I’m wading back into saving and making money while being out here cruising. We live on a cruising sailboat with our dog and kids in the Sea of Cortez and we worked our asses off to get to this point. Prior to leaving to go cruising, we had a bit of money stockpiled from the sale of our house, but the unexpected implosion of Tulum’s engine (3 months before leaving) siphoned that stockpile to nothing. We carried on and moved on. Now we’re able to live on the boat with money from a small retirement and a very small monthly income from income stock. While being out cruising for the last 9 months, we have had several very large repair and replacement costs; prior to leaving the US some of these things were put into the “we’ll do it in Mexico” backburner. Probably should have thought that through a bit.
Not Spending Is Saving (another way to invest)
However, in spite of these various repair and replacement costs (older boat) I’ve also been very, very satisfied that we go for entire weeks without spending a dime. The propane, diesel and gasoline we may use every day is already paid for and some days we only use solar to cook and make power. Think that one through…when’s is the last time you went for an entire day, week or month without spending ANY money? These months in the Baja are the first time in my adult life where I haven’t spent money for entire weeks and also haven’t had the desire to do that. I think there’s some need built into some folks that feeds consumerism and the need to shop; strong advertising also helps to get folks to buy,buy buy. To stop that cycle, I literally had to be on the boat; sitting out here where there’s NO way to spend any money. It took me months to realize how much money I was making by NOT spending and letting the money work for me as an investment. I had to slow down mentally and understand everything I really needed was right here on the boat. The term used is satisfaction. But I admit, when we went back to the US for the quicky trip in early July, we did buy some boat parts and a few “nice to haves”, but that was ok cause we live a pretty low key lifestyle out here. It’s nice to have a good bottle of wine or great chocolate every once in awhile and we believe in balance!
We probably won’t last the month of August without spending any money because we buy fresh veggies, but there’s little else we need and more importantly there’s fewer and fewer places to buy those things. In this picture perfect anchorage…there’s literally nothing on shore and nowhere to spend money. More importantly, where we are there’s no ATM’s and no places to use credit cards…cash is king in the boondocks.
So the point is we spend very little money when we’re off the grid and we make our money work for us as much as possible.
Trying To Make Money (by making it work for you)
This time of COVID sucks. The stock market since March hasn’t helped with investing and I see more significant challenges ahead. I believe the US stock market is holding it’s collective breath for both the US Election and the promise of an early 2021 COVID Vaccine. These events will give the market instability, but a fall and early winter with continued high rates of lethal COVID combined with continued unemployment and no solid success on the vaccine front may provide a crushing blow to the stock market in 2021. I HOPE this is NOT the case, but you should carefully watch the tea leaves and remember that I’m no trained professional.
We invest with small amounts of money and tend to look for stocks that will pay us as often as possible…or will gain value quickly with least risk (duh….like everyone?).
-One of the investments I’ve looked at are the (3) largest cruise line companies and their subsidiary’s, which have all taken a sharp downturn since late February. In buying any of these three stocks (Royal Caribbean, Carnival or Norwegian) you’re basically making a bet that the company will start cruises again before running out of cash (or credit). If any of these companies run out of cash (or credit) there may be mergers, government loans or Chapter 11, but these last resort measures may not be great for your investment. On the other hand…with at least one of these companies trading over $50 in early February and now trading for around $14…there may be an opportunity to pick up a great investment for a decent price.
-Moving on, I’m researching and looking closely Winnebago (WGO) as a long hold growth stock in today’s times. My rationale is that less and less folks are flying or taking cruises for family vacations and instead are opting to stay closer to home. I think that Winnebago is in the right industry with the right price point at the right time to profit off this old-school is new again vacation style.
-If you read any of my other posts about money for cruising, you’ll see that I prominently mention REIT’s (Real Estate Investment Trusts) as investments that may pay you a monthly “income” as well as go up (or down) in value. I still like REITS because you can buy them in most any sector of industry that you know or like but I would urge caution buying REITS in the brick and mortar retail sector.
As I plainly pointed out in the first paragraph, read the post and make your own decisions. This post wasn’t written to get you to go out and buy anything…it was written to get you to realize there are moderately priced investments out there (even in turbulent times) that might do well. You can buy into stocks and precious metals with very little money and in small amounts depending on your resources. In my mind, finding investments that work for your lifestyle is SO much more important than letting your money rot away in your checking account or Paypal…doing nearly nothing for your bottom line. Most importantly, you can invest from any country, anywhere in the world, in any language, with any currency. If you read this and find inspiration to invest or support your own lifestyle with any of my dribble, then it’s a win.
DROPPIN SOME KNOWLEDGE: Wanna find a great blog for financial inspiration and solid advice? Check out the Small Ivy Blog and tell them that LF2SF sent you.
Don’t listen to me, read and make your own decisions. See, I’m no financial advisor, certified financial planner, stock broker, tax advisor or accountant. AND I didn’t stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night. See what I’m trying to lay down here? ….most everything I write in this blog is from personal experience bulwarked by significant reading and research but without a backbone of institutional financial doctrine.
