A couple days ago I was talking to a friend of mine. He has a VERY nice ski boat and was waxing it at the time. I think it’s about 10 years old and only has about 225 hours on it. He takes very good care of it, like he does all of his things but it still isn’t worth anywhere near what it was when it was new. All told I bet he has over $50K in it. So, after we got done talking, I decided to figure out what that works out to per hour of use. When I divide $50K by 225 hours, I get $222 per hour. WOW. That is some really expensive waterskiing. Even if I was off by HALF, (which I know I’m not), it would still be $111 per hour. Heck, really good looking prostitutes don’t even cost that. (I used to be a police officer and have busted more than a few).
Another very successful friend of mine just happened to point out a related point last week to me. We had met for lunch and were talking about finances, investment and real estate opportunities etc, and we started talking about succeeding at our personal finances so that we can retire early and spend all day on our yacht. When I said that, he was quick to point out that it really isn’t expensive to live like a rich person. His point was that, rather than own every asset (like a boat, or an expensive sports car), it would be far cheaper to treat yourself a few times per year by renting them. A really good yacht cruise for a week in the summer, with a crew would only set you back a few thousand. Compare that to what it costs to own an expensive yacht, both in depreciation, and ongoing costs, and it works out to be a steal to just rent it when you want to use it.
I’ve decided that’s the path I’m going to take. When it comes time to start enjoying things like that, I’m going to leverage off of someone else’s investment and just pay a tiny portion of the cost while I’m actually experiencing the FUN. The rest of the year, the owner of the yacht, or whatever it is, can pay for it while it sits there.