. I don’t have room to store the boat, so any time I would want to use the thing, it just sounds like a lot of work. #2: time constraints. I live in a part of the country where the boating season is about 3 months. Every day spent out on the water is a day that I couldn’t spend doing something else with my kids or be on the golf course, which is really where I prefer to spend my free time in the summer.
So in reality, I just wouldn’t use the thing that much and it would be a total waste of money to buy one, especially since I could rent a boat a couple times a year for a tiny fraction of the expense and all scratch my boat itch.
If you’ve been listening to these tips all week, you probably think I’m trying to dissuade you from making any large discretionary purchase, and rent instead. I think it would be bad advice to say you should never buy a 2nd home, an RV, or a boat, but I do think it’s very important to factor in the real cost of ownership along with your expected usage and the headache factor. If you can do that and still come out ahead on the buy decision, then buy the darn thing. But too many people make emotional decisions and don’t consider all the factors, which is what I hope you’ll be better equipped to do after listening to these tips this week.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.
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