For this post we decided it would be fun to answer some questions from YOU GUYS! We got 2 questions that we will answer in this post.
Question 1-
What platform did you earn the most from last year & are the revenue streams enough to afford that nice of a boat?
Our main form of income is Jeremiah's retirement. This is essentially what we live off of. After him completing 22 years in the Marine Corps, he was able to come out with a retirement package. We do have other platforms that bring in income. However, most of the money that we make from those platforms goes to the cost of upkeep of the platforms-- let me explain. So each website costs a lot per month. For instance, lazygeckos.net costs $800/month for us to have. Then we think about technology-- our camera equipment is tens of thousands of dollars. We also have to have laptops, hard drives, loads of backups. Also, with technology, things are always failing. We just did a post about replacing our camera equipment you can refer back to. Anytime you mix technology with a saltwater environment, you will undoubtedly destroy things, so we’re always upgrading and replacing to try and stay ahead of any failures.
Then we have editing programs for photos and videos, music is $20 per song (sometimes more), and we have a virtual assistant that helps with things like sending out your swag. So, it all adds up and takes away from the platforms that bring in income. It definitely costs a lot to do what we do.
Question 2:
If I was to sell my home, buy a boat, and go sailing, what does it really take budget wise (with no kids), to go island-hopping like you guys do?
This is a hard question to answer for a few reasons-- but we will do our best!
So, we do have kids, it's hard to take them out of the equation, but what we did for you is brought it down to the necessities of what you need to go sailing.
First, you have to buy your boat. Are you going to buy that with cash so you don't have a boat payment or are you going to have a boat payment? That's something that each individual has to decide. Second, when you get that boat, you have to think about maintenance costs. So for us, the maintenance is 4% of our boat's value, and you can refer to the previous patron post that we did about that.
Next is marinas vs anchorage's. A lot of times anchoring is free, but if you like marinas or more amenities, then you have to pay. For us on average, we pay $700 a month. But for somebody else, that could be much different. The reason we have to come into a Marina is because we need wifi to upload our videos. If we didn't do what we're doing, we probably live at anchor most of the time. A lot of people stay at anchor and hardly ever come into a Marina, and I get why--it's free!
Next up is diesel, this also depends what kind of cruiser you are going to be. Are you going to sail or motor? We do a little bit of both. We won't stress about trying to catch the wind, so we'll motor rather than attempting to find the wind. We probably motor more than the crazy avid sailor, but we do know people that strictly sail and wait for the wind for days if they have to.
But the fuel on all these boats do last a long time. These engines sip diese. It takes us about $300 to fill up our tanks and that can get us about 2000 miles. It depends how far you're going, are you motoring? Also, if you get a monohull the cost is half, and you could potentially go all the way around the world on one tank.
A phone is not a necessity, but society has made it a necessity for most people. We have to have a phone because of what we do. This is something else to think about. And don’t forget about international costs for your phone as well! There are other cheaper ways to go about having a phone-- it just depends how connected you want to be.
Then we get to boat insurance. We do have another post about boat insurance you can reference as well. We paid $11,000 this year for boat insurance. Yet again, that depends on what kind of boat you buy. Is it new? Is it old? Where do you want to sail? When do you want to sail?
We decided to get insurance without limitations so we can sell anywhere in the world at any time, but other people might want to stay in the United States. Then, if your boat is paid off, you can just get liability.
When we had the Lazy Gecko, it only cost us about $100/year for boat insurance as compared to us paying $11,000 a year with Calypso.
Health insurance could be another cost for you. A lot of cruisers go without health insurance, but some people feel that it’s a necessity, so I added this here to think about. It's different for us because we're military and were able to continue our health insurance. So, it only costs us $100/month for medical and dental. Remember that you can’t use your US health insurance when you are in another country-- but it is still a good thing to have in case something bad happens and you need to get flown back to the US. Otherwise, you have to pay out of pocket.
There are some cruising health insurance packages that you can buy, but most of the time people just pay out of pocket. Also think about this-- unlike the United States, most countries are not overinflated. For instance, when my pinkie got messed up, for x-rays and appointments, it was all about $100-- it's not like the US where it's thousands of dollars when you have to get something done.
Don’t forget about food!
Again, this depends on your family size and how you eat. We're a family of three and we like to eat really well. We try to do organic whenever we can and we primarily eat in. I like to cook, and I don't like to cook the same thing--I like a variety. We don’t repeat meals very often, whereas most cruisers will meal prep and make the same thing for a few days. Because of this, our food bill is higher. Also, on the islands, food is much more expensive, so we probably spend somewhere between $1,000- $1,500 a month. A big reason why our food bill is high is because I'm gluten-free, dairy-free, yeast-free acid-free and I need to eat organic because of health issues that I have. If I didn't have all that stuff going on, it would be much cheaper.
Again, this is eating very well, but a lot of people will go to little markets, negotiate, and catch fish, lobster, etc. They also have flour on board to make their own breads, tortillas, pizzas.
Water, we can’t forget about water--you need water to survive. Are you going to have a water maker? Are you going to buy water?
We have a water maker. So water's free for us after the initial investment of buying it, but if you buy water or get your tanks filled up, I don’t think it’s that much-- I've heard through friends that it's pretty cheap.
Those are all the necessities of cruising, but extra things to think about are, do you want TV? Do you want Wifi? Do you want an ice maker? You need to also think about any extras you might want!
I hope this helps you to better plan out how much it would take you to live a life on the water!
Until next time!
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