I wince every time I read a post starting with.."We will be buying a boat and retiring on it in Five, or Ten Years..." Or "We will be doing the Loop in Five years, when we buy a boat".
Don't Wait..Do it Now!!
Retirement is great but there are several drawbacks to waiting until then to buy your boat. Some are really BIG..
You will be really, really busy once you retire. There may not be time to enjoy your boat. Your parents will be quite old, maybe in the final stages of their life. You will want to be near them.
Your kids will probably be beginning to provide you with grandkids, you will want to be able to spend time with them. Often they are some distance away.
You will be beginning to experience some health issues. Both you and your spouse will probably require at least one new knee, hip or shoulder. Each of these joint replacements will kill a season of boating. (That is as many as 12 joints and 12 seasons partially ruined)
Your own siblings will be older also. Some as many as ten years older than you and beginning to make their own final journey. Some of you may find yourselves as executer of wills or estates, a very timley undertaking.
Certain things about boating require a bit of a learning curve. Better to do this learning in your 50's than late 60's.
IMHO, the true "Golden Years" of your life fall somewhere between ages of 50 and 70. You generally have more time than later into retirement, money is generally pretty plentiful, your mind is sharp and your body still does what you want it to do.
DO IT NOW! BUY IT NOW! If you are fortunate enough that none of the above limitations effect you you will have gained about ten years of boating memories over those who wait.
pete
Wifey B: I partially agree. I think throughout your life you must assess what will make you happiest at that stage. Many people don't have the free time to enjoy a boat. That's the first issue they need to address.
Also, your retirement boat may not be the right boat now. If you're just making weekend cruises then speed may be more important and sleeping space less so.
Just think what you need to do to enjoy life today more. I think a couple should always be having conversations about what they might enjoy, brainstorming. We sure did. We dreamed of retirement on perhaps the TN river and here we are in Fort Lauderdale. However, we always had dreams in mind but never sacrificed the present. We lived on the lake and boated on it. Pretty idyllic life. Hubby surprised one year when his boss flew in to discuss his bonus and his pay for the next year. He'd never asked for anything. He said he wanted more vacation. His boss laughed and said, "I know this comes from your wife and I don't blame you. You've got it."
Then when we retired. We weren't planning on doing so yet. In fact we were taking our first non-lake extended vacation, a trip to FL. We loved Fort Lauderdale and talked about maybe nice place to retire. We had fun as kids in Disneyworld. Then to Tampa and that night we received some amazingly good financial news. We knew our situation and that made retirement very feasible. We knew instantly and called a realtor we'd met in Fort Lauderdale, then called our bosses on Monday.
Now, his boss again blamed it jokingly on me and said he wanted to speak to me and he did. We laughed and teased and he said he really wasn't surprised. However, everyone in hubby's office acted shocked. They all thought of the income he was leaving. They didn't think of the pleasure. He talked to a couple of them and asked them why they worked. They mentioned retirement goals and he asked when they intended to retire. They automatically said 66. He asked why then? Then he discussed what they needed to retire. Could they not live a couple of years without social security?
Hubby was 42 and I was 33. Young, but why not. Now we didn't go to doing nothing. I'd consult with school systems and others, for free. He decided to buy a couple of stores or something. I knew he couldn't leave business entirely. What I didn't know what that he and our executives would become collectors. Yet, we work only when we want and after hurricanes and during pandemics.
Make your own kind of music. I know a couple that when he turned 50 and she was 48, the company he was an executive in had become a very toxic place to work. She taught. He quit with no other job but a plan he'd just get a low paying job. They agreed this would delay retirement. He bought a mail box store, worked there full time. He loved it. He lost weight. His medical labs all improved. He ate healthy lunches even. She said she'd never known him so happy. He loved seeing all the customers each day. They both worked longer than planned before but never regretted it at all.