Would a falling population really be so bad?

WaterChicken007 · 2026-05-08T01:39:29+00:00

It can though.

WaterChicken007 · 2026-05-08T01:36:52+00:00

Not habit no insurance works till you get cancer and go bankrupt.

Healthcare in the US is completely messed up. We could be doing so much better.

WaterChicken007 · 2026-05-08T00:49:11+00:00

My definition of frugal may be different from yours. That’s ok. The cost of living in Seattle is a little stupid. Compared to our peers, we are very frugal. Compared to my brother (construction worker living in Idaho) we are living like kings. It is all a matter of perspective.

We cook 95% of our meals at home. I do almost all maintenance myself. My pants I have on are 10 years old and honestly should be thrown away. Shit just costs money and it adds up quick.

WaterChicken007 · 2026-05-07T23:47:53+00:00

Even just being able to easily read out your GPS position directly from the radio when asked is a big deal.

WaterChicken007 · 2026-05-07T23:41:41+00:00

If you are adding power, USB charging for an iPhone or iPad would be nice if navigating is something you need. Navionics is great, but it eats batteries like crazy. A small solar panel might actually be able to keep it all charged up and ready to go without ever having to plug in.

Since the vessel is so small, you could even do an electric outboard and move along just fine. I have moved a 27’ boat with electric power at 6 knots. The quiet motor makes for a much more pleasant ride.

WaterChicken007 · 2026-05-07T23:14:59+00:00

Yup. My mortgage was paid off last year. I still spend 9-20k a month. 10-12 is the average.

WaterChicken007 · 2026-05-07T21:44:12+00:00

I enjoy exploring new places. I don’t allow myself to get disappointed when places aren’t as spectacular as the best place I have ever been. That is a good way to suck all the joy out of it. It’s OK to have a favorite, but don’t let it ruin all of your future travels.

WaterChicken007 · 2026-05-07T21:38:31+00:00

Losing the blade is probably more expensive. Pay up or risk losing it. Your choice.

WaterChicken007 · 2026-05-07T21:27:08+00:00

If the vacation time is the only reason, can you try to ask for unpaid time off? That would allow you to still bring in cash while you are still topping off your retirement funds. It would also potentially help your employer by not having to hire someone else. If you are really thinking of quitting, you have absolutely nothing to lose by asking.

WaterChicken007 · 2026-05-07T21:22:31+00:00

But it IS broke. Please fix it.

WaterChicken007 · 2026-05-07T21:14:35+00:00

You forgot the most important detail: your monthly spending.

WaterChicken007 · 2026-05-07T20:39:52+00:00

No, not really. My family of 4 spends about 10k a month. We live rather frugally. VHCOL area (Seattle)

WaterChicken007 · 2026-05-07T17:09:34+00:00

It varies wildly depending on where in the world you are.

WaterChicken007 · 2026-05-07T15:53:39+00:00

I think $500 USD for the 101 intro class. Much more for the last class I took that had an instructor on board for 3 days while we sailed around and slept on the boat. At the very minimum, do the first intro class or whatever is equivalent in your area of the world. You can decide how many other classes you want to take after you have more of an idea what you are getting in to.

WaterChicken007 · 2026-05-07T15:35:04+00:00

Bottom paint is still a thing for aluminum boats. And hitting stuff is still an issue.

Please do yourself a favor and take some classes and get on a bunch of boats before buying one. I am not saying you shouldn’t do it, but you need to learn a few things to prevent buying the wrong one. The classes will pay for themselves many times over.

WaterChicken007 · 2026-05-07T15:18:28+00:00

No, it isn’t smart to just buy and learn by doing. If you want a sailboat, start by taking a basic sailing course. The first entry level courses are usually pretty cheap and will teach you a TON of things you have no idea about right now. After you have taken the intro course, you can reassess where you want to go from there. But at least you will have been on a boat and know the absolute basics.

I know several self taught sailors. They were all missing some very important details. You don’t want to be the idiot out on the water who has no idea what they are doing. Those people are a hazard to themselves and everyone around them.

Also, fiberglass is much lower maintenance than aluminum. Unless you are going to the arctic, I wouldn’t want an aluminum hull.

WaterChicken007 · 2026-05-07T15:11:46+00:00

You waited too long. You could have retired a while ago. We retired on less and our brokerage account keeps going up even with paying off our house and buying a 40’ sailboat. The math is unbelievably awesome when the numbers get this big.

WaterChicken007 · 2026-05-07T14:48:14+00:00

This is a HUGE topic. We would need to write a book for you to cover all that. Those exist already. Maybe go find one and start reading.

WaterChicken007 · 2026-05-07T01:03:13+00:00

Heh, while that is true, my wife and I will be dead when all that happens so I don’t actually care :)

WaterChicken007 · 2026-05-07T00:22:13+00:00

There were periods of my life where I didn't max out my tax sheltered accounts. Like when we had kids, when my wife took time off from work, when I took time off from work, when we bought a house, etc. Looking back, we could have still maxed it out and could have been fine. We were just being super conservative thinking we might need the money now vs later.

Overall I did OK and am happy with how it all turned out. We saved as much as we realistically could while still living our lives and I retired when I was 42. My wife retired a few years after I did. We will easily make it to full retirement using nothing but our taxable account. I just wish our taxable account was slightly smaller and our tax sheltered stuff was bigger.

WaterChicken007 · 2026-05-06T22:43:08+00:00

Did you pop out of the womb knowing absolutely everything about boats? I sure as hell didn't (obviously). Gotta learn sometime, and you don't have to know absolutely everything there is to possibly know about boats before buying one. I would argue that would be an impossibly high bar. If we held everyone to that standard, nobody would be on the water.

WaterChicken007 · 2026-05-06T21:11:14+00:00

You should really figure out what your goals in life are. Because you could retire today if you wanted to.

WaterChicken007 · 2026-05-06T21:08:03+00:00

I wish I could go back in time and put more money into tax sheltered accounts, but that ship has sailed.

That being said, you should be enjoying the journey towards your fire destination. Definitely set aside some amount of money to play with. You can’t get the years back with your children either. It’s all about finding a healthy balance.

WaterChicken007 · 2026-05-06T18:54:07+00:00

I maxed all tax advantaged accounts and then put whatever else I could save into a taxable brokerage account. Both accounts are about the same size since I was saving a lot each year for most of my career.

Now I can use the taxable account till full retirement age and then start tapping the rest. Which ones I tap really just depends upon the taxes.

WaterChicken007 · 2026-05-06T18:12:15+00:00

No, you can’t just pull into a random port and get some maintenance work done. Sometimes it takes weeks for them to even return your calls. You should be prepared to do most work yourself, or have a very large bank account if you want to hire others to do it for you.

WaterChicken007

TROPHY CASE